“Wait! Remember what I said before, about doing the show with or without the judges? What if we do the show without the judges? At least, without those judges! We can ask our parents to find new judges. People we don’t know, so it will be fair and square.”
I ran down the stairs and said, “Mom, do you know anyone who could act as a judge for the horse show?”
”Not really, why?” So I told Mom my idea. As Mom listened, she began to agree that it could work as she thought of people who would be able to act as judges. I was so excited, I ran back upstairs to my room to tell everyone. By the time I got there, my legs were tired. I blurted out that Mom was going to help, then I laid down on my bed to rest. Then, I fell asleep so hard no one could wake me up. It was really exhausting being in charge!
While I slept, Sandra, Felicity, and Mom called three of Mom’s suggested people and asked them if they would judge our show. They all said yes! What a relief! We had one less thing to figure out. We were almost there, almost ready to do the show.
Even though we had crossed that hurdle, I still worried that this might not work. But I cheered myself up by thinking, you never know, it might. Yet there were other hurdles to jump. The other competitors’ parents might say no or we might not be able to get access to the arena. I knew those were a couple of ways it could be ruined. But it had to work. I didn’t think this group of ours could think of any more ideas.
Even though we now had judges, we still had a lot to figure out, like how to hold the show and if we were able to. Using our best puppy-dog faces, we all asked my mom to help yet again. She fell for it and said, “Well, okay, but this is the last time.” Even though I knew she would help whenever we needed it.
That was just how my mom was.
“Yay! Finally, we get to do the show!” We cheered.
Wait. There was one more thing. We had to tell the national organization about this. We had to get their permission. So, we had to ask Mom to help again, and we had to beg. She said yes, but only if we stopped begging. So we stopped begging and waited quietly just looking at her with our sad faces. She tried not to smile, but finally she did and agreed to ask some of the other moms to help drive us to the national organization’s headquarters in another state. OMG, I couldn’t believe our moms were really going to help us do this! Our problems were almost solved! We all fell asleep easily that night.
The next morning, we woke up and felt stress free. It was almost like a magical fairy came by and dropped stress-free dust on all of us. We washed up, packed our bags, and changed into our prettiest clothes. Then it was time to go. Because we were in different cars, we kept connected by phone. One person would call someone in the second car then that person would call someone in the third car, and then the fourth car, etc. Then we all just talked and giggled.
It was a long road trip, and it took more than a day. When we finally arrived at a hotel, we fell asleep almost immediately, excited about tomorrow.
When we arrived at the national headquarters the next day, at first we just ran around looking at where we might be when we competed in the nationals. We completely forgot about what we had to do first until Mom said, “Okay, girls. I thought this was business. Let’s get to it. Chop, chop, in other words.”
So we walked around trying to find someone who worked there who could help us. We found a trainer, but she was no help. After that we bumped into Robin Whayhuter! She saw me and immediately recognized me.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
I replied with a simple but sophisticated, “Well, we are trying to find the headquarters so we can get the state show going, or else they won’t have enough entries for nationals. And we all know how that turns out.”
She said, “Well to start off, the headquarters’s office is right in that building over there.”
After thanking her, we ran to the building she had pointed to and pushed the doors open.
After a few minutes of searching, we found the director of the organization. He seemed surprised to see twenty-five girls crowding into his office. I stepped forward and said, “Hi, I am Ellie and our state show has been canceled. We’d all like to compete, so we were curious. Can we run our own show? If we don’t, you won’t have enough people for nationals. Please?”
As we were waiting for an answer, Robin walked in the door and asked the director if she could talk with him in private. They kicked us out of the office and closed the door. We tried to hear what they were saying, but it was all muffled—we couldn’t make out the words.
Finally, the office door opened. We all crossed our fingers as the director watched us for a few minutes. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he said, “Yes.”
The room was totally silent. Even though it was what we wanted to hear, it wasn’t what we had expected. I was so excited, I just blurted out, “That’s all you are going to say? Just yes, that’s all? Wait. You said ‘yes!’ Thank you, thank you, thank you! I guess we better go get to work. Bye.”
Our moms stayed behind to talk to Robin and the director to get all the details of what had to be done, but we had gotten what we wanted. All twenty-five of us girls went racing outside where we could yell, jump, and celebrate!
Chapter 7
When we arrived back home, we felt so clever. I knew never giving up would pay off. I was so delighted that the national organization would let us do our own show. I knew that if the state show didn’t go on, they wouldn’t have enough competitors for nationals. Then the world show might have to be canceled, too. So, in a way, they were lucky to have us. I felt like such a hero. I was so pumped, I decided to write about it in my diary.
Dear Diary,
I am so happy that I will be able to reach my goal. I feel so exhilarated, like I’m floating on air. I can see everyone around me, so proud of me, like I just saved a little baby from getting hit by a car. I can feel my heart pumping out of my chest.
Happy Ellie
That was a good start; I’d write more later because right now there was a lot to do.
