Exciting News
Before they started their ice-skating lesson after break, Madame Letsworth got them all together.
‘If you remember, I told you yesterday that at the end of every week there will be a competition. This week the competition will be to make up a short skating routine. You can choose your own music and design your own costumes – the frost fairies will make them up for you. The winner will receive a pair of sapphire skates. We also have a tradition whereby the winner in the first week is allowed to ask for one thing. If the school can provide it then she may have it.’
‘We could ask for a midnight feast,’ Jo whispered to Issy, who nodded.
Sophy put up her hand. ‘How will you choose the winner, Madame?’
‘We want to see you skating a technically correct routine that tells us something about you, a routine that lets your personality shine through. It’s important that you realize this isn’t about how difficult your routine is. It’s about expressing yourself. Now go and get your skates on ready for your lesson. The teachers and I will be waiting on the ice.’
As soon as Madame Letsworth turned away, the noise level rose.
‘We’ll have to start planning what we’re doing after lunch,’ said Jo as she and the others hurried to the lockers.
‘I might use a routine I’ve done for competitions before,’ said Maisie, and Milly nodded.
Issy imagined herself flying around on the ice, jumping high, spinning fast. She couldn’t wait to start thinking up her routine!
Issy, Jo, Maisie and Milly ate lunch as quickly as they could and then went to the music room. The music boxes fascinated Issy. They had silver buttons down the front arranged in rows and columns. Every time the girls pressed a button, music flooded out. It was a bit like a strange CD player, but when Issy looked inside, she saw four ice dragons working a series of wheels and levers.
Issy couldn’t seem to find a piece of music that she instantly liked, but she didn’t want to spend ages choosing so in the end she picked a fast one that sounded OK. She would be able to do lots of jumps to it. There were so many things she wanted to put in – a double lutz and a double flip, a layback spin, a Flying Camel and some combination jumps. The hard thing was working out what not to include!
The others had all decided to adapt routines they had used for competitions at home and were spending ages trying to find the right music. Issy decided to leave them to it.
‘Where are you going?’ Jo asked.
Issy shrugged. ‘Just to look around.’ But really she just wanted to talk again to Cobweb, the magical frost fairy, before lunch was over. ‘I’ll see you in a bit.’
She left the music room and ran to the dorm. Cobweb was there with the other dorm fairies tidying up. ‘Hi,’ Issy said.
‘Hello, Issy,’ said Cobweb, flying to her shoulder. Issy frowned. Was it her imagination or was Cobweb moving more slowly than she usually did?
‘Are you OK?’ She glanced at the other fairies. Something wasn’t right, she realized. It was taking three of them to move Jo’s toothbrush from the desk back to the mug.
‘We’re not feeling very well today,’ said Cobweb, following her gaze. ‘It’s such a warm day outside. When it heats up like this, we feel sick and our magic gets weaker. Magic in this land works best when the weather is very cold.’
One of the other fairies nodded. ‘There are more and more warm days now because it’s so long since the Dance of Winter was last performed.’
‘It’s really hard to get all our work done on days like this,’ another panted. She looked pale. ‘It takes us ages.’
‘You poor things.’ Issy started tidying up. ‘Here, let me help. You shouldn’t be working if you feel sick.’
‘No, don’t worry…’ the fairies started to say, but Issy ignored them.
She hurried about the room, picking up the last few things the fairies hadn’t got round to moving. ‘It’s fine. We shouldn’t have left our things in such a mess anyway.’
Just then, the bell went. ‘I’d better go downstairs,’ Issy told them. ‘We’ve got our first cross-country skiing lesson now.’
‘Have fun!’ called Cobweb. ‘And thanks, Issy.’
‘Yes, thank you!’ called the other fairies.
Issy made her way to the back door, where they had been told to meet Madame Olsen. Issy had been really looking forward to her first skiing lesson, but as she went down the stairs, she found that all she could think about was what the fairies had just told her.
Jo, Maisie and Milly were waiting at the back door with the others. ‘Listen, you’ve got to hear about the frost fairies,’ Issy said. Pulling them to one side, she told them what she had just learnt. ‘I wish we could do something,’ she said anxiously.
Milly nodded. ‘That’s awful.’
‘I know,’ Issy agreed. ‘Maybe we could have a rota or something, to help them with the chores?’
‘But I hate doing chores,’ groaned Jo. She frowned. ‘The frost fairies can’t be that bad. The ice sylphs wouldn’t let them work if they were really ill.’ Maisie nodded in agreement.
Issy was disappointed that the others weren’t more interested, but Jo was probably right about the ice sylphs making sure the fairies were OK.
Just then, Madame Olsen arrived and clapped her hands. ‘Right, girls! Let’s find you some skis!’
Wearing skis felt strange at first, but Issy and the others were soon swishing across the snow in the woods, using their poles to help themselves along, and soon some of Issy’s earlier worries fell away.
‘I love skiing!’ Issy declared at the end of the lesson, her eyes shining.
‘Me too,’ said Jo. ‘We must come outside more. Did you see the slope in the garden? We could go sledging on that!’
‘And we could have a snowball fight,’ said Maisie, joining them.
As they headed back to the school, Issy’s thoughts returned to the fairies. Maybe all of us Ice Owls could try and think of something together, she thought. And then…
She gasped as a snowball hit the back of her head. ‘Jo!’ she exclaimed, seeing Jo grinning at her from behind. Issy grabbed some snow and chucked it back, but unfortunately it sailed past Jo and hit Sophy, who was walking quietly on her own. Sophy gave a startled squawk.
Jo burst out laughing. ‘Nice one, Issy!’
‘Sorry!’ Issy gasped, but Sophy was already walking away and didn’t hear.
Issy went to go after her, but was stopped in her tracks by a snowball from Maisie. ‘Got you!’ Maisie yelled.
Issy giggled and, forgetting about Sophy, grabbed some more snow and joined in the fight.