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 courseâmaybe in a nice pantsuit. . . .
Then Tillie bustled into the room, freshly showered and wrapped in a towel. âAre you ever going to get up?â she griped, shooting Maddie the evil eye. âBecause I need to be at school early today, and I wonât be happy if Iâm late because youâre lounging around like a slug all morning.â
Maddie didnât think that was particularly fair, especially since the alarm hadnât even gone off yet. But it didnât seem worth a fight.
âIâm up,â she assured her sister, sitting up a little straighter. Then she scanned Ninaâs second post.
[NINA] But you canât just give in, girl! You have to fight this. Weâll help in any way we can. Letâs all start thinking, OK, girls? Mads, let us know more when you can and weâll 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 wonât change between us whether Iâm here or way off in England , she thought. Itâll just mean a bigger time difference, thatâs all.
That made her feel a tiny bit better. But only until she glanced at the photos on the site, including the latest ones sheâd 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 wasnât 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 havenât 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, theyâre already mad at me for the Pink Twinkle thing, so I donât want to push it. Esp. with my bâday only 4 days away now. If itâs my last one at Solano Stables, I def. donât want to ruin it!! KWIM? But Iâll 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 friendsâ messages one more time. Suddenly a rolled-up sock hit her in the head.
âIâm serious,â Tillie snarled. âIf you make me late for school today, youâre dead meat.â
âFine, Iâm up.â 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 sheâd take that sort of thing as a challenge, but today she just wasnât in the mood.
Maddieâs mood got even worse when she walked into math class and saw the teacher holding a stack of papers.
âUgh. I hardly had time to study for this stupid quiz,â mumbled one of her classmates, a guy named Brick, who was on Maddieâs summer community soccer team.
Maddie grimaced. âIf you studied at all, youâre in better shape than me. I totally forgot.â
The teacher had announced the quiz yesterday. Maddie remembered that now. At the time, she hadnât paid much attentionâsheâd 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 theyâd stayed until dinnertime, and well . . .
âBummer.â Brick shot her a look. âBut youâre smart, Martinezâyouâll do fine.â
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