Charlotte and the Starlet 2

  Table of Contents

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Acknowledgements

  Charlotte and the Starlet 3

  Dave Warner is the author of six novels and five nonfiction books for adults. His first book for children, Charlotte and the Starlet, was published in 2007. He originally gained national recognition as a musician and songwriter, with eight albums to his name, but more recently music has been secondary to Dave's career as a writer for television and feature films. His first feature film, Cut, starred Kylie Minogue and Molly Ringwald, and his second, Garage Days, cowritten with director Alex Proyas, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Dave has also written for a number of TV dramas. He lives in Sydney with his wife, two daughters and a son.

  www.davewarner.com.au

  www.charlotteandthestarlet.com

  CHARLOTTE AND THE Starlet 2

  A FRIEND IN

  NEED

  DAVE WARNER

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Charlotte and the Starlet 2: A friend in need

  ePub ISBN 9781864715576

  Kindle ISBN 9781864716696

  A Random House book

  Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd

  Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney, NSW 2060

  www.randomhouse.com.au

  First published by Random House Australia in 2008

  Copyright © Dave Warner 2008

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia.

  Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.com.au/offices

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

  Warner, Dave, 1953–

  A friend in need

  For primary school age.

  978 174166 306 8 (pbk.).

  I. Title. (Series: Warner, Dave, 1953– Charlotte and the starlet;

  bk. 2).

  A823.3

  Cover design by saso content & design pty ltd

  Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia

  Printed and bound by Griffin Press, South Australia

  Random House Australia uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For Jude and Phil, true friends.

  Chapter 1

  'Charlie, I know this calf is important and all, but your father said give it an hour and we've already been three. If there was a good day-spa to soak my hooves in once we got back, okay, but this outback of yours makes Death Valley look like Malibu.'

  For once Charlotte couldn't accuse Leila of being a princess. It had been an arduous cattle drive and now, on the run home, a calf had been discovered missing from the herd. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Richards had been sent by her father, the head stockman, to find it and bring it back. The last thing she wanted to do was let him down.

  'Just one more place to look. There's a ravine behind where we camped last night. It could have strayed there.'

  Up until now Leila hadn't minded the long, fruitless trek. It gave Charlotte and her a chance to talk. On the drive they had been careful to only converse when away from the other stockmen because if anybody had seen Leila talking, Charlotte would have had some serious explaining to do.

  Leila was a horse, a gorgeous bay possessed of the ability to talk, a secret known only to Charlotte. Leila had no intention of letting anybody else in on her unique ability. The last thing she wanted was for a bunch of egghead scientists to stick electrodes up her butt and place her on a low-fat diet. She'd had all the chaos she could handle these last few months – being snatched from the set of her Hollywood movie by some bungling kidnappers and shipped to the Thornton Downs Riding Academy in Australia. Nobody had known who she was. She'd had to endure the life of a horse, not a star. No huge trailer, no cable TV, no Hollywood red-carpet parties. She found herself having to jump hurdles and take orders from this freckled outback kid, Charlotte. From a rocky beginning, their friendship had become so strong that Leila had decided to stay in Australia with Charlotte rather than return to Hollywood and a life of stardom.

  They had spent the last few weeks in Charlotte's home town of Snake Hills, and Leila had gradually acclimatised to the scorching heat and impossible desolation of the place. Despite the lack of a nail spa, a decent cappuccino or a sushi train, Snake Hills had got under her skin – she would miss it. Tomorrow they were heading back for the start of the new term at Thornton Downs.

  A loud rumble interrupted her thoughts.

  'Was that my stomach or have we walked so far we're at an airport?' asked Leila.

  'That was thunder. There's a big storm brewing. Haven't you felt the change in the air?'

  'Now that you mention it, I did feel it get cooler but I thought it was probably just low blood sugar.' Leila was always going on about food. She had an appetite like ... well, a horse. 'I didn't know it ever rained here.'

  Charlotte looked at the sky. It was split in two. Directly above them it was bright, clear blue, but it changed to a dark, threatening black in the near distance.

  'It doesn't rain often but when we get a thunderstorm, it's huge.'

  As if to emphasise the point, a jagged spear of lightning forked out of the distant sky. The thunder sounded again, louder and closer.

  Leila shuddered. 'Whoa! That's better than Dolby in a movie house. I think we should head back.'

  Charlotte knew that thunderstorms could be very dangerous but she couldn't leave that poor helpless calf behind.

  'You don't want that little calf eaten by dingoes, do you?'

  Leila shrugged. 'In a few years time it's going to be eaten by people.'

  They turned around the corner of a rocky hill. There, below in a gorge a kilometre away, was the white calf.

  Charlotte's heart bounced like a rubber ball.

  'Come on. There she is.'

