"We've got him."
"Who?"
It was the start of Home Economics, and Blue Day was telling Dinky the latest transfer news as they each grabbed an apron from the rack.
"Timo Werner, 45 million," Blue Day said, "And we've also signed a wonderkid from Anderlecht. Some Belgian defensive midfielder called Marco Kana, for 16 and a half million. They're saying he's going to be the next Makelele."
"That seems like a good deal," Dinky said, as she finished putting her apron on.
"Especially with some of the other fees being thrown about." Blue Day replied, as they headed for their desks.
"A HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE MILLION?!"
"That's what it says." Blue Day responded to Dinky's incredulous outburst as they read the transfer news in Football Daily that lunchtime.
The transfer news on everyone's lips - human and pony - was that Manchester City had smashed all transfer records to sign Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur. Liverpool and Manchester United had also made big-money signings, with the Merseysiders spending 78 million pounds on Juventus' Argentine forward Paulo Dybala and the Red Devils spending the same amount to sign Jamaican winger Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen, but the price of City's acquisition blew them out of the water - it was even more than PSG had paid for either Neymar or Mbappé in 2017.
"But he only scored eleven goals in the Premier League last season," Dinky said, "That's more than 20 million per goal."
"That's only one bad season," Blue Day replied. "Agüero's not getting any younger, so it's better to strike now rather than risk losing out to Real Madrid, PSG or Barcelona. Although I do agree with you that Tammy should be leading the England line instead; he would be if Kane wasn't captain."
As the transfer window progressed, so did Euro 2020. Dinky was supporting England, largely because of Tammy Abraham, and watched with delight as, after draws against Holland and Austria, the Three Lions devoured Slovakia in a 9-2 demolition in which Abraham scored his first England goal.
Much to Dinky's delight, Abraham scored another goal as England took revenge for their World Cup exit with a 3-0 win over Croatia in the second round, but their quest ended against Italy after extra time. Italy would go on to beat Spain on penalties in the final after a goalless draw.
"We've signed him," Blue Day said to Dinky one morning a couple of days after Euro 2020, referring to young German attacking midfielder Kai Havertz.
How much?" Dinky asked. It had been known that Chelsea were in the hunt for him, and she'd been petrified of Liverpool or Man Utd hijacking the deal.
"90 million. They wanted 120, but Spencer talked it down. Mark my words Dinky, with Ziyech and Telles also signed, we are going to be lethal in attack this year."
"Thank Faust Klopp didn't get wind of it," Dinky said, "I don't think I could have coped if he'd gone to that lot."
Blue Day didn't comment. He hated Liverpool himself, being a Chelsea fan, but Dinky's loathing of the "Red Scouse" seemed far more at home at Old Trafford or Goodison Park.
Chelsea were spending most of their pre-season in Germany, and had comfortably beaten Hamburger SV and Hannover 96, the latter of which had seen Abraham score the first goal and set up Ziyech for the second. But on the first Thursday of the summer holidays, Dinky arrived back home and switched on the sports channel to see if there was any truth to the rumours linking Mbappé to Man Utd and Chelsea. The news was that Man Utd had signed a striker, but not Mbappé; instead they'd spent £18.75million to sign Brazilian striker Gabriel Barbosa from Flamengo. However, the words "ABRAHAM INJURY LATEST" then flashed across the screen and Dinky's heart sank as the two presenters announced that their reporter had more news on "a potentially serious injury to Tammy Abraham".
"Yes, I'm here outside Stamford Bridge," a grey earth pony said, "where Chelsea have just announced that Tammy Abraham faces up to five months out injured. The PFA Young Player of the Year is reported to have suffered a broken leg in training."
Dinky's heart plummeted as the TV cut back to the studio.
"Well, more news on that as we get it, but it's a huge blow to Chelsea," one of the two ponies in the studio was saying, "George Spencer will be praying that Timo Werner hits the ground running…"
Dinky didn't wait to hear more. She ran out of the sitting room and up the stairs to her bedroom, lay down on her bed, took one look at her poster of Tammy Abraham, and burst into tears.
Dinky didn't know how they'd done it, but her foster parents had guilt tripped her into staying for lunch - which just happened to include a visit from her least favourite pony in Equestria - instead of going to Blue Day's to watch Chelsea take part in a testimonial match for Leicester City midfielder Andy King. She'd protested, but they'd pointed out that the game was at 3 o'clock and that "You really need to move on". In fact, it was worse than Dinky could have imagined.
"So," Autumn said, as the food was served, "Who do you think will be the top scorer this season?"
Dinky was caught off-guard, and didn't know what to say. "W-Well," she faltered, "Everyone's saying Harry Kane, but Timo Werner and Anthony Martial are both in with a chance."
"After all," Autumn replied, "We all know that Abraham won't be outscoring Firmino in the Premier League this season, will he?"
It took a moment for Dinky to process what Autumn had said, partially because she couldn't imagine that anyone would cross that line. She gritted her teeth and felt tears prick her eyes as she shut them tight.
"You know full well why that is," she thought to herself, "How could you-how dare you revel in something like that, you foul-you evil-you absolute BITCH!"
Thankfully, for her sakes, none of them could read her thoughts, as that would probably have seen her grounded for a week at least. When the meal finished, Dinky excused herself.
"And where are you going in such a hurry?" her foster father asked as she got down.
"Blue Day's to watch the Chelsea game, which is what I wanted to do earlier so I wouldn't have had to rush," she said pointedly, "I'll be back when it's over, see you later!" she finished, taking off like a rocket.
She made it to Blue Day's with time to spare and watched as Chelsea somewhat spoiled the party for Andy King, with Timo Werner heading home a Kovacic cross before Havertz connected with a cross from Sancho. Sancho got on the scoresheet himself in the second half, turning a Reece James cross into the net.
Dinky lay in bed that night, thinking about the day's events.
"It's bad enough that I have to see her every two weeks," she muttered, "But if she's going to celebrate Tammy's injury, that's the last straw. It's time I put my plan into action."
A/N: Before anyone asks, yes, Manchester City did pay nearly 200 million pounds to sign Harry Kane in my FM20 save.
I know that Today, Tomorrow and Forever mentioned a school of magic, but specialised education here in Britain doesn't really begin until Sixth Form. So I turned the school into a more generic primary school which has magic on its curriculum.
Yeah, revelling in one of England's greatest young talent suffering a long-term injury is not something a nice pony does. She knows that Dinky doesn't like her, and as such she knows that any complaint by Dinky will be dismissed instantly.