And both were young

by Madeleine L'Engle

"Flip, you didn't put your name back!" Erna cried.

Flip shook her head desperately. "I didn't! It's not my writing! It's Fräulein Hauser's writing! Mlle. Dragonet gave me permission to be in the ski meet. Paul taught me how to ski." She put her hands to her head. "If I'd thought there'd be all this fuss and bother I'd never have entered the old ski meet!" Her head was a wild confusion of misery.

If I could just tell them it was Madame who taught me how to ski that would make it all right, she thought.

"Hey, Flip," Erna said. "If you don't want your pudding, I do."

After lunch Kaatje van Leyden sought her out. "Look here, Philippa, I hear you're entering the ski meet."

Flip looked up at the older girl. "Yes, Kaatje."

"Fräulein Hauser says you can't ski."

"If I couldn't ski I wouldn't have entered the ski meet," Flip said. Her mind was beginning to feel cold and numb the way her hands did in the very cold mornings when she was out skiing.

"Did you know that the points made or lost in the ski meet count for the school teams?" Kaatje asked. "You could make a team lose for the year if you pulled it down badly enough in the ski meet."

"I won't pull it down," Flip said, but she was beginning to lose faith in herself.