Charlotte and the Starlet 2 (2 page)

'You've been here ... How long is it now?'

'Six weeks, two days.'

'Have you had a good time?'

'Look, it hasn't been like cocktail hour in Vegas or
anything but, yeah, apart from nearly being drowned
in mud and eaten alive by mosquitoes the size of
eagles, it's been fun.'

'I want you to know I really appreciate your effort
to fit in here, so I thought I should give you a little
taste of your home town.'

'Tacos?'

Charlotte shook her head. Leila had a one-track
mind.

'I asked Mr Boskos to have a movie night.'

'Movies? You told me there was no movie-house
here. Have you been holding out on me?'

'There is no cinema here. When we have a movie,
we use the side of Mr Boskos' shop as a screen.'
Charlotte pointed to the large white wall at the end of
the street. A flickering image appeared on it as she
spoke.

'Aw, Charlie, that's too much. Which one of my
movies are you showing?
Dressage to Kill
? That's
probably my best. Tommy Tempest, the director, got
this great zoom in on my legs ...'

'Sorry, it's not one of yours. I think I told you, we
don't get anything after 1990.'

Leila grunted. 'So what have we got?'

'I hope you like musicals. We have
Grease.
'

'
Grease
? John T. Oh-En-Jay – that's Olivia Newton-
John in case you don't know.'

'I know. My mum used to have her records. She's
Australian.'

'Really? Well, she speaks English proper like an
American. You guys could learn something from her.
I love
Grease.
It was the first movie I ever watched
with my mom.'

The audience was not sitting in seats as they would
in a normal theatre. Some families had pointed the
backs of their utes and pick-up trucks at the screen
and were camped in the trays on picnic rugs. Others
sat on bonnets of their cars facing the screen. A few
stockmen sat quietly on the horses they had ridden
into town. Charlotte found her dad perched on the
bonnet of his old station wagon.

'Don't know why you wanted to ride the horse in.'

'I wanted to give Leila a treat.'

'Charlie, the way you treat that horse, anyone
would think she was human.'

Charlotte grinned. Leila was close to human as you
can get with four legs.

It didn't matter that Charlotte had seen the film
twice before, she loved it. Even when big bugs attracted
by the projector light blocked almost the whole screen
with their silhouette, her enjoyment did not ebb. The
audience laughed or made jokes or honked car horns.
Her dad got sentimental. He had only been about
Charlotte's age when
Grease
had first come out. But her
mother and he had seen it years later at the open air
picture theatre in Goondowi Downs.

'Don't take too long getting back,' he called out as
he peeled away after the movie had finished. 'Big day
tomorrow.'

Charlotte and Leila took their time on the ride
home. The three-quarter moon offered ample light for
them to pick their way through the scrub. Charlotte
couldn't help babbling enthusiastically abut all the
parts of the movie she had liked.

'And "Summer Nights", I think that's my favourite
song.'

Leila snorted. 'You just say that because you
imagine it's you and Todd getting all dreamy-eyed and
smoochy.'

Charlotte was indignant.

'Todd's not my boyfriend. He's just a friend.'

'He's just a friend,' mimicked Leila.

'But he is.'

'She protests too much,' quipped Leila.

'What do you mean by that?'

'Means where there's smoke there's fire. Hey, I don't
blame you. Todd is rich, good looking and a nice kid.
And he must like you or he wouldn't have flown all
the way up here in his private plane to go riding with
you for a day.'

While Charlotte hoped what Leila said was true,
she wasn't owning up to any feelings other than
friendship.

'That's his business. He's still just a friend.' She
changed the subject. 'Did you like the film?'

'Could have done with some horses.'

Charlotte tried to get Leila talking more but she
only answered in monosyllables. 'You okay, Leila?'

'I'm tired. Like your dad said, big day.'

The real reason Leila was quiet was because the
movie made her remember all the things about her old
life that she'd loved. There was nothing like being on
set – loads of make-up people fussing over you,
squirting you down if you got too hot, rugging you up
with a nice heat pack if you displayed the barest
sniffle. Sure you had to put up with the likes of that
freckle-faced moron Sarah-Jane, Leila's co-star, but all
in all it was fun. You were a princess and all the crew
were your doting slaves. The trouble was, it wasn't
real. It was make-believe. And the friends you thought
you had were make-believe. Leila had learned that the
hard way when she'd wound up in Australia. Apart
from her talking parrot mate, Feathers, Joel Gold and
her director, Tommy Tempest, she had been quickly
forgotten. Charlotte was different. Charlotte was a
true friend. She didn't think about what Leila could do
for her but what she could do for Leila.

