by Stacy Gregg
As if to make up for it, Georgie played fast and furious in the stick-and-ball session that afternoon. The girls were training in earnest now and all sixteen ponies were given a workout. After over an hour of nonstop charging up and down the field on different ponies Georgie was exhausted. As they walked back down the driveway to the boarding house that evening she felt like her legs were going to buckle underneath her.
Back at Badminton House she collapsed on her bed. “I can’t move.”
“We have to move,” Alice groaned. “We have to get dressed and go to dinner.”
“I’m not going,” Georgie said.
“Because you’re too tired?”
“No. Because I’ve just split up with James and if I go to the dining hall I’m bound to see him.”
“You’ve what?” Alice sat bolt upright again on her bed. “When did this happen?”
“Just before polo class. I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to make a big scene in front of the others.”
“Was it an ugly break-up?” Alice asked. “Or are you still friends?”
“If by friends you mean has he threatened to ruin my life and make me miserable for all eternity at Blainford, then yeah,” Georgie replied, “we’re still friends.”
“So you’re never eating again?”
“Can you smuggle me back some food?”
“Georgie! It’s lasagne night. Where am I going to put it? In my pockets? Pull yourself together and let’s go.”
From the moment Georgie walked into the dining hall the murmur rose up from the Burghley House table. She heard her name being called across the dining room by boys she didn’t even know, but she didn’t turn round. She didn’t give them the satisfaction of looking at them when she got pelted on the back of the head with peas throughout the dinner.
“Just ignore them,” Alice said sympathetically. Daisy and Emily banded round her for support as they walked out of the dining hall and stayed by her side, ignoring the taunts that followed them all the way down the driveway.
James had already succeeded in turning the whole of Burghley House against her.
*
For the rest of the week, James and the Burghley boys didn’t ease off on their hate campaign against Georgie. There wasn’t a meal in the dining room that didn’t end with her picking food out of her hair. The infamous seagull squawks – a Burghley hazing tradition – became a constant as the girls walked home each night.
“You should tell the headmistress,” Emily said.
“Tell her what, Emily?” Georgie groaned. “That a boy is picking on me? That’s exactly what he wants me to do.”
Far better, Georgie thought, to suffer in silence. And James wasn’t the only thing making her unhappy – she still desperately missed Tara Kelly’s classes. Alice, Emily and Daisy were super-tactful around her and tried not to talk about cross-country at all, but now and then they would forget and let slip a bit of gossip about what sort of fences they were jumping or who was at the top of the class rankings. Disturbingly, Georgie kept hearing Kennedy Kirkwood’s name being mentioned in the same breath as ‘clear round’. It was too awful to think that the girl who got her kicked out of class might now be dominating the rankings.
On Thursday Georgie arrived at her first class of the morning to find Daisy, Emily and Alice poring over the notice board in the quad.
“They’ve posted the teams for the Round Robin Knockout next weekend,” Daisy said.
“Georgie,” Emily said. “Before you look at it you have to promise that you won’t get upset.”
“Why would I get upset?” Georgie frowned.
“Because we’re playing a Burghley House team…” Emily said, “… and James Kirkwood is in it.”
Georgie groaned. “Well at least my life can’t possibly get any worse.”
“Yes, it can,” Daisy said. “Conrad is in the team too.”
*
Strangely enough, knowing that they were playing against Burghley actually cheered Georgie up. The polo field was the perfect place for some very public revenge. If James thought that Georgie’s breaking up with him was embarrassing, just wait until she smeared the polo field with him!
All the girls were determined to beat the Burghley House boys and prove that Badminton House deserved to have a polo team. They had been riding for two hours every day after school and some nights Georgie’s legs ached so much that she could barely walk up the driveway for dinner. Alice remained the stand-out player on the team, but everyone had raised their game. Emily had become adept at her long shots and taking the ball swiftly up the sidelines – which made her a natural in the number four position. Daisy stayed at number one, upfront where she could take shots at goal. She had biceps like a rock by now and she never gave away any ground to the opposition no matter what. Alice was in the coveted number three jersey and Georgie was in a roaming position at number two.
What the girls really needed though was some actual real game experience and it was Emily who suggested a friendly match against Luhmuhlen.
“Your team needs some proper play before the competition,” Emily said to Alex at breakfast, “and so do we. We could treat it like a real game. Four full chukkas. Just like the Round Robin.”
“We can have the friendly game after school on Friday,” Alice added. “Then rest the ponies on the Saturday before the real Round Robin begins on Sunday.”
“Sounds great,” JP agreed.
Cameron was more cautious with his enthusiasm. “OK, but you need to be aware that we’re treating this just like a proper match. We can’t go easy on you girls.”
“Yeah,” Alex agreed. “The other boys aren’t going to cut you any slack on the field when the real games begin so it wouldn’t be fair if we let you get away with stuff. Don’t expect us to stop play just because you’ve broken a nail or something.”
“Gotcha,” Alice stifled a laugh. “No special treatment.”
*
The ‘friendly’ match between Luhmuhlen and Badminton was carnage. But not the sort that the boys had anticipated. It was seven-nil to the girls by the end of the third chukka. Alex and Cameron didn’t know what had hit them.
