Jade at the Champs

by Amy Brown

  Contents

  Cover

  1 Home Sweet Home

  2 Back to Basics

  3 The Infamous Mr Wilde

  4 The Try-outs

  5 A Higher Standard

  6 Poor Pip

  7 Dorian the Grey

  8 Butterflies

  9 The Showgrounds

  10 A Clean Break

  11 Taniwha

  12 Two Ponies

  How to catch a pony

  The Pony Tale series

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  Home Sweet Home

  You haven’t unpacked anything yet!’ Jade’s dad stood in her bedroom doorway, staring at the stack of untouched boxes. ‘What’ve you been doing for the last hour?’

  Jade pointed at the wall behind her, without looking up.

  ‘Yes, I see you’ve pinned up your ribbons. But your mattress is still covered in plastic — where were you planning to sleep tonight?’ Jade didn’t answer.

  ‘What are you reading?’ her dad asked, more gently.

  ‘Nothing.’ Jade snapped the book shut. ‘I’ll make my bed up now.’

  ‘Good girl. I’ll be in the kitchen rinsing that newspaper-smell off the glasses. You’re welcome to join me if you feel like it.’

  As soon as her dad had left the room, Jade went back to the book, which was actually a photo album. It was the first thing she’d found in the first box she’d opened, and it had stalled her progress in unpacking. If I stop whenever I find something that reminds me of Mum or Grandma, I’ll never finish, Jade thought, having one last look at the photograph of herself as a two-year-old sitting in her mother’s lap, being read to from Margaret Mahy’s The Lion in the Meadow.

  When her clothes had been folded or hung on coat-hangers and stored in the wardrobe, her bed had been made and her books arranged on the shelf, Jade went out to the kitchen to help her dad. She found him rinsing a wineglass slowly under the hot tap. It seemed to be the first thing he’d managed to unpack, too. Steam curled up around his face.

  ‘Are you OK, Dad?’ Jade asked.

  He turned off the tap. ‘Sorry, Jade, I was miles away. We’re not very good at unpacking, are we? Have you made much progress with your room?’

  ‘Almost — that’s why I’ve come to help you. What shall I do?’

  Jade’s dad had no trouble finding jobs to occupy her for the rest of the morning. Fortunately, a hot nor’westerly wind was blowing, so it was better to be inside in the shade rather than out in the paddock with Pip.

  The day before, at the first pony club rally of the year, Jade had tied her reins in a knot, held her arms out straight at each side and jumped Pip, relying only on her legs and seat for control. Flying angels, as the instructor had called them, had been a nervewracking exercise of trust, but of course dependable Pip had behaved in a ladylike fashion. Jade’s legs were aching today, though, from the extra exertion. She tried to bend and stretch them as she unpacked books and ornaments in the living room.

  ‘Is this a new dance routine?’

  Jade turned around and saw that her granddad had let himself in the front door. His fox terrier puppy, Holly, which Jade had given him for Christmas, bounded sideways across the carpet, half-passing like a horse.

  ‘No — I’ve just got sore muscles from riding yesterday. Hello, Holl!’ Jade said, scooping up the puppy.

  ‘Thought we’d pop around to lend a hand. How’s your dad doing?’ Granddad asked.

  ‘He’s unpacking plates and glasses. I think he’s OK,’ Jade said, and her granddad headed for the kitchen. Jade suspected that her father had started with the kitchen because he couldn’t face the boxes of her mother’s possessions in his bedroom.

  She hadn’t gone with her dad to Auckland last week when their old house was being packed up, and she still felt guilty about this. Perhaps if she’d been there, he would have found it easier to give more of their belongings away. Also, the boxes might have been more logically packed. Right now, the one labelled LIVING RM, which Jade was sorting through, contained amongst other things chopsticks, books, a desk lamp, a pair of her mother’s slippers, photo albums, a game of Scrabble and some old copies of the Listener.

  It was a time capsule of before the accident. During the last year in Flaxton, Jade could almost ignore that her mother had gone. Mum might have still been living with Dad in the house in Auckland; it was just Jade who had moved. But in the strawberry-pink bungalow, surrounded by their old things and with her dad out of prison, the spell of the last year had worn off.

