Skating School: Pink Skate Party Read online

  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 Nellie Ryan

  PUFFIN

  To Georgia Purcell – if you were ever at the Magic Ice-skating

  Academy, you would be the Ice Princess

  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 and illustrator 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: 978-0-14-194333-6

  Contents

  In the Magic Land of Ice and Winter…

  1. Practice Makes Perfect

  2. At the Ice Rink

  3. Costume Designing

  4. Found in the Woods

  5. Trying Too Hard

  6. Four Days Off

  7. Helping Out

  8. Flying High

  9. The Competition

  10. A Brilliant Surprise!

  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. But the ice sylphs who lived in the land knew something was different.

  At the edge of the land, one of the mountains had changed shape. Something had curled around it, great wings folded flat. Its dark-red scaly sides moved in and out, and every so often it would open its mouth and a great jet of fire would stream out.

  The headteacher of the Magic Ice-skating Academy, Madame Letsworth, sat at her desk looking down a list of girls’ names. Beside some of them were ticks, others had question marks and a few had crosses.

  Madame Letsworth rubbed her forehead. The ice sylphs’ wonderful land was melting and they had to get the dragon to move. One of the human girls at the school could help them by becoming the Ice Princess.

  ‘But if we don’t choose the right girl then the magic won’t work,’ Madame Letsworth murmured. Her eyes flicked from one name to another: Hannah Peters, Emily Walker, Molly Wang, Amanda Duval, Zoe Hassan, Alice Jenson… Which of the girls really had the qualities they needed?

  Hopefully the competition that week would help her decide.

  Chapter One

  Practice Makes Perfect

  Molly leapt into the air, turning as she jumped, her straight black hair flying around her face. She landed on one leg, but, as she did so, she wobbled and collapsed in a heap on the floor of the ballet studio.

  Emily giggled. ‘You’d better not do that in the competition!’ Together with their other friend, Hannah, she hauled Molly to her feet.

  ‘It’s much easier on skates,’ Molly sighed.

  ‘It’s good to walk through a new routine off the ice though,’ Hannah sensibly reminded her. ‘It helps to learn it and that’s really important right now. We’ve only got six days before the competition.’

  A shiver of excitement ran down Emily’s spine. The evening before, the girls at the Magic Ice-skating Academy had found out that their next competition was to skate a two-minute routine. Certain moves had to be included – an upright spin, a double jump combination, a drag and a spiral, but it was up to the girls to choreograph the routines for themselves. They also had to choose their own music and design their own costumes.

  ‘We want to see how well you can put a routine together,’ Madame Letsworth had told them. ‘Each judge will award two marks, one for technical ability and one for artistic interpretation. The winner of this week’s competition will receive a pair of pink skates with silver laces.’

  Molly took off her shoes and began to move around the studio again, sliding in her socks as if she had skates on.

  ‘I’ll do a double flip, double toe loop here and then my drag, then speed up and do a double axel followed by a layback spin to finish.’ She ended in the middle of the room, her arms above her head. ‘There – done!’ she declared. ‘Your turn, Em.’

  Emily tucked her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ears. ‘I think I’ll put my music on to help me picture my routine. I always remember better with music.’

  She went over to the purple music box in the corner. It was covered with silver buttons divided into columns with different titles like ‘lively’, ‘slow’, ‘sad’. But rather than pressing any of these, Emily lifted the lid.

  Inside were lots of wheels and gears and levers as well as three silvery-blue dragons, each the size of Emily’s hand. They chirruped when they saw her.

  ‘Hi,’ Emily said. ‘Would you mind playing some music for me? It was number fifty-two.’

  ‘Of course,’ one of the dragons squeaked cheerfully in dragon language.

  Emily closed the lid. She loved the fact that at the Magic Ice-skating Academy there were creatures like dragons. It was going to be really strange when she went back to her old life and used a normal CD player again!

  Everything’s going to be strange when we go back home, she realized.

  Although she missed her family and friends, Emily loved being at skating school. It had been like a dream come true when she had been whisked away by magic to the Land of Ice and Winter three weeks ago. When she had found she could stay at the Ice-skating Academy there, taking lessons to improve her ice-skating with the other human girls who had been chosen, and that no time would pass in the human world while she was away, she had immediately said yes. She definitely wanted to stay!

  At the end of six weeks, one of the fourteen girls w
as going to be chosen to be the Ice Princess. Madame Letsworth had told them that this girl would have to perform a task to help the ice sylphs who lived in the land. If the Ice Princess performed it successfully, she would be granted a wish.

