Skating School: Pink Skate Party

by Linda Chapman

  She turned to look at the girls waiting in the changing area. ‘You have been very patient and I promise that next week you will learn more about the task and about the qualities we are looking for in the Ice Princess.’

  Emily exchanged excited looks with Hannah and Molly. She was longing to find out more about what the Ice Princess would actually have to do and how the teachers were going to choose her. Surely it was something to do with the competitions? But then again, maybe it wasn’t.

  Madame Letsworth turned back to the audience. ‘Today all the girls have been asked to prepare a short routine with certain set elements. They have also chosen their own music and designed their own costumes. Please enjoy their performances!’ She skated off to loud applause and took her place at the judges’ table.

  ‘I’m so nervous I can’t breathe!’ Emily said to Molly, who had begged to be allowed to sit with the other girls in the changing area. She had Charlie on her knee.

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ she said to Emily. ‘I know you will.’

  ‘Better than fine,’ Hannah chipped in. ‘You’ll be brilliant!’

  Just then, Madame Longley opened the entrance barrier for Zoe, the first skater, to go on to the ice.

  The competition had begun!

  It was wonderful to watch everyone skate and hear the clapping at the end of each performance. It was just like Emily had imagined being a real ice-skater in the human world would be. She couldn’t wait for her turn – she was skating fifth, after Heather.

  Oh, I hope I do well, thought Emily as Heather got her marks – twenty-five, a low score, but she had kept her routine simple and easy.

  Madame Longley, who was by the entrance, smiled at Emily. ‘It’s your turn now, Emily. On you go.’

  Emily took a deep breath and skated on to the ice. She felt tense and horribly nervous as everyone clapped her. She was sure she was going to do something wrong. Reaching the centre of the rink, she took up her starting position – one leg behind the other, hands and eyes down.

  The lights faded. Emily felt as if she was about to explode with tension, but then the music began! She pushed forward and after the first few steps everything faded away – the audience, the thoughts of what jumps she was going to do. She had been over the routine so many times she barely had to think what came next and instead felt as if she was really becoming a bird, swooping and diving. Each move flowed effortlessly into the next with no mistakes.

  As the piece of music built to the finale, Emily reached the centre of the rink and started to spin. Round and round she went, arms above her head, until, with perfect timing, she stopped on the last beat. Throwing her arms out, she beamed in delight.

  The audience clapped and cheered. Emily grinned, feeling as if there were fireworks going off inside her. She’d done it! She hadn’t fallen or made any big mistakes.

  She skated off the ice and the waiting girls surrounded her, calling out congratulations. All except Camilla. She stood aloof, her face calm and smugly composed. Hannah hugged Emily. ‘You were great, Em! I bet you get a really good mark.’

  The mark went up – thirty-one and a half out of thirty-six. Emily was in the lead! There was still a long way to go, she knew, and some really good routines to come, but she was very happy.

  It was Hannah next. ‘Good luck!’ Emily called and, feeling very relieved that her turn was over, she went to sit with Molly.

  The sequins on Hannah’s costume sparkled in the spotlights. It looked lovely now, just right for her mermaid routine. The music started and she was off, dancing and spinning. She looked completely confident and relaxed as she performed all her really difficult jumps, a smile on her face as she landed each one. No one else had tried a routine that was anything like as hard as Hannah’s and her final spin was so fast that she seemed to blur on the ice.

  When she stopped, the crowd erupted. ‘Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!’ gasped Molly, clapping as hard as she could. ‘She’s got to win with that!’ She caught herself. ‘Sorry, Em, I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was saying your routine wasn’t any good or anything.’

  ‘It’s OK. That was a brilliant routine,’ said Emily. ‘Hannah’ll easily beat my marks – and she should.’ She didn’t feel unhappy though. She was proud of the mark she had got, but Hannah’s routine had been better than hers and she wanted her friend to win. She deserved to.

  Hannah skated off the ice. Emily hurried over to her just as the mark went up. ‘Thirty-three!’ she gasped. ‘Oh, Hannah! Well done!’ Hannah squealed and hugged her.

  ‘No one’s going to beat that,’ declared Molly in excitement.

  ‘Oh, yeah?’ Camilla’s voice cut in. ‘We’ll see about that. Nice try, Hannah, but prepare to come second.’

  ‘Oh, just ignore her,’ Emily said quickly as Camilla tossed her hair back and skated on to the ice.

  ‘Don’t worry, I will,’ said Hannah.

  ‘That catsuit is very tight!’ commented Molly.

  Camilla started to skate. She landed her double toe loop–double lutz combination. Emily frowned. She could almost see the shiny silver material stretching at the seams as Camilla gathered herself to launch into a double axel. ‘I hope it doesn’t –’ She broke off with a gasp, a sound that was echoed by the whole audience.

  As Camilla had taken off into the air, her costume had split slightly across her bottom. She stumbled out of the jump, her hands flying behind her to hold the material together. It was so funny that Emily couldn’t help but giggle. She wasn’t alone. The whole of the audience was laughing.

  Camilla’s face went bright red. She turned and skated off the ice as fast as she could. When she reached the barrier, she barged through the other girls, who were all looking torn between being shocked and amused, and went straight over to a cloud of frost fairies who were near the doors.

  ‘This is all your fault!’ Camilla screamed at them.

  They held out their tiny hands and shook their heads as if they didn’t know what she was talking about.

  ‘Oh… GRRR!’ she cried and stormed away.

  Chapter Ten

  A Brilliant Surprise!

  The last few skaters performed their routines and the final marks were given out. Hannah had won! Emily had just been beaten by Amanda and so she came third. But she was very happy with that.

