“Come on, girl, we’ve got this won!” I laughed to Bramble.
I was just about to leap into my sack when I heard screaming. I know that I shouldn’t have been distracted, but I recognised the scream. It was Fliss. I looked across to the other field and saw that Alfie had broken free and was galloping away. Poor Fliss was slumped across his neck, clinging on for all she was worth.
OK, so what would you have done? Gone on to win the race, or helped your friend? Yeah right, so a rosette is that important! I dropped my sack, urged Bramble forward and vaulted on to her. And for once I actually made it!
“Come on, girl!” I told her. “This is more important than any sack race!”
There was a gate in the corner of the field. “Kenny, open the gate!” I yelled.
She ran to where I was pointing, undid the catch and pushed the gate open. “Do you know what you’re doing?” she shouted to me.
Kenny actually said that! Kenny, the girl who always rushes into things without blinking an eye and thinks about them afterwards!
“I’m not sure,” I called back to her. “But I’ve got to help Fliss!”
I could see Alfie heading towards the bottom end of the field. I couldn’t believe that Fliss was still managing to cling on to him. But they were heading for disaster: there were fences on all sides of the field, and I knew that if Alfie was really spooked he might try to jump over one of them. Fliss wouldn’t stand a chance then. I urged Bramble towards them as fast as she could go.
“Hang on, Fliss!” I shouted.
Fliss just screamed.
“Try not to scream, Fliss, that’ll scare him even more!” I shouted. “Try talking calmly to him.”
I could hear Fliss whimpering. Of all the people to be sitting on Alfie when he decided to take off, it had to be Fliss! But I wondered why he’d done it in the first place.
Alfie was usually so calm. Something must have really frightened him to make him bolt like that. And he’d been tied up.
“Sit firm in the saddle, Fliss!” I called. “Put all your weight there, and hang on!”
It would have been just my luck for her to fall off as soon as I’d said that. But she didn’t, she hung on in there.
I was almost level with them now, and it looked as though Alfie wasn’t going to jump over the fence after all. He was slowing down and cantering around the edge of the field. I didn’t really know what to do. I didn’t want Bramble to get frightened as well; I just wanted to make sure that Alfie was calming down and that Fliss was safe.
I was very relieved when I heard another horse thundering towards us. It was Mrs McAllister on Marvel.
“Whoa, boy!” she said in her quiet, firm voice. She rode alongside Alfie whilst Bramble and I stayed where we were.
When Alfie had slowed down to a walk, she said to Fliss, “Sit tight, I’m going to take his reins.”
Fliss stayed where she was. She had been holding on to Alfie’s reins as well as his mane, but hadn’t known what to do with them. To be honest with you, if the same thing had happened to me, I don’t think that I would have been able to stop Alfie either. Mrs McAllister grabbed hold of the loose reins in one hand and gradually circled Alfie round to a stop.
I leapt down from Bramble, and Frankie, Kenny and Rosie came hurtling across the field towards us.
“Are you all right, Fliss!” asked Frankie and Rosie together.
“Wow! That was so cool!” panted Kenny. “You were brill, Fliss, hanging on like that. It was better than a Gladiator challenge! Awesome!”
Mrs McAllister dismounted and asked me to hold Alfie and Marvel, then she went to help Fliss dismount. “That was certainly some riding display!” she said. “I’d say you have a natural talent for this. Have you ever thought of taking it up?”
The rest of us screamed with laughter. I know it sounds awful when Fliss had just gone through such a terrible ordeal and everything, but it was sort of a release after all the excitement. Poor Fliss didn’t know whether to laugh or to carry on crying – so she did both!
“Fliss is scared of horses!” I explained.
“In that case you did exceptionally well!” said Mrs McAllister squeezing her shoulder.
We all stopped laughing. The Fun Day would have been a Pretty Miserable Day if Fliss had fallen off and hurt herself. She could have had a terrible accident. It made me go all hot and cold just thinking about it.
“You were really brave, Fliss. Well cool!” I said.
“Yeah, wicked!” said the others.
