The A Circuit

by Georgina Bloomberg

  “Yeah, I can tell time.” Zara pushed her sunglasses up her nose. “Sorry, my bad. It happens, so let’s get over it, okay?”

  She was aware that most of the other riders were watching her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dani roll her eyes. Bitch.

  Jamie frowned at Zara. “Enough,” he snapped. “Every word you say just wastes more time, and you don’t have any to spare. You’ll have to warm up at the far end and join us when you’re ready. I don’t know how things worked at your previous barn, but here we don’t hold up the whole class for one rider.”

  “Burn!” Dani whispered loudly, and Marissa giggled.

  Zara scowled. Who the hell did Jamie think he was? He was her trainer, not her nanny. She was just about ready to turn around, march right back out of the ring, and just keep going.

  Then Fitz rode past. “Hurry up, Zara,” he called with a grin. “You don’t want to miss all the fun!”

  Zara got a little distracted as she watched him trot off. He looked even hotter with those long legs wrapped around a horse. It would be nice to have some eye candy in a lesson for a change.

  Jamie stood up to clear the mounting block. But Zara ignored him, yanking down her stirrups and then swinging on from the ground. She hadn’t done that in a while, and Ellie was taller than her old hunter, so she had to grab some serious mane to pull herself up. Ellie danced around a little, tossing her head, but by then Zara was aboard.

  “Come on, mare,” she muttered, turning Ellie’s head toward the far end. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Ellie resisted, setting her neck against the rein. But Zara wasn’t in any mood for her antics. She gave her a sharp kick with both heels, which sent the mare flying forward with her head up.

  “Easy!” Jamie chided. “We talked about this last time, Zara. Ellie likes a soft hand and a light seat until she loosens up, or you’ll end up fighting each other the whole time.”

  Zara just scowled, not bothering to answer. But as soon as the trainer turned away to watch the others, she gave the mare a quick scratch on the withers. “Sorry, girlie,” she whispered under her breath.

  Twenty minutes later, Kate was near tears. She’d had a disastrous lesson so far, starting with Fable nearly dumping her at the mounting block when a couple of the barn dogs had raced past outside the ring. And things weren’t getting any better. She was having trouble controlling the big, strong gelding, who was in an especially frisky mood. He ran through her aids, overjumped easy fences, and bucked through almost every lead change.

  “Try it again, Kate,” Jamie called as she brought Fable back to a trot after their latest attempt. “Shoulders back, and stay focused. See if you can get him a little softer this time.”

  Kate braced herself as she saw Fable’s ears perk toward a four-foot vertical farther down the ring and felt him start to drag her toward it. Somehow she managed to get him turned toward the first jump in the current exercise, all too aware of six pairs of eyes watching her. Normally they would have moved on to doing courses by now, or at least some more challenging gymnastics or something. Kate had the sick feeling that she was one of the main reasons they were sticking with the current easy exercise, making her feel like a beginner who’d never ridden anything more challenging than the mechanical horse outside the local supermarket.

  “Stay cool, you’re doing fine,” Tommi whispered as Kate rode past. She was sitting on Legs, who was standing calmly on a loose rein despite his reputation as a firecracker.

  Just then Kate heard a commotion somewhere behind her. Glancing back, she saw that Zara’s mare was acting up again. She was the other reason they hadn’t moved on; Ellie was tense and resistant and had actually refused a fence or two. Now the mare was backing up rapidly, shaking her head against Zara’s hands.

  “Hold up a second, Kate!” Jamie called.

  Kate turned off the track to the fence, circling back around to where the others were waiting. Summer was sitting on her horse beside Tommi and Legs. “You need to relax, Kate,” Summer said. “Your shoulders look really tense. You should try counting your strides out loud to keep yourself calm.”

  Kate didn’t answer. She was breathing deeply, trying to stop herself from totally melting down.

  “You okay?” Tommi asked.

  Kate just nodded, afraid to speak. She bent to fiddle with her stirrup leather to avoid having to meet her friend’s eye. Summer was still blabbing her stupid advice, something about her heels this time.

  But Kate barely heard her. As she sat up, she caught Fitz looking at her. He smiled and shot her a thumbs-up. You can do it, he mouthed.

