by Sue Bentley
Kara watched in amazement as Nathan reached out slowly and picked up a half-empty bowl of pudding. He lifted the bowl up over his head and tipped it upside down. The pudding slopped out in a goopy mess, running down his face.
“Awesome!” Dan laughed and clapped his hands.
Nathan put down the empty bowl and sat there staring into space with a pyramid of pudding, topped by a cherry, decorating his head. Streamers of pudding dripped from his shoulders.
The whole dining room erupted with laughter. Felicity joined in and even Cherry was helpless.
While everyone was concentrating on Nathan, Kara glanced at Flame. “Oh, Flame. What have you done?” she scolded gently, looking into his mischievous green eyes.
“I am sorry, Kara. But I thought that boy might hurt you,” Flame purred.
“Oh well, it serves him right for almost stepping on you,” she whispered, stroking his tiny ears. The sparks in Flame’s fur tickled briefly as they went out, and his glowing whiskers returned to normal.
Miss Cross stormed over to the Magpies’ table. “What disgraceful behavior, Nathan Potts! That’s no example to set the younger ones. And as for you, Daniel Weeks, I saw you egging him on!”
“Me? I didn’t do anything!” Dan exclaimed, pushing his glasses more firmly onto his nose.
“Come with me, both of you!” Miss Cross ordered sternly. Dan stood up. But Nathan just sat there, looking confused. Dan nudged him. “Hey, Nathan, come on.”
“What … ?” Nathan rose slowly to his feet. Sticking out his tongue, he licked a dribble of pudding off his cheek before following Dan and Miss Cross.
“All right, everyone. The fun’s over now!” One of the adult helpers clapped his hands for silence. “Let’s start cleaning up now, please. Here at Torc House, everyone pitches in.”
Felicity looked horrified. “I didn’t know we had to actually work! This is more like prison camp!”
Kara felt Flame jump down. She saw him scamper over to a windowsill, where he jumped up and then began to wash himself. She smiled to herself. It was going to be so fun having him around.
The next day after breakfast, Kara and Flame went to check the bulletin board where the day’s activities were listed. Felicity and Cherry were already there. “Look, it says Starlings have hiking today, and then we have climbing, rappelling, and canoeing later in the week,” Cherry said. “Sounds like fun!”
Felicity made a face. “Hiking sounds totally boring. I’m not doing it. I’ll say I forgot to bring my sneakers or something.”
Miss Cross was passing by. “Don’t worry, Felicity, we have everything you’ll need for all the activities. Hiking boots, spare socks, life jackets, you name it,” she said helpfully. “But make sure you all remember your daily chores before you go.”
Kara bit back a grin at the disgusted look on Felicity’s face.
“Come on, Felicity. We’re helping muck out the stables today,” she said. “It’ll be fun!”
Felicity didn’t look convinced.
As they all entered the stable yard, Kara saw Nathan and Dan. The boys were being shown how to groom a group of big gray ponies tethered outside their stalls.
“Oh no, I just hope those two behave themselves. They’re worse when they’re together,” she whispered to Flame.
“I hope so, too,” Flame mewed, keeping a wary eye on them.
Some of the other Starlings and Magpies were already at work. As Kara passed the open door of the tack room, she saw girls and boys inside polishing saddles and cleaning harnesses. She and Flame followed Cherry and Felicity into the stables, where the familiar warm smell of straw and ponies greeted them.
Kara thought of Amber at home in her stable and felt a little sad. She hoped her dad had remembered his promise to give her pony extra cuddles. A soft nudge at her ankle interrupted Kara’s thoughts, and she looked down to see Flame’s tiny face creased in concern.
“Is something wrong, Kara?” Flame mewed softly.
“I’m okay. Thanks, Flame,” Kara whispered back so that Cherry and Felicity wouldn’t hear. She told him about the riding accident and Amber’s strained leg.
Flame’s bright green eyes twinkled with sympathy. “Will the animal doctor be able to make her better?”
“I don’t know,” Kara answered. “It’s a really bad strain. Mom and Dad promised to let me know what the vet says.” She sighed, making an effort not to worry.
