She had just sat back in the saddle and gathered up her reins when a car spun around the corner. For a moment I thought it would hit us and all I could see in my mind's eye were legs tangled with twisted steel and the iron smell of blood and gasoline. Screams and neighs all mixed together until we didn’t know who we were or what was happening.
The horses froze. The car was bright red with black racing stripes down the sides. Despite the coolness in the air the top was down and it was crammed full of five teenagers. I saw their faces as they flashed past, the driver correcting his over steering mistake and almost slamming the car into the opposite hedge.
A girl in the back let out a scream and for one split second I saw her face, pale and yet made up to look like she was older than she was. It was Cat, perched on the lap of a much older boy. For a moment our eyes locked and then they were gone, one of the girls letting out a shriek and a laugh, probably jacked up on the high of almost being killed and whatever else they had been drinking.
“That was a close one,” Rose said, her voice shaking.
“Very close,” I replied.
I patted Bluebird on the neck, glad that I’d been on him and not any of the other horses that might have spooked and bolted or reared up at the car. We rode our horses back to the edge of the trail in silence, both of us knowing how much worse the encounter could have been.
“Bye,” Rose said.
“See you soon,” I replied but I wasn't thinking about the next time I would see Rose. Instead I was thinking about when I was going to see Cat and how I was going to kill her.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
“Cat almost killed me,” I told my father when I got back.
He was in the barn, grooming Canterbury. I wondered if he was going to ride or whether he was just avoiding my mother like I’d been doing.
“Don’t be silly,” Dad said. “She’s not even here. I took her to school.”
“You may have taken her,” I said. “But she obviously didn’t stay there. I was out riding and I ran into Rose on Noelle and we were just hacking along the road when this car came around the corner and nearly plowed into us. Cat was one of the passengers.”
“Are you sure it was her?” Dad said, putting his brush back in the grooming box with a sigh.
“Of course,” I said. “I wouldn’t be telling you if I wasn’t sure. She almost killed us.”
“She wasn’t driving though,” Dad said. “You said she was a passenger.”
“Fine,” I admitted. “Her friend almost killed us. Same thing.”
“She is not my daughter,” Dad said. “It’s awkward. Your mother can deal with it.”
“You’re joking, right?” I said. “Mom doesn’t deal with anything.”
“I’m sorry,” Dad said. “There is not much I can do.”
I guessed he was right but it didn’t make me feel any better and I was still going to yell at Cat when she came home. If she came home.
I was hoping for a nice quiet evening. I needed to work both Socks and Arion. Socks was finally back to his old self again after his run in with a horrible stinging insect and Arion was fresh and full of energy in the cold weather.
“Who wants to go first?” I asked the two horses.
They were out grazing and both of them ignored me. I figured I’d ride the first one I could catch, which just happened to be Arion. I think he heard the cookie crumble in my pocket. I pulled out the pieces and fed them to him, patting his fluffy gray neck.
“Want to jump, Ari?” I asked him.
I needed to clear my head. The trail ride hadn’t helped at all, since I’d almost been killed on it. Maybe soaring over some fences with my gray Thoroughbred would perk me up a bit. I gave him a quick groom and was out in the ring when I saw Molly pull down the drive. Five minutes later Cora arrived. My heart sank. I was cantering my horse, looking forward to jumping and now I’d have to deal with the two boarders again. They’d probably both get into another fight and then Cora would want me to ride Oscar again. Couldn’t I get a moment's peace to myself?
I waited for the yelling to start but nothing happened. Then I saw Cora storm out of the barn, get in her car, slam the door and drive away, her wheels spinning. That couldn’t be a good sign. Then Molly stomped out of the barn and did the same.
Both women had come and gone and neither of them had ridden. They hadn’t even had time to do anything with their horses. All they must have done was talk to each other and it couldn’t have gone well. It was a bad sign and I had a bad feeling about it. I jumped Arion but it didn’t make me feel any better. I decided not to work Socks. I just wasn’t in the mood.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
When I went into the house Dad was standing in the kitchen on the phone. He didn’t look very happy. I assumed that it was something to do with Cat. Maybe the school calling to tell us that she’d skipped out on her classes or something worse. What if she had been in an accident? The way her so called friends were driving, it didn’t seem like they were very safe on the roads at all.
I hung around as he nodded and said yes and no a couple of times and then he hung up.
“Cat?” I asked.
“Molly.” He sighed.
“She was here,” I said. “So was Cora. They both left in a huff before I even got to the barn. I think they were arguing again.”
“Well Molly says that she can’t stay if Cora is here. She says she’ll pull both her horses and take them somewhere else.”
“But why?” I said. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand either,” Dad said. “But we need Molly’s money. She has two horses, Cora only has one.”
“But Cora is paying for training,” I said. “That means she’s paying more, right?”
“Yes,” Dad said. “But Oscar won’t be here forever. He is only here for a month or two.”
