The Ice Cream Crown Skating Races by Amy Laurens

Author:Amy Laurens [Laurens, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary fantasy for children, competitive ice skating stories, children's mystery stories with cozy mystery, portal fantasy stories for teens, clean children's fiction
Publisher: Inkprint Press
Published: 2021-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

“What happened?” Emma demanded as George skated back to the competitors’ area. “Why did you fall?”

“Was it Landon?” Mabel asked earnestly, coming to meet him as he stepped off the ice cream, glaring over his shoulder as Landon glided in behind, favouring his left knee a little.

George nodded. “Yeah, but it’s not what you think. There was another soft patch,” he added, meeting Emma’s gaze.

“Right,” she said, face tightening. “That’s it.”

She whirled and stomped away—directly toward the officials’ tent.

George watched her go for a moment, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mabes,” he said, stomach twisting and he turned back to her. He shivered. The wind had picked up, and now that he wasn’t hyped up on nerves or skating full pelt across the pond, he was starting to cool. The scent of waffle cones still hung heavy in the air, still turning his stomach, which was no longer knotting from nerves, but instead from disappointment. “The house...”

Mabel flung her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. “Oh George. I know. But you did your best, what else can we do?”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, hugging her back.

“Don’t be sorry,” Landon said from behind George, voice overly loud and obnoxious. “They’ll have to let us run it again. There’s no way this is fair.”

George squashed down the hope that threatened to rise again as Emma came striding up again, this time leading Audrey.

“You said there was another soft patch?” A small frown tugged at the corners of Audrey’s mouth and eyes as she herself tugged at the hem of her glittering silver jacket, the cold air reddening her pale cheeks.

George nodded. “Right before the Chocolate Twirl.”

“Do you think you could find it again?” said Audrey.

“Well obviously,” Landon said, rolling his eyes. “It’ll be where all the scraping is from the fall.”

“I know exactly where it is,” George added. He’d made sure of that before he’d left the pond, scanning in all directions for landmarks so he’d be able to find his way back to the place exactly.

“Show me.” Audrey gestured to the pond, now almost empty as everyone headed off for lunch. “If we can find evidence of tampering...”

Hope thrilled through George like adrenalin on fire. If they could find evidence... Was Landon right after all? Did that mean they’d rerun the race? That he might have a shot at the finals after all?

Practically skating as fast as in the actual races, George and Landon led Audrey and Emma out to the place on the pond where they’d fallen; Landon got there first and cast around uselessly for a moment, but George skated right to the place, exactly aligned between the entrance to the Chocolate Twirl, a distinctive swirl of pastel blue ice cream, and the western-most ice cream stand up at the fence where the crowd still milled, the noise of their chatter like a distant river in the background. “It was right... here...” George said, frowning at the ice cream surface which was completely flat, smooth... and entirely un-soft.

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