  Emily longed to be the person chosen to be Ice Princess. However, there were still three weeks until the teachers made their decision and, while she was at this magical school, Emily was determined to make the most of every moment.

  She walked to the centre of the room. She had chosen a piece of lively, soaring music for her routine, which reminded her of birds swooping through the air. As she took her starting position, the music began to play.

  Emily set off round the studio. ‘First I’ll do some crossovers and then turn, skate backwards and into the double jump we have to do. After that, I’ll go into the drag.’ She crouched down, one leg behind her, arms and head thrown back. On the ice, she would be gliding gracefully of course.

  ‘Cool!’ called Molly approvingly. ‘That’ll look good, Em!’

  Emily continued, finishing with an upright spin. She could only turn round once on the floor, but hopefully on the ice she would be able to spin round lots of times.

  ‘It’s a lovely routine, Emily,’ said Hannah. ‘It really suits you.’

  ‘I can’t wait to be doing it on the ice,’ said Emily. She did a lot of ballet back in the human world, but, although dancing was fun, it was nowhere near as good as skating. She loved the feeling of speed and the sensation of flying she had when she was on the ice. When she was skating really well, Emily felt as if every bit of her was sparkling.

  ‘We’ll go to the rink straight after our ballet lesson,’ said Molly, turning a double cartwheel.

  Emily grinned. ‘Imagine if you could do that on the ice.’

  ‘Don’t tempt her!’ Hannah said quickly. Molly was very daring.

  Molly’s brown eyes twinkled. ‘Maybe I could try…’

  ‘No!’ Hannah and Emily both chorused.

  ‘Ohhhh.’ Molly pretended to look disappointed. ‘You two are so boring.’

  The bell rang to signal the end of lunch. ‘We’d better get ready for ballet,’ said Hannah.

  They hurried through to the changing room where all the other girls were gathering. As they changed out of the skating dresses they wore most of the time into pale-blue leotards and ballet shoes, Emily realized something. ‘If I was at home, it would be my birthday on Sunday,’ she said.

  ‘Really? Then we should have a party!’ said Molly.

  ‘But it’s not Emily’s proper birthday,’ Hannah pointed out. ‘When we go home, she’ll still be the same age as when she left. All of us will be, because no time will have passed.’

  ‘And Sunday’s the day of the competition anyway,’ said Emily. ‘There’ll be too much else going on –’ She broke off as the other girls came into the changing room followed by Madame Breshnev, the small, neat ballet teacher.

  ‘Into the studio when you’re ready, please, girls!’ she called.

  Hannah, Molly and Emily followed their teacher back into the ballet studio and started bending and stretching at the barre. Emily bent her knees in a deep plié, but in her head she was jumping and spinning above the ice rink. Birthdays were fun to think about, but not as much fun as ice-skating!

  Chapter Two

  At the Ice Rink

  Push and glide, push and glide…

  Emily skated backwards. Kicking the toe of her left boot into the ice, she pushed up with her right leg. The next moment, she was spinning round weightlessly in the air, her arms tight to her sides. She landed neatly on one foot and glided on. Happiness rushed through her. It had taken her a while to learn how to do a double toe loop, but she could do it really well now and was going to perform it in her routine. She practised the move again, determined to perfect it.

  The rink was one of Emily’s favourite places in the school. The roof was made of glass and the ice was regularly smoothed by the frost fairies, tiny creatures about two centimetres high. As well as smoothing the ice, they did all the cooking and cleaning. A cloud of them clustered near the changing room, talking to each other in their high-pitched voices, their silver wings a blur.

  A few of them saw Emily looking over and waved. She waved back.

  All around her, everyone else was practising hard. Tilda and Alice, who shared the Frost Fairies dorm with Emily, Molly and Hannah, were working together on sit spins, and Amanda, another of Emily’s friends, was doing a beautiful spiral, her arms thrown back dramatically. Molly was over on the far side of the rink practising a spin, turning quickly on the spot with her body arched back. She could spin faster than anyone else at the school.

  Emily looked round for Hannah. Whereas Molly was small and full of energy, always spinning faster and jumping higher than anyone else, Hannah was tall and slim and looked very graceful on the ice. She was practising a difficult combination of jumps. She wasn’t managing to get it right, but she kept trying.

  Emily decided to do another double toe loop. She knew she had to practise each move over and over again. When they had started at the school, she had been the least experienced skater there. She had practised hard and really improved, but she still couldn’t do all the really difficult jumps and spins that some of the others could. However, Emily hoped that if she skated each of the moves she knew as perfectly as possible, she might still have a chance in the competition.

