Charlotte and the Starlet (13 page)

Leila narrowed her eyes at the sight of that bully-boy
stallion trotting out into the arena as if he was
Lord Muck. Huh! Leila hoped he broke a leg. But the
way he sailed over jump after jump told her that
wasn't likely. What a show-off!

Charlotte watched Todd Greycroft's round, riveted.
She had always refused to believe that any boy could
ride better than her but Todd Greycroft was very, very
good. He finished his perfect round, doffed his helmet
without conceit and moved back to the line. She
suddenly felt a lump in her throat. Now it was up to
her to make sure Thornton won.

'Richards,' commanded Strudworth.

Charlotte led Leila around to approach the low
hedge. Both were confident and Leila sailed over it
easily. On her return Leila made sure she made eye
contact with the stallion. Her look said it all: 'That's
right, buster, white girls can jump!' She felt Charlie
turn her towards the hurdle and begin the approach.

All of a sudden things started getting blurry. It felt
like she had a beach ball in her stomach. Too late, she
realised she should never have had that second
Mexicana. She tried to urge her fat, overstuffed body
up into the air.

On the takeoff, Charlotte could feel that all was
not right with Leila. Then she heard the dreaded
'clunk' of the hurdle pole rattling off behind. She saw
Strudworth's face fall while Lucinda's, Rebecca's and
Emma's broke into smiles. It was galling but it would
all be forgotten. Thornton was still well in front. The
water jump was a cinch. SPLASH!

Leila's hooves wobbled in the mud. The smiles of
The Evil Three grew bigger.

'What is your problem?' asked Charlotte angrily.
They were far enough away not to be overheard.

'I'm sorry, I think I've got a virus,' said Leila.

Charlotte felt bad for snapping at her. She was
much more worried about Leila than winning some
silly event, though it was still uncomfortable to feel
the eyes of everybody burning into her. Todd
Greycroft would be watching and he'd think she was
an absolute dud if she didn't clear the wall. Surely they
could do it. She tried to gee herself up but as soon as
they faced it she felt Leila sag. Trying to boost Leila's
confidence, she said, 'Remember, those bricks are
only cardboard.'

So is a pizza box and look at all the problems that
caused, thought Leila.

Charlotte started her approach. She prayed it was
going to be okay. Just one good jump and then she
could get Leila back to her box and look after her. But
as they got near the takeoff point Leila not only
stopped but sank to her belly.

'Now that's what I call a refusal,' commented an
excited Emma to Lucinda and Rebecca. Then,
realising that Strudworth was looking their way, she
quickly changed her broad grin into a false frown.

Todd Greycroft recognised the girl and horse he'd
met the day before. He felt very sorry for her. He could
tell there was something the matter with her horse.

When it stopped and lay down, the line of Milthorp
boys cheered. Todd turned angrily towards them.

'What are you cheering for? They would have
beaten us except for that horse.'

When she heard the cheering Charlotte felt
humiliated. She wished she could turn invisible. No
such luck. She would just have to bear it. There were
worse things in life than a little humiliation. The most
important thing was that Leila got better.

'It's okay, Leila, don't worry. You did your best. We'll
get the vet to look at you.'

Leila fought to keep down a burp.

'No, no, I'm sure it's only temporary. In fact, I feel
a little better already.' From the corner of her eye
she caught the grey mare looking at her with
barely concealed contempt. She shot back a look of
her own. Big deal, so she didn't make the jump. She'd
get over it next time. This was just a friendly. This
didn't count.

Charlotte avoided the other girls on the way back to
the stables. She was quite aware they blamed her for
losing the jump-off but there was nothing she could
do about that. She and Leila had done their best.

When they were alone in the stables Leila assured
Charlotte she was already feeling much better and
there was no need for a vet. Charlotte kissed her
and told her not to worry about the jumps. The most
important thing was to get better. She had wanted to
stay but Leila insisted she would be fine with a little
rest so Charlotte had reluctantly left her alone.

As she stepped outside, she got the shock of her
life. Todd Greycroft was standing there.

'Hi. Charlotte, right?'

Charlotte was completely taken aback. 'Are you
allowed to be here?'

'Probably not,' he shrugged. 'But I wanted to see
how your horse was.'

'I think she's going to be fine.'

'And you, of course. That was rotten luck.'

Charlotte felt herself blushing. It was just too awful
to think he'd seen that ride. 'I lost us the event,' she
said bluntly.

'Nonsense. Your horse got sick. Could happen to
any of us.'

It was nice of him to say so, even if she still felt
guilty about it. 'You rode brilliantly,' she said. 'Bad
ankle and all.'

He smiled. 'Thanks. When my ankle's better and
your horse is well, we might have to race one another,
don't you think? Loser can give the winner a Mars
Bar.'

Charlotte grinned. 'That's an excellent idea.'

Todd looked around him to make sure he hadn't
been spied. 'I had better be off. See you again,
Charlotte.'

And before she could find the words to reply he
was hopping off on one leg. He looked funny. But not
silly. Boys like Todd never really looked silly.

