Skating School: White Skate Wishes Read online

  They reached large double doors at the end of the corridor. Madame Letsworth opened them and all the girls gasped. A massive ice rink lay in front of them. There were seats all round it and it was covered by a glass dome. They could see the sky and clouds and pale sun through the glass. Little white dots were dancing over the surface of the ice. As Emily looked closely, she realized that they were alive. ‘What are they?’ she burst out.

  ‘Frost fairies,’ answered Madame Letsworth. ‘They fly above the ice all over this land. They smooth it so that it is perfect for skating.’

  One of the white dots danced off the ice and swooped up in front of them. Emily saw that it really was a little fairy, about two centimetres high, with pale-blonde hair, light-blue eyes and gauzy wings.

  ‘We only have machines to smooth the ice at home,’ said Molly, her eyes wide as she watched the little creature dart away. ‘I wish we had fairies!’

  Madame Letsworth chuckled. ‘Oh, I’m sure you’ll find quite a few differences between the human world and this world, but one thing’s the same, and that is the skating. I am sure you are all longing to get on to the ice!’

  Five minutes later, and after a flurry of lacing boots, the girls all headed to the rink entrance. Emily skated off as soon as she got on to the ice and then stopped as she suddenly realized that most of the other girls were doing warm-up exercises: stretching their legs, bending their knees, skating low to the ice in a sitting position.

  Madame Letsworth saw her face. ‘You haven’t had lessons before, have you, Emily?’

  Emily shook her head.

  ‘It’s always important to start by warming up. You’ll learn about that in class this afternoon. For now, just copy some of the others.’

  As Emily bent and stretched her legs, Camilla came over to her. ‘So, you don’t have skating lessons?’ she said curiously.

  Emily shook her head. ‘No, I go dancing every week, but I don’t have skating lessons. Do you?’

  ‘Oh, yes, I go ice-skating five times a week,’ Camilla said. ‘I compete loads too.’

  ‘Like Hannah,’ commented Molly, who was standing nearby. She pointed to a slim girl with a blue dress, blonde ponytail and large blue eyes. ‘I was talking to her earlier.’

  ‘I know her from back home. We’ve skated against each other in competitions,’ said Camilla. Her mouth hardened as she glanced at the blonde girl, who had now gone on to the ice and was skating smoothly backwards in decreasing circles. ‘I usually beat her though.’

  ‘That’s not what Hannah said,’ Molly muttered to Emily as Camilla stepped on to the ice and skated off, doing a showy set of forward and backward crossover steps. Molly grinned at Emily. ‘Well, catch you later!’

  She set off at top speed across the ice.

  Emily followed her more cautiously. She skated round the outside of the rink. It was so interesting watching the others that she was happy just skating round, practising gliding on one leg for as long as she could before changing to the other leg. She watched Hannah, the girl Molly had pointed out, doing graceful spirals, one leg lifted high in the air, Camilla turning into a fast layback spin and Molly trying to do a difficult jump called a double flip.

  Maybe I’ll learn to skate like that too, thought Emily excitedly.

  After forty minutes, Madame Letsworth called them all off the ice and they went to see the rest of the school – the classroom where they would go for some lessons, the common room where they could relax, the music room, the library and finally the dorms where they would be sleeping.

  There were two dorms on the first floor called Ice Owls and Snow Foxes, and one on the floor above called Frost Fairies. Madame Letsworth read out a list of names. ‘In the Ice Owls dorm there will be Amanda, Zoe, Heather, Tasha and Olivia; in the Snow Foxes, Camilla, Tess, Clare, Helena and Emily; and the remaining four of you are in Frost Fairies,’ the teacher said. ‘That’s Molly, Hannah, Tilda and Alice. There will be a spare bed in your dorm, Frost Fairies.’

  They all hurried to see where they would be sleeping. The dorms were large rooms with beds lined up against one wall, facing the door. Big windows behind them let in lots of light. The beds were covered with colourful patchwork quilts. At the end of each bed was a name tag, and opposite each of them was a wardrobe with an in-built dressing table and chest of drawers.

