Free Charlie and Charm by Kelly McKain

Monday , after lunch
    Well, here I am at Pony Camp, and Jody has given me this special diary to write all about it!

    It’s amazing here, with lots of ponies and two manèges and a swimming pool! And the girls are really lovely, too. I just wish that Apple was here to enjoy it with me. She’s my pony … whoops, I mean she was my pony, but I got too big to ride her and Mum and Dad said they had to sell her. That was 1 month, 23 days and, erm, 5 hours ago. And I haven’t ridden since – well, I hadn’t until this morning anyway. I found it really strange being on a pony again, and I was sad that it wasn’t Apple.
    When I got here there were other cars pulling up. Girls tumbled out, chattering excitedly and dragging big suitcases into thefarmhouse. I was feeling nervous, so I stayed close to Mum when she went to register me in the office. I wish I hadn’t, though, because she was doing that annoying thing of talking about me as if I’m not there, saying “Charlie” this and “she” that.

    She was telling Sally the instructor and Lydia (one of the stable girls) about me not riding since they sold Apple. Well, actually she said, “since we sold Apple” and I said, “since you did” because I had nothing to do with it – I would never have given up my lovely pony! Then she said how I won’t even go back to the stables where I used to keep Apple on livery, and how I’ve lost touch with my riding friends because I always said no to going up there with them and after a while they stopped asking me.
    I was getting really upset and annoyed, and I think Sally noticed ’cos she sent me off intothe farmhouse to unpack and meet the other girls. Lydia walked up there with me, and on the way she squeezed my shoulders and said, “Don’t worry, Charlie, you’ll be OK at Sunnyside.” That was so nice of her, but it also nearly made me start crying.

    When I got to the room I started unpacking straight away, to take my mind off Apple. I could hear girls chatting in the other rooms, but mine was empty. The bed by the window was unmade and covered in clothes and mags, but the bunk beds looked free, so I took the top one.

    After a few minutes, Mum came up to say goodbye because she had to get off to work. She and Dad are always really busy at their offices and my big bro Hughie is away this week too, on an outward bound course in theLake District. He loves canoeing over waterfalls and stuff like that. I used to be outdoorsy, too, and I practically lived at the stables while Apple was there! But when she was sold, I ended up moping around in my room not really knowing what to do with myself. Mum and Dad tried to talk to me about getting a new pony, but I was so upset I couldn’t even think about it. In the end, Mum booked me on this holiday to try and cheer me up. That was only a couple of weeks ago and she kept saying how lucky I was to get the last place.
    I tried to tell her that I didn’t feel like riding, but she did that thing she does where she acts as if she’s at work and bosses me about, saying things like, “Come on, darling, don’t be silly about this, it’ll be good for you.” Why can’t she just see that I miss Apple so much it hurts?She wasn’t just a pony to ride, she was my best friend!

    I went down to wave Mum off, and when I got back upstairs there was a girl sitting on the bottom bunk cuddling a really tatty toy rabbit. When I came in she stuffed it under her pillow, but I got Frieda my frog out of my suitcase, where I’d been hiding her.
    The girl smiled and climbed up to sit on my bunk, bringing her rabbit with her. “Have you come on your own, too?” she asked.
    She was relieved when I said that I had. She’d been worried that everyone would have friends here already.

    She’s called Skye (and her rabbit is called Sniff) and she’s nine, like me. She’s fromWiltshire, which is kind of on the way back to London from here. She’s got lovely long, dark hair with some little plaits and