My Secret Unicorn (4 page)

bought her as a birthday present and groaned inwardly. Twilight seemed to sense her dismay and stepped forward to nuzzle her.

‘I'm going to take Hannah inside and show her where her room is,' Mrs Foster called.

‘Maybe Jess and I should go back to my house for a while,' Mel said to Lauren.

‘Yeah, that's a good idea,' said Jess. ‘You and Hannah must have loads of catching up to do. We'll come back tomorrow.'

‘OK,' said Lauren. She had a feeling her friends were a bit disappointed at Hannah's lack of excitement over the pony welcome party. She was too. She'd imagined them all spending the rest of
the morning together, riding Twilight and Shadow and Sandy in the field. ‘See you.'

Leaving Mel and Jessica to tack up Shadow and Sandy, she went after her mum and Hannah. What was Hannah going to say when she saw all the pony things in the bedroom she was staying in?

Hannah was looking round the room with Mrs Foster when Lauren joined them. She didn't even mention the pony books and ornament but she did open the present.

‘Hey, a book on showing!' Hannah said as she pulled it out of the paper. She tried to sound pleased. ‘Thanks, Auntie Alice. Thanks, Lauren.'

Lauren felt a blush warm her cheeks. ‘I didn't realize you'd gone off ponies,' she said awkwardly.

‘We can always change it,' Mrs Foster said.

‘No, it's fine,' Hannah said politely.

Mrs Foster headed to the door. ‘I'll go and put lunch on. You two stay and chat. I'll call you when it's ready.'

Hannah began to unpack her case. There were some magazines at the top of it.

‘Do you like Leeza Lemarq?' Hannah said to Lauren, pointing to a singer on the front of one of the magazines. ‘She's got such a cool voice. I love her stuff. I'm into loads of different music at the
moment – Catz 'n' Dogz, Gina Natina, The Basement Belles. They're all great.' She smiled enthusiastically. ‘I've got loads of CDs with me. We can listen to them.'

Lauren nodded but she wasn't really into sitting round and listening to music. She liked having it on as she did other stuff but she didn't know much about different bands or singers.

‘I've brought my make-up and hair straighteners with me,' Hannah went on. ‘And my set of nail varnishes.' She smiled. ‘I'll do a make-over on you if you like.'

‘Thanks,' Lauren said slowly. She could hardly believe this was Hannah. The Hannah she remembered always had
messy hair and dirt under her bitten nails.

‘And maybe we could go shopping together and see a movie,' Hannah went on.

‘Yeah, maybe.' Lauren's heart sank. So much for them doing loads of pony things together. Suddenly she remembered about Grace bringing Magpie round that afternoon. ‘Um, I've just got to go and speak to Mum,' she said quickly. ‘I'll be back in a few minutes.'

‘OK,' Hannah said easily. ‘I'll get on with unpacking.'

Lauren hurried downstairs. She'd better ask her mum to ring up Grace and say they didn't need Magpie.

But to her surprise her mum said no. ‘Hannah's only just arrived. Maybe when she's settled in she'll decide she wants to ride after all. We've arranged to borrow Magpie now so we might as well have him here.'

‘But she said she doesn't like ponies any more,' Lauren said.

Mrs Foster looked thoughtful. ‘I can't imagine Hannah has really changed that much. She might seem to have changed but I'll be very surprised if the old pony-loving Hannah isn't somewhere underneath there still.'

Lauren hesitated. Was the old pony-mad Hannah really still there? Thinking of the grown-up fourteen-year-old upstairs it

was hard to imagine it, but maybe her mum was right and Hannah just needed to be reminded of how much she liked ponies.

Perhaps if I can get her riding Twilight then she'll start to remember. We can groom him together afterwards and clean his tack. That'll be fun
, Lauren thought.
And then
Grace will arrive with Magpie and we can settle him into his stable together.

Determination filled her.
I bet I can do this
, she decided.
By the end of today I'm going to have reminded Hannah of just how much fun ponies can be!

Mrs Foster had cooked jacket potatoes for lunch and there were also big bowls of baked beans, cheese, ham and salad.

‘This is delicious,' Hannah said.

‘I love jacket potatoes,' Max said, helping himself to a big spoonful of cheese.

‘Woof!' said Buddy as a few pieces of
grated cheese escaped from Max's spoon and fell on to the floor. He gobbled them up.

Lauren grinned. ‘I think Buddy likes this lunch too!'

‘He's gorgeous,' Hannah said, patting him.

‘So what are your plans this afternoon?' Mrs Foster asked Lauren and Hannah.

‘I thought we could ride Twilight in the field,' Lauren suggested. ‘He's really brilliant to ride. We could put up some jumps.' She looked hopefully at her cousin. Hannah had always loved jumping.

Hannah didn't look too keen. ‘Well,
I don't mind watching you, Lauren.' She smoothed her dark hair. ‘But I don't really want to ride myself. If I put a riding hat on it'll make my hair go frizzy and it takes forever to get it straight.'

Lauren stared. Hannah was turning down a chance to ride just because it would mess up her hair! For a moment she felt a flicker of doubt about her plan. Maybe Hannah really
had
changed completely.

