Emily focused her attention on what she was supposed to be doing and glided off across the rink.
After the lesson, the girls changed out of their skating boots.
‘Time to find out who we’re going to be skating with in the competition,’ Molly said excitedly as Madame Letsworth waited for them to gather round.
Emily felt a flicker of nerves. Who would she be with? Hannah or Molly, she hoped. But Alice or Tilda would be great too.
Madame Letsworth waited until they were all changed and then looked down at her list. ‘Here are the skating pairs for the competition. Hannah, you will be dancing with Alice.’ Hannah and Alice exchanged delighted looks. ‘Zoe, you will be with Heather. Molly, you will be dancing with Tilda.’
‘Yes!’ both Molly and Tilda said.
So who am I going to be with? Emily thought.
‘Camilla with Olivia, Helena with Tess, Tasha with Clare…’
Emily tried to work out who hadn’t had their name read out yet. She looked round, pairing them off. Oh, no, surely not…
Madame Letsworth smiled at her. ‘And, Emily, you’ll be with Amanda.’
Chapter Three
Partners
Emily’s heart sank to her toes.
‘But Emily’s just a beginner!’ Amanda protested loudly. ‘She can’t skate anything like as well as I can.’
‘That is a matter of opinion, Amanda,’ said Madame Letsworth crisply. ‘And anyway, the competition will be judged on how well you work as a team. Like last week, the difficulty of the routine is not important. This is about skating with your heart again, but doing so with a partner.’
Amanda pursed her lips. Madame Letsworth clapped her hands to drown the buzz of noise that had broken out as everyone started talking to their new partners.
‘Tomorrow morning’s lessons will change slightly because of the competition. You will be free to spend the morning with your partner, working out your routine. Good luck and remember to work together!’
She walked away.
Hannah and Molly turned to Emily. ‘Oh, you poor, poor thing!’ Molly breathed sympathetically. ‘Amanda!’
Camilla, who was standing nearby, snorted with laughter. Emily felt awful. She’d have rather been with just about anyone else – well, apart from Camilla. That would have been even worse!
Tilda came over. ‘I’m so glad I’m with you,’ she said to Molly.
‘We’ll do an awesome routine,’ agreed Molly.
Hannah caught Emily’s eye. ‘I’m sure being with Amanda will be OK, Em,’ she said encouragingly.
Emily glanced over at Amanda, who was marching away from the rink looking cross. If only she felt so sure herself!
After their afternoon break, they had a lesson in the schoolroom with Madame Longley. Madame Longley taught them all about the Land of Ice and Winter. Over the last week she’d described some of the amazing creatures that inhabited the land – mountain lions that lived in caves, silver deer and snow foxes.
Emily usually loved Madame Longley’s lessons in the high-ceilinged classroom with big windows that looked out over the snowy land. Today, however, she found it hard to concentrate. She kept glancing at Amanda as Madame Longley showed them pictures of the ice monsters who lived under the ice and looked like giant polar bears. Oh, why did she and Amanda have to be partners?
Her attention was caught though when the teacher brought an ice dragon into the classroom for them all to see. The ice dragon was tiny, only about the size of Emily’s palm. His scales were a pale silvery-blue colour and he had leathery wings on his back. Emily had seen ice dragons before. They worked the music boxes that produced the music the girls danced to when they were on the ice. Emily loved them and often lifted the lids on the music boxes to say hello and tickle their heads.
‘Oh, wow! He’s so cute!’ Alice exclaimed. ‘Can we hold him?’
‘Of course. Ice dragons are very friendly.’ Madame Longley passed him around. ‘In the wild, they usually live in forests and have nests like birds. They are very sociable creatures and hate being on their own. They can also be quite mischievous at times!’ When it was Emily’s turn to hold him, the tiny dragon sat on her palm and looked up at her with big dark eyes as shiny as jewels. Then he snorted and a cloud of ice crystals shot out from his nostrils. Emily giggled.
Hannah looked at the teacher. ‘It’s weird. In our world, we don’t have dragons, but there are stories about them and they are really big and breathe fire, not ice.’