A tall red-haired young man came over to the two of them, and Kara looked up expectantly. Flame’s furry brow creased thoughtfully as he settled down by her feet.
“Hi, I’m Shane,” the man said to Kara and the girls with a friendly smile. “You’ll find buckets, brooms, and a wheelbarrow over there. Have you mucked out before?”
“No,” Felicity said, shuddering.
“I share a pony with my cousin. We look after her together,” Cherry said shyly.
“You have a pony?” Felicity said, trying not to look impressed.
“I’m used to looking after my pony, too,” Kara said.
“Great. I’ll leave you to it, then. You girls can be in charge of showing your friend here what to do. I’ll see you later,” Shane said, walking away.
“Don’t think you two are going to boss me around!” Felicity said. “Anyway, how hard can mucking out be? It’s just stirring a bunch of dirty straw.”
Kara pressed her lips together. Felicity was such a bossy know-it-all. “Here you go then, if you think you know what to do,” she said, passing her a pitchfork.
Felicity tossed back her long hair and began jabbing half-heartedly at a pile of clean straw. Kara and Cherry left her to it. They got to work forking wet straw and droppings into a wheelbarrow.
“Ugh! It smells awful. How often do you have to do this?” Felicity complained loudly, wrinkling her nose, as the dirty straw began heaping up in the wheelbarrow.
“Every day. Sometimes twice in bad weather,” Kara said.
“And I don’t think it smells too bad. You get used to it,” Cherry said.
“You must have something wrong with your nose!” Felicity decided, putting down her pitchfork and standing with her hands in her pockets. As soon as Kara and Cherry had filled the wheelbarrow, she darted forward and grabbed the handles. “I’ll empty this,” she said, wheeling it outside.
Kara and Cherry went and stood in the doorway, watching as Felicity wobbled her way across to the muck heap. Flame scrabbled up the wooden door and balanced on a beam near Kara.
As Felicity drew level to Nathan, Kara saw the tough boy look up and scowl at her. Felicity stuck her tongue out at him. “I bet you got in such bad trouble, didn’t you?” she crowed. “You looked like a total idiot with that pudding all over you!”
“Shut up!” Nathan muttered.
But Felicity didn’t stop. “I heard you lost a team point, too. I bet Magpies are pleased with you. Not!”
Kara saw Nathan’s ears redden and his back stiffen. She felt a warning flicker. The tough boy was bad enough without Felicity making him worse.
“Just leave it, Felicity,” she advised quietly.
“Huh! I was only sticking up for you!” Felicity said huffily, stomping past with her nose in the air.
Nathan went over to Dan, and the two of them stood close, talking.
“I wonder what those two are plotting now,” Kara whispered to Flame.
Flame nodded, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
Kara and Cherry went back into the stables. After sweeping, they spread clean straw in the stalls. Felicity wheeled the empty wheelbarrow back inside and then slouched against the door, examining her nails, as Kara and Cherry worked.
“Hey! Aren’t you going to help?” Kara asked.
Felicity shrugged. “What’s the point? You two are doing fine by yourselves.”
Kara didn’t trust herself to answer. She finished making the ponies a clean bed as quickly as she could. “Phew! That’s about it,” she puffed, pushing back a strand of damp hair.
“Piece of cake!” Felicity chimed in, quickly standing up straight. “Come on, you two. I’m going to get ready for hiking.”
Kara and Cherry looked at each other in disbelief. “She is so annoying,” Cherry murmured.
Hiking might not be at the top of Kara’s favorite-things-to-do list, but she had to admit that the views from the top of the windswept mountains were pretty amazing. Flame seemed to think so, too.
He had jumped out of her shoulder bag and sat looking at the flocks of sheep on the bright green slopes below them. They looked like tiny cotton balls.
“Wow! Look over there,” Kara said, pointing to some circular, hump-shaped buildings with stone walls and ditches around them. “How old are they?”
Flame bounded up onto the roof of the nearest building and stood there with his head in the air. The wind ruffled his fluffy white fur as he snuffled the exciting smells.
