Competing for the Cup

by Bobbi J. G. Weiss

  “I think somebody else might want to have a turn at being it,” Nav said.

  Overwhelmed with joy, Kit hurried to TK, but not so fast that she might scare him away. “Thanks for coming out, boy,” she said, petting his nose. “I missed you.”

  Anya watched from the side, happy to see Kit so relieved. She herself had a close relationship with her chestnut gelding, Ducky, but not like Kit and TK. She and Ducky were more like a two-person sports team, joined by the joy of performing in the ring. Ducky was talented. He was a show-off, too. It made Anya’s job easier that he always did his best simply because he liked to. But they weren’t heart-to-heart buddies, at least not like Kit and TK.

  As Anya thought about Ducky while watching Kit and TK’s reunion, Josh ambled over to her. “Hey, Columbo, Prince,” he said, greeting the horses standing nearby. “And Princess,” he said, turning to Anya. “Hey, have you seen Will?”

  Every nerve in Anya’s body buzzed up to high alert. Instead of answering him, she glanced around, checking for anyone who might be in hearing distance before whispering, “What did you just say?”

  “Oh, right,” Josh said. “You hate when I call you that, which is kind of weird because my little sister makes me call her Princess.”

  Anya didn’t care about Josh’s little sister. Her entire career at Covington was at stake. And she had been so careful! “Who told you?” she demanded. “How did you find out?”

  For a moment, Josh said nothing. Anya waited for him to confess that he’d hacked her computer or gone through her belongings in order to discover her secret, but all he finally said was, “Um . . . I can’t tell you because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Anya didn’t believe that for a second. “Every time you see me, you tease me about it!”

  “No, not every time —”

  “And I can’t take it anymore! It’s like blackmail!”

  At that, Josh took a step back. “Wait, okay, if it’s like blackmail, then shouldn’t I be getting something for —?”

  His babbling made Anya want to scream. “You got me. All right? You win! My dad’s the maharaja, which makes me the princess!”

  Anya had to give Josh credit for faking surprise so well. His eyes bugged, his mouth dropped open, and he made a high piercing noise like “Whaau!” that could have shattered glass. “What?” he managed to say clearly after spluttering a few more nonword sounds of astonishment. “Dude, that is sick! So you’re, like, a princess?”

  Why, oh, why did he keep saying that word? “Shhhh!” Anya ordered, doing her best to shoot daggers out of her eyes.

  Josh shushed.

  Anya desperately wondered what to do. She liked Josh, she really did, because he was fun to be around and he made her laugh. He had also offered her friendship, and she cherished it. But had he just been acting all nice and sweet, all the while knowing that he could shatter her lifelong dream at any moment? Had he been teasing her all along on purpose? Or was he really so dense that he had never known the truth but had just stumbled upon it? She thought she knew him, but she realized she really didn’t. People could surprise you, especially when secrets were involved. She knew that from hard experience.

  There was no way around it. She had to take charge and show him who was boss. She had to make him understand that this wasn’t a game or a funny joke — it was her life.

  She grabbed his arm with both hands. “I don’t know how you found out, but I need your silence. I need you to swear on your life.” When he only babbled as if he didn’t understand, she squeezed, curling her fingers so that they jabbed into his flesh. “Swear!” Yes, she was a princess, but she was a princess who did her own physical work these days, now that she was at Covington. She lugged saddles around and mucked out stalls just like everybody else. She’d built up some pretty impressive muscles and had promised herself to never allow wealth and privilege to make her weak ever again.

  Josh hopped in pain, crying out, “Ah! I swear! I swear! I swear on my life!”

  She let go. Her fingers ached from gripping so hard, but she had made her point. Josh had sworn himself to secrecy.

  “Oww.” Josh gently shook his arm out. “Dude, you’re as bad as Elaine.”

  Over by the stable, Kit was snuggling happily against TK’s neck when Nav set a stepladder down next to her. “What’s that for?” she asked.

  Nav replied, “I think you should try.”

  “Try what?” Kit asked, trying to sound innocent.

  “Well, TK was scared, but he found his courage. Can you find yours?”

  It was a direct challenge, and Nav was right to make that challenge. Kit knew it was time for her get back on the horse, literally. “Oh,” she said, wringing her hands. “Oh, boy. Uh, all right.” She gingerly climbed up to the top step as TK stood patiently. He wasn’t saddled, so at least there were no stirrups to get caught up in, should she fall. Kit grasped a fistful of his mane with her left hand, put her right hand on his far hip, leaned forward, and jumped . . .

  Meanwhile, in the tack room, Will approached Rudy’s desk and set down a file. He’d been working extra hard lately, trying to ease his guilt about Rudy’s injury. Rudy wasn’t aware of just how much he knew about horses and running a stable, and he could take over certain duties to ease Rudy’s burden for a while. “These are the vaccination records for stable two,” he said.

