When I got out of bed, my mom said to me, “Sweetie, one of the judges has died, so the show isn’t going to happen.”
I immediately felt bad for the judge and scared for what that meant for me. “What?” I screamed. “This can’t happen! Today is the day, and the show has to go on! Okay, maybe not today, but it’s going to happen, right? Right?”
All I heard was mumbling, because my confused thoughts didn’t let me hear the words. This cannot be happening, I thought. I had been waiting for this moment, and now the show had been canceled. I had to do something about this!
I had some serious thinking to do, so I went where I think the best—down at the stables, deep in the hay with my horse right next to me— and pondered the situation. Miracle whinnied, and I could tell she wanted to go for a ride.
Just as I was saddling up, Sandra and Felicity walked into the barn. I asked them to join me for a ride so we could talk together and figure out what we were going to do. It couldn’t end like this . . . it just couldn’t!
Felicity didn’t mention the diary incident; I was either forgiven or she had already forgotten about it. As we rode, all we could talk about was the show and how unfair it was that it had been canceled like that. They couldn’t just do that to us after all the practicing we had done.
We were so into our conversation that before we knew it we had been riding for an hour and had come to a dead end on the path with a brushy forest in front of us. We decided it was time to take a break, so we tied up our horses and pushed the branches out of the way so we could easily walk through the trees.
What we discovered was beautiful. There was a meadow full of daisies outlined by the forest.
It looked like a picture, and the view calmed us down and took our minds off of the canceled show for a little while.
We realized that we hadn’t told our parents where we were going and knew we’d better head back and let them know we were okay. As we walked back through the thick forest to get our horses, we heard a lot of spooky sounds all around us. Suddenly, we were all scared out of our minds. We saw the bushes swaying and heard the crackling leaves under our boots. But some of the crackling wasn’t because of us; when we heard it, we froze in place. We saw the bushes sway again.
Then it hit us, literally. It jumped out so fast we didn’t even see what it was. It just jumped out at us and made us scream and squeal and run for our lives. Then it disappeared into the trees.
We quickly ran to our horses, untied them, and galloped off. We had a few scratches and scrapes from the prickly bushes, but other than that we were fine. As we quickly rode away, we looked back and all started to laugh uncontrollably as we saw the “hideous monster” coming out of the woods. It was a gray house cat. We all felt really silly but were glad that it wasn’t anything truly hideous.
When we got back to the stables, our mothers were waiting for us. They didn’t look totally happy that we had been gone so long. But we hurriedly told them the whole story, and they said we did the right thing and that we were very brave. But we could see that they were trying not to laugh.
We all went back to the hotel together. In all the excitement and silliness, we had totally forgotten the horrific news about the judge. After watching a sad movie, it hit us and we cried ourselves to sleep.
Exhausted, I slept really hard. When I woke up, I wondered, Why are we still here? Wasn’t the show yesterday? Aren’t we leaving today? I suddenly felt sad all over again.
I pulled on my favorite pink zebra-striped shirt and some Capri’s. I looked through my stuff, found my diary, and flipped to a page that just so happened to be yesterday’s entry.
Dear Diary,
I just heard the bad news from my mother. The show has been canceled because one of the judges died. I feel really bad for his family, but I have to do something, anything. I have been waiting for this moment forever.
Sincerely,
Sad Ellie
So the show didn’t go on. If the show didn’t go on yesterday, or today, will it ever?
Mom and Dad weren’t quite ready to go yet, and Miracle was still in the stables so I still had some time to figure out what to do. As I ran down to the stables, a plan came into my mind. I quickly saddled up Miracle and headed over to the arena and the judges’ trailer that was nearby. I could hear voices inside, so I knew someone was still there. I banged on the door and yelled, “Open up! Please! I want to ask you something.”
One of the judges opened the door and let me in. “Can I help you?” he asked. I looked at him for a few minutes as I tried to think of what to say. Finally I just blurted it out, “Why is the show canceled just because one judge has died? Can’t you just get a new one? I was looking forward to the show. We all were. This is my life-long dream, but now it’s ruined.” I sputtered the words as tears started falling down my cheeks.
I could hear the judges’ voices, but the words weren’t getting into my brain. I just stood there as they told me that the show was definitely canceled. I pleaded, but it didn’t work. The show would not go on.
Five minutes later, I stepped outside, crying my eyes out. Why have they done this to me? It seems like nobody likes me anymore, I thought pitifully. I hopped back on Miracle and decided to ride all the way home to Cumming. I knew my parents would be mad, and it would be a long ride, but I needed to think.
I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and called Sandra. She didn’t answer, so I left a message saying, “Hey, it’s Ellie. If you’re wondering where I am, then here it is. I became very upset and decided to ride home to Cumming. So bye.”
So that’s all? I thought. This will be a great story to tell my own kids one day.
It was a good plan, but I didn’t get very far before Mom and Dad pulled up next to me with the horse trailer behind the car. They had been frantic with worry when Sandra told them about my message! Even though my dad was mad, they were relieved to find me.
My mother scolded me, “Don’t you ever do anything like that again!” But she hugged me anyway. We put Miracle into the trailer and headed home. As you can imagine, I was grounded for forever.
When we got home, I took care of Miracle and checked my email (even though I wasn’t technically supposed to because I was grounded). But I was glad I did, because I had one message that was a really big relief to me.
It wasn’t long, but it was all I needed to read. It said:
Hey, Ellie, how are you? I thought about what you said, and I wanted to tell you that I understand. Even though the show still isn’t going to go on, I thought you would like to know that it was okay to ask. I know every girl wants to hear that they are right. Am I right?
Your friend,
Judge John Smith
I liked that email, and the judge was definitely right about me wanting to hear I was right. I was still pretty sad that the show was canceled, even though I know we don’t always get what we want. But this was different; this was a life-long dream. I couldn’t just let go of a life-long dream!
I quickly called Sandra and Felicity and told them to meet me at the barn right away. When they got there, I said, “Sandra, Felicity, saddle up! We are going back, and we are going to make them do the show.” I didn’t have a plan yet, but I knew I had to get back to the arena.
“What? No! Jinx,” they both said at the same time.
We saddled up our horses and made sure we had everything we would need. We traveled along the back roads. The whole way there, I couldn’t stop smiling because I knew this was the right thing to do and that I was going to be a hero. I kept thinking that everybody would be proud of me, that we were going to save the day.
Then I looked at Felicity and Sandra and they seemed to be thinking, Uh oh. We shouldn’t have gone along with this. This isn’t right. Our parents are going to be sooo mad.
“Uh, I think we are going the wrong way.
We should turn back,” Sandra said in a very frightened voice.
I said, “Don’t be such scaredy cats. Have fun while you can.” They are still acting like little girls. It’s time to teach them to have fun. But even though I wouldn’t admit it, I felt a little scared myself.
We finally arrived at the stables and settled our horses into the stalls that they had just left a few hours ago. Then we went back to the hotel. Boy, was I happy.
I remembered Mom saying that we had paid for a couple more days, so we still had our hotel room. In her hurry to find me, she had forgotten to turn in the keys. I still had mine in my pocket, so getting back into the room was easy.
In fact, everything was going really well until my cell phone rang and I remembered that Mom had no idea about this little plan of mine. Big trouble equals ME.