Chapter 1

MOVING IN

Fiona Roth was sitting on a cardboard box in an empty bedroom in her new apartment. She didn’t feel like she was at home, but she was.

All around her were cardboard boxes and big, bulky suitcases. In the corner, posters were rolled up in tubes leaning against the wall.

“Are you unpacking?” her mom called from the other room.

Fiona sighed. She was supposed to be getting her bedroom set up.

“Yes, Mom,” she called back. Then she got up and opened the box she’d been sitting on. It was full of her hockey equipment.

“Well,” Fiona said to herself, “at least this town has a hockey team.”

Fiona loved hockey. She had been one of the best players on her middle school’s ice hockey team. And the other players were her best friends. Life was great.

That is, life was great until her mom got a new job and they had to move down to the city.

Fiona had spent her whole life — till now — living in a small town way up north. Everything was different there.

There were lakes everywhere. Houses were sometimes miles apart. Between them were huge fields and forests.

River City was totally different. First of all, the city was much bigger than the town Fiona had lived in.

There were no lakes at all. Plus, almost everyone lived in an apartment, not a house.

The apartment Fiona’s mom had found for them was half of the top floor of a big, square building.

There was a back yard, but they had to share it with the people who lived in the other three apartments. And anyway, it was a tiny back yard. Nothing like the woods that were behind their old house.

It was going to be hard to get used to.

One of the last things Fiona had done in her old house was to look online for information about the middle school she’d be going to. She quickly found out that they had a hockey team. Smiling, she had turned off her computer and packed it up with the rest of her things.

Now, in her new bedroom, Fiona reached into the hockey equipment box and pulled out a puck. She tossed it up and caught it.

“My lucky puck,” she muttered. Just then, her door opened.

“Fiona,” her mom said. She looked disappointed. “You haven’t done much unpacking.”

Fiona shrugged. “I know,” she said. “I will.”

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Her mother sighed. “I know you’re still sad about moving,” she said.

Mom walked over to Fiona and took the puck. Then she smiled. “Remember,” she said, “tomorrow you can join the hockey team at your new middle school. It’s all you talked about on the drive here.”

Fiona tried to smile as she reached out and took the puck back. “That’s true,” she said. “It’ll be great to get on the ice.”

“Now start unpacking,” Mom said. “I’ll order us a pizza.”

Fiona smiled. “Okay,” she said. Then she walked over to another box and started unpacking her clothes.