‘We do have fire dragons.’ Emily saw Madame Longley’s eyes flicker to the window. ‘They fly around the edge of our land, passing here on their way to other places. They’re gigantic, unpredictable creatures, stubborn and not very clever, although generally kindly. Thankfully, they do not usually stop here because their breath is very hot – it can melt ice and snow, which can be very dangerous in a land like this. It is almost impossible to persuade them to move on once they’ve landed and, if they go to sleep, they sleep for a hundred years.’
‘I’d love to see a fire dragon!’ enthused Molly, taking the little ice dragon.
‘Me too!’ said Tilda.
‘Maybe one of you will get to meet a fire dragon one day,’ Madame Longley replied.
Emily heard a strange note in the teacher’s voice and frowned. What did she mean? Once again she saw Madame Longley’s eyes flick to the window, but just then the little ice dragon turned a somersault on Molly’s hand and everyone gasped and crowded round. He sat up and then blew out another blast of icy air at them. Everyone laughed.
After the ice dragon had been put back in his cage, they all drew pictures of him and made notes about the two types of dragon.
‘Wasn’t that a brilliant lesson?’ Emily said as they all left the classroom to go to the hall for supper.
‘Yeah – brilliantly dull,’ sneered Camilla, who was passing. ‘Only you could think a lesson like that was fun, Emily. All that stuff about ice monsters and dragons. I’d far rather be skating. It’s just a waste of time!’ And she walked off.
Hannah shook her head. ‘Can you believe her?’
‘She’s mad,’ commented Alice. ‘I think it’s amazing learning about all the creatures here.’
‘Did you notice the way Madame Longley went a bit strange when she started talking about fire dragons?’ said Emily. ‘What did she mean when she said, “Maybe one of you will get to meet a fire dragon one day”?’ A thought had been pinging around in her brain ever since that moment and now she looked round at her friends. ‘You don’t think the Ice Princess has anything to do with a fire dragon, do you?’
They all stared at her.
‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Hannah slowly.
‘Madame Longley did sound a bit weird when she said it,’ Tilda breathed. ‘Maybe you’re right, Emily. Maybe the person who is Ice Princess will get to meet a fire dragon!’
‘But why?’ said Molly.
They all exchanged uncertain looks.
‘Oh, I hope we find out more soon,’ said Emily longingly. ‘I want to know what the Ice Princess will have to do.’
‘And I want to know how they’re going to choose which one of us it will be,’ said Hannah. ‘Do you think it’ll be the person who wins most of the competitions?’
‘It must be something to do with the competitions,’ said Tilda.
‘In which case we’d all better practise loads,’ said Molly.
Emily glanced across at Amanda, who was walking nearby, and her heart sank. She loved skating, but she wasn’t looking forward to practising with Amanda at all!
At supper all everyone else in the Frost Fairies dorm talked about was their routines.
‘Have you thought about what story you and Amanda are going to do?’ Hannah asked Emily.
Emily shook her head. ‘What about you?’
‘We’re going to do something about a toy coming to life,’ Hannah said, looking at Alice.
‘It’ll be cool. Hannah’s going to be the magi
cian and I’ll be the toy,’ Alice said.
‘Let’s go and choose some music,’ said Hannah. They got up from the table and hurried off.
Molly and Tilda went off together too. Emily saw Amanda heading out of the hall and went over to her. ‘Hi,’ she said.
Amanda looked at her. ‘Oh, hi. I was going to come and talk to you. I’ve been thinking about the competition and I guess as long as you do what I tell you to and leave the planning of the routine up to me, maybe we’ll do all right. Shall we meet straight after breakfast tomorrow in the music room and start then?’
‘Oh, OK,’ said Emily, taken aback by Amanda’s bossiness.
Amanda gave her a brief nod and stalked off. Emily stared after her, her heart sinking. She wondered where she should go. She didn’t feel like going up to the dorm on her own without the others and she didn’t want to go to the common room where Amanda and Camilla would be.
