Skating School: White Skate Wishes

  Linda Chapman lives in Leicestershire with her family and two dogs. When she is not writing, she spends her time looking after her three children, reading, talking to people about writing, and horse riding whenever she can.

  You can find out more about Linda on her websites at lindachapman.co.uk and lindachapmanauthor.co.uk

  Books by Linda Chapman

  BRIGHT LIGHTS

  CENTRE STAGE

  MY SECRET UNICORN series

  NOT QUITE A MERMAID series

  SKATING SCHOOL series

  SKY HORSES series

  STARDUST series

  UNICORN SCHOOL series

  Linda chapman

  Illustrated by Nedlie Ryan

  PUFFIN

  To Lindsey Heaven, who first had the brilliant idea of

  a skating school in a magic land, and because she

  loves the characters as much as I do!

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3

  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  puffinbooks.com

  First published 2010

  Text copyright © Linda Chapman, 2010

  Illustrations copyright © Nellie Ryan, 2010

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  ISBN: 978-0-14-194330-5

  Contents

  In the Magic Land of Ice and Winter…

  1. Emily

  2. Magic!

  3. Skating School

  4. On the Ice

  5. Making Friends

  6. Molly and Hannah

  7. Friends or Not?

  8. Which Routine?

  9. Camilla’s Revenge

  10. The Competition!

  In the Magic Land of Ice and Winter…

  Everything looked just as it always did. A blanket of crisp snow covered the fields and meadows, towns and villages. Frozen lakes glittered in the rays of the pale sun and a mist hung over the tops of the jagged mountains. Silvery robins darted from tree to tree while white fluffy fox cubs tumbled after each other. The ice sylphs who lived in the land went about their business as usual. But at the edge of their world something was different: one of the mountains had changed shape.

  Something lay curled around it, great wings folded flat. Dark-red scaly sides moved in and out and the steam from its breath formed thick clouds in the icy air…

  Chapter One

  Emily

  Ten-year-old Emily Walker spun round in her socks on the kitchen floor, one arm above her head, her shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair swinging round her face. She wished she was ice-skating, then she would have been able to twirl without stopping. If she could have anything in the whole world, it would be to have proper skating lessons and to have her own ice-skating dress and boots.

  Mrs Walker was spooning food into the open mouths of Emily’s twin baby sisters, Rose and Jasmine. ‘Careful, Em!’ she said, grabbing the dish as Emily’s outstretched hand knocked against it and jolted a dollop of green mush across the table.

  ‘Sorry, Mum,’ Emily said. Jasmine smiled at her, and Rose pointed and said, ‘A-ga.’

  Mrs Walker sighed and rubbed her hand across her forehead, leaving a smudge of baby food. Emily noticed how tired her mum looked. ‘Do you want me to help?’ she offered.

  ‘Thanks, love,’ her mum said gratefully. ‘If you finish feeding them, I can get the washing on.’

  Emily sat down and started to feed the twins, making funny noises and pulling silly faces at them. They both giggled at her.

  ‘Mum, can I go ice-skating this half-term holiday?’ Emily asked hopefully. She didn’t get to ice-skate regularly because it was too expensive, but her mum knew how much she loved it and tried to take her at least once every holiday.

  ‘Not this time, Em. I’ve got no one to look after the twins while your dad’s away with work,’ Mrs Walker said. ‘I promise we can go at Easter though.’

  ‘But that’s two months away,’ Emily protested.

  Mrs Walker’s voice softened. ‘I’m really sorry, Em. It’s just not possible this holiday.’

  Emily sighed and tried not to mind too much. She knew her mum was really busy and tired, and that she would have taken her if she could. ‘OK,’ she muttered and shut her blue eyes for a moment, letting herself imagine that she was whizzing across the ice. She could skate quite fast now and longed to be able to go more often.

  Emily could remember the very first time she had been skating at one of her friend’s birthday parties. When she had got on the ice, she had skated slowly round the rink the first time, but then had just let go of the barrier. She’d begun to go faster and faster and, before she knew it, had gone all the way round without stopping. None of the others had been able to skate straight away like that and the skating teacher had told her that she could be very good if she skated regularly. Emily could still remember how proud she’d felt.

  Splodge!

  A dollop of food landed on her arm. She opened her eyes quickly. Rose had grabbed the bowl and plunged both fists into it. She was waving them around, sending baby food flying. Jasmine chortled.

  Emily giggled too and quickly grabbed the kitchen roll so she could wipe up the mess before her mum noticed.

  After the twins had finished eating, Mrs Walker took them upstairs and Emily went outside into the garden. It was a cold, crisp February day. She ran forward and jumped into the air, crossing her arms over her chest and spinning round as she did so. She landed, arms out, imagining ice under her feet, not grass. If only she really was skating! Emily imagined it with all her heart as she began to pretend to do an ice-skating spin, turning once, twice…

  She gasped. She was spinning round a third time and a fourth, getting faster and faster! Suddenly Emily was twirling in a blur of silver light. In the blink of an eye, she felt things change. Her jeans turned to tights and her feet suddenly felt heavy. I’ve got ice skates on! she realized. As the thought flashed across her mind, the glittering light began to clear. Emily was still spinning, but began slowing to a stop. She looked round in astonishment.

