Freestyle with Avery by Annie Bryant Page A

to my dad and he said he needed some help with inventory this weekend. Ifyou worked, he’d loan out a snowboard, and you could see what you think. We could even go tomorrow … if you want.”
    Silence.
    “Jason?”
    “Wow. That’s really nice of you Avery, but …”
    Oh, no. Was he offended that I was trying to offer him a job? “If you don’t, that’s okay too,” I added quickly.
    “No, I
do
… it’s just that … well … I’ve never done it before. Could be a bad scene.”
    “Well you have to start somewhere, Jason. Don’t you think it’d be more fun with me than some old know-it-all snowboarding instructor?”
    “Okay,” he said quietly, and then he gave a louder, “Okay!”
    “Awesome!” I agreed. “My dad says you can start at nine. I’ll stop by the store to get you after. Tell Ollie good night for me.”
    Jason was laughing. “Okay, I will. Bye, Avery,” he said.
    “Bye, Jason. Oh! And good night to Radley, too.”

Part Two
Major Pow-Wow

CHAPTER
11
Air-to-Fakie
    That night, I had a Snurf-tastic dream about the competition. It went like this: It was snowing hard, and I was totally on fire as I executed three perfect flips on the halfpipe. The next thing I knew, I was standing on the platform to accept my FIRST PLACE trophy. All the kids from The Sweet Life were there cheering. Sitting at the judges’ table holding up scorecards that read “10” were Dad, Donnie Keeler, and Jason (I know, weird). I was super excited, waving my trophy in the air and shouting, “Snurfer! Snurfer! Snurfer!” when suddenly a drop of rain hit my face. I tried to keep shouting, but the rain was coming down in buckets. I felt my hair sticking to my cheek and when I wiped it away I realized I was awake and it wasn’t rain at all … it was dog slobber. Marty!
    I sat up and gave the little dude a hug. “Goooood morning, Marty Man.” Marty leaped out of the bed and barked at the window. The sun was shining through the curtains, and it was insanely bright. I looked at the clockon my nightstand. Yikes! It was already nine o’clock. Dad and Jason were definitely at the store by now, and Dad probably let me sleep in. Mucho cool of him, but now it was time to get up. “Thanks, Marty. I totally can’t waste another second. I have a Snurfer to practice for!”
    I looked outside as soon as I hopped out of bed. “Wowza!” I exclaimed. It had snowed … a lot! At least that part of the dream came true. There was a thick white blanket over everything—all the cars, roofs, and trees. It was so bright, I had to squint to see clearly. “Perfect powpow here I come!”
    One of my top-ten sports rules is, no matter what, dress for comfort. Even though blue was definitely my fave color for basically everything, today I was going to wear my purple snowboarding turtleneck. Okay, I know the BSG would probably be thinking,
Purple? Avery? No way!
But believe me, this was one Snurf-worthy shirt. Dad got it for me last Christmas and it was made of one hundred percent mossbud fleece, so it totally breathed when I boarded, but it also kept me warm and cozy at the same time.
    I rolled up my boarding pants and stuffed them in my backpack along with my gloves and wrist guards. Then I pulled my hair into a low side-ponytail so I could get my helmet on. I was ready to ride.
    When I got downstairs I noticed a box on the kitchen table in dog bone wrapping paper. There was a note on it too. “Rise and shine, sleepyheads! Remember, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so eat up! I’ll see you at the store. And there’s something special for Marty in the box.”
    “Wow, Marty, a present for you! Isn’t Dad the best?” I would’ve let Marty open it, but he wasn’t a very good unwrapper. (Trust me, the BSG tried before and it wasn’t pretty … unless you were a big confetti fan.) So I tore off the paper and opened the box. Inside was a little blue Nordic sweater with the words “Snurfer Dog” knitted on the back. I