The Palomino Pony Wins Through

by Olivia Tuffin

  “You have to hope she is or you’ll have caught her lurgy, hugging her like that,” Emily pointed out.

  Poppy shook her head calmly. “No. I won’t catch anything.”

  Emily folded her arms. “Are you wearing that crystal necklace again? I thought Mrs Angel made you take it off?”

  Poppy sighed. “No. She still wasn’t being fair, though. It wasn’t jewellery. It was protection. And by the time she gave it back to me it wasn’t working any more. She’d been keeping it in a drawer, and that one really needed sunlight.”

  “You could put it under a sunbed, you know, really charge it up again.” Emily giggled.

  Poppy sucked in a horrified breath. “Fake sunlight? It’d probably poison me if I wore it after that!”

  “Sunbeds kill people,” Maya put in, and Emily laughed at her.

  “They do! UV rays are really bad for you.”

  “I know they are, but it was the way you said it. Like this mean sunbed was going to creep up on Poppy, and squash her to death. Evil sunbeds. They’re coming to get you!”

  Maya scowled, but Emily elbowed her, grinning. “Don’t be so grumpy! It was funny!” She made claws of her fingers, scrunched her nose and showed all her teeth. It was amazing how ugly somebody so pretty could look all of a sudden. “Grrrr! I am an evil sunbed…”

  The corner of Maya’s mouth quirked up just a smidge, and then she grinned back. “Oh, all right. I suppose it was a bit funny. Only a bit, though. Poppy, what are you using to not get ill then, if the crystal’s broken?”

  “Herb tea. I’ve got some in a flask in my lunch box, you can try it if you like.”

  Maya gave her a surprised look. Herbal tea was surprisingly normal for Poppy. Her dad drank herbal tea all the time, he said coffee kept him awake too much. “Does that stop you being ill?” She’d have to tell Dad.

  “My kind does. I made it myself. It’s got mint and dandelions in it. And golden syrup.”

  “Dandelions are weeds, Poppy.” Emily was eyeing her friend worriedly. “Are you really eating them?”

  “No, you chop them up and pour hot water over them. The leaves as well. It’s very good for you. I got it out of a book from the library on nature’s secret remedies.”

  “Do those books call out to you when you go in the library?” Emily shook her head. “You’ve always got some random book under your bed. Is the tea nice?”

  Poppy went pink. “Actually, it tastes horrible,” she admitted. “That’s why I put the golden syrup in it. It’s not in the recipe, but it sort of hides the taste of the dandelions. Almost.”

  “You’re really selling it, Poppy…” Maya told her. “I’ll pass.”

  “It works though!” Poppy protested. “I haven’t been ill for ages. Well. Since Tuesday, when I found the recipe.”

  “Four whole days. It’s a miracle.” Emily nodded solemnly. Then she sighed. “Who knows what’s in my lunch. I’ll be lucky if it’s not a pot of mashed-up carrot and banana, or something else disgusting. I can’t stand bananas, but Mum’s trying all kinds of random stuff to get Sukie to eat. She’s the world’s fussiest baby. I think I’ll make my own sandwiches tomorrow.”

  “Oooh, banana sandwiches… I might ask Anna to do me some of those.” Maya was suddenly hungry. “Come on, let’s go and eat lunch.” Because her mum and dad were quite often out of the country they had a housekeeper who looked after Maya a lot of the time. But Maya never called her that in front of anyone at school. It sounded far too posh. Too pop-starry, having “staff”. But Anna picked her up from school occasionally, if she was in town or Maya needed school uniform or something. Emily had thought Anna was Maya’s mum, so she’d had to explain. She’d told Emily that Anna was her au pair. It didn’t sound quite as show-offish. But even then Emily had raised her eyebrows. “An au pair?”

  “Yeah, because my mum works,” Maya muttered.

  Emily nodded. “I s’pose. My mum would kill for an au pair. Is she nice?”

  Anna was, very. But she usually made Maya’s lunches for her, and she disapproved of Maya being a vegetarian. She was from Spain, and being vegetarian wasn’t as common there as it was in Britain. Anna had been known to “accidentally” put ham sandwiches in Maya’s lunch box, in the hope that she might be tempted. She thought Maya was going to waste away without eating any meat, even though Maya had explained to her loads of times that humans were better off eating mostly vegetables anyway. Anna always just sniffed. Whenever she and Maya argued about it, she’d cook roast chicken for dinner the next day. She knew it was the hardest thing for Maya to resist. Veggie sausages just didn’t cut it next to roast potatoes and gravy, especially with those bits of spicy sausage she added. Maya’s mouth was watering just thinking about it, and it was cheese sandwiches for lunch – again.

  The girls found a free table in the hall and got out their lunches. Emily and Maya watched Poppy opening up her flask. She poured out a cupful of dull, greenish liquid, with bits in.

  “Forget sunbeds, that looks poisonous.” Emily shuddered. “You’re not really going to drink it? Urrggghh, Poppy, don’t!”

  “It isn’t that bad.” Poppy swallowed a mouthful, and grimaced. “Not enough golden syrup. I should have put honey in it instead. But Jake and Alex keep using it all up making toast. They just live on toast. Dad says it’s because they’re teenagers, they need a lot of energy. But they eat a loaf of bread every day. Each!”

  Emily nodded sympathetically. “Brothers… You’re so lucky not having any, Maya. I would love to be the only one.”

  “Wouldn’t you miss them?” Maya asked doubtfully.

  Emily wrinkled her nose. “I might miss Sukie. When she’s not yelling, anyway. But Toby and James are just…” She shrugged. “Well, you know what they’re like.”