Team Challenge (6 page)

Oh, double pooh.

“Come on.” Drum sighed. “Let’s get it over with.”

I nodded to the judges and one of them started the CD.

“OK, Drum, let’s give it our all!” I whispered to him as the music blared out. Boy, it was loud. We’d never had it on that loud at home when we’d been practicing.

“OK, circle around me,” I said to Drum.

“What?” Drummer said, planted to the spot.

“Circle around me!” I said louder.

“You’ll have to speak up!” shouted Drummer, shaking his head and ringing all the bells.

“Just do what we did at home!” I yelled.

“I can’t hear you!” Drummer replied.

It was hopeless! The combination of the music and Drum’s ear protectors with bells on made it impossible for him to hear my direction. Somehow, we muddled through, but it wasn’t anything like as polished as it had been in practice at home in the paddock. We went wrong, we turned away when we should have turned toward each other, and we finished at different times before the music stopped, bowing out of sync. I couldn’t wait to get out of the arena.

“Thank you!” shouted one of the judges in a bored voice, obviously relieved that our performance was over.

We came third from last.

“Drum couldn’t hear me,” I explained.

“Maybe you should take those ear things off,” suggested Dee.

“Good idea!” snorted Drummer.

“Oh, you heard that all right!” I said crossly.

“Well, there’s no music thundering out like we’re at Woodstock!” he replied. “With all these bells ringing, maybe you should think of adapting our routine—how about we change it to
The Hunchback of Notre Dame?
You could stuff a cushion up the back of your dress.”

“It just needs adapting, that’s all,” Katy told me, unaware of Drummer’s comments. “And we
all
need to practice a bit more. I mean, we didn’t think we were going to win, did we?”

I remembered my boast to Cat about blue ribbons. Then I saw her on Bambi. A yellow ribbon fluttered from Bambi’s bridle.

“Oh, look,” said Bean. “Leanne and Cat’s team has come in third.” She rode Tiffany over and was soon congratulating Cat, who was beaming. I could hear Tiffany and Bambi talking—they’re good chums and often graze in the field together.

“You did well!” said Tiffany.

“Yes, we’ve got a strong team. How’s your team panning out?”

“Mmmm, well, you know what it’s like, the humans are all keen so you have to put up a bit of a show, don’t you? I don’t really do dressage, as you know,
and
it turns out I have to wear a noseband, which is the final straw and—oh,
what’s that?
Oh, it’s OK, it’s just a burger wrapper—so I’m hoping—well, Drum, Moth, and I all are—that we don’t go through to the finals, especially as we don’t get much in the way of thanks from anyone. It’s all about them, them, them. We’d love to nip the whole thing—
look out
…oh, no, it’s all right, it’s just a small child with an ice cream—in the bud right here. Of course, we can’t get Bluey onboard, he won’t mess up the cross-country whatever you say to him. Oh, by the way, Drummer keeps asking me to put in a good word for him.”

“Oh, don’t remind me. He’s such a pain. As if I’m going to fall for a bay who wears bells on his ears!”

“You are hard on him—he’s OK really. But who’s that gorgeous black creature on your team, the one who’s doing the cross-country?”

“You mean Warrior? Mmmm, he is yummy, isn’t he? I wouldn’t mind if
he
liked me. I don’t think I’m his type— he might go for you though. All blond and skinny.”

Shutting my ears to their conversation, I took all Drummer’s jester costume off. He shook himself and sneezed.

“Can we go home now?”

“I know what you’re doing—you and Moth and Tiffany,” I said menacingly.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about!”

We rode home in gloomy silence. Only Bluey was happy—as he always is when he’s jumped a cross-country round. I could hear him talking the other ponies through it, jump by jump. The other ponies were bored into silence.

“You know that Leanne and Cat are halfway to qualifying, don’t you?” said Bean.

“Yes, thank you, we know,” I said.

“That cruddy team, the one with the funny-looking ponies and the grungy riders, they came in second.
Second!
” wailed James.

“Serves us right for underestimating them,” said Katy. “What do you want with your hat, James? Fries? Salad?”

“Oh, you’re funny!” said James.

“It’s not even worth bothering to go to another qualifier,” mumbled Bean.

“Of course it is!” said Katy.

“You would say that, you did really well. The rest of us are terrible,” I reminded her.

“You’ve got a good routine,” said James. “It just needs a few tweaks.”

“No one liked it. Everyone laughed,” I complained.

