Читать книгу Sleepover Girls on the Range - Fiona Cummings, Louis Catt - Страница 5

Yeehah! If it ain’t my perdy liddle friend. Let’s mosey on down to the OK Corral pardn’r and round up them there horses.

Hey, don’t look at me like that! All I meant was “do you fancy coming down to the stables with me?” I’ve kind of got this thing about the Wild West at the moment. The others are used to it now. In fact they’re so used to it that I’m driving them all crazy. Especially Fliss. She keeps saying:

“Look Lyndz, if you don’t drop that stupid accent soon, I’m going to ram that stetson down your perdy liddle throat!”

Now that’s not very nice, is it? Particularly since the others were just as bad as me last week. If I remember rightly, it was Frankie who threw herself into the Wild West theme big time. And she even got everybody dressing up in cowboy gear into the bargain. You know how she organises everybody. Once she’s got an idea in her head, you daren’t argue with her!

You’re looking a bit puzzled. You must have heard what happened down at the stables, surely? What! You mean you haven’t? I thought everybody knew about that by now. Kenny certainly hasn’t stopped talking about it, and you know what a motormouth she is. And now I come to think about it, Fliss is pretty pleased with herself too. And when she’s like that, she usually tells the whole world!

I can’t believe that none of them have told you about our latest sleepover adventure. But that’s great, because it means that I get to tell you about it. And after all, it was because of me that we got involved in the first place. That goes without saying really, doesn’t it? As my mum keeps saying, “If horses are involved, Lyndsey Collins will be in the thick of it!”

I can’t help it if I love horses, can I? You know where you are with horses, which is more than you can say for people. Take my four brothers for example (I wish someone would, they drive me mad!). Sometimes they treat me like dirt and expect me to run around clearing up after them. And sometimes they’re OK and help me out of a jam. But you can never predict what they’re going to be like. Now, horses are never like that.

Is that the phone? Hang on, I’d better go and answer it.

“Hello? Oh hi, Rosie. Yeah we’re just going down to the stables now… You’re all coming too? Cool! Yeah, you’re right, no M&Ms! … It was class, wasn’t it? Yeah, the best yet… No, I won’t forget. OK, we’ll meet you down there. Bye.”

That was Rosie. Ever since our last sleepover adventure, she’s been going to the stables too. Not that she does much when she’s there – she just sits and watches Bramble and Marvel munching away at the grass. And sometimes she watches her brother Adam, who does his Riding for the Disabled there. But the real attraction of the stables, as far as the others are concerned, is that we know we won’t be disturbed by our rivals the M&Ms. Because we have just got one over them in a major supertastic way!

Oh hey, sorry. My mum always tells me off for that – for coming into a story half-way through. “For goodness sake, Lyndz, start at the beginning!” she tells me. So that’s what I’m going to do now. It’ll pass the time as we walk to the stables.

OK, well – do you remember when Mrs McAllister’s stables burnt down? I know we’ve had a lot of sleepover adventures since then, so I’ll remind you what happened. We were so worried about Mrs McA having to close her stables down for good that we went into fundraising overdrive. Our first attempt was a flop, thanks to those stupid M&Ms. But then I came up with the idea of a Stable Fun Day, which was brill. Unfortunately, the only thing people remember about it now is Fliss screaming her head off on a runaway horse! Her picture ended up on the front page of the Leicester Mercury and they started a campaign to save the stables. And that’s where Sita Chandri stepped in. She’s this hot-shot businesswoman from around here. She read about the campaign and stumped up the dosh to rebuild Mrs McAllister’s stables. Cool, eh? Fliss takes all the credit for everything of course, but then we’re used to that!

Well anyway, since the fire Mrs McAllister has had to keep her horses down at Mr Brocklehurst’s farm. And that’s where I went to see her a couple of weeks ago. When I got there, she was really excited.

“The builders say my new stable block will be finished next week, Lyndsey. Isn’t that wonderful?” she grinned. Her eyes were shining, and I thought for a minute that she was going to cry. But I knew it was just because she was happy. I felt pretty top-banana myself. It seemed ages since the horses had had a proper home of their own.

“They ought to have a stable-warming party or something!” I chuckled. Alfie, my very favourite horse, came strolling over to us. He stretched his neck over the fence and started to nuzzle my pocket to see if I’d brought him some of his favourite mints.

“Hey Alfie, would you like a party?” I asked, patting his face.

“Well, it’s funny you should mention that, Lyndsey,” said Mrs McAllister seriously. “Because I certainly want to do something special to mark the re-opening of my stables—”

“A party!” I started to jump around. “Cool!”

“Well, maybe not a party exactly. I had more of a public Open Day in mind,” she admitted. “Just to show that the stables are fully operational again. A lot of people cancelled their lessons after the fire because they thought my premises were unsafe, even though it was only the stable block that was damaged. I really need to build my business up again now, as my bank manager will remind me yet again when I meet with him tomorrow.” She grimaced, and a cloud seemed to pass over her face. But she soon brightened up again. “An Open Day should be a good opportunity to remind everyone that I’m really and truly back in business, don’t you think? Even my bank manager has to agree with that!”

“An Open Day? OK!” I nodded. I mean, it didn’t sound as much fun as a party, but it should be fun all the same. “It worked when we had the Stable Fun Day, didn’t it?”

“Well yes, you could say that!” Mrs McAllister looked dubious. “But I thought we could do something a bit different this time. I’m not sure what yet.”

“Hmm – I’m sure we can think of something …” My mind started to race.

Mrs McAllister looked at me.

“Actually, you needn’t worry about the Open Day at all, Lyndsey,” she said quickly.

I must have looked disappointed, because she started to laugh.

“You needn’t look like that. It’s just that I’ve got something very special for you to think about.”

“Oh?”

“I haven’t forgotten how hard you and your friends worked to raise money for my stables,” she told me seriously. “And I’ve never really had a proper chance to thank you for it.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just blushed and shrugged my shoulders and mumbled, “You don’t have to do that.”

“Oh, but I do, Lyndsey,” Mrs McAllister continued, “because if it hadn’t been for you lot, Sita would never have come along and put up the money for the stable block. I’ve a lot to thank you for, and so have the horses!”

As if on cue Alfie began to whinny, and Marvel, Bramble and Trojan came over to join him at the fence. Mrs McAllister and I cracked up laughing.

“You see, they know what we’re talking about!”

When we’d made a fuss of the horses, Mrs McAllister went on:

“So I’d like you to think of a special treat that I can give you and your friends. Is there anything you have in mind?”

I thought hard – for about a minute – and then I grinned.

“Well there is something. But I’ll have to ask the others first.”

I had thought of something so mind-blowingly wonderful, it was like a hot fudge sundae and a knickerbocker glory all rolled into one. All I had to do now was persuade the others. And I knew at least one of them wouldn’t agree with me at all …