“Can you tell your girlfriend to be a bit more careful?” Cameron whined to Alex as they mounted up on their fourth ponies to end the match. “She knee-barged and caught me square on the thigh!”
“If you ladies could possibly pull yourselves together to play the last chukka,” JP groaned, “then at least we can potentially save ourselves the supreme embarrassment of losing without any points on the board?”
“Plus the embarrassment of Tara Kelly watching as we lose,” Alex added, pointing out the dark-haired figure standing on the sidelines.
Tara had been watching the match since the first chukka began, but as the riders were about to take to the field for the fourth and final round she wrapped her coat round her and walked off the fields.
Georgie hadn’t noticed Tara’s presence on the sidelines. She was far too focused on the game. She had been playing brilliantly and two of the seven goals so far were hers. For the final chukka she was riding Princess, who was fast becoming her favourite polo pony. She had been the last to finish tacking up, and the others were waiting to start play as she rode the dapple-grey mare on to the field to take up her position.
At the throw-in it was Luhmuhlen’s ball, but the boys managed to lose possession almost straight away as Alice rode aggressively into the pack and stole it from JP, making a clean drive down the wing to Georgie.
There was a thundering of hooves alongside Georgie and she knew other riders were on her tail. Without looking back, she did the safest thing she could, hitting the ball swiftly and cleanly across the field to where Daisy could receive it and continue on towards the goal.
The shot she made was a good one, but for some reason Daisy didn’t chase down the ball. Instead, she pulled her mare up and began waving her hands at Georgie across the field, shouting to her.
Georgie couldn’
t hear what Daisy was saying. Behind her, the hooves were still pounding loudly, which was odd since she’d offloaded the ball. Shouldn’t the pack be heading towards Daisy instead of her?
Georgie realised too late why Daisy was shouting at her. She turned just in time to see two riders bearing down on her with their mallets raised. There was nothing so unusual about that – except that these two riders weren’t the ones she was playing against. It was Conrad, with James Kirkwood riding behind him. By the time she saw them there was nothing she could do. Conrad’s mare came in slamming hard against Princess’s right flank, and he put out his arm and gave Georgie a violent shove. Before she could do anything to save herself the ground was rushing up to meet her.
Chapter Twelve
The body blow had come out of nowhere and Georgie didn’t have the chance to prepare herself before she hit the ground. She landed badly on her right side, getting the wind knocked out of her as she impacted, gasping for air.
As she struggled back on her feet, feeling decidedly wobbly, she couldn’t believe what had just happened. She had never been blindsided like that before and the experience had left her shaken – her face was white with shock.
“Are you OK?” Alice was the first to reach her.
“I’m fine,” Georgie insisted. Her arm ached a little and she noticed a trickle of blood from her elbow next to a rip in her blouse. It was only a small graze, and nothing seemed to be broken. She was still surprisingly wobbly though and as she tried to take a step forward she felt her legs give way underneath her.
“It’s delayed shock from the fall,” Alice said. “Conrad really took you out.”
She leapt down and helped Georgie over to the sideboards at the edge of the field. “Sit here and take deep breaths,” Alice said, bending over Georgie, who was still pale and shaken and having trouble breathing as Daisy and Emily joined them.
Daisy was leading Princess. “Conrad has gone too far this time,” she said. “He could have killed you! He actually pushed you off your horse!”
“He’s a psychopath!” Emily agreed. “And what about James? He just watched him do it and he didn’t even try to stop him!”
“The boys rode after them,” Daisy added, “but it’s not like they can do anything. Conrad is, like, twice their size and a prefect.”
Georgie took a deep breath and pushed herself up off the ground.
“Hey, maybe you should wait before you try and get up,” Alice cautioned. But Georgie ignored her. She stood up and brushed the dirt off her jods. “Can you look after my horse for me?” she asked Alice.
“Sure, but where are you going?”
“Conrad has got to be stopped,” Georgie said. “I’m going to see the headmistress.”
*
Mrs Dickins-Thomson was in the process of packing up her desk for the weekend when Georgie knocked at the door.
“Enter!” the headmistress said briskly.
“Mrs Dickins-Thomson?” Georgie stuck her head in the door. “I know it’s late. I’m sorry to bother you.”
“Nonsense, Miss Parker.” The headmistress carried on with her paperwork. “I told you my door is always open. Come in.”
When Mrs Dickins-Thomson caught sight of Georgie’s ripped blouse, mud-stained jodhpurs and pale face she stopped shuffling papers at once.
“You’ve had an accident?”
“Well, sort of,” Georgie said. “I was playing polo with the Badminton House girls and Conrad Miller pushed me off my horse. It wasn’t an accident though.”
“You think he did it on purpose?” Mrs Dickins-Thomson was taken aback.
“Conrad has a major problem with me,” Georgie explained. “It’s the start of the Round Robin on Sunday and my team are scheduled to play against Burghley House – that’s Conrad’s team.”
“And you’re concerned that if you play against Burghley there’s going to be a repeat of today’s incident,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said.
Georgie nodded. “I don’t think Conrad should be allowed to play,” she said. “He’s dangerous. He could have killed me out there.”
