On Thin Ice (4 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: On Thin Ice
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That doesn’t sound so hard
, Katie thought as she placed her toes together on the ice and tried to follow Emma S.’s instructions.
But skating backward was a lot harder than it sounded.
Flop!
Katie landed right on her backside.
Emma S. smiled as she reached down to help Katie up. “Almost,” she assured her. “Maybe you should hold onto the wall with one hand until you really have it under control.”
“Good idea,” Katie said, trying not to think about how much her wet rear end stung. She reached over and grabbed the top of the low wall with her right hand.
“Is this it?” Miriam asked as she zigzagged her feet and began slowly moving backward.
“Uh-huh,” Emma S. said. “Now see if you can speed it up.”
But Miriam had stopped listening. She was too busy looking out at the ice. “I didn’t know Jeremy could skate that fast,” she pointed out.
Katie turned her head just as Jeremy whizzed by. Boy, he was really flying around the ice.
It didn’t take long to figure out why. A minute later, Becky skated past as well.
“Jeremy, wait up!” Becky shouted to him. “I want to see if you can lift me up in the air, like the ice dancers do on TV.”
Katie frowned. Poor Jeremy. There was just no escaping Becky.
She put her toes together in an upside-down V, and tried once again to slide her feet backward. A few more tries, and suddenly she felt herself moving in reverse. Sure, she was going slowly, and she was still grabbing onto the wall a little bit, but she was definitely skating backward.
“Yes!” Katie shouted, pumping her fist in the air. She sure was happy Emma S. had put together this skating party. Skating was great—if you didn’t mind falling every now and then.
Too bad Suzanne and George were missing all the fun. They were busy inside the café, setting up their magic show.
 
A little while later, the kids were all nice and warm inside the rink’s café, sipping hot cocoa, and watching the Great Georgini work his magic.
“I will now stick this ordinary sewing needle into a balloon. But the balloon will not pop!” George boasted.
Suzanne smiled at the crowd and held a bright red balloon in the air. Then she twirled around, showing off her glittery pink leotard and skirt.
“Abracadabra, pop no more!” George shouted as he slowly stuck the needle into the balloon.
Katie covered her ears. She hated the sound of balloons popping. And somehow, she didn’t think George would be able to stop that from happening. He wasn’t
that
good a magician.
Or was he?
The balloon didn’t pop! It stayed round and full!
“Wow!” Katie shouted. She clapped really hard.
“Awesome!” Jeremy cheered.
“Go, Georgini!” Kevin chimed in.
“Hey, you guys ever hear the joke about the balloon and the tree . . .” Kadeem called out, interrupting the applause.
“Not now, Kadeem,” Miriam told him. “George is about to do another trick.”
“But this joke’s really funny,” Kadeem insisted.
“Save it for the next joke-off at school,” Kevin suggested.
Kadeem frowned and sat back in his chair. He looked kind of upset. Katie understood why. Kadeem and George were always competing for attention. That’s why they had all those joke-offs. But Kadeem couldn’t compete with George today. George knew magic and Kadeem didn’t.
“Watch now as I pour water on this tissue,” George said in a deep, magician-like voice. “And yet, thanks to my magic skills, the tissue will remain completely dry.”
“He will do it all with
my
help!” Suzanne added, jumping in front of George and whirling around in her sparkly costume as she placed two large plastic cups and a pitcher of water on the table.
George pointed to one of the two large plastic cups. “I will now place this ordinary tissue into this cup,” he said, holding up a yellow tissue. “And then I will pour water from this pitcher into the cup. But the tissue won’t get wet at all.”
“Impossible,” Andy said.
“Is it real water?” Kevin asked.
“I’ll drink some to prove it,” Suzanne said, picking up a cup and starting to pour herself a drink.
“Not that cup, Suzanne,” George warned her.
“Why n—” Suzanne stopped herself. “Oh, yeah, right. That one has the smaller cup glued inside it.”
“The
what
?” Kadeem asked.
George glared at Suzanne. “I can’t believe you said that!” he shouted at her.
“But I . . .” Suzanne began. She bit her lip. “It just slipped out.”
“You gave away how the illusion is done!” George shouted. “A magician is never supposed to do that.”
Kadeem jumped up and grabbed the cup. “Check it out!” he shouted to the kids. “There’s a little cup glued to the inside of the big one. George was going to put the tissue in the little cup. Then he could pour the water into the big cup without getting any in the little one.” Kadeem began to laugh. “That’s how the trick works!”
George’s cheeks got beet red. “I’m finished with magic!” he shouted as he turned and ran out of the café.