“Was I?” asked Fliss. She stopped crying and looked up at us. You could tell she was thrilled that we were all praising her. But at the same time, the rest of us knew that she’d be milking this for weeks.
“It just goes to show why you must always wear a riding hat when you’re on a horse,” said Mrs McAllister. “I think I’ll have to stop any more children having their photographs taken on the horses and ponies. It’s not worth the risk of this happening again.”
I was still holding Alfie and Marvel. Mrs McAllister took their reins from me and said, “Round up Bramble, Lyndsey, then we can walk back to the stables. OK, Fliss?”
Fliss nodded and looked all pale and pathetic. The rest of us looked at each other and rolled our eyes, but even we couldn’t have a go at her when she’d just had such a terrifying experience.
Bramble was standing quietly, wondering what all the fuss was about. I gathered her reins and followed the others back to the stables. When we got there everybody crowded round us. They wanted to know what had happened and whether Fliss was all right. Even the photographer from The Mercury wanted a picture of her, so she was well chuffed about that. He took my photograph too, but I don’t know why, just using up film I suppose.
Bramble, Marvel and Alfie loved the attention too. They were patted and stroked and just lapped it all up.
“What I can’t understand,” said Mrs McAllister thoughtfully, “is how Alfie got in that state in the first place. He’s never bolted before. And wasn’t he tied up anyway?”
Just then I spotted the M&Ms hanging around, they looked kind of embarrassed.
“I think I’ve found some people who’ll be able to tell you,” I said glancing in their direction.
Mrs McAllister took in their guilty-looking faces in a flash and stormed over. “I’d like a word with you, girls,” she snapped crossly.
The M&Ms looked terrified as they followed her sheepishly into the stable office.
We tried to sneak up to listen, but I was called for the egg-and-spoon race. To be honest, I didn’t feel like competing in another event. But I’d entered and I suppose I still wanted to win a rosette. But Bramble and I were both tired after our rescue mission and we had a disastrous race. I timed my dismount wrong and nearly took a tumble, then I dropped my egg three times. Nightmare! It was no surprise when we came in last.
Mrs McAllister had reappeared by the time we’d finished. She was a bit red in the face. The M&Ms were bright red and had both been crying. Mrs McAllister ignored them and handed out the rosettes for the sack race and the egg-and-spoon race.
“Never mind, Bramble. Maybe we’ll get one next time!” I said as I stroked her muzzle.
“And there’s a special rosette here for bravery.” Mrs McAllister’s voice suddenly caught my attention. “Through the stupidity of various individuals, one of my horses was frightened and ran off with an inexperienced rider on its back. I would just like to stress that this is NOT a common occurrence at my riding school.” Everybody laughed. “Lyndsey Collins who was leading the sack race at the time, saw her young friend in difficulties and wasted no time in going to her assistance. She did everything absolutely right, so I would like to award this rosette to Lyndsey Collins and Bramble.”
Everybody cheered and clapped like mad. I was embarrassed and thrilled to bits all at the same time, especially when I could hear my crazy friends shouting, “Way to go, Lyndz!”
That was the best bit of the Fun Day for me, but the rest of
it was pretty cool too. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, Fliss most of all. People kept stopping her and asking how she was. She just revelled in it and I swear that she developed a limp as the day wore on! The photographer from The Mercury took loads more pictures. Fliss tried her best to get in all of them, but the rest of us muscled in on quite a few too!
By the time the Fun Day ended, we were all exhausted. But we hung about as our parents counted up the money. There were huge piles of coins and bundles of notes.
“Wow, we must have raised enough to save the stables now!” squealed Rosie when she saw it all.
Do you know how much we made? Over £400. Our parents kept telling us how brilliant it was, but it wasn’t thousands of pounds was it? And that’s what Mrs McAllister said she needed to rebuild the stables. All our efforts looked to have been for nothing. No rosette could make up for that disappointment.
None of us could have expected what happened next though. And it was certainly a shock to Fliss when she saw her photograph splashed over the front page of The Mercury the next day.
