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  ‘Maybe we should have our first midnight feast, and test out some of your mother’s snacks?’ said Abbey.

  Hannah rolled over. ‘You don’t have to whisper. I can’t sleep either.’

  The girls switched on their torches and sat on the floor in a circle around the little containers of delicious-smelling food.

  ‘We have to be really quiet,’ said Hannah. ‘After lights out, they’re pretty strict about people being out of bed.’

  ‘I have to ask . . .’ said Abbey, nibbling on the side of something that Talika had called a butter murukku. She paused, a little unsure how Hannah might react. ‘Why do your parents live at Willowvale, and yet you board here?’

  ‘Well,’ said Hannah, putting on an especially posh voice, obviously intended to sound like her mother. ‘My grandmother boarded here, as did my mother, and as you know my sister is a boarder here. It is a tradition for the ladies of our family to be Willowvale boarders, and we would not want to break with tradition.’

  Her voice wavered and broke off as she slumped back on her bed. She was obviously quite upset about having to stay here.

  ‘So do either of you guys know when we’re allowed to get stuff out of our tuckboxes?’ said Abbey, quickly changing the subject. Each girl had been told they were allowed to bring some of their favourite food to Willowvale, and that morning they had been assigned a ‘tuck box’ in a locked room at the end of the hall. It was all very mysterious.

  Talika had been allowed to keep a few things out, because her mother was concerned that she might take a while to get used to the food at Willowvale. The size of the helping Talika had downed at dinner didn’t convince Abbey that this was going to be an issue!

  ‘Why do we have to lock up food we have brought ourselves?’ said Abbey.

  ‘They want you to space it out, to last you the whole term,’ explained Hannah. ‘Every Saturday night you can choose something from your tuckbox to take to the movie they show downstairs. Apparently they used to let the girls keep it in their rooms, but some girls ate the whole lot in the first night they were here.’

  ‘Imagine that!’ said Abbey, shoving a samosa into her mouth.

  The next morning, Abbey had her head resting on her hands on the desk as she watched the day girls arrive, the ones who were not boarding at the school. They were bursting with energy and chatting loudly.

  ‘Oh, I should never have eaten all those butter murukkus,’ she groaned.

  Talika laughed. ‘Well, I did try to warn you!’

  ‘But they were so yummy,’ said Abbey. ‘I couldn’t stop.’

  ‘I could fall asleep, right here, right now,’ yawned Hannah.

  The girls had tried to go to sleep, they really had, but in the end, they gave up and sat whispering until the early hours of the morning.

  The door swung open and Mr McPhail entered the classroom. Abbey sat up straight and tried her best to look wide awake.

  ‘Good morning, girls,’ he said. ‘This term is all about Ovis aries.’

  The whole class looked confused. Hannah looked at Abbey, but she just shrugged sleepily.

  ‘Ovis aries is the scientific name for sheep. You’ll be learning everything there is to know about sheep, including crutching, drenching, and trimming hooves and horns. You’ll also be required to learn to shear a sheep, and those of you who are interested will be able to earn credits towards a shearing certificate, which will enable you to earn some extra pocket money around the place. So swap your school shoes for some boots near the door and let’s go.’

  Abbey leapt to her feet eagerly. The other two followed reluctantly. ‘I have no idea what crutching is, or any of those other things he said,’ Talika whispered as they put on some riding boots, ‘but it did not sound like something either the sheep or I would enjoy!’

  Abbey couldn’t help bouncing on the spot in excitement. ‘I love sheep!’ she exclaimed. ‘And you’re going to love them too, Tali. They are so much easier to work with than cattle and they are so cute.’

  ‘Cute?’ laughed Hannah. ‘I’ve heard they always run in the exact opposite direction to the one you want them to go in!’

  ‘Not if you know how to talk to them,’ smiled Abbey confidently.

  ‘Right, girls,’ said Mr McPhail after they’d reached the stockyards and gathered around a large pen. There were about twenty sheep milling around quietly. ‘These sheep belong to your class, and they’ll be the ones you practise your skills on. We have almost one hundred sheep in the school flock, but the others are for the older students.’

  ‘Oh, my goodness, there are some lambs!’ gasped Talika. ‘Look, hiding there. They are adorable!’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Mr McPhail. ‘We have thirteen ewes that have recently lambed or are about to, so there’ll be plenty of things to learn about.’

  The girls smiled at each other.

  ‘I love this school already!’ sighed Abbey.

  ‘Now,’ said their teacher, ‘I’m going to give each one of you a different coloured ribbon. Your first challenge is to choose a sheep and tie the ribbon firmly into the wool at the top of its head. This will become your sheep for the term, and the one you will learn to shear and look after.’

  All the vet cadet students started talking and pointing at once. Everyone had an idea of which sheep they wanted and they couldn’t wait to get into the pen. The sheep were startled by the sudden excitement and began pushing and shoving each other to try to move further away from the crowd hanging off the fence.

  ‘I’ll let you in three at a time,’ said Mr McPhail. ‘Any volunteers?’

  Abbey’s hand shot up like a rocket. ‘We’ll go,’ she said quickly, pointing at Talika, Hannah and herself.

  Mr McPhail laughed. ‘Well, how can I knock back someone that keen?’ he said.

  He gave each of the girls a ribbon. Hannah had a blue one, Talika had purple, and Abbey, orange.

  ‘Okay, girls,’ he smiled. ‘In you go!’

  Abbey was over the top of the fence and into the pen in a heartbeat. Hannah gracefully slid through the rails and Talika followed cautiously behind.

  ‘I’ll have that one,’ said Abbey confidently, pointing to one of the ewes with twin lambs.

  The flock eyed her curiously. Abbey walked towards the sheep, her eyes firmly locked on her prize. She held her arms out straight from her sides and swayed gently from side to side as she neared the huddle of sheep and lambs.

  ‘You have to move really slowly and keep your arms out,’ she told the other two, ‘to stop them from heading off in either direction. You guys come up beside me so that we have them cornered.’

  Hannah and Talika looked at each other nervously and stayed well behind her as she moved forward.

  ‘You’re okay,’ soothed Abbey quietly to the sheep. ‘You’re okay.’

  The sheep were frozen in position, every eye on the girls approaching. Abbey was only half a metre from her ewe now. It was wedged close to the edge of the flock, but her lambs had disappeared somewhere under the woolly clump of gathered sheep.

  Abbey knew this was the time to make her move.

  ‘Here goes,’ she said, in a soft, sing-songy voice. She slowly reached out towards the head of the ewe. ‘Nearly there. It’s okay, girl, you’re okay.’

  The sheep seemed hypnotised by Abbey’s gentle voice. Abbey glanced around to see if her teacher was impressed. Then, leaning over, her hand gently touched the wool on the sheep’s head.

  It was hard to know what happened first.

  The flock burst sideways in a single, woolly, baaing mass and tore away around the pen towards Hannah and Talika, leaving Abbey standing alone in the middle with her orange ribbon fluttering in her hand.

  Talika let out a scream that could freeze water, then both she and Hannah hurtled towards the fence and leapt over the top in one second flat.

&
nbsp; The sheep kept charging around in mad circles like a tornado, and Abbey stood in the middle, struck dumb, until a sheep charged straight at her and knocked her off her feet.

  Mr McPhail’s laughter rang through the air. ‘Gets them every time!’ he guffawed, slapping his leg. ‘Girls . . .’ He stopped to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes with a handkerchief. ‘The number one rule when dealing with sheep is to try to herd them into a space they can’t move in, because sheep are like dominoes. Once one goes, they all go. That’s why we’ve got the narrow race over there.’ He pointed to the long thin yard that was connected to the round pen. ‘I just wanted someone to demonstrate to us how quickly they can move. Thanks, Abbey!’ He laughed again.

  Abbey stood up and dusted off her jeans, then she took a long, low bow. Talika and Hannah cheered.

  ‘Maybe they didn’t like what you had to say, Ab?’ cried Hannah.

  ‘Maybe they have wool in their ears?’ replied Abbey.

  Mr McPhail opened the side gate to the narrow race and the sheep all happily filed in, one at a time. They obviously knew that this was the way to their open paddock. Everyone was able to tie their little coloured ribbon to their sheep’s head through the rails, without any fuss. And Abbey got her ewe with the twin lambs after all.

  ‘I think I’ll call her Poppet,’ she said, and then everyone wanted to give their sheep a name.

  They had just finished letting the sheep out into their paddock when they heard the noise of the first trucks arriving with their horses on board.

  ‘They’re here!’ the girls cheered, and rushed over to watch them being unloaded from their floats. Abbey looked around, smiling. Being able to keep your horse at school was pretty exciting, and by the sounds of the snorts and stomping hooves coming from the floats and trucks, the horses were happy about it too.

  The first horse to be unloaded was magnificent. He was a huge bay with a dark-brown glossy coat and pitch-black legs.

  Hannah rushed forward and Abbey sighed in awe – this was obviously Bedazzled. Hannah’s dad led him off the float and handed the lead rope to Hannah after giving her a hug.

  Bedazzled snorted and pranced around on the end of Hannah’s rope. Even though they had only travelled a short distance, he was a lather of nervous sweat and energy.

  Hannah patted him on the neck and tried to calm him down a bit, but even when he was safely tucked into his stable, he still whinnied and stamped his foot behind the half door.

  ‘You actually get on that horse?’ asked Talika in amazement. ‘He looks terrifying!’

  ‘He can get really worked up,’ laughed Hannah, ‘but he’s actually calmer when I’m on his back.’

  ‘I’ll have to take your word for that,’ said Talika, covering her ears as the huge horse ­whinnied again.

  More and more floats pulled up and unloaded and the air was full of excitement. Everyone was so pleased to meet each other’s horses, and the horses were pretty keen to meet each other as well.

  The local vet, Dr Brown, checked each horse for good health before its float was allowed to leave.

  Abbey had never seen a fancier bunch of horses, or horse floats. When her dad arrived with Pepper in a dusty cattle truck, she heard a couple of the other girls snigger. She didn’t care. She knew they wouldn’t be laughing when they saw how fast her stock horse could move.

  Pepper almost jumped out of the truck to meet Abbey. He was a cheeky-looking chestnut with bright eyes and a white blaze down his face.

  Everyone watched, amazed, as Abbey threw a rope over his neck and walked away saying, ‘Come on, Pep.’

  The horse fell in behind her and marched straight into his stall.

  Pudding arrived in a hire float towed behind a hire truck. The driver carefully backed the float up to the stables.

  It looked empty.

  Abbey looked at Talika, confused.

  ‘Um, Talika,’ she said quite seriously, ‘I think they forgot to put your horse in the float.’

  Suddenly, a high-pitched whinny came from inside. The driver got out and lowered the gate and the chubbiest little bay pony clip-clopped out.

  ‘This is Pudding,’ beamed Talika, throwing her arms around the pony’s shaggy neck.

  She was nearly knocked off balance as he plunged his head towards the ground to eat the fresh grass growing beside the road.

  Hannah and Abbey laughed. ‘He’s adorable!’ they cried.

  ‘You can see what I meant about not having far to fall, can’t you?’

  It took the strength of both Abbey and Talika to drag the fat pony away from the grass, and only Hannah waving fresh lucerne from the stable persuaded Pudding to enter his stall.

  Dr Brown suggested that the girls feed the horses and then leave them in the stables until after lunch to help them calm down, and when this was done the girls returned to their classrooms for the rest of their lessons.

  ‘Mr McPhail said we can take the horses out for a ride this afternoon in the arena,’ said Hannah. ‘Do you want to come?’

  ‘I’d love to,’ said Abbey.

  ‘Me too,’ said Talika, ‘but I only want to walk Pudding, if that is okay?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Hannah. ‘We’ll take it slow, we promise.’ Abbey nodded in agreement.

  The next lesson was science. As the girls walked into the lab they noticed that each desk had a box of little clear plastic containers with lids.

  ‘Good afternoon, girls,’ smiled their teacher. She didn’t look at all what Abbey imagined a science teacher would look like. She had beautiful clothes and fabulous high heels and her hair looked like it had just been styled. She didn’t seem the sort of person who would want to get her hands dirty or spend hours discovering things under a microscope.

