Chloe and Cracker (5 page)

I’m in bed, writing by the light of my key-ring torch again. I tried to hang round in Millie’s room for as long as possible after lights out, hiding under the covers at the bottom of her bed, but when Jody came up to check on us all she made me come back in here. Luckily Bella and Georgia were asleep so I didn’t have to face them.

At least me and Cracker are friends now. Luckily he came when I called him over. I leaned over the fence, gave him a big pat and said sorry for being so mean, and especially for spending time with Charm when I could have been with him. I ruffled his mane and whispered, “Cracker, I’m so sorry for blaming you for our bad jumping when I should have been thinking of us as a team and riding you
better and more positively.”

Cracker looked at me with his big black eyes, and I’m sure he understood. I added, “I’ve brought you a carrot to say sorry.” When I held it out he munched it right up, so I know it’s all okay between us now.

I wish I could just give Bella a carrot and then she’d like me again. I’ve just thought, maybe I should be calling her Isabella now because she is only Bella to her friends and maybe I’m not her friend any more. Urgh! I hope Jody’s right and that things
will
blow over tomorrow.

Goodnight!

We’re just having some drinks and biscuits before we go out on the treasure hunt. My timetable from Jody has changed again today because we had our lecture first instead of the lesson. Sally said we’d need the skills for going on the treasure hunt.

I thought that meant the lecture would be on solving clues, but actually it was about road safety and first aid, and how to put boots and bandages on your pony and what to do if you get lost in the countryside. I’ve bandaged Cracker’s legs because Sally said we might be going through the woods, and we have to be as prepared as possible. We also put our ponies’ bridles on over their head collars, and each clipped a lead rope on to our D-rings so that
we could dismount and have a picnic without the ponies galloping off. When I’d finished all the preparation, I made a big fuss of Cracker and told him how smart he looked.

I have sort of smiled at Isabella a couple of times and Georgia hasn’t made a horrible face at me or anything so that’s a bit better at least. The other girls seem to have forgotten about our falling-out because when I helped Asha to do Sugar’s bandages and Olivia to put on Ebony’s boots they were both chattering away to me as if nothing had happened.

Oh, hang on a sec…

Jody just called us all over to her and announced that we’re being split into three teams for the treasure hunt. I’m in her team with Isabella and Joelle. When she read out the teams, she gave me a secret wink, so I know she fixed it like that on purpose so that me and Isabella will have a chance to make up. I hope we do!

I have volunteered to go last so I can write in here.

Guess what? Me and Bella have made up! And guess what else? Our team won the treasure hunt! Well, one special pony in particular won it, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute.

Before we left the yard on the treasure hunt, Sally gave each team a map and their first clue. She explained that there would be three different sets of clues and three separate routes to follow, but that we would all meet up at the same final place to search for the treasure. Our team leaders had a cool saddle-bag each, packed with our sandwiches and water
and the mobile and first-aid kit. Then Lydia handed out fluorescent bibs to wear over our riding clothes so we could easily be seen by any passing cars.

Sally said the only rule was that we had to stop for a half-hour lunch break so the ponies could have a rest. Our team went into the kitchen with Jody and worked out where the first clue was telling us to go, and then we got our ponies out and headed off.

Johnny’s team had gone already but Sally’s was still in the yard. We’d worked out that we needed to head for the church in the hamlet marked on the map. We walked along the road for a little while and then turned up a track. It was good because we all talked together and even though Bella didn’t say anything exactly to me she wasn’t ignoring me either, and after a while I
didn’t feel so nervous around her. We trotted on and when we hit a nice wide uphill bit next to some fields we persuaded Jody to let us have a canter, to help us get ahead of the other teams. “Okay, then,” she said, smiling. “Millie and her dad will be dragging their team across the countryside at high speed, so we might as well try to compete!”

Cantering up the hill was fantastic and I could tell that Cracker really loved being out of the manège!

It took about half an hour to get to the church and we found our next clue pinned to the noticeboard in the little stone porch. I dismounted and held Joelle’s pony while she jumped down and ran to get it. It said:

“Whoever wrote this isn’t very good at poems!” I said, giggling. It was nice that Bella giggled at that too.

