Jade at the Champs

by Amy Brown

  ‘Well, I hope she gets the job and stays because I like Floyd,’ Laura said, swinging a leg over her bike and standing on one pedal as she approached the school. ‘C’mon, let’s see if we’re finally in the same class.’

  Returning to school after a long summer holiday is never much fun. But, compared with the year before, when Jade was new and everything about the buildings and her classmates was strange, the first day of Year 8 went very well. She and Laura met Becca outside the assembly hall and the three went in together, all crossing their fingers that they’d be in the same class.

  As they walked up to the back of the bleachers to find a seat, Jade, just in time, saw a foot stuck out in front of her and stepped carefully over it.

  ‘Hello, Ryan,’ she said, rolling her eyes.

  ‘It was worth a try,’ he replied, grinning.

  ‘Are you trying to break Jade’s ankle before the Champs try-outs?’ Becca asked her cousin. ‘I guess it’s probably the only way you’d have a chance of getting on the team.’

  Ryan laughed. ‘There are two places in the junior team, cuz. I’ll get one of them, and Amanda will get the other one.’

  ‘Amanda?’ Jade laughed. ‘Isn’t she fifteen? She’s too old for the junior team.’

  ‘All right,’ Ryan said, ‘you could possibly get in, Jade, but she definitely won’t.’ He stared evilly at Becca.

  ‘You can’t psych me out, Ryan Todd,’ Becca said imperiously.

  ‘Quiet at the back, please!’ the principal, Mr Rowan, boomed. ‘Everyone be seated.’

  Throughout the welcome speeches, Jade thought about the impending try-outs. She imagined how Pip would sail over the last fence in the final jump-off — a massive Swedish oxer. They would finish the course in the best time, exhilarated and exhausted, and be guaranteed a place in the team. Ryan, however, would ride too fast at the oxer and get the stride wrong. His pony, Shady, would graunch to a halt, leaving Ryan to clear the fence alone, landing on his bottom on the other side. Jade would graciously refrain from laughing.

  ‘What are you smirking at?’ Becca whispered to Jade.

  ‘Nothing!’ Jade whispered back. ‘Have they almost finished?’

  ‘I think so. He’s talking about excelling in every field or something. Have you not been listening at all?’

  Suddenly aware that Mrs Crawford was glaring at them, the girls stopped talking and tried to look attentive until finally they were dismissed.

  The class lists had been pinned up outside the hall. Laura was the first to find her name. ‘Oh, no! I’ve got Mr Wilde!’ she moaned. ‘He’s infamous.’

  ‘Do you even know what that means?’ Becca laughed. ‘Mr Wilde’s fine — he’s just really old. Matthew was in his class ages and ages ago, and said he was funny. I’d swap with you.’

  ‘You won’t have to,’ said Jade, who’d just found Becca’s name. ‘You and Laura are in together.’ Jade was trying not to sound too disappointed.

  ‘Don’t look so emo,’ Becca said. ‘You’re with us, too.’

  ‘Where?’ Jade asked, squinting at the page Becca was pointing at. ‘I can’t believe they’d let us be in the same class!’

  ‘Good morning, young women,’ Mr Wilde said as the three entered Room F10.

  ‘Where shall we sit?’ Laura asked, meekly.

  ‘Wherever you like, for now. You are now in Form 2 — or Year 8, whichever you’d prefer — so I trust you can restrain yourselves from incessant giggling and chatting.’ The girls smiled at each other nervously. ‘If I have over-estimated you,’ Mr Wilde went on in a voice that may or may not have been serious, ‘and you begin cackling like a brood of mad hens, then make no mistake, I will not hesitate to seat each of you next to an undesirable male. Like this chap, for example.’

  Malcolm Hodge, a shy boy with dirty blond hair, had just walked in. His face flushed as the girls giggled.

  ‘Let us not waste another minute in which we could be learning,’ Mr Wilde said, startling a new group of girls who were walking in. ‘Don’t look so mousy — you’re not late. Please, seat yourselves and encourage your classmates to do the same as they gradually dribble in.’ Turning back to Jade, Laura and Becca, Mr Wilde said, ‘Just before, I used the phrase “brood of mad hens”. What part of speech is the word “brood”?’

  The girls were silent. Jade stared at her fingernails.

  ‘Is it a verb?’

  ‘No,’ Jade said, ‘it’s a noun.’

