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CHAPTER ONE
    “X! Wait up!”
    Xavier McSweeney, or X to his friends and family, turned to see Mark Goldstein hurrying up the snow-covered hill. He stopped so his friend could catch up.
    “I’ve been chasing you for five minutes!” Mark gasped. He stuck his snowboard in a snowbank, removed his glasses, and wiped his brow.
    “Well, you caught me,” X said. “What’s up?”
    “I need your help,” Mark answered. He pointed to his snowboard. “That thing keeps turning sideways when I go downhill. I think there’s something wrong with it. Can you check it out?”
    X jammed his own snowboard into the bank. He picked up Mark’s board and looked it over. He handed it back to Mark with a shrug.
    “Looks okay to me,” he said. “Are you sure it’s the board that’s causing the trouble?”
    Mark frowned. “Whaddya mean?”
    X picked up his own board and started up the hill again. “I’m thinking maybe it’s operator error. C’mon, take a run. I’ll watch you, see if you’re doing something wrong.”
    Mark sighed. “Okay, but I’m telling you, it’s the board, not me.”
    The boys reached the top of the hill. Mark strapped himself on to his board, gave a little hop, and set off down the slope. His run started out smoothly. But halfway down, the tail of the board began sliding forward. Mark pinwheeled his arms to try to stay upright, but he wound up rolling in the snow. X took off down the hill and swooped to a stop next to him.
    “See what I mean?” Mark fumed as they hurried out of the way of the other boarders. “This stupid thing has a mind of its own!”
    X sat down. “Got some bad news for you, bud,” he said solemnly. “It’s not the board. It’s your technique.”
    Mark threw up his hands. “Okay, I give up. What’s wrong with my technique, O Great One?”
    “Lots.” X stood up and pretended to ride a snow-board. “When you ride, you’ve got to put more of your weight forward.” Knees bent, he leaned so that his arms dangled a little ahead of his front foot. “If your weight is on the back foot” — he shifted his arms and upper body backward — “then the heavy stuff is on the tail.”
    Mark shrugged. “So?”

    “So,” X said patiently, “the end of the board that has more weight on it goes down the hill first. It’s, like, the law of gravity or something.”
    “But if I put my weight forward, I won’t be able to move my front foot. How will I steer?”
    X stared at Mark in disbelief. “Hello? Excuse me?
    Where did you learn to board?” When Mark’s face looked blank, X shook his head. “You don’t steer a snowboard with your
front
foot, you steer with your
back
foot!”
    “You do?” Mark seemed so amazed that X began to laugh.
    “Let’s head back up the hill. I’ll show you what I mean.”
    “I got a better idea,” a new voice behind them mocked. “Why don’t you posers get out of the way and let some
real
snowboarders have the slope!”

CHAPTER TWO
    X and Mark turned to find two boys and a girl standing in front of them. X immediately recognized the boy who had spoken. His name was Frank. X had met him a few months earlier when Frank’s team faced X and his friends in a game of roller hockey. Before the game, Frank had made a bet with X’s friend Belicia “Bizz” Juarez. The winning team would be able to use the skatepark’s roller-hockey rink whenever they wanted. Before X and the others could stop her, Bizz had accepted the challenge.
    Frank’s team won the game. He’d been nasty then, full of himself and gloating about the victory. He didn’t seem much better now.

    Mark glared at them. “Who are you calling posers?”
    Frank smirked. “You, for one. I saw you rollin’ down the windows on that last run.” Frank flailed his arms wildly, imitating Mark trying to keep his balance. His friends guffawed.
    Mark flushed. “Okay, I admit I’m not the best boarder in the world,” he said. “But
X
could outrun you in a second!”
    Frank raised an