On Thin Ice

by Nancy Krulik

  Kerry’s cheerful voice seemed to calm Emma down. “I’m Emma Stavros,” she answered her. “I’m a skater. I want to be just like you!”

  Emma S. and Kerry chatted for a while about skating moves—at least that’s what Katie figured camels, lutzes, and toe loops were. Then Emma moved away from the line, clutching her autographed skating bag.

  Miriam was the next to talk to Kerry. “I just learned to skate backward. Emma taught me,” she said.

  Kerry turned her head and smiled at Emma S. “That was very kind of Emma,” she said.

  Emma S. heard and looked as if she was about to fly up in the air and do a triple spin. She was that proud and excited.

  “I am so glad you are beginning to ice skate,” Kerry said as she signed a page in Miriam’s autograph book. “Good luck.”

  And then it was Katie’s turn! Katie could feel her heart thump-thump-thumping as she walked up to the table. She didn’t know what to say. It was hard to talk to someone as famous as Kerry Gaffigan.

  “H-H-Hi!” Katie stammered. “I’m Katie. And these are for you.” She thrust forward the bouquet of red, red roses.

  Katie had expected Kerry to give her a big smile and thank her for the most beautiful roses she had ever seen. But . . .

  “Roses! No!” Kerry shouted, pushing away the bouquet and jumping up from the table. “Get those away!”

  “But . . . I . . .” Katie stammered, not quite sure what to do or say.

  “Oh, no!” Kerry exclaimed. “I’ve got rose pollen on me. I can feel the itching starting.” She began scratching at her arms. “My right eye is getting puffy. I have to take my contact lenses out right away!” She started to cough loudly. “Sorry, I have to go.”

  All the girls in line stared in horror as Kerry ran off.

  “How could you bring her roses?” a tall girl with glasses demanded. “Everyone knows Kerry Gaffigan is allergic to roses.”

  Katie bit her lip. Not everyone.

  “Now we’ll never get to meet Kerry,” a small girl in a blue and white skating costume said. She burst into tears.

  “Thanks a lot,” a chubby girl in a green parka said sarcastically to Katie.

  Katie didn’t know what to do. She just knew she couldn’t stay here with everyone yelling at her. She turned and ran away.

  A few minutes later, Katie found herself all alone in a corner behind the ice rink. Katie was glad for that. She felt bad enough about making Kerry itchy and puffy without all the other kids blaming her for it. It was better to be here alone.

  Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. At first she thought it was coming from the ice.

  But ice wasn’t windy. It was just cold.

  And ice didn’t spin around like a tornado, the way this wind was starting to do.

  Uh-oh! Katie gulped. This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind!

  The magic wind grew stronger, circling wildly around Katie like a fierce tornado. It picked up speed, blowing harder and harder. Whoosh! Katie was sure it would blow her away. She shut her eyes tight and tried not to cry.

  And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie Carew.

  She’d turned into somebody else. One, two, switcheroo!

  But who?

  Chapter 9

  Katie struggled to open her eyes. That was weird. Usually her eyes would just fly open after the magic wind disappeared. But today they seemed kind of stuck and itchy.

  In fact, Katie was itchy everywhere. Her arms itched. Her face itched. Her teeth itched—and that wasn’t even possible!

  Katie looked down. Everything seemed really blurry. She could just about make out the shoes on her feet. They were not the brown and white boots she had been wearing. These shoes were white on the top and shiny on the bottom.

  Wait a minute. Those weren’t shoes. Those were skates!

  Yikes! Katie gulped nervously. If she was wearing skates, that could only mean one thing!

  The magic wind had turned her into one of the skaters in the show!

  “Kerry! Are you okay?” a tall man said, running over and helping Katie to her feet.

  Kerry?

  Double yikes! Katie wasn’t just one of the skaters. The magic wind had turned her into Kerry Gaffigan!

  “Um, yeah, I’m okay,” Katie said, standing up. She scratched at her arm and her cheek. She wanted to scratch other places, but she figured that wouldn’t be polite.

