Riding Friends

Chapter Three

Meppy here, just wanted to say that I'm sorry I haven't updated for ages... and also if u could tell ur followers/friends if u would like to carry on reading this to read it too, because if no one reads my work, I will stop posting, please tell me if u read this story x
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"Mum, can I borrow your phone?"
Harriet and Mum were sat in the living room the next day, reading magazines, when Harriet suddenly remembered Pipa's note. Of course, she couldn't help thinking about her new friend all the time, but she had left the contact details in her room after she had arrived home from the stables, and totally forgotten about them. Mum glanced up from her page.
"Yes, you can have it, but what for?"
"To email Pipa; you know, the girl from the stables."
Mum smiled and handed her the phone from the windowsill. "Be quick."
Clutching the phone in one hand and crossing her fingers that she could remember where she had left the contact details, Harriet rushed up the stairs, two at a time, to her room, where she rooted around on her desk for Pipa's note. She finally grasped hold of the crumpled piece of paper and smoothed it out on the desk. Sinking into her desk-chair, Harriet tapped out the email address on the phone and typed a short message-
'Hi Pipa, Harriet here, see you at the weekend!'- then pressed the send button. Harriet held the phone right up in front of her face, staring at the inbox icon.
"Harriet?" Mum called from downstairs. "If you're waiting for a reply from your friend, she probably hasn't even got the message yet, and I need my phone, please!"
Harriet giggled; Mum knew her so well.
"Coming!"

Pipa didn't reply the next day, or the next either. Harriet patiently waited and struggled through the long days of school, desperate to get home so she could ask whether Pipa had emailed back. But she hadn't. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday passed by. On Friday night, Harriet ran through the door and threw her bag onto the sofa.
"Anything from Pipa?"
Mum was standing by the kitchen table, both hands behind her back. "Sorry, no."
Harriet frowned. "Mum, what's up?"
Mum was fidgeting about, as though she was trying to hide something.
"... your father and I decided that it was time you got a -"
Harriet interrupted; "A horse? A trampoline? A -"
"Calm down!" Mum laughed. "We thought that it was time you got a phone!" She produced a pale pink phone from behind her back; the letters 'H-C' printed on the case. Harriet gasped.
"A.. a p-phone? For me?!" She stuttered, turning the 'miracle' over in her fingers. Smiling, Mum nodded and showed Harriet how to switch it on.
"Thank you so much! I can't believe it!' Harriet mumbled, enveloping her mum in a huge hug.
"You're very welcome," Mum replied, "Now, I've got some work to finish, so how about you run up to your room and figure out how to work that thing!"

Once up in her room, propped up with her fluffiest cushions, Harriet flicked through the pages of apps, stopping at email. Fumbling about in her pocket, she extracted the crumpled piece of paper with Pipa's email scribbled on it. Within a minute, she had tapped in the email, typed a message and sent it.

Harriet turned restlessly in her bed. It was nine o'clock and she was meant to be trying to get to sleep, but something at the back of her mind was bugging her. All she could think was; Pipa, Pipa, Pipa. Almost a week had flown by; tomorrow would be her second riding lesson. And Pipa hadn't emailed back, even though Harriet had sent her emails on two different phones. PING! Harriet sat up in bed. Her new phone, which she had left on her crowded desk, had turned on, illuminating half of her room. Harriet switched her bedside light on and carefully climbed down the ladder of her cabin bed. Trying not to rouse anyone else, Harriet tiptoed to her desk and picked up her phone. A message flashed up on the screen.
"Hi Harriet, Pipa here x"
A huge grin split on Harriet's face as her fingers flew over the keyboard, replying that she would 'C U 2morrow x'. She switched the phone off and clambered back into bed.