“So what?” I said, sitting down. “We kick Oscar out? Ask Cora to leave? That doesn’t seem fair either. Molly can’t just tell us what to do. What if she doesn’t like the next boarder we get and says that they have to leave too? She can’t have the place to herself all the time.”
“You have a point,” Dad said. “You do have a point.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Dad and I didn’t know what to do about Cora and we didn’t know what to do about Cat so in the end we both just went to bed, which was where my mother had gone hours ago, probably huddling under the covers with a bottle of liquor, hating us all.
I still hadn’t gone to sleep when I heard Cat come in. Instead I was sitting at my desk catching up on my school work when I heard the front door and her footsteps on the stairs. I wanted to go out there and start yelling at her that she could have killed me but more importantly, she could have killed my pony. The only trouble was that I was never going to get through to her when she was drunk and the only reason for her to be sneaking in this late and stumbling up the stairs was obviously because she had been drinking again.
I listened to her pause on the top step but then instead of going to her room, she knocked gently on my door. For a moment I thought about pretending to be asleep but my light was on. She’d probably seen it reflecting under the gap beneath the door. There was no point in lying and besides, I’d never be able to sleep unless we talked so we might as well just get it over and done with.
I tiptoed to the door and opened it a crack. Cat’s face loomed in the darkness, all pale with streaked tears, her mascara now just smudges around her eyes that made her look like a raccoon.
“What?” I said.
“Can I come in?” she whispered.
“I guess.” I sighed and opened the door.
Cat stumbled in and then plopped on the floor in a sad sort of heap and started to cry. I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t been expecting this. I thought that she would be the one I’d have to yell at and that I’d be the one crying over the fact tha
t she nearly killed my beloved pony. Now she’d gone and ruined it because I couldn’t exactly yell at someone who was already crying.
“I’m so sorry,” she gulped through her tears. “I told them to slow down but they wouldn’t listen. They could have killed you.”
Apparently the gravity of the situation had not been lost on Cat and maybe spending time here on the farm with us, she’d grown to care for the horses more than I had realized.
“You’re right,” I said. “It was a close call. I don’t want to end up dead and I don’t want my pony to get hurt either. You can’t hang out with people like that. They are only going to get you into trouble. Or worse.”
“I know.” Cat continued to sob. “But you don’t know what it is like. They are the only people who like me. I’m not like you. I can’t just go it alone and be happy without any friends. I need people to like me and talk to me. I need to fit in.”
I thought about how Cat thought I didn’t care when really I did. Of course I wanted people to like me. Didn’t everyone? It was just that I’d hardened myself to an existence where the average teenager had nothing in common with me and the ones on the show circuit who did were more like Jess with money and grooms and expensive horses and they didn’t want anything to do with people like me either, struggling to get by on a shoestring budget and now keeping my horses in my backyard. At Fox Run I had started to become somebody. Now I was back to being nobody again.
“I don’t exactly have it easy either,” I said. “Don’t you think I’d like to fit in too?”
“But you have your horses,” she said. “Something you care about more than any of that. I don’t have anything.”
She put her head in her hands and began weeping again. I sat down next to her and patted her on the back but I wasn’t sure it made her feel any better. I didn’t know what else to say. All our lives were shitty right now and we were just trying to make the best of them. What other choice did we have?
“Look, I don’t care who you hang out with,” I told her. “But you have to stop drinking and doing whatever else it is you are doing. It’s not going to help you any. In fact it is only going to make things worse.”
“I know,” she said. “But it's all I know how to do.”
“How about if I see if I can look into it some more and maybe get the virtual school to take you. Then you wouldn’t have to deal with any of that stuff.”
“And be stuck here all day with you and your parents?” she said.
“I know it's not exactly the most exciting proposition,” I told her. “But Dad did say we’d be getting a lesson horse soon. And you love spending time with Phoenix. He’ll need to be weaned soon and Chantilly will be sent back to the vet clinic. That means he’s going to need you more than ever.”
“I’ll never be as good with the horses as you are,” she said, looking at me with bloodshot eyes. “Can’t you understand that I have to find my own thing?”
“And I think you should,” I said. “If that is what you really want. But I don’t think that drinking and drugs and reckless driving is a passion. It’s a distraction. Can’t you join a club or something instead?”
“What like the debate team?” she said, sounding snobby again. “Or the science club? Join drama and put on some plays that no one will ever come and see.”
“Well what is it that you like?” I said. “What is it you want to do?”
“Nothing,” she said, her voice flat.
Then she got up, dragging her high heeled shoes behind her. She paused at the door and turned to look at me, still sitting on the floor.
“I am sorry about today,” she said. “I’ll tell them to be more careful.”
“Thanks,” I said but I was pretty sure that the sort of people Cat was hanging around with weren’t going to care.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
I found Dad the next morning and told him that we couldn’t kick a boarder out just because another one wanted us to. That we’d be setting a precedent that would be bad for our business. If the boarders couldn’t get along with each other then it wasn’t our job to chaperone them. They needed to sort out their own mess and if at the end of the day then one of them left then that was just the way it was going to have to be.
