Christopher C. Bang has always been good—no, scratch that—he’s always been the best at whatever sport he tries. Swimming, soccer, baseball, basketball… you name it, he dominates it. Effortlessly.

Except snowboarding.

And try as he might, it refuses to click. Skateboarding? Mastered. Skiing? A natural. Surfing back home in Australia? Legendary enough that his friends initially refused to believe he’d never wakesurfed before—until he shredded the waves like he’d been doing it for years. Snowboarding, though? It’s supposed to be a mix of all that, right? But somehow, it hates him.

So, for winter break, he hit a ski resort in the mountains with his best friends. And with his patented, catastrophic sense of direction, he somehow ended up off the trail, out of bounds, and crashed into a tree.

Chris groaned, rubbing his shoulder against the rough bark. Snow crunched under the weight of someone approaching. He squinted through the falling flakes.

“Y’know,” a voice called, “most people go around the trees.”

He looked up to see a ranger, tall and bundled in green, face hidden by snow gear. Chris’s pride deflated faster than a popped snow tube.

“Uh… new trick,” he mumbled.