The Auditions
Page 14
So far Georgie’s two encounters with James on the polo field had both been disasters. But at least they made for funny emails to send to Lily.
I don’t know how I feel about him, Georgie wrote to Lily that evening. He’s totally part of a different clique to me and his snotty sister is so awful, but he is sooooo cute and seems really nice! It is totally confusing!
I cannot believe how similar our love lives are, Lily wrote back. Yesterday in biology class we were dissecting frogs and Craig Borell threw his frog’s legs at me. At the time I thought “eww yuck frog!” but now I see that, really, I should have thrown them back as a sign of my mutual devotion. If only I’d done that–we could be engaged by now!
Georgie took the point. Just because James had asked her to brush his pony was no sign that they were destined to be together. She needed to stop obsessingabout him. Which wouldn’t be difficult since she was certain he wouldn’t want anything more to do with her.
Her other emails home to Lucinda and her father didn’t mention the polo, or James obviously. She wrote to her dad about the looming mid-terms, assuring him that she was studying hard. Her email to Lucinda was less confident.
Tomorrow is the last cross-country class before the exams, she wrote. We’ve been practising all the jumps on the course, but you know what Tara is like, she always manages to pull something at the last minute …
Georgie was right. Tara Kelly was about to change the game.
“As you all know,” Tara addressed the eventing class, “the mid-term exam is next Monday. This year I’m setting an exam that will incorporate the jumps that we’ve been practising and will also test your boldness and speed across country.”
Tara looked at the expectant faces in front of her. “We’re riding a point-to-point,” she told them.
Most of the riders looked back blankly. It was clear that none of them, with perhaps the exception of her British pupils, Georgie, Daisy and Cameron, had even heard the term before.
“A point-to-point is a steeplechase race over open countryside,” Tara continued. “You won’t be riding one at a time, taking your turn like a regular cross-country. You’ll all race as a pack. There will be a three-kilometre race over open ground at the start, with hedges and low gates to hurdle, and then in the final quarter you will tackle three cross-country fences. They will be a real test, not only of your ability but also your endurance levels. By the time you reach them, you’ll be tired and the fences will be a tough challenge for both horse and rider.”
Tara didn’t tell them which cross-country fences they would be jumping, but Georgie figured that the water jump and the coffin must be on the list.
“The first rider to cross the finish line will take out the number one place in the class ranking,” Tara told them. “And the last rider will face elimination.”“Do you think Tara is really going to get rid of one of us?” Emily asked as they sat in the dining hall after class that evening.
“She doesn’t make jokes, remember?” Georgie pointed out. “The last one across the line will be first to leave the class.”
No one felt much like eating. The other girls had already risen from the table and Georgie was following after them when Kennedy accidentally-on-purpose got in her way.
“Oh hey, Georgie,” Kennedy said. “I was just saying to Arden and Tori that it’s going to feel so strange in class after next week once you’re gone. You know, when you come last in the point-to-point and get eliminated.”
Georgie tried to ignore Kennedy and step around her, but when the showjumperettes formed a barricade and blocked her path Georgie finally lost it.
“You know, Kennedy, ever since I got here, all I’ve heard from you is how you came top of your auditions and how much better you are than me,” Georgie said. “Isn’t it about time you stopped talking about it and actually proved it?”
Georgie’s voice was so loud it had silenced the dining hall. Everyone was staring at them. Kennedy’s face dropped.
“Let’s make a bet,” Georgie said. “If I beat you in the class ranking, then you have to muck out Belle’s stall for the rest of the term.”
Standing beside Kennedy, Arden and Tori giggled nervously. The whole room waited for Kennedy to speak. James, who was seated at a table on the far side of the room, was watching and listening with an amused expression. Conrad Miller, meanwhile, looked totally astonished.
