Charlotte and the Starlet

by Dave Warner

  Charlotte balled her fists, ready to pound Lucinda. But then she remembered Leila's advice about beating them at their own game. She forced a smile.

  'Don't worry about it, Lucinda. But I'd go easy on those zit creams you use. They say the shakes are a common side effect.'

  She saw she'd scored. Lucinda's face contorted into an ugly mask. She turned on her heel without a word and left the scene. Meanwhile, Todd had whipped out his handkerchief and started wiping the dessert off Charlotte.

  'I thought you were sweet enough already,' he cracked.

  Charlotte joined in the joke. 'Looks like dessert is on me.'

  Charlotte dipped her finger in the remnants of custard and ate a little, making Todd laugh more. Charlotte liked Todd. He was fun to be around.

  The retreating Lucinda found Emma waiting, laughing at her.

  'That zit-cream gag was pretty funny.'

  'So's this.' Lucinda picked up a custard tart and whacked Emma in the face with it. Emma grabbed a handful of jelly and rubbed it in Lucinda's hair.

  'You skank!' shouted Lucinda.

  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.

  Chapter 18

  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!

  Acknowledgments

  The late and very great Johnny Leopard, a wonderful comic who inspired me to go the extra furlong with Leila, who he helped create; the Random House gang of Zoe Walton, Chris Kunz and Ashleigh King for plaiting the tale; Rachel and Rick at Rick Raftos Management for all their help along the way; Sue Murray and June Jones for valuable feedback; and Mr Ed for setting the pace.

  About the Author

  Dave Warner is the author of six novels and five non-fiction books for adults. He originally gained national recognition as a musician and songwriter, with eight albums to his name, but more recently music has been secondary to Dave's career as a writer for television and feature films. His first feature film, Cut, starred Kylie Minogue and Molly Ringwald, and his second, Garage Days, co-written with director Alex Proyas, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Dave has also written a number of TV dramas. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two daughters. Find out more about Dave at his website: www.davewarner.com.au

 

 

 
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