If they could all see me now, Leila thought later that
evening, as she stood in her yard listening to clicking
crickets. Leila, the spoiled Hollywood brat, not lazing
about in her massive Winnebago but here in the open,
at the far end of the earth. She looked up at those stars.
They were pretty. What's more, they were real. Sure,
she missed her old life, the parties, the awards nights,
the hoof-controlled air-conditioning, but she'd never
been fitter, tougher or more horse than she was now.
Warrior, that stuck-up stallion Todd Greycroft rode,
was going to get the shock of his life when they began
competing in the JOES. Actually, it was pretty scary.
Lots of top show-horses were going to be at the
academy and while Leila might be a movie star, when
it came to equestrian stuff, she was a novice. She
comforted herself with the knowledge that she and
Charlotte were a team. But she knew that only time
would tell if, by giving up movies, she had made the
biggest mistake of her life.

Thirteen hours after they had left Snake Hills in her
father's battered station wagon, towing the old horse
float, Charlotte stood in the driveway of Thornton
Downs and hugged him tight.

'I'll miss you, Dad.'

'I'll miss you too. Promise you'll study hard.'

Unlike the previous time she'd been at Thornton
Downs, this was not vacation time. Charlotte was
going to have to attend school classes as well as all her
equestrian lessons.

'Of course.'

Charlotte didn't mind schoolwork. She just didn't
like it anywhere near as much as riding a horse. In
the lee of a mountain range and a thousand kilometres
to the south, Thornton Downs was much
cooler and greener than Snake Hills. Dusk was trying
its best to settle but the bright headlights of the
convoy of expensive European sedans arriving to
deposit the other JOES wouldn't let it. Charlotte gave
her dad one final squeeze.

'Keep writing to me.'

Being a stockman who spent weeks at a time
droving cattle in the outback, her dad found the world
of the internet and email totally foreign. He preferred
pen and paper.

'Course I will.'

One final wave and he was gone. Charlotte stared
after him, sadness welling. Leila's muzzle pushed into
her cheek.

'At least you've got me.'

Charlotte reached up and stroked her.

'That's true.'

'So let's get a move on or you'll miss dinner and I'll
be stuck with nothing but that horrible chaff.'

Charlotte smiled and shook her head. Leila was
incorrigible. She'd already made Charlotte promise to
sneak out to the stables with a helping of the JOES
dinner.

'Better get you to the stables.'

They had barely gone twenty metres when they saw
The Evil Three heading their way. Emma, Lucinda and
Rebecca had done their utmost to make Charlotte's
first stay at Thornton Downs miserable. She noticed
they all had new hairstyles. And new designer clothes
to go with them. Emma's face broke into a bright and
entirely fake smile.

'Hi, Charlie. Hope you brought that gorgeous dress
of yours again. Our nightmares haven't been the same
without it.'

Charlotte wasn't fazed.

'If you're running short on nightmares you could
just imagine life on a desert island with only Rebecca
and Lucinda for company.'

Charlotte strode off, leaving the three with their
mouths agape.

Impressed, Leila whispered, 'Nice one, Charlotte.
You're learning fast.'

They entered the stables to find other girls settling in
their horses. Bevans, the stable foreman, a laconic
character in his fifties with bushy eyebrows, a
weathered face and a beak of a nose, was busy fixing
new hooks for the girls to hang their tack on.

'How are you, Miss Charlotte?'

'Bit tired, Bevans, but otherwise okay. Did you
enjoy the break?'

'No break for me. There's a lot to get ready for you
girls.'

A man's voice cut in hard.

'Bevans, we don't pay you to gasbag. The sprinklers
in C paddock need rotating.'

The man who spoke was new to Thornton
Downs. He would have been quite tall standing
straight but with stooped, thin shoulders he was
only slightly taller than Bevans. He wore a dark blue
blazer with a striped tie and regular shoes, not boots
like Bevans.

'Which one is C paddock again, Mr Chadwick?'

'The one after B paddock, of course.'

When he spoke, Chadwick's prominent Adam's
apple bobbed and his black horn-rimmed spectacles
did calisthenics.

'Yes, but I'm not sure which one B paddock is either.'

Chadwick made a sound through his button nose
that showed he was annoyed. 'B paddock is the one
with the big gum tree in the middle.'

'Ah, that would be One Tree.'

'And C paddock is the one to the west of it.'

Charlotte couldn't help herself.

'You mean Cowhide Corner?'

Chadwick turned and glared at her. Through his
spectacles his eyes seemed enormous. They swivelled
and rolled. His voice went up a few tones.

'I mean C paddock!'

'But why not call it Cowhide Corner?' asked
Charlotte innocently.

Chadwick almost shouted.

'Because that is not systematic! This place needs a
system and by hook or by crook I'm going to make
sure it gets one.'

With that he stormed outside.

'Who is he?' asked Charlotte. Leila was thinking
the same thing.

Bevans sighed the sigh of a man who had been
putting up with the trial that was Chadwick for the
last month.

'That is Mr Chadwick, Miss Strudworth's nephew.'

'Is he working here?'

Bevans' eyes twinkled.

'That might depend on your definition of work. He
certainly spends a lot of time organising others.
Excuse me, Charlotte, I'd best head off to C paddock.'
He winked and left.

'Odds on Chadwick's an accountant,' whispered
Leila. 'I remember when the accountants took over
the film studios back in Hollywood. Worst thing that
ever happened. The Winnebagos got smaller, the onset
hours longer. Even the ice-cream sundaes were
suddenly low-fat.'