  She was standing in the middle of a frozen lake!

  Chapter Two

  Magic!

  Everywhere Emily looked was white and sparkling. Long icicles hung from the branches of trees. The sun shone down, but there seemed to be little heat in its
rays. She shut her eyes then opened them again quickly. She was still standing on a frozen lake!

  I must be dreaming! she thought in astonishment. But how can I be?

  She looked down. She was wearing white boots and a short sunshine-yellow skating dress.

  ‘Ah, Emily, there you are!’ a voice behind her called.

  Emily was so surprised she jumped. Immediately her skates slipped from underneath her and she fell over. She gasped as she bumped down. The ice was hard and cold. If it was a dream, it was the most realistic one she’d ever had!

  A tall, slim woman with dark hair tied back in a bun and a knee-length maroon dress was skating over the lake towards her. She looked normal – well, apart from her ears, which were long and pointed.

  ‘Well, well, you must be Emily Walker. Welcome to the Land of Ice and Winter.’ The woman with the strange ears stopped in front of Emily and reached out her hand. ‘Up you get, child,’ she said briskly. ‘Don’t just sit there.’

  Emily stood up in a daze. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘My name is Madame Letsworth. I am an ice sylph and the headteacher here at the Magic Ice-skating Academy. I’ve been waiting for you. You’re the last one to arrive.’

  ‘Magic Ice-skating Academy?’ Emily echoed. ‘I… I don’t understand.’

  ‘It will all be explained when we get to the school.’ Madame Letsworth turned and skated back the way she had come. ‘Come along, child. Don’t dawdle!’

  Emily hesitated. But she didn’t want to be left alone so she hurriedly followed the teacher. As they skated round a bend, Emily’s eyes widened as she saw an enormous building in front of them. It was a mansion built of grey stone with a set of wide stone steps leading up to a big door. But instead of having a drive running up to it, as a house would normally have, the frozen lake went all the way to the steps just as if it was a road.

  Madame Letsworth skated to the steps and took two pairs of skate guards – covers that go over the bottom of skates – from a box at the side of the steps. She handed one pair to Emily.

  ‘Put these on until we get inside and then you can take your skates off.’

  Emily did as she was told. Madame Letsworth went to the top of the steps and opened the door. A wave of warm air billowed out and Emily heard the sound of chattering voices. She went up the steps. Inside there was a large entrance hall painted a rich, deep-red colour with a dark wooden floor. A fire was burning in a large fireplace. Several adults who had pointed ears like Madame Letsworth’s were carrying silver trays around, and on the trays were mugs of steaming hot chocolate and plates of biscuits. They were handing them out to a group of about fourteen girls. Some of the girls were tall and others small; their hair and skin colour were different, but they were all about ten years old and wearing ice-skating dresses, just like Emily, with matching fleecy slipper-boots.

  Madame Letsworth turned to Emily. ‘Welcome to the Magic Ice-skating Academy!’ she said with a smile.

  Chapter Three

  Skating School

  Madame Letsworth led Emily over to a row of lockers at the side of the room. They each had names written on: Molly Wang; Hannah Peters; Camilla Meredith; Amanda Duval; Alice Jenson; Tilda Obigiu…

  Emily unlaced her skates and put on the pair of yellow slipper-boots that were in the locker with her name on. A hundred questions were whizzing through her mind. She caught sight of a girl with waist-length straight dark hair, pale skin and very light-blue eyes who was wearing a red ice-skating dress. ‘Miss,’ the girl said, coming over to Madame Letsworth. ‘The girl with the black hair over there took three biscuits. I saw her.’ She pointed across the room.

  ‘That’s all right, Amanda. Don’t worry about it. There are more biscuits in the kitchen,’ Madame Letsworth said briskly.

  The girl looked a bit disappointed that no one was going to be told off. ‘Oh. It’s just I thought you should know, Miss.’ She moved closer to Madame Letsworth. ‘It’s really very scary not knowing anyone here. Can I stay with you?’ she said, blinking up at the teacher.

  A tall girl with strawberry-blonde hair and a deep-green skating dress who was standing nearby caught Emily’s eye. ‘Oh, puh-lease!’ she mouthed, glancing at the dark-haired girl. Emily grinned. The dark-haired girl had sounded a bit annoying.

  As Amanda left, trailing behind Madame Letsworth, the tall girl came up to Emily. ‘Did you hear that?’ She imitated Amanda’s slightly whiny voice. ‘It’s really very scary. Can I stay with you?’

  Emily giggled. ‘Hi, I’m Emily.’