  Luckily Jamie had things under control with Ellie already. He turned back to the others. “Sorry about that,” he called. “Try again, Kate.”

  Sucking in one last deep breath, Kate sent Fable into motion, Fitz’s smile giving her back a little of the confidence she’d found before the lesson. This time she was determined to do it right.

  Zara watched sullenly as Kate and the big gray she was riding cleared the line. They looked a lot better this time. Great. That meant Zara was the only remedial case in the lesson, thanks to her hyper mare.

  “What’s wrong with you, anyway?” Zara muttered as Ellie tried to yank the reins out of her hands.

  “Your turn, Zara,” Jamie called. “Nice and easy. Trot a circle first to make sure she’s accepting your aids.”

  Zara squeezed Ellie into a trot, sending her around in a big, loopy circle in front of the line. Or at least that was what she tried to do. The mare veered off the circle when she saw the jump, popping her shoulder and trying to pull toward it.

  “Quit it!” Zara exclaimed, tugging at the mare’s mouth to get her back on the circle.

  Ellie protested by flinging her head straight up, fighting to escape the bit. She ended up scooting sideways with her head twisted to the side.

  “Easy with your hands!” Jamie called.

  Zara let out a string of curses as she tried everything she could to get Ellie back under control. But the mare kept going, skittering sideways like some demented dressage horse.

  “Watch it!” Dani exclaimed as Ellie almost crashed into her Thoroughbred, who was always a little amped. He responded by jumping forward, then letting a hind leg fly in Ellie’s direction.

  The kick didn’t connect, but it spooked Ellie. She leaped suddenly in the opposite direction, jerking Zara along with her and making her lose both her stirrups and her balance. Before she could recover, the mare yanked her head down and bucked like a rodeo star.

  “Oof!” Zara hit the ground hard, landing flat on her back.

  Jamie was at her side in seconds. “Don’t move,” he ordered.

  She ignored him, shoving herself into a sitting position. “I’m fine,” she muttered, grabbing her sunglasses. They’d landed in the dirt beside her, miraculously still in one piece.

  “Oh my God!” Summer exclaimed. “Zara, are you okay? That was sooo scary!”

  Jumping to her feet before the trainer could stop her, Zara shook off the arena dirt. She was going to have one hell of a bruise on her ass tomorrow, but otherwise nothing was hurt except her pride. Coming off in her first group lesson? Yeah, really epic way to introduce herself to her new barn.

  Ellie had stopped nearby. Zara hurried over and grabbed the mare’s flapping reins. “Hold still, horse,” she ordered. Running on adrenaline, she launched herself up into the saddle.

  “Zara, wait,” Jamie said. “I think you’d better—”

  Zara didn’t give him time to finish. Jamming her feet into the stirrups, she kicked Ellie into a trot. Aiming her at the largest jump in the ring, a four-footer that Jamie had been ignoring, Zara sent the mare into a brisk canter.

  “Zara!” Jamie yelled.

  But they were already at the jump. Ellie pricked her ears as they approached, and for a second Zara thought she might stop. She gave her a nudge and a growl, and the mare gathered herself and flew over.

  There, Zara thought as t
hey landed. That should show everyone that she could ride in spite of that stupid fall.

  “Zara, stop!” Jamie ordered, striding forward to grab Ellie’s bridle as they circled back around.

  “Uh-oh. Wave good-bye, Zara,” Dani whispered to Fitz, probably a little more loudly than she’d intended.

  Zara shot the other girl a glare. Fine. So what if Jamie kicked her out of the lesson? The important thing was that she’d made her point—on her own terms.

  She glanced down at the trainer, trying to hide her emotions. Jamie stared back, looking strangely thoughtful. Finally he let go of the bridle.

  “That really wasn’t necessary,” he told her calmly. “Let’s not pull anything like that again—consider this your warning. Now get back in line.”

  For a second Zara wasn’t sure whether to tell him off, laugh in his face, or jump Ellie right out of the ring and never come back. But something in Jamie’s eyes made her think that none of those things would be a good idea right now. Sure, she was already pretty sure he was too uptight for her. But if she left this place, she wanted it to be on her terms. Not get kicked out for mouthing off. The last time that had happened, her parents had grounded her from riding for over a month.