  ‘A collective noun!’ Mr Wilde corrected her. ‘A brood of hens, a murder of crows, an ambush of tigers. Are you Jade Lennox?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Wilde,’ Jade said, surprised.

  ‘I’ve heard about you from Jim White. Quite the horsewoman, I hear.’ ‘

  So’s Becca,’ Jade said quietly.

  ‘Well then, Becca and Jade: what is a collective noun for horses?’

  ‘A herd?’ Becca asked.

  ‘Well, that’s the most common of them, yes,’ Mr Wilde said, leaving Becca unsure of whether she’d been right or not. ‘Better still, you could have answered “harras”, “stable”, “team” or “troop”.’

  ‘A troop of ponies …’ Jade tried out the phrase.

  ‘No!’ Mr Wilde interjected. ‘A troop of horses. I think you’ll find that it’s a “string” of ponies. But that’s enough wordplay for now. On to the banality of first-day housework. Has anyone seen my register?’

  By three-thirty, the girls’ cheeks were aching from smiling.

  ‘I still think he’s scary,’ Laura said to Jade as the two biked home. ‘But Becca was right: he is funny.’

  ‘I could hardly believe it when he actually pulled out his false tooth and started talking in a Cockney accent!’ Jade said, starting to giggle again. ‘I think school might be alright this year.’ When they got to the café, Laura persuaded Jade to stay for a hot chocolate. Jade wanted to get home and see how her dad was after his first day at work, but, as Laura pointed out, it would be another hour at least until he’d finished.

  ‘I love Pip’s rest days,’ Laura said, wheeling her bike around the back of the café to her house. ‘It means I get to see you after school.’

  ‘You’re always welcome to come and watch,’ Jade said, feeling guilty. Although it was hard for Jade and Becca to fathom, Laura just wasn’t that excited about ponies and riding.

  After the girls had said hello to Bubble, Laura’s fox terrier, who happened to be Holly’s mother, they found Laura’s mum, who gave them each a blueberry friand.

  ‘Good first day?’ she asked, wiping the table by the window.

  ‘Yeah — we’re all in the same class!’

  ‘That’s lucky!’

  ‘Very. Could we please have a hot chocolate, if you haven’t turned off the coffee machine?’

  ‘Certainly. It’ll be good practice for Lisa. You can tell me later if she’s any good at frothing milk,’ Laura’s mum added quietly, winking.

  ‘She’s got the job?’ Laura asked.

  ‘Probably. She’s on trial for today, learning the ropes. She hasn’t any hospo experience, but we’re desperate for help and she needs the money apparently.’

  About ten minutes later, Lisa brought the hot chocolates to the girls, walking very slowly but still managing to spill the drinks into the saucers.

  ‘I hope they’re OK,’ she said. ‘I put lots of chocolate in to make up for burning the milk.’ Laura, who’d been using the coffee machine for years, raised her eyebrows slightly, but Jade thanked Lisa and took a sip. ‘It’s very hot!’ Jade said. ‘But otherwise delicious. How’s Floyd?’

  ‘Oh, I haven’t been around since I saw you there,’ Lisa said. ‘I’m sure he’s fine.’

  ‘He’s a lovely horse,’ Jade said, silently reminding herself to check Floyd’s trough the next day, to make sure he had enough water. ‘Where did you get him?’

  ‘A friend up north went overseas and gave him to me,’ Lisa said. ‘I used to ride ages ago, and I love horses, so I figured it’d be fun to have on
e again. It’s turning out to be a bit of a hassle, though.’ ‘I go to Mr White’s most days after school,’ Jade said, slightly sanctimoniously. ‘If you need me to do anything for Floyd, I don’t mind.’

  ‘Oh, that’s sweet of you. He’s a bit bigger than your pony, though — more of an adult’s horse,’ Lisa said, eliciting a cold stare from both girls.

  ‘I bet you’re a way better rider than her!’ Laura whispered when Lisa had gone out to the kitchen. ‘And I’m way better at making hot chocolates.’

  As the girls were finishing their friands, Jade saw a familiar figure approaching from outside. ‘Dad!’ she cried, jumping up to give him a hug. ‘How was your first day?’

  ‘A bit gruelling,’ he said in a theatrical voice. ‘No, not really. I think it’s going to be a nice little paper to produce. I thought I’d pop in here on the way home to get us a treat to have after dinner, but I see you’ve already been stuffing your face.’

