On Thin Ice Read Online Free

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