Jessica and Jewel (10 page)

Me and Lola were up against Dannii and Tegan in our heat of the relay race, but we didn’t go easy on them because Tegan’s my little sister – no, it was all out war and us two were determined to win! We actually did, too, but then we lost the second round against Claudia and Summer – oh well!

After the games, we ran up our stirrups and led our ponies back to the yard to get them some water and untack. Jody brought out some bottles of Ribena and made
us
all have a good drink, too.

Tegan dragged Mum and Dad round everywhere, and introduced them to Twinkle. It was funny when Tegan showed Dad how to
pick out Twinkle’s hooves. He’s usually really confident about things, but he looked so nervous we couldn’t help laughing! And it was so sweet, because all the time Tegan was brushing Twinkle down she kept chattering on about how great I was at jumping, and what a good time we’d had on the trail ride and camp out (including the going to the loo in the middle of the night bit, which she seemed to have decided was not scary at all but loads of fun).

Mum came with me into the farmhouse to get our cases, and on the way back to the car park she said, “Thanks so much for looking after Tegan this week, Jess. Oh, and Sally told us about her little adventure.” She raised her eyebrows and I couldn’t help blushing, but she wasn’t cross with me, thank goodness.

“I think you both learned from it,” she added. “So we’ll leave it at that.”

Then Mum did something really surprising, which was to say that she and Dad were so impressed with my riding today that they’re going to find a way to get me to the more advanced group at my local riding school! “But what about Tegan? You can’t go twice,” I said.

“We’ll work something out,” said Mum. “I’m sure we can arrange a lift share. I’ll put a card up on the noticeboard at the stables, and until we get something organized, well, I suppose I will have to drive there twice. We can’t have you missing out after all your hard work and progress.” Well,
wow
, how about that?! And she hadn’t even finished! “Anyway, you deserve a reward for looking after Tegan so well this week,” she said. “We were worried she’d be homesick or too young to manage here, but thanks to you she’s had a great time.”

“Thanks, Mum,” I said. I was really pleased about that, although I know I wasn’t great to start off with. Still, hopefully I made up for it in the end.

Just then Tegan came running over to us and insisted on pulling her own case along, even though it was on gravel and a bit too heavy for her. As she huffed and puffed and struggled with it, she gave me a big grin and I couldn’t help giving her an even bigger one back. OK, so maybe my week at Pony Camp hadn’t turned out exactly as I’d imagined, but looking at my little sis smiling up at me I realized that I wouldn’t have changed it for the world!