Skating School: Blue Skate Dreams 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 my wonderful Amany – the huskies are for you!

  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: 978-0-14-194334-3

  Contents

  In the Magic Land of Ice and Winter…

  1. Husky Driving

  2. Competition News

  3. A Winter Wonderland

  4. Classroom Chaos!

  5. Helping Out

  6. An Exciting Discovery

  7. Disaster!

  8. Rescued

  9. The Race

  In the Magic Land of Ice and Winter…

  Everything looked just as it always did. A blanket of 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 great jets of fire streamed out of its mouth. Around the vast creature all the frozen rivers had melted and the branches of the trees had started to sprout green leaves. Every so often an avalanche of softened snow would hurtle down the mountainside, picking up stones and rocks and sweeping away everything in its path with a loud roar.

  The headteacher of the Magic Iceskating Academy, Madame Letsworth, frowned thoughtfully as she watched the fourteen human girls skating on the ice rink. In two weeks, one of them would be chosen to be the Ice Princess, a girl who would have the power to save this magic land.

  Madame Letsworth’s eyes flicked from one pupil to another. None of them knew yet what the Ice Princess would have to do or how she would be chosen. What would they say when they found out?

  Chapter One

  Husky Driving

  Emily and her two best friends, Hannah and Molly, stood in the snow with the other girls from the Academy. ‘Look how fast they’re going!’ gasped Emily as four tall ice sylphs each expertly drove a team of barking huskies in and out of a line of pine trees. All the ice sylphs who lived in the Land of Ice and Winter had large pointed ears, but otherwise they looked just like humans.

  ‘I want to have a go!’ said Molly eagerly.

  ‘It looks quite tricky,’ commented Hannah, nervously twisting her long blonde ponytail.

  ‘It looks amazing!’ Emily breathed, watching as rainbow-coloured sparks flew up from under the dogs’ claws. She loved all the silver-coated huskies that lived in the kennels in the school grounds – in fact, she loved everything about being at boarding school in the Land of Ice and Winter. All the girls got to spend hours every day iceskating, and if they weren’t skating, they were doing something fun like gymnastics or cross-country skiing or one of Emily’s favourite lessons – learning about the amazing land and the magical creatures that lived in it.

  That day, the girls were having a new type of lesson because their headteacher, Madame Letsworth, had announced that they were going to learn how to drive husky sledges. There were no roads in the Land of Ice and Winter and the ice sylphs got around the land by skiing, skating or sledging.

  Emily could still hardly believe that she was living in this land. She and the other girls had all been magically whisked away from the human world. They had been told they could choose to stay at the school for six weeks and, through magic, no one at home would realize they were gone. At the end of their time there, one of the girls would be chosen to be the Ice Princess. She would perform a task that would help the ice sylphs in some way and, if she was successful, she would be granted a wish. Emily longed to be the Ice Princess!

  In two weeks we’ll find out which of us it’s going to be, she thought excitedly.

  ‘Here they come!’ cried Molly as the dogs raced towards them.

  ‘Whoa there!’ the husky handlers shouted. The huskies slowed down and came to a stop by the watching girls. The dogs looked round, their tongues hanging out as if they were laughing.

  ‘So, who wants a go?’ called Trakin, the head dog handler. He was a rugged ice sylph with blond hair and a beard. Most of the girls put their hands up.

  ‘Let’s have Emily, Alice, Tilda and Zoe first,’ Trakin called.

  ‘Ohhh,’ complained Molly.

  Trakin smiled. ‘Don’t worry. You’ll all get a turn in the end.’ He pointed each of the girls towards one of the sylphs. Emily was to be with Trakin himself. She tucked her brown shoulder-length hair into her blue woolly hat and walked over to his sledge, her stomach turning double flips in excitement.

  She patted the lead dog, a massive husky with a white chest called Ash, and listened carefully as Trakin explained about controlling the dogs and showed her where to stand. Each sledge had runners that were really only big enough for one person to stand on.

  Trakin strode behind Emily as she stood with, one foot on each of the runners. He showed her how to hold the reins, one in each hand. ‘You bring the reins down on their backs when you want them to go forward, and say “Mush!” ’ he explained. ‘Then, when you want them to slow down, you say “Whoa”. To turn, you bring both reins over to the side. We’ll start off slowly. Have you got the reins?’ Emily nodded. ‘Then off we go!’

