Skating School: Blue Skate Dreams

by Linda Chapman

  The two girls pushed their boots into their skis and set off across the gardens, pushing the skis backwards as they moved. ‘You want to try and keep your weight forward more,’ Emily told Heather as she stumbled. Heather nodded and adjusted what she was doing.

  ‘That’s it,’ Emily encouraged.

  Heather went very slowly, but Emily didn’t try and force her to ski faster. She just started to chat, hoping it would help Heather relax. ‘Ballet was good this afternoon, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, I really liked doing the free dance,’ Heather replied. ‘And the character work, but I couldn’t do the attitude thing.’

  ‘It’s not that hard. You just have to keep your knee high and not wobble on your supporting leg,’ said Emily. They chatted on about the ballet class as they headed towards the trees. Gradually Heather stopped stumbling and, without seeming to realize it, she started going faster and faster. Soon she was skiing in a really good rhythm with no wobbles at all.

  When they reached the forest, Emily smiled. ‘See, you can ski!’

  ‘Oh, wow, I really can – oops!’ Heather promptly fell over. ‘See? I can’t!’

  ‘When you’re not thinking about it, you’re good,’ said Emily, pulling her up. ‘Maybe it’s like skating. If you think too hard about what you’re doing, it often makes you worse rather than better. Come on, let’s go a bit further and talk about lots of other things so you don’t think about it!’

  They skated on, talking about Charlie, the baby ice dragon who Emily and the rest of her dorm had been helping to look after the week before. He had now been put in with the older ice dragons who worked the music boxes in the school.

  They soon reached a small hill. ‘Come on! Race you down!’ said Emily.

  They charged their way down to the bottom and stopped in a dead heat. ‘OK, now tell me you’re not good at skiing!’ Emily laughed.

  Heather grinned. ‘OK, you’re right. I can do it. Thanks for making me realize that.’

  Emily smiled back at her and they skied happily back to school.

  Chapter Six

  An Exciting Discovery

  The next morning, Emily, Hannah and Molly went out into the woods to practise each of their skills for the competition. Not too far into the trees there was a long stretch of snow beside a frozen river. They all separated and then Molly shouted: ‘Ready, steady… GO!’

  Emily then leant forward. ‘Mush!’

  The huskies raced across the snow to where Hannah was waiting, her arm out. As they got closer, Emily started pulling on the reins. The huskies began to slow and, by the time she reached Hannah, Emily had the reins in one hand and the baton in the other, stretched out and ready. Emily thrust the baton into Hannah’s hand and Hannah set off as fast as she could go to where Molly was waiting impatiently on the frozen river. Molly grabbed the baton from Hannah and started to skate, crouching low and using her arms as if she was an ice-hockey player. She whizzed up the river and shot past the tree they had marked as the end point.

  ‘Yay!’ Hannah cheered.

  Molly turned round and skated back to where Hannah was, and Emily drove the huskies to meet them. ‘That was so cool!’

  ‘And it’s only our first proper practice,’ panted Molly, out of breath from skating so fast. ‘We’ll be able to get even faster than that by the competition!’

  Just then, they heard the sound of voices and saw Amanda and Heather. Amanda was skating on the river and Heather was skiing alongside. Heather’s practice session with Emily looked like it had paid off and she was skiing better than she had done the day before, but she was still clearly not good enough for Amanda.

  Amanda gave her instruction after instruction: ‘Lean forward more… push harder… use your poles more… you’ve got to keep your chin up…’

  The more Amanda said, the worse Heather got. She lost her rhythm and started to stumble.

  ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Heather! Can’t you try harder than that?’ scolded Amanda as Heather almost fell.

  ‘Sorry,’ Heather said quickly, blushing and looking to see if Emily, Hannah and Molly had heard. ‘I’ll try again.’ But she was clearly flustered now and fell over a few moments later.

  ‘Aargh!’ exclaimed Amanda.

  ‘Look, I’m… I’m not feeling well,’ Heather said. ‘I’m going to go in.’ She got up, her face burning, and skied away, falling over again in the process.

  Emily jumped off the sledge and ran after her. ‘Heather!’ She helped her up from the snow. ‘What’s wrong?’

