Skating School: Violet Skate Friends

  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 Michele and Jessica Holland for all the great ice-skating advice and for reading the books. Thank you! Any mistakes are most definitely mine.

  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: 978-0-14-194331-2

  Contents

  In the Magic Land of Ice and Winter…

  1. Best Friends

  2. The Announcement

  3. Partners

  4. The First Practice

  5. Falling Out

  6. Tricked!

  7. The Crack in the Ice

  8. Teamwork

  9. The Day of 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 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.

  One of the mountains in the land had changed shape. Something had curled around it, great wings folded flat. Its dark-red scaly sides moved in and out, and steam from its huge nostrils formed thick clouds, melting the snow and ice all around.

  Madame Letsworth, the headteacher of the Magic Ice-skating Academy, stared anxiously out of her study window. She knew that the ice sylphs did not have long.

  In the gardens below her, fourteen human girls ran about, throwing snowballs, chattering and dragging sledges around. Madame Letsworth gazed down at them. She hoped that one of them would be able to help the magic land – the one who would be chosen to be the Ice Princess.

  Her forehead furrowed. The question was: which one would it be?

  Chapter One

  Best Friends

  ‘Are you ready?’ Molly called.

  Emily sat down on her sledge and pushed strands of her shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair into her fleece hat. ‘Yep!’

  ‘Hannah?’ asked Molly.

  ‘Just a minute.’ Hannah carefully got her sledge into position on the other side of Emily and began to tuck the ends of her scarf neatly into her coat collar. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a tidy single plait.

  Emily’s blue eyes swept over the glittering snowy slope. On the far side of the snow-covered lawn there was a grey stone building with icicles hanging from its window ledges. Happiness fizzed through her. The Magic Ice-skating Academy. A week ago, Emily had been whisked out of her normal human life and had arrived on a frozen lake just outside the school in the magic Land of Ice and Winter. At first, she had thought she was dreaming, but she had quickly found out that it was real!

  Emily could vividly remember standing with all the other girls in the school hall on that first day, listening to Madame Letsworth, their headteacher, telling them that if they wanted to, they could stay at the ice-skating school for six weeks to learn about the land and improve their skating. At the end of that time, one of them would be chosen to be the land’s Ice Princess, a girl who would help the ice sylphs in some way. Madame Letsworth hadn’t said how the girl would help, but she had told them that if the Ice Princess was successful, she would be granted a wish.

  After finding out that no time would pass in the human world and no one would miss her at home, Emily had immediately decided to stay. The thought of being in a magical land, skating every day, making friends and living in a boarding school where there were all sorts of other fun wintry things to do like sledging and cross-country skiing seemed almost too good to be true.

  Emily had been at the school for a week now and, although she missed her family a bit, being in the Land of Ice and Winter was brilliant fun. One of the best things about it so far had been making friends with Hannah and Molly.

  ‘OK, I’m almost ready,’ called Hannah. ‘But are you sure this is safe, Molly? We might crash into a tree or a bush, and the slope’s quite steep.’

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ said Molly airily.

  ‘You know, maybe we should start a bit further down,’ Hannah said anxiously. ‘It really would be safer and…’

  ‘No, no, no,’ Molly interrupted, her dark eyes gleaming. ‘OK. So the person who goes furthest wins!’

  ‘But…’ Hannah protested.

  Molly ignored her. ‘On your marks… get set… go!’ she yelled.

  Emily pushed off. All three sledges started slowly, but within seconds they were gathering speed, bumping over the surface, going faster and faster as they headed down the hill towards the garden. Seeing a holly bush coming up, Emily tried to steer round it, pulling as hard as she could on the rope, but she was too late! The sledge’s front-runners caught the branches of the bush and it stopped with a jerk.

  ‘Whoa!’ Emily yelled as she was thrown off into the snow. She scrambled to her feet laughing. Her coat and gloves were covered in snow crystals, her face was wet and cold, but she didn’t care. She looked round and saw that Hannah had fallen off too. Hannah’s hat was lying in the snow, but she was grinning. ‘Well done. You beat me, Em!’

  Molly had reached the bottom. Seeing the other two stuck up the slope, she whooped. ‘I won! I won! Losers!’

  Emily grabbed a handful of snow. She ran down the slope, hurling
it at Molly. Hannah giggled and joined in. Molly shrieked and started to throw snowballs back. When they finally stopped, they were covered with even more snow, but their eyes were shining and their cheeks were flushed.

