Within a few minutes everyone was awake. ‘Come on!’ hissed Molly.
Alice giggled. ‘This is brilliant!’
‘We’ve got to be really quiet,’ said Hannah. ‘We mustn’t let any of the teachers hear us.’
Putting on their dressing gowns, they crept downstairs to the corridor where the Snow Foxes and Ice Owls had their dorms. As they tiptoed past the Snow Foxes dorm, Emily bit her lip. The Snow Foxes, particularly Camilla, were very annoying, but it felt a bit strange to be doing something big and exciting at the school without them.
The Ice Owls were waiting. They all hurried down the final flight of stairs and along the deserted corridors towards the kitchen. The frost fairies flew in front, leading the way.
The kitchen was a massive room painted a sunshine yellow, with three large tables and a huge cooker. Bunches of dried flowers and herbs hung from the ceiling and frost fairies swooped around. On one of the tables a wonderful feast was laid out – iced biscuits in the shape of skates, pink cupcakes, scones, a massive bowl of strawberries and jugs of fruit juice. Emily grinned. This was going to be the best midnight feast ever!
Everyone picked up a jug or a plate and carried it to the ice rink. They started whispering in excitement.
‘Shh!’ said Hannah quickly as they reached the bottom of the staircase that led up to the teachers’ rooms.
One of the frost fairies flew away up the stairs. ‘The fairies are going to take it in turns to keep watch in case the teachers wake up,’ Molly whispered.
They reached the rink. The moon and stars were shining down through the glass roof and the ice was glittering with a silvery glow. All the dragons who worked at the school were there, perched on top of the music box. They waved as the girls came in, and the smallest one, Charlie, turned a somersault.
The frost fairies spread out a snowy-white tablecloth on one of the square benches and everyone put down the food and drink. Molly made sure the heavy doors were shut properly so no noise would carry up to the teachers.
Emily glanced at the rink. It looked beautiful in the moonlight. ‘Let’s skate before eating.’
The ice dragons jumped into the music box and almost immediately a lively tune flooded out. Everyone changed into their skates and started to whizz round, gliding in circles, jumping and spinning. After a week of practising just one dance, it was lovely to be able to skate however they wanted.
Emily sped up and pushed off, arms tight to her chest as she spun round in the air before landing on one leg with her arms out. Skating on, she turned into a spin on one leg. She whizzed round before finally stopping and her body felt like it was glowing. She grinned.
‘Come on, it’s time for the feast!’ called Molly at last.
They all skated over to the entrance. But, just as they were getting off the ice, the doors of the ice rink opened! Everyone caught their breath and froze. Then Camilla, Tess, Helena and Clare walked in. For a moment the two sets of girls just stared at each other. The Snow Foxes looked just as surprised as Emily and her friends.
‘What are you all doing here?’ demanded Camilla.
‘They’re having a feast!’ exclaimed Tess, pointing at the food.
‘So what if we are? Why are you here?’ said Molly.
‘We thought it would be fun to have a midnight skate and play some games on the last night,’ said Camilla. ‘We’ve been planning it all week.’ She stared at the food. ‘So you’ve been planning a midnight feast?’ Her usual smugness seemed to be replaced by complete surprise.
Molly nodded. ‘We’ve been planning it all week too.’
‘So what do we do now?’ Tess said.
Amanda frowned. ‘You lot can go away. We were here first.’
Camilla raised her eyebrows. ‘So?’
‘I know!’ Emily burst in. ‘Why don’t we all just do something together?’ She looked round at the others. ‘There’s loads of food. They can join in and then we can play games. It’ll be fun and, after all, it is our last night here. Tomorrow we’ll be going home.’
Camilla, Tess, Molly and Amanda all started to protest loudly.
‘Shh!’ said Hannah in alarm. ‘The doors are still open!’
A frost fairy came whizzing down the corridor. She flew over the Snow Foxes’ heads, chattering at the other fairies. They all squeaked in alarm.
‘What’s the matter?’ demanded Molly.
The ice dragons chirruped and Emily immediately understood.
‘Oh, no!’ she gasped. ‘The frost fairy said that the noise has woken Madame Letsworth up! She might come down from her bedroom.’
‘What are we going to do?’ gasped Alice.
‘We’re going to be in so much trouble!’ said Molly.
‘And not just us but the frost fairies and dragons too,’ added Hannah.
Emily racked her brains. They couldn’t let that happen. But what could they do?
‘I know!’ gasped Camilla. ‘The Lulling Dance! You’ve all got your skates on. Do that!’
Emily stared at her. ‘You mean dance it and try and send Madame Letsworth back to sleep?’
‘Yes, Madame Letsworth told us it works if you even just think about the person you’re trying to send to sleep. Provided they are nearby, they don’t have to be actually watching it,’ said Camilla.
‘And the more people that do it, the more powerful the magic is,’ Hannah reminded them. ‘That’s a brilliant idea, Camilla. Come on!’
The frost fairy who had warned them raced back to Madame Letsworth’s room to check what was happening. The dragons dived inside the music box. Within seconds, the beautiful, soothing music of the Lulling Dance was flowing out across the rink.
Emily counted herself in. At the same moment as all the others, she started to dance. She fixed the thought of Madame Letsworth in her mind. It would be awful if everyone got into trouble – not just them but the frost fairies and ice dragons too.
She pushed into the double loop. As she landed, she heard the sound of everyone else landing too. They skated on until they came to the final combination. Emily felt herself tense. Would she fall again as she had that afternoon? She took off and spun through the air. She landed badly on the second jump and stumbled, but didn’t fall.
Regaining her balance, Emily quickly joined in with the final glide and spin. She tried not to think about it. It didn’t matter how she did herself; she just hoped enough people were doing the dance well enough for its magic to work.
They finished and all stared at the doorway, holding their breath. Camilla and the other Snow Foxes looked anxiously down the corridor. Had the dance worked?
After a few minutes, the frost fairy came flying back. She was squeaking excitedly, her little head nodding. Everyone let out their breath in a rush.
‘We did it!’ gasped Molly. Camilla hastily shut the doors as everyone started to exclaim and talk.
The frost fairy who had just arrived was chattering with the other fairies. The ice dragons listened in and then started chirruping.
‘She went back to sleep,’ Emily interpreted. ‘Phew!’
Molly looked at Camilla. ‘It was a really good idea to do the dance. Thanks. Look, do you want to join in with the feast? Emily was right. We can all have a good time together.’
Camilla’s face broke into a smile. ‘OK. Cool!’
They ate every bit of food with the dragons and the fairies joining in. Afterwards the girls all skated, with the fairies zipping round them and the dragons taking it in turns to play the music and flap around.
It was brilliant fun. No one argued and not even Camilla was mean. She suggested some really good games for them all to play and organized them into teams. Emily went to bed feeling very happy. It had been even better than she had expected.
And it’s the competition tomorrow, she thought. For a moment, she remembered how she had stumbled in the dance that night. What if that happened in the competition? She pushed the thought away, making herself think about the Ice Princess. This time tomorrow they would know who she was going to be. Emily hugged her arms around her chest.
Oh, please, she prayed. Please let it be me!