We didn’t actually see the paper until the afternoon, but everybody had been talking about the Fun Day at school. It was amazing how many of our class had been there. They all told Fliss how brave she was, which made the rest of us do our ‘being sick’ impressions, and a few of them told me that I was brave too, which was pretty cool.
The only people who didn’t mention the Fun Day were the M&Ms. Mrs McAllister had found out that they had untied Alfie whilst Rosie and her mum were getting Fliss ready for having her photograph taken. Then two dogs had begun to fight. And if there’s one thing that Alfie’s scared of it’s dogs. Their snarling must have terrified him and he’d taken off with Fliss on his back.
Mrs McAllister must have bawled the M&Ms out good and proper for the part they’d played in the drama, because they didn’t even look at us all day.
So we had a pretty cool day at school, and when I got home it got even better. As soon as I got through the door, Mum handed me The Mercury. There on the front page was Fliss! But she wasn’t looking pretty in all her finery. She was looking like a witch: screaming her head off, with her eyes bulging as she clung on to Alfie. That was one terrific photograph! The caption underneath read: Brave Felicity Sidebotham clings to a runaway horse during the Fun Day to save McAllister’s Riding School.
“Oh dear,” I said to Mum, “that’s not exactly good publicity, is it? It sounds as though the whole day was a disaster.”
“Turn over,” Mum said.
Page two was covered with a whole load of photographs of the Fun Day. There was even one of me with the caption: Hero of the hour, Lyndsey Collins, who rescued her friend!
“Coo-el!” I laughed.
On page three there was a report about the Fun Day and why we had organised it. It said: What a pity it would be if such a vital part of the community was forced to close due to lack of funds.
At the bottom of the page it said in big letters: SAVE THE STABLES. Underneath there was a form to fill in if you wanted to send a donation.
“The Mercury is running a campaign for the stables!” I shouted, jumping up and down. “They’ve got to be saved now haven’t they, Mum?”
“I think they probably have, yes!” Mum laughed.
I was still leaping about with excitement when the phone rang.
“Lyndz, Lyndz, have you seen the paper?” It was Frankie. “Isn’t it cool? And to think we started it all off!”
No sooner had I got off the phone to Frankie when Kenny rang. “Was that Frankie on the phone? I thought it would be. Isn’t it brill? We did it, girl, we saved the stables!”
“We haven’t saved them yet!” I laughed. “In fact we haven’t saved them at all. If anyone’s going to save them, it’s The Mercury.”
“Yes, but we thought of the Fun Day didn’t we? They just took over.”
Kenny was right, but the paper could reach a lot more people than we ever could. That’s exactly what Rosie had to say when I called her.
“Adam’s unbearable!” she laughed. “He keeps telling me that the campaign in The Mercury was his idea.”
“It doesn’t really matter whose idea it was,” I said. “As long as it works.”
The only person who hadn’t rung me was Fliss. So I rang her.
“Isn’t it awful!” she said when she picked up the phone.
“What?” I asked.
“Isn’t my photograph awful!” she said. She sounded really cross. “You’d think they could have used one of the nice ones. They took enough of me!”
“They probably used it for dramatic effect,” I told her. “Besides it’ll probably boost funds for the campaign. Isn’t that a great idea?”
“Yeah, great,” Fliss said. “Did I really look that awful, Lyndz?”
What was Fliss like? We had one of our greatest triumphs staring us in the face and all Fliss was bothered about was some crummy photo.
“No, you looked great, Fliss, honestly,” I told her.
All week The Mercury gave details of how much money people had sent in for the Save the Stables campaign. It seemed a lot, but I still wasn’t sure that there was going to be enough. I mean, Mrs McAllister had said that she needed a few thousand pounds to rebuild the stables, and that’s an awful lot of money. It would mean everyone who reads The Mercury sending in a pound each.
On the Friday after the Fun Day, the rest of the Sleepover Club came round to my house after school. As soon as we piled through the front door we were greeted by my mum. At least we assumed it was my mum. We couldn’t see her face because she had a copy of The Mercury right in front of it. I know, I know – seriously weird. But the headlines just about stopped us in our tracks: LOCAL BUSINESSWOMAN SAVES RIDING SCHOOL.
