“Cassie, you alright?”

I blinked twice, and my previously blurry vision became clearer. I was sat unceremoniously in the middle of the arena floor. I could feel some bruises forming on the side of my left leg, and my shoulder hurt as well. I wriggled in tentatively. I didn't seem to be broken. I forced myself up onto my feet again.

“Yeah, I think so. What happened?”

Belle lead Logan a bit closer to where I was.

“You fell off.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I got that far. How?”

She laughed.

“Fanta freaked out when she passed Logan and bucked you off, straight over her head. I think you might have actually done a flip on the way down.”

I snorted, now remembering.

“Awesome.” I paused. “Wait, where is Fanta?”

Belle pointed to the corner behind me, where Fanta was lazily scratching her head against the fencepost. I smiled crookedly at Belle for a second, before limping over to my beyond naughty little mare. She looked at me somewhat sheepishly as I got closer, but didn't try to run away for once, which was good, because she had her reins caught up in her front legs.

Catching her by the bridle, I untangled Fanta carefully, before using the fence to mount up again. Belle did the same.

“We've been doing this for an hour.” I called. “Shall we just get this little bit right, and then let the others have the arena?”

I motioned with my head to a pair of girls leaning against the gate with their horses, texting. Belle nodded.

“Sure, we can go get something to eat afterwards.”

'This little bit' was where Belle and I trotted from our 20 metre circles at each end of the school and stopped in the middle, parallel to each other, but facing opposite ways. Belle could handle it perfectly well, although she'd told me that she wasn't sure that her circles were big enough, but Fanta and I, on the other hand, were hopeless. I was just about able to keep Fanta in a trot round the circle, but as soon as we got near to Belle and Logan, Fanta would start panicking and side stepping, and by the time we were at 'x', the stopping point, she would be in a full scale bucking fit.

I kicked her into a speedy trot down to 'c', and nodded to Belle. She nodded back and we began. Fanta chomped on her bit, obviously trying to get into a canter, but I pulled her back, keeping her in a somewhat collected trot. She started to sidestep in once we got round to 'm', and our circle got considerably smaller, so I tried to use my inside leg to get her straight again. It worked to an extent, but she was still leaning her head inwards. I slowed her into a walk, and then stopped her at 'x', while Belle did the same, smiling at me encouragingly. I kept a firm hold on the reins until Fanta had stopped fully, before relaxing. Fanta took this opportunity to lurch forwards again for two strides before stopping dead again; throwing me back then forwards in the saddle. And it been going so well. I blushed bright pink and averted my gaze from Belle's questioning one, dragging my hand down my face in frustration.

“Again?” Belle asked.

I nodded and sat up straight.

“Again.”

Five failed, and two successful attempts later, Belle and I dismounted and lead our horses down to the gate. The two girls who had been waiting glared at me for taking so long, and tugged their horses' heads up from grazing. As we passed, I noticed that they were both clutching brightly coloured rock star wigs and star shaped sunglasses. Why did they have...oh, costumes! That wasn't a bad idea, actually. I knew that Eva and her partner were going to be wearing fake lions' manes over their skull caps, because their music was from 'The lion king', but it had never really occurred to me that other people would dress up. I'd just assumed we'd wear our normal riding stuff.

“Hey, Belle?”

She looked up from stroking Logan's muzzle.

“Huh?”

“I've just had an idea. You know how our routine isn't exactly going to plan?”

She shrugged.

“I wouldn't say that, but go on.”

“Maybe if we had some, uh, costumes... we might distract the judges from Fanta, just a little bit. And it could look pretty good as well.”

Belle put her head to one side in thought.

“What kind of thing do you mean?”

I bit my lip, also thinking.

“Well, we could plait Logan and Fanta up with ribbons, and us too, actually, and, uh, maybe get them pretty browbands or numnahs or something. And... isn't there that stuff that's like glitter paint, that's safe to use on horses? You're really good as art; I saw you in class the other day, and they're both grey, so it would show up pretty well on them. What do you think?”

“What's a numnah?”

How could she not know what a numnah was?

“Uh, y'know, the bit of fabric you put under a horse's saddle.” I pointed to Fanta's.

“Oh, a saddle pad?”

“Yeah, a saddle pad.”

I'd have to Americanise my speech, I decided.

Belle smiled, patted Logan on the neck, and nodded.

“Yeah, that would work. We'd have, like, an edge over some of the others.”

I smiled too, proud of myself for kind of thinking it up.

“Yeah, and we definitely need that.”

Belle looked pretty enthusiastic.

“Yeah, we should totally do that! Where would we, y'know, get all the stuff? I doubt the school's gonna have all of that.”

And then I had another brilliant idea. I was on fire today.

“It is Saturday. We're allowed to go into town if we sign out, and walk. There's a saddlery there, which has got some pretty good stuff, and a pound shop-”

Belle cut me off.

“Pound shop?”

“Uh, like a dollar store; and a coffee place as well.”

Belle's face lit up.

“Is it a Starbucks?”

