On Thin Ice (5 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: On Thin Ice
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“But . . . I . . .” Katie stammered, not quite sure what to do or say.
“Oh, no!” Kerry exclaimed. “I’ve got rose pollen on me. I can feel the itching starting.” She began scratching at her arms. “My right eye is getting puffy. I have to take my contact lenses out right away!” She started to cough loudly. “Sorry, I have to go.”
All the girls in line stared in horror as Kerry ran off.
“How could you bring her roses?” a tall girl with glasses demanded. “
Everyone
knows Kerry Gaffigan is allergic to roses.”
Katie bit her lip. Not
everyone
.
“Now we’ll never get to meet Kerry,” a small girl in a blue and white skating costume said. She burst into tears.
“Thanks a lot,” a chubby girl in a green parka said sarcastically to Katie.
Katie didn’t know what to do. She just knew she couldn’t stay here with everyone yelling at her. She turned and ran away.
A few minutes later, Katie found herself all alone in a corner behind the ice rink. Katie was glad for that. She felt bad enough about making Kerry itchy and puffy without all the other kids blaming her for it. It was better to be here alone.
Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. At first she thought it was coming from the ice.
But ice wasn’t windy. It was just cold.
And ice didn’t spin around like a tornado, the way this wind was starting to do.
Uh-oh!
Katie gulped. This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind!
The magic wind grew stronger, circling wildly around Katie like a fierce tornado. It picked up speed, blowing harder and harder.
Whoosh!
Katie was sure it would blow her 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 turned into somebody else. One, two, switcheroo!
But who?
Chapter 9
Katie struggled to open her eyes. That was weird. Usually her eyes would just fly open after the magic wind disappeared. But today they seemed kind of stuck and itchy.
In fact, Katie was itchy everywhere. Her arms itched. Her face itched. Her
teeth
itched—and that wasn’t even possible!
Katie looked down. Everything seemed really blurry. She could just about make out the shoes on her feet. They were not the brown and white boots she had been wearing.
These
shoes were white on the top and shiny on the bottom.
Wait a minute. Those weren’t shoes. Those were
skates
!
Yikes! Katie gulped nervously. If she was wearing skates, that could only mean one thing!
The magic wind had turned her into one of the skaters in the show!
“Kerry! Are you okay?” a tall man said, running over and helping Katie to her feet.
Kerry?
Double
yikes! Katie wasn’t just one of the skaters. The magic wind had turned her into Kerry Gaffigan!
“Um, yeah, I’m okay,” Katie said, standing up. She scratched at her arm and her cheek. She wanted to scratch other places, but she figured that wouldn’t be polite.
“Okay, good,” the man told her. “It’s one minute till showtime.”
Showtime?
“But I stink at skating!” Katie shouted.
“What do you mean you stink?” the man insisted.
Oops.
That was something a ten-year-old girl would say, not an Olympic skater. “I mean, um, well, I don’t have my contact lenses in, so I can’t see. And I’m all itchy. So I won’t be able to skate . . .
today
.”
“What am I supposed to tell all the people out there?” the man asked angrily. “They’re waiting to see you skate.”
Katie could hear the audience rustling around in their seats. They sounded very excited. How could Katie disappoint all of Kerry’s fans? She would have to go out on the ice and put on a show.
Even though she couldn’t stop scratching.
Even though she couldn’t see anything.
Even though
she couldn’t ice skate
!
Katie gulped. This was soooo not good!
Chapter 10
Katie was so nervous, it felt like her stomach was doing spins and axels. As the music started, she squinted and tried to see what was happening on the ice. From what she could make out, a skater dressed as the evil queen was twirling around a huge cardboard and foil mirror.
“Kerry, go. You’re supposed to be out there,” a skater in a dwarf costume whispered to Katie.
This was it. Katie was going to have to go out there and skate.
Somehow.
Slowly, she skated out onto the ice. One foot in front of the other. Right. Left. Right. Left. Her ankles wobbled. She held her breath and tried not to fall.
The kids in the audience cheered at the very sight of Kerry Gaffigan. Katie reached up one arm and tried to wave.
Whoops.
She almost lost her balance.
Okay. No more waving. Just skating,
Katie thought. Right. Left. Right. Left.
“What are you doing?” the evil queen said under her breath. “Where’s the waltz jump you were supposed to do?”
Katie didn’t answer. What could she say?
Just then, the seven dwarfs skated out onto the ice. They weaved in and out between the huge cardboard trees that had been set up on the ice to make it look like a forest.
One of the dwarfs raced over to Katie, and before she knew it, he lifted her off the ground. He began to spin.
“Whoa!” Katie shouted as the dwarf twirled faster and faster. “I’m getting dizzy.”
But the dwarf kept on spinning. And even after he finally set her down, Katie still felt like everything was whirling around and around. Her stomach was woozy. All she could do was stand and blink. She was afraid that if she moved, she would throw up!
Still, she
had
to skate. The audience had come expecting to watch Kerry Gaffigan on ice.
But the only ice-skating trick Katie knew was skating backward. Sort of, anyway.
Katie made an upside-down V with her feet. Then she made a right-side-up V. Then an upside-down V.
Hey! What do you know? Katie was gliding backward! She smiled and glanced up at the audience.
The faces in the crowd looked like they were waiting for a big trick. But Katie knew that wasn’t going to happen.
This is it, guys,
she felt like saying as she continued skating backward.
“Hey, Kerry!” one of the dwarfs suddenly shouted in Katie’s direction. “I mean, Snow White. Watch out!”
Rip!
Katie heard a tearing sound. It took her a moment to realize what had happened.
Oh, no! She had skated right through the silver foil mirror.
The audience grew quiet. It seemed as if everybody was holding their breath.
Katie turned around quickly to see what had happened to the mirror.
Wham!
Katie bashed right into one of the dwarfs and knocked him to the ground.
The audience gasped.
“I’m so sorry,” Katie apologized to the dwarf. She reached out her hand to help him up. The skater in the dwarf costume took her hand, but Katie slipped.
“Whoa!” Katie shouted out as she landed hard on her rear end.
The audience began to boo. This was not the kind of show they had come to see.
Katie tried to pull herself up onto her feet. But instead she started to slide. As she slid across the ice on her bottom, she knocked down one cardboard tree. Which knocked over the next cardboard tree. Which knocked over the next. And the next . . .
“Somebody help!” Katie screamed.
A few of the dwarfs raced to her rescue. Quickly, they bent down and scooted Katie off the ice.
It was scary being carried up in the air. The dwarfs were skating so fast. Katie was sure she was going to fall again.
“AAAHHHH!” she screamed as she kicked her arms and legs in the air. “AAAHHHH!”
Chapter 11
“What happened out there?” the skater who played the evil queen demanded as the dwarfs put Katie back on the ground back-stage.
“Yeah, Kerry. Was that some kind of joke?” one of the dwarfs asked.
“’Cause it wasn’t funny,” another dwarf added.
“What were you thinking?” a third dwarf asked her.
Katie could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She was going to start crying, she just knew it.
“Um . . . I gotta go,” Katie said. And she hobbled off on her skates, searching for a quiet place to have a really good cry.
A few moments later, Katie found herself all alone in the Cherrydale Arena locker room. She sat down on a bench and rested her head in her hands. She couldn’t believe what had just happened.
The magic wind had done some really rotten things before, but turning Katie into a professional skater with itchy skin and puffy eyes was just about the rottenest.
Then, all of a sudden, Katie felt a cold breeze blowing on her back. She turned to see if a window was open. But this was no ordinary wind. The magic wind had returned.

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