On Thin Ice (10 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: On Thin Ice
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But a wool scarf wasn’t going to block out this wind. This was the
magic
wind. Nothing could stop it.
The magic wind picked up speed, circling wildly around Katie. It was so cold and powerful, Katie thought she might be blown away. She shut her eyes tight and tried not to cry.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone, and so was Katie Carew.
She’d been turned into someone else.
But who?
Chapter 8
Katie slowly opened her eyes. Everything was kind of blurry. She blinked a few times, and then squinted to see where she was.
Whoa!
Wherever she was, she was sure up high. Down below, she could just about make out a white tent and a red carpet.
The magic wind had blown Katie straight to the top of the big hill near Surrey Lane. Okay, so now Katie knew
where
she was. But she still didn’t know
who
she was. Katie glanced down at her feet. Her green winter boots had been replaced with a pair of thick red-and-yellow ski boots.
Her winter jacket was gone, too. Instead, she was wearing a red and yellow ski coat. The words
Winter Wildness
were written like graffiti going down the sleeve.
Katie had never seen these clothes before in her life.
At just that moment, she spotted the bright yellow, orange, and red snowboard lying by her feet on the snow. Katie had never seen a snowboard like this one. For starters, it was much bigger than George’s. It was definitely a grown-up’s board.
There was also something written on the board. Katie tried to read it, but the words looked all blurry. She picked up the board and held it close to her face so she could read it.
PROPERTY OF TONY RAVEN.
Katie gulped. That could only mean one thing. The magic wind had switcherooed her into Tony Raven, champion snowboarder.
That meant all those people down there were waiting for her to come speeding down the mountain on that snowboard.
Not only that, they expected her to leap over some giant frozen snow lump. What was it George had called it? Oh yeah. A mogul. And if Katie remembered correctly, George had said that was really hard to do . . . especially for someone who had never been on a snowboard in her life.
Except Katie wasn’t Katie right now. She was Tony Raven. And all those people down there were expecting her to snowboard down to them.
This was soooo not good!
Suddenly Katie heard loud music blaring down below. It sounded like a huge marching band was playing. Then she heard a man’s voice over the loudspeaker.
“Ladies and gentlemen, here he comes! Tony Raven!”
Katie knew that meant she was supposed to get on Tony’s snowboard and glide down the big hill. But she felt as frozen as an icicle. She could just imagine the newspapers tomorrow. There would be big stories about Tony Raven being too chicken to snowboard down Surrey Lane. People would be laughing at him.
Katie thought about that. Maybe Tony deserved to be laughed at. After all, Tony wasn’t a very nice man. Look at how he’d ignored George.
She shook her head.
No.
No matter what, two wrongs didn’t make a right.
“Here comes Tony Raven!” the man with the loudspeaker announced again, louder this time.
In the distance, Katie could hear the crowd cheering. She squinted. The crowd was just a big blur. “Tony! Tony! Tony!” They sounded really excited.
“Hey, Tony, can you hear us up there?” the man with the loudspeaker called up to Katie. “Kerry’s waiting for you. We’re all waiting for you!”
Why did he have to say that? Katie took a big gulp. There was only one way she could get down that hill.
Hey! Wait a minute! Suddenly Katie had a great idea! Well, maybe not great. But an idea, at least!
Chapter 9
“WHEEEEE!” Katie shouted loudly as she whooshed down the big hill at top speed. She held on tight to the snowboard.
What were the reporters and fans going to think, seeing Tony Raven sitting—instead of standing—on his snowboard? They were probably going to be disappointed. But they’d be even more disappointed if he never arrived at the red carpet.
Everything was a blur around Katie as she slid down the giant hill. In a way, Katie figured that was a good thing. It would be even scarier if she knew when that big mogul was coming. At least this way she’d be surprised.
“YIKES!” Katie screamed out as the snowboard came in contact with the big icy bump!
“HELP!” Katie cried even louder as the snowboard took off into the air. Katie looked down. The ground seemed far, far away. Snow shot out from beneath the board, blowing around her head, in her mouth, and even up her nose.
Katie was flying . . . actually flying! “AAAHHHH!” she cried out.
Thump!
And then she landed,
hard.
The snow below may have looked soft, but it was no pillow.
Ooh.
Her rear end was going to be sore tomorrow.
The snowboard picked up speed, zooming down the hill faster and faster, as though it were sliding down a sheet of ice. Now Katie could kind of make out a squiggly line of red getting closer. It had to be the red carpet.