Dad sighed but agreed that I was right. We couldn't operate our own business at the whim of someone else, even if that someone had helped us in the beginning. Second Chance Farm was ours and no one else's and that was the way it was going to stay.
I started working my horses with a heart that was decidedly lighter than it had been. Cat had caught the school bus that morning without anyone forcing her to and she’d had less makeup on than she’d been wearing in the last few days. I hoped that it was a good sign but I was starting to realize that I couldn’t control her. I couldn’t control anyone. I’d even left a mug of hot coffee outside my mother’s bedroom door. A peace offering of sorts. I knew that we’d never have the sort of relationship that I wanted and I knew that she’d never accept my life with horses but I’d accepted that and as long as she was here, I was going to treat her the way I wanted to be treated and hope that some of it rubbed off on her.
“You look like you’re in a good mood,” Jordan said when he pulled in later, trailer in tow.
“I’ve just figured a few things out,” I said. “And suddenly I don’t feel so stressed anymore.”
“Cool, what are they?” he said, leaning out the window. “I’d like to be less stressed.”
“Nothing big,” I replied, walking Arion over to the fence. “Just that I can’t control everything or everyone.”
“Oh I figured that out ages ago,” he said. “Why do you think I don’t try to boss you around?”
“Is that why you are dropping your horse off even when I told you that we had no room and that your mother would be furious?” I sighed.
“Of course,” he said. “Wizard needs you.”
I thought of the sweet black horse in the back of the trailer and how fun he would be to ride and I also thought of how difficult it would be to sell him, not knowing where he would end up. Maybe, if I did a really good job with him then Jordan would change his mind and decide to keep him.
“Alright,” I said. “Unload him in the pen but you know what this means, don’t you?”
“Hanging more electric fence?” he said with a grin. “I already came prepared.”
He held up his gloves and an extra reel of tape. “And I brought my own just in case that other lady leaves and decides to take all her tape with her.”
“Good job,” I said. “Molly and Cora can’t get along at all. One of them is going to have to go but we are letting them sort it out between themselves.”
“Just as well,” Jordan said. “You don’t want to get in the middle of that mess.”
“Exactly,” I said. “I told you, it’s my new motto.”
And in a way running our own farm I’d quickly figured things out more than I ever had working at Fox Run. There I had mostly stayed out of the way of the boarders, after all they didn’t come running to me, a kid, when they had an issue. They went to my father or Missy or Henry, the head groom. But here it was just me and Dad and I was somehow thrust into dealing with these adults and their childish problems. I was quickly learning that some things were best left alone. You couldn’t solve everyone’s problems. After all, I was still learning to solve my own.
“Park over there,” I pointed to the space under the trees by the pen.
Jordan pulled to a stop and then unloaded his horse. Wizard was all black gleaming coat and bright eyes, looking around at his new surroundings. He jumped a little, spooking at Meatball who was chasing a squirrel and gave a little rear.
“He’s not going to be a handful, is he?” I asked as I untacked Arion by the field, hanging my saddle and bridle on the fence and then letting him go. He trotted over to where Wizard was and then snorted and squealed.
Wizard did the same but he was a sweet horse and it was nice to have him here
. Like Jordan was leaving a piece of himself behind when he left as though he’d always be watching over me.
“Was your mom really mad?” I asked him as he put Wizard in the makeshift pen.
“She doesn’t know,” he said.
“She’s not going to turn up here screaming at us to give her the horse back, is she?” I said. “Because more boarders screaming at each other is really the last thing we need.”
“Wizard is my horse,” he said. “That means I can do whatever I want with him.”
That’s what you think, I thought to myself. Because I was pretty sure that when Taylor found out, the very first thing she’d do would be to come over here and demand that we give her the horse back, even if Jordan didn’t think so.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Wizard didn’t settle down as well as I’d hoped he would. He paced the small pen and by the time Jordan had put up the electric fencing, he had worked himself into a sweat despite the cold breeze.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” I asked. “Do you want to put a sheet on him?”
“He’ll be fine,” Jordan said.
He didn’t seem like the sort of person who would fuss over their horse but then again he wouldn’t be the one dealing with Wizard later if he got sick.
“Perhaps he’d like to go in with the other horses?” I said. “I don’t mind as long as he plays nice.”
“And have him kick Bluebird or Arion and get the blame?” Jordan said. “No thanks.”
I knew that he was mostly joking because he was grinning but I also knew that he was kind of serious and probably right. If Wizard injured Bluebird then my place on the Junior Olympic team would be in jeopardy, again.
“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “He’s your horse.”
“I know,” he said. “That is what my mother keeps telling me. She is using him as a weapon to keep me from moving out and that is why he has to go.”
Barn Sour (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 26) Page 8