  “Okay, good,” the man told her. “It’s one minute till showtime.”

  Showtime?

  “But I stink at skating!” Katie shouted.

  “What do you mean you stink?” the man insisted.

  Oops. That was something a ten-year-old girl would say, not an Olympic skater. “I mean, um, well, I don’t have my contact lenses in, so I can’t see. And I’m all itchy. So I won’t be able to skate . . . today.”

  “What am I supposed to tell all the people out there?” the man asked angrily. “They’re waiting to see you skate.”

  Katie could hear the audience rustling around in their seats. They sounded very excited. How could Katie disappoint all of Kerry’s fans? She would have to go out on the ice and put on a show.

  Even though she couldn’t stop scratching.

  Even though she couldn’t see anything.

  Even though she couldn’t ice skate!

  Katie gulped. This was soooo not good!

  Chapter 10

  Katie was so nervous, it felt like her stomach was doing spins and axels. As the music started, she squinted and tried to see what was happening on the ice. From what she could make out, a skater dressed as the evil queen was twirling around a huge cardboard and foil mirror.

  “Kerry, go. You’re supposed to be out there,” a skater in a dwarf costume whispered to Katie.

  This was it. Katie was going to have to go out there and skate.

  Somehow.

  Slowly, she skated out onto the ice. One foot in front of the other. Right. Left. Right. Left. Her ankles wobbled. She held her breath and tried not to fall.

  The kids in the audience cheered at the very sight of Kerry Gaffigan. Katie reached up one arm and tried to wave.

  Whoops. She almost lost her balance. Okay. No more waving. Just skating, Katie thought. Right. Left. Right. Left.

  “What are you doing?” the evil queen said under her breath. “Where’s the waltz jump you were supposed to do?”

  Katie didn’t answer. What could she say?

  Just then, the seven dwarfs skated out onto the ice. They weaved in and out between the huge cardboard trees that had been set up on the ice to make it look like a forest.

  One of the dwarfs raced over to Katie, and before she knew it, he lifted her off the ground. He began to spin.

  “Whoa!” Katie shouted as the dwarf twirled faster and faster. “I’m getting dizzy.”

  But the dwarf kept on spinning. And even after he finally set her down, Katie still felt like everything was whirling around and around. Her stomach was woozy. All she could do was stand and blink. She was afraid that if she moved, she would throw up!

  Still, she had to skate. The audience had come expecting to watch Kerry Gaffigan on ice.

  But the only ice-skating trick Katie knew was skating backward. Sort of, anyway.

  Katie made an upside-down V with her feet. Then she made a right-side-up V. Then an upside-down V.

  Hey! What do you know? Katie was gliding backward! She smiled and glanced up at the audience.

  The faces in the crowd looked like they were waiting for a big trick. But Katie knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  This is it, guys, she felt like saying as she continued skating backward.

  “Hey, Kerry!” one of the dwarfs suddenly shouted in Katie’s direction. “I mean, Snow White. Watch out!”

  Rip! Katie heard a tearing sound. It took her a moment to realize what had happened.

  Oh, no! She had skated right through the silver foil mirror.
>
  The audience grew quiet. It seemed as if everybody was holding their breath.

  Katie turned around quickly to see what had happened to the mirror.

  Wham!

  Katie bashed right into one of the dwarfs and knocked him to the ground.

  The audience gasped.

  “I’m so sorry,” Katie apologized to the dwarf. She reached out her hand to help him up. The skater in the dwarf costume took her hand, but Katie slipped.

  “Whoa!” Katie shouted out as she landed hard on her rear end.

  The audience began to boo. This was not the kind of show they had come to see.

  Katie tried to pull herself up onto her feet. But instead she started to slide. As she slid across the ice on her bottom, she knocked down one cardboard tree. Which knocked over the next cardboard tree. Which knocked over the next. And the next . . .

  “Somebody help!” Katie screamed.

  A few of the dwarfs raced to her rescue. Quickly, they bent down and scooted Katie off the ice.

  It was scary being carried up in the air. The dwarfs were skating so fast. Katie was sure she was going to fall again.