Our moms were handling the details, and all my friends were already packing everything in sight. This was partly because they were leaving to go back to their own homes, but mostly because they were so excited about the show that they needed something to do.
They even got a little carried away and started packing my stuff! “Okay, girls, don’t pack my stuff. Girls, hey! Put that down. That’s fragile. GIRLS!”
They all looked at me with scared faces, dropping anything and everything in their hands. Then we all laughed. It was like I was the Queen of England and everyone bowed at my feet. It kind of felt cool.
As I watched them pack, I thought, We need to celebrate our accomplishments. But how? We need to do something fun, close, and easy. As all of the girls were leaving in the morning, we needed to celebrate today. Then I had an idea! Perfect, perfect, and perfect—a pool party.
The weather was unseasonably warm for the spring (but I do live in Georgia!), and I have a pool. So having a pool party is fun, and it’s easy. I invited all of my school friends, and, when they arrived that afternoon, we put on our bathing suits, got our towels, and ran downstairs. We had a contest to see who could get in the pool first by doing a cannon ball. Ava won! She’s fast and furious.
It had been a while since I had spent any time with my friends from school and they got along with the girls from the horse show.
It was great! We swam and played volleyball and basketball. We had some races, too. We played lots of sports and games. It was a blast!
After swimming, my school friends had to go home and Mom called me and my horse show friends in for dinner. We had roast beef, potatoes, and corn. It was a big meal because the other girls were leaving the next day. We were all hungry, and we all eat like horses!
After dinner, we took turns showering and then we watched scary movies. When we got too freaked out, we decided to watch comedies instead. That was fun, but eventually we had to go to bed. We all had nightmares abou
t the same movie. It was the scariest movie of them all.
Early in the morning, we woke up and shuffled downstairs. I was halfway down when I smelled pancakes or waffles—I wasn’t sure which one. It was both! I was in the lap of luxury. The only thing that could make it better was having all the girls stay with us forever. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. So I settled on the pancakes and waffles.
One by one the moms came and picked up the girls. To everyone, I said, “Bye! It was nice having you stay here. See you at the show.”
I had to say that twenty-four times. I was upset they all had to leave, but I would see them again soon at our horse show.
Chapter 8
Time seemed to drag, and the competition felt like it was taking forever to get here. But soon I realized, In a few days I can say that my dream is accomplished.
If only it would come quicker! I wondered if I went to sleep for a while, whether the day would go by faster, so I tried it. I flopped on the living room couch and turned on the television because I fall asleep faster with the television on. It worked! I fell fast asleep. I slept through dinner and all through the night and still woke up later than everyone else the next day. So it’s true, I thought. The day does go by faster if you sleep.
Then it was finally time to pack for our week-long trip. I made a list of everything I needed and some little extras.
1) Eight t-shirts
2) Eight pairs of shorts
3) Three pairs of jeans
4) Three pairs of socks
5) New Moon (book)
6) Nintendo DS
7) All my riding gear
8) Money
9) Great-Grandma’s ring
My handwriting was messy, but only because I quickly jotted everything down.
That was everything I needed. Then I picked out all of my favorite clothes, got my zebra-print suitcase out of the closet, and plopped everything into it. In five to ten minutes, I had everything on my list scratched out and packed.
Finally, we were one day away from leaving for the state show. I was so pumped that I did a little hooray dance. I ran down the stairs and stopped at the third step, where I jumped off and yelled, “Yippee ki-yay!”
My mom told me to stop fooling around and just eat dinner. I did and then I sat in bed watching television all night. Well, really only until 10:00 p.m. Then I fell asleep and dreamt of the show.
As soon as I woke up, I ran to my parent’s room and said, “Get up! It’s time to go.” They shushed me and whispered for me to go get dressed and put my stuff in the car. I did exactly what they said.
Finally, the car roared out of the driveway. By the time we arrived at the hotel, the other girls had arrived too.
“Hey, girls! I am so glad to see you here. Let’s hope the show doesn’t get canceled again. Ha!” I giggled at my own humor.
We walked up to our room and unpacked all our stuff. Felicity, Sandra, and I wandered around the hotel. We knew where everything was because we had been there a few times before. We played arcade games with the other girls, but then my back started to ache, so I went back up to our room and laid down to rest. The day was over, but the competition was just beginning.
The next morning was our first practice day. I had the same pattern to memorize and perform, so all I had to do was practice it again and again and again. The next day was another practice day, and so were the two days after that.
The fifth day was different, because we had to clean our stalls and get our horses ready. I did a lot of work with my horse. To start off, I cleaned out her stall. Next, I washed Miracle, cleaned out her hooves, curried her, and braided her mane and tail. Then I went back to the hotel to get myself ready for the show. This time it was going to go on. I was sure of it. Because sleeping passes the time, I went to bed.
I woke up feeling like the greatest person in the world—like anything could happen at that moment. I was thinking, Today is the show and it isn’t going be canceled again. I am going down there right now to make sure of it.
