Poppy and Prince Read Free Page A

her how they’d cantered but I had to admit that I hadn’t. Jennifer looked really sorry for me and said loudly, “Don’t worry, Poppy, I doubt Prince has got a canter in him anyway. He’s so dopey. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”

    I can’t believe she said that right in front of my gorgeous pony. I got really annoyed then and snapped, “He’s not dopey, he’s just gentle! He’d go for it if I asked him to. I just, erm, didn’t feel like it today, that’s all.”
    Jennifer said, “Well sor-ry, I was only trying to be nice!” and clip-clopped Flame off to her stable in a huff.
    When she’d gone, I gave Prince a big cuddle,and told him to ignore her. “It’s not your fault we didn’t canter, it’s mine,” I whispered. “I bet you really wanted to go for it! I’ll try next time, I promise.”
    So I HAVE to canter now, because Prince is really looking forward to it!
    Oh great, it’s time for our Evening Activity – swimming. At least that’s something I can do without getting scared!

Tuesday at 7.11am
– up early and writing this while the others are still asleep!

    We had such a great time in the pool last night! First Millie’s dad, Johnny, organized some fun games like relay swimming and musical floats. Then we had some time to play on our own so me, Millie and Jennifer did diving down to the bottom to pick up coins. Jennifer kept coming back up empty-handed and spluttering, which was funny after she boasted about being the captain of the swimming team at her school! Millie was giggling and singing “pants on fire”, and I joined in – but Jennifer went all red and cross and didn’t see the funny side, so we stopped. Inside I was thinking, What if Millie finds out I’m a big liar too? I still felt awful about pretending I wasn’t at that show with her.
    But I didn’t have to feel bad for long. Jennifer finally stopped being cross about the singing, and after lights-out we were all giggling and whispering silly jokes and I sort of forgot how annoying she was earlier. Instead it was as if we had all been friends for ages.

    So, after making them swear not to tell anyone else, I told them about my broken arm and losing my confidence when I tried to get back on Pepper last week, and how I did know Millie after all. I kept saying, “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” to her but she just giggled and promised that it was okay and she understood – phew!
    â€œSo you haven’t got a spooky twin then?” she teased.
    â€œNo!” I cried, giggling and blushing.
    The only bad thing was that Jennifer seemed to think she’d have been fine after a fall like that. (That’s when I remembered that she actually IS annoying!) She kept saying, “You should have got straight back on, Poppy. That’s what they say, isn’t it? Get back on as soon as you can. That’s what I’d do.”

    Millie pointed out that she couldn’t know for sure what she’d do until it happened, but Jennifer insisted that she’d just leap back on.
    â€œI tried,” I wailed. “I didn’t expect to feel this way. While I had the cast on my arm, all I didwas look forward to riding again – but when it came to it, I…”
    I trailed off then, feeling upset inside because it seemed like Jennifer was calling me a weed, and I suddenly started missing Mum. But I cheered myself up by thinking of how kind and understanding Millie was, and also by hugging my unicorn, Waffle, who I’d brought from home.
    Oh, Millie’s alarm has just gone. Got to go – time to start a totally fab new pony-filled day. I just hope I can keep my promise to Prince about the cantering!

Tuesday, after lunch, sitting on the bench in the yard

    Oh, dear – this morning has been awful!
    It started off okay because we got our ponies in from the field and my gorgeous Prince