  Jade got up stiffly and went to the kitchen. Her dad and granddad weren’t there. ‘Dad!’ she called, wandering down the hallway, poking her head into rooms.

  She found them in the master bedroom. Her dad’s eyes were bloodshot and he was trying to smile at her.

  ‘I’ve almost finished the living-room boxes. Can I go for a ride now?’ Jade asked quickly, needing to get out of the house despite the weather.

  ‘We’re deciding what to do with Mum’s stuff,’ her dad said, in a voice that embarrassed Jade. ‘I think you should help me with this before you visit Pip.’

  The rest of the morning dragged. It was worst when Jade’s dad tried to lighten the mood, holding up a purple dress and saying, ‘We’d better keep this for your school ball.’ All Jade could do was smile weakly. The familiar smell was too much. She wanted to get outside and groom Pip, or even do the dreaded but necessary job of pushing the wheelbarrow around the paddock and using a shovel to clean up Pip’s droppings.

  ‘Look, shall I take this pile here to the Salvation Army now?’ Granddad asked, wanting to get the job done. ‘I could pick up some lunch from the bakery, too.’

  By the time Granddad had returned, with brown paper bags of filled rolls, steak-and-onion pies and custard squares, Jade and her dad had finished the hardest part of the job.

  The three of them, with Holly trotting between them and licking up crumbs, sat on a picnic blanket under the walnut tree in the backyard.

  ‘It’s cooled down a bit now,’ Jade said, swallowing the last bite of her filled roll. ‘Would you mind if …’

  ‘No, off you go. You’ve been a great help this morning.’

  At the Whites’ place, Jade parked her bike in the usual spot against the shed and called out, ‘Pip! Ready for a ride, girl?’

  The large black pony with four white stockings raised her head and snickered.

  ‘Hi, Mr White!’ Jade waved. He was in the back paddock, hammering number-eight wire along the top rail of the fence.

  ‘Hi, Jade,’ he replied, after spitting out the staples he’d been holding between his teeth. ‘Naughty Brandy won’t stop crib-biting; she’s nearly chewed right through this fence, so I’m taking action. I haven’t the heart to make her wear that collar anymore; it was rubbing the back of her neck something awful.’

  Brandy, a 16.1-hand bay mare that used to belong to Mr White’s daughter, had retreated to the far corner of the paddock and was gnawing at a fence post.

  ‘Such a bad habit,’ Mr White said, shaking his head. ‘She’ll happily suck on the fence instead of grazing or eating her feed — that’s why she’s losing condition.’

  ‘This one certainly isn’t,’ Jade said, throwing the lead rope over Pip’s solid neck, sliding the halter over her nose and buckling it at her cheek.

  ‘No, she’s in fine fettle,’ Mr White agreed. ‘If it weren’t for the rigorous exercise regime you’re giving her, she’d get tubby.’

  After a swift but thorough grooming, Jade saddled Pip and mounted. The old black pony was unusually skittish in the warm wind. During her last three rides Jade had practised showjumping, and Pip was expecting more of the same.

  ‘She look
s half her age,’ said Mr White, packing up his hammer, staples and coil of wire. ‘You planning to jump her again?’

  ‘I was going to,’ Jade said, without looking at Mr White; she was concentrating on keeping Pip at a collected walk rather than a loose jog. ‘I wanted to try jumping with no hands again, but she’s too full of beans today.’

  ‘The ground’s very hard at the moment,’ Mr White said. ‘I’d give the old lady a day off. Why not take her for a ride around the block?’

  ‘Are you sure we won’t get out of practice?’ Jade asked, letting Pip break into a trot and guiding her in a large figure of eight. ‘The trials are only two weeks away now.’

  ‘You’ve jumped her three times this week. If you do any more practice, Pip is liable to get sour or lame. Just relax and enjoy a road ride for a change.’

  Jade needed no more persuading. Mr White, who had taught her to ride the year before, knew what he was talking about.

  Out on the wide grass verge, Jade let Pip have her head. Leaning forward slightly, as if she were beginning a cross-country course, Jade cantered Pip to the end of Station Road and turned right. It was a Sunday, so the traffic was very light. Turning onto Long Road, Jade brought Pip back to a brisk walk.

