Karen's Figure Eight

  Hard Work

  I was ready to start working on my routine for my performance in the Festival on Ice. I could take hard work. After all, I too was a star skater. And I did not want to make any big mistakes. I arrived at the rink and spotted Jillian right away. She was wearing a yellow wrap sweater and black leggings. In the center of the rink she did three perfect jumps. It was too bad they were so much better than the jump she had done in her competition. I guess her ankle was better.

  I laced up my skates and glided to the red cone by the wall.

  Jillian waved and skated toward me. I was a little nervous. What was I supposed to say? I did not know if she was upset about her performance.

  “Hi, Karen!” Jillian called.

  “Hi!” I said. I gave her one of my special big Karen Brewer smiles.

  “So did Mrs. Harris show you the routine for Saturday?” she asked. We talked about the Festival on Ice. Jillian did not seem sad or different at all. I could not believe it.

  “It is really cool when you get your first skating routine,” Jillian said. Her eyes were wide with excitement as she told me about the first routine that Mrs. Harris had choreographed for her.

  “I am so excited about my routine,” I said.

  “It’s for you and your partner, Ian, right?” Jillian said.

  “Right.”

  The warm-up skate was over and kids were starting to gather at the corners of the rink. I said good-bye to Jillian and stood with my class.

  During the free skate Mrs. Harris told Ian and me that she wanted to show us our routine. Ian and I smiled at each other. We were both excited to see what moves Mrs. Harris was going to teach us. And what music we would use for our routine.

  I watched Mrs. Harris as she skated around the back corner of the rink doing crossovers and the waltz jump. (I was so glad that Jillian had showed me how to do that already.)

  After we practiced the jumps, Mrs. Harris told me to hold Ian’s hands. I thought that Ian was going to make a face, but he was trying to be professional, just like me. We skated around the rink holding hands.

  Once we learned the first part of the program, Mrs. Harris said she had a new move to show us. She told me to hold my leg straight out behind me. Ian was going to hold my hands and skate backward while I stuck out my leg. “Extend your back leg and hold it up, Karen,” Mrs. Harris said.

  It was hard to keep my leg up.

  “Concentrate!” Mrs. Harris kept saying. “Karen, keep your head up!” At the end of the free skate, Mrs. Harris wanted to talk about costumes. “Karen, what color would you like your costume to be?”

  I took a moment to think about it. After all, this was important. I might be on television and in the newspapers. Mrs. Harris gave me a Look. I guess she wanted to order these costumes right away. “Pink,” I said.

  “Good choice,” Mrs. Harris replied. “I bet that we could even put some sequins on it.” She winked at me and I smiled at her. I could not wait to see my spangly new skating outfit.

  “Um, what am I going to wear?” Ian said. I could tell he did not want to wear a pink sequined outfit. “How about one of those hockey jerseys?”

  Mrs. Harris frowned. “Ian, we will get you a nice, simple blue shirt and pants. What do you think of that?”

  Ian seemed relieved. I think his favorite color is blue.

  By the time I took off my skates, my legs were feeling shaky. I was tired and a bit sore. The routine was hard work.

  My big break was going to be harder than I had thought.

  Practice Makes Perfect

  At school on Monday morning I told Ms. Colman about my new skating outfit. “That sounds wonderful,” she said. She gave me a big smile and patted my shoulder. I hoped that she would come see me skate at the show.

  Nancy and Hannie were talking about a new movie, The Secrets of the Unicorns. They were talking with Natalie about the beautiful white unicorn.

  “When did you see the movie?” I asked. I wondered why they had not asked me to go with them.

  “We all saw it this weekend,” Natalie said.

  When Natalie left, Nancy turned to me. “What is wrong, Karen?” she asked.

  “Well, I thought the Three Musketeers always went to the movies together,” I replied.

  “We wanted you to come, Karen,” Hannie said. “But my mom could only take us on Saturday afternoon. And you were at your skating lesson.”