  The other girl’s eyes were full of tears. ‘I’m so rubbish, Emily.’

  ‘Don’t start thinking like that again,’ Emily said firmly. ‘You can ski. You did yesterday.’

  ‘But Amanda says I keep getting everything wrong.’

  ‘Don’t listen to her,’ Emily insisted.

  ‘Why? She’s right. I am rubbish!’

  Heather pulled off her skis and, grabbing them in her arms, hurried away through the snow.

  Emily’s heart sank. She went back to where Amanda was waiting on the ice.

  ‘Heather’s really upset.’

  Amanda frowned. ‘She just doesn’t try.’

  ‘Maybe you could encourage her more, say nice things?’ Emily suggested.

  Amanda tossed her hair back. ‘Or maybe she should just pull herself together,’ she said tartly and, with that, she turned and skated off.

  *

  Over the next few days, Emily tried to help Heather, but it was hard. Whenever she took her out skiing, Heather started to improve, but it seemed to take only one practice session with Amanda to make her go to pieces again. No matter how much encouragement Emily gave her, she soon didn’t even want to go out with Emily either. Heather went around at school looking increasingly worried. Emily really wished there was something more she could do.

  In the meantime, Emily practised hard with her own team. The days flew by. From the moment the girls got up in the morning to the time they went to bed, every second seemed to be filled. If they weren’t skating or learning about the land, they were practising or talking about the competition. All of the teams started timing themselves. Emily could feel her excitement growing. Who was going to win?

  On the day before the competition, she and Hannah were on their way to supper when Molly rushed up to them, looking very excited. ‘Look at what I just found while I was tidying Madame Longley’s cupboard!’ she said, waving a piece of paper at them. ‘It fell out of one of the folders!’

  Emily took it. There was a painting of a giant red dragon curled around a mountain. At the bottom of the mountain was a lake, and a girl in a white costume and silver skates was skating on it.

  ‘Oh, my goodness! Is that the Ice Princess?’ said Hannah, looking over Emily’s shoulder.

  Molly nodded. ‘Look at the writing underneath.’

  Emily read it out: ‘Legend tells that when a fire dragon lands on a mountainside and threatens all those about him, only the Ice Princess will be able to wear the silver skates and enchant him through the Lulling Dance so that he will fly away. She must be pure of heart, selfless and…’

  The words stopped.

  ‘Where’s the next page?’ Emily asked eagerly.

  ‘I couldn’t find it,’ said Molly. ‘I’ve been looking for the last half hour.’

  ‘Well, at least we know a bit more,’ said Emily, reading the words again. ‘So, the Ice Princess is going to have silver skates and she has to dance for the dragon.’

  ‘But how does that get him to move?’ said Hannah. ‘And what’s the Lulling Dance?’

  They looked at each other, mystified.

  ‘I guess we’ll find out next week,’ said Emily. ‘It’s cool to know a bit more though.’

  Molly grinned. ‘Yeah. At least cleaning out the cupboard hasn’t been a complete waste of time!’ She took the paper. ‘I’d better put this back – in the correct alphabetical order of course. See you in the hall.’

  Hannah and Emily contin
ued down the corridor, talking about the Ice Princess. When they got to the hall, Emily spotted Heather getting a drink. She looked paler and more anxious than ever. ‘Are you OK?’ Emily asked, going over. Heather shrugged.

  Emily saw the unhappiness in her eyes. ‘Did you go skiing today?’

  ‘Yes, and I was just as rubbish as always. I dropped the baton every time I gave it to Amanda and I fell over about ten times. Amanda’s really cross with me. She says we’re going to lose and it’s all my fault.’ Heather swallowed. ‘It would be better if I wasn’t in the competition. Amanda could do both the skiing and skating then. She and Olivia would be loads better off without me.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ Emily told her.

  Heather snorted and then rubbed her forehead miserably. ‘Oh, I don’t feel like eating. I’m… I’m going to my room.’

  ‘Heather…’ Emily began, but Heather was already hurrying away.

  Emily went to join Hannah who had sat down with Tilda and Alice, the other two girls who shared the Frost Fairies dorm. ‘Where’s Heather gone?’ asked Tilda in surprise.