Charlotte suddenly felt a whole lot better. Now she
had two friends out here. She was almost floating as
she made her way to the dining room but she came
back down to earth when The Evil Three sidled up
beside her.

'Nice jumping,' said Emma and the other two
laughed. Charlotte fought the urge to pop somebody
on the nose. She ate quickly by herself then returned
to the boiler room, where she began writing a letter to
her dad. This was the second time she had written
and, like last time, she didn't come anywhere near
telling him the truth. She wrote about the wonderful
view from her room, the terrific food, and the great
friend she had made, Leila. She didn't mention that
Leila was a horse. There was a knock on her door and
a girl named Caitlin poked her head in to tell her she
was wanted in Strudworth's office immediately.
Charlotte's first thought was that Strudworth was
going to blast her for losing the jump-off. Then she
panicked that something bad had happened with
Leila's virus. She raced there as quickly as possible and
knocked on the door.

'Come in, Richards, and close the door behind you.'

Charlotte did. She could tell that Miss Strudworth
was upset about something.

'Is Leila all right?'

'Leila's fine. Can you explain what this was doing in
her stall?'

Strudworth flashed a tin on which was written
'petty cash'.

Charlotte shook her head.

'You didn't take it from the downstairs office?'

'No.'

'Bevans found it in Leila's stall, hidden at the back.
He also found a number of empty pizza cartons
outside Leila's window. I made some enquiries with
the pizza restaurant. They told me that Charlotte
Richards ordered the pizzas and said that there would
be cash left for them in the stall.'

Charlotte was angry. She knew exactly what had
happened.

'Do you think I would be that stupid? It's quite
obvious that Emma Cross and her friends are trying
to set me up.'

Strudworth studied the girl in front of her. What
she said was not beyond the realms of possibility.

'That's a very serious accusation,' she said.

'So is being told you're a thief.' Charlotte folded her
arms defiantly.

A short time later The Evil Three stood before
Strudworth in her office. Charlotte had been told to
stand at the back. Strudworth wasted no time. She
asked outright if they'd ordered pizzas in Charlotte's
name. Rebecca was outraged.

'No way would I do that. Do you know how many
calories there are in pizza?'

Strudworth looked to Emma and Lucinda. Lucinda
acidly reminded Strudworth that her father was a
successful defamation lawyer and wondered what
Strudworth would do without the academy, the horses
or the clothes on her back.

'What time did the call come through?' asked
Emma.

Strudworth checked her notes.

'Six-twenty.'

Emma smiled smugly. 'Then it couldn't have been
us because we were in the common room in front of a
dozen students performing our Best Of
Charmed
routine.'

The others joined in the triumph.

'In fact,' added Lucinda, 'the only person who
wasn't there was her.'

She nodded at Charlotte, who again felt the
pressure had shifted back onto her. 'I was in my room,
alone,' said Charlotte, and hated the fact that it
sounded like an admission.

Strudworth sighed deeply. 'Very well. I'll need to
think on this. Return to your rooms, please.'

As Charlotte left she felt Miss Strudworth's eyes on
her back.

'She thinks I did it!' Charlotte paced in the stable,
explaining to Leila. 'I was so sure it was them. Did you
see anybody near your stall?'

Leila hadn't foreseen this complication.

'Me? No, um, can't say I did.'

Charlotte started to work out the logic.

'Which means it must have been done while
we were out, but then the order was taken at
six-twenty.'

Slowly out of the fog of conjecture a solid picture
began to emerge, one she kicked herself for not seeing
right off.

'Wait a second ...' The image that had solidified in
her mind was Leila the pizza-freak eating herself sick.
'Oh, how stupid have I been? It was you!'

Leila put on her most contrite voice.

'The tin said
petty
cash so I thought, who cares? If
they call it petty it means it's insignificant, right? I just
got a wicked taste for pizza.'

Charlotte was as angry as she had ever been. And
deeply hurt. The only thing that had made Thornton
Downs bearable had been her one good friend, Leila.
But that friendship was worth nothing. Leila had just
been using her.

'Sorry, kid. I didn't mean to cause trouble.'

Charlotte turned on Leila, fighting back tears.

'No, that's just it, you're not sorry at all. You don't
care what happens to anybody but yourself.' She was
seeing it all so clearly now. 'And that's why you were
so poor over the jumps, wasn't it? You ate yourself
sick. You're a truly selfish beast.'

'Hey, if I was that selfish I wouldn't have kept two
slices of the Three Cheeses for you. I waited a whole
extra hour, almost, before I ate them.'

'You aren't a real friend. You just wanted me to
make the JOES so I would call your producer. Well,
you can find some other bozo. I'm fed up with selfish,
mean people – and horses. If this is what the JOES is
all about then I don't want to be part of it.'

Oh, oh. Leila could see the palms of Hollywood
receding fast. She tried to remember a script where
she'd had to talk Sarah-Jane around.

'Charlie, Charlie, this is an overreaction.'