  ‘I’m Camilla,’ the girl said. ‘This place is cool, isn’t it? Did you know the teachers are ice sylphs? That’s why they’ve got pointed ears. The teacher who brought me here told me that there aren’t any humans in this land – well, apart from us. We’ve been brought here by magic for a special reason.’

  ‘Why?’ Emily knew she should probably feel scared, but she was just excited and curious. Deep down, she somehow felt that nothing bad would happen in this strange magic land.

  ‘She wouldn’t tell me.’ Camilla nudged her. ‘It looks like we’re about to find out though.’

  Madame Letsworth was clapping her hands. ‘Right, girls. Now you have all arrived, why don’t you come to the school hall and I will explain why you are here.’

  She led the way down a corridor and into a big hall with two rows of chairs. Emily sat down next to a girl with a mischievous grin and straight black hair that fell to just above her shoulders. ‘Hi,’ she whispered to Emily. ‘I’m Molly Wang.’

  ‘I’m Emily Walker,’ Emily whispered back as Camilla sat down on the other side of her.

  Madame Letsworth began to speak again. Emily turned all her attention to her, hoping to find out what was going on.

  The headteacher smiled round at all the girls. ‘I would like to welcome you all to the Land of Ice and Winter. We who live here are not human. We are ice sylphs. We have brought you here by magic because we need a human girl to help us. We have a problem in our land and only a human girl with ice-skating deep in her heart can perform the task that will solve it. The person who is chosen will be crowned our Ice Princess and will have her heart’s desire granted.’

  Molly raised her hand. ‘What will she have to do?’

  ‘You will find that out in time,’ replied Madame Letsworth. ‘But first you must decide if you wish to stay here at our Ice-skating Academy. If you do, you will spend your days taking lessons with skating coaches and having other classes that will improve your skating, such as gymnastics and ballet. You will learn all about this land and the magic in it. And you will also take part in skating competitions where each week the winner will be awarded a different coloured pair of ice-skating boots. These competitions will help us choose our Ice Princess at the end of six weeks.’

  An excited buzz of whispering rose.

  Madame Letsworth allowed just the briefest of interruptions before continuing. ‘No time will pass in the human world while you are here, no one will miss you, and when you eventually return, it will be as if you had never left. Only you will know where you have been.’ She looked around at the girls. ‘It is up to you now: will you stay here or will you choose to go home? Each girl must make that decision for herself.’

  ‘Oh, wow!’ Molly whispered to Emily, looking as if she was about to burst with delight. ‘I am so not going home!’

  Emily knew just how she felt. She’d miss home, but if no one there would miss her then she knew she would stay. It would be like a dream come true to live in a magic land, skating every day! She turned to Camilla, her eyes shining. ‘I’m going to stay! Are you?’

  ‘Definitely!’ declared Camilla. All around them people were saying the same thing. Apart from one girl with red hair.

  She stood up. ‘I… I want to go home,’ she stammered.

  Emily could hardly believe it.

  But Madame Letsworth just nodded. ‘Very well,’ she said. ‘You are right to say so if you do not wish to stay, Eleanore. Come here.’
>
  The girl approached her nervously.

  The others watched as the teacher said something to her. The girl nodded and relaxed. Madame Letsworth touched a hand to her head.

  The girl started to turn round. Emily’s eyes widened as she spun faster and faster and then suddenly disappeared in a cloud of silver light.

  ‘She’s gone!’ Molly gasped.

  ‘Eleanore has returned home,’ Madame Letsworth told everyone in the hall. ‘She will not remember her visit here except as a vague dream that makes her smile. Would anyone else like to return home?’

  The other girls quickly shook their heads.

  ‘Well, remember that you can always return if you wish, but also bear in mind –’ Madame Letsworth’s voice took on a note of warning – ‘that we can always send you back if you prove to be an unsuitable student. I will be your headteacher and one of the skating coaches, but you will be taught by other teachers as well. You will meet them later, but first let us go to the ice-skating rink.’

  As everyone stood up, Emily looked round. There were fourteen girls left now. At the end of six weeks, one of them would get to be the Ice Princess, help the land and have her heart’s desire.

  Oh, wow, thought Emily. I hope it’s me!

  Chapter Four

  On the Ice

  The girls fetched their ice-skating boots from the entrance and followed Madame Letsworth out of the hall. Emily had so many questions buzzing through her mind. She wanted to know more about the lessons and where they would sleep and what the Ice Princess was going to have to do.

  Amanda, the girl with the long dark hair, was glued to Madame Letsworth’s side again. Emily could hear snatches of what she was saying: ‘I’m really good at ice-skating,’ she said loudly. ‘I go to lessons three times a week and Mummy says I’m going to be an Olympic champion one day…’

  Emily couldn’t believe she was being quite so boastful.

  Madame Letsworth sighed. ‘Why don’t you go and talk to some of the others, Amanda?’

  ‘Oh, no, I’m much happier talking to you,’ said Amanda sweetly, taking hold of the headteacher’s hand.