"You will have to take a car to get there but you could make it in time."
I know what I have to do, it is clear as day. But how?
I don't have a license. I can't get there!
Again, I find myself running away. I sprint down towards the SEC vehicles. I may not have a license but I know someone who does.
"Lily!" I scream.
She's standing alone, gathering Majesty's tack. Lily looks up in fright and takes a breath when she realizes it is only me.
"You made me jump out of my skin!" she cries in laughter.
When she realizes I'm not sharing the laugh, she stops.
"Maddie, what's wrong?"
"I need you to drive me somewhere," I explain, my breathing heavy.
"How do you need to be driven somwhere?" I hear Georgia laugh.
I watch as Sophie and the royal queen herself approach Lily and I.
"Where do you need to go?"
"Georgia I don't need you right now! But if you must know I found out where they are keeping the horses."
The three girls go silent. For a second I think they may never talk again.
Yeah right
"Wait," Georgia starts, wrapping her arms around herself. "You know where Aviation is?"
"Yes!"
Lily adjusts the tack in her hands. "Well... where are they?"
"Somewhere called Little Marley Beach. It was Jess working with the horse thieves all along that's how I know," I say.
"Oh my God," Sophie whispers to herself.
"Lily, can you please take me there?" I stress.
"Maddie, I don't have my P's yet," Lily stutters. "And my jump round is very soon."
I throw my head back with a sigh.
Time is running out.
"I'm sorry okay! I wish I could help."
"What's going?"
Will and Alex are approaching us. Will is dressed in casual clothes while Alex is in a grey show coat.
"Maddie knows where the horses are but can't get there," Georgia states with an eye roll.
"What!" the boys shout in unison.
"It was Jess all along," I explain. "Please, Lily!"
Her face is full of panic. "I-I."
"Don't worry I can take you," Will says.
I look at Will. "Seriously?"
He shrugs. "I have my license so sure. Anything to save the horses."
"What about your jump round?" Georgia asks.
"Already done. Romeo and I did well but who am I kidding; I won't make the team if Boy Wonder here is riding," jokes Will, giving Alex a shrug with his elbow.
Alex scowls.
"Thank you, Will!" I shriek.
Lily's face stops turning green as she gently places Majesty's tack on the ground and runs up and up and kisses Will. She has to stand on her tiptoes to reach him.
"Well let's shut up already and get going!" shouts Georgia, interrupting Will and Lily's moment.
"You're coming?" I ask her.
She purses her lips. "Yes, Maddie. My horse has also been stolen."
"Fine!" I grunt. "Will let's go."
"Aye-aye captain."
Wow, this is really happening. We are going to get them back.
The three of us-this is an unlikely trio-start running towards the SEC cars. My heart is beating faster than ever before. This is insanity. This is out of a movie.
"Maddie!"
I stop in my tracks, a little annoying might I add.
"I'll meet you at the car!" I call back to Georgia and Will.
"Maddie! We need to go now!" screams back Georgia.
"In a second!"
"You have three minutes otherwise we are leaving without you."
God, adrenal fuelled Georgia is still a pill.
Alex runs up to me panting.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going with you," he says.
"What! Are you insane?"
"Aren't you?" he cries back. "You're the one chasing after horse thieves!"
I mean... he has a point. I don't want to give him the satisfaction though.
"I need to get my horse back Alex."
"Yeah, and I'm coming to help you."
"This could take hours you will miss your round!" I shout.
Alex grits his teeth. "To hell with that! I gotta help you get Virgo back."
Wow, this is incredibly sweet.
"I have all the help I need. I won't let you miss this round. You belong on that team competing at the Australian Showjumping Championships," I mutter to Alex, wrapping my arms around his neck.
Alex hangs his head, forcing our foreheads to press together.
"I just... Don't get hurt, yeah?"
I can't help but smile like an idiot. "I promise, I'll be fine."
Alex sighs. "Okay. I'll go tell my dad everything and let him know where you three have gone."
"Thank you, Alex."
He plants a very soft kiss on my cheek before leaving me.
I can't stay here and keep swooning though. I need to get my horse back.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How do you even know where this place is anyway?" snorts Georgia from the passenger seat.
The ute bumps over a pothole in the paved road we are thundering down. I'm resting on the middle console, putting my head between the driver's seat and the passenger seat to hear. Will has done this whole thirty-minute drive without needing a single direction.
Will smirks. "This used to be the spot where me and my buddies would go to get high-oh, I mean-get high off adrenaline, of course, by doing cool things. At night. Which may not have been entirely legal."
Will changes his story when he sees our faces.
"God," mutters Georgia, lying back in her seat.
Suddenly, the car turns and pulls to a stop.
"We are here kids!" Will sings.
I look out the window and... oh. This isn't a beach.
We are parked under a canopy of trees that open up around a bush track that windes between them.
"We have to walk the rest," Will shrugs, turning off the ignition.
"You kidding?" Georgia growls.
Will snorts. "It will only take us an hour if we walk."
"An hour!" we both cry at him.
"I mean we can run if you want," Will laughs.
Georgia slaps her hands onto the dashboard and swears. "Perfect Will, our horses are in that forest somewhere and you're telling us now it will take us an hour to find them. And I have to walk!"
"Georgia, my friends and I have been chased by park rangers stoned out of our minds up this track before. Don't tell me you can't do it!"
Will and Georgia start to bicker. I sink back into the back seat and zone out. We can't give up now. Not now, not ever.
Virgo's safety and even life are on the line. I'm getting desperate now and this could be our final shot at finding them.
"Drive," I state.
Georgia and Will go quiet.
"We aren't going home, Maddie we are too close," Georgia challenges.
"Not home. Down the path," I explain, nodding towards the bush trail.
"Maybe you didn't know this but you can't drive into National parks, Maddie!" Will snorts, waving a hand towards the trees. "There is a sign there saying anyone who does that will be fined $250,000 dollars!"
"I honestly don't care. Once they find out why we did it, they won't care!"
"I don't think that's how the law works Maddie. 'Hey, police guy! I just shot down fourteen elderly women because they were in the way of me chasing down a bad guy who stole a woman's purse. Whoops! I'm glad I could help though,'" Will cries.
I rush of heat runs through me and escapes through my hand as I slap the back of Will's seat.
"I. Don't. Care," I scream. "You will drive me to this beach right now Will, or I will make you pay. In a very, very painful way."
It's silence from Will and Georgia. I didn't know I had that in me either.
"Err, fine, okay," whispers Will, putting his hands onto the steering wheel and starting the ute back up again.
The car rumbles underneath us as Will pulls it around to face the bush track. Georgia continues to stare at me.
"Wow. You have more guts than I thought," she murmurs, turning back around in her seat.
I lie back in mine with a sigh.
Will drives over some rocks and around the gate designed to keep cars out. No going back now.