'How did you get rid of them?'

Leila shrugged, 'Eventually they screw up. You just
have to wait till they fail miserably and then they
promote themselves off to some other job.'

Charlie settled Leila into her stall. Leila made her
attach a mirror to the wall.

'Nothing worse than chatting up some hot stallion
then finding you've got hay stuck between your teeth.'

'You want me to brush you down?'

'Na. You better get going to the buffet or all the best
food will be gone.'

'Okay. I'll see you later.'

'Four sausages. And ice-cream,' Leila called out
after her. Leila sashayed cockily and addressed, in
horse, the grey mare who occupied the stall beside
her. 'Saw your pal Warrior during vacation.'

The grey mare cocked an eyebrow. 'And?'

They had begun as sworn enemies, the grey mare
not approving of Leila's human traits, but eventually
the ice had thawed a little. While not exactly friends
yet, they didn't hate one another.

'And nothing. Just wanted to warn you he seemed
pretty taken with me.'

The grey mare snorted.

'Warrior and I are just friends. He's broken the
hearts of too many fillies and mares for me to even
consider him. Good luck.'

'Hey, I'm not the least bit interested in that big
black show-off.'

'Sure you're not, Leila.'

Leila was miffed. She was a movie star. Okay, an exmovie
star. Warrior might think he was something
special but that cut no mustard with her. She had her
friend Charlotte and that was the only friend she
needed.

Charlotte noted she had been assigned the Trigger
room on the second floor of the main building. She
carted her pack up the wide, polished staircase
and along dark, wood-panelled corridors until she
found the two-bed room at the back of the building. Its
small window had a view out over the paddocks to the
woods beyond. There was no sign of another occupant
and Charlotte wondered if she would have the room to
herself. That would be fine by her. Last term she had
spent most of her time in the windowless boiler-room
in the basement, which had been far more preferable to
sharing with The Evil Three with whom she had
originally been assigned.

Charlotte unpacked and hung her few clothes,
taking time to admire the new dress she had brought
with her. A pretty blue with a black trimmed neck,
Leila had helped her design it. Charlotte had Mrs
Devine sew it up in return for cleaning up her yard. It
was the most beautiful bit of clothing Charlotte had
ever owned. There was just enough time to shower
and change into her dress and make it down to the
dining room for dinner.

For Caroline Strudworth, this evening should have
been a happy one. There was little that gave her more
pleasure than an intake of young equestriennes, girls
who would be groomed for international competition,
with a view to one day representing their country
in the Olympics. Strudworth had been eagerly
anticipating her squad going up against those of her
old riding 'enemies' like Christiane Von List, who
headed the German equivalent of the JOES, or
Tammy-Lee Teetlebaum the Third, who quartered
herself in leafy New England and looked after young
American competitors. Being spinsters like her, the
old battles they once waged personally on the
arena were now continued by proxy through their
young charges. It should have been enough to get
Strudworth doing somersaults but, regrettably, there
was something of a sheet-anchor to her high spirits at
the moment. Something called Chadwick.

It had been observed by many that Caroline
Strudworth had assumed the characteristics of the
beloved quadrupeds that had dominated her life. She
was tall, her face long, her mouth wide, her teeth the
dimensions of tiles on a bathroom wall. And when she
laughed, it was with a distinct whinny. Alas, there was
no laughing tonight.

Strudworth's older sister, Laura, had long ago
married Mitchell, who had the personality of a teapot
and the brains of an iguana and had successfully
passed both traits on to his son, Chadwick. As a four-year-old,
Chadwick had thought it fun to yank the tail
of poor Zucchini, Strudworth's fabulous jumper, who
now spent his days stuffed, inside a glass case in her
office. As a six-year-old, Chadwick whined for 'treats',
refusing to ride because horses were smelly. She had
not seen Chadwick for many years, something for
which she had been extremely grateful. Chadwick was
an accountant who had worked himself to a position
in a company where he fired people from their jobs
but, in an ironic twist, had been forced to fire himself
after a bout of company cost-cutting. Laura had
prevailed on her sister to find him work at Thornton
Downs. Under normal circumstances Strudworth
might have declined, but Laura had not been well of
late and Strudworth felt obliged.

Chadwick had bowled in a month ago full of ideas
to make Thornton Downs 'efficient'. He'd already got
some of the staff offside by increasing their hours. Day
one and his new, low-cost menu of baked beans and
mince on toast had proved an unmitigated disaster,
causing grumbling in the dining room for the early
arrivers. The last thing Strudworth needed was a
complaint from her charges to the JOES administrators
about the standard at Thornton Downs. There were
any number of other academies desirous of her status
as official JOES residence.

The sight of Charlotte Richards heading down the
stairs brightened her a little. Charlotte had not had
the easiest time at Thornton Downs in the qualifying
trials, and Strudworth had come to understand she
hadn't helped the poor, motherless girl adjust from
life in the outback.

'Evening, Richards. Enjoy your break?'