FWWEEEEET!
The sound of a shrill whistle woke Cedric and Sophia from a peaceful sleep. Both of them sat up as fast as they could, shocked beyond belief.
"Let's get going!" Lloyd shouted. "Can't keep the boss waiting, you know! Hup two, hup two, hup two!"
"What's going on?" Cedric asked, groping around the night table for his glasses.
"It's four fifteen in the morning," Sophia said.
"Next time, we won't let you sleep in!" Lloyd shouted. "Let's go, time for training!"
"This early?" Cedric asked, finally finding his spectacles.
"If she wants to be the next Peggy Lemming, then she gets up at the crack of dawn to practice!"
"But it isn't even dawn yet!"
Lloyd blew the whistle again. Afraid that he was going to wake up Forest (it was always a pain in the neck whenever Forest woke up in the middle of the night screaming, because then it took forever to get him back to sleep), Sophia grudgingly got up, and began looking for her skates. Then she went down to the lake with the Pigs. Cyril was already there, waiting for her.
"What took you so long?" he asked.
"I was asleep," Sophia said.
"No excuses, Sofa Girl! Now I want you on that lake and I want to see your best stuff!"
Sophia got out on the lake, and showed Cyril her best stuff, which was mostly her swan glides. She threw in an axle and a twirl here and there, but mostly, it was the swan glides that made her act.
"That was as impressive as watching paint dry," Cyril said. "No, no, no! You can't just go out there and do those glide things! You have to do something that sets you apart from all the other contestants! It's the big acts that win the big bucks!"
"What do you know about figure skating?" Sophia asked.
"Unfortunately, not much," Cyril said. "But the Pigs on the other hand . . . ."
"I've got it!" Lloyd shouted. "She can study our videos of Dorothy Ham's routines!"
"Dorothy Ham!" Floyd and Boyd sighed dreamily. The two of them collapsed in the snow just thinking about her.
Cyril didn't respond. He just told Sophia to go back out on the ice and do her routine again, but put a little more zing into it.
"Those glides are fine for amateurs!" Cyril shouted at her as she skated. "But you want to show the judges something professional! Skate like you've never skated before!"
Sophia took a deep breath and skated. Cyril kept watching and criticizing her all morning. After awhile, the Raccoons came skating by, passing around a hockey puck. Bert hit it too hard, and it collided with Sophia's feet. She tripped, and fell with a THUMP!
"GET OFF THE ICE, YOU RING-TAILED RATS!" Cyril shouted at the top of his voice. "CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE WORKING HERE?!"
"What's going on?" Melissa asked, skating over. She and Ralph pulled Sophia to her feet.
"I'm coaching Sofa Girl in skating," Cyril said. "If you must know!"
"There's a figure skating competition coming up," Sophia said. "First prize is a million dollar movie contract."
"And Sofa Girl is going to win it," Cyril said. "That is once she gets her routine perfected."
"What's there to perfect?" Bert asked. "We already know Sophia's the best figure skater in the Evergreen Forest."
"Show us your routine, Sophia," Ralph said.
Sophia skated out to the middle of the lake and started her routine. While she was in the middle of it, she collided with another skater, and both of them crashed to the ground.
"Watch where you're going!" the other skater, who was a thin girl aardvark with blond hair.
"Sorry," Sophia said. Then she and the other skater stood up. When Sophia got a good look at her, a surprised look came to her face.
"Carrie Anne Snodgress?" she asked.
"Sophia Tutu," Carrie Anne said. "Well, isn't this a surprise? You entered in the figure skating contest?"
"Yes, actually. Are you?"
"Of course I am! And I'm going to win!"
"Hey Sophia!" Bert called out. "You okay? We saw you two crash."
"Yes, I'm fine," Sophia said.
"Next time, be more careful, Sophia, dear," Carrie Anne said. "I can't afford any accidents!"
"Hey, Sophia, who is this?" Bert asked.
"This is Carrie Anne Snodgress," Sophia said. "She and I went to the same high school. Carrie Anne, these are my friends, Ralph, Melissa, and Bert Raccoon."
"Eh," Carrie Anne said, wrinkling her nose at the Raccoons. "You're hanging out with fleabags now, are you? Puh-leeze, I wouldn't be caught dead associating with raccoons!"
"Head cheerleader, homecoming queen, most popular girl in school?" Bert asked Sophia.
"And her boyfriend was captain of the football team," Sophia answered with a nod. At that point, Cyril came over, glaring.
"This isn't social hour, Sofa Girl!" he yelled. "Get back on the ice and practice, practice, practice!"
"Who's this?" Carrie Anne asked. "Your coach?"
"Yes," Sophia replied. "Carrie Anne, this is Cyril Sneer, who's not only my coach, but my father-in-law."
"And the biggest millionaire in the Evergreen Forest!" Lloyd shouted.
"Well, all the practicing you're going to do isn't going to help you win, Sophia," Carrie Anne said. "Watch this!"
Carrie Anne skating to center ice and began her routine. She twisted, twirled, leaped high into the air, and performed not a double axle, not a triple axle, but a quadruple axle! Everyone just stood there, wide eyed.
"Boy, not even Dorothy Ham can do a quadruple axle!" Boyd commented.
"Peggy Lemming can't, either," Bert replied.
"All right, Sophia," Carrie Anne said. "Let's see if you can top that."
Sophia gulped. She wasn't so sure if she could top that, but she was going to try. She did some of her swan glides, a couple of leaps, and some twirls. Ralph, Melissa, and Bert applauded for her when she was finished. Carrie Anne simply yawned.
"Not bad," she said. "Not bad at all, but those leaps could use some work."
"I know," Sophia said. "Maybe if I push off a little higher on them."
"You know, you could jump a lot higher if you lost a couple of pounds."
"Really?"
"Oh sure. I lost some weight and now I'm jumping higher than I ever could before."
Carrie Anne skating off to work on her routine. Sophia thought over what she said, and looked at her reflection in the ice. She wondered if Carrie Anne was right about her jumps. She didn't think she needed to lose any weight, but then again, Carrie Anne was the one who had the more impressive routine.
"Maybe I go on a diet," she said to herself as she skated off to work on her own routine. "It wouldn't hurt to get in shape for the competition, anyway."