Turn right.

‘Are you trying to kill us, woman?!’ shrieked Mavis. The road on their right was filled with cars and buses driving over the speed limit, smoke flying into the air from their exhausts.

‘Oh, dear,’ muttered April.

‘You got us lost?’

‘Uh, Well . . .’

‘I AM GOING TO STRANGLE YOU!’

‘No–wait! I gave the wrong location. This is showing us the direction to Tokyo.

‘Do I need to turn around?’

‘Um, yes . . .’

Mavis rubbed her eyes. At this rate, they would get to school in the next century. But she decided there was no point in complaining and turned Star around.

The journey to the school should have taken three hours at the most. But after oversleeping and getting lost, Mavis had the feeling it would take a lot longer.

At least no one will see us with a horse, she thought. April won’t kill me then.

Star’s hooves clopped against the road as they walked. From what Google Maps said, Mavis guessed vaguely that they were supposed to turn right. Unfortunately, turning right would send them crashing into the undergrowth.

Mavis got off Star, brushed the hedge away and peered down. There was a slope that led down. Beyond it, there was a small village of cottages. But the slope was very rocky and steep. There was no way Star could get down.

‘We’ll have to go the long way,’ Mavis told April.

Before she could react, Star suddenly noticed a fresh patch of grass. With a delighted neigh, he slid down. April was thrown off his back and fell to the ground painfully.

‘Are you okay?’ said Mavis rushing down.

‘Would you be okay if you fell off a horse?’ groaned April. ‘Oh, my back . . .’

‘We’re even now, though,’ said Mavis. ‘I mean, you got us lost, didn’t you? Now, where is that school?’

The two looked up. They saw a small hill at the end of the village. On the top was a huge white stone castle-like building with four tall towers. The sun shone high above it, reflecting its light off the castle, making it glow with a golden light.

Mavis and April stared at it, mesmerised.

Finally, April said, ‘I don’t think that’s the school.’

‘It could be.’

‘I doubt it.’

Suddenly, a dark-red-haired boy wearing glasses, dressed in the school uniform, came walking up to them.

‘Err, are you April and Mavis Woods?’

‘No,’ said Mavis, in case he was a kidnapper.

‘Oh. Sorry to bother you then.’ The boy started to walk away.

April shot Mavis a quizzical look and called after him, ‘Actually, we are!’

‘But she just said–’

‘Oh, my sister says a lot of things. I’m April and she’s Mavis.’

‘In that case, I’m Walter, and I’m here to take you to school. How come you’re so late, though?’

‘We kept getting lost,’ said Mavis.

‘Ah, well, follow me.’

Walter led them through the village. The village was full of shops with shopkeepers selling their things. They gaped at Star, obviously not accustomed to seeing horses roaming around the villages, especially led by children.

‘So, what’s his name?’ asked Walter.

‘Who’s?’

‘Your horse’s.’

Mavis was delighted that Walter was interested in Star. ‘It’s Star,’ she said proudly.

‘Nice name. I have a horse too. Her name’s Peanut Butter.’

‘Peanut Butter?’ snickered Mavis, unable to hold it in.

Walter frowned. ‘It was my mother’s idea. But she’s a good horse. I’ve had her since she was a foal. I had to bring her with me: my mother isn’t too good with animals, to be honest.’

‘There are more horses in school?’ said April, relieved that they wouldn’t be the only ones.

‘Not really. Besides you, I’m the only one with a horse.’

April shot Mavis a murderous glance, but all the girl did was shrug.

They reached the end of the village and trekked up the hill with the white castle.

‘If we have to go through this every day . . .’ panted April as she literally crawled up the hill.

She was overreacting, Mavis thought. After all, Walter was leading them up through a stone path behind the undergrowth. Even Star trotted up with ease.

Mavis glanced up at the castle. She frowned, noticing that one of the towers had a hole in its roof. It was blackened and covered with soot and ash.

‘What is that?’ she asked Walter, pointing to it.

Walter glanced at it. ‘The others say it was hit by lightning years ago. The school never repaired the hole. Guess they were tight on funds.’

When they finally reached the top of the hill, they found a large gate with a fat sleeping man sitting on a chair, gently snoring behind it. Mavis had the horrible feeling the guard would never wake up and they’d be stuck outside.