Kennedy regained her composure and gave Georgie a smug look. “You want to bet on it? Well bring it on, Little Miss Britain’s Got No Talent,” she said. “Why not? I just hope you shovel dung better than you ride. Parker, you’re going down. And when you do the whole school is going to be watching.”
Georgie slammed her dinner tray into the stack and turned on her heels. “I’m not planning on losing, Kennedy, so you better get your pitchfork ready.”
As she stormed out of the dining room, Georgiecould sense that Conrad Miller was right behind her but she didn’t care. She was standing up to the Blainford cliques and fighting back. Defiantly she swung the door of the dining hall open and kept walking straight ahead on to the grass.
“Parker!” She heard Conrad Miller shouting after her. “You’re on the quad again. You’ve got fatigues.”
Chapter Sixteen
Once the rest of the school heard about the showdown in the dining hall the eventing class exam the following Monday became a must-see event. Any students with a spare period that afternoon gathered on the novice cross-country course to watch the competition.
The course had been pegged out with red flags and the first two and a half kilometres of the steeplechase phase ran around the perimeter of the school along a broad flat track mown through the fields of long grass. Jumps were natural obstacles, hedges and stone walls that divided the fields, plus a few extra ones that had been specially erected. After the horses and riders had ridden this phase they looped back towards the crosscountry course to jump the final three fences. As
Georgie had expected, these included the trakehner over the ditch, the water complex, and then finally the coffin.
It was a glorious sunny day and the spectators were finding shade and staking out vantage points at strategic trouble spots where the action looked set to happen. Most of them were gathering around the coffin, clearly convinced that this would be where the most thrills and spills might happen as the riders barrelled home for the finish line.
The coffin was still Georgie’s bogey fence. She had yet to successfully get Belle over it. She remembered that Lucinda had once told her it was easier to jump bogey fences when you were out competing as your blood was up and adrenalin was pumping. She hoped her trainer was right. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she rode Belladonna out to join the rest of her classmates at the start line.
The twelve eventing riders were all seasoned crosscountry competitors, but none of them had ridden an event quite like this one before.
“I feel like I’m entered in the Grand National!” Camsaid as he walked Paddy around, trying to keep the coloured cob calm.
The riders all wore their Blainford uniforms with numbered bibs on their chests so that Kenny, who was helping out today, could keep track of the order in which the riders crossed the finish line. Georgie gave Kenny a wave and Blainford’s driver came over to say hello.
“Now this here is more like it!” Kenny said brightly. “This is a real horse race.”
Kenny looked around to see if anyone was nearby and then he leaned over and whispered to Georgie, “Don’t tell Miss Kelly, but I’m running a book on it. There’s been some big bets laid.”
“So who are they betting on?” Georgie wanted to know. “Who is the favourite?”
Kenny spat out his tobacco and looked around the field where the riders and their mounts were circling, preparing for the race.
“That chestnut over there,” he pointed across the field, “he’s got the most money riding on him.”
Georgie looked over where Kenny was pointing. The chestnut was Versace.
“Can the riders all line up, please,” Tara called out.
Georgie had been planning to slot into line beside Alice and Cam, but Belle had other ideas. As the other riders urged their horses forward into line, the big bay mare tensed up and began to crab-step anxiously, moving sideways away from the rope.
“Come on, Belle,” Georgie was firm with the mare, trying to kick her forward, but the whites were showing in Belle’s eyes. She was starting to panic.
“Kenny!” Tara called out. “Can you lead her up?”
Kenny jogged over and clasped a leathery hand around the mare’s reins. “Easy there, girl,” he said gently to Belle. Reassured by the handler’s confidence and the gentle sound of his voice, Belle stopped resisting and let Kenny coax her forward.
The other riders were all lined up at the rope now and the only gap remaining was between Daisy and Nicholas. Kenny eased Belle in between Daisy’s big grey and Nicholas’s Selle Francais. He looked up at Georgie. “They’ll break pretty quick when that gun goes,” Kenny told her. “You might want to grab yourself a hunk of mane and hang on so you don’t get left behind.” He let go of Belle’s reins and gave Georgie a nod. “Good luck.”