“Miss Parker, you should have realised when you took up polo that there would be rough and tumble.”
“But Conrad wasn’t even supposed to be there. And he did it on purpose!”
Mrs Dickins-Thomson frowned. “Did a teacher witness this episode?”
Georgie shook her head. “No, just us.”
“I’m afraid without a teacher to back you up, I can hardly get Conrad Miller banned from the tournament,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said.
Georgie looked devastated.
“Well, can you at least have the Round Robin redrawn so that we’re playing another team?” Georgie asked hopefully. “One that doesn’t have Conrad in it?”
Mrs Dickins-Thomson considered this. “Sit down for a moment,” she said to Georgie. She stood up from her desk and left Georgie alone in the office staring at the painting of Seabiscuit. When she returned a few minutes later the polo master was with her.
“I’ve been explaining your situation to Mr Brompton,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said. “He seems to think that the problem is a bit more deep-seated than just today’s incident.”
Heath Brompton nodded. “Georgie has been having problems holding her own on the polo field since the term began. She had a serious fall two weeks ago and then last week she refused to play a chukka because she was too nervous to go on the field. She stayed on the sidelines instead playing stick-and-ball by herself rather than joining her team and taking part in a game.”
“Is that true Miss Parker?”
“Well, sort of,” Georgie started. “But Conrad caused my fall that time too. He hooked my stick!”
“Falling is a part of playing polo, Miss Parker,” Heath Brompton said. “I’ve already told you, I’m not entirely sure that someone of your –” he hesitated, choosing his words carefully – “sensibilities is suitable as a player. You can’t expect to be treated differently.”
“But I don’t!” Georgie couldn’t believe this was happening.
Mrs Dickins-Thomson frowned. “You say you aren’t asking for special treatment, Georgie, but you’ve come in here asking me to change the Round Robin draw to your advantage. I can’t exhibit favouritism towards the girls’ team.”
“They’ve been nothing but trouble as far as I’m concerned.” Heath Brompton saw his chance. “We should never have allowed a girls’ team in the tournament in the first place. It goes against the traditions of the academy.”
Mrs Dickins-Thomson looked thoughtful. “I’m very keen to establish a girls’ polo team, but I agree this is hardly an auspicious start. The board of the academy will be attending the polo on Sunday and I don’t want their first glimpse of our new girls’ team to be tears and tantrums on the field.”
She turned to Georgie. “I think we’ve rushed you into this too quickly, Miss Parker. We’ve got your team up and running before they were ready for the cut and thrust of competition.”
“What?” Georgie was confused. “No! It’s not like that. We’ll play Burghley!”
But it was too late to backtrack.
“I’m sorry, Miss Parker, but I am withdrawing the Badminton House girls’ team from the Round Robin this year. Give yourselves a full season of training and then we can look at entering a girls’ team in the tournament next year,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said.
“But that isn’t what I meant to happen!” Georgie was horrified. “We’ve been training really hard. We’re ready for this.”
“Miss Parker, I’m afraid your actions tell a different story,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said. The stern tone of her voice made it clear that the conversation was over. “There will be no girls’ team in the Blainford Round Robin this year.”
*
When Georgie arrived back at Badminton House, the others were waiting in the living room for her.
“How did it go?” Emily said eagerly. “Is Conrad going to get his butt kicked?”
“Not exactly,”
Georgie admitted.
There was a stunned silence as she told the girls the whole story.
“I knew I should have come with you to back you up!” Alice was furious.
“Didn’t you explain to her how Conrad did it on purpose?” Emily asked.
“I can understand them dropping you from the Round Robin, but how did you manage to take the rest of us down with you?” Daisy asked.
“Daisy!” Alice glared at her.
“Well?” Daisy shrugged. “I’d just like to know how it is that Georgie gets knocked off a horse and then suddenly I’m the one who’s not playing in the tournament.”
“None of us are playing, Daisy,” Emily said. “Because we’re a team. And a team of four – minus one – is no longer a team.”
“It’s not just about me,” Georgie said. “Heath Brompton has this whole thing about girls playing. He thinks we’re too soft to ride against the boys and my complaint was the perfect excuse for him to get us dropped from the competition.”
“So what now?” Emily asked.
“We wait until next year, I guess,” Georgie said.
“There has to be another way to get back in,” Alice said, but for once none of the girls could think of an answer.
*
It was Sunday morning straight after breakfast and the girls were walking down the driveway heading for Badminton House.
“The Round Robin starts in an hour,” Georgie groaned. “I can’t believe we’re not in it!”
“Hey,” Emily looked down the driveway at the red pick-up heading towards them, “is that Riley?”
Riley pulled up in front of the girls and wound down his window. “Hey, Georgie!”
“You’re not allowed to drive up here,” Georgie hissed at him. “It’s out of bounds!”
“Oops!” Riley grinned. “Maybe one of the prefects will give me Fatigues.”
“Riley! I’m serious!” Georgie was beginning to freak out. Everyone was looking at them. “You need special permission. If Conrad sees you he’ll use it as an excuse to punish me.”
“Geez, how do you keep track of all the lame rules in this place?”
