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?’
‘Well, maybe a bit,’ said Emily, still astonished but also feeling a sudden new liking for Amanda. ‘But it’s OK. I know you just want to win – I’d like to win too.’ She thought about what she’d just realized out on the ice. ‘It’s not just about winning. We’ve got to enjoy it as well and do our best –’
She broke off as she caught sight of someone skating slowly along the river they weren’t supposed to go on. ‘Look!’
Amanda followed her gaze. The person seemed to be searching the riverbanks. ‘That looks like Alice.’
‘It is Alice,’ Emily realized. ‘I bet she’s looking for Prince, but she shouldn’t be going down that river. Do you remember what Madame Letsworth said? There’s a big crack in it.’
‘We’d better stop her then,’ said Amanda in alarm.
They began to skate quickly towards Alice, but by the time they had reached the narrow river, she had skated round a bend in the distance. ‘Come on!’ urged Amanda.
They skated even faster. As they rounded the bend, they saw Alice ahead of them, peering at the bushes. Emily gasped. She could see a large crack in the ice ahead, but Alice was so busy looking around she didn’t seem to have noticed.
‘Alice!’ Emily shouted. ‘Look out!’
But even as she shouted, there was a snapping noise and the weakened ice in front of Alice suddenly split open.
Alice cried out in alarm. She lost her balance and fell over just in front of the gap in the ice. For a moment Emily thought everything was going to be OK, but then the crack in front of Alice began to widen almost as if the ice on either side of it was being pushed apart by invisible hands. Not invisible, Emily realized with a massive shock.
Two hairy paws were gripping the edges of the ice, forcing the gap wider. There was an enormous roar and a white bear-like creature burst out of the water!
‘Oh, no!’ gasped Emily. ‘It’s an ice monster!’