Skating School: Violet Skate Friends Read online

‘It’s only for five more days,’ Hannah told her. ‘Then you won’t have to be with Amanda any more.’

  ‘I guess,’ Emily sighed.

  Molly darted forwards. ‘Look, let’s not talk about it now. Let’s play tag.’ She touched Emily’s shoulder. ‘You’re on, Em!’ She and Hannah quickly skated away.

  Pushing all thoughts of the competition and Amanda out of her head, Emily laughed and skated after her friends.

  Chapter Five

  Falling Out

  The next few days flew by. Most people were taking the competition very seriously. Whenever there was any spare time, the ice rink was busy with people practising and everyone’s tempers started to fray as the competition drew closer.

  ‘Emily, you’re not looking like a prince!’ Amanda said on Friday morning as they practised before breakfast. ‘We’re never going to win if you don’t skate better than that.’

  ‘But all I’m doing is skating in a circle and it’s boring,’ Emily protested. ‘Maybe I should do some more jumps. It would make me feel more prince-like.’

  ‘No,’ said Amanda. ‘You’d only mess up and fall over. And please make sure you look as if you’re in love with me!’

  Emily gave her an exasperated look, but Amanda was already skating off to practise the part of the routine where she changed from a swan into a girl. Emily sighed and glanced round. Hannah was skating on her own. ‘Where’s Alice?’ called Emily.

  ‘Gone to the kennels again.’ Hannah frowned. ‘She only practised for ten minutes. It’s so irritating! I’m going in. There’s no point practising on my own.’ thought. It’s just her luck to be with a partner who doesn’t want to practise. She heard raised voices and looked round. Molly and Tilda were arguing again.

  ‘We’ve got to stick to what we’ve agreed, Tilda!’ Molly was saying angrily.

  ‘Oh, stop being so bossy!’ said Tilda. ‘Just because you’ve been skating longer than me doesn’t mean you should make all the decisions.’

  ‘I’m not trying to make all the decisions!’ Molly exclaimed. ‘I just want us to agree on what we’re doing, otherwise we’re going to look rubbish. You’re being really annoying, Tilda!’

  ‘Look who’s talking!’ Tilda snapped back and she skated away.

  ‘Well!’ Molly stared after her, hands on hips, her face like thunder.

  Just then, Amanda called across the ice. ‘Emily! Come on!’

  Emily skated to join in, but she was so busy thinking about Molly that she found it hard to concentrate. As she prepared herself for her jump, one of her skate blades caught an edge on the ice, her arms windmilled and she banged down heavily. She gasped as the impact made the breath leave her body.

  Molly came skating over. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked anxiously, offering Emily a hand up.

  Emily nodded. It had been a hard fall, but, although she felt shaken up, she was OK.

  Amanda arrived. ‘That was so dumb, Emily! I can’t believe that you’ve only got one jump to do and you messed it up. I hope you’re not going to do something like that in the competition. We’ll look like total idiots if you do and –’

  ‘Amanda!’ Molly interrupted angrily. ‘Don’t you think you should be asking Emily if she’s OK and not having a go at her? She’s just fallen over! Why do you always have to be so mean?’

  ‘Molly, leave it,’ sighed Emily. She could see Molly’s temper was still up following her row with Tilda.

  ‘I’m not mean,’ Amanda protested.

  ‘You so are!’ Molly retorted. ‘All you do is boss Emily about. If she wasn’t so nice, she’d tell you to get lost.’

  Madame Li came skating over. ‘Is everything all right, girls?’

  ‘Yes, fine, Madame,’ Amanda said quickly. She smiled sweetly at the teacher. ‘Emily fell and Molly and I just came over to see if she was OK.’

  Molly and Emily exchanged glances.

  ‘Are you all right, Emily?’ Madame Li asked.

  Emily nodded. ‘Yes, thank you, Madame.’

  ‘Good. It’s just about time for everyone to come in anyway.’ Madame Li raised a whistle to her lips and blew a long blast, a signal that it was time for the girls to clear the ice.

  Amanda glanced at Emily. For a moment Emily thought she was about to say something, but then she turned and skated off the rink.

  ‘I don’t know how you put up with her!’ said Molly. ‘I’m going to get her back for being so nasty to you.’

  ‘How?’ Emily exclaimed.