Now that the horses were all in place Tara Kelly raised the starter’s gun and counted them down. “On your marks and three… two… one … !” The shot rang out, the rope fell and the twelve horses all lunged forward in unison. As Belle broke from behind the rope, Georgie was glad she’d taken Kenny’s last minute advice. She had buried her hands in the mare’s mane and stayed with the big bay as she hit her stride. Now, as the mare galloped forward, Georgie rose up on her knees in two-point position and tried to wrestle Belle back under control. She didn’t want to let her gallop too hard, too soon. They were in a good position, not at the front of the pack, but abouthalfway back as the first jump loomed ahead of them.
It was a spar that ran between fields, a low rustic rail. There wasn’t enough room for twelve horses to jump it at once and it became clear to Georgie as they bore down on the fence that some horses and riders would get pushed back in the crush.
As they came in to take the spar, Georgie sat back a little to let Belle know that the fence was coming. The mare sensed the change in her rider and gathered herself ready for the jump. They were only a couple of strides out when Georgie felt a heavy weight ramming against her leg, pushing Belle sideways beneath her and driving them out to the left.
Beside her, Daisy King was coming through fast on Village Voice and she had shoulder-charged into Belle to get the mare out of the way.
“Hey!” Georgie yelled as she was pushed off course.
Daisy didn’t even turn her head to see what the aftermath of her actions might be. She had her game face on and her eyes remained utterly focused on the jump ahead.
Georgie managed to straighten Belle up and still takethe jump, but she had lost her striding and was now much further back in the pack. Daisy, meanwhile, was barging to get ahead once more, this time pushing Nicholas out of the way. Georgie heard Nicholas mutter something in French and then take a swipe at Daisy with his riding crop.
Georgie watched Village Voice’s grey rump rising and falling as she galloped a few lengths in front of her. Daisy was riding to win and she was dangerous. Georgie needed to get past her and out of harm’s way if she didn’t want to get shoved around again.
Leaning low over Belle’s withers she let the reins loose a little. Belle jumped on a forward stride over the next fence and as they landed Georgie urged the mare on, manoeuvring to the right so that she was riding in between Daisy and Nicholas. In four massive strides Belle had pulled up on Village Voice so that they were racing neck and neck. Then, before Daisy had the chance to ram into them again, Georgie asked for even more speed from Belle and the mare surged forward. In a few strides they were out of Daisy’s reach.
They had got to the halfway point in the race now.
About a dozen lengths in front of her Georgie could see Matt leading the field on Tigerland. Breathing down his neck was Cam who was urging Paddy on for all he was worth. Emily was there too on Barclay. She was sitting steady and calm on the big black horse, riding like a professional jumps jockey, barely moving as they leapt the hedges and letting the horse maintain a steady stride. At the back of the four horses was Kennedy on Versace. The chestnut looked full of running as he flew the fences.
Belle was gaining on the leaders, her huge stride swallowed the ground and it didn’t take long to close up the space so that they were on Kennedy’s heels. Georgie could feel Belle flattening out and galloping even harder and as they approached the next jump they were almost neck and neck with Kennedy. Belle and Versace were matching each other, stride for stride. Georgie could feel the bay mare straining beneath her. Belle was looking Versace in the eye almost as if she was taunting the big chestnut. As they reached the next jump, a hedge, she was edging slowly but surely ahead. They would pass Kennedy and Versace in the next straight.
The body blow came out of nowhere. One minute Georgie was standing up balancing in the stirrups with the wind in her face and then suddenly she felt a thrust delivered sharply to her shoulder, and was knocked sideways out of the saddle. The next thing she knew she was falling. The grass on the other side of the hedge rushed up to meet her and she barely had time to prepare for the impact. She hit the dirt hard and the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped like a goldfish, trying desperately to get air back into her lungs.