&nb
sp; Emily gently brought the reins down on the dogs’ backs. They bounced forward, jerking the sledge underneath her. If her balance hadn’t been so good, Emily would have toppled off, but she quickly regained her footing. Trakin was a good instructor and soon she was stopping, starting and turning with ease. The huskies went faster. It was a fantastic feeling to be pulled through the snow with the wind whipping against her cheeks. She drove the sledge in between the trees and raced back to the waiting girls.

  ‘That was a very good first attempt,’ Trakin said when it was time to swap over.

  ‘I loved it!’ Emily went to pat all of the huskies. ‘Thank you!’ she told them, her cheeks glowing. ‘You were brilliant!’ They crowded round her, licking at her hands and pushing their heads against her legs and arms.

  Emily rejoined Molly as Hannah was called to have a turn.

  ‘What was it like?’ asked Molly.

  ‘Cool! I want to do it all over again!’ Emily declared.

  Heather, who was in a different dorm from them, was standing nearby. ‘It looks really scary,’ she said nervously. She was one of the shyest girls at the Academy. Heather had dark shoulder-length hair and she was in Emily’s skating group. ‘I’m really worried I won’t be able to stop the dogs,’ she went on anxiously. ‘What if they run off or crash into a tree?’

  ‘You’ll be OK,’ Emily reassured her. ‘You’ll have Trakin or one of the other sylphs with you.’

  ‘And the dogs won’t crash into a tree. Didn’t you know they have extrasensory magical whiskers to stop them from doing that?’ Molly said.

  Emily frowned. She’d never heard of the huskies having magical whiskers. ‘What are you talking about, Molly?’

  Molly shot her a look, her dark-brown eyes twinkling. ‘They have,’ she said earnestly.

  ‘No!’ said Heather. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ declared Molly. ‘I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it. Every time they get too near a tree, their whiskers buzz and they know not to go any closer.’

  ‘Wow!’ said Heather, wide-eyed. ‘That’s amazing!’

  A giggle rose inside Emily. She knew now that Molly was just teasing. Molly loved playing tricks on people!

  ‘It’s true. After all, they’re not crashing into any trees now, are they?’ Molly said. ‘You should tell Trakin how cool you think it is, Heather.’

  ‘I will,’ Heather agreed.

  Emily burst out laughing. ‘You mustn’t tell Trakin, Heather! Molly’s just winding you up.’

  Molly giggled. Heather’s mouth dropped open and then she started to grin. She was easy to trick, but she was also very good at seeing the funny side. ‘I can’t believe I fell for that! Oh, Molly!’ She threw a snowball at Molly.

  Molly ducked. ‘Just check out those whiskers!’ she grinned as Heather was called to have her turn. ‘Go on, see if you can feel them buzzing!’

  Trakin shot Molly a very puzzled look, which made Emily giggle even more.

  They all had several turns at husky driving. Some of them, like Emily, took to it very easily. Others, like Molly, let the huskies go too fast and almost tipped their sledge over. Hannah was cautious, but managed the dogs well. Heather was very nervous and not very strong. A couple of times, Trakin had to help her stop the dogs from charging off the way they wanted to go.

  ‘That was brilliant!’ Emily said happily after they had finished the lesson by learning how to harness and unharness the patient huskies.

  ‘It was really fun,’ agreed Molly as they began to walk back towards the school. She gave a little skip. ‘And now there’s something even better. We get to find out about this week’s competition, remember?’

  Every week at the school, the girls took part in a competition for a pair of different coloured skates. In the first week, the competition had been to skate a routine showing that you were dancing with your heart. Emily had won that competition even though she was the least experienced skater in the school. She had been presented with a pair of snow-white skates.

  The second week’s task had been to skate in pairs and tell a story, which Zoe and Heather had won. The third week had been a two-day scavenger hunt out in the land in teams. Emily, Hannah and Molly had been the winners that time. The fourth week, the girls had had to choreograph their own routine with set moves, and Hannah had won that competition.

  And this week, the fifth week… Well, they were about to find out. Before they had come out husky driving, Madame Letsworth had told them that she would announce the competition after their lesson.

  Emily hurried towards the school with the others. She couldn’t wait to find out what Madame Letsworth was going to say!

  Chapter Two

  Competition News

  Ten minutes later, the girls sat in the common room staring at Madame Letsworth.

  ‘We have to drive the huskies in a race?’ Molly burst out. ‘And ski and skate as well? Brilliant!’

  ‘So we’re not skating in the rink?’ said Amanda, a pretty girl with long dark hair.