  She glided backwards and built up speed again… But as she landed this time, she caught an edge on the ice and fell over.

  ‘What a surprise! Emily hits the ice once again!’ drawled a voice behind her. Emily didn’t have to look round to know who was speaking. There was only one girl at the Academy who was mean if someone fell over – Camilla Meredith.

  Unhurt, Emily scrambled to her feet. Camilla skated round in front of her. She had glossy strawberry-blonde hair, creamy skin and big green eyes. But although she was beautiful on the outside, Emily had soon found out that she wasn’t so nice on the inside.

  ‘You should be doing a clown routine then it won’t matter if you fall over all the time!’ Camilla laughed scornfully and skated back to where her friends were standing.

  Emily ignored her. Camilla had been her friend in the first week, but they had fallen out when Emily had also wanted to be friends with Hannah and Molly. Ever since then, Camilla had been really mean to her. Trying to push Camilla’s comments out of her mind, Emily had another go at the double jump and this time landed it accurately. Triumph flooded through her. She glanced to see if Camilla had been watching, but Camilla was too busy showing off in the centre of the rink.

  As Emily slowed down to get her breath back, she heard Camilla’s voice floating across the ice as all her friends congratulated her on the jump she had just done. ‘Oh, that’s nothing.’ Camilla’s eyes flicked to where Hannah was still doggedly practising. ‘For my routine, I’m going to do a double lutz–double toe loop.’

  ‘That would be really cool!’ said Tess, Camilla’s best friend.

  ‘Will you be able to do it?’ asked Helena, one of the other girls from the Snow Foxes dorm.

  ‘Course I will,’ said Camilla confidently. ‘Watch!’

  She skated off. Emily glanced towards Hannah. Emily was sure Camilla had decided to do the double lutz–double toe loop combination because that was exactly what Hannah was practising and getting wrong. Camilla would love to prove she could do it better. Luckily Hannah was so busy focusing on her own skating that she wasn’t taking any notice of Camilla.

  Camilla skated backwards faster and faster and then pushed down with her right foot and spun round into the air. When she landed, she took off again straight away, spinning round tightly two more times before landing neatly and skating on, her arms gracefully outstretched as if inviting applause.

  Her friends all clapped obediently.

  ‘See!’ Camilla skated back to them with a triumphant smile on her face.

  ‘You’re so going to win this week if you
get all your jumps right,’ said Tess enviously.

  ‘I hope so.’ Camilla glanced towards Hannah, who had just pulled out of the second part of the same combination.

  ‘Camilla is so annoying!’ a voice burst out behind Emily. Emily turned round and saw Molly skating up to her.

  She nodded in agreement. ‘I hope she doesn’t win the competition.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Molly. A thoughtful look crossed her face. ‘Maybe if I could do a triple jump it would really impress the judges.’

  ‘A triple jump,’ echoed Emily. That meant turning round three times in the air after jumping off the ice. ‘Could you do that?’

  ‘Well, I’ve never landed one before, but there’s a first time for everything,’ Molly said cheerfully. ‘I’ll try one.’

  She skated away across the rink and threw herself into the air. Emily saw her go round once, twice, but as she was going round the third time, she lost momentum and had to pull out, almost falling on her nose.

  ‘Full marks for style, Molly!’ yelled Camilla. ‘If you’re in the skating-like-an-ostrich competition, that is!’ Her friends all giggled.

  Hannah skated over. ‘What were you trying to do?’

  ‘A triple toe loop,’ admitted Molly.

  ‘But that’s much too…’ Hannah stopped. Emily was sure she had been about to say ‘hard’, but Hannah seemed to think better of it and tactfully changed her words. ‘Are you quite sure you’re ready for that, Molly? I know you’re a brilliant skater, but don’t you think you should wait a bit?’

  ‘Why wait?’ Molly said airily. ‘If I get it right, just think how awesome it’ll be!’

  A whistle blew and the three skating teachers arrived: Madame Letsworth, who taught the advanced skaters – Hannah, Molly, Camilla, Zoe and Amanda; Madame Li, who taught the intermediate skaters; and Monsieur Carvallio, who taught the beginner skaters – the group that Emily was in.

  The teachers skated on to the ice and the students gathered round them. Madame Letsworth blew her whistle again and the lesson began.

  Emily loved her skating lessons. Monsieur Carvallio was a dark-skinned ice sylph with kind eyes. He was quick to pick up on her faults, but always gave her plenty of praise and, though she would never say it out loud because she hated boasting, she could see that in the three weeks she had been at the school she had improved a lot more than Tilda and Heather, the other two in the beginners’ group.