“Georgie! Get down!” She heard Alice’s cries as her friend rode over the jump and breezed right past her, and then she realised that there were more horses to come after Alice. The thunder of hooves was growing louder, coming nearer. The other riders who had been behind her in the field were bearing down on the jump. Unless she got out of the way they would be jumping right over the top of her!
Georgie looked up. They were just a couple of strides away. There was no time. All she could do was fling herself closer to the hedge and huddle beneath it, curling into a foetal position and staying as low as she could. As the hooves flew overhead she shut her eyes and tucked her head to her knees. She could sense the horses above her and for a brief second she peeked up and saw the belly of an enormous brown horse soaring directly over her.
And then the thunder was gone and Georgie was left alone, curled up and shaking. She was in shock but had no doubt about what had just happened. As they had taken the hedge, Kennedy had reached out and deliberately pushed her off her horse in mid-air. It was a crazy thing to do. Georgie could easily have been killed–if not by the fall itself, then by the galloping horses that had ridden directly over her head just a few seconds afterwards.
She didn’t have time to dwell on what had happened. There was someone there now, standing over her on horseback. “Come on!” The voice was urgent and demanding. “Get up and give me your hand.”
It was Isabel Weiss. She was mounted up on Leo, her enormous brown Oldenburg gelding, and wasstretching her arm down towards the girl on the ground.
“Give me your hand!” Isabel commanded again. And this time, Georgie obeyed. Blonde and petite, Isabel was stronger than she looked. She yanked Georgie up off the ground as if she were a rag doll. “Stick your foot in my stirrup, quickly,” she instructed, “and get on behind me. I’ll double you.”
Georgie was confused. “You can’t double me all the way round the steeplechase!”
“I know that!” Isabel said. “I’m taking you to your horse! She’s over there!”
Belle was standing by the next jump, grazing. She must have spooked when Georgie had fallen but she wasn’t hurt.
“Come on,” Isabel was getting hysterical, “we need to catch them up then you can finish the race.” Isabel hauled Georgie up so that she was sitting behind her on
the Oldenburg’s broad back. “Now put your arms around my waist and hang on!” Isabel growled.
“I don’t get it,” Georgie said as they cantered together across the field towards Belle, “why did youstop to help me? There’s no way you can win it now!”
“I am a dressage rider,” Isabel said. “Eventing, crosscountry, these things do not mean so much to me. But I know how much they mean to you. I know that you cannot afford to be eliminated.”
They had reached Belle’s side now and Isabel pulled her horse up so that Georgie could dismount. “Besides,” she smiled at Georgie, “I want to see Kennedy Kirkwood’s face when you cross the finish line ahead of her.”
Up in the distance, Georgie could see the stragglers at the back of the pack. If she rode fast enough then hopefully she could catch them, but the fall had cost her valuable time.
“Thanks,” she said to Isabel as she mounted up.
“It was nothing,” Isabel smiled.
“No,” Georgie grinned back, “it was really something.”
Back in the saddle, Georgie knew she couldn’t afford to slow down at the jumps. She urged Belle on into a gallop to take the next jump and then leant low over the mare’s neck and threw the reins at her.
“You want to gallop, don’t you?” she whispered to Belle. “Well, I’m not holding you back any more. This is your chance. Come on, go!”
Belle could see the pack up ahead of her and she was gaining on them quickly, her strides devouring the ground beneath her.
Directly ahead of them now was Arden, who’d had a refusal at the wire fence and was trailing the pack. Not far ahead of her was Matt, who had been in the lead most of the way, and had pushed Tigerland too hard and too soon. The big dun horse was now exhausted and falling back beside Arden. Georgie and Belle passed both of them at the next fence. Belle was fit and full of running.
By the time she came through the last steeplechase jump she had Alex and Alice in her sights. They were her friends but she had no choice. They were standing between her and Kennedy.