  I looked at Hannie and Nancy. I had been at my lesson on Saturday. But I was still sad that I hadn’t gone with my best friends to the movies. Maybe this was what Kristy meant about sacrifices and star skaters.

  “I am going to be the star at the Festival on Ice in two weeks,” I blurted out. “I am going to have a fancy costume and everything.”

  “That is great!” Nancy said.

  “Can we come and watch?” Hannie asked.

  I was so happy that my friends wanted to see me skate. And Musketeers do not stay mad long. So I said yes and forgot about being mad. But that is not all I forgot about. I had also forgotten that Ian did not want people to know he was taking skating lessons.

  Nancy invited Hannie and me to her house after school. But I could not go. I had to go to an extra skating practice. I was disappointed that I could not be with my friends. I told them that a real skating star has to be at the rink a lot.

  During practice Ian kept skating too fast. He was not listening to the music. But Mrs. Harris was only correcting me!

  “Karen, watch your footing.”

  “Karen, arch your back.”

  “Karen, practice makes perfect. One more time.”

  Well, boo and bullfrogs. What about Ian?

  “Good work, Ian,” Mrs. Harris said.

  She must have forgotten that I was her new star skater.

  “Don’t worry, you will have more practice time before the festival,” Mrs. Harris said. “Practice will make all the difference.”

  I know, I thought. Practice makes perfect. But I did not need more practice. Ian needed to slow down. And Mrs. Harris was forgetting that I, Karen Brewer, was the next Jillian Earhart.

  When Seth arrived to pick me up, Mrs. Harris asked him if I would be able to come to another extra practice the next day.

  At this rate I would never see my friends. But my part of the show was sure to be perfect.

  Keep Trying

  I was happy to see Jillian at the rink on Tuesday afternoon. I wanted to talk to her about my costume. Maybe she would tell me about her costume for her first performance. I wondered if it was as beautiful as mine.

  But Jillian did not want to talk about costumes. She wanted to know about my routine, and she could not wait to help me with it. She said that she would take Ian’s role and that I could practice my part. We were about to start when Mrs. Harris skated over to us.

  “Ian is going to be about fifteen minutes late today, Karen,” she said. “But I am glad that you are using this time to practice.” She smiled at Jillian. “And you have a great coach helping you.”

  “Yes,” I said, smiling up at Jillian.

  “When you are finished, you can come by the office,” Mrs. Harris said. “I received the costumes for Saturday. You should try yours on.”

  Oh, goody! I wanted to try it on right away.

  “Come on, Karen,” Jillian said. “Show me the rest of your combination.”

  I wanted to try on my new outfit. But I also wanted to be with Jillian. I did the leg extension holding Jillian’s hands.

  “Karen, you are not concentrating,” Jillian said.

  “Maybe we could get some hot chocolate and I could try on my outfit?” I said.

  “I thought you wanted to practice. You know what Mrs. Harris says —”

  “Practice makes perfect!” we exclaimed, and laughed.

  “Maybe you could show me how to do a figure eight again,” I said. “I think that will help me to focus.”

  Jillian smiled at me. “How about we do your routine one more time, and then I’ll show
you the figure eight?”

  That sounded like a good plan to me. (Maybe we could get hot chocolate afterwards.) I skated the routine with Jillian, counting out all the moves (we did not have the music on). I could not wait to get it over with. When we finally finished, I watched Jillian trace out two perfect loops to form a beautiful number eight on the ice.

  I pushed off on one foot just like Jillian had done, but I did not get halfway around the first loop! I tried again, but it was too hard.

  “Don’t get frustrated, Karen,” Jillian said. “It takes —”

  “I know, it takes practice.” I sighed.

  “Keep trying, you’ll get it,” Jillian said.

  Just then I saw Ian skating around the rink. I was glad that he had arrived. I did not think that I was going to skate a perfect eight today. Now that Ian had arrived, I could at least go see my pink spangly skating outfit.

  Silent Partner

  At school the next morning, Hannie and Nancy were waiting for me on the playground.

