Team Challenge (14 page)

“How did Cat and Bambi do?” I asked Katy, watching the child drumming its feet on Bambi’s sides.

“Er, I can just see the scoreboard,” said Katy, standing on tip-toe and screwing up her eyes. “Pretty well, she’s in the lead at the moment. She must be thrilled.”

“She doesn’t look very thrilled,” I said, my heart sinking. “Who’s that woman over there with her?” I asked. “She just plonked her child on Bambi—and Cat doesn’t look too happy about it. Why doesn’t she tell her to get lost? I would if someone did that to my pony!”

“That’s just the problem—” began Bean. “Ouch!”

I turned around and just caught Katy glaring at Bean, who was rubbing her elbow.

“What?” I said. “What’s the problem? Who is she?”

“No idea,” said Bean, a little too quickly. “Get ready, the wiz is almost done.”

We were next—but I was determined to find out what Katy and Bean were hiding. There was some big secret about Cat and Bambi, something the others weren’t telling me. They’d refused to tell me what it was all about before. I’m still the new girl, I thought with a pang.

The star-spangled black pony came out hot and puffing. Taking a deep breath I glanced over at James who was in charge of my music. He gave me the thumbs-up sign.

“Next to go is Pia Edwards and Drummer,” announced the voice on the loudspeaker.

My mouth was dry, and I could feel my legs shaking. My hand went to my pocket where Epona was safely stashed away. We needed some magic now.

“Come on,” cried Drummer, confidently, jingling as he stepped forward. “Let’s knock ’em dead!” His confidence rubbed off. It was now or never. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the ring with him for our Brookdale debut—the stuff of dreams. Except that I didn’t have the stars and stripes on my jacket and I wasn’t jumping for my country. I was dressed in a yellow dress and my pony wore bells on his ears. It wasn’t quite a fulfillment of my wild ambitions, but, hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

The ring seemed huge, and there were what looked like thousands of faces all turned in our direction. Strange then that Catriona’s face loomed out of the crowd, forcing my confidence into my boots. But then our music started, and Drum was already into our routine. Tearing my gaze away from Catriona, I concentrated on the job at hand. I couldn’t let Drum down now!

Drum was as good as his word—he was magnificent! He didn’t just do the routine hoof-perfect, he jingled in all the right places, he tossed his head and gave exuberant leaps, he was just fantastic—talk about playing to the crowd! I remembered to smile and exaggerate my movements, and everyone loved us! They laughed in all the right places and clapped like crazy at the end. Except Cat, of course. She just stood outside the ring with her arms folded, looking sullen. Drum and I took a bow and skipped out of the ring where our teammates surrounded us.

“Awesome!” declared James, nodding his head.

“Oh, wow, well done, Drummer!” cried Katy, dishing out the mints.

“You were so the best, Pia, by miles!” said Bean, even though she hadn’t seen any of the others.

“Better than the Harry Potter wannabe, anyway,” mumbled James.

We waited for the score. It was out of twenty, and anything over fifteen was considered pretty good. When it was written on the scoreboard I almost fell over.

“Oh, Pia, you’ve got nineteen!” squealed Katy, dancing around in delight.

“You’re
in the lead!
” screamed Bean, clutching my arm.

“Take that, Potter boy!” growled James.

I gave Drummer the biggest hug of his life. “You are the best pony in the whole world!” I told him, burying my face in his braided mane.

“Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know!” said my pony. For once, I decided his smugness was justified.

There was no time to linger. Drum, Katy, Bean, and I wandered back to the horse trailer where Dee was getting ready for her showing class. I hardly recognized her. She wore a beautiful blue velvet cap on top of her hair, which was wound into a tight bun. With a cream shirt, blue and scarlet spotted tie, navy jacket, soft brown leather gloves, cream jodhpurs, and brown boots, she looked a million miles from the scruffy Dee-Dee we were used to seeing at the yard.

“Wow, Dee, look at you!” exclaimed Bean.

“Yeah, I know, I look ridiculous.” Dee sighed.

“You look fabulous!” I said.

Dee’s mom didn’t think so.

“Dee, your tie isn’t tight enough, and your hat’s on crooked. Come here and hold Dolly…there. Oh, for goodness sake, don’t let her eat, she’ll spit green slime all over herself. Must I do everything? Wake up! Stand still while I tie on your number. There. OK, leg up; one…two…no, are you doing this deliberately? On three, we always do it on three. Try again. One…two…three. Now ride her in over there—find a space—and get her on the bit and working properly. If she doesn’t qualify for HOYS here, then we might as well give up and take up knitting. And
smile!
Hello, hello?” Her cell phone interrupted the tirade and instructions to Dee were reduced to hand signals and face pulling.