“These must be about a million years old,” Cherry said, peering into the low stone doorway. “Imagine living up here in the middle of nowhere!”
“You must be joking!” Felicity said with a shudder. “I bet there are huge hairy spiders in there!”
Kara nodded, agreeing with Felicity for once. “And it doesn’t even have a TV!” she joked.
Cherry and Felicity laughed.
Kara could see Nathan and Dan messing around and laughing as they jumped off a low stone wall. She kept expecting them to come over, but when they ignored her and her friends, she began to relax. Kara sighed. I’m probably worrying about nothing, she told herself.
Chapter
FOUR
On the way back in the bus, one of the adult helpers started a sing-along, and everyone joined in. Nathan kept singing the wrong words and collapsing into giggles. Kara couldn’t help laughing, too. Nathan was actually really funny when he wasn’t being mean.
Back at Torc House, Kara and Cherry took cool drinks outside. Felicity went upstairs to get Marvin before coming back to join them on the lawn.
She sat down and cradled Marvin in the crook of her arm. “Here we are!” She put her soda can to the scruffy little teddy bear’s stitched mouth. “That’s it, slurp, slurp. Delicious,” she crooned, pretending to give Marvin a drink.
“That is so mushy,” Cherry commented.
Felicity ignored her.
Kara grinned as she turned onto her stomach and sipped her lemonade. Flame was stretched out beside her, taking a nap. His tiny ears twitched and his little black-tipped paws flexed as he dreamed.
He looked so cute that Kara had to concentrate on not reaching out and stroking him, in case Cherry and Felicity wondered what she was doing.
“Who’s making supper tonight? I’m starving,” Cherry asked after a while.
“You can’t be! The snacks you carry around would feed about two hundred people!” Felicity snorted.
“Oh ha, ha,” Cherry said.
Kara hardly heard them. She was thinking about Amber again. She hoped that her sore leg wasn’t hurting her too much.
As Flame stirred and sat up, yawning, Kara rose to her feet. “I think I’ll call home and see if the vet’s seen Amber yet,” she decided.
Felicity jumped to her feet, too. “And I’m going to take Marvin back upstairs. He wants a nap now.”
Cherry watched Felicity go, shaking her head in disbelief, but smiling, too. “It’s kind of sweet that she’s so fond of that scruffy old teddy bear, isn’t it?”
Kara nodded and smiled back.
Kara’s mom answered on the third ring. “Hello, dear. I was just about to call you. Are you having a good time?”
Kara said that she was, and excitedly told her mom about sharing a room with Felicity and Cherry, and going hiking. She didn’t think she should mention Flame, who was sitting invisibly at her ankles!
“Has the vet seen Amber, Mom?”
“Yes. He just left,” Mrs. Parkes said. “There’s not much to tell, I’m afraid. He still doesn’t know if Amber’s leg will heal properly. It’s a matter of time.”
Kara felt a lump rising in her throat. “But what if it never gets better? I might never be able to ride her again.” She gulped.
“You can’t think like that, dear. Let’s just wait and see,” her mom said gently. “Amber’s young and healthy.”
Kara’s spirits were low as she said good-bye and hung up the phone. Flame wound himself around her ankles, rubbing against her sympathetically.
“I am sorry that you feel bad for Amber,” he purred softly.
“Thanks, Flame,” Kara said, reaching down to stroke him. She didn’t feel like going to find Cherry and Felicity just yet. She wandered back up to the girls’ dorm to be by herself for a while.
Flame scampered along alongside her.
As they got closer, Kara saw that the door to their room was wide-open. “That’s weird,” she said, puzzled.
Flame pricked up his ears. “There is someone inside.”
Kara frowned as she moved closer until she also could hear muffled laughter.
“Quick! Someone’s outside!” a familiar voice called out.
Two boys shot out. They ignored Kara and headed away without a backward glance. She heard their footsteps thudding down the stairs.
“Hey, stop! That was Nathan and Dan!” Kara cried. She rushed into the dorm. “Oh no!” she gasped.