  ‘Back to her dorm,’ said Emily. ‘She said she didn’t want any supper.’

  ‘She’s going to be so glad when this competition’s over,’ said Hannah.

  ‘She looks really worried at the moment,’ agreed Alice.

  Emily sighed. She wished there was something more she could do to help.

  They all got early nights, but Emily didn’t sleep well. She had bad dreams and woke as the sun was just rising in the sky. She lay there for a few moments. She didn’t have to get up for another couple of hours – it was so early that not even the frost fairies were up yet – but she couldn’t get back to sleep. She kept thinking about Heather.

  I wonder if she’s awake? Maybe we could go out and practise a bit and I could cheer her up before the competition. Yes, that might work!

  Getting out of bed, Emily pulled her clothes on. Then she went quietly down to the Ice Owls dorm. Olivia, Amanda, Tasha and Zoe were fast asleep, but Heather’s bed was empty. Emily frowned. Where was she? Maybe she’d gone out practising already? Emily glanced out of the window and saw a small figure walking across the gardens towards the kennels. It was Heather! But she didn’t have her skis. What was she doing?

  Emily left the dorm and hurried after her.

  Chapter Seven

  Disaster!

  By the time Emily reached the back door, Heather had gone into the kennels. Emily wondered what was going on. None of the ice sylphs would be there this early. Emily laced up her boots and grabbed her skis and poles from the locker. It would be quicker to ski across the grass than walk. She set off across the snowy gardens. It was a chilly, misty morning, the sun hidden behind grey clouds.

  Emily pushed herself across the snow, but as she got near to the kennels, she almost fell over in astonishment. A team of dogs were bounding away from the kennels with Heather driving them. She was urging them on, a determined look on her pale face.

  ‘Heather!’ Emily yelled. ‘What are you doing?’

  But Heather didn’t hear her. She didn’t look as if she could control the huskies very well. They fought her and ran on at whatever speed they wanted. They raced along the line of trees, barking excitedly.

  Emily started skiing after them. She could tell they were starting to get out of control. To her alarm, she realized that the dogs were veering round to the right towards the gorge where the low trees were. Emily’s heart thudded as she saw Heather pulling the left rein, trying to change direction, but she wasn’t very strong and the dogs were in full gallop. They ignored her and pulled round the hill to the right.

  ‘No!’ gasped Emily as she saw Heather starting to pull frantically on the reins trying to stop them. The huskies ignored her. Emily tried to ski faster, but she had no chance of catching the dogs up. Unless…

  She looked at the hill to the right. The dogs were racing round the base of it. Maybe if she could climb up it, she could then ski down the other side and cut them off before they reached the woods. Emily started hurrying up the hill. It was difficult with skis and she was soon gasping for breath, but she didn’t stop.

  At the top, Emily could just see the huskies coming round the base of the hill. Heather was still pulling on the reins, her face terrified as they headed towards the gorge. If I can just ski down the slope, Emily thought, then maybe, just maybe, I can stop them before they get there.

  But could she do it? Skiing steeply downhill on cross-country skis was really hard because you couldn’t turn to slow yourself down like you could with normal downhill skis. Emily took another look at Heather’s terrified face. She didn’t have a choice. I have to try, she thought. Taking a deep breath, she bent her knees and pushed off with her poles.

  Within seconds, Emily’s speed had built up and she was flying down the steep slope of the hill. She kept her knees bent low and her body crouched forward, her poles tucked through her arms and out behind her. The world hurtled by. She didn’t think she’d ever skied so fast! Luckily the slope was covered with smooth snow and there were no obstacles in her way. She was going much too quickly to have been able to avoid anything. The speed whipped tears from her eyes, blurring her vision. As Emily neared the bottom of the slope, she saw the huskies approaching her.

  Heather saw her at the same moment. ‘Emily!’ she screamed in horror.

  For one awful moment, Emily thought she and the huskies were going to reach the same spot at the same time and crash into each other, but she reached the bottom of the hill just before they did. She skied straight into their path.