“I’ll work the CD player next time. And if you make some adjustments to Drum’s ear covers so he can hear you, that will fix it!”

“Yes, Pia,” added Bean, “you’re the only one who can do it—although I don’t see how Tiff and I can do another dressage test in a noseband. It’s impossible!”

“It’s not only the noseband that’s the trouble,” said James. “You lost your way twice.” I cringed. Talk about tactless.

“I can’t remember dressage tests—I told you all that,” Bean said with exaggerated calm, keeping her cool.

“I can,” I said desperately, wondering if it wasn’t too late to swap events with Bean. It was as if Katy could read my mind.

“We can’t change events halfway through. The rules say the same team members have to do the same events throughout the competition. We just have to try harder next time,” she said. As Katy was the only member of our team who’d been any good and, it appeared, had bothered to read the rules, we couldn’t really argue.

“It’s a shame you didn’t know the rule about the noseband,” James muttered.

“We weren’t exactly Team Tremendous, were we?” grumbled Bean.

“Team Useless, more like,” agreed James. “Perhaps we should call ourselves Team Desperate, or Team Argument, or Team Only-Here-to-Make-Up-the-Numbers!”

“Oh, that’s the spirit!” said Katy sarcastically.

“It doesn’t matter how hard we try if the ponies aren’t onboard,” I said, and relayed Tiffany and Bambi’s conversation.

“Oh!” said Katy, lost for words for once.

“Well,” I said grimly, “we only have one more chance to stay in the competition. If we don’t place in the first three in the next qualifier, the decision will be taken away from us. We’ll be out, whether we like it or not!”

Chapter 6

T
hat evening, I met Mom’s new boyfriend, Greg. With the day having gone so badly, I wasn’t in the mood to show myself off as the model daughter.

“This is Pia,” said Mom. “Pia, I’d like you to meet Greg.”

“Good evening, Pia.”

“Umm, hello,” I mumbled. Greg was pretty tall. He had sandy-colored hair, the sort of hair that looks like cotton balls, sort of undefined strands, just stuck on his head in a blob, like doll hair. His beard was gray and short and trimmed. His left earlobe sported a silver stud, which he was, like, decades too old for. What was that about?

“Pia’s been looking forward to meeting you,” Mom lied. I smiled. Well, it seemed expected.

“I understand you have a pony,” said Greg. “I used to ride when I was younger, but I gave it up when I discovered girls.” He looked across at Mom and grinned at her. She giggled back, blushing. I didn’t really think I could handle all this after the day I’d had. I thought furiously for something to say. What do grown-ups say when they meet?

“What do you do for a living, Greg?”

“I’m a teacher. English. Do you enjoy English at school, Pia?”

OK, you can think I’m negative if you want (some of Drummer’s attitude rubs off), but don’t you think that teachers just never give it a rest? I mean, they just have to be right all the time, don’t they? I prayed that Greg wasn’t a typical teacher, because I could see trouble coming. It wasn’t long before it started.

“Greg and I went to a fabulous restaurant by the river— I must take you there, Pia, you’d love it. Such a pretty place,” Mom told me.

“Can you remember the name of the river, Sue?” Greg asked with a smarmy smile. “I did tell you.”

See what I mean? “My mom’s a grown-up!” I wanted to scream. “She wasn’t on a field trip—it was a date, for goodness sake!”

“Oh, no, I can’t. Sorry!” Mom giggled.

“It’s detention for you, young lady!” joked Greg.

Pass the barf bag, I thought. Luckily, they left soon after for dinner at some restaurant Mom has always liked the look of. As soon as they’d gone, I called Bean.

“Look,” I said as soon as she answered, “we have to have a powwow tomorrow at the yard and discuss where the team goes from here. I think I need to have a word with the ponies. See you there at nine?”

“OK, sounds like a plan,” Bean said. “What are you doing now? There’s a great movie on in ten minutes.”

“My mom’s just gone on a date,” I told her. “You wouldn’t believe the geek she’s seeing now. Can you call Katy and tell her about tomorrow? I’ll call James.”

James wasn’t answering his cell, so I sent him a text message. Then I cooked myself a baked potato with cheese and beans, watched the movie Bean had recommended, which made me laugh despite our disastrous day, and took myself off to bed before Greg brought Mom home. I couldn’t face another dose of him.

The next morning, Mom insisted on asking my opinion of Greg. I so hate the postmortem of the first meeting. Remembering I had promised to support her in her dating, I put on my ever-so-sincere-if-you-don’t-look-too-close face that I’ve had rather a lot of practice at recently.