Bean and I exchanged glances. If this was showing Sophie style, no wonder Dee complained so much. It was worse than being in the army. Dolly, however, seemed to love her showing career—from what I could hear as she trotted around.

“Tra, la, la…oh, Crispin, you look in fine form today. Is that Bilbo Baggins? My word, he’s put on weight, whatever are they feeding him? Yoo-hoo, Lady Macbeth, you look wonderful, darling. What is your human using on your coat? I can see my face in it!”

Sophie started up again: “Kick on, Dee, she’s hardly moving. Get her going forward, she’ll never catch the judge’s eye like that! And
smile
, I said…”

“Jeez, Dee’s mom’s a total nightmare,” I whispered to Bean. She raised her eyebrows and nodded dumbly.

James came flying back, having been to look at the overall scoreboard. Breathless, he skidded to a halt, colliding into Bean and knocking her flying.

“Sorry, Bean—but hey, guys, I’ve got news. With a fast clear from Katy and Bluey, we’ll be in the top five teams.”

“We haven’t gone clear yet,” said Katy, unraveling Bluey’s tail bandage to reveal his braided tail. “And Bean’s bound to do a fantastic test!” she added kindly.

Bean shook her head. “You know I’m going to forget the test,” she replied. “But at least my score can be discounted now you’ve all done so well. I just wish I didn’t have to go at all.”

“We’ll be disqualified if you don’t, remember?” I reminded her.

“That’s right,” agreed James. “But with Katy and Bluey as our sure thing and guaranteed a clear round, we really have a chance!”

Chapter 18

I
t was time for our sure things to do their stuff. “Does anyone know how that cheating Dweeb pony did in the jumping?” asked Bean, holding Katy’s off-side stirrup as Katy swung herself into Bluey’s saddle.

“Shhh,” said Katy, looking around to see if anyone had heard. “We can’t say anything about that.”

“She’s last to jump,” said James grimly.

“OK, guys,” Katy said, patting Bluey’s flecked neck. “Here we go. See you soon with good news, I hope.”

Bluey was calmness personified as Drummer and Tiffany wished him luck.

“Go eat up those jumps, you machine!” said Tiffany.

“Nothing less than a fast clear is acceptable,” Drummer yelled as a parting shot.

I gave Katy the thumbs-up sign. “Bluey’s totally looking forward to it. No worries!” I told her.

Scott and Warrior were just finishing as we all got to the start of the cross-country. Warrior’s breath came out in great puffs like a steam engine, and Scott looked cool, calm, and collected. Catriona and Leanne were there, too.

“Another clear round!” Cat said to us.

“Congratulations. Well done, Scott,” James said.

“Yes, well done,” I added.

“We don’t cheat,” Cat mouthed to me. I ignored my impulse to mouth back, “Oh, yes, you do!” We couldn’t say anything about the Dweeb, and my conscience still bothered me. Was Cat right? Were we cheating? Was I cheating?

Katy and Bluey leaped over the first jump in a flash of purple and disappeared into the trees, out of sight. It would be some time before our teammates returned, but the commentator kept us up to speed. And they’re clear over the second and going nicely to the third. A good leap over the ski jump, and onto the next jump where they’re clear again.” It was all going well so far. James was right— they were a sure thing.

“Come on, Bluey, do your stuff!” muttered Bean, her fingers crossed.

“Shhh, listen,” I said. “They’re announcing the results of Dee-Dee’s class.” The announcer from the showing rings boomed out over the loudspeaker.

“First, Datchets Dolly Daydream, ridden by Delia Wiseman, second…”

Whoever was second was drowned out by us all jumping up and down.

“
Yes!
” shouted James. “This is so our day. We’re all going home with Brookdale ribbons. Yippee!”

“And she’s qualified for HOYS,” Bean pointed out.

“And the journey home with Sophie will be sweet. Imagine the atmosphere in the cab if Dee hadn’t qualified!”

It didn’t bear thinking about.

I suddenly became aware that the cross-country commentator was saying something I didn’t want to hear. Something unbelievable.

“And they’ve jumped the wrong side of the flag— that’s elimination.”

“What’s happened?” I cried. “They can’t be talking about Katy, can they?”

