5 A new crew

Val drops me home and goes to work. As I close the front door, I hear Dad yawn and stretch upstairs. I’m back just in time. Then I notice one of my roller skates is missing! How could I have lost one of Mum’s roller skates? But I can’t go out to look for it because Dad is awake. I throw away the note I left for Dad. I don’t want him to know I went to the roller disco. He’d only tell me off and that would spoil a perfect evening.

The next morning, Meg tells us all about the roller disco. “You should have seen the masked skater, Ella. She was amazing! She ran away before Queenie could award her the trophy, though, and she dropped her boot.”

Val winks at me.

Dad looks tired when he comes home. I need to find the right moment to tell him about yesterday.

Then Lily walks in with my missing boot. “The mystery skater dropped this yesterday. I’m going to ask around and see if I can get it back to them.”

I shift uncomfortably in my seat as Dad recognises the boot. He says: “It can’t be … Ella wasn’t at the roller disco …” He looks disappointed.

Val interrupts. “I took Ella to the roller disco. I could see it was important to her, so I managed to sort something out at work.” She smiles at me kindly.

“Ella has talent!”

Meg describes my dance to Dad, then says: “Why don’t you see for yourself?”

We head down to the park. I put on Mum’s trusty boots and skate, looping and twirling, jumping and spinning.

When I stop, I can see Dad has a tear in his eye. “What’s wrong, Dad?”

He hugs me and says: “You’re just like your mum, Ella, and I’m so proud of you.”

Something changes in Dad after that. It’s like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders. He digs out his own roller skates from the loft and we all go roller skating together. Dad, Val, Meg, Lily and I are our very own roller-skating crew!