I shook my head, and her face fell.

“No, sorry; it's a Costa, which is pretty similar, really. Why?”

Belle smiled, kind of sadly.

“Oh, it's nothing. I just used to like going to Starbucks in back at Hillcrest, that's all.”

She shook her head and pepped up again.

“Do you want to put Fanta away, get changed, and meet me at the gates in, say, half an hour?”

I nodded.

“Sure. Whoever gets there first signs us both out, and tells someone where we're going, yeah?”

“Yeah, cool.”

Belle lead Logan away, to where her stable was, and I did the same but in the opposite direction. It was weird; I was looking forwards to this more than I normally would. I think that it was Belle; she was almost a bit rebellious, and fun, and I really liked her. I didn't think I'd be saying that a day ago, that's for sure.

“Are all Americans good at fashion, or is it just you?

She laughed.

“I like clothes; they're cool.”

“You look good.”

“Thanks.”

She really did. She was wearing a light brownish longs sleeved t-shirt, with the word 'Paris' written on it in black letters, dark blue skinny jeans and a brown belt, a brown and cream scarf, and a pair of shiny gold pumps. I doubted I'd be able to pull that kind of thing off, but she certainly could. I looked down stupidly at my slightly faded blue skinny jeans, plain green Tesco's value t-shirt and frayed blue cardigan, and sighed. It wasn't that I didn't care what I looked like; it was just that most of my clothes were riding clothes, so I had to make do with what I had. I sighed, but decided not to think about it.

“You've told a teacher that we're going out?”

Belle nodded and motioned towards one of the maths teachers with her head.

“Yeah, he was fine about it.”

“Good. Come on then.”

Belle followed me through the gate and across the road to the path down the hill to town. The trip there was always pretty easy, seeing as it was only about a mile away, and downhill, although it got a lot harder when we wanted to get back.

“Is Fanta always like she is?” Belle turned to me after a few minutes of walking in silence. I shook my head.

“Not at all. She's fine in lessons, and good on hacks too. It's just when she gets into the arena for dressage.”

This year, form 3 had been split up into two riding groups of seven and eight; rather than one massive group of fifteen, so that we would learn better. Belle and I were in different groups, which was why I hadn't seen her ride before we started the pas de deux together.

“Have you thought of using a dressage whip? It won't hurt her or anything.”

“I tried using one a couple of years ago, before she had Spook, but it just made her worse.”

“Spook?”

“Fanta's baby. She had him before the start of last year.”

Belle looked confused.

“Why have I never seen him then?”

“He's staying with Imogen Priest- you know her, she's the one with really long black hair-'s dad. He owns a big dressage yard. I work there.” I noticed Belle's still confused face and continued. “He's just been, uh, gelded. We don't want him to travel for a bit. I think he's coming back after half term.”

Belle smiled and nodded.

“Oh, cool. Colour?”

“Grey, like Fanta, but with pinker skin.”

Belle smiled. “Cute. That would make him, wait,” She held up her finger and paused. “Aloga's... nephew, right?”

“I've never actually thought about that, but yeah, he is. That is so cool.”

We'd reached the little green sign in front of the entrance the the town; 'Welcome to Upper Stoneway. Please drive slowly through our village'.

Belle looked warily at the small line of shops and the little stone fountain that was surrounded by mangy looking pigeons.

“This is town?”

I laughed at her expression.

“It's more of a village, really. Stoneway's bigger, and about five miles away, but you have to get the bus, and it doesn't have a saddlery. That's okay, isn't it?”

She swallowed, but smiled too.

“It's fine. It's just not what I expected. Where shall we start?”

I pointed to about three shops away, where the saddlery was.

“There? We can get a basis for what we want and then we can get the rest after.”

“Sure.”

We started to walk up to it, but Belle stopped dead next to a shop before the intended one.

“Belle what are y- oh my god.”

In the window of the charity shop was a huge silver sequinned ball gown, obviously meant for someone of, uh, much larger stature. Belle gave me a sidelong grin and bolted in to the shop before I could stop her. I followed her through the door to see her take the dress from it's hanger, hold it up against herself and strike a ridiculous pose, batting her eyelashes at me and laughing. It trailed for over a foot on the ground, and looked massive against her small frame. I giggled and tried to avoid the gaze of the grumpy looking woman sitting at the counter. Belle twirled around twice, did the 'duck face' and held up her fingers in the peace sign. I lost it too; choking out my laughter.

“What'd'ya think, Cassie? Isn't it just perfect for our dressage?” Belle said between her snorts.

“Yeah, that'll be perfect with Fanta. Massive moving sparkly things; just what she needs.”

Belle put the dress back on it's hanger, and followed me out of the shop, still slightly hysterical.

“Come on, I think the shops shut at six, and its ten to three now.”

“You take three hours to buy a saddle pad and a brow band?!”

“Its gonna be more than just that stuff, and I know Fanta likes to look her best.”

We calmed down and pushed the door of 'Stoneway Saddlery and Equestrian Equipment'.