  Charlotte called on Leila to gallop and the actress-turned-equestrian horse did her best to respond on tired legs. It wasn't long before the slope of the hill steepened sharply, making it hard for Leila to keep her foot
ing. They skidded and slid down the flinty earth until they reached the bottom. The last of the blue in the sky overhead grew dark and big drops of rain fell. They were so heavy they stung when they hit. About two kilometres away the storm was obviously in full flight. A curtain of rain was pouring down hard, advancing towards them. Another boom sounded even closer and the volume of rain doubled. Charlotte was off Leila in a flash and running over to the shaking calf. Her clothes were already soaked through and water was pouring off the brim of her akubra hat, making a mini-waterfall in front of her eyes.

  'Come on, don't be scared.' She stroked the frightened calf.

  'Can we get moving? It's like a car wash here.' Leila hadn't minded having the dust washed off her but now the downpour was becoming uncomfortable.

  'I'll have to carry her or it will take forever.'

  'Oh great. Your weight and some pigmy cow's as well.'

  Ignoring Leila's protests, Charlotte hauled the bleating calf across Leila's withers, then pulled herself up into the saddle.

  'This could seriously compromise my ability to jump the steeple,' protested Leila.

  There was a deafening crack as lightning struck not more than a hundred metres away. For an instant, everything turned white. Leila trembled, despite herself.

  'Come on, Leila,' yelled Charlotte.

  'I can't move. I'm petrified!' replied Leila.

  Before Charlotte could reassure her, a very loud whoosh sounded behind them. Charlotte turned. What she saw scared her a lot more than the lightning.

  'Go, Leila, NOW!'

  'I told you, I can't.'

  'You don't, we drown.'

  Leila saw frothing water beginning to cascade over the lip of the rocks behind them. She had been to Disneyland and Universal Studios enough to know what happened next. A wall of water thundered down the rocks and spread out. At the studios they had just enough water to scare you. Here the water would rush into the valley floor in minutes, swamping anything in its way.

  She charged like she had never charged before.

  Charlotte felt Leila lurch forward. The rain was still tumbling and the earth – hot and dry for so long – was quickly losing its resistance and becoming sticky clay. The calf shuddered. Charlotte ventured a look behind her. The back of the canyon had turned into a waterfall. Churning muddy water was rolling from behind and smashing into the earth, then running forward towards them, gaining with every second.

  'How do we get out?' yelled Leila above the noise of the flood and the rain.

  Charlotte was trying to figure out the same thing. The walls of the ravine were probably too steep to scale in time. And to make matters worse, they were turning to mud and sliding down. There would be no sure footing. They would have to outrun it. Or more correctly, Leila would have to outrun it. But that was looking almost impossible. The waters were at Leila's back hooves. Mud was splashing up at every stride. Charlotte looked back again. A huge tree was tumbling over the rocks. Hazards like that could block their path at any moment. If Leila stumbled, they drowned.

  Just up to the right, about a hundred metres away, Charlotte spied a rocky ledge. If they could reach that they might be safe. It was a metre higher than any steeple Leila had ever jumped but it was their only chance.

  'To the right, the ledge.'

  Through the torrent Leila saw the rocky platform.

  'I can't make that.'

  'You have to. You're Tinkerbell, remember. You can fly.'

  'Not with you and T-bone on my back.'

  Leila felt the water reach the top of her fetlock. She knew there was no choice. In a minute the water would be too high for her to run. She splashed towards the outcrop. She waited for the 'jump' signal from Charlotte and gave it everything. Climbing, she started well, but the weight of that dumb calf began to pull her down. She wasn't going to make it ... Then suddenly the ledge was there in front of her. She stretched and OW! A belly flop onto rock. Charlotte was off her in a flash, hauling her up.

  Leila felt her back hooves make solid ground. She scrambled upright.

  'Attagirl!' Charlotte gave her a big kiss. The calf was safe too. The sound of the rushing flood was now louder than any thunder and the level of dirty swirling water was rising beneath them at alarming speed. Leila had never seen anything like it. Not even in a special effects studio. The water began to spill onto the ledge but miraculously levelled, then gradually dropped as it found new areas ahead to flood. The waterfall over the canyon wall began to ease off.

  Leila said, 'I suppose you won't mention this to your dad?'

  'He's worried enough about me leaving. It would make it worse.'

  Tomorrow Charlotte would be heading south to start her new adventure as one of the Junior Olympic Equestrian Squad, which was known more simply as 'JOES'. Her first trip to Thornton Downs Academy, where the girl JOES were stationed, had proved eventful to say the least. Part of her was very excited at the challenge of becoming the best eventer she could. But as she watched the churning waters power off into the distance, the trembling calf at her feet, she knew that nothing this exciting was likely to happen at Thornton. She was going to miss Snake Hills but at least she would have Leila.

