For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1 The Dumb Trophy
Chapter 2 Lost and Found
Chapter 3 Pikers
Chapter 4 The Inquiry
Chapter 5 Brat
Chapter 6 A Civil Matter
Chapter 7 A Disturbing Idea
Chapter 8 Like Grandpa's Hair
Chapter 9 Hayley's Verdict
Chapter 10 Irresponsible
Chapter 11 Cat and Mouse
Chapter 12 Gully Way
Chapter 13 Relief for the Mulligans
Chapter 14 Lime
Chapter 15 A Favour for Santa
Chapter 16 Poppy Goes Home
Chapter 17 Hatching a Plot
Chapter 18 Christmas
Chapter 19 A Trap for a Bushranger
Chapter 20 A Change of Plan
Chapter 21 Stupid and Dangerous
Chapter 22 Winging It
Chapter 23 Bandicoot Bait
Chapter 24 Pillion Passenger
Chapter 25 Justice
Chapter 26 A Long Tail
Chapter 27 A Mental Blank
Chapter 28 Pete's Pony Rides
Chapter 29 Tilt-a-Whirl
Chapter 30 A Police Matter
Chapter 31 Fair and Square
Chapter 32 Honorary Member
Chapter 33 A Magic Trick
About the Author
For Sale
or Swap
ALYSSA
BRUGMAN
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
For Sale or Swap
ePub ISBN 9781864715514
Kindle ISBN 9781864717082
Random House Australia Pty Ltd
20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point NSW 2061
http://www.randomhouse.com.au
Sydney New York Toronto
London Auckland Johannesburg
First published by Random House Australia 2005
Copyright © Alyssa Brugman 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Brugman, Alyssa, 1974–.
For sale or swap.
ISBN 0 75932 098 5.
1. Ponies – Juvenile fiction. 2. Horse stealing –
Juvenile fiction. I. Title.
A823.4
Cover photograph by Alamy.com
Cover and internal design by Sandra Nobes
Typeset in Sabon 11/15.5pt by Midland Typesetters, Maryborough, Victoria
Printed and bound by Griffin Press, Netley, South Australia
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
I had a Blue when I was twelve.
Her name is Shadow.
I could have swapped her
many times but I never did.
She now works as my organic lawn mower.
This book is for her.
Many thanks to the students at Ogilvie High in
Hobart for their enthusiastic and diligent
contributions to 'Stupid and Dangerous'
and 'Winging It'.
Special thanks to Paul and Michelle Becker.
1 The Dumb Trophy
It was the Pony Club Christmas Party slash Awards Night and Shelby had won 'Most Improved'. It was a slap in the face really – 'Most Improved' meant you used to suck, but now you're slightly better.
Hayley Crook's dad was in charge of the barbecue. Erin's mum was buttering bread and squeezing too much sauce on the sausage sandwiches as she handed them out in red and green Christmas serviettes, so that everybody who was eating them had to lean over, dripping sauce and sausage fat on the ground.
Tubs of soft drink cans floating in icy water lined the side wall of the clubhouse. Someone, probably the Club President, Mrs Hockings, had decorated the kitchenette with old tinsel, bald in patches and matted with sticky tape.
Erin had won 'Rider of the Year', which was a complete joke. Shelby thought it must have been because Erin's parents had bought her a fancy new dressage saddle. It wasn't even a real one. If it was real, it would have had the brand name on a badge somewhere, but it didn't. Shelby had checked.
The