  Emily was in the bed nearest the door in her dorm. In her wardrobe there were two more ice-skating dresses, a thick fake-fur coat, two pairs of jeans, tracksuit bottoms, waterproof padded trousers and a number of different tops. In the drawers were underwear, tights, socks, a ballet leotard and ballet shoes, a gymnastics leotard, gloves, a scarf and leg warmers. Everything she could possibly need!

  Camilla threw herself down on her bed and looked around. ‘So, this is our dorm. It’s a bit dullsville, isn’t it? No TV or PS3. Not even a CD player!’

  Tess was in the bed next to Camilla. ‘Yeah. I’ve got all of them in my bedroom at home.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Camilla.

  Emily didn’t say anything. She had a CD player in her room at home, but that was all. She looked round at the others, all nodding in agreement with Camilla. She usually made friends easily, but she felt a bit shy around these girls. They all seemed so cool and confident.

  ‘Hey, look! There’s a timetable on the door!’ said Clare. They all crowded round.

  Emily read and re-read it. All the lessons sounded brilliant! It wasn’t just skating lessons – every day was packed with a mixture of skating, gymnastics, cross-country skiing, music and learning about the land. Emily was delighted to see that there were ballet lessons too. Everything sounded such good fun!

  Camilla didn’t seem to think so. ‘Some of the lessons sound so boring. I mean, the skating will be great, but who wants to learn about this land?’

  Emily kept quiet. She did!

  ‘Not me.’ Tess sat back on her bed. ‘So, what do you think of all the others here?’

  ‘Well, that Amanda is totally annoying, isn’t she?’ said Camilla. ‘And as for Hannah! Doesn’t that girl ever crack a smile? She’s like that back in the real world too. Miss I’m-so-serious-and-think-I’m-such-an-awesome-skater.’ She looked round with satisfaction. ‘We’ve definitely got the best dorm.’ She put up her hand in a high five. ‘Snow Foxes rule OK!’

  The others all slapped hands with her. Emily hesitated, but Camilla looked at her sharply and she hastily joined in.

  Lunch was served in the hall. There were jacket potatoes with different fillings and salads, and for pudding lots of different flavours of ice cream. Frost fairies fluttered around, clearing up any spills and carrying jugs of orange juice around in teams, twenty little fairies per jug. They poured the juice out, chattering in high-pitched voices that Emily couldn’t understand. She said thank you. Two of the fairies landed on her hands and looked at her curiously, their wings fluttering. Emily smiled at them and they grinned back before flying away.

  After they had finished their lunch, Madame Letsworth and the other two skating teachers came to meet them. Madame Letsworth explained that the girls would be taught in three groups – beginners, intermediate and advanced. She would be teaching the advanced group, which included Hannah, Camilla, Zoe, Amanda and Molly; Monsieur Carvallio, a tall, dark-skinned ice sylph, was going to be coaching the beginners’ group, which included Emily, Heather and Tilda. All the other girls were in the intermediate group with another of the teachers, Madame Li.

  ‘You are all at different ability levels right now,’ Madame Letsworth explained. ‘But there is one thing you all have in common and that is talent. Hopefully you will use your time here to develop that talent. You may use the rink any time you are free.’

  Emily hugged herself. She couldn’t wait!

  ‘But now let me tell you more about the weekly competitions,’ Madame Letsworth went on, looking serious. ‘This week, you will need to skate a two-minute programme to music. It won’t be judged so much on technical ability as on your ability to exp
ress feeling on the ice. The winner will be the girl whose programme most makes us believe she is dancing with her whole heart.’

  ‘And is the prize going to be ice skates?’ Camilla asked eagerly.

  ‘Yes. The winner of this week’s competition will be presented with a pair of white skates with silver laces and, as it is your first competition, she will also be able to ask for one thing as the prize,’ Madame Letsworth said. ‘If the school can provide it, it will be granted.’

  Hannah put up her hand. ‘What about music?’

  ‘You will find music boxes both in the music room and here, by the ice,’ Madame Letsworth said. ‘You must choose a piece of music from them to skate to, plan your routine and at the end of the week you will perform it for the judges and your fellow students. Now, you have half an hour and then it is time for your first ice-skating lesson. Please be on the ice by two o’clock.’

  She and the other teachers left the room. Immediately the noise level rose.

