A Winning Gift by Catherine Hapka Read Free Book Online Page B

bring Cloudy into the courtroom. She let her eyes flutter shut for a moment as she imagined the scene. Cloudy would have to dress properly for court, of course—maybe in a nice pantsuit. . . .
    Then Tillie bustled into the room, freshly showered and wrapped in a towel. “Are you ever going to get up?” she griped, shooting Maddie the evil eye. “Because I need to be at school early today, and I won’t be happy if I’m late because you’re lounging around like a slug all morning.”
    Maddie didn’t think that was particularly fair, especially since the alarm hadn’t even gone off yet. But it didn’t seem worth a fight.
    â€œI’m up,” she assured her sister, sitting up a little straighter. Then she scanned Nina’s second post.
    [NINA] But you can’t just give in, girl! You have to fight this. We’ll help in any way we can. Let’s all start thinking, OK, girls? Mads, let us know more when you can and we’ll be there!
    Maddie smiled again at that. She really did have the greatest friends in the world!
    And hey, at least when it comes to the Pony Post things won’t change between us whether I’m here or way off in England , she thought. It’ll just mean a bigger time difference, that’s all.
    That made her feel a tiny bit better. But only until she glanced at the photos on the site, including the latest ones she’d posted of Cloudy a few days earlier. Sure, she could stay in touch with her human friends and make new ones wherever she went. She was good at that. What she wasn’t good at? Imagining her life without Cloudy in it.
    She bit her lip, trying not to dwell on that. Tillie was over at her dresser, humming as she dabbed perfume on her wrists. Maddie wrinkled her nose at the sickly sweet smell, then bent over her keyboard and started typing a response.
    [MADDIE] Hi guys. Thanks for the sympathy. To answer ur question, B, I haven’t talked to my parents about this yet. Like I said yesterday, I saw the news when I was snooping in their office, which is totally forbidden. And as u know, they’re already mad at me for the Pink Twinkle thing, so I don’t want to push it. Esp. with my b’day only 4 days away now. If it’s my last one at Solano Stables, I def. don’t want to ruin it!! KWIM? But I’ll try to find out more soon and let u know. Tx again. Luv u all!!!
    She posted the message and sat back, reading over her friends’ messages one more time. Suddenly a rolled-up sock hit her in the head.
    â€œI’m serious,” Tillie snarled. “If you make me late for school today, you’re dead meat.”
    â€œFine, I’m up.” Clicking the Pony Post shut, Maddie sighed and rolled out of bed, knowing that the next thing Tillie threw at her was likely to be a lot heavier. Normally she’d take that sort of thing as a challenge, but today she just wasn’t in the mood.

    Maddie’s mood got even worse when she walked into math class and saw the teacher holding a stack of papers.
    â€œUgh. I hardly had time to study for this stupid quiz,” mumbled one of her classmates, a guy named Brick, who was on Maddie’s summer community soccer team.
    Maddie grimaced. “If you studied at all, you’re in better shape than me. I totally forgot.”
    The teacher had announced the quiz yesterday. Maddie remembered that now. At the time, she hadn’t paid much attention—she’d been more focused on fretting over the London thing. Then, in the afternoon, she and Bridget had been having so much fun at the barn that they’d stayed until dinnertime, and well . . .
    â€œBummer.” Brick shot her a look. “But you’re smart, Martinez—you’ll do fine.”
    Maddie crossed her fingers as the teacher handed out the papers, hoping Brick was right. But as soon as she scanned the first few questions, she knew she was in