Charlotte and the Starlet 2 Read Free

day.'
    While Charlotte hoped what Leila said was true,
she wasn't owning up to any feelings other than
friendship.
    'That's his business. He's still just a friend.' She
changed the subject. 'Did you like the film?'
    'Could have done with some horses.'
    Charlotte tried to get Leila talking more but she
only answered in monosyllables. 'You okay, Leila?'
    'I'm tired. Like your dad said, big day.'
    The real reason Leila was quiet was because the
movie made her remember all the things about her old
life that she'd loved. There was nothing like being on
set – loads of make-up people fussing over you,
squirting you down if you got too hot, rugging you up
with a nice heat pack if you displayed the barest
sniffle. Sure you had to put up with the likes of that
freckle-faced moron Sarah-Jane, Leila's co-star, but all
in all it was fun. You were a princess and all the crew
were your doting slaves. The trouble was, it wasn't
real. It was make-believe. And the friends you thought
you had were make-believe. Leila had learned that the
hard way when she'd wound up in Australia. Apart
from her talking parrot mate, Feathers, Joel Gold and
her director, Tommy Tempest, she had been quickly
forgotten. Charlotte was different. Charlotte was a
true friend. She didn't think about what Leila could do
for her but what she could do for Leila.
    If they could all see me now, Leila thought later that
evening, as she stood in her yard listening to clicking
crickets. Leila, the spoiled Hollywood brat, not lazing
about in her massive Winnebago but here in the open,
at the far end of the earth. She looked up at those stars.
They were pretty. What's more, they were real. Sure,
she missed her old life, the parties, the awards nights,
the hoof-controlled air-conditioning, but she'd never
been fitter, tougher or more horse than she was now.
Warrior, that stuck-up stallion Todd Greycroft rode,
was going to get the shock of his life when they began
competing in the JOES. Actually, it was pretty scary.
Lots of top show-horses were going to be at the
academy and while Leila might be a movie star, when
it came to equestrian stuff, she was a novice. She
comforted herself with the knowledge that she and
Charlotte were a team. But she knew that only time
would tell if, by giving up movies, she had made the
biggest mistake of her life.

Chapter 2
    Thirteen hours after they had left Snake Hills in her
father's battered station wagon, towing the old horse
float, Charlotte stood in the driveway of Thornton
Downs and hugged him tight.
    'I'll miss you, Dad.'
    'I'll miss you too. Promise you'll study hard.'
    Unlike the previous time she'd been at Thornton
Downs, this was not vacation time. Charlotte was
going to have to attend school classes as well as all her
equestrian lessons.
    'Of course.'
    Charlotte didn't mind schoolwork. She just didn't
like it anywhere near as much as riding a horse. In
the lee of a mountain range and a thousand kilometres
to the south, Thornton Downs was much
cooler and greener than Snake Hills. Dusk was trying
its best to settle but the bright headlights of the
convoy of expensive European sedans arriving to
deposit the other JOES wouldn't let it. Charlotte gave
her dad one final squeeze.
    'Keep writing to me.'
    Being a stockman who spent weeks at a time
droving cattle in the outback, her dad found the world
of the internet and email totally foreign. He preferred
pen and paper.
    'Course I will.'
    One final wave and he was gone. Charlotte stared
after him, sadness welling. Leila's muzzle pushed into
her cheek.
    'At least you've got me.'
    Charlotte reached up and stroked her.
    'That's true.'
    'So let's get a move on or you'll miss dinner and I'll
be stuck with nothing but that horrible chaff.'
    Charlotte smiled and shook her head. Leila was
incorrigible. She'd already made Charlotte promise to
sneak out to the stables with a helping of the JOES
dinner.
    'Better get you to the stables.'
    They had barely gone twenty metres when they saw
The Evil Three