  Molly looked thoughtful. ‘I don’t know, but I bet I’ll think of a way.’

  For the rest of the lessons that morning, Molly and Tilda ignored each other. Hannah was hardly talking to Alice, but Alice didn’t seem to notice. She was very worried because one of the husky puppies had gone missing. He had wandered off when the puppies had been out having a run around in the gardens. Alice said that the ice sylphs who looked after the dogs had been out searching for him, but as yet no one had found him.

  ‘Poor Prince will be freezing cold,’ Emily heard Alice whispering anxiously to Tilda in ballet class before lunch. They all took ballet to help with their skating. ‘He’ll be really scared. Oh, I wish I could go and help look for him instead of doing lessons.’

  ‘We’ll go at lunchtime and look then,’ Tilda said.

  Hannah turned. ‘You can’t go and look for him, Alice. You promised me we’d practise.’

  ‘But this is more important, Hannah!’ protested Alice.

  Hannah frowned. ‘Don’t you care that we’ve got a competition in two days?’

  ‘It’s just a competition?’ said Alice.

  Hannah looked as if she couldn’t believe her ears. ‘Just a competition?’ she echoed.

  Alice nodded. ‘Yes, and even if Molly’s right and the person who does best in all the competitions is going to be the Ice Princess, well, so what? I’d like to be chosen, but if I’m not, I’m not. It’s far more important that we find the puppy.’

  ‘But we have to do our best, Alice!’ Hannah’s voice rose. ‘We have to try and win!’

  Emily saw Madame Breshnev, the ballet teacher, looking over and hastily shushed them all before they got into trouble.

  As they reluctantly fell silent, Emily could tell from Hannah’s face that she was cross with Alice. Alice didn’t look too happy with Hannah either. Emily bit her lip. It was awful having everyone arguing. She just wanted all her friends to get on.

  ‘I’ve got it!’ Molly breathed as she, Emily and Hannah walked to lunch together.

  ‘Got what?’ said Emily.

  ‘A trick to play on Amanda to get her back for being so horrible to you,’ Molly said.

  ‘Molly, you can’t play a trick on Amanda,’ Hannah said, looking worried. ‘What if you get into trouble with the teachers?’

  ‘I won’t,’ said Molly. ‘I’ll need your help though.’

  ‘What is the trick?’ asked Emily uncertainly. She liked tricks, but only if they weren’t mean.

  ‘Not telling.’ Molly’s eyes twinkled mischievously. ‘You’ll just have to wait and see!’

  Chapter Six

  Tricked!

  Molly wouldn’t say a word more about her planned trick, but after lunch she started organizing them. ‘I need Hannah to come with me. And, Emily, in about quarter of an hour, you have to find Amanda and bring her to the gym changing room.’

  ‘But how?’ demanded Emily.

  Molly waved a hand. ‘You’ll think of a way. Hannah, you come with me.’

  ‘But…’ Hannah protested weakly.

  ‘Come on!’ Molly, her eyes shining excitedly, grabbed Hannah’s arm and dragged her away.

  After ten minutes, Emily went over to Amanda.

  ‘I’ve won loads of skating competitions back at home,’ Amanda was saying loudly to Olivia and Tasha, who were in the Ice Owls dorm with her. None of them noticed Emily. ‘You should see my trophies. My mum keeps them in a big cabinet on the wall.’ She sighed. ‘I’d do so much better in this competition
with someone who wasn’t a beginner like Emily. I mean, she falls over on the simplest jump.’

  Emily swallowed and tried not to feel too hurt. She spoke loudly, pretending she hadn’t heard the comment. ‘Oh, hi, Amanda.’

  Amanda jumped guiltily and looked round.

  ‘I was just wondering if you’d come to the gym changing room with me. I thought we could run through a few of the steps I’m unsure of before gym – and I was also wondering if you could help me with my arabesques off the ice. I’m having real trouble with them.’

  For a moment Emily thought she would say no, but then Amanda nodded. ‘I suppose I’d better help you.’

  They set off for the gym.

  ‘So, what’s the trouble you’re having with arabesques?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Oh, just how high to get my leg,’ said Emily, inventing wildly. ‘You’re so good at that. I thought you might be able to help.’ Amanda looked pleased.

