Comet and the Champion’s Cup. Stacy Gregg

thought you and Natasha were friends now?” Mrs Brown said.

      “So did I,” Issie sighed, “but it turns out that Natasha doesn’t think so.” Issie didn’t know why Stuck-up Tucker was so against her, although Stella insisted that it was because Natasha was jealous.

      “Jealous?” Issie didn’t understand. “Jealous of what?”

      “You and Dan!” Stella said. “She has got, like, a huge crush on him and you’re always hanging out with him, which makes her blood boil.”

      It was true. Issie and Dan were pretty tight–but big deal! Stella and Kate and Ben were her friends too! Dan was most definitely not her boyfriend. Still, if Natasha wanted to be jealous of Issie’s non-boyfriend then she guessed there wasn’t much she could do about it–except stay out of Natasha’s way.

      “Mum? Do we have to park here? Can’t we move?” Issie pleaded again. But it was too late because at that moment, a blonde girl with hair braided into ramrod-straight plaits emerged from behind the corner of the blue and silver horse truck. She was leading an elegant rose-grey gelding.

      Issie attempted a cheery greeting. “Hi, Natasha!”

      Natasha didn’t smile back. “What are you doing here?” she said flatly. “It’s a rally day and you don’t have a horse to ride, do you?”

      “Ummm…I’m looking for Stella and Kate,” Issie faltered. “Have you seen them?”

      “Why?” said Natasha. “What do you want them for?” Natasha’s frosty stare made Issie start to babble and before she knew it she was telling Natasha all about Aidan’s phone call.

      As soon as she started, though, she wished she had kept her mouth shut. Natasha’s face was like thunder. Even though she would never admit it, it was obvious that in some weird way Natasha was upset that Issie wasn’t asking her to join them this time. Issie sighed. If she had actually asked her, Natasha would certainly have said no. Now, because she hadn’t asked her, Natasha was in a total huff. You just couldn’t win.

      “So Aidan is looking for some pony-mad slaves to rope in to do all your aunt’s donkey work yet again,” Natasha harrumphed. “I hope you’re not thinking of asking me this time because I’ve already done dung duty for her once and I’m not planning on falling for that again.”

      “It’s not like you were her slave! Aunty Hess paid us to work on The Palomino Princess!” Issie said indignantly.

      “What-ever!” said Natasha. “Anyway, I’d rather be riding my own horse than trying to teach some snot-nosed brats how to keep their hands steady. You probably won’t even get a chance to ride. You’ll be too busy mucking out the stalls and grooming all their ponies for them.”

      Natasha smirked at this put-down, then made a vague gesture across the club grounds to the far paddock. “Anyway, if you’re looking for Stella and Kate, I think I saw them over by the main arena.” And with that, she turned her back on Issie and began to busy herself with attaching Fabergé’s bell boots.

      Issie didn’t care what Stuck-up Tucker said. Maybe the riding school would be a lot of hard work and not much actual riding. But it would still be fun just being near the horses, helping to groom them and look after them. She just hoped that Stella and Kate would both feel the same way. Aidan needed all three of them.

      Issie found Stella and Kate with their horses, under the shade of the plane trees by the main arena. The girls had finished riding for the morning and were watching the other riders in the showjumping arena.

      Stella was lying on the grass next to Coco, her little chocolate brown mare. She had taken off her riding helmet and her wild red curls were sticking out at funny angles with a flat patch on the top of her head where the helmet had been. Kate was standing next to her holding the reins of her rangy bay Thoroughbred, Toby. She was taller than the other two girls, even though they were all in the same form at Chevalier Point High School. Kate still had her helmet on and she wore her blonde bobbed hair tucked up neatly out of the way in a hairnet–which was actually a rule for club days although Stella clearly hadn’t bothered. Stella wasn’t very big on rules. Issie noticed that she wasn’t even wearing her club tie underneath her navy vest.

      “Issie! Ohmygod. What are you doing here?” Stella shrieked when she saw her best friend. She shrieked even louder when Issie told her about Aunt Hester’s riding school.

      “Us?” Stella shrieked. “Riding instructors!”

      “Uh-huh,” Issie said. “The kids are novices so we’ll just be teaching them the basics. Plus, we’ll have to help Hester to run the camp, doing all the other stuff like cooking meals and grooming the horses. She can’t afford to pay us, but we get room and board. Plus you get to bring Toby and Coco with you and we can hack out across the farm after we finish schooling each day.”

      Stella grinned. “Cool. If I can bring Coco then I’m totally there!”

      Issie knew it would be easy to convince Stella–she was mad keen on anything horsey. But sensible, practical Kate was a different story.

      “Why is Hester running a riding school? I thought she trained movie horses,” Kate said.

      “Ummm…the movie business is having a few hiccups,” Issie said. “Anyway, it’s not just a riding school, it’s like a camp for horsey kids like us. The riders come and stay at Blackthorn Farm for three weeks over the school holidays and learn to ride…” She saw Kate’s hesitant expression. “Come on! It will be really good fun…”

      “When do we go?”

      “We need to spend the week before the kids arrive getting the camp ready. Aidan is coming with the horse truck to pick us up on Tuesday.”

      “That’s only two days!” Kate boggled. “Issie, I don’t know if I can. Mum will flip out if I tell her I’m going away for a whole month!”

      “Please, Kate!” Issie begged. “I know it’s short notice, but Aunty Hess needs us straightaway.”

      Issie had been desperately worried that Kate would say no. Of course she would be put off by the idea of suddenly changing her holiday plans and going all the way to Gisborne for a month. The problem was, she couldn’t imagine going without Kate. Cool, calm Kate was a really good riding instructor; she was brilliant with kids and had loads of patience. All the junior riders at Chevalier Point totally adored her and Kate was always Avery’s first choice to fill in and teach the younger kids if an instructor failed to turn up for a practice session.

      Kate looked thoughtful. “Issie, do you think you could get your mum to ask my mum? If your mum has OKed it, she’d have to say yes. Besides, I’ve stayed at Hester’s before and she let me go that time, didn’t she…?” Kate was smiling now. “And if I can take Toby with me, how excellent would that be?”

      Issie squealed and threw her arms around Kate.

      “I knew you’d say yes! Oh, this is going to be so cool!”

      The only thing left to organise now was Storm. Issie would miss him so much, but she was sure that Avery would take good care of the colt and Blaze while she was away. Avery had looked after Blaze when she was in foal and Issie was away working on The Palomino Princess. She knew that Avery would be more than happy to take care of Storm and Blaze while she was gone. She saw him over by the clubhouse and set off to ask him.

      “I can’t,” Avery told her. Issie couldn’t believe it.

      “Issie, you know that normally I would do it,” Avery continued. “The problem is, I was planning to go to Gisborne myself in a week. It’s the Horse of the Year Show. I’m taking Dan and Ben down to prepare their horses to compete in the showjumping. This is the first time Dan will have a chance to compete on his new horse. We’ve been planning it for ages.”

      Of course! How could Issie have forgotten? The Horse of the Year was the biggest event on the equestrian