I know, she decided, I’ll go to the rink.
The ice rink was empty and silent apart from a group of frost fairies dusting the benches with their tiny wings. Emily laced up the special snow-white boots with silver laces that she had won the week before. She didn’t like to wear them for classes – it would have felt like showing off because everyone else just had plain white boots with white laces – but she loved to wear them when she was on her own like now.
The sky was black overhead and the stars were twinkling. Stepping on to the smooth ice, Emily began to skate round. As she skated, she felt some of the tension start to leave her – push and glide, push and glide. She concentrated on her steps, on keeping her chin high, her shoulders down, her arms out to help her balance. What did it matter about Amanda and the competition? Emily could still skate. She began to do some crossover steps and then looked round in surprise as music suddenly filled the air.
She saw one of the frost fairies fluttering beside the music box and a little ice dragon poking his head out from under the lid. The music that the dragon had put on was bouncy. Emily grinned – she couldn’t resist. She started to skate in time to it.
The music got faster and Emily danced across the ice before jumping into the air, turning a single loop jump, her arms tight to her chest. For a moment she felt like she was flying. She landed perfectly with her arms out and skated on. The music built again. She propelled herself off her right foot, up into the air. Crossing her ankles together, she spun round, the stars shining above her. She wobbled slightly on landing, but didn’t fall, and finished with the music, stopping with her arms above her head. She smiled.
Hearing the faint sound of clapping, she looked round. The frost fairies had all stopped their tidying to watch and were clapping their tiny hands, and the dragon was nodding and flapping his wings. Emily skated over and curtseyed. ‘Thank you!’ she grinned as the fairies rose up and fluttered round her face and shoulders like a cloud of glittering butterflies.
She meant it. The skating had made her feel so much better. It was as if all her worries and unhappiness had slipped from her into the ice, leaving her feeling happy again.
OK, Amanda’s annoying, but so what? Emily thought. I only have to be her partner for a week and I don’t have to spend any time with her when we’re not practising. I’m not going to let it get to me and I’m not going to moan. I’ve got all my other friends and that’s the most important thing.
Feeling much happier, she headed off the ice, got changed out of her skates and went up to her dorm.
Chapter Four
The First Practice
‘No, Emily! You don’t do it like that,’ Amanda said, putting her hands on her hips and sighing. ‘Your leg wasn’t straight enough. And you’ve got to keep your chin up and stay centred. I’ve already told you that!’
Emily took a deep breath. It was halfway through the morning and Amanda had been ordering her about ever since they had met up after breakfast. Emily was finding it very hard to be as positive as she had been the night before on the ice.
First Amanda had announced they were going to perform a piece from the ballet Swan Lake. Amanda was going to be the beautiful enchanted princess who was a swan in the daytime and a girl at night-time, and Emily was going to be the prince who almost shoots her when she is a swan and then falls in love with her.
‘If you’re the prince then you don’t have to do any difficult skating,’ Amanda had said. ‘You can just watch me and skate around a bit.’
‘But can’t I do some spins and jumps?’ asked Emily.
‘Well, maybe you could do one jump and a spin,’ Amanda huffed. ‘You can do sit spins, can’t you?’
Emily nodded.
‘Well, I suppose we could work one of those in then, and maybe, just maybe, a single toe loop. I guess the prince could jump for love when he sees how beautifully I dance.’ Amanda smoothed her hair. ‘But what you’ll really have to do is look at me most of the time.’
Oh, great, Emily thought. ‘But…’
‘Come on, let’s go to the rink and get started,’ Amanda interrupted bossily.
Amanda had skated through the beginning of the routine she had worked out and was now trying to show Emily what to do. ‘Right, you circle round me while I do this.’ Throwing back her arms, Amanda glided round the ring like a swan before turning into a layback spin and then skating on, lifting one leg into the air and holding her arms behind her.
Emily’s eyes wandered round the rink. Other people had come to practise too and Madame Li and Madame Letsworth were watching the girls from the side. Hannah and Alice were doing jumps together. On the far side of the ice, Heather was working hard with Zoe. They seemed to be really listening to each other. Molly and Tilda were arguing because they both kept changing the steps.