  “Whatever,” she muttered under her breath, riding over to take her place with the others.

  “That was quite a lesson, huh?” Marissa commented to Tommi, shooting a look in Zara’s direction as they all walked their horses back to the barn.

  Tommi was watching Kate, who was leading Fable a few yards ahead. The big gray had finally calmed down a little toward the end of the lesson. Still, Tommi knew Kate well enough to be sure she wasn’t happy with their performance.

  But Kate would recover and learn from the bad ride, like she always did. Zara was another story. Tommi wasn’t sure what she’d do next. She’d blown into the quiet, professional atmosphere of the barn like a tornado, and seemed just as unpredictable.

  “Yeah,” Tommi said to Marissa. “I’m surprised Jamie’s putting up with her garbage. Any of us would’ve been grounded for pulling a stunt like that.”

  Marissa shrugged. “Maybe he’s afraid to get after her ’cause she’s a celebrity.”

  “Doubtful. Since when is Jamie afraid of anybody?” Tommi had no idea why Jamie was cutting Zara so much slack. Maybe he was just giving her a chance to settle in before he whipped her entitled little ass into shape.

  Whatever, Tommi figured it wasn’t her business, so she tried to forget about it as she took care of Legs. He’d performed well, mostly ignoring the craziness. That made Tommi more anxious than ever to find out what her father thought of her business plan. He’d been at some kind of meeting in White Plains for a couple of days, leaving town before she got up on Monday. But he was due back sometime that afternoon.

  Half an hour later Legs was settled in his stall. Tommi gave him one last pat, slipped him a peppermint, then headed around the corner to the main aisle.

  Most of the others from the lesson group were hanging out near the tack room. Fitz waved as Tommi approached.

  “Ready for pizza?” he asked.

  Tommi had almost forgotten about their summertime tradition of Tuesday-night post-lesson pizza. For a second she was tempted to beg off, wanting to head home and wait for her father. But why bother? He’d call or text her when he was ready to discuss it. Might as well distract herself in the meantime.

  “Sure,” she said. “I’m in.”

  “Cool.” Fitz grinned. “I was just telling Zara about it. She’s not sure she wants to hang out with us losers, but I think I’ve almost convinced her to give it a try.”

  Tommi knew he was just joking around, but that didn’t stop her stress from spiking as she glanced at Zara. “I don’t know, doesn’t really seem like her kind of scene,” she said. “The press won’t be there to cover it or anything.”

  “Funny,” Zara shot back with a scowl. “That the best insult you could buy with all your daddy’s billions, Tommi?”

  “Shut up.” Tommi glared back. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “Ditto.”

  “Guys,” Kate spoke up, sounding nervous, “take it easy, okay?”

  “Yeah,” Marissa put in. “Let’s just order the pizza and have fun.”

  Fitz nodded. “Zara, you like mushrooms?”

  Zara didn’t answer right away, and for a second Tommi thought she was about to storm out. But then her mouth twisted into a humorless half smile. “Yeah, but not on my pizza,” she said. “Pepperoni for me.”

  Tommi rolled her eyes. However long it took for Zara’s antics to get her kicked out of the barn, it couldn’t be too soon.

  ELEVEN

  Kate was thinking back over everything she’d done wrong in the lesson when Fitz slid onto the bench beside her. “What’s up?” he asked, nudging her with one elbow. “Something wrong with your pizza?”

  “Huh?” Kate blinked at him, then glanced down at the untouched slice in her hand. “Um, no. Just not very hungry, I guess.”

  She set the pizza down on the bench and wiped her hand on a napkin. The tack room had turned into a party. The pizza boxes sitting on the big bandage trunk in the center of the room were half empty. Summer and Marissa were over by the bridle wall laughing at something Zara was saying, while Dani was leaning against a saddle rack talking to Tommi. Hugo, Chaucer, and a couple of the other dogs were circling like sharks, hoping for their share of the pizza.

  Fitz crammed the rest of his slice into his mouth. “Food of the gods,” he pronounced after he’d chewed and swallowed. “So you and Fable ready to kick the eq world’s ass, or what?”

