Charlotte and the Starlet (21 page)

They grabbed each other and fell to the ground,
fighting.

'You take that back,' snarled Emma.

'Or what, Emma? You're going to throw my boots
up the tree like you did Charlie's?'

Emma bent Lucinda's hand back.

'Take it back or get used to drawing your cartoons
with your mouth.'

Two sensible brown shoes came into focus beside
them. The girls stopped wrestling and looked up to
see Strudworth peering down.

'I might have known,' she said, with thinly veiled
disgust.

Meanwhile out on the creek-bank, Rebecca
shivered in her bikini, fanning herself as if she was on
the beach, saying loudly in the hope Todd might be
nearby, 'It's so-oo hot here.'

Todd, however, was not nearby. He was having a
great time dancing with Charlotte. When the band
leader announced it was the last song, both he and
Charlotte were equally disappointed.

'I had a great time, Charlotte,' Todd said as he
waited to board the bus, which was taking all the boys
back to Milthorp.

'Me too.'

He was the last on the bus, still waving to her as
the door closed. Charlotte waved back. She felt a
little giddy but in a good way. As the bus pulled
away down the drive Charlotte thought of the fun
they would have riding together in the JOES. She'd
have a real friend here. Unfortunately, not her
best
friend. All of a sudden she was very, very sad

It filled Leila with satisfaction as she watched the
Milthorp bus pull away. Mission accomplished. She'd
been so happy that Todd had taken an interest in
Charlotte and Charlotte had done herself proud,
matching every move those three little witches had
made.

'Leila!'

The excited man's voice sounded familiar. Leila
shot a look over her stall door. No! It couldn't be! But
it was. Tommy Tempest and Joel Gold, big smiles on
their dials, laden with pizza, were moving towards
her.

Leila realised she had been so carried away with the
actual event today she had forgotten all about
Hollywood and mugging to the camera. How had they
found her so quickly? But even as she asked herself
the question she knew there was only one answer.
Charlotte!

She reflexively swung to look back out her window.
Charlotte was standing there beneath the moonlight
staring back. Then she turned on her heel and moved
off.

Leila sniffed the heavenly odour of pizza as Tommy
shoved boxes under her nose.

'Here you go Leila. Hawaiian, Three Cheeses,
Mexicana.'

Joel Gold unfurled a movie poster.

'And check this out! The poster for your next
movie:
Stirrup and Pancake
.' Leila noted right away
her name was double the size of Sarah-Jane's.

Gold was like an excited kid. 'Sarah-Jane kicked up
a fuss but I said, GET OVER IT. Leila's the star!'

Tommy was telling her she was gonna love
Stirrup
and Pancake
, a film about a young rider who becomes
a Broadway star. Leila was overwhelmed. It was like
all her dreams had come true.

In her room Charlotte lay on her bed telling herself
she had no right to get upset. After all, she had come
to Thornton Downs to make the JOES and she had
succeeded. She had called the Hollywood people after
the dressage. That had been the deal. Leila had kept
her part of the bargain and it had been up to Charlotte
to keep hers.

She wished her father were there to console her
but he was staying in town. Anyway, she had to get
used to dealing with this stuff by herself. Her dad
wouldn't be around next term. Neither would Leila.
In Todd, she would have a friend in the squad, that
was something. She sighed. Todd was nice but he
wasn't Leila. If only ...

She stopped herself. She couldn't wish that Leila
didn't go back. That was Leila's life and in life you had
to do what you were born to do. She would just try
and be happy for her.

The next morning in the stables, Charlotte brushed
Leila for what each knew would be the last time. Leila
had told Charlotte all about the new film and
Charlotte had made all the right noises, doing her best
to appear brave.

'We had some fun, didn't we?'

'Yes, we sure did, kid.'

Charlotte felt there was something she had to say
before they parted company. 'I'm sure your mum
would like to hear from you.'

'Nah. She doesn't care.'

'Of course she does. You know when you had that
fever, you rambled on about how you wanted her to
forgive you.'

'Yeah, well, I was delirious,' said Leila defensively.

'Just because she got it wrong sometimes, doesn't
mean she doesn't love you. Look at my dad. The dress
he had made for me was so gross I could've worn it to
the Oscars.'

