The next two days raced by. On Sunday, the day of the competition, everyone woke up to find they had a costume made by the frost fairies hanging at the end of their bed.
‘Oh, wow!’ gasped Hannah as she held up her costume – a magician’s hat and cloak to wear with a black-and-silver skating dress.
‘Aren’t these cool?’ said Alice, admiring what looked like an old-fashioned doll’s outfit.
Molly and Tilda, who were dancing the story of Jack and Jill, had costumes straight out of a nursery-rhyme book. Tilda, who was Jill, had a dress with puffed sleeves and a short stripy skirt; Molly had knickerbockers and a matching stripy shirt and waistcoat.
Emily liked her prince costume too. She had black tights and a black tunic that had been embroidered with gold thread. A gold cloak was attached to her shoulders.
After breakfast, they all practised on the ice in their costumes and then at eleven o’clock the competition started.
It was brilliant watching everyone. Heather and Zoe, who were in Ice Owls, did a fantastic routine, telling the story of the Ugly Duckling. It was obvious they had been working really hard; their movements were perfectly in time and neither of them made any mistakes. They kept the routine simple and it worked brilliantly.
Camilla and Olivia tried to do a very flashy, complicated routine showing the story of Sleeping Beauty, but they lost time with each other and Camilla fell over. She looked furious.
Emily tried to hide her grin as they skated off to muted applause.
Hannah and Alice’s magician and doll routine went very well until Alice lost track of what she was doing and ended up skating round in circles several times as she tried to remember what came next. She didn’t seem to mind though and finished with a big smile and Hannah just grinned too.
Molly and Tilda’s routine was full of energy, but half the time they didn’t seem to have a clue what the other was doing. Still, they had everyone laughing as Molly pretended to fall over with the pail and then got up and dumped it on Tilda’s head. It was definitely the funniest routine!
‘It’s our turn soon,’ said Amanda to Emily as Helena and Tess came on to the ice.
Emily nodded. She felt nervous, but she knew that all they could do was skate their best. And they did. Amanda looked beautiful in a costume made of white feathers. She spun and jumped and Emily tried her hardest to look like a prince in love. She blocked everything else out and focused on her skating. She managed her four jumps perfectly and it was just great to be out skating on the ice with everyone watching.
Emily skated off feeling very happy. She didn’t think they were going to win – Heather and Zoe’s Ugly Duckling routine had been much better than theirs – but she’d really enjoyed performing in front of everyone again.
‘That was fun, wasn’t it?’ she said to Amanda as they came off the ice.
Amanda smiled. ‘Yes, it was. I wish we could do it all over again!’
Finally the last pair skated and then the winners were announced.
‘You all performed really, really well,’ said Madame Letsworth, coming on to the ice with two pairs of violet skates with silver laces. ‘But this was a competition to see how well you could skate with someone else and one pair stood out as a real team – Heather and Zoe. You’ve been practising well together all week and it really showed. Congratulations, girls.’
Everyone clapped as Heather and Zoe went on to the ice to collect the pretty violet skates. Heather was bright red and looked very shy but absolutely delighted as they took the skates and said thank you. Emily felt really pleased for them. Out of everyone, they were the pair who really deserved to win.
When they skated off, Madame Letsworth looked round at the girls. ‘Now, before we finish, I’d just like to mention another team effort. As I’m sure all of you will have heard, there was an incident a few days ago when Alice fell into the river. I’d like to say a big well done to the girls who showed great bravery and acted as a real team that day to help her – Emily, Hannah, Molly, Tilda and Amanda. You might not have won the competition today, but you should all be proud of yourselves for the way you behaved.’
Emily and the others exchanged grins while everyone clapped.
‘You’re now free for the rest of the day,’ Madame Letsworth said. ‘And tomorrow, it’s the beginning of a new week and the start of a new competition. I hope you’ve been listening in Madame Longley’s lessons because next week you’re going to be exploring outside the school and finding out a lot more about this land.’
‘Wow! Sounds fun!’ Hannah whispered to Emily, who nodded. It sounded brilliant!
‘So, none of us won,’ said Molly as they headed back to the common room a little later.
Emily smiled at her. ‘Nope. But you know what? I don’t mind.’
‘I don’t either,’ said Molly. ‘I’m just glad we’re all friends again.’
‘Me too,’ said Hannah. ‘That’s much more important than winning a competition.’
Tilda and Alice came over. ‘What are you guys going to do now?’ Tilda asked. ‘We don’t have anything now until teatime.’
‘I know!’ said Emily. ‘Let’s go sledging.’
‘Yeah, we can have races!’ said Molly.
‘And a snowball fight!’ said Tilda, linking arms with her.
‘Let’s go!’ said Hannah.
‘Can I come too?’ asked Amanda, sounding almost shy for once.
Emily smiled at her. ‘Of course.’
Fifteen minutes later, they were all standing at the top of the slope in the garden with a sledge each.
‘Get ready, everyone,’ said Molly. ‘When you get to the bottom, you have to run round the big tree over there, do a forward roll and then get back on your sledge. First one sitting down wins. OK?’
‘OK,’ they all chorused.
Emily took a deep breath of the clear, crisp air. The pale sun was shining and the snow lay in front of them like a thick, smooth blanket. She looked at the school and felt a wave of pure happiness. They were learning so many things, not just about skating but about everything.
And there’s still so much more to learn, she thought. We’ve still got to find out what the Ice Princess is going to have to do and how she will be chosen…
A snowball hit her. She gasped and looked round. All the others were sitting on their sledges looking at her.
Molly, who had thrown the snowball, was grinning. ‘Come on, Em – stop daydreaming!’
Emily giggled and sat down on her sledge too.
‘One, two, three… go!’ yelled Molly and, laughing and yelling, they whizzed away down the slope.