The board coasted to a stop as the ground flattened out. Katie took a deep breath, and then struggled to her feet.
Flashbulbs began popping everywhere. The lights were blinding. Katie couldn’t see a thing. But she could
hear
. And the sounds coming into her ears were not very nice.
“BOOOO!” the crowd shouted in her direction.
“You stink!” a kid cried out.
“Tony Raven is a wimp!” another insisted.
Then Katie heard a familiar voice beside her on the red carpet.
“I can’t believe you did that, Tony!” Kerry Gaffigan said. “I’m so embarrassed!”
Katie felt terrible. She’d done the best she could. She’d made it all the way down the mountain and over that big mogul. Flying through the air like that had been really scary. But it
still
hadn’t been enough to please the crowd, or Kerry Gaffigan.
Katie could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She was going to cry. Then all the photographers would have pictures of Tony Raven crying like a fourth-grade girl.
Katie had done enough to Tony Raven. She couldn’t let that happen, too. She turned quickly and ran as fast as she could off the red carpet—past the crowd and into the dark, lonely streets of Cherrydale.
The sound of the booing crowd grew fainter as Katie got farther away. She was happy about that. Having people boo at her—even if it wasn’t really her they were booing—really hurt her feelings.
Just then, Katie felt a cold breeze blowing against the back of her neck. A second later, the breeze picked up speed, blowing faster and faster until it turned into a tornado. A tornado just around Katie.
The magic wind was back.
Katie grabbed onto a nearby lamppost to keep from being blown away. She shut her eyes and tried not to cry as the wind whistled louder and louder.
And then it stopped. Just like that. Switcheroo! She was back to being Katie Kazoo.
Tony Raven was back to his old self, too. He was standing next to her. And boy, did he look confused.
“Hey, where am I?” he asked, squinting his eyes and looking around. “And who are you?”
“You’re on Nightingale Road,” Katie told him. “And I’m Katie Carew.”
“Nice to meet you,” Tony said. He shook his head as he tried to make sense of things. “I don’t think I’m supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be on the red carpet right now.”
Katie kicked at the ground with her green boot. “Uh . . . um . . . you were already there,” she told him. “You kinda ran off.”
“Ran off? Why?” he asked. Then he stopped for a minute and thought. “Oh, no. Why do I have a feeling that I went down that hill on my rear end?”
Katie frowned. “Because you did,” she told him.
“But why would I do that?” Tony asked.
“Maybe you were afraid of that big mogul,” Katie suggested.
Tony shook his head. “That little bump? That’s nothing for me. At least, not usually. Something seems to be kind of wrong with me tonight. Maybe I’m getting sick.”
Katie sighed. She knew that wasn’t it at all. But she also knew she could never tell Tony the truth. He wouldn’t believe it.
“I think I need to lie down,” he said. “Do you know how to get to the Cherrydale Inn? That’s where I’m staying.”
“It’s just two blocks to the left,” Katie told him.
“Would you mind walking there with me?” Tony asked her. “I’m not wearing my glasses. I can’t see too well without them. I’m liable to get lost.”
Well, that explained why everything had been so blurry, Katie thought. Wait! Did that also explain why Tony had acted as though he didn’t even see George the other day? Maybe it did! Tony Raven hadn’t been wearing glasses then, either. He wasn’t mean after all!
“Why aren’t you wearing your glasses?” Katie asked him.
“I don’t like how they look in pictures,” Tony admitted. “So I don’t wear them when there are photographers around.”
“That’s silly,” Katie told him. “Glasses are totally cool. My friend Jeremy wears them and he’s the best athlete in the school. If he didn’t wear his glasses, he’d never be able to see a soccer ball or hit a baseball. If you wore
your
glasses, you’d be able to see all your fans smiling at you.”
Tony nodded. “I know,” he admitted. “Kerry tells me that all the time. And she keeps trying to bug me to get contact lenses. But I’m afraid to put them in my eyes.”
Katie tried not to laugh. Tony Raven wasn’t afraid to fly over a mogul on a high mountain, but he was too chicken to wear contact lenses. How silly was that?
“I’ll help you get to the inn,” Katie told him.
“Thanks,” Tony said. “I really need to get some rest. I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow.” He paused for a minute and shook his head. “And I don’t have the faintest idea what I’m going to say.”

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