So I ran down to the arena and asked, “It is still going on, right?”
The new judges nodded and smiled.
I got ready just in time. My number was 5667. The show started and there were two rounds—racing and jumping. The judges called number 5665, so I knew I was going to be on soon. Before I knew it, the judges announced numbers 5666 and 5667. That was me! I trotted through the wrought-iron gates and did my jumping pattern. It felt glorious!!
But as Miracle and I continued to do our pattern. I mixed the jumps up! Dang it! How could I make such a mistake after all my practice! So now I was ranked seventh, and I had to get up to fifth. Felicity was fifth, and Sandra was third. I still had one more round. Everyone did their jumping routine perfectly except for me. I was really bummed.
Now it was time for the racing. Five people at a time race each other. I raced Ava, Faith, Brooke, and Lola. I got fourth; I thought that might move me up.
Turns out, it moved me up to sixth place, but it wasn’t enough for me to proceed to the national show. After all my hard work, I wasn’t going to get my life-long dream! At first, I was really bummed, but then I looked on the bright side—Felicity and Sandra DID make it to the national show.
Chapter 9
We walked out of the arena with the reins in our hands and our horses rambling proudly next to us. I was glad I placed sixth, but I knew I could have done better. Felicity and Sandra received ribbons, a yellow and a green. I received none. I felt like I should have at least received one for participation, but no!
We walked into the stable and tied our horses to the sides of the wash station. We looked through the grooming bucket and found brushes to bring all the dirt to the top of our horses’s coats. Finally we brushed their manes and tails, picked out their dirty hooves, washed the horses off with a water hose, and dried them off.
We took our horses to the trailer and walked them in. We hopped in the back seat, and Dad started to drive us home. We were all pretty quiet. I think Sandra and Felicity were afraid that I was really upset; I wasn’t sure what I was feeling, and I just didn’t feel like talking.
When we were about halfway home we stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. I had never been there before. I guess there is a first time for everything. In a weird way, that made me happy because I knew that I still had a lot of “first times” ahead of me.
We drove the rest of the way home. It felt like two seconds, and we were there. When Felicity’s dad came to pick up her and Sandra, Mom asked if we wanted to play our favorite game that we often play when we get home from a trip, Capture the Flag. My team always wins. The teams were my mom, my dad, and Felicity’s dad versus Felicity, Sandra, and me. We knew exactly where they had hidden their flag; we just had to get over there without them tagging us. The game was really fun, and it took my mind off the fact that I hadn’t placed in the competition. I think my Mom knew I needed that.
My team tagged two of the other team, so they were in jail. We had one person guard the jail and two people go over to their side. They only had one person left—Mom—and she can’t tag two people at the same time! I distracted her while Sandra grabbed the flag. I felt powerful again! I was good at winning!
A few days later, Sandra and Felicity were at my house again, and we were watching some movies. We weren’t talking much about the show, and I wasn’t asking them about the national competition or when it was. I wanted to know . . . but then again, I didn’t.
We got tired of watching movies and decided to check our emails. I checked first and I saw that I had received three emails, one of them had the subject of “State participation.”
The email said…
Thank you for participating in the state equestrian show. We are proud of your performance and are sorry that you will not be going to the national competition.
We wish you the best of luck for next year.
Sincerely,
Your friends at the National Equestrian Organization
/>
That was very sweet of them I thought, even though I would rather the note had said I did make it to the national show. Bummer!
Then Felicity checked her email and screamed, “Yea! I am going to the national show. Sandra, the email was sent to you, too.”
I sat there silently for a moment, waiting for them to say something. They did, but not too much. I felt like a third wheel. I walked out of the room with tears welling up in my eyes. They followed me with glorious grins on their faces, like they had just won the lottery. They had, and I hadn’t.
My mom knew exactly why I was upset, but I didn’t think Sandra and Felicity even noticed. They were just so excited for themselves.
Then Sandra said, “Hey, Ellie, you should come with us to the national show.”
My back was facing them, but when I heard that I turned around fast as a roller coaster.
“Really?” I asked.
They nodded almost like they were smiling through their teeth, but they weren’t. I really was happy for them. I ran over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of sports drink and drank it all in about ten seconds. This was the happiest moment of my life—them going to the national show and me going with them. Nothing could top this.
I felt much better. Together, we walked to my room and sat on the bed. For the first five minutes, we just sat there looking at each other. Then I got a conversation going.
“So, guys, are you ready for the show? Do you know when and where it is?”
They replied with a crooked look on their face, “Uh, no, no, and no. We aren’t ready at all. I guess you could say we don’t know what we got ourselves into.”
As we talked, I thought about being friends. We don’t turn against each other. They accomplished something good—going to the national horse show. I knew that, and I was happy for them. As Mom says, “To have a friend, you have to be a friend.” So I would be a good friend, cheer them on, and and celebrate their accomplishments.
Filly Girls Page 3