“What’s important, Mom, is that you like him.”

“I do, he’s very attentive.”

I didn’t want to think about Greg being attentive to my mom. I biked to the yard with Epona in my pocket, trying to put all unbidden images out of my mind. Katy and Bean were already there so we pulled all the ponies in from the field, including Moth.

“Are you going to read them the riot act?” asked Bean.

“That’s the plan!” I told her grimly. Towing the ponies in behind us, we found James had arrived.

“Come on,” I said, “let’s take this bunch somewhere where we won’t be disturbed.”

“What are we going to do?” he joked. “Give them a good thrashing?”

“Don’t say that!” cried Katy, hugging Bluey protectively. As if we would!

“Oh, come on, Katy, it was a joke,” said James. “I don’t even carry a whip on Moth, you know that!”

“It wasn’t funny!” said Katy, furious with James.

We took them all behind Bambi’s, Drummer’s, and Moth’s stables. Unfortunately, there was a lot of grass growing there.

“Oooh, this is the sort of telling off I like!” cried Drum, dropping his head to graze. Tiffany and Bluey followed his lead, only Moth stood all polite as usual, waiting for James to tell her it was all right to do the same.

I hauled Drummer’s head up. “Now look, you guys,” I began, “we know you’re not making any effort with this Sublime Equine Challenge.”

“That’s not fair!” wailed Bluey.

“Oh, sorry, Bluey,” I said. “I know you are. You’re the exception. Your friends here are deliberately sabotaging any effort to qualify in an effort to cut down on work.”

“Are you?” asked Bluey, in wide-eyed amazement. He is such an honest pony.

“Oh, come on,” said Drummer, defensively. “I was dressed up to look like the village idiot. No wonder I’m not excited.”

“I wore the noseband under duress, and I take exception to your accusations,” Tiffany said huffily. “Is that a…oh, no, it’s just an old bucket!” she added, her indignation in ruins.

“Yes, you did,” I agreed. “But I heard you talking with Bambi. You can’t deny it!”

“What’s she saying?” said Bean.

Moth said nothing. As usual. I couldn’t give Epona to James with Bean and Katy there. He would have to get her feedback later.

“How could you not try?” asked Bluey, looking crestfallen. “I jumped my heart out for the team.”

Tiffany shifted her hooves, and Drummer looked into the distance. Then Tiffany grunted and spoke.

“Actually,” she said huffily, “Drum and I think we’re being taken for granted.”

“What do you mean?” I said baffled.

“What are they saying?” Bean asked again.

“That’s right,” interrupted Drummer. “You want us to do these things, but do we hear any word of thanks? Any praise? No! It’s just complain, complain, complain. Katy’s always appreciative of Bluey’s hard work, and you can see the result for yourselves.”

I was stunned.

“What’s the news?” James said. “Come on, Pia, tell us!”

“Er…” I didn’t know where to start. A very uncomfortable feeling grew in my stomach. It got worse and worse. Drum was right, I hadn’t given him any encouragement at all—I had just grumbled and complained all the time. I felt really ashamed. I took a deep breath.

“It’s our fault,” I told the others.

“Ours? How?” Bean asked.

“Why?” said James.

“They say they never get any thanks for their efforts, that we don’t appreciate them. We just whine.”

There was a stunned silence.

“Oh, Bluey, I’m sorry!” said Katy, throwing her arms around his neck and smothering him with kisses.

“Actually, Katy, the ponies say you’re the only one who’s OK. And you are.”

“You are really nice to Bluey,” added Bean thoughtfully. “And positive.”

“Looks like it’s up to us to change things,” said James.

“I’m so sorry, Tiff,” said Bean, stroking Tiffany’s golden neck. “I promise I’ll be more like Katy.”

“That will be nice,” sniffed Tiffany. “I’ll try harder, too—even with the noseband if I have to.”

“She’s going all out next time,” I assured Bean.

“Oh, good girl, have all the grass you want!” cried Bean, patting Tiffany’s neck like mad. I turned to Drummer.

“I’m really sorry, Drum. You’re right, and I’ve been totally in the wrong. Can we start again?”

Drummer looked at Bluey and Tiffany, and then me. He gave a huge sigh. “Oh, OK, I’ll be magnificent next time,” he said. “I’ll perform like Trigger, or Champion the Wonder Horse. I’ll be so amazing; I’ll be nominated for an Oscar. Now can I get my head down before that greedy Tiffany eats all this grass?”