‘Well, why don't you watch and see how you feel?' Mrs Foster said.

Lauren nodded. She wasn't going to give up on her plan. Not yet, anyway. ‘I bet you'll want to ride when you see him jumping,' she told Hannah.

Hannah looked awkward. ‘Lauren, I…'

But Lauren wouldn't let her finish. ‘We're going to have so much fun!' she interrupted.

I hope
, she added silently to herself.

After clearing away the lunch dishes, Lauren and Hannah went outside. ‘I love this place,' Hannah said, looking round at the farm surrounded by the wooded mountains. Mr Foster was working on a tractor in a nearby field. He waved at them and they waved back.

‘I love living here too,' Lauren said. ‘It's great.' She seized the chance to turn the conversation towards ponies. ‘All my
friends here ride. There's a creek in the woods – we take the ponies to paddle in it in the summer – and there's lots of hills to ride up and down and ditches to jump and some great tracks for cantering on. It's so much fun!'

Hannah nodded. ‘Yeah, I used to like doing pony stuff too.'

She didn't sound very interested but

Lauren soldiered on. ‘You'll have to meet my friends, Grace and Jo-Ann. They're fourteen and they still love horses. We often get together and go out for rides.'

‘Oh, right,' Hannah said, not sounding too interested.

Lauren felt a wave of frustration but she pushed it down. ‘Come on, let's go and tack Twilight up,' she said. She fetched Twilight's tack, hoping Hannah would offer to help her saddle up but Hannah just stood back. Lauren decided to tell her about Magpie. Maybe the thought of having a pony of her own for a few days would make her change. ‘Grace, one of the friends I was just telling you about, is bringing a pony over
later,' she said. ‘He's called Magpie. Mum arranged to borrow him for the next few days so you can ride him.'

Hannah looked uncomfortable. ‘Oh.'

‘He's lovely to ride,' Lauren went on eagerly. ‘Quite lively but you'll have a great time on him. We'll be able to go into the woods and…'

‘Sorry, Lauren,' Hannah interrupted. ‘I don't mean to be horrid but I don't want to ride.'

‘But…' Lauren began.

‘No, Lauren!' Hannah said, beginning to sound cross. ‘I know you're still into ponies but I'm not. I've grown out of them, so stop trying to pressurize me and make me do stuff I don't want to!'

There was a silence.

Hannah drew in a deep breath. ‘I'm going to go and read in my room,' she said. ‘I'll see you when you've finished riding.'

She hurried away.

Lauren and Twilight stared after her. Lauren felt awful. She hadn't meant to make Hannah cross and unhappy. She'd only been trying to get her interested in ponies again.

Twilight whickered uncertainly. Lauren desperately wanted to talk to him. ‘Oh, Twilight,' she said. ‘Let's go to the secret glade so I can turn you into a unicorn and we can talk.'

Twilight nodded.

Lauren quickly finished saddling him up and they headed off.

The secret glade was a small clearing deep in the woods. It was hidden at the end of an overgrown path and was one of Lauren's favourite places in the world. It always felt very magical. Purple flowers dotted the short grass. In summer, butterflies flew through the air and at night-time fireflies lit up the darkness like tiny flashing lights. It was the one place where it felt safe to turn Twilight into a unicorn in the daytime. No one else ever seemed to go there.

As soon as they reached it, Lauren said the Turning Spell.

‘What's happened?' Twilight asked as
soon as he could talk. ‘I thought you said Hannah loved ponies, Lauren.'

‘She used to,' Lauren said, rubbing her hand across her forehead. ‘But now she says she's outgrown them.'

Twilight looked at Lauren with alarmed eyes. ‘You won't ever outgrow me, will you?'

‘No!' Lauren hugged him fiercely. ‘Never! I promise!'

Twilight snorted in relief.

‘Oh, Twilight!' Lauren said, thinking of Hannah with her sleek hair, carefully painted nails, music magazines and boyfriend. ‘Hannah used to be so nice.' She caught herself. ‘Well, I suppose she still is nice, but I wish she still liked
ponies. I thought she might do deep down, so that's why I was trying to get her to ride and do stuff.'

Twilight looked at her. ‘It didn't seem to work.'

‘No,' Lauren sighed. ‘It didn't. I feel bad for upsetting her, particularly when she's only just arrived.'

Twilight pushed her gently with his nose. ‘You were only trying to help, Lauren.'

Lauren stroked him. Twilight always knew the right thing to say to make her feel better. ‘I'm so glad I've got you,' she whispered.

‘And I'm glad I've got you,' he snorted.

Lauren rested her head against his neck. They stood there for a long moment.

At last Lauren sighed. ‘I guess we'd better go home. I should find Hannah and go and listen to some music or something with her.'

‘Will you turn me into a unicorn later?' Twilight said eagerly.

‘Of course!' Lauren smiled.

She said the Undoing Spell and Twilight turned back into a pony. Lauren mounted and they headed back to Granger's Farm.

When Lauren got back, she went into the house. Hannah was in the lounge. She'd changed out of her skirt into a pair of trousers and was watching a music programme on TV. ‘Hi,' she said quietly.