  ‘I always have room for treats,’ Jade said, making her dad laugh.

  After Jade and her dad had chosen a piece of chocolate cake and a Neenish tart, they said goodbye to Laura and biked home. As they turned into Kopanga Road and approached the bungalow, Jade asked her father if he’d noticed the blonde lady who’d given them the treats.

  ‘That was Lisa who keeps her horse at Mr White’s,’ Jade said.

  ‘Well, you can tell Mr White where he can find her, just in case she’s late on grazing payments. How was school?’

  From then until dinner, Jade gave her dad a detailed account of Mr Wilde, accentuating his eccentricities.

  ‘Do you have any funny new workmates?’ Jade asked, loading the dishwasher.

  ‘Joelene who sells advertising and looks after the classified section is a bit of a dag, but she doesn’t have any false teeth, as far as I know, so I think Mr Wilde wins. You’ll be visiting Pip after school tomorrow?’

  ‘Yep. And Floyd,’ Jade said. ‘I told Lisa that I’d keep an eye on him for her, seeing as she’s so busy at the café.’

  ‘That’s kind of you. Just make sure you’re home in time for dinner at seven. I’m going to attempt to make Mum’s lasagne and I might invite Granddad over, too.’

  On Tuesday afternoon, as her dad had suggested, Jade told Mr White where he could find Lisa. He, too, had noticed that Floyd’s water trough had been neglected over the weekend, and he was beginning to worry.

  ‘Well, that’s a relief, I suppose,’ he said. ‘So long as she can balance keeping a horse and a job.’

  ‘Don’t worry about Floyd,’ Jade said. ‘I told Lisa that I’d keep an eye on him for her if she was too busy to see him.’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure that between the both of us he’ll be looked after. But we don’t want to have our good natures taken advantage of, do we?’

  To change the subject, Jade told Mr White that she was in Mr Wilde’s class. This cheered him up.

  ‘You’re lucky, Jade,’ he said. ‘Wilde’s been saying for the last ten years that he’s going to retire, but hasn’t yet. He’s one of those mythical creatures: a teacher who actually loves teaching.’

  Their ride that afternoon — Mr White was exercising Hamlet — was the routine that would be repeated every second day for the rest of the week. For the first fifteen minutes, Jade schooled Pip quietly at the walk and trot on each rein, concentrating on keeping her tracking up and bending well. For the next twenty minutes, Jade would choose a short course of three jumps, and pop Pip over them. If, after the first round, they went clear, Mr White would raise the jumps a notch or two. Once they’d successfully cleared the course at about 90 centimetres, Mr White would create a new course, using all six jumps, including the double. If Pip was feeling particularly willing, the back rail of the oxer would go up to 1 metre. The last fifteen minutes of the hour-long routine would be a leisurely hack through the orchards at the back of Mr White’s paddocks to cool Pip down, who by this stage would be lathered with sweat and jogging like a filly.

  With more time in the weekend, the routine was expanded to include agility exercises and intensive schooling. Because the pony club rally had been cancelled that Sunday, Becca and Andy joined Jade at Mr White’s again.

  Becca turned up first this time. From the yards, where she’d been polishing Pip’s newly shod hooves, Jade could see that it wasn’t Becca’s mum behind the wheel of the horse-truck, but her brother.

  ‘How’s the hip, Matthew?’ Mr White asked, as he emerged from the implement shed with a salt-lick.

  ‘The bone’s bruised, so it’s a bit sore to walk on without the crutches,’ Matthew replied. ‘But I can drive, so that’s good, I guess. Still, it’s annoying because we’re in the practical module of my course, and I can’t do it on crutches so I’m stuck back here.’

  While the girls warmed up, waiting for Andy and Piper to arrive, Matthew joined Laura, who was scratching Floyd’s star.

  ‘Is this one of yours?’ Matthew asked Mr White, patting Floyd’s dusty neck.

  ‘No, he’s our mysterious boarder.’

  ‘Oh! I like the look of him.’

  ‘He’s nice, isn’t he?’ Laura said — she’d always been a bit in awe of Becca’s older brother, mostly because he was a vet student.

  ‘Do you know who he belongs to?’ Matthew asked Laura.

  ‘To Lisa, who’s just started working at my parents’ café,’ Laura said conspiratorially. ‘But she hasn’t been to see him all week!’

  ‘If I hadn’t done my hip in I’d offer to exercise him for her. He looks great,’ Matthew said wistfully.