  ‘No one would think you were nearly twenty-four!’ Jade said, grasping a handful of mane as Pip shied at a pheasant darting out from under the poplar windbreak. ‘Settle down, miss.’ Jade stroked her pony’s tense shoulder and pushed her own heels down even further.

  Skirting the main street, Jade continued down Long Road, watching out for rabbit holes. At Grove Road, they turned right again and trotted past a small, scrubby paddock of goats, sheep and one skinny cow. Nearly a year had gone by since Jade had passed this paddock and first seen Pip.

  ‘You don’t want to go back there, do you, lovely?’ Jade said, patting Pip again, and wondering if the pony recognized her old home.

  About 50 metres past the pound, Jade turned into Lennox’s Auto Repairs, which was also her granddad’s house. She and Pip were thirsty, but the back door was locked.

  ‘He must still be helping Dad unpack,’ Jade told Pip. ‘Shall we just head back to Mr White’s now?’

  Pip appeared to agree with this suggestion, so Jade, checking carefully for cars, steered Pip across the road in the direction of home. On the last leg of the journey, Pip pricked her ears and whinnied out to a familiar figure up ahead.

  ‘Andy!’ Jade called to her friend, who was jogging along on her young roan mare, Piper. ‘Nice ride?’

  ‘Not bad,’ Andy called, attempting to halt her pony. ‘Pip’s looking almost as fresh as Piper.’

  ‘Are you alright after yesterday?’ Jade asked, loosening Pip’s reins as she relaxed, walking next to her friend.

  ‘Yeah, just got a bruise the shape of Australia on my hip. Except for that one buck, I think Piper went pretty well, though.’

  During the flying-angels practice at pony club, Piper had thrown Andy.

  ‘Do you think you’ll still try out for the Champs?’

  ‘Of course. Probably don’t have much of a chance, but it’s all good practice.’

  ‘If you’d like to practise with Becca and me on Tuesday, Mr White’s giving us a lesson.’

  ‘That’d be great. This is where I turn off for home,’ Andy said, crossing the quiet road. ‘See you on Tuesday morning, then?’

  As Jade rode Pip into the Whites’ driveway, she heard an unfamiliar voice, then saw a skewbald horse cantering up and down the long paddock.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Jade asked, dismounting and leading Pip over to the trough.

  ‘Jade, this is Lisa.’ Mr White introduced a young woman with white-blonde ringlets. ‘And that’s her horse, Floyd.’

  Jade and Lisa shook hands. ‘Do you graze your horse here, too?’ Lisa asked.

  ‘Um, I suppose so,’ Jade said uncertainly, not sure whether all of Mr White’s generosity could be counted as just grazing.

  ‘Cool! I guess I’ll see you soon then.’ Lisa got into her friend’s white Honda City and drove slowly out the gate without another word.

  ‘You didn’t say you were grazing a new horse,’ Jade said to Mr White.

  ‘That’s because I didn’t know until just now.’ Mr White looked weary. ‘Apparently Lisa phoned when I was out, and Ellen, who can’t say no in such situations, told her she could bring her horse around whenever she liked. I wish she’d warned me.’

  Jade sluiced the sweat marks on Pip’s back, stomach and face, then used a scraper to flick off the white, salty water. When Pip was clean, Jade turned her out in the front paddock. She sat on the fence and watched as her pony walked twice in a circle, then pawed at the dust and sank onto her side to roll.

  ‘I think I could watch horses rolling all day,’ Jade said wistfully, making Mr White laugh. ‘Pip looks so happy.’

  ‘She does indeed,’ Mr White said. ‘I hope Lisa is as attentive to Floyd’s happiness as you are to Pip’s.’

  They both watched the skewbald gelding sniffing at Mr White’s big old horse, Hamlet, and Brandy over the fence.

  ‘He looks nice, though, eh?’ Jade said, running her eye over his muscular neck, straight legs and rounded haunches.

  ‘Yes, but he doesn’t seem to have any tack, just that ratty old halter.’

  ‘Lisa led him here?’ Jade asked, surprised. ‘Where had she come from?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Mr White said. ‘I don’t know anything about her, and I’m not sure that I like having a strange horse in my paddock.’

  Mrs White emerged from the back garden in time to hear Mr White’s complaint.

  ‘I’m sorry I forgot to tell you, Jim. I shouldn’t have offered grazing without letting you know, but she sounded so desperate. And she says she’s planning to sell the horse, so he won’t be here very long.’