  Madame Letsworth shook her head. ‘No. This week the competition will be a relay race. You will be in teams of three. The first person must drive the huskies through the forest at the front of the school and then pass the baton on to the second team member. That person will ski across the field to where the third girl is waiting on the river with her skates on, and she will race back to the school. The first team home wins.’

  Cool! thought Emily. It sounded like one of the most exciting competitions they’d been set so far!

  ‘Each member of the winning team will be given a pair of sky-blue skates,’ continued Madame Letsworth. ‘You can choose your own teams and it will be up to you to decide who will do what. Because there are only fourteen of you, one team will only have two people and so one girl will have to do the skating and the husky driving.’

  Amanda groaned. ‘Do we have to do this?’ She hated outdoor activities.

  ‘Yes, Amanda,’ Madame Letsworth said firmly.

  ‘But why can’t it just be an iceskating competition?’ complained Amanda.

  ‘And why does she always have to whinge so much?’ Molly muttered to Emily.

  Emily grinned as Madame Letsworth replied to Amanda’s question. ‘Because the competitions are carefully picked to help us choose who will be our Ice Princess, Amanda. There are fewer than two weeks to go until we make that decision and we need you all to compete. Now, why don’t you get into teams?’

  Emily, Hannah and Molly quickly grabbed hands. Heather joined up with Olivia from her dorm as the others formed their own groups. Soon Amanda was the only one left on her own. Emily saw her look round. The choice was between two pairs. There was Camilla and Tess from the Snow Foxes dorm or Heather and Olivia from the Ice Owls, Amanda’s own dorm.

  Camilla gave her a look as if to say Don’t even think about it, so Amanda went over to Olivia and Heather instead. Olivia didn’t look hugely pleased, but Heather smiled at Amanda in welcome.

  ‘This is going to be really fun!’ Molly said to Hannah and Emily. ‘Who’s going to do what?’ But before they had a chance to discuss it, Madame Letsworth had called for silence again.

  ‘Before I leave you, I would like to tell you a little more about the Ice Princess.’

  Silence fell immediately and all the girls looked at their headteacher expectantly. They hadn’t been told anything more about the Ice Princess since the day they had first arrived at skating school. They still didn’t even know what she would have to do or how exactly she would be chosen, although they’d all been doing a lot of guessing!

  Madame Letsworth looked round at them all. ‘I told you when you first arrived that the Ice Princess will help us with a problem. And now I am going to tell you a little more about this problem. You have all heard of the fire dragons – giant dragons that fly around the Land of Ice and Winter?’ Emily and the others nodded eagerly; they had studied them in class.

  ‘Well, a little while ago, one landed on a mountain,’ sa
id Madame Letsworth. ‘His fiery breath is melting all the snow around him. He is causing avalanches and the rivers are turning from ice to water. If the dragon does not move soon, the land will be in grave danger of flooding and the towns near the foot of the mountain will be at risk of being destroyed by avalanches. We have to make him move or many sylphs and animals could die.’

  ‘We were right then!’ Molly whispered. She, Hannah and Emily had suspected that the Ice Princess might have something to do with a fire dragon.

  ‘Fire dragons are stubborn creatures,’ Madame Letsworth continued. ‘Once they have settled in one place, it is very hard to get them to move. But there is something that a girl not from this land, a girl like one of you with certain special qualities, can do to help.’

  Emily stared. How could one of them ever move a dragon?

  ‘What is it?’ asked Molly curiously.

  Madame Letsworth shook her head. ‘I am not going to tell you more right now because if you know, it might make it harder for us to choose the right person, but I promise you will find out everything a week on Sunday.’

  ‘It… it sounds very dangerous,’ said Heather in a small voice.

  ‘You would think that!’ snorted Camilla, Emily’s least favourite girl at school.

  Madame Letsworth ignored her. ‘The Ice Princess will certainly need great courage to face the dragon,’ she told Heather. ‘But we will use our magic to make sure no danger comes to her. Now that is all I am going to say for the moment. You have an hour before supper.’

  Madame Letsworth left the room and the noise level rose instantly. Emily turned to her two friends. ‘So the Ice Princess does have to face a dragon!’

  ‘I wonder what exactly she will have to do,’ breathed Hannah. ‘I wish Madame Letsworth had told us!’

  ‘It’s so annoying! I want to know more about how they’re going to choose one of us,’ said Molly. ‘But doesn’t the competition sound brilliant?’

  Emily nodded. ‘We’ll have to work out who does what in our team. I hope we win.’

  ‘Well, I hope we do,’ said Amanda, who had overheard their conversation.

  Emily frowned. ‘You said you didn’t even want to be in the competition!’