Then Walter gave the gate a slight push and it creaked open, but barely made the man move. Walter gestured for them to follow him and crept inside. Mavis followed him with Star, so April, though uncertain, went in too.

‘Horrible security breach,’ she muttered.

‘Tell me about it,’ said Walter. ‘They should seriously find a replacement.’

‘But why would someone rob a school?’ said Mavis. ‘Now, where are the stables?’

Walter took them inside the campus of the school and led them to the horse stables. They walked quietly over the green grass to the back of the school. It was in the middle of a small field. At the back, was a bigger one, where they had their sports lessons and where the stables were.

The horse stables stood at the corner of the campus, but there was a wall blocking it from the wood to keep wild animals away. All the boxes were empty except for the one with a ginger horse.

Mavis looked at the boxes in surprise. Back at home, Star roamed freely in the fields. Maybe she should have run away from home with him so that the poor guy wouldn’t be trapped in these shockingly tiny stable boxes.

The ginger horse suddenly stuck her long tongue out and licked Walter’s face.

He sighed and pulled out a napkin to wipe his face. ‘Listen, Peanut Butter, I don’t have any horse treats,’ he told the horse.

Mavis offered him some. ‘Here, these are good ones.’

April groaned. ‘Can we go inside? It’s hot out here.’

‘Just put that horse of yours in the stables,’ Walter agreed.

‘But it’s so tiny,’ Mavis complained. ‘Star hates tiny places!’

April had been hoping that Walter would be sensible and tell her to stop making a fuss, so naturally, she was disgusted when he sided with Mavis.

‘I know, right!’ he cried. ‘I mean, who even builds stables like these? We’re not even allowed to sleep near our horses!’

‘What?’ gasped Mavis, who slept beside Star thrice a week. ‘I should have run away when I had the chance!’

Before they could complain about the stables even more, April stepped in between. ‘Look, can we please get this over with?’

Mavis threw her a glare. ‘Why don’t you sleep in these stables?’

April took a deep breath. She had had to deal with a horse-mad twin for her whole life. The last thing she needed was two of them.

‘Listen, Mavis,’ she said, trying not to scream in frustration, ‘take Star out for walks as much as you can if you don’t want him to stay in these stables for long. Nothing can be done about the size, so no point in complaining.’

Mavis gave the sulkiest look she could muster. ‘Fine!’ she grumbled sullenly. She led Star to the startlingly tiny stable box. She opened it and left Star in.

She looked at the box next to him. It was empty, and a lot bigger than his.

‘Is this being used?’ she asked Walter.

He shook his head. ‘It was once used to keep a bunch of cows for milk, but they all–Wait, you’re not thinking of putting Star in there, are you? I mean, it’s really dirty.’

Sure enough, the stables were covered in a thick layer of moss, fungus, and . . . other stuff.

‘Not now,’ said Mavis. ‘Once we unpack, and stuff, I’ll fetch a scrubber and clean it first.’

Walter nodded approvingly. ‘Horses are certainly worth it.’

April gave an urgent grunt.

‘Patience!’ snapped Mavis. ‘Sometimes I wonder how I’ve survived with you this long!’

‘Sometimes I wonder how I’ve survived with you this long!’ wailed April.

‘You’re lucky April isn’t your sister,’ said Mavis to Walter without caring to lower her voice. He gave her a pitying look.

Half an hour later, April managed to get Walter to take them to the school.

Inside there were four corridors of classrooms. They were all connected and formed a square. At the end of each corridor, there was a single wooden door. Walter opened one of the doors which led to a spiral staircase. Mavis guessed they were entering a tower.

They walked up the staircase for a while till they finally reached another wooden door. They could hear a lot of talking from the other side of the door. Walter opened the door and immediately the students on the other side stopped talking. Then, when they saw that it was only Walter and no teacher, they started talking again.

‘This is our common room,’ said Walter. ‘The rest of the students are in the other towers.’

His face hardened as a girl with short hair that looked like it had been bleached, then spun in a washing machine half a dozen times, walked over. She had a smile plastered on her face that looked quite unreal.

‘Oh. Hi, Alana,’ said Walter half-heartedly.