Suddenly Kadeem looked really sorry. He had definitely gotten the last laugh that time. But Katie could tell he hadn’t meant to make George feel
that
bad.
Suzanne looked pretty upset, too. She stood there for a minute not knowing what to do. Then she spun around again. “That’s the great Georgini’s best trick,” she told the crowd. “He made himself disappear!”
The kids all started to laugh. All but Katie, that is. She went after George.
“George, please don’t let Kadeem and Suzanne upset you,” Katie urged him.
“Suzanne always ruins everything!” George said. “And she’s always butting her nose in where she doesn’t belong.”
Katie didn’t know what to say to that. Sometimes there was no defending Suzanne.
“Don’t let her stop your show,” Katie urged George, finally. “Come back and do the rest of your tricks.”
“They’re
illusions
!” George insisted. “I keep telling everyone that!”
“Okay. Come do your illusions, then.”
George shook his head. “No way. I’m finished with magic . . . forever!”
Chapter 8
“Your party was really awesome,” Miriam told Emma S. the next morning. “Even with George’s awful magic show.”
“Thanks,” Emma S. replied. “I had a great time, too. But nothing beats this. I can’t believe I’m five people away from meeting Kerry Gaffigan!”
Katie couldn’t believe it, either. She was only
seven
people away—just behind Emma S. and Miriam. Emma W. was behind Katie. Suzanne was all the way in the back of the line.
That meant Suzanne was going to be waiting a long time to meet Kerry. It seemed like there were a hundred girls in line. And they were all holding gifts for Kerry. Some, like Emma S. and Miriam, had little teddy bears for her. A few, like Katie, were holding bunches of flowers.
But Katie was sure her flowers were the best. Most of the other girls were holding different colored carnations. But Katie hadn’t wanted anything that ordinary for Kerry Gaffigan. She and her mom had stopped at the Flower Power Flower Shop in the Cherrydale Mall early that morning. Katie had picked out a bouquet of the reddest roses she could find.
The line kept moving. One by one, each girl in line had a few minutes to speak to Kerry. The skater was already in the Snow White costume and black wig she was going to wear for the first half of the show.
Katie listened as the kids ahead of her talked to Kerry. Some of the girls asked her questions about skating. Some asked her questions about her childhood. One teenager even asked her about her boyfriend—a professional snowboarder named Tony Raven. Kerry blushed a little at that question.
“She looks beautiful,” Emma S. said to Katie, Miriam, and Emma W. “Kerry’s Snow White ice-skating routine is so awesome. She skates with these guys who are dressed as dwarfs and everything. I saw her do it on TV once.”
Just then, the girl in front of Emma S. finished talking to Kerry. “Oh my gosh. It’s my turn to meet Kerry Gaffigan,” Emma S. gasped as her cheeks turned red with excitement.
Katie watched as Emma walked up to the table and stared at her idol. She’d never seen anyone so excited.
“Kerry Gaffigan!” Emma S. squealed nervously. “Do you know who you are?”
Oops.
That definitely wasn’t one of the questions Emma had meant to ask.
A few of the girls in line giggled. But Kerry Gaffigan didn’t laugh at all. Instead, she smiled kindly. “I sure hope I do,” she told Emma S. gently. “But I don’t know who
you
are. What’s your name?”
Kerry’s cheerful voice seemed to calm Emma down. “I’m Emma Stavros,” she answered her. “I’m a skater. I want to be just like you!”
Emma S. and Kerry chatted for a while about skating moves—at least that’s what Katie figured camels, lutzes, and toe loops were. Then Emma moved away from the line, clutching her autographed skating bag.
Miriam was the next to talk to Kerry. “I just learned to skate backward. Emma taught me,” she said.
Kerry turned her head and smiled at Emma S. “That was very kind of Emma,” she said.
Emma S. heard and looked as if she was about to fly up in the air and do a triple spin. She was that proud and excited.
“I am so glad you are beginning to ice skate,” Kerry said as she signed a page in Miriam’s autograph book. “Good luck.”
And then it was Katie’s turn! Katie could feel her heart thump-thump-thumping as she walked up to the table. She didn’t know what to say. It was hard to talk to someone as famous as Kerry Gaffigan.
“H-H-Hi!” Katie stammered. “I’m Katie. And these are for you.” She thrust forward the bouquet of red, red roses.
Katie had expected Kerry to give her a big smile and thank her for the most beautiful roses she had ever seen. But . . .
“Roses! No!” Kerry shouted, pushing away the bouquet and jumping up from the table. “Get those away!”

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