Issy Roberts stirred as she felt a faint fluttering on her cheek. Opening her eyes, she grinned. Cobweb, the tiny frost fairy, was tickling her face.
‘Hello, Cobweb.’ Sitting up in bed, Issy flicked her heavy blonde fringe out of her eyes and looked around her at the Ice Owls dorm. She had been at the Magic Ice-skating Academy for over a week now, but every morning when she woke up, she half expected to find herself back in her bed at home. She could still hardly believe that she was really in a magical land. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen in real life!
Cobweb squeaked a polite reply and then flew off with the other frost fairies to get the girls’ clothes ready.
‘Here, let me help you,’ said Issy, jumping out of bed. The frost fairies found it difficult to do their work on warmer days because their magic was weaker and Issy liked to help them whenever she could.
‘Oh, here we go again,’ groaned her friend Jo from across the dorm. The tall, brown-haired girl sat up in bed with a wicked gleam in her eye. ‘Looking after the fairies. You’ll be starting a frost fairy fan club next – I’m surprised Sophy hasn’t already!’
Issy flushed. Sophy, from the Snow Foxes dorm, was her best friend at the Academy, but Jo didn’t like her much. They were just so different – Sophy was quiet and thoughtful and into magic whereas Jo was forever teasing people and getting into trouble.
‘Oh, Sophy and I aren’t starting a frost fairy fan club,’ Issy said, smiling at Jo and trying to make a joke out of it. ‘But we might start an ice dragon one instead!’
‘Ha, ha, very funny,’ said Jo, jumping out of bed. ‘We should call you two the Fairy Friends.’ She flapped her arms as if they were wings. ‘You could even dress up as them – I bet that’s just the sort of thing Sophy would like to do! You could wear wings and little dresses and …’
‘Oh, stop going on, Jo,’ giggled Maisie, running a comb through her curly black hair.
Her twin sister Milly nodded. She and Maisie shared the Ice Owls dorm too. They looked almost exactly alike, except that Milly had longer, braided hair and darker eyes. ‘There’s nothing wrong with liking the frost fairies,’ said Milly. ‘I think they’re sort of cute.’
‘What!’ said Jo in pretend outrage. ‘Those little wasp-things? You’ve got to be – mmph!’ She broke off abruptly as Issy threw a pillow that hit her in the face. With a laugh, she hurled the pillow back. ‘Oy!’
‘You’re lucky they don’t put icicles in your bed,’ said Issy, only half joking as she glanced at the fairies, who were darting around the room. She hoped their feelings hadn’t been hurt. ‘I would, if I were them.’
‘They know I’m only teasing,’ said Jo breezily.
Issy shook her head and smiled. She hoped the frost fairies did know that most of the time Jo was just messing around.
As she got dressed, Maisie started singing a pop song that they all knew. The frost fairies fluttered about in time to the music.
‘Ooh, I love this one!’ cried Jo. She grabbed Issy’s hands. ‘Come on, Is – let’s show these fairies how to really move!’
Issy threw herself into the dance, shrieking with laughter as the two of them twirled and spun each other round the room.
*
That morning the girls had a lesson with Madame Longley, the grey-haired ice sylph who taught them about the Land of Ice and Winter, and then afterwards they had a free-skating session. Issy hurried down to the rink. As much as she loved learning about the land, ice-skating was even better. She loved skating more than anything!
As Issy went through the double doors, she spotted Sophy standing to one side of the rink, peering inside one of the large purple music boxes. Issy waved then put on her skates and stepped on to the ice.
Jo zoomed up to her, stopping in a spray of ice crystals. ‘Hi, Is! Come and play tag!’
‘Um … not right now.’ Issy glanced in Sophy’s direction and smiled.
‘Oh, I see,’ said Jo, following her gaze ‘You’re going to skate with her.’
‘Jo …’ But Jo had already skated off to ask Maisie to play tag with her instead.
Sighing, and wishing her friends could just get on, Issy skimmed across the ice to Sophy.
‘Hi!’ Sophy greeted her. She was small with dark-brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes. Like Issy, she wore a simple skating dress, tights and a wrap-over cardigan. She was holding up the lid of the music box.
‘What are you doing?’ Issy asked her, pushing away thoughts of Jo.