  Kate grimaced. “If I keep riding like I did today, I couldn’t even win a short-stirrup class.”

  “Come on.” Fitz licked tomato sauce off his fingers. “You did fine. Even Jamie would’ve had his hands full when Fable was in that kind of mood.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Kate stared into space, in too serious a funk to pay much attention to the way Fitz was leaning toward her, their shoulders almost touching. “I feel like Jamie has all this faith in me, but I’m not sure I can live up to it, you know?”

  “Jamie’s not a moron,” Fitz said, tossing a stray bit of crust into Hugo’s eager mouth. “If he thinks you can do this, who are you to question him?” He grinned.

  Kate forced a weak smile. “I guess. But everybody’s wrong sometimes, right?”

  “Ah, Kate. So beautiful and yet so down on yourself. It’s tragic.” Fitz shook his head. “I think maybe it’s time for a reality check. You weren’t around yet when I started doing the eq, which means you didn’t get to see me the time the judge called for us to ride without stirrups in the flat phase and I fell off. At the walk.”

  “Really?” Kate stared at him, not sure whether to believe him or not. “What’d Jamie say?”

  “He pretended he didn’t know me. For like a week.” Fitz grinned and stood up just long enough to grab himself another slice of pizza. “Then there was the time I had to do a rollback to a skinny vertical. My horse decided it would rather swerve past the second jump and jump the first one again, backward this time. I ended up hanging halfway off his neck over the top, and on the other side he bucked me off into a bunch of flower pots that were decorating another jump.”

  This time Kate was pretty sure he had to be exaggerating at the very least. But Marissa had turned to listen. “I remember that,” she said with a laugh. “You looked like some kind of cartoon character with those flowers on your head.”

  “No way. I looked sexy. Daisies are totally masculine.” Fitz took another bite of pizza. “But wait,” he said through a half-chewed mouthful, “I almost forgot about the time I mounted my very first Short Stirrup pony backward. Rode half the course before I realized my mistake.”

  By now everyone else in the room had turned to listen, too. Kate laughed along with the others. Okay, so she was pretty sure that last story wasn’t true. But weirdly enough, Fitz’s tall tales were already ma
king her feel a little better.

  Yeah, she’d been less than stellar today. So what? It wasn’t the first time she’d felt like she didn’t know what she was doing. And it wouldn’t be the last. That was life with horses. She’d just have to work harder and ride better next time.

  Halfway across the room, Zara wasn’t thinking much about riding. She’d put the bad lesson out of her head as soon as it ended. Why dwell?

  “Fitz is a riot, isn’t he?” Dani said as they listened to him start another long, humorous story about embarrassing himself in the ring. “Only like half of what he says is true. But all of it’s usually pretty entertaining.”

  “Yeah, he’s pretty cool.” Zara watched Fitz gesture wildly along with his story. She noticed he was sitting awfully close to Kate and wondered if he had something going with her. “Do you know if he’s seeing anyone?” she asked Dani.

  Dani rolled her eyes. “Always,” she said. “He’s a total player.”

  “Oh, yeah? You know that from personal experience?”

  Dani giggled. “You could say that. He’s a lot of fun as long as you aren’t looking for anything serious.”

  “Interesting.”

  Dani shot her a sidelong look. “Go for it, Zara,” she said. “It’s practically, like, a rite of passage to ride here.” She giggled again. “Once you’ve been Fitzed, you’ll totally be one of us!”

  Zara laughed. Okay, maybe this girl wasn’t a bitch after all. In fact, everyone was being pretty nice to her. Maybe trying to make up for Tommi’s freak-out before the party.

  She shot a look at Tommi, who was standing by herself sucking on a soda. Her eyes were a million miles away. Zara shrugged and tuned back in on Fitz.

  “… so after that disaster, I had to lie low for a while, since nobody here would talk to me, or admit they rode with me,” he was telling Kate.

  Summer’s eyes opened wide. “Seriously?” she said. “That’s sooo mean!”

  Marissa giggled. “He’s lying, Summer,” she said. “You know how you can tell when he’s lying?”