Unfriendly Competition (6 page)

“Callie, pay attention, please,” Mr. Conner said. “Jack lost his focus because you did.”

Callie ducked her head and refocused her attention on Jack. Before Charm and I made a mistake, too, I stopped watching everyone else.

We completed the spirals and rode back to the center of the arena for more instructions.

“Good work, everyone,” Mr. Conner said. “I would like to see all of you pay more attention to your own horses instead of each other.”

Beside me, Callie seemed to shrink lower into her saddle.

“At Huntington, there will be many riders that you'll want to watch,” Mr. Conner continued, looking up from his clipboard. “If you're already eyeing your own teammates, you're going to have trouble not watching your competition. This is something you all need to work on to avoid problems in the future.”

We all nodded.

“Now, you're each going to try the dressage test,” Mr. Conner said. He moved away from the center of the arena and toward the wall. “Sasha, you're up first.”

Greaaat.

I was half scared and half relieved to get my turn over first. Callie, Brit, and Heather walked their horses to the wall and out of the way of the markers. I let Charm follow them since we had to ride back to the center of the arena as part of the test. It wasn't long or too complicated, but it felt daunting from the saddle.

After one breath, I made myself tell Charm to trot to
the center of the arena and stop at the
X
marker. Charm stood still until I saluted and asked him to move at a sitting trot toward
C
. Charm had good energy and moved well beneath me.

We made a twenty-meter circle, then went straight along the wall at a posting trot. At
H
, we made a sharp turn and crossed the arena to
M
. At
M
, we made another circle and I turned Charm out of the circle as we headed for
B
at a slow, steady canter. We passed
B
and at
F
, I eased Charm to a trot, then a walk. We made our final circle, walked by
A
, and I sat to Charm's trot as we headed for
X
—our last marker.

This was one of the best tests we'd ever done!
But don't mess it up now,
I told myself. Charm's trot stayed steady, and he didn't try to rush like he did sometimes when we got close to the end of a test.

At
X
, I drew Charm to a smooth halt. I saluted sharply and felt like I could breathe again. I turned Charm back to face Heather, Brit, Callie, and Mr. Conner. I patted Charm's neck.

“You were
great
,” I whispered.

I stopped Charm next to Heather.

“Not too bad,” she said, loud enough so only I could hear her.

I knew Charm and I did well if
Heather
was giving us props.

“Excellent ride, Sasha,” Mr. Conner said. He smiled at me and stopped in front of Charm to look up at me. “Your circles were well-proportioned and Charm was alert during each movement. Keep your diagonal lines a little straighter next time, but that was a great test.”

“Thank you,” I said.

I rubbed Charm's shoulder before sitting back in the saddle, relaxed and glad my turn was done.

“Brit, you may ride next,” Mr. Conner said.

Brit gathered Apollo's reins and began the test. Throughout her ride, I kept sneaking glances at Callie. Her eyes were narrowed on Brit. Callie was used to being the star dressage rider on our team.

Until Brit.

Brit did each movement of the test with precision that I'd only seen on TV. Even though I wasn't even close to an expert in dressage, I'd watched enough riders perform tests that didn't even compare to Brit's. Callie's lips, pressed together, were obvious signals that she was nervous. Even though we weren't best friends anymore, I knew her too well. Callie was intimidated by Brit.

It was going to make her fight that much harder to win.

Brit finished her test and Mr. Conner smiled at her. “Well done,” he said. “You and Apollo are in tune and performed exactly as I hoped you would. Thank you.”

Not even a hint of cockiness from Mr. Conner's words appeared on Brit's face. She let Apollo back beside Charm, and I held my hand low for a quiet high five. Brit gave me a quick smile before we focused on Mr. Conner again.

“Callie, if you're ready,” Mr. Conner said. “You may start.”

Callie didn't waste a second. She moved Black Jack forward with a seamless movement and the pair started the dressage test. Every movement was fluid from marker to marker. I wanted to glance at Brit and Heather, to see if they were as impressed as I was, but I couldn't look away from the performance. Every curve, circle, and transition Jack made looked like part of a dance.

Where is
this
coming from?
I wondered. I'd seen Callie ride dressage a zillion times and she'd always been brilliant, but nothing like this.

When Callie halted Jack at
X
, I leaned over to Heather. “What. Was. That?” I whispered.