  ‘Cool!’ said Camilla. ‘I like competitions.’

  Emily felt rather daunted. ‘I’ve never done one before.’

  Clare turned to Camilla. ‘I bet you’ll win. I was watching you skating before. You’re the best here. I bet you’ll even be chosen to be the Ice Princess.’

  Camilla smiled. ‘Thanks. I know Madame Letsworth did say technical ability wouldn’t count so much in the competition this week, but then if you can’t ice-skate very well, you’re not going to be able to express yourself, are you?’

  Amanda heard and came over. ‘We’re both going to be in the advanced group so we’ll be able to help each other, Camilla. I know you’re not quite as good as me, but I’m sure you’ll soon catch up.’

  Camilla’s eyebrows rose up to her hair.

  ‘Well, I’m going to go and listen to some music,’ said Amanda. ‘See you in class later! Byeee!’ She waved at Camilla as if they were best friends and hurried away.

  Camilla looked outraged. ‘Does annoying Amanda really think that she’s better than me?’

  ‘You’re loads better than she is, Camilla!’ said Tess, shaking her head.

  Emily let their voices fade out and thought about the competition. She had watched loads of ice-skating on TV back at home, but she had never done a routine before. She felt really excited at the thought of planning it. I’m going to practise really hard and then maybe I’ll be able to do some jumps and spins properly by the end of the week, she thought. She imagined herself taking off and turning a perfect jump while everyone watched. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if she could do that?

  Chapter Five

  Making Friends

  When Emily started her first ice-skating lesson, she realized that although she was very good at dancing, she had done less ice-skating than anyone else in the school. Even the other two beginners, Tilda and Heather, were better than her. But it was lovely to be skating and she tried as hard as she could. Monsieur Carvallio taught her how to go forwards and backwards and do different turns. She had very good balance and soon picked things up. By the end of the lesson she was able to do little jumps above the ice in a move Monsieur Carvallio said was called a bunnyhop, and was trying out a simple turning jump called a three jump. ‘Well done,’ Monsieur Carvallio said, smiling at her. ‘You have really improved in just one lesson, Emily.’

  ‘Not like me!’ sighed Tilda. ‘I fell over about a hundred times!’

  ‘You need to learn to slow down and think, Tilda,’ Monsieur Carvallio told her. ‘But you have great gymnastic ability. You’ll be a really good skater one day. Now let us try that two-foot spin again.’

  Every so often, Emily would glance round the rink at the other groups. Amanda was clearly good at doing spins, but she did move her arms and hands in a really fussy way. She seemed keen to try and catch Madame Letsworth’s eyes with every movement. Emily thought Hannah and Camilla, who both seemed to do much less, looked much more elegant. Hannah’s skating was very crisp and precise, and, because she was tall and slim, she looked very graceful on the ice. Camilla looked incredibly confident and cool; she skated around as if she owned the rink. Molly had loads of energy on the ice and fell over a lot, but she never seemed to care. She just scrambled up and tried again!

  After their lesson, they were allowed to free-skate. Molly skated up to Emily at breakneck speed. ‘Hi there!’ she said, skidding to a halt and sending ice crystals spraying up around her. ‘Do you want to come and skate with Hannah and me? We’re going to play some games.’

  Emily nodded eagerly and followed her over to Hannah. At first, she felt a bit nervous because Hannah was such a good skater, but the blonde girl smiled at her in a friendly way. ‘Hi, Emily. I saw you starting to do three jumps. You were doing them really well.’

  ‘Thanks. I’ve never done any jumps before ever. Actually, I’ve never even had a lesson before,’ Emily admitted.

  ‘Then you were doing brilliantly!’ Hannah enthused. ‘You must be really talented. It took me loads of lessons to get on to doing jumps.’

  Emily glowed with pleasure.

  ‘Let’s play a game,’ said Molly, skating in circles. ‘How about follow-my-leader? Come on!’

  They set off. Emily and Hannah were fairly sensible when they were the leader, but Molly made them do all sorts of silly things – skating backwards looking through their legs, pretending to be an elephant, and then flapping their arms, quacking and waddling on the ice as if they were ducks.

  ‘You have to quack!’ she kept insisting when Emily and Hannah didn’t.

