You'll be fine, right?"
Unlike her drama-queen twin sister Coco, Charlie Franks is always fine. At least she is until she has to start a new school, finds out she can't ride her new horse at the show jumping competitions, and gets told that her Mum has something totally weird wrong with her. Baylor, the next best horse rider at school is making her life miserable, and no-one seems to understand why Charlie might be angry.
Charlie's not A-OK. Not at all. And she can't see how things are ever going to get better.
The best thing in my whole entire life happened on my fourteenth birthday.
One minute, I was ripping open a box with purple wrapping paper, tearing off the bow and getting through the sticky tape to find a shiny, brand new saddle, still with its from-the-shop smell. The next minute, I was looking out the door of our farmhouse to see the most beautiful sight in the world.
It was a horse. And not just any horse. It was Fozzles, my favourite horse in the world. She was all washed and brushed and braided, and walking next to Cupcake, my twin sister Coco’s favourite horse. Both of them had gold ribbons around their necks, and were being led up the paddock by Ness, our neighbour, and her kids, Tessa and James.
‘Are you …?’ I swung around to Mum. I meant to say ‘Are you serious?’ but the words wouldn’t come out. I’d learned to ride on Fozzles last year after our family moved here to Budgong from the city, and I’d hardly spent an afternoon off her since then. My greatest dream had always been to have my own horse, and now it was coming true, but all I could do was look at Mum and Dad, kind of frozen, in a good way, until my eyes started hurting. I’d obviously forgotten to blink.
Mum laughed. ‘Yes, Charlie. She’s yours.’
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Portuguese
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Loren-Louise Terres
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