  ‘She’s planning to sell him?’ Mr White asked, incredulously. ‘Ellen, that means he could be here for months. For all we know she might have dumped him here.’

  ‘For real?’ Jade said, aghast. ‘Floyd’s too nice for that, isn’t he?’

  ‘Do you have her phone number, or know where she lives?’ Mr White asked Mrs White.

  ‘Oh dear, I didn’t ask. I thought she’d give you her details when she brought the horse around.’

  ‘For heaven’s sake!’ exclaimed Mr White. ‘Do you even know her surname?’

  Mrs White looked anxious. ‘Possibly Jones? I’m sorry, Jim.’

  Mr White picked a strand of grass and started chewing on it. ‘Never mind, what’s done is done. And I suppose I ought to learn to be less suspicious.’

  Mrs White and Jade looked at each other. If there was one thing Mr White wasn’t, it was suspicious. A suspicious person wouldn’t offer free grazing and the loan of tack and riding gear to an eleven-year-old he’d never met before, which is exactly what Mr White had done for Jade a year ago.

  ‘I’m sure Lisa will be back tomorrow and that everything will be alright,’ Jade said unconvincingly, as she hopped on her bike.

  ‘I like your optimism,’ Mr White said.

  Jade biked quickly back to her new home, the strawberry-pink bungalow, thanking her lucky stars that since their Auckland house had sold her father was now able to pay Mr White for Pip’s grazing. At least she wasn’t as suspicious as Lisa.

  2

  Back to Basics

  It was nearly five o’clock when Jade biked through

  the gate to her new home. The late-afternoon breeze felt like a hairdryer, and Jade thought that nothing would taste better than a glass of cold, fresh water. In the kitchen, she found her dad bundling up the last of the packing rubbish. Holly was sprawled on the deck, fast asleep in the sun.

  ‘Was Pip good?’

  ‘Yeah; full of beans, though,’ Jade said, gulping down water.

  ‘Granddad’s just popped out to fill the gas bottle at the service station — thought a barbecue might be easier tonight.’

  ‘Yum.’ Jade suddenly realized
how hungry she was after spending the afternoon subduing a skittish pony. ‘Could I invite Laura and Becca around?’

  ‘If you like, so long as they don’t expect much more than bread, sausages and salad.’

  With the new cellphone her Dad had bought her after the sale of their Auckland house, Jade texted her school friends.

  Laura, who now lived only five minutes’ walk away, texted back that she’d be around soon. Becca, who lived on a dairy farm a few minutes’ drive from central Flaxton, replied that she couldn’t make it, but would see Jade at Mr White’s on Tuesday for their showjumping practice.

  Having a quick shower and changing into shorts and a T-shirt before Laura arrived, Jade felt glad to be almost settled again. She could hear her father swearing softly at the computer in the spare bedroom, which was currently more of a study. Holly was yapping as Granddad’s Falcon pulled into the driveway. The bungalow was certainly beginning to feel like home.

  ‘Hello?’ Laura’s voice travelled up the hallway, and Jade, with her hair still in a bath-towel turban, ran to meet her.

  ‘That was quick,’ Jade said.

  ‘I know — it’s so great that we live near each other now. These are for you and your dad, a housewarming gift,’ Laura said, holding out a bunch of roses, jasmine and sweet peas, and a loaf of fresh bread from her parents’ café.

  ‘They’re lovely,’ Jade said. ‘You didn’t have to bring any thing.’

  ‘They’re just from Mum’s garden — the flowers, not the bread; that’s for dinner. Shall we put them in water?’ Laura was already peering nosily down the hallway, clearly keen to be given a tour of Jade’s new house. Jade obliged, beginning with the kitchen, where the flowers were left, and ending with her bedroom.

  ‘You’re lucky to have a window out to the back garden,’ Laura said. ‘It’s a really nice room.’

  ‘It is good to have back all my things from Auckland. I have the best of both worlds now,’ Jade said, trying to slide the photograph of her mother under a book before Laura saw it. She wasn’t subtle enough.

  ‘Is that your mum?’ Laura asked, reaching for the photo.

  ‘Yeah.’ Reluctantly, Jade let her friend look at it.