‘I thought the ice dragons might like a bit of that sticky toffee pudding we had for dessert,’ said Sophy.
Issy peered into the box. The pale-blue ice dragons inside the box made the music play for the girls’ skating routines by turning a complicated system of wheels and levers. Issy loved them, but it had never occurred to her to feed them pudding! She giggled as she watched them devour the treat Sophy had saved for them, smacking their lips enthusiastically. Their paws and mouths looked very sticky!
Sophy fed the last of the pudding to the dragons. ‘Come on then! Let’s skate!’
They did their stretches together and then did a lap round the rink, chatting about the class they’d just had with Madame Longley. She had been telling them about some of the plants in the magic land – amazing bushes that burnt with a golden icy-cold fire; silvery arctic creepers that hung from the trees and were almost invisible until you got tangled up in them; and rainbow berries that changed colour every week. She had also told them more about the wild ice dragons who lived in the woods nearby. Their eggs had hatched not long ago, and in a few days the baby ice dragons would begin learning how to fly.
‘I’d love to see one,’ said Issy as she and Sophy glided round a curve. ‘Can you imagine how tiny they are?’
‘Like little baby mice!’ exclaimed Sophy. ‘They must be so sweet – we’ll have to go and see if we can find some soon.’
The rink was a whirlwind of activity, with some girls skating backwards and others skating forwards, some performing spirals and others jumping. Issy watched Jo throw herself into a double toe loop and wasn’t surprised to see her wobble on the landing. Jo loved skating, but she didn’t always have the patience to practise her footwork! Milly, who was in the advanced group, was the exact opposite. She worked hard on everything, and skated with great grace and skill.
And then there was Cecilia! Issy grinned. ‘Look,’ she said, nudging Sophy.
Sophy stifled a laugh. Cecilia, a very pretty beginner skater who was in the Snow Foxes dorm, had stopped at the side of the rink to refasten her thick chestnut ponytail. A small swarm of frost fairies hovered nearby, holding up a mirror. ‘Oh, this icy air!’ Issy heard her exclaim anxiously as she and Sophy skated past. ‘It makes my hair go all frizzy.’
Issy and Sophy exchanged amused looks once they were past. ‘Oh, this icy air!’ mimicked Issy softly and they both giggled.
‘We shouldn’t laugh at her really,’ said Sophy quickly. ‘I know she’s silly about her looks, but if she could just forget how pretty she is, she’d be really nice. She’s always happy to lend things to people – and she can be really good fun.’
They separated to practise on their own. As always, once Issy was whizzing about on the ice, the rest of the world seemed to fade away. She loved skating fast and doing jumps, and although she fell over a lot, the feeling she got when she landed a jump perfectly made all the bruises worthwhile.
I’ll do a double lutz, she thought. Going into backward crossovers, she went faster and faster. Shifting her weight to her left foot, she touched her right toe pick to the ice and sprang into the air, rotating her shoulders. Two turns and then she landed neatly, throwing her arms out into a glide.
Yes! Issy thought triumphantly. Her lessons at the Academy were already paying off. Just last week, she’d had trouble with that jump.
Vanessa, a sour-faced girl with long, dark-blonde hair, had been watching with a smirk. ‘Of course, if you were really any good, Issy, you’d be doing double axels by now. When Mummy and Daddy took me to the Olympics, a coach there watched me skate and he said –’
Issy ignored her and skated on until she was out of earshot. Vanessa was always boasting about how good she was at skating, but she was only in the intermediate group – much to her disgust! Maybe I will try a double axel, Issy thought. Why not? She knew she’d probably just tumble on to the ice as usual, but so what?
She picked up speed. Now! she thought. Leaning on to the forward outside edge of her left foot, she shot up and spun in the air twice. When she came to land, her right foot wavered and she almost fell. Still, that was much better than she usually did! She really was improving. Issy practised the double axel over and over again, becoming more and more confident with each jump. Sometimes she did fall, but she just brushed herself off and tried again.
Suddenly Issy heard a whistle blow. Looking up, she saw Madame Letsworth, the headteacher and advanced ice-skating coach, standing beside the rink in her dark-maroon dress.
‘That’s enough for now, girls,’ she called. ‘Go and get changed, and then come to the hall. It’s time for me to tell you about this week’s competition!’