“Oh, thanks very much!” harrumphed Jody, but she was laughing.

“
You
wrote it!” I cried. “So you must know the answer!”

She nodded, but of course she wouldn’t tell us where to go next or help us with the clue at all.

So we all dismounted and huddled round the map. After a while, Bella cried, “Aha! I’ve got it! Little Red Riding Hood was told to stick to the path through the woods in the fairy story, wasn’t she?” She pointed at the woods marked on the map. “If we ride to the edge I bet we’ll find that they’ve put some arrows up, maybe pinned to trees. Then we’ll just have to follow them through the woods. As long as we stick to the path as the rhyme says we’ll find our next clue.”

“Well done, Bella, that’s brilliant,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling, but she still didn’t look exactly
at
me.

Jody said, “If that’s what you girls think, then let’s get going!”

“But are we right?” Bella asked. Jody just made a zipping her lips sign. She wasn’t giving anything away!

“What do
you
think, Cracker?” I asked, and he actually whinnied right at that moment, making everyone laugh. “Cracker thinks you’re right too,” I told Bella. This time when she smiled, her eyes met mine and I started to think that things might turn out okay between us.

So we set off for the woods and sure enough there was a green arrow on a post where the path entered them. We had to duck a bit under the trees at times and I was glad I’d put the bandages on Cracker, as there was
a lot of bramble around. After a few more green arrows, we came out the other side on to a nice grassy bit by a field, where we found a piece of paper pinned to a tree. Our next clue!

Jody said we should have our lunch first before working it out, and even though we were keen to keep going, we were all pretty hungry too. We dismounted, took off the ponies’ bridles and clipped our lead ropes to their head collars – then the ponies could have lunch too! Joelle needed the loo and Jody took her back into the wood to go in private while Bella and I held Bonny and Monsoon for them. I knew it was my chance to talk to Bella – and I took it.

It was really awkward at first and I didn’t know how to begin, but then suddenly I found myself blurting it out. “I really
am
sorry I was mean to you,” I gabbled. “I did want Charm but now I’m so glad I got Cracker and I’m just really,
really,
really
sorry and…” I trailed off then, not knowing what else to say. There was a horrible moment when I thought she was going to tell me to get lost and never speak to me again, but luckily she didn’t. Instead she said, “That’s okay, Chloe, I forgive you. And, well, you know
why
you got Cracker and not Charm, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “Just the way things turned out, I suppose,” I said.

“Chloe!” she cried. “Don’t be dense! It’s because Sally thinks you’re a good rider. That’s why she gave you a pony who needs more guidance.”

I couldn’t help but feel pleased. “Thanks,” I said, “but maybe Sally thought I was a better rider than I am. I still can’t get Cracker over that water jump. I’m going to have to wear a swimsuit in the comp tomorrow, because something tells me I’m going to get wet!”

Bella laughed at that and everything was okay between us again, but we still shook hands to make it official. By the time Jody got back with Joelle, we were chatting away and she gave me a secret wink and looked really pleased.

We all sat down together and had our lunch, which was egg mayonnaise or ham rolls, and bananas for after – of course, Cracker managed to pinch half of mine! While we were eating we worked out what the next clue meant and where we should go. The piece of paper said:

“That’s not very helpful!” said Bella at first, glancing up the bridleway ahead of us, which forked into two paths. “It doesn’t tell us
which
is the correct path. It’s impossible!”

But I just grinned. I do crosswords with Mum all the time and they quite often say ‘correct’ to mean ‘right’, as in left and right. “It means take the right path, not the left,” I explained. “‘Correct’ means ‘right’, and ‘you’ll get left behind’ means if you take the left path you won’t reach the treasure first. I’m pretty sure that’s it.”

“Chloe, you’re a genius,” said Bella, and I blushed with pride.

So we got back on our ponies and rode through the fields in walk, chatting. After ages of not finding the next clue, we got a bit worried we were falling behind the other teams, so we trotted on.

Luckily we soon found it, tacked to a fence post along the path. It said: