Schoolgirl Secrets

Chapter Eleven: Flight In The Night

The alarm clock on Jenifer's bedside table rung at precisely ten minutes to twelve. She sat up and quickly turned it off in case she woke her parents. Not daring to turn on her light; Jenifer turned on a wind-up torch instead and started to dress and pack her bag. She put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a hooded jumper for warmth, after all, it was only autumn and the weather could turn cold at any moment. After rummaging around under her bed for a while; she finally pulled out her largest rucksack. She shook a few dead insects out of it before starting to shove things into it:

A spare jumper, a spare torch, all of her money, fifteen pencils, a rubber, a pencil sharpener, two clean notepads, her Nintendo DS, three dog leads, a coil of rope, her Swiss Army penknife, a long stick, a digital camera, a magnifying glass and the little bag of chocolate bars she kept under her pillow. Jenifer carefully turned off her torch and clipped it to the handle of her bag. Then she crept out of her room and down the stairs into the kitchen. She patted Marley goodbye, and then took out the food she had prepared the previous day in a plastic sandwich box. Then she grabbed three full bottles of water, and a kitchen knife before heading back upstairs again to wake Miriam.

Very gently; Jenifer placed one hand over Miriam's mouth. The little girl woke but her scream of horror was stifled in Jenifer's palm.

"Come with me, don't argue," whispered Jenifer, pulling Miriam out of bed. "Get some clothes on now."

Miriam pulled on a pair of tights, a fussy blouse and a little short skirt before following Jenifer down the stairs and out of the front door. Jane was already waiting there, wearing similar things to Jenifer, except that she had her long hair tied back in a plait.

"Let's go," Jane whispered.

The three girls walked as quietly as they could towards the exit of the village.

After an hour of walking; Miriam finally complained.

"My feet hurt," she whined. "I want to go home."

"We can't," hissed Jenifer. "I've already explained."

"But why am I in danger?" said Miriam.

"I've explained that too," snapped Jenifer. "Now speed up or we'll never get far enough away."

They walked until sunrise.

Now even Jenifer was starting to get tired.

"We need a faster and less exhausting way to travel," said Jane, sitting down on a large boulder and breathing heavily.

"I know," said Jenifer. "But we can't drive. And we can't afford to spend our money on bus and train tickets."

"What can we do then?" asked Jane.

They lapsed into a confused silence.

Suddenly Miriam let out a cry of excitement and started jumping up and down, pointing.

Jenifer sprang to her feet and stared at the spot that Miriam was fixated on.

"Oooh!" she exclaimed. "Oooh Jenifer, look! Little horseys!"

And Jenifer saw. Five teenagers were cantering along on the backs of their ponies down the road. They were moving quite fast and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"That's it!" said Jenifer. "We'll go on horseback!"

"I've never ridden a horse in my life," said Jane, looking slightly alarmed.

"Nor have I but how hard can it be?!" said Jenifer excitedly. "Come on, let's find ourselves some horses."

They walked on and immediately saw a wide stretch of fields full of animals. Cows, sheep, pigs, ducks, geese, dogs and what looked like little fluffy horses.

"This way!" said Jenifer and they moved towards them.

Eventually the girls came to the field were the horses were, to find that they weren't horses at all. Six or seven black donkeys were grazing happily in their paddock.

Jenifer vaulted the fence and walked over to them. They didn't even flinch, they just continued munching grass happily.

"I'm not sure about this Jenifer," said Jane, climbing over the fence and coming to join her friend. "Are you sure these don't belong to anyone?"

"Of course I'm sure!" said Jenifer, looking around. "There isn't a house in sight."

"I want this one!" said Miriam, who was already tying a daisy chain around the smallest donkey's ears.

"You just hope that one's a girl," said Jenifer, smiling.

"Oh she is," said Miriam happily, prancing around. "I checked."

Jane giggled and started choosing herself a steed. Jenifer walked over to a large male and touched him gingerly on the neck. He looked up slowly, surveyed her for a few seconds, and they went straight back to eating again.

"This one's mine," said Jenifer. She took the rucksack from her back, unzipped it and took out the three dog leads. She threw one each to Jane and Miriam and tied her own around her donkey's neck. The others followed suit.

"What do we do now then?" said Jane.

"Climb on of course," said Miriam who was already sitting on the back of her donkey. "I'm going to call her Princess Georgina Cinderella Black Sweetheart!"

Jenifer mimed vomiting to Jane who started to laugh and promptly fell off her own donkey and onto the floor.

She and Jenifer pulled themselves up on top of the animals, both of which took absolutely no interest in them whatsoever.

Jenifer felt very high up, even though she was only three feet off the ground. Nervously, she took hold of the rope around her donkey's neck. He threw up his head and smacked her hard in the face with his forehead.

"Ouch!" Jenifer exclaimed, rubbing her chin and wincing.

Jane laughed, and fell off again. She scrambled back on and accidentally kicked her mount in the belly as she did so. It immediately started to walk forward. In a fruitless attempt to pull herself up; Jane tugged on the rope. The donkey stopped.

"I think you've figured out how to control these things Jane! " said Jenifer. "And I bet if I pull to one side;"

She yanked hard to the left. Her donkey turned to the left.

"Yes! Pull in a direction to turn! I've got it!"

"Ok let's go then," said Miriam. She nudged her donkey and started to walk down the road.

"Hey wait for us!" cried Jane and Jenifer in unison.