But Charlotte had made up her mind. She pulled
her saddle from the stall.

'I hope you make it back to Hollywood, I really do.
Then at least you'll be twenty thousand kilometres
away.'

Leila watched her stomp up towards the stable exit.
She couldn't let Charlotte have the last say.

'You've got a lot to learn, Charlie. You have a look at
how actors react when they miss out on an Oscar.
They don't storm out, they act dignified. It's only later
they throw tantrums.'

But by now she was speaking to herself.

Leila snorted. The kid was bluffing. Where was she
going to go?

Nobody saw the small figure making its way through
the grounds in the direction of the highway lugging the
saddle. Charlotte fought the urge to cry. The JOES had
been everything she had aspired to. She had wanted to
make her dad proud. She had wanted to be graceful and
beautiful like her mum. But it wasn't going to happen
and the sooner she faced that the better.

She'd been kidding herself. To make the JOES you
needed rich parents and lots of skills on how to be
sneaky and bitchy that she'd never learned and had no
intention of learning. She would go back to Snake
Hills and be a stockman like her father. Next year she
would win the Golden Buckle. She felt guilty about
the people at Snake Hills who had put in money for
her but she resolved to work hard and pay them back
every cent. Better they put the money to good use
than waste it. Strudworth was going to boot her out
anyway. She figured she had just enough money for a
bus fare to the city and a train fare from there to Snake
Hills. She had never been to a big city before but she
reckoned she could handle that. Nothing could be
more unfriendly than here.

Leila did not sleep at all. She felt really bad. It wasn't
just her tummy, either. In fact her tummy was nothing
compared to how she felt in her heart.

'You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' the grey mare
had whinnied after the kid had stormed off. Leila didn't
need to be told. The shame she felt was a whole new
emotion. She couldn't think of one other time in her
whole life when she'd actually felt bad about making
somebody else's life a misery. She'd never once worried
about Sarah-Jane. With good reason – Sarah-Jane was a
little witch who dug the heels of her riding boots into
her. But maybe, Leila speculated, if she had been nicer
to Sarah-Jane instead of competing with her, things
might have been different?

And look at Tommy Tempest. He'd always treated
Leila well but plenty of times Leila had made Tommy's
life a misery just for the sport of it. And her mom, well,
okay, maybe there was something in what Charlotte
had said about her having to be a mom and a dad.
Hopefully when Charlotte came around in the morning
she wouldn't be quite so mad. Leila would promise not
to even think about pizza until the end of the trials, and
she would keep that promise. Leila looked out of her
stall at the black night and prayed for dawn to hurry up.

Somebody else who had slept fitfully that night was
Miss Strudworth. Normally her hair net would be
undisturbed when she awoke but this wretched
business with the Richards girl had quite undone her.
What was she to do? The evidence against her was
compelling but not definitive. Expulsion was drastic.
Thornton had never had a student expelled in its
history. But on the other hand, theft was a most
heinous crime that showed total lack of character.
And the Richards girl had accused those others. No
angels – certainly not, little witches in fact – but to
smear somebody's character ...

Oh dear, it was all so difficult. Strudworth really
identified with the poor Queen and what it must be
like to head
that
particular family. Strudworth had
been in such a state that she had not even time for
her toast and marmalade. She'd skipped breakfast
and now sat on her horse, watching the girls fall
into line.

Robotically, she reminded them that this was their
last day of practice. 'Tomorrow we start your finals
with dressage. Tuesday will be show-jumping and
Wednesday we'll be finishing with the point-to-point.'

Something was not right and now she realised what
it was. The face she most needed to see was not there.

'Has anybody seen Richards?'

Lucinda piped up.

'She wasn't at breakfast.'

Strudworth tried to keep the lid on her exasperation.
'Why didn't you tell me?'

Rebecca explained she had been listening to her
iPod.

'And it's not like she's that noticeable,' added
Emma, to general agreement.

Lucinda felt the need to elaborate. 'Her wardrobe is
the pits.'

A short time later a concerned Strudworth stood in
the stables with Hatcher. They had checked the boiler
room and found it cleaned out.

'Looks like Charlotte has run away.'

Leila listened to this development with dread
building in her heart.

Hatcher sighed wearily, 'I guess she couldn't
handle being caught. She's probably got a bus to the
city and from there she'll get a coach or train back
home.'

The idea of a thirteen-year-old country girl alone in
the city troubled Strudworth greatly. There were too
many dangers. She announced she would phone the
police. She and Hatcher left.

Leila looked over at the condemnatory face of the
grey mare.

'I know. I know,' she blurted.

A big city was tough enough for anybody to handle,
but Charlie there! That would be like a little woolly
lamb being led to the slaughter. The kid had no
survival skills. There were bad people in the city, and
Leila wasn't just thinking of agents and reviewers. She
couldn't rely on police to find Charlotte. After all,
Leila had been nag-napped, taken to the other side of
the world, and no police had any idea where she'd
gone. No, she was going to have to do it herself.