  “Guess what, Karen?” Nancy said. She was grinning and jumping up and down. “We have a big surprise for you!”

  “What?” I asked. I love surprises.

  “We told everyone in Ms. Colman’s class about your skating show!” Nancy said.

  “And everyone is coming to see you, Karen Brewer, star skater!” Hannie added.

  “Everyone?” I said. Oh, no! Then everyone would find out about Ian’s lessons. I had broken my promise to Ian.

  “Karen, what is the matter?” Hannie asked. “We thought you would be happy.”

  I did not have a chance to answer because the bell rang and we went inside to Ms. Colman’s classroom. I looked around at my friends in the room. Then I spotted Ian. He was glaring at me.

  “I hear everyone is going to see you skate in your skating show this weekend,” he whispered.

  “Ian, I am sorry. I did not mean for the whole class to find out,” I whispered back.

  Ian just stared at me. His stare said everything. I knew that I had let him down. I had broken my promise. Sort of.

  Ms. Colman asked us to take our seats. I felt awful. I wanted to talk to Ian. All day long I tried to talk to him. And every time I did he would turn away. Even during gym, when we were on the same team, he would not speak to me.

  I thought that Ian and I could at least talk at skating practice. But still he would not even look at me. Mrs. Harris said that we should skate without music so we could count out the routine. She asked Ian to start to count. Then we would do our moves at the same time. When we got on the ice, he would not say a word. Not even one, two, three.

  “Ian, we have to count together,” I said. “I really am sorry.”

  Ian looked right past me. He started to do the waltz jump before I did. He turned before I turned. I tried to catch up to him, but my footing was off and I fell twice.

  “Talk to each other,” Mrs. Harris called from the side. “You need to count together.”

  I was getting angry at Ian. How was I supposed to skate with a silent partner? I had told him I was sorry. And I could not help it if Hannie and Nancy had told everyone about the Festival on Ice.

  I tripped over Ian’s skate as we were doing a backward crossover.

  “Karen, concentrate!” Mrs. Harris called.

  I was tired of skating, tired of falling, and, most of all, tired of my silent partner. I missed my friends. I missed my life. I skated over to the wall and hopped off the ice.

  I turned to Ian and said, “I quit!”

  Good Advice

  When I turned around, I saw Jillian standing there. She had heard what I said. I started to cry. Ian was mad at me already. I did not want Jillian to be mad at me too.

  Jillian put her arm around me. “Want some hot chocolate?” she asked.

  I snuffled a little and looked at Jillian. She did not look mad. I nodded and followed her to the snack bar.

  “You know, Karen,” Jillian said, “skating is a lot of fun, but it is lots of hard work.”

  Boy, I was starting to see that! I told Jillian about Ian’s secret and how I missed my friends.

  “I used to have more time to be with my friends,” I said. Then I told Jillian about missing The Secrets of the Unicorns. “If I had gone to the movies with my friends, I would not have felt left out. And I might not have invited them to the Festival on Ice. And they would not have told everyone in our class about it.” I took a deep breath. ”Then Ian would not be mad at me for not keeping his secret.

  Jillian listened carefully. She told me that I should remember how much I loved skating. “You have to focus on why you are here,” she said. She sounded a lot like Coach Brown or Mrs. Harris. “Do not worry so much about what your friends think.” I started to feel better. I blew my nose and settled into my chair to listen to Jillian. She was right. I had to think about my skating. “When you are skating, do you feel your best? Do you love the feeling of landing a jump or completing a routine?” I watched Jillian as she talked about skating. Her eyes were wide and happy. Jillian did not just sound like a grown-up anymore. She sounded like a skater who loved to skate. I did not think about skating like that. I had thought I was the next Jillian Earhart. But I was not very much like her at all. Jillian was different.

  “I am tired of skating all the time,” I said.

  Jillian laughed. “It has only been a couple of weeks, Karen!”

  I laughed too. Jillian was being so nice to me. How could I quit?