  The school bell rang out, signalling the end of lunchtime.

  ‘Come on,’ Hannah said eagerly. ‘It’s skating class. We don’t want to be late.’

  Pulling their sledges behind them, they hurried across the gardens and back into the school.

  The ice rink where the girls had their skating classes was one of Emily’s favourite places. It was down a long corridor and had a domed glass roof through which you could see the sky and, at night-time, the stars. Three times a day, hundreds of tiny frost fairies swept over it, smoothing the ice so that it was perfect to skate on.

  The frost fairies kept everything in order at the school. They organized the students’ clothes, kept the building clean and tidy, and prepared all the food. They had glittering gauzy wings and clouds of fluffy hair, and they chattered to each other in high-pitched voices, which none of the girls could understand. Emily loved them and they seemed to like her too. Three of them came to land on her shoulder now as she walked to the lockers at the side of the rink.

  Each girl had her own locker where she kept her skates and several layers of clothing in case she got cold.

  As Emily, Molly and Hannah laced up their boots, they were joined by Tilda and Alice from their dorm. Tilda was slim with dark skin and black hair. Alice was small, and she had pale skin, blonde hair and a round friendly face.

  ‘Hi there,’ Tilda said, plonking herself down on the bench beside them. ‘What have you lot been doing?’

  ‘We went sledging. It was brilliant,’ said Hannah. ‘How about you?’

  ‘We went to the kennels to see the husky puppies,’ Tilda replied.

  ‘They’re gorgeous!’ enthused Alice.

  ‘You think every animal is gorgeous,’ Molly teased. ‘I bet you even think stick insects are gorgeous.’

  Alice grinned. ‘I do actually. I’ve got ten of them back at home.’

  ‘And two gerbils, a guinea pig, two cats, a dog and a hedgehog who lives outside but who you feed,’ Emily put in. She’d heard all about Alice’s pets. In fact, she knew all about her friends’ home lives now. In the last week they’d done a lot of talking!

  She had learnt that Tilda was a star gymnast and had two brothers and two sisters and that Hannah was an only child who had been skating since she was three and was determined to be an Olympic ice-skater one day. Molly had only started skating a few years ago, but had turned out to be really talented at it and she now had lessons with a private coach. She had an older brother and a goldfish called Scooby Doo.

  Emily looked round at her four friends; they were all so different, but the great thing was that they all got on really well. Last week, she had been in the Snow Foxes dorm, but she hadn’t really made friends with any of the other girls there, and she had been really pleased when Madame Letsworth had let her move into the Frost Fairies dorm instead.

  Hannah got up. ‘Come on, let’s start warming up.’

  They headed on to the ice. ‘Do you think we’ll find out what the competition is going to be this week?’ Molly said.

  ‘And what colour skates the winner will get?’ added Tilda.

  Emily felt a rush of excitement. Even though she was one of the least experienced skaters in the school, she had won the very first competition the day before. It had been to skate a routine showing that you were skating from your heart. Winning it – and being presented with the beautiful snow-white skates that had been the prize – had been one of the best moments of her life.

  ‘I wonder what the competition will be,’ Hannah said.

  Emily hugged herself. She couldn’t wait to find out!

  Chapter Two

  The Announcement

  A pretty girl with long dark hair and a red dress was standing by the entrance to the rink stretching one leg up on the bench and talking loudly to anyone who would listen.

  ‘I did a triple toe loop followed by a Flying Camel this morning. Madame Letsworth was here and she said it was the best she’d seen since we all started.’ Amanda smiled smugly as she talked about the ice-skating jumps she’d done. ‘But then that’s not surprising; after all, I have been skating for longer than nearly everyone else here…’

  ‘I wish a Flying Camel would land on Amanda’s head,’ Molly muttered to Emily, who giggled. Amanda was one of the most annoying girls at the school! She was always boasting and bossing people about.

  Emily got on well with most of the other girls. There was only one person she didn’t like at all – Camilla.

  When they had first arrived, Emily and Camilla had both been in the Snow Foxes dorm. But when Emily had started going round with Hannah and Molly, who were in one of the other dorms, Camilla had declared that Emily wasn’t allowed to be friends with them too and had started being mean to her. It hadn’t helped that Emily had then won the competition at the end of the week, after Camilla had told everyone she was bound to win.

  Emily glanced at the rink. Camilla was skating in the centre of the ice, gliding round on one leg. Emily started some warm-up stretches. She did a lot of ballet at home and so she was very flexible, which really helped with her skating.

