Free Riding Star by Stacy Gregg

out.
    â€œWhat?” Alice said. “All of us?”
    â€œWe’re going to play you,” Cameron confirmed. “JP and Mark can play with us so we’ll have four on each side. And you can borrow the Luhmuhlen polo gear.”
    Daisy looked thrilled. “It’s all sorted. We’re going to meet up on the fields tomorrow after school.”
    â€œWe’ll have a chuck together before dinner!” Emily said.
    Alex shook his head. “It’s a chukk-a ,” he corrected her with a grin. “You say ‘we’re having chukkas before dinner’.”
    â€œOh, whatever!” Emily was bright-eyed. “I don’t care if we’re chucking up our dinner! It’s going to be awesome!”
    *
    Polo was all the girls could talk about at school the next day. Daisy was utterly obsessed and had spent the night before swotting up on all the polo websites. She was in ultra-competitive mode, and when they finally met up with the boys at the stables she insisted that Village Voice was too big and heavy to use and had begged Alex and Cameron to lend her one of Luhmuhlen House’s polo ponies.
    Georgie suspected that this was because Daisy hated to lose and knew she stood a better chance on a proper schooled polo pony.
    Emily, on the other hand, was happy to ride her black Thoroughbred Barclay. She was tacking him up in polo gear, which she had borrowed from Alex who was by her side helping her to fit it. Since the School Formal Emily and Alex were officially boyfriend and girlfriend, although the pair of them were so painfully shy that this mostly involved nothing more than sitting together at lunchtimes – which was what they used to do anyway.
    Emily stood by and watched as Alex adjusted the standing martingale for her and did up the surcingle on the polo saddle.
    â€œDo you want some help tacking up?” Cameron asked Alice.
    â€œAre you kidding me?” Alice seemed to know exactly what she was doing as she expertly attached the martingale and strapped on tendon boots front and back.
    She tightened her girth and stuck her foot into the stirrup, swinging up into the saddle.
    â€œDo you want me to show you how to hold the reins?” Cameron asked.
    â€œIt’s OK,” Alice said, taking a grip on the two sets of reins and entwining them precisely between the fingers of her left hand in a perfect English Bridge. “I think I’ve got it.”
    She reached down and plucked a mallet out of the barrel in the corner of the stables, winding the lash expertly round her thumb and holding the stick perfectly as if she had been born with one in her hand.
    â€œYou’ve done this before then?” Cameron said.
    â€œYeah, we’ve got some ponies at home,” Alice replied.
    Alice had mentioned this to Georgie before, but it was only today that everyone realised the true extent of her abilities.
    As soon as she was on the field Alice began manoeuvring Will with one hand like a professional, weaving up and down the field in an effortless rising canter as she struck the ball back and forth.
    Georgie was stunned. “Why didn’t you tell us that you could play?”
    â€œI did!” Alice said. “I told you that me and my sisters used to play with Dad all the time back in Maryland.”
    â€œI thought you meant, like, just fooling around, not like a real game,” Georgie admitted.
    Alice looked at her as if she was mad. “Come on, Georgie. You’ve met my family. Can you imagine Dad taking it easy on us kids? Our games at home are, like, crazy-competitive. Dad was on the national team before he married Mom and settled down on the farm. He’s a total maniac with a mallet!”
    It ran in the family. With a polo stick in her hands, Alice was like a trained ninja assassin. She cantered up and down the sidelines working on her swing.
    Daisy eyed her technique jealously and then began to work in her own pony, a little fifteen-hand