‘No, Tilda,’ Emily heard Molly saying. ‘We said you’d do three crossovers, turn and skate backwards, not two crossovers and a single flip.’
‘But I want to do a jump,’ said Tilda mutinously. ‘Why do we always have to do what you want, Molly?’
Amanda skated over. ‘Emily, you’re not watching! This is where you skate over and take my hands and we skate together and then split and spin round. Now, come on!’
Emily sighed and turned her attention back to her own routine.
‘I don’t know how you’re managing to put up with Amanda,’ said Hannah as she, Molly and Emily ate lunch together. After working so hard all morning, it was lovely to have big bowls of pasta and cheese and then apple crumble for pudding. The frost fairies fluttered around, clearing tables after the students and whisking away any mess.
‘She’s so bossy,’ Molly said. ‘And you don’t seem to do much in your routine. She does all the skating.’
‘I know,’ said Emily. ‘I wish I was with one of you.’
‘Actually, I wish you were with me too,’ sighed Molly. ‘Tilda is a bit of a nightmare. She argues all the time and when we do agree something, she’ll sometimes just go off and do something different because she feels like it.’
Emily hid her grin. Molly could be a bit like that too!
‘Alice is OK,’ sighed Hannah. ‘She doesn’t argue, but she doesn’t seem very keen on practising. I wanted to try again at lunchtime, but she said she wanted to go and see the husky puppies.’
‘I’m sure she’ll start practising more in the next few days,’ said Emily, trying to make Hannah feel better. ‘We did have a long session this morning.’
‘We could go and look at the puppies too,’ Molly suggested. ‘I’d like to see them.’
‘Me too,’ agreed Emily.
So, after lunch, they headed to the kennels where the huskies lived. The huskies pulled sledges across the snow so that people could travel if they weren’t skating or skiing. They looked just like huskies from the real world, but here their coats were flecked with silver, and, when they ran across the snow and ice, rainbow-coloured sparks shot out from their claws.
When the girls walked into the kennels, the puppies came bounding over. Alice and Tilda were there already. ‘Hi th
ere!’ Tilda called. ‘What do you think of the puppies?’
‘They’re gorgeous!’ Molly said, picking one up and cuddling it.
Alice sighed happily. ‘I wish I could spend every minute here. This one is Snowflake, this one is Frisky, this is Max, this is Prince and this is Rosie.’ She pointed out the different puppies. Within seconds, Emily had forgotten which was which, but she didn’t care. She cuddled them all.
After a while, Molly got bored and suggested they went sledging again.
‘I’d rather go skating,’ said Emily.
‘Well, how about we go skating outside?’ suggested Molly.
‘OK,’ Emily agreed. She loved skating outside on the rivers. Hannah nodded too.
‘I’m going to stay here,’ said Alice.
Tilda said she would too, so Emily, Hannah and Molly went to fetch their skates. At the back of the school there was a frozen lake with three big rivers and some small rivers running down to it from the mountains in the distance.
‘We’d better not go down there,’ said Hannah, pointing to a small river to the east that led between overhanging trees.
‘That’s the river where Madame Letsworth said there was a crack, isn’t it?’ said Emily.
Molly nodded. ‘Let’s go down the main West River instead.’
They set off. It was wonderful to be skating outside. The cold air stung Emily’s cheeks, but she didn’t care. The sky was cornflower blue overhead and, on the bank at the side, a family of white fox cubs were playing. In the distance, she could see the misty mountains rising dramatically up into the sky. ‘I’d love to go and explore more,’ she said longingly. ‘This land’s so amazing.’
‘Me too,’ agreed Molly. ‘It would be brilliant to see all the creatures that Madame Longley keeps telling us about.’
‘Like ice monsters and mountain lions,’ agreed Emily. ‘Maybe we’ll get to go out into the land more in the next few weeks.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I’d far rather do that than practise for this competition with Amanda.’
Skating School: Violet Skate Friends Page 2