  “AAAHHHH!” she screamed as she kicked her arms and legs in the air. “AAAHHHH!”

  Chapter 11

  “What happened out there?” the skater who played the evil queen demanded as the dwarfs put Katie back on the ground back-stage.

  “Yeah, Kerry. Was that some kind of joke?” one of the dwarfs asked.

  “’Cause it wasn’t funny,” another dwarf added.

  “What were you thinking?” a third dwarf asked her.

  Katie could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She was going to start crying, she just knew it.

  “Um . . . I gotta go,” Katie said. And she hobbled off on her skates, searching for a quiet place to have a really good cry.

  A few moments later, Katie found herself all alone in the Cherrydale Arena locker room. She sat down on a bench and rested her head in her hands. She couldn’t believe what had just happened.

  The magic wind had done some really rotten things before, but turning Katie into a professional skater with itchy skin and puffy eyes was just about the rottenest.

  Then, all of a sudden, Katie felt a cold breeze blowing on her back. She turned to see if a window was open. But this was no ordinary wind. The magic wind had returned.

  And Katie was very glad. She was tired of being Kerry Gaffigan.

  The magic wind began whirling wildly around Katie. The tornado blew faster and faster, harder and harder.

  Then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.

  Katie Kazoo was back!

  So was Kerry Gaffigan. And boy, did she look confused.

  Kerry blinked her eyes a few times and looked around. “How did I get in here?” she murmured.

  “You . . . um . . . you wanted some time alone to think,” Katie stammered vaguely.

  Kerry squinted a little to get a good look at Katie’s face. “It’s you!” she exclaimed. “The girl with the roses.”

  Katie felt really bad about that. “I’m so sorry, Kerry,” she said. “I didn’t know you were allergic to roses. I just wanted to bring you the prettiest flowers I could find.”

  “It’s okay.” Kerry glanced down at her wet Snow White dress. “What happened to me?” Kerry asked.

  “You had a couple of spills out on the ice,” Katie said, not knowing how else to explain it.

  “Then it really happened,” Kerry said slowly. “The ripped magic mirror, the falling cardboard trees, the dwarfs carrying me off . . .”

  Katie nodded sadly.

  Kerry moaned and held her head in her hands.

  “You’ll skate better in the second half of the show,” Katie assured her. “You’re back to your old self now.” Katie sighed. Kerry didn’t know how true that really was.

  Kerry shot Katie a look. “Skate? Are you kidding? I’m not going out there again.”

  “But you have to. Everyone’s waiting for you,” Katie insisted.

  “Everyone’s laughing at me,” Kerry corrected her. “I’m a big joke. My career is ruined. I’ll never skate again.”

  Katie’s eyes opened wide. She couldn’t believe her ears. Kerry Gaffigan giving up skating? She couldn’t let that happen.

  “Kerry, you can’t do that to your fans!” she said.

  “What fans? I just lost all of my fans,” Kerry told her.

  “No you didn’t,” Katie insisted. “Your fans still love you. They understand that you just had a bad day. They fall, too.”

  “Well of course they fall,” Kerry said. “They’re just beginners. It’s okay to fall when you’re just starting out.”

  “But if you quit after falling a few times, then they might, too,” Katie said. “Remember my friend Emma who said she wants to be just like you?”

  Kerry thought about that.

  “A lot of girls want to be just like you,” Katie continued.

  Kerry didn’t say anything. She just bent down and started to take off her skates.

  This was bad. Katie could tell. “You’re really not going to skate anymore?” she asked nervously.

  Kerry shook her head. Then she grinned. “Not in these skates I’m not. I have different skates for my Alice in Wonderland costume. That’s what I wear in the second act of the show.”

  Katie breathed a big sigh of relief. “Oh, I’m so glad!” she exclaimed.

  “You’re pretty smart for a kid, you know that?” Kerry said with a grin.

  Katie smiled. “I’m smart enough to know I’d better get back to my seat,” she told Kerry. “Because I can’t wait to see you skate in person!”