  ‘If you hadn’t hurt your hip, you wouldn’t be here and wouldn’t know about Floyd,’ Laura corrected him.

  ‘I didn’t know you still rode, Matthew,’ Mr White said. ‘You must’ve been about ten and in jodhpur boots when I last saw you at a gymkhana, competing against my Abby.’

  Matthew grinned. ‘Yeah, I gave up for a while, but since Becca got Dusty, and since I went to uni and met some other people who ride—’

  ‘Other people?’ Becca laughed. ‘He means Victoria, his girlfriend!’

  Laura’s face fell slightly.

  ‘Don’t be immature, Rebecca,’ Matthew said. ‘She’s just a friend.’

  ‘Anyway, since she’s become your “friend”, you can’t get enough of horses, can you?’ Becca crowed.

  ‘Perhaps we should stop gossiping and start jumping?’ Mr White suggested. ‘Andy’s had a chance to warm up now, so, Becca, why don’t you do the first round of this course? I’ve designed it to be difficult; focus on your strides and your turns. Ding, ding!‘

  The course was tricky. In the end, Jade and Pip did the best round, but still dropped a rail at the picket.

  ‘Well, Matthew, what do you think our girls’ chances are at the trials next Sunday?’ Mr White asked in mock seriousness, as the girls dismounted forlornly.

  ‘I hate to say it, Becca,’ Matthew said, ready to wind his sister up, ‘but I think I’d put my money on Ryan getting in the team ahead of you.’

  Furious with disappointment and the frustration that can only be provoked by an older sibling, Becca grabbed a wet sponge covered in horse hairs, and hurled it at Matthew. Even on crutches, he managed to dodge neatly, and it hit Laura smack on the nose. The commotion startled Dusty, who shied and managed somehow to push Becca into the trough, where she sat, still holding her pony’s reins, in sopping wet jodhpurs, waiting for Jade to help her up.

  ‘Oh, dear,’ Andy said, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes, ‘I don’t like our chances much either.’

  4

  The Try-outs

  The morning of the try-outs was hot and still. Jade woke early, before her alarm had gone off, with her duvet on the floor and her legs tangled in the sheets. In her dream she’d been cantering Pip slowly in a circle around the ring, waiting for the starting bell. As the bell sounded, the reins disappeared and Jade was left with nothing to hold. Steering with her legs, Jade pointed Pip at the first fence. They got the stride righ
t, but in mid-air the saddle disappeared. They landed, and miraculously Jade didn’t slip off.

  We’re going so slowly, we’ll get time faults, Jade thought. The jumps seemed to be getting bigger, too. No — Pip was shrinking! As they approached the third fence, a huge oxer, at a shambling canter no faster than a walk, Jade’s feet could meet around Pip’s girth. Grabbing a handful of mane, Jade tried to steer Pip away from the jump. It was too big — impossible for the shrinking pony. But Pip wouldn’t listen. She ran straight at it, then leapt like a cat. Hanging in midair, Jade couldn’t see the ground on the other side. She and her pony, now no bigger than a Labrador, were nose-diving. I don’t want to land! Jade thought, and woke up.

  Jade’s dad was out on the deck with a cup of coffee and two newspapers.

  ‘You’re up early,’ Jade said, joining him outside with her bowl of cereal and a glass of juice.

  ‘Too hot to sleep in. Will Pip mind the heat today?’

  ‘She’ll probably get tired easily. I had a nightmare about her shrinking.’

  Jade’s dad laughed. ‘At least you can be sure that won’t happen today.’

  ‘Lots of other things could go wrong.’ Jade’s breakfast wasn’t sitting well in her stomach. She was beginning to wish that she and Pip were going on a leisurely trek instead of to a competition. A farm with some bush and a creek would be nice. She could have a swim while Pip rested and drank.

  ‘You’ve been working towards this for months — you don’t want to pull out now,’ her dad said, reading her thoughts.

  ‘Of course not! I’m just nervous,’ Jade snapped.

  ‘OK. Fair enough.’

  After a quick shower, Jade dressed in an old T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, and checked again the contents of the bag she’d packed the night before: her pristine jodhpurs, shirt, tie, jodhpur boots, white socks, and pony club sweatshirt were all there. Her helmet and gloves were in Mr White’s shed with the tack she’d spent two hours cleaning with linseed oil and saddle soap, which was still under her fingernails.