All the pillows, comforters, and sheets had been dragged off the beds and piled up into a heap in the middle of the room. But that wasn’t all. Her eyes widened in dismay as she realized that everything was soaking wet.
“I knew they were planning something. We’ll never get all this stuff dry!” Kara said, clenching her fists. “I’ve just about had enough of those two!”
Flame gave a little mew of sympathy. “Do not worry. I will help you.”
Kara felt a familiar warm tingling up her spine. Flame’s white fur ignited with silver sparkles, and his whiskers crackled with power.
She watched as Flame pointed a paw and sent a fountain of silver sparks toward the big pile of bedding. The sparks whipped into a sparkling tornado that spun faster and faster until it was just a glittering blur before Kara’s eyes. The tornado zoomed all over the bedding, sucking up every last drop of water like a magic vacuum, before whizzing toward the nearby open window.
The spinning silver tornado flattened as it squeezed through the window, and once outside, the whole thing dissolved in midair. Water poured down in a torrent, just as if someone had tipped it out of a huge bucket.
“Argh!” shrieked a voice from below.
“Help, I’m soaked,” cried another one.
Kara dashed to the window and stuck her head outside.
Nathan and Dan stood there, drenched to the skin. They must have been waiting outside, gloating about their mean trick—just in time to get caught in the downpour.
A laugh bubbled up in Kara’s throat. “Oops! Bad luck!” she shouted.
Nathan glanced up. His face twisted. “You threw that water on purpose. We’ll get you for that!” he yelled.
“I’d say we’re even. Wouldn’t you?” Kara grinned as Nathan and Dan squished away. She was still giggling when she pulled her head back inside. “That showed those two! Thanks again, Flame!”
But Flame hadn’t finished yet. He pointed his little black paw at the crumpled pile of bedding, and another jet of silver sparks shot out.
Phwit! The whole pile of bedding jumped into the air and shook out their creases. Rustle! They divided into three sets and marched in formation to the beds like a line of soldiers. Phloop! The sheet fitted itself onto the mattress, the pillow plumped itself up, and the comforter did a quick shimmy and settled back into place.
Kara clapped her hands with delight. Scooping Flame up, she kissed the top of his fuzzy little head. “Wow! That was amazing!” she said.
Flame purred and rubbed his face against her arm affec
tionately. “I am glad I could help.”
She still was sitting on the bed cuddling Flame when Felicity and Cherry came in. Kara quickly sat up, thinking how strange it would look if she seemed to be holding an empty space.
Felicity marched straight up, a big grin on her face. “So it’s true! It was you!”
Kara frowned. “What was me?”
“Nathan and Dan just came into the game room soaking wet,” Cherry explained. “They said you leaned out the window and threw water all over them.”
“Well, did you?” Felicity demanded.
“Yes, I did … ,” Kara said and then she stopped. How was she going to explain what had happened? She couldn’t tell them about the soaked beds, because then she’d have to explain how Flame had magically made them up again. “I did it because I … um, felt like it!”
“Good for you. I wish I’d seen their faces!” Cherry said, chuckling.
Suddenly, Felicity pointed at her bed and gave a loud shriek.
Kara and Cherry almost jumped out of their skins. “What?” they chorused.
“It’s Marvin. He’s gone!” Felicity said, horrified.
Kara looked over at her bed, where the old teddy bear was usually propped up against the pillow. It was true. Marvin was nowhere in sight. “Maybe he fell onto the floor. I’m sure he must be here somewhere.”
“Kara’s right. I’ll help you look,” Cherry said.
Between them they searched every corner of the room. Cherry even looked all the way under the bed, and Kara helped Felicity pull out the dressers so they could look in the narrow space behind them. But they didn’t find Marvin.
Kara looked across at Flame, who was nosing around helpfully, trying to sniff out the teddy bear. An awful suspicion was dawning on her. “I think I know who took him,” she whispered.
But Felicity had figured it out for herself. “Nathan and Dan stole him! And they won’t give him back after what Kara just did to them. I’m never going to see Marvin again!” She rounded on Kara, and her mouth twisted as she burst into noisy sobs. “It’s all your fault! I hate you!”