  Chapter 12

  “Wasn’t Kerry amazing as Alice in Wonderland?” Emma S. asked Katie, Emma W., and Miriam as the girls stood together on the playground the next morning.

  Miriam nodded. “I loved the way she twirled when she was supposed to be falling down the rabbit hole.”

  “Spinning is really hard on the ice. It can make you kinda sick to your stomach,” Katie added.

  Emma S. looked at her curiously. “How would you know?” she asked her.

  Oops. Emma S. didn’t know it was actually Katie who had been spinning with that dwarf yesterday. “It looks like it would make you kind of queasy,” Katie corrected herself. Phew. That was close.

  Just then, George walked over to the girls. “Hey, Katie Kazoo,” he said, holding out a deck of cards. “Pick a card. And don’t show it to me.”

  Katie pulled a card from the deck and peeked at it. It was the ace of hearts. “I thought you’d given up on magic,” she said.

  “Well, did you read that article about Kerry Gaffigan in the newspaper this morning?” George replied. “She told the reporter that even though she had messed up part of her show, she was never going to give up on skating.”

  Katie grinned. She knew why Kerry had said that. But Katie didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter, anyway. All that mattered was that Kerry Gaffigan was still skating, and the Great Georgini was still doing his magic tricks.

  Emma S. nodded. “Kerry said you had to learn from your mistakes to make yourself better.”

  “Right,” George agreed. “And I’ve learned from my mistake. I’m never going to do a magic show with Suzanne again! From now on, the Great Georgini is a solo act.”

  “Good idea,” Miriam said with a giggle.

  George closed his eyes and looked like he was concentrating really hard. “Yes. In my mind, I can see the card you picked, Katie.” The Great Georgini paused. “You picked the two of hearts.”

  Katie shook her head. “Nope. Try again.”

  George fingered the cards for a minute. “Oh, wait. It was the ace of hearts!”

  “You got it!” Katie exclaimed happily.

  “Me next,” Emma S. said to George.

  As Katie watched George perform his card trick again, she smiled contentedly. It was so nice to have things back to normal again.

  Well . . . as
normal as things can be when you are always waiting for the next magic wind to arrive.

  Going Downhill

  Chapter 1

  “Cowabunga!” George Brennan shouted as he crouched slightly on his snowboard and took off down the big hill.

  “Whoa! Check him out!” Kevin Camilleri, George’s best friend, exclaimed.

  “He’s as good as a professional,” Katie Carew said. She watched as George slid downhill faster and faster. She was sure he would fall. But he didn’t. Not once.

  “Come on, Katie Kazoo,” Jeremy Fox, one of Katie’s best friends, said. He placed his neon green snow saucer on the snow. “Let’s make a chain.”

  “Cool,” Katie agreed, lining her snow saucer up behind Jeremy’s and sitting down.

  “Count me in!” Kevin told them. He lined his sled up behind Katie’s saucer.

  “Me too!” Emma Weber shouted, placing her sled behind Kevin’s.

  “Okay, everybody ready?” Jeremy shouted behind him.

  “Oh yeah!” Katie exclaimed. “Let’s go!”

  A moment later, the train of sleds and saucers went zooming down the big hill on Surrey Lane. Katie loved sledding. It felt like she was flying without ever leaving the ground! Especially when she went down Surrey Lane—the steepest hill in town!

  “Oh, that was a good one!” Jeremy exclaimed as they reached the bottom of the hill. “We went so fast.”

  “And I got it all on video,” Suzanne Lock said, running over with a small video camera in her hand.

  Katie grinned as Suzanne came closer. She was Katie’s other best friend. Katie was glad Suzanne wanted to go sledding, too. Except Suzanne didn’t have a sled with her. All she had was her video camera.

  “Where’d you get that?” Jeremy asked Suzanne.

  “It was a gift from my uncle,” Suzanne told him. “I just got it yesterday. I’m trying it out today.”

  “Cool!” Kevin exclaimed. “Did you get some shots of George going down the hill? He’s amazing on that snowboard.”