Chloe and Cracker Read Online Free Page B

to do Sugar’s bandages and Olivia to put on Ebony’s boots they were both chattering away to me as if nothing had happened.
    Oh, hang on a sec…
    Jody just called us all over to her and announced that we’re being split into three teams for the treasure hunt. I’m in her team with Isabella and Joelle. When she read out the teams, she gave me a secret wink, so I know she fixed it like that on purpose so that me and Isabella will have a chance to make up. I hope we do!

Thursday 8.41pm, waiting for my turn in the shower
    I have volunteered to go last so I can write in here.
    Guess what? Me and Bella have made up! And guess what else? Our team won the treasure hunt! Well, one special pony in particular won it, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute.

    Before we left the yard on the treasure hunt, Sally gave each team a map and their first clue. She explained that there would be three different sets of clues and three separate routes to follow, but that we would all meet up at the same final place to search for the treasure. Our team leaders had a cool saddle-bag each, packed with our sandwiches and waterand the mobile and first-aid kit. Then Lydia handed out fluorescent bibs to wear over our riding clothes so we could easily be seen by any passing cars.
    Sally said the only rule was that we had to stop for a half-hour lunch break so the ponies could have a rest. Our team went into the kitchen with Jody and worked out where the first clue was telling us to go, and then we got our ponies out and headed off.

    Johnny’s team had gone already but Sally’s was still in the yard. We’d worked out that we needed to head for the church in the hamlet marked on the map. We walked along the road for a little while and then turned up a track. It was good because we all talked together and even though Bella didn’t say anything exactly to me she wasn’t ignoring me either, and after a while Ididn’t feel so nervous around her. We trotted on and when we hit a nice wide uphill bit next to some fields we persuaded Jody to let us have a canter, to help us get ahead of the other teams. “Okay, then,” she said, smiling. “Millie and her dad will be dragging their team across the countryside at high speed, so we might as well try to compete!”
    Cantering up the hill was fantastic and I could tell that Cracker really loved being out of the manège!
    It took about half an hour to get to the church and we found our next clue pinned to the noticeboard in the little stone porch. I dismounted and held Joelle’s pony while she jumped down and ran to get it. It said:

    “Whoever wrote this isn’t very good at poems!” I said, giggling. It was nice that Bella giggled at that too.
    “Oh, thanks very much!” harrumphed Jody, but she was laughing.
    “ You wrote it!” I cried. “So you must know the answer!”
    She nodded, but of course she wouldn’t tell us where to go next or help us with the clue at all.
    So we all dismounted and huddled round the map. After a while, Bella cried, “Aha! I’ve got it! Little Red Riding Hood was told to stick to the path through the woods in the fairy story, wasn’t she?” She pointed at the woods marked on the map. “If we ride to the edge I bet we’ll find that they’ve put some arrows up, maybe pinned to trees. Then we’ll just have to follow them through the woods. As long as we stick to the path as the rhyme says we’ll find our next clue.”
    “Well done, Bella, that’s brilliant,” I said.
    “Thanks,” she said, smiling, but she still didn’t look exactly at me.
    Jody said, “If that’s what you girls think, then let’s get going!”
    “But are we right?” Bella asked. Jody just made a zipping her lips sign. She wasn’t giving anything away!
    “What do you think, Cracker?” I asked, and he actually whinnied right at that moment, making everyone laugh. “Cracker thinks you’re right too,” I told Bella. This time when she smiled, her eyes met mine and I started to