  The ground levelled out and her speed slowed. Digging her poles into the snow, she kicked her skis round and slid to a stop, throwing up a cloud of snow crystals. Now there was no time to lose! Emily started skiing directly towards the huskies. ‘Whoa!’ she called to them, waving her arms. ‘Whoa!’ But the dogs kept going. They were almost on top of her!

  Emily did the only thing she could: she crouched down and grabbed the harness as they charged past. She cried out as she was pulled along backwards on her skis, clutching the reins desperately, trying to stop the dogs and stay on her feet. ‘Stop!’ she cried. She had to halt them before they reached the low trees!

  She felt the dogs starting to slow as her weight pulled them back. It felt like a lifetime, but within a few seconds, they had slowed from a wild gallop to a trot.

  ‘Emily! You did it!’ cried Heather.

  She’d stopped them! Emily felt a massive sigh of relief escape her. She straightened up.

  ‘Watch out!’ Heather shrieked at the same moment.

  Emily felt something bang into her head and then she knew no more…

  ‘Emily! Wake up! Please! Wake up!’

  Someone was shaking Emily’s shoulder. Gradually she became aware of warm tongues licking her face and the feeling of cold underneath her. She was lying on her back. Her thoughts felt fuzzy and for a moment she couldn’t think where she was. Then suddenly she remembered – the huskies racing towards her, trying to stop them…

  Her eyes blinked open and she saw Heather leaning over her. The huskies were all around her too. ‘What… what happened?’ she said, sitting up. ‘Ow!’ Her hand went straight to her head as a blast of pain shot through her.

  ‘You hit your head,’ Heather said, trying to pull the huskies off her. ‘You stopped the huskies just as we got to the trees and tried to stand up, but there was a tree branch there and you hit your head on it. Then you just fell over. Oh, Emily, I thought you were dead!’ She was almost in tears.

  ‘I’m… I’m OK,’ said Emily, although she felt very strange. She looked up and saw the tree branches overhead.

  Heather pulled the huskies away from under the trees and Emily crawled after her. ‘What were you doing?’ she asked Heather, trying not to think of the pain in her head. ‘Why did you take the huskies out like that?’

  Heather bit her lip. ‘I was trying to run away.’

  ‘Run away?’
Emily stared.

  ‘Not forever,’ Heather said quickly. ‘Just for today. I thought if I wasn’t there then Amanda and Olivia could do the competition together and I wouldn’t let them down. I knew I wouldn’t get far enough skiing or skating and… well, I didn’t want to be out all day on my own.’ She stroked the huskies. ‘So I thought I’d take a sledge. I was going to try and get to the Rainbow Pools and wait there until this afternoon then come back. I left a note for Madame Letsworth telling her I’d be back this evening.’

  Emily stared at her. It was hard to take in. ‘Oh, Heather.’

  Heather looked really unhappy. ‘The huskies got out of control and they galloped down here and I thought we were going to crash into the trees. But you stopped them, Emily. You were amazing!’

  Emily’s head was swimming. She didn’t feel amazing. ‘I’m glad I did. You just can’t run off like that. You really can’t.’

  ‘I guess not,’ said Heather in a small voice.

  ‘Come on, let’s go back to school,’ said Emily. But as she stood up, pain shot through her and the world seemed to turn upside down. She sank quickly to her knees.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Heather said in alarm.

  ‘My head… I-I feel really dizzy,’ stammered Emily.

  ‘You do look very pale,’ said Heather anxiously. ‘I’d better go back and get help. I don’t want to drive the huskies, but I could use your skis.’

  ‘No, I’ll be OK,’ said Emily, knowing how worried Heather would be at the thought of skiing back on her own. She took a breath and tried to stand again. ‘I… I just need a few minutes.’ She almost fell over as she tried to stand.

  ‘No,’ said Heather, helping her to sit back down. ‘You can’t ski back and you’re not strong enough to take the huskies. You stay here and I’ll go.’

  Emily wanted to argue, but she felt too dizzy. Heather took her coat off and covered Emily’s legs with it. She put on Emily’s skis before freeing the huskies from the sledge. ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can,’ she promised as the huskies crowded round Emily to keep her warm.