  ‘I’m Mrs Parry, and this term we are learning about parasitic and symbiotic relationships. Does anyone know what that means?’

  Talika’s hand shot up.

  ‘A parasite is something which lives in or on another living thing and benefits by getting what it needs at the other plant or animal’s expense. Like a flea on a dog.’

  Mrs Parry’s mouth was not the only one to fall open.

  ‘Wow!’ she said. ‘Well done. And a symbiotic relationship?’

  ‘Isn’t that when both living things benefit from each other?’ said Talika. ‘Like a clown fish and a sea anemone or a flower and a bee?’

  ‘Right again,’ smiled Mrs Parry.

  Suddenly it became very clear to Abbey why Talika was in the Vet Cadets Program.

  ‘Now I’m going to tell you about a project you will all be working on for the term. You are going to work as a team and use the vials in front of you to collect as many parasites as you can. Fleas, lice, botflies, ticks, leeches, you name it. You put them in the vials with some methylated spirits to preserve them, and then present a report about each of them at the end of the term.’

  ‘Cool!’ gasped Abbey.

  Talika and Hannah looked at her in horror. Milly, sitting to the left of Hannah, looked like she was about to faint.

  ‘Don’t turn your noses up, girls,’ said Mrs Parry, laughing at their reactions. ‘You can learn an awful lot from parasites, and if you’re going to work in the animal industry, you need to be able to recognise them and understand their life cycle. That’s what this assignment is all about.’

  As they were leaving an hour later, Mrs Parry reminded them again about the project.

  ‘You should take your vials wherever you go. You just never know when you might come across a juicy flea or mosquito.’

  ‘Can you imagine my mother’s face when I tell her I am hunting for lice?’ laughed Talika. ‘I can hardly wait!’

  ‘Let’s put all this in our room and go for a ride before it’s too late,’ said Hannah.

  ‘I’m taking a few vials with me,’ said Abbey. ‘You just ne
ver know when a juicy tick might turn up. In fact . . .’

  She peered closely at Hannah’s long blonde hair.

  ‘Cut it out,’ laughed Hannah. ‘You’re the one who’ll be covered in ticks, hanging around with cows all the time.’

  The girls were still chasing each other around trying to look into each other’s hair when Abbey spotted Elizabeth coming down the hall with Ms Sterling.

  Elizabeth frowned when she saw Hannah with a handful of Talika’s hair and her face just centimetres from her scalp, while the others were screeching with laughter.

  ‘Sheriff!’ Abbey whispered, and all three stood to attention as the principal and school captain approached them.

  Elizabeth’s eyes were bulging with that funny look parents get when they are trying to give you a blast without anyone else knowing.

  ‘Talika, isn’t it?’ said Ms Sterling. ‘And Hannah – Elizabeth’s sister? Is there an issue with your friend’s hair?’

  ‘Excuse me, Ms Sterling,’ said Abbey sweetly. ‘Hannah was very kindly getting a biting ant out of Talika’s hair. Talika was getting quite hysterical about it.’

  Talika nodded quickly. ‘We don’t have biting ants in India.’

  ‘I see,’ said Ms Sterling. ‘Very well, then. It was kind of you to help, Hannah. Is it gone?’

  ‘Is what gone?’ said Hannah, still frozen by her sister’s thunderous face.

  ‘Yep, got it, all gone,’ said Abbey. ‘Biting ants, gone for good.’

  Hannah nodded vigorously.

  ‘Right,’ said the principal, looking at them for a moment. Abbey was certain she could see the faintest smile on her lips. ‘Perhaps you could assist each other in a quieter manner next time. Let’s continue, Elizabeth.’

  ‘I had no idea they had no biting ants in India,’ was the last thing they heard Ms Sterling say as they rounded the corner.

  ‘Phew,’ said Abbey, leading a silent Hannah down the hall. ‘Are there really no biting ants in India, Talika?’

  ‘Ha! Are you kidding me?’ laughed Talika. ‘I just couldn’t think of anything else to say. We have a lot of biting ants in India. Some of them are nearly three centimetres long. Let’s just hope Ms S does not decide to look it up!’