  Hannah went to collect the pretty pink skates from Madame Letsworth. Molly and Emily both clapped and cheered along with everyone else as Hannah was presented with them and then Molly turned to Emily. ‘I’m going to go and get your surprise ready. Come up to the dorm with Hannah in ten minutes. But not before – promise?’

  ‘I promise,’ said Emily. She was longing to find out what the surprise was!

  By the time Hannah got off the ice and had spoken to all the people who wanted to congratulate her, the changing room had emptied and the other girls had disappeared. Emily waited for Hannah and they eventually headed back to the Frost Fairies dorm together.

  ‘You were amazing,’ Emily said.

  Hannah smiled. ‘Partly thanks to you. I love the dress and I just felt so happy wearing it, it made me feel like I could do anything. I’m so glad Molly is organizing this surprise for you.’

  ‘Do you know what it is?’ Emily asked her.

  Hannah grinned and nodded. ‘Yep, but I’m not saying cos Molly will kill me!’

  As they reached the corridor, Emily saw Alice looking out of the dorm. She saw them, gave a squeak that made her sound very like Charlie and shut the door quickly.

  ‘What’s up with Alice?’ Emily said in astonishment. Hannah just grinned.

  They reached the door and Emily opened it. The dorm was in darkness, the curtains shut. She started to frown. What’s going on… ?

  ‘SURPRISE!’

  Molly, Tilda and Alice leapt out from their hiding places and Hannah turned the lights on. The dorm had been decorated with pink and lilac streamers. A table had been put in the room and covered with a silver tablecloth. On it were sandwiches and str
awberries and a massive pink cake with a pair of white ice-skating boots made out of icing sugar on top. Frost fairies fluttered through the air, swooping and diving, their wings sparkling, and on Molly’s bed bounced eight of the ice dragons who worked in the school.

  Emily gaped. She didn’t know what to say.

  ‘Happy non-birthday!’ cried Molly. The others echoed it and crowded round to hug Emily.

  ‘Oh… wow!’ Emily burst out.

  ‘I know it’s not your real birthday yet, but I thought you should have something. I’d have gone mad the last few days without you. You’ve been such a good friend,’ Molly said.

  ‘To me too,’ said Hannah. ‘It was so lovely of you to organize a new dress for me.’

  ‘Charlie wants to say thank you too,’ said Alice. ‘He would have been very bored if you hadn’t thought of a way to help him.’

  There was a loud chirrup. Emily looked at the ice dragons and saw Charlie. He was still a lot smaller than the others, but he looked like he was having a great time with them, nuzzling and flapping his wings.

  ‘He’s been growing so fast he’s big enough now to go and live with the other dragons properly,’ said Tilda. ‘Madame Longley said he can help in one of the music boxes.’

  ‘So?’ demanded Molly, looking at Emily eagerly. ‘Are you pleased?’

  Emily could hardly believe it all. ‘Oh, yes!’ she said, looking round at the decorated room, the party tea, the frost fairies and ice dragons…

  Molly grinned. ‘Then let’s get partying!’

  They ate and drank and chatted and then Emily blew out the candles on the cake. The news of the party had spread and other people kept joining them. Soon everyone was there – everyone apart from Camilla.

  Emily looked round the room at the happy faces. It was wonderful having everyone there, but she didn’t like the feeling that someone was missing. She hesitated and then turned to Hannah. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

  She went down the stairs to the Snow Foxes dorm and knocked on the door. There was no answer. She pushed the door open, wondering what she would find. Maybe Camilla would be crying in there? As Emily peeped in, she saw Camilla, but she wasn’t crying. She was lying on her bed, arms crossed, face sulky.

  ‘What do you want?’ she demanded.

  ‘Come and join the party,’ Emily said to her. Camilla looked surprised.

  ‘Oh, come on,’ Emily said quietly. ‘Everyone’s there. You should be too. I’d really like you to.’

  Camilla hesitated and then huffed as if she was doing Emily a great big favour. ‘Well, I suppose I could come.’ She got up, grabbed a long cardigan from her wardrobe and joined Emily at the door. ‘I’d have won, you know, if my costume hadn’t split,’ she muttered as she marched out.

  Emily shook her head. Camilla could be really annoying, but even so, she was glad she was coming upstairs to join in. Emily knew she would enjoy the party much more if no one was left out.

  When Emily got back, she found a pillow fight had broken out. The frost fairies were sitting up on the curtain rail and the ice dragons were watching from the windowsill. Everyone was laughing and screaming. As soon as Emily and Camilla walked through the door, they got thumped with feather pillows. Squealing, Emily grabbed a pillow from the floor and joined in. Camilla only hesitated a second before the sulky look on her face faded and she joined in too, hitting Tess and Olivia.

  ‘Got you!’ yelled Molly, thumping Emily.

  ‘Got you back!’ Emily cried, swinging the pillow towards her and then dodging out of the way as Alice charged towards her.

  ‘Incoming… wahhhh!’ Alice broke off with a shriek as Tilda thwacked her legs and she stumbled over.

  The laughter and squealing rose and the fight only ended when Molly hit Hannah so hard the pillow burst and clouds of white feathers flew into the air. The girls all collapsed, giggling on the beds as the feathers floated down like snowflakes around them.

  ‘Having a good time then?’ said Molly to Emily as they lay on their backs on the bed.

  ‘It’s the best party I’ve ever had!’ Emily declared. She sat up and looked round at everyone in the room. She’d only known them all for a few weeks, but it felt like forever. They were all so different from each other, but they were basically good friends and out of all of them only one was going to be chosen to be the Ice Princess.

  Who will it be? thought Emily, looking round.

  Her heart did a double flip. She couldn’t wait to find out!