The world seemed to stop as we all strained to hear the announcer. But we’d missed the drama, missed hearing exactly what had happened. Missed the moment it had all gone wrong for our sure things. Where did that leave the Great Eight?

Making our way to the finish, nobody dared to speak. I felt sick. Maybe we’d heard wrong, maybe the commentator had been mistaken. Bluey couldn’t have gone wrong. Bluey never, ever went wrong.

Running back to the trailer, we got there just as Katy and Bluey arrived back, too.

“What happened?” demanded James.

Katy looked totally crestfallen—and near to tears.

“I’m so, so sorry, it was all my fault,” she said, closing her eyes at the terrible memory as she jumped to the ground.

I could hear Bluey whispering, “Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t help it.”

“It was the jump coming out of the woods,” puffed Katy, tearing off her hat and running her fingers through her hair. “The sun was shining brightly, and after the darkness of the woods, neither of us could see where we were going. The sun was blinding—I could barely see. It’s moved around the sky from where it was this morning when I walked the course.”

“I saw the jump at the last moment,” moaned Bluey, distraught at his mistake. “I thought I jumped it, but I was on the wrong side of the flag. I’ve let you all down.”

“I messed up,” continued Katy, unable to hear her pony. “The jump was narrow, it wasn’t Bluey’s fault. I couldn’t believe it when I realized.” She groaned, her shoulders sagging at the memory.

“Bluey’s beside himself,” I said, putting a supportive hand on Bluey’s mane to show him we didn’t blame him.

“Oh, Bluey, you couldn’t help it,” whispered Katy, kissing his cheek. “You’re a star. You always will be.”

“Yeah, Bluey, it’s OK,” said James.

“No one blames you,” said Bean. But she looked white because with Katy and Bluey out of the competition, Bean’s dressage score had to count. It was the only thing standing between the Great Eight’s disgrace or glory.

Everybody knew it.

Nobody thought we stood a chance.

Chapter 19

K
aty was doing the math—the trouble was, she was running out of fingers.

“We’re not even in the running, now,” she said, her eyes darting around the master scoreboard. “Because of me.” She gulped.

“It was just one of those things, Katy. Don’t dwell on it,” said James.

“If India gets a fast clear with no time penalties, Team SLIC will beat us—we can’t catch their score, even if Bean does remember her test,” said Katy grimly.

“See, even you know I’m going to forget it!” wailed Bean. There was a long time to go before her event. Plenty of time for her nerves to turn to quaking terror.

“No, I don’t, honest,” mumbled Katy, fooling no one. So much for her confidence-boosting talk.

“But if India gets a fence down, or goes too slow,” continued James, studying the scoreboard intently, “and if Bean gets a fabulous dressage score”—he winked at Bean, who stuck her tongue out at him—“the Great Eight could still finish high up in the placings, beating Team SLIC.”

Beating Leanne’s team mattered to me—simply because I had an old score to settle. The Dweeb shouldn’t have been competing at all. It wasn’t a level playing field. India—whether intentionally or not—wasn’t eligible to even compete. Somehow, beating Team SLIC was what mattered most.

“OK, let’s go and watch India’s round,” said James. “However painful it is, I need to see it with my own eyes.”

“We’ll have to be sporting and congratulate them.” Katy sighed. “If they do beat us,” she added, glancing at Bean. We all knew the chances of Bean getting a good dressage score were about a million to one. With Bluey’s score discounted, our campaign was as good as over.

Why do we have to congratulate them? I thought. After all, they tried to get me disqualified. I didn’t say anything out loud and remembered what my mom said about karma. But it was so hard, this karma thing! Katy was right, but knowing it didn’t make it any easier. If we’d wanted to say something, we ought to have done so at the beginning, not now. We’d accepted the problem and run with it. It was too late to change our minds—that would just be spiteful. Bad karma.

We got to the show jumping ring just in time; India and the Dweeb were already halfway around the course, the Dweeb’s careful hooves clearing the poles and planks with ease, concentration showing on her rider’s face as India steered her talented pony over the beautiful jumps. The rest of her teammates stood in a huddle, willing her to a fast and clear round. I couldn’t believe India knew about her pony’s history. I just couldn’t.

The Dweeb turned to the challenge of the final three jumps. They were nothing for an experienced pony, and India galloped through the finish with a neat, fast, clear round, to the joy of her team, who went wild. India’s delight shone on her face as she pulled up outside the ring, surrounded by Cat, Scott, and Leanne, and her own mother, who had tears in her eyes.