  First she stretched down to touch her toes, the palms of her hands easily reaching the ice. Then she straightened up and put her foot on the barrier around the rink, her leg straight.

  Camilla skated past. ‘Pity you can’t skate as well as you can warm up, Emily,’ she said snidely before skating off.

  Emily took a deep breath and tried not to let Camilla’s comment upset her. She could skate well. She’d proved it by winning the competition. She might not be as experienced as all the others, but she was trying hard and she knew she was improving every single day.

  Emily set off round the rink, her arms out, her head held high. She went faster and faster and then added in some turns and jumps until the skating teachers arrived. Monsieur Carvallio was dark-skinned and tall. He taught the beginners’ group that Emily and Tilda were in with a sweet but very shy girl called Heather. The intermediate skaters were taught by Madame Li and the advanced skaters had Madame Letsworth. Molly and Hannah, who were both in the advanced group, said she was the best skating coach they had ever had.

  The three teachers skated on to the ice. Madame Letsworth, who was wearing a dark-maroon dress as usual, blew her whistle. ‘Gather round, girls. Before we start, I’m going to tell you about this week’s competition.’

  ‘Cool!’ said Molly, skating up at full speed to join Emily and stopping in a spray of ice crystals.

  ‘However, first,’ continued Madame Letsworth, ‘I have an important safety announcement. If you are skating outside on the lake behind the school, please don’t go down the small river that goes into the woods to the east. The ice is weak and there is a big crack in it. The other rivers are all fine. Now, for the competition…’

  Madame Letsworth looked round at the girls’ eager faces. ‘This week we would like to see how well you skate together with another person and so your challenge will be to produce a two-minute routine in pairs that tells a story. You must choose the music and story in your pairs. We want to see how well you all get on, working as a team.’

  Wow! That sounded fun! Emily exchanged excited looks with Molly.

  Zoe, who was in the Ice Owls dorm, put up her hand. ‘Do we get to choose our own partners, Madame?’

  To Emily’s disappointment, Madame Letsworth shook her head. ‘We have drawn your names out of a hat and put you in pairs. I will tell you who you will be skating with after this lesson.’

  ‘What colour skates will the winners get this week?’ asked Tilda.

  ‘The winning pair will each be presented with their own special pair of violet skates. Now, time to get started,’ Madame Letsworth said. ‘Let’s not waste any more ice time.’

  And the lesson began.

&n
bsp; Emily had been practising lots. She could now do jumps and spins, although nothing like as complicated as the ones that the girls in the advanced group did, but it was wonderful to be able to whizz round on the spot and fly over the surface of the ice.

  She glided on one foot in a spiral, one leg in the air, her arms and head arched back.

  ‘Well done, Emily,’ Monsieur Carvallio praised her.

  Emily lowered her leg and skated on, glowing with happiness. She wondered who would be her partner in the competition and if they would be good enough to win. She loved the thought of having violet skates as well as her special white ones.

  As Monsieur Carvallio turned his attention to Tilda, Emily looked round at the others. Everyone on the rink was concentrating hard, working on their own or with a teacher.

  It’s funny how everyone’s skating is so different, Emily reflected as she watched them all. Tilda was really daring on the ice and ended up falling over all the time because she was forever trying jumps and spins, almost seeming to forget she was on the ice. Alice, who was in the intermediate group, was laid-back and never seemed to get upset about anything. She skated effortlessly and didn’t try too hard or worry too much. Hannah was the opposite. She took ice-skating very seriously indeed. She always looked so elegant and she practised extremely hard. Amanda always skated as if she expected the whole world to be watching her, throwing her arms wide and skating dramatically, and Molly…

  Emily grinned as she saw Molly skating really fast and throwing herself into a double salchow jump followed by a double toe loop, wobbling on the landing, but just about managing to stay on her feet. Molly did everything super-quickly on the ice, just like in real life. She was a ball of energy and was really exciting to watch.

  I wonder what I’m like as a skater, Emily wondered. She had been told that she was very expressive. She hoped she was. She loved dancing on ice, feeling the music carrying her and being able to lose herself in it. Ballet was wonderful, but ice-skating was even better because she could go so fast and when she jumped she really felt like she was flying. Emily sighed happily. There was nothing better than skating!

  ‘Come along, Emily,’ called Monsieur Carvallio. ‘Another spiral, please.’