  As they came through the changing-room door, Emily stopped dead. Molly and Hannah were lying on their backs on the changing-room benches with their eyes closed. They were circling felt-tip pens – with the lids on – around their eyes, pressing the tops against their skin.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Amanda exclaimed.

  Emily was wondering the same thing!

  ‘It’s a special type of relaxing thing called pen-therapy,’ said Molly, opening her eyes. ‘Madame Li told me about it at lunch today. You use the end of a pen to press round your eyes and, as it goes over these areas called pressure points, you start to feel really relaxed. Madame Li told me everyone knows about it in this land and they do it before skating because it helps them focus and concentrate. Hannah and I thought we’d have a go.’

  Amanda looked a bit disbelieving.

  ‘You should try it,’ Molly said. ‘You’ll try too, won’t you, Emily?’

  From the look in Molly’s eyes it was clear she was meant to say yes. Emily nodded. ‘Um… sure,’ she said, wondering what on earth Molly was doing.

  ‘How about it, Amanda?’ said Molly. ‘Surely, if it makes your skating better, it’s worth a try, isn’t it? After all, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. You’ve got nothing to lose.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ said Amanda. ‘OK, I’ll try it.’

  Molly handed Emily a felt-tip pen. ‘Make sure you keep the lid on,’ she said with a grin. ‘After all, you wouldn’t want to get pen on your face.’

  Emily lay down on the bench and started to circle the pen round her eyes.

  ‘How does it feel?’ Molly asked her.

  ‘Um… OK,’ Emily said hesitantly. She still didn’t have a clue what Molly was up to.

  Amanda lay down too. Molly picked up a dark-blue felt-tip pen and passed it to her.

  Amanda started running the pen in circles around her eyes. ‘That’s it,’ Molly encouraged. ‘Press quite hard, Amanda.’

  Emily heard Hannah catch her breath and sat up.

  Everywhere Amanda moved the pen, a trail of felt tip appeared on her skin. The lid was on the pen, but, even so, it was still drawing blue smudgy lines on Amanda’s face. There were now two circles round her eyes where she had been circling the pen. It looked like she had drawn glasses on her face!

  Emily’s eyes shot to Molly. Her shoulders were shaking and she was clearly trying not to laugh. How had she done it? The lid was on the pen!

  Amanda frowned. ‘It’s not doing anything.’

  ‘Oh, it is,’ Molly grinned. She shrugged as Amanda looked at her. ‘Maybe it doesn’t work for you. Madame Li said it doesn’t work for everyone.’

  ‘It’s stupid,’ said Amanda. She stood up and put the pen down. ‘I’m going to warm up for gym. Are you coming, Emily?’

  ‘Yeah, in a minute.’

  Amanda quickly marched out of the changing room and into the studio.

  As soon as the door closed behind her, Emily, Molly and Hannah exploded with laughter.

  ‘Oh, Molly! She looks so funny!’ gasped Hannah.

  ‘How did you do it?’ Emily said.

  Molly drew in her breath. ‘Easy. I just coloured over the end of the pen with another blue felt tip. It had dried by the time she picked it up and put it on her face, but it still comes off on skin. My brother did the same trick on me once.’

  ‘She looked just like she’d been drawing on her face!’ said Hannah.

  ‘It’s going to be so funny when everyone sees her!’ said Molly.

  Emily bit her lip. ‘We have to tell her before then. Everyone will laugh and she won’t know why.’

  ‘Duh! That’s the idea!’ said Molly.

  ‘But that’s a bit mean,’ said Emily.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ said Molly. She saw Emily’s face. ‘She deserves it. She’s been really horrible to you.’

  ‘She does kind of deserve it,’ Hannah said.

  ‘No.’ Emily shook her head. It felt OK for the three of them to have played a joke on Amanda, but it wasn’t OK if it was going to make everyone laugh at her when she didn’t know what was going on.

  ‘I’m going to tell her,’ she said.

  ‘You can’t!’ exclaimed Molly. ‘That would ruin the joke.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ Emily said.

  ‘Emily’s right,’ said Hannah reluctantly. ‘We really should tell her.’

  Molly looked cross. ‘You two are so boring. Don’t tell her, Emily.’ Emily started walking towards the door. ‘Don’t!’