‘Hello, Walter!’ said the girl, giving an even faker smile. Then she diverted her attention to Mavis and April. ‘Oh, you must be the twins, Mavis and April. You don’t look like twins. I’m Alana, and looks like the two of you will be my roommates! How come you’re so late, though? You even missed lunch!’

‘Um, we got los–’

‘Anyway, which of you is April and which of you is Mavis?’

‘I’m April and she’s–’

‘Oh, wonderful! Did you know that Alana means beautiful? Wonderful name, isn’t it?’

‘Uh–’

‘Well, I’ll see you later. Better go and finish unpacking. Mummy has given me so many things.’

And with that, skipped off to their dormitory.

‘Who was that?’ asked Mavis in disgust.

‘Alana,’ said Walter miserably. ‘She’s awful. If she’s your roommate, you’d better be prepared.’ He grimaced. ‘Well, I’ll be doing some light reading. Tomorrow, we’ll be having our first classes, and I don’t like to be clueless in class.’

Mavis and April exchanged glances.

‘I’m hungry,’ said April finally. Only then did Mavis realise how hungry she was, skipping lunch and all.

‘Maybe we'll find some leftovers in the dining hall?’ she suggested.

‘I’m not eating leftovers!’

‘Fine. Take these.’ Mavis offered her a pouch full of horse treats.

‘Horse treats?’

‘Yeah.’

‘No way am I eating those!’

‘Fine, starve. I couldn’t care less. But don’t pretend you haven’t been stealing my horse treats.’

April reddened with embarrassment. ‘I have not . . .’

‘Whatever ya say, sis.’ Mavis popped one into her mouth. ‘You know, these are delicious!’

Unable to bear it any longer, April snatched the pouch from her and stuffed its contents into her mouth.

‘Woah, easy. Don’t let Star see you do that. He’ll be livid.’ Mavis took a second pouch of treats from her pocket and helped herself to them. She wasn’t worried about exhausting her resources; she had plenty left.

‘Let’s go find our dorm–,’ began April, but was cut off when an older girl in the school uniform with curly brown hair rushed up to them.

‘You must be Mavis and April Woods. Pleased to meet you. I’m Hannah and I’m a prefect. Hope you’ve settled in?’

‘We have,’ said Mavis, thinking at the same time: Just what I need. More people.

‘Good. If you have any problems or need to talk to me about something, you can come to me at any time.’ Hannah the Prefect smiled and walked away.

‘I certainly have problems,’ muttered April.

‘We’ll get used to it,’ said Mavis weakly. But she doubted it. At home, there weren’t a lot of people around. This place was the complete opposite.

To take her mind off everything, she decided to go to the stables. Or find the stables, at any rate. She had no idea where they were: when Walter was taking them to the common rooms, she hadn’t paid much attention to the way.

But first things first: she needed a scrubber to clean the stable box she had chosen for Star. So, she borrowed (as in, stole) the Caretaker’s scrubber.

And then, she embarked on the difficult quest of searching for the doors that led outside. Eventually, she gave up and threw herself out of the window in one of the ground-floor classrooms. She landed in a pile full of compost, completely ruining her uniform, but at least it had broken her fall.

When she got to the stables, Star licked her face. She gave him a couple of horse treats. Since Peanut Butter was eyeing them, she gave her a couple too.

She gingerly approached the box she had chosen for Star. It stank like crazy, and the stench was unbearable. She wished she had brought a mask.

Holding her breath, she stepped in, crouched down, and began to gingerly scrub the corners.

‘Need any help?’ came a voice.

Mavis stood up and found that Walter was standing in front of the stables with a weak smile.

‘You’re going to regret this,’ she remarked.

‘I will,’ agreed Walter.

Then, he produced a mask and put it on.

‘Do you have an extra?’ asked Mavis weakly.

Walter laughed and tossed her one, which she hurriedly put on.

Walter stepped in and began to scrub with Mavis.

‘So what’s up with that girl Alana?’ asked Mavis. ‘You don’t appear to like her very much.’

Walter shuddered. ‘Oh, she’s horrible. We used to be neighbours. She was vain and narcissistic then. Couldn’t keep her mouth shut, but couldn’t listen to anyone either. I was glad to see the back of her when she moved. But it looks like she’s gotten a lot worse now. Apparently, she’s moved to a bigger house and her parents are far richer, so she just won’t stop boasting.’

Mavis suddenly wished she had a different roommate.