Sam McNulty sat at his desk in the back row of his homeroom at East Jefferson Middle School—alone, as usual. Sam was glad he chose this seat at the start of the year. No one paid any attention to him back here. Back here, he was less of a target.

It was a free study period. At the front of the class, Joe and Jim goofed around—as usual. All the laughter from the other fifth graders encouraged them.

That was OK, though. Now, Sam could finish his book, Stormhunter, without distractions. He hoped to finish it before the ski club's trip to Eagleview Mountain after lunch.

It was hard to read on the bus with kids screaming—making fun of him, mostly. Also, the lighting was bad, and the bus bounced a lot, but Sam had little else to do on the trip.

He had less than a chapter left to read. He took off his thick glasses and gave them a good cleaning on his shirt before starting. When Sam opened his book, the room suddenly became quiet. He looked up and saw Joe and Jim grinning at him.

I wonder what that’s about, thought Sam. He put Joe and Jim out of his mind and turned back to his book, only to find that all the pages after the bookmark had been ripped out.

Suddenly, the room filled with laughter.

Joe and Jim high-fived each other. Mr. Tanner angrily stood up and yelled at the class, but Sam wasn’t listening. Tears welled in his eyes as he slowly closed the book and put it into his backpack.

Joe and Jim would soon tell their gym class about how they got the little fat boy. Afterwards, the halls would echo with whispered giggles from students who were glad that Sam was the target and not them.

***

Sam sat in the back of the bus, wondering again why he was there. But he knew why. Mom wanted him to get out of the house and exercise. He would never be athletic like many of the boys in his class.

Even though Sam was short and round and soft, he did other things well. Even though he was farsighted and needed glasses to see up close, he read more than anyone he knew. He scored the best math and science grades in his class, but those weren’t points for coolness in the fifth grade.

Mom also wanted Sam to make friends, but he had no coolness points, which made making friends hard.

Sam sighed and hoped the ski lessons his mother had signed him up for would at least keep him from embarrassing himself on the slopes.

Mr. Franklin, the head ski club advisor, set aside his cell phone and turned to Mrs. Latham, the other advisor. They looked out of the Eagleview Mountain Ski Lodge window as the children eagerly left with their ski buddies for the chairlifts.

Little snow had fallen so far this season, but the weather services had predicted a storm later tonight or tomorrow. They warned that the storm could be fierce, but their forecasts changed almost hourly. The ski club left school early today to miss any bad weather.

“We may get a little snow toward the end of our session,” said Mr. Franklin. “Any big snow will come after we leave. Eagleview has man-made snow. That should do.”

Mrs. Latham forced an uncertain smile. “We should keep checking the weather updates, just in case. I hope we don’t wait too long to leave.”  

***

“Skis in a pizza shape, and lean forward . . . not too much! Arms out in front,” yelled the ski instructor to the small class of beginners.

Ugh! Too much body thinking, thought Sam. The ski lesson was on an intermediate slope, not the bunny hill. He pushed his ski tips together, wishing he was on the bunny hill instead. Better yet, he wished he was in the lodge.

He had packed a book in his ski coat pocket to read later, but he had grabbed the wrong book. It was Stormhunter, the one with pages torn out of it by Joe. So now, without an ending, Sam had nothing to do but ski.