  Emily knew Molly would be mad with her, but she had to tell Amanda. She pushed the door open, wondering what Amanda would say.

  ‘What?’ Amanda snapped out as Emily explained. ‘Molly played a trick on me? I’ve got pen on my face?’

  ‘Yes. It was just a joke,’ Emily said quickly as Amanda hurried through the door and up to the mirrors in the gym changing room.

  ‘I can’t believe you told her!’ Molly said crossly to Emily.

  Amanda gasped as she saw her face. She swung round.

  ‘It was just a joke, Amanda,’ Hannah said, almost apologetically.

  Screwing up her face, Amanda looked like she was searching for words. An angry ‘Grrrrr’ was all she could manage in the end. She turned to the sink and started hurriedly washing the pen off with soap and water.

  ‘I hate you, Molly!’ Amanda cried. Turning, she hurried back into the gym and slammed the door behind her.

  Molly looked at Emily. ‘Why did you have to tell her?’

  ‘I just had to,’ said Emily. ‘How would you have liked it?’

  ‘But I’m not annoying like her!’ Molly snorted crossly and turned away.

  Chapter Seven

  The Crack in the Ice

  Amanda ignored the three of them all through gym and afterwards when they had a cross-country skiing lesson. It wasn’t a fun afternoon. Molly was now not speaking to Emily as well as not speaking to Tilda. Alice and Hannah were barely talking, and Alice was clearly still worried about Prince. She spent a lot of time staring distractedly into space.

  ‘Alice, come on!’ exclaimed Hannah crossly. They were having a relay race in two teams and she was captain of Alice’s team.

  Alice glared at her and stomped into position.

  Emily was so busy worrying about them that she didn’t hear Camilla, her team captain, calling her. Suddenly she felt a ski pole whack into her legs. She swung round. It was Camilla. ‘Into the line – now!’ Camilla snapped.

  As captain, Camilla seemed to love having the chance to boss Emily around. Emily bit back her angry reply and got into the line, her legs smarting. She was in the line behind Molly, who for a moment looked as though she was about to say something sympathetic and then seemed to remember she wasn’t talking to Emily so looked pointedly away.

  By the end of the lesson, Emily wanted nothing more than to get away from everyone. She slipped off and got her skates, warm coat, gloves and hat. Then she headed back outside. As she took in a deep breath of the fresh, crisp air and skated away from the school on the river, she felt a
huge weight drop from her shoulders. Everyone was getting so cross with each other at the moment, it was a relief to be on her own.

  I wish we could all just get on better, she thought unhappily. She skated along the river, her boots gliding across the ice, left and right, left and right. As she lost herself in the regular rhythm, she felt all the tension inside her melt away. She was skating again and that was all that mattered. And it really is all that matters, Emily realized. We shouldn’t be falling out like we are doing just because of a competition. We all love skating and that’s the main thing. It’s stupid to argue.

  She jumped into the air, landing perfectly on one leg. It was a brilliant feeling to be able to whizz over the ice like that and Emily knew that the only people who really understood the feeling were her friends at the Magic Ice-skating Academy. It was so stupid to fall out over a competition and silly things like tricks.

  She sighed. Could she make the others see it like that? It didn’t seem likely.

  Emily turned and headed back to the school. As she got closer, she saw a few other people heading off on their own along different rivers or skating on the lake behind the school. It seemed like she wasn’t the only one who had had the idea of clearing her thoughts by skating outside before supper. She saw Molly, Hannah and Tilda all skating separately and then, as she reached the school, she caught sight of Amanda too.

  Emily looked away. The one person she was sure wasn’t going to make up and be friends was Amanda, but, to her surprise, Amanda saw her and waved.

  ‘Emily, can I talk to you?’ she called. Emily looked at her warily.

  Amanda stopped in front of her. ‘I…’ she hesitated. ‘I wanted to say thank you for telling me about the trick.’

  Emily was so shocked she almost fell over. Amanda blushed. ‘Molly obviously didn’t want you to, but it would have been horrible if everyone had seen.’

  Emily nodded. ‘That’s what I thought.’

  Amanda looked at the ice. ‘It was really nice of you. Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit bossy. I didn’t realize I’d been mean. It’s just I really want to win.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m not surprised Molly played a trick on me. I have been a bit horrible to you, haven’t I?’