  “Will you skate in the show, Karen?” Jillian asked. “I am sure that you and Ian will work things out. After all, you are partners. And more important, you are friends.”

  I nodded. I could not let Jillian down. I agreed to be in the Festival on Ice. I would just have to talk to my friends and Ian.

  The Secret

  On Thursday morning before the bell rang for school, I found Nancy and Hannie. I took them to a corner of the playground so we could talk in private.

  “This is a Three Musketeers secret,” I said. “Promise not to tell anyone?”

  My two best friends agreed. I leaned over and whispered that Ian Johnson was my skating partner in the show. I explained that he was embarrassed about skating and did not want the whole class to know.

  “Why did he not want anyone to know?” Nancy asked.

  “Why would he want to keep skating a secret?” Hannie said. “I bet he is a great skater.”

  “He is a great skater,” I replied. But then I told them how I had broken Ian’s promise.

  “We are sorry, Karen,” Nancy said.

  “Ian must really be mad,” Hannie added.

  I could tell that my friends felt bad.

  The bell rang then, and all the kids went inside to start the day.

  Natalie was standing by my desk. She looked at us Musketeers. “What is wrong? You look so sad.” We must have been thinking about Ian’s problem.

  “You have to promise not to tell anyone, Natalie,” I said.

  Natalie traced an X across her chest. “I promise,” she said.

  I told Natalie about Ian’s skating lessons and that the whole class would soon find out about them. “Remember, Natalie,” I said. “Do not tell anyone.”

  At lunchtime, I saw Natalie, Hannie, and Nancy talking to Ricky and Chris. I hoped that they were not telling them Ian’s secret.

  At recess, I found out that everyone in Ms. Colman’s class knew about Ian. When Ian walked past me on the playground, I could tell that he knew everyone knew too.

  I stomped over to Hannie and Nancy. “How could you tell everyone Ian’s secret? I asked you not to tell anyone!”

  “We did not tell anyone,” Nancy said.

  “Natalie told everyone,” Hannie said. “And you were the one who told her.”

  Oh! I was so mad! I watched Natalie playing hopscotch across the playground. How could she have done that?

  Ian was standing by the swing set. I thought that I would try to talk to him again. Now I had to apologize for Natal
ie’s big mouth too. But before I could talk to Ian, Ricky ran to him. “Hey, Ian, can you skate backward?”

  “How fast can you skate around the rink?” Chris asked.

  “And can you do those jumps?” Bobby added.

  I watched Ian answer our friends’ questions. Suddenly he did not seem to mind taking skating lessons anymore.

  “That is so cool that you and Karen are going to skate at the Stoneybrook Ice Arena,” Chris said. “That place is awesome!”

  “Yeah, the Penguins skate there. I saw a game last week,” Bobby said. “The place is huge!”

  “And I saw a skating competition on television that was there,” Hannie said. “You and Karen are going to be like real skating stars on Saturday.”

  Ian looked at me and smiled. I did not think that he was mad at me anymore. And then he told our friends that he hoped that they would all come to see us skate on Saturday.

  “We are going to practice together after school today, right, Karen?” Ian asked.

  I was glad that we were friends again. I smiled at him. “Yes,” I said. But I felt a little funny. I was nervous about the big show.

  As we walked back into our classroom, I gave my two best friends a quick hug. “I am sorry that I said you blabbed a secret.”

  I realized then how much I missed my friends. I was really glad that I was a Musketeer. I was also glad that soon skating would be over so I could spend more time with them. Kristy was right. A star skater has to make sacrifices. I did not want to make any more sacrifices! I did not want to give up anything. Being a star skater was a lot more work than I thought it would be.

  A Couple of Stars

  “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Andrew said to me. He was sitting at the kitchen table eating his breakfast. Mommy had made red frosted cupcakes for both my class and Andrew’s. I was excited about bringing them into school. And I could not wait to get valentine cards! I had decorated a shoe box as my mailbox.