Leila couldn't help herself, she laughed a kind of
wheezy cackle. 'Hey, not bad. I tell you, Charlie, you
surprise me, you've got a sense of humour after all.'

Charlotte knew if she stayed any longer she would
burst into tears. 'Well, I had better go and pack.'

Leila nodded. 'If you're ever in Hollywood ...'

'If you're ever in Snake Hills ...'

They stood in awkward silence, then Charlotte
hung the brush up, kissed Leila on her nose for
the last time and walked away.

She didn't see the big tear spill from Leila's eye onto
the hay.

'There must be onions somewhere,' muttered Leila
to the grey mare, who gazed across from her stall.

Strudworth watched the ritual of parents picking up
their children, a number of whom would soon be back
as JOES elite-squad members. Others would sell their
ponies and move onto some other dream.

She was looking forward to young Charlotte
reaching her potential. That girl could go to the very
highest level. Her eyes flicked to where that nice
producer, Mr Joel Gold, was loading Leila into a horse
trailer. Pity in a way that Richards couldn't keep that
horse. Strudworth had expected to see Charlotte there
to farewell Leila but she was nowhere to be seen.
Possibly too upset. Strudworth recalled how she had
felt when she'd lost Zucchini.

Mr Gold waved, told Miss Strudworrth she was
welcome any time at his villa in Malibu, climbed into
his car and away they went. Miss Strudworth turned
back to the large manor house. It would be much
quieter with the girls gone. And much lonelier. Still,
there was always a pack of cards waiting to play
Patience with her and a good book to be read.

From the deserted bleachers, a red-eyed Charlotte
watched Joel Gold's car and horse float travel down
the drive and turn out onto the open road. 'Goodbye
Leila,' she whispered.

Charlotte's legs felt rubbery as she traced the course
where they had so often worked together, between
flags, around rubber tyres, over hurdles. She had one
hour before her father would pick her up to drive back
to Snake Hills and, as she was already packed, she
decided to go for one last walk through the bush where
she and Leila had spent so many fun hours.

She walked up towards the top of the ridge, picking
her way through wildflowers that today had no scent.
Branches scratched at her but she didn't notice. All
she could think of was Leila. She kept telling herself
that Leila would be having fun soon in Hollywood
and that was a good thing, but in her stomach she
didn't feel good, just sick. About halfway up the ridge
she stopped cold.

Right on top of the ridge, backlit by the sun, she
could see a riderless horse. For an instant she thought
it was Todd's horse, Warrior. The horse began to move
towards her and when it dropped beneath the glare of
the sun she was able to discern it wasn't Warrior, but a
gorgeous bay mare. It tossed its mane. That mane!
There was only one like it.

'Leila!' she shouted, and began running as fast as
she could.

Just as excited, Leila galloped down the hill towards
Charlotte. They met halfway and Charlotte threw her
arms around Leila's neck and hugged her tight.

'What are you doing here?'

'The contract wasn't right. They were giving Sarah-Jane top-billing.'
She hoped the kid couldn't tell it was
a lie.

Charlotte said she was surprised Mr Gold would
leave Leila after coming all that way to find her.

'Sometimes you have to bite the hands that feed
you,' said Leila modestly.

In fact that had been exactly what she had done.
Bitten both Tommy and Mr Gold at the first stop for
gas. She'd also chewed on some soap to make it look
like she was mad and frothing at the mouth. After that
they decided they would use computer animation to
recreate her for her next film and drove her back to
Thornton Downs. She hoped she hadn't hurt them too
badly. She liked them both but for now, she wanted to
be here with Charlotte. Hollywood would still be
there in a year or two.

A week later, Charlotte and Leila were riding on the
thick red earth high above Snake Hills. During her
first few days there, Leila had whinged constantly
about having to rough it, but Charlotte had indulged
her with ice-cream and that seemed to settle her
down.

When Leila had asked Charlotte to call Mr Gold's
number in Hollywood, Charlotte had thought Leila
was going to ask to come back. But when the answer
machine clicked on, Leila shouted for Feathers to pick
up if he was there. After a moment of clattering and
squawking, a rough voice came on the line.