Heather turned her head, staring at me from under the brim of her helmet. “The start of a dressage war.”

6

DID YOU MISS ME?

“YOU REALLY HAVE TO GIVE ME, LIKE, A
private lesson sometime,” I told Brit. We walked back from the stable after our dressage lesson.

“Oh, please,” Brit said. “You definitely don't need any help from
me
. But if you want to practice together that would be fun.”

“Def.” I paused, thinking about the lesson as we walked up the sidewalk toward Orchard. Callie and Brit's rides had been amazing, then Heather had given a performance that I was sure had made me—not Charm—look like I belonged on the beginner team.

“I keep saying I'm going to work harder on dressage and I hardly ever do,” I said. “I love flatwork and jumping
so much. And so does Charm! But we've got to be better rounded for Huntington.”

Brit stuck her hands in her jacket pockets. “We all have to be at the top of our game for this show. It's going to set the tone for the entire season.”

“Yeah, and—” I stopped midsentence when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I grabbed my BlackBerry and saw I had a new text. Maybe it was Jacob . . .

I opened the message and saw a name I'd never wanted to see again.

Ever.

To: Sasha Silver

From: Jasmine King

Long time no talk! Did u miss me? U won't have 2 4 much longer! I'll c u and ur apparently new BFF Heather @ Huntington. Can't wait! xx

“Ugh,” I said, moaning.

“What's wrong?” Brit asked.

I handed her my phone, not saying a word. Brit took it and scanned the message. She handed it back to me, shaking her head.

“
I
can't wait to finally meet the infamous Jasmine King,” Brit said. “This is perfect, Sash. She's going into Huntington thinking she's already making you
uncomfortable and you know she sent a similar message to Heather and Callie.”

“That's her style,” I grumbled.

“So she's going to think you'll all be freaked out about seeing her and that it'll rattle you enough to give her and Wellington an edge. Guess what?”

“What?” I eyed Brit warily.

“She's
totally
wrong.”

“We do have a great team,” I said. “But you don't know this girl. She's vicious. She'll do anything to win—even at the cost of her horse. I've seen it. Jasmine is the most ruthless rider I've ever seen, and she's not going to lose without a fight.”

Brit didn't look worried. “Then we'll fight. You just said you want to practice dressage more. Now you have an even bigger incentive.”

“I definitely do.”

We were quiet the rest of the short walk back to Orchard. Inside the front hall, Stephanie, the dorm monitor, was putting up fall decorations. She stood in front of one of the hall tables and put vanilla frosting–scented Yankee candles in a pretty pattern surrounded by real-looking red, orange, and yellow leaves.

Usually, I'd get excited about decorations of any kind
and would want to immediately add festive touches to my room. But right now, the only thing I could think about was the text from Jasmine.

Inside our room, I pulled off my boots and flopped onto my bed. Brit went to shower and I opened Jasmine's text again. I hit forward, typed in Heather's name and wrote
what do u think?
above the text.

Seconds later, my phone vibrated. I opened the message, sure that Heather would have a snarky response to Jas's text that would make me feel better.

To: Sasha Silver

From: Heather Fox

That we better b ready 4 a showdown.

7

PASSING NOTES

IN MONDAY MORNING'S ENGLISH CLASS,
I was scribbling down answers to questions from Mr. Davidson's homework that I hadn't finished Sunday night. I'd been too tired after my lesson and the rest of my homework had kept me at my desk until I'd fallen asleep.

I filled in the last blank and shoved the now-finished worksheet back in my pink folder, glad to not have any late homework, especially not in this advanced class. I'd been the only one in the room for a while because I'd gotten there early. I looked up when the doorknob turned.

Paige stepped inside, giving me a tiny smile when she saw me.

“Um, hi,” she said.

“Hey.”

There wasn't any venom in our tones—they sounded the same. Sad and tired.

Paige was wearing a cranberry-colored three-quarters sleeve shirt that I'd never seen before, with over-the-knee black boots and jeans. I wondered if she'd gone shopping with Geena, her new roommate. Even after all this time, thinking about it was still hard to digest. I opened my folder, shuffling papers, and pretending there was something interesting in it.

“Can we talk for a sec?” Paige asked. She sat beside me, placing her leather messenger bag on the floor.