We all made a grab for the paper.
“Hey, watch it!” laughed Mum. “Let me put it on the table so you can all read it.”
Local businesswoman, Sita Chandri, proprietor of Sita’s Spices, has agreed to contribute what is needed to rebuild the stable block at McAllister’s Riding School. The stables were recently almost destroyed by fire, and The Mercury has been prominent in running a campaign to prevent their closure due to lack of funds. Mrs Chandri says, ‘The spirit of community is very important to me. I felt that I wanted to give something back to the community which has supported me in my business ventures. Paying for the restoration of the stables seemed to be the perfect way to do that.’
“Way to go, Sita!” shouted Kenny.
We all screamed and hugged each other. It was our idea that had sparked off the whole thing. If we hadn’t had our disaster of a sale, we would never have thought about the Fun Day. And if we hadn’t had the Fun Day, The Mercury would never have got involved and Mrs Chandri might not even have known that the riding school needed saving. Wicked!
So that’s it, for once we have a happy ending! I’m glad it’s all worked out, for Adam’s sake as much as mine: he loves the horses almost as much as I do.
Well, we’re finally at the stables. It seems to have taken us ages to get here, doesn’t it? Look, Frankie and Rosie are waving at us – what are they like! And Kenny’s behaving like a wild animal, as usual. That must be Fliss over there. What is she wearing? Come on, let’s find out what they’re up to and see if they’ve any more crazy schemes planned!
Hiya, I’m back! It’s me, Frankie, remember? I thought it was about time we had a chat ’cos it’s been ages since I last talked to you. And I’ve got loads to tell you.
You haven’t forgotten us, have you? There’s me and my best mate Kenny, and Fliss and Rosie and Lyndz – the Sleepover Club. We’ve been having sleepovers for months now, and we always have a great laugh. So we were a bit shocked when Kenny said what she did. I mean, you know Kenny – she likes to stir things a bit. But this time what she said really made us sit up.
Anyway, it all started one afternoon at school. We were making models of horses out of clay (after our horsey sleepover, we’re all nuts about
horses now), so, of course, there was clay everywhere. Even Fliss was covered in it, and she’s the neatest person in the known universe. She even gets her mum to iron her knickers!
“Hey, look!” Kenny stuck a lump of clay on the end of her nose, and grinned at the rest of us. “Pinocchio!”
“Thanks a lot, Kenny!” Fliss snapped, yanking it off her. “That’s supposed to be my horse’s tail!”
“All right, how about this then?” Kenny started sticking tiny bits of clay all over her face. “Look, it’s Emma Hughes!”
We all fell about laughing. Emma’s been off school with chickenpox, so her best mate Emily Berryman’s had to hang out with dozy Alana ‘Banana’ Palmer instead. You remember Emma and Emily, otherwise known as the M&Ms, don’t you? They’re our Number One Enemies. Alana Banana’s sort of our enemy too, but she hasn’t got any brains so we don’t worry about her that much.
“OK,” I said, squinting down at my model. “Be honest, you lot. I can take it. Does this look like a horse to you or not?”
“Nope,” said Lyndz.
“No way,” said Fliss.
“No chance,” Rosie added.
“It looks more like a giraffe,” Kenny remarked.
“Oh, great,” I said crossly, crushing my model flat. “Don’t hold back, will you?”
“Your horse looks like it’s been run over by a steamroller, Frankie,” Mrs Weaver said, coming towards us. She raised her eyebrows at the squashed heap of clay in front of me. “What have you been doing for the last hour?”
“Sorry, Miss,” I said quickly. “I just couldn’t get it right.” As my grandma always says, if at first you don’t succeed – give up.
Mrs Weaver glanced at the clock. “Well, you’ve got about ten seconds left before we tidy up, so it’s not worth starting again.” Then she looked at us. We were all wearing overalls, but our hands were caked in clay, plus Lyndz had some in her hair and Kenny still had bits stuck on her face. “I think you’d better go and clean yourselves up too.”
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