'Leila, is that you?'

'Who else would it be, you lump of feathers? How's
it going?'

Feathers explained that things were back to
normal. 'Sarah-Jane is doing a new movie.'

'Did Chiquita get my role?'

'No. No horse this time. Joel and Tommy said
horses are too difficult.'

Leila had muttered at that. Feathers continued, 'It's
a pirate movie and guess who's playing the parrot?'

'You?'

'Yeah, I've got your old trailer. Hey, your mom has
been asking about you, she's worried sick. I gotta go,
somebody's coming. When are you coming back?'

'I don't know. When I'm ready.'

The two old friends said goodbye with promises to
keep in touch and Leila seemed chirpier afterwards.

'I need you to do me a favour,' Leila asked Charlotte.

'No ice-cream before midday, you know the rules.'

'Na, something else. I jotted a postcard. To Mom. I
tried to put the stamp on but it keeps sticking to my
tongue. Hooves ain't the most useful things, sometimes.'

Charlotte was thrilled. 'I'll put the stamp on and
post it for you.'

Before she could tell Leila how proud of her she
was, the air was filled with a massive roar. Looking up,
they were shocked to see a low-flying cargo plane
heading straight for them. For an instant Charlotte
had thought it was going to crash on top of them but
its silver skin passed over their heads and it touched
down on the long, flat cattle track about a kilometre
north, where it skidded to a halt, throwing up huge
plumes of red earth.

Charlotte and Leila galloped over, assuming there
must be some problem. Although prize bulls were
often flown in by cargo plane, the planes always
used the airstrip on the western edge of town. As
Charlotte and Leila reached the plane the cargo hold
slid open and a gangway rolled down from its belly.
What happened next very nearly had Charlotte
falling off.

Who should appear but Todd Greycroft, riding
Warrior.

'What are you doing here?' Charlotte realised that
was a pretty rude greeting but she was so shocked
it was what came out.

'My dad owns lots of planes and I seemed to
remember we had a challenge about a race.'

Charlotte laughed. 'So we did.'

Todd patted a picnic basket that balanced on his
lap. 'I've a few hours before I have to head back.
Thought you might fancy some lunch.'

While Todd and Charlotte caught up over lunch, Leila
and Warrior warily circled one another. He whinnied
in horse that just because Leila had fooled Todd didn't
mean she'd fooled him.

'You might have cute fetlocks but you ain't no real
horse,' he snarled, haughtily.

Leila shot back in human tongue.

'I'm too much horse for you, fella.'

The stallion replied in horse. 'That so? Let's see
what you got.'

She would show him all right. She cleared her
throat and tried to whinny. Nothing came out. The
stallion turned away in disgust. Leila snapped.

'Wait up. I was just warming up.'

He rolled bored eyes at her. Right, that did it!

From somewhere deep inside came an instinct she
didn't even know she had. She reared on her hind legs,
pumping her forelegs and whinnying loud and clear.
Warrior was amazed. He'd never seen a mare do that
before.

Todd and Charlotte sat on the bonnet of the old car
wreck, looking over at the horses.

'Looks like Warrior and Leila are getting on,'
offered Todd.

'She can be charming,' replied Charlotte with a
knowing smile.

Todd was smitten. That smile of Charlie's was a
killer. He leaned towards her. 'You know, Charlie, you
have the most beautiful ...'

But before he get out the word, Charlotte shouted,
'No, Todd!' and shoved him hard. He fell off the car
backwards and landed in the dirt. He was beginning to
think Charlotte hated him when he saw her bend
down to where he'd been sitting and yank a wriggling
snake from the car body. With a quick flip of the wrist
she dashed it against the car with a crack. She tossed
away the lifeless reptile, smiling apologetically.

'Deadly brown.'

Todd nodded, slowly. Wow, what a girl!

Leila turned to the stallion. 'And I taught her
everything she knows, so you treat me with respect,
buster!'

The sun was about level with the ground when
Charlotte mounted Leila. Todd was already on
Warrior.

Charlotte turned to him.

'You ready?'

This was a girl who spoke his language! For an
answer he yelled and set Warrior off down the hill.
Charlotte and Leila responded immediately.

The competition had just begun!