  ‘I can’t,’ said Hannah, looking a bit embarrassed.

  ‘You have to. Come on! Like this! Quack quack! Quack quack!’ Molly made a silly quacking sound and waggled her bottom.

  Hannah and Emily looked at each other and then giggled and copied her. Emily saw Amanda give them an astonished look from the side and almost fall over in shock.

  ‘I love ice-skating school!’ she said happily.

  ‘Me too!’ Molly declared.

  Hannah nodded. ‘Have you thought about your routine for the competition at the end of the week, Emily?’ she asked as they came off the ice.

  ‘No, not really,’ admitted Emily. ‘I don’t actually know where to start.’

  ‘We’re going to go to the music room at break time tomorrow to choose some music. Do you want to come with us?’ Molly asked.

  ‘Definitely!’ Emily replied.

  ‘Emily!’ Camilla’s sharp voice cut through the air. She was standing by the lockers with Tess, Clare and Helena. ‘We’re all going up to the dorm now. Come on!’

  Emily wanted to stay with Hannah and Molly, but she thought she’d better go with her dorm-mates, so she said goodbye and quickly changed out of her boots and followed the rest of the Snow Foxes upstairs. They were all talking about their lives back home, the bands they were into and the things they liked to do when they weren’t ice-skating, which seemed to be mainly shopping and listening to music. Emily couldn’t help wishing she was still with Molly and Hannah. They seemed much more fun!

  The rest of the day passed by in a whirl. The girls had a cross-country skiing lesson after their afternoon break and then after supper Emily explored the grounds with the other Snow Foxes. There were bubbling hot springs where the girls could go and swim, frozen rivers where they could skate, a sledging slope and woods where Emily was sure she glimpsed some white fluffy fox cubs, and kennels where lots of big silver-grey husky dogs were kept for pulling sledges. Emily thought it was all amazing.

  By the time she fell into bed that night she didn’t think she’d ever felt so tired. Her muscles ached from all the skating and her head was spinning. She almost didn’t want to go to sleep in case she woke up and found it had all been a dream. But it isn’t, she thought in delight as she snuggled down under her patchwork quilt. It’s real! She wondered what was happening at home and then remembered what Madame Letsworth had said. No time would be passing so everything would be exactly the same as when she had left. Her mum would
be in the house settling the twins. No one would be missing her at all.

  It was a weird thought, but also strangely comforting. Emily’s real life was waiting for her back at home, but, right now, she was here in the magic Land of Ice and Winter and she was determined to enjoy every moment!

  Chapter Six

  Molly and Hannah

  The next day started with a ballet class. Molly and Hannah greeted Emily in the changing room and made space beside them so she could get changed into her blue leotard. ‘Did you sleep OK?’ Molly asked.

  Emily nodded. ‘Really well. How about you?’

  ‘We talked for ages. Madame Letsworth came in three times and started to get really cross,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Tilda and Alice in our dorm are really good fun,’ said Molly. ‘Tilda’s brilliant at gymnastics – she can do six cartwheels in a row. We all tried, but none of us could do more than three. I crashed into the bin and it ended up on my foot!’

  Emily giggled and wished she was in the Frost Fairies dorm. It sounded fun!

  The ballet teacher, Madame Breshnev, called them into class. Because of the dance lessons she’d had back home, Emily could easily do the things that most of the others found hard – hold an arabesque without wobbling, stretch her leg out to one side, turn a pirouette. Madame Breshnev was clearly delighted with her and got her to demonstrate several times. But when Emily danced a sequence of steps at the end of the class and Madame Breshnev told her she was excellent, Camilla scowled. ‘Do you think you could show off any more?’ she whispered unkindly as Emily went back to join the others by the barre.

  Emily felt hurt, but luckily Hannah and Molly were nearby and so she stayed with them for the rest of the lesson.

  After ballet, they went to the music room to choose some music for their routine. Emily was surprised to see that there wasn’t a normal CD player there. Instead there was a large purple box with a lid on and silver buttons shaped like stars arranged in columns all over the front. At the top of each column there was a label: ‘sad’; ‘joyous’; ‘lively’; ‘wistful’; ‘animal-like’; ‘bird-like’.