It was a nice place; mainly used by the students of my school, for obvious reasons, so consequently very inexpensive. It smelt of hoof oil, liquorice and plain old horse, and it was quite dark. The once red walls were barely visible behind the shelves and shelves of horsey paraphernalia, and the threadbare blue carpet was scattered with odds and ends of labels, buckles and plaiting bands.

“What can I do for you today, girls?”

The young female attendant made us jump. Belle seemed a bit dazed by the general horsey-ness of the shop, so I answered.

“Do you have any, like, sparkly stuff? Browbands, numnahs, tail bandages, that kind of thing?”

The woman pointed to a bright corner of the shop.

“There's all kinds of kiddie stuff in the corner; some of which is sparkly, I think. How big are your horses?”

I had to think about that.

“Uh, 14.2hh and 15.1hh? I'm pretty sure about that.”

The woman nodded, her ginger ponytail bobbing up and down.

“That should be all right. Ask me if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

I pulled Belle away from a stack of horse DVDs by the sleeve.

There was a whole rack of sparkly things. There were black, red, gold, pink, blue, silver, green and bronze browbands, with matching numnahs and plaiting bands, as well as plain shiny equivalents.

“Cassie?” Belle looked up from staring at the sparkles. “How does this, y'know, fit in with our music?”

I didn't have to think about that one; I'd already decided whilst I was getting changed.

“Well, Belle- hey, that rhymes- I did a project about 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' in primary school; and we thought it was about a sort of elvish king or something. So maybe we could wear brown and green, like forests, and then coloured flowers, and have plaited hair and sparkly face paint, and the horses could be sparkly too, and I bet the drama department would lend us some fairy wings-”

Belle coughed.

“Not fairy wings.”

I shrugged.

“Fine, but is the rest okay? I thought it would look good.”

Belle nodded enthusiastically and picked up a pair of sparkly bronze browbands and numnahs.

“Yeah, sure. I think brown would be better as a base, seeing as the green's a bit... garish.”

“I agree. Shall I go and get some of those sparkly paints too?”

“Go for it.”

I lead Belle round to another aisle, where there were ointments of various kinds and a small shelf with 'Horse-safe Glitter body paints.” Belle picked up some brown, dark green, light pink, and light blue bottles.

“What if they both wore green and brown, and then Aloga had some pink on her, and Fanta had some blue. Then they wouldn't completely match then. I reckon it would be good.”

I knew Belle was good at creative stuff.

“Yeah, definitely! Shall we get anything else?”

Belle though for a second.

“Can we get ribbons here?”

“Nah, we'll get them at the pound shop, it'll be cheaper.”

“Oh, uh, braiding bands?”

I picked a packet of 50 white plaiting bands from a shelf and took some bottles from Belle to stop her arms from falling off.

“Yep. I think that's everything. I've got money. Shall I pay for these now, and you pay for the coffee?”

Belle put her money back in her pocket.

“Sounds good.”

We dumped the stuff on the counter, and Belle gasped as I opened my stuffed purse.

“Jesus, Cassie, how'd you get that much?!”

I laughed and gave the woman at the till the £37.50 she was due.

“I got payed for working this summer, and haven't had a chance to spend it 'til now. It isn't that much, I just have it all in five pound notes so that I can feel rich.”

Belle still looked envious.

“Lucky.”

We thanked the lady, took our bags from the counter and walked towards the door. The bell rung again and we were back out on the cold street.

“Where next?”

Two and a half hours later, Belle and I were sat quite comfortably sipping hot chocolates in Costa Coffee. Belle was still raving about the pound shop.

“You can get everything there! Like everything! Why didn't I know about this before? It's like a ninety-nine cent store, but way better quality stuff that isn't made by children in Chinese sweatshops!”

“I wouldn't say that; I'm pretty sure they're still made in sweatshops, but... yeah...”

I peered inside Belle bulging carrier bag from earlier. She had masses of make-up, art stuff, hair accessories, books and stuff that I couldn't really categorize.

“What exactly are you going to do with that wheelie bin desk tidy? And those firecrackers?”

Belle tapped her nose secretively.

“I know a million uses for firecrackers.”

I rifled through my considerably smaller pound shop bag to check I had everything.

“So, pink ribbons, blue ribbons, those little cloth flowers, sequins; is that all?”

Belle shrugged and took another gulp of her hot chocolate.

“Prob'ly. Well... we've got our costumes; we've just got to get our dressage sorted now.”

I put my head in my hands and sighed.

“I genuinely have no idea what I'm going to do. I don't know what's wrong with Fanta.”

“Has a vet seen her?”

“Not yet, but she has a check up on Tuesday anyway.”

“Been near a stallion?”

“Definitely not; I've made sure of that.”

“Maybe she's just bored.”

“Maybe.”

I finished my drink and sat back in my chair, rubbing my forehead.

“I just hope we find out soon.”

Belle put her arm around me supportively.

“We will. We'll find out what it is, and then we'll be amazing.”

I shrugged.

“I hope so, Belle. I really hope so.”