  Smooth as a licked ice-cream, the dark dome of the night sky peered down at Charlotte as they rode into town. It was only eight hours since the thunderstorm but it was if it had never happened. It was a hot, still night and any puddles had already evaporated. The flood water had trapped itself in ravines up in the hills and would slowly find its way into the main river a hundred kilometres away.

  Charlotte marvelled at the multitude of shimmering stars.

  'Look at those stars, Leila. Aren't they gorgeous?'

  'Stars? There's only one star here, Charlie, and that's me.'

  'Seriously, Leila, don't you think it's beautiful?'

  Leila cocked an eye. It occurred to her that her lashes must be in serious need of a tint. This outback stuff was all well and good but a girl needed her little luxuries. She sucked in the image of the vast sky. She had to admit that way out here it was pretty cool.

  'That sky reminds me of a rhinestone-encrusted horse coat my producer, Joel Gold, had made for me for the Golden Globes.' Leila's voice was wistful as she conjured up her glamorous past. 'What a night. What an after-party. They had the most delicious minipizzas you've ever tasted.'

  They were moving slowly down the street towards where a small crowd of people, pretty much Snake Hills' entire population, was gathering. The men wore T-shirts and shorts; the women, shorts, or light cotton dresses.

  'What's the sky like, back where you're from?'

  Leila chuckled. 'Sky? Hollywood! Most of the time the only stars you see, not counting the human kind, are jumbo-jet tail-lights strong enough to shine through the smog.'

  'That's sad.'

  'Na. Lots of the clubs and restaurants have stars painted on the ceiling. With good lighting, people can't tell the difference. And the ones who grew up in L.A. – well, they've never seen real stars anyway, so what would they know? Another time I pulled this other prank. Three mega-actresses at the after-party, mega-cows, every single one of them.' Mega was one of Leila's most commonly used adjectives. 'All nominated against me for best supporting actress. I made up two signs. One said "I am dumb and selfish", the other said, "But compared to me you're a genius". I brushed against them in the dark, and stuck the signs on their backs. These babes were wandering around for, like, an hour, wondering why people were cracking up.'

  'Didn't anybody tell them?'

  'In Hollywood? People love seeing somebody embarrassed.'

  'If all three were horrible, why didn't you make three signs?'

  Leila cackled. 'Because then I'd be the prime suspect. But this way, when the others finally found out, they blamed the third. Held her under the chocolate fountain. She almost drowned. Even better, she was squeezing zits for, like, a month. That was fun.'

  'It sounds pretty juvenile.'

  'Of course it's juvenile. We're actors.' L
eila eyed the crowd up ahead. 'So what's going on? What's this big surprise you promised? Pizza? I gotta tell you, no offence, Charlie, but the pizza they have at the roadhouse – let's put it this way, the box is tastier.'

  'The surprise is not pizza. In fact, it's not food at all.'

  'So what is it then? Come on, the suspense is killing me.'

  Charlotte smiled. She loved drawing it out because Leila was so impatient.

  'You've been here ... How long is it now?'

  'Six weeks, two days.'

  'Have you had a good time?'

  'Look, it hasn't been like cocktail hour in Vegas or anything but, yeah, apart from nearly being drowned in mud and eaten alive by mosquitoes the size of eagles, it's been fun.'

  'I want you to know I really appreciate your effort to fit in here, so I thought I should give you a little taste of your home town.'

  'Tacos?'

  Charlotte shook her head. Leila had a one-track mind.

  'I asked Mr Boskos to have a movie night.'

  'Movies? You told me there was no movie-house here. Have you been holding out on me?'

  'There is no cinema here. When we have a movie, we use the side of Mr Boskos' shop as a screen.' Charlotte pointed to the large white wall at the end of the street. A flickering image appeared on it as she spoke.

  'Aw, Charlie, that's too much. Which one of my movies are you showing? Dressage to Kill? That's probably my best. Tommy Tempest, the director, got this great zoom in on my legs ...'

  'Sorry, it's not one of yours. I think I told you, we don't get anything after 1990.'

  Leila grunted. 'So what have we got?'

  'I hope you like musicals. We have Grease.'

  'Grease? John T. Oh-En-Jay – that's Olivia Newton- John in case you don't know.'

  'I know. My mum used to have her records. She's Australian.'

  'Really? Well, she speaks English proper like an American. You guys could learn something from her. I love Grease. It was the first movie I ever watched with my mom.'

  The audience was not sitting in seats as they would in a normal theatre. Some families had pointed the backs of their utes and pick-up trucks at the screen and were camped in the trays on picnic rugs. Others sat on bonnets of their cars facing the screen. A few stockmen sat quietly on the horses they had ridden into town. Charlotte found her dad perched on the bonnet of his old station wagon.