  Rudy glanced up from his paperwork, looking surprised and pleased by Will’s efficiency. “Thanks. Good work —” He was interrupted by what sounded like a party outside, especially one particular high-pitched laugh.

  “What’s that?” Will asked, glancing at the door.

  “That,” Rudy said, setting down his pen, “is the sound my kid used to make when she was going down the big slide.” He struggled to his feet and reached for his cane. “Oh, I’ve got to see this.”

  Will helped him hobble to the door. When they got to the outer courtyard, they were greeted by the sight of Nav standing next to TK, while atop the horse, sitting straight and proud — and grinning like a loon — was Kit.

  “Unbelievable!” Rudy said. “What a brave kid!”

  Kit felt brave, all right, but more than that, she felt complete again. Clever Nav, he must have known that the connection between horse and rider wasn’t just a mental thing. It was physical as well. Getting on TK was an accomplishment for her, but doing so bareback had been an accomplishment for TK. He had shown none of his usual skittishness but had stood still, as if he’d decided now was the right time to heal their relationship. Like electricity, Kit thought, patting TK’s neck and feeling the raw energy within him. You don’t get a spark unless both wires come together!

  With a final pat, she slid off TK’s back and ran to her dad. She hugged him as he said, “I am so proud of you!”

  Kit next hugged a very surprised Nav. “Thank you so much!” she said to him. “I never would have been able to do it without you!”

  Nav smiled so hard that he was in danger of damaging his facial muscles. “My pleasure,” he gushed. “Truly.”

  Neither of them noticed Will still standing by the stable door, alone, his expression blank as he took in the scene. He tried not to be jealous of Nav, but he was, and it hurt. He wanted to be the one who helped Kit. He liked her a lot more than he’d thought, a lot more than he should, and it probably wasn’t a good thing. All he ever managed to do was get in trouble, while Kit was trying to seriously accomplish something with her life. He grew more and more disappointed with himself as he mulled over those dark thoughts.

  Someone took his arm. “I need to talk to you.” Rather roughly, Elaine pulled him into the stable.

  “Whoa, what do you want?” Will asked, annoyed.

  “It was Nav,” she declared.

  Will blinked. “What? Who told you that?”

  “Oh, please. As if I didn’t recognize the old wheel of suspects routine where one of you blames the next who blames the next until I’m left with twenty suspects instead of one.”
r />   Will wasn’t in the mood for this. “You’re crazy,” he said.

  She just smirked. “But you made a classic blunder. You forgot to blame the actual culprit. You see, everyone was blamed except for Nav.”

  Will had to admit that Elaine’s chain of logic was flawless. She was just basing her logic on the wrong assumptions.

  “I’m telling Lady C everything,” Elaine finished boldly.

  “Oh —” Will said, searching for the right words. If Kit ever found out he was involved in the Guy Fawkes incident, his life would get even darker than it already was. “Oh, you can’t do that.”

  “Oh, I can! I’m just warning you so you can duck.”

  As Elaine walked away, looking full of misplaced confidence, Will tried to think what to do. All for one and one for all — that was the agreement the Juniper boys had made, but thanks to Elaine, it was falling apart. Should he call the guys together during his work break and arrange a group confession before Elaine told the headmistress? Maybe their punishment would be less harsh if they came forward instead of getting nailed by a third party. But Kit would never forgive him if she found out he was responsible for her dad’s injury. If only Elaine would mind her own business!

  Irritated, he went back to the tack room, where he found Rudy in high spirits. “Did you see that?” Rudy crowed. “Kit and that horse have come so far so fast!” But then his joy turned to pain as he placed the saddle he was holding on a saddle rack for cleaning. His injured leg buckled, and he almost fell.

  “You should really get off that foot for a while,” Will advised.

  “Ah, I’m too excited. You’ll understand when you become a dad. You lose all sense of cool when your kid succeeds.”

  Great. Fathers and sons. Just one more subject to make Will’s heart sink further. “Yeah,” he said, and resumed his job cleaning tack.

  “What about your folks?” Rudy asked. “Are they coming down for the House Cup? I hear most of them do.”

  Ah, yes, there it was, the core of that particular set of troubles. Will usually kept mum regarding his family. He didn’t like to talk about them. But Rudy had grown on him, almost like a father-away-from-home. “My dad’s got a new baby,” he found himself saying, brushing the dirt off a riding helmet perhaps a little too hard. “And his wife, the dread Tanya, won’t let him go anywhere. Not that he minds.”

  A moment passed before Rudy asked, “What about your mom?”

  “She’s in Thailand, I think,” Will said, brushing the helmet even harder. “Or Bali. I don’t know. I lose track.”

  “Well, just remember that you’ll have your housemates there cheering for you, and at least one equestrian supervisor with no sense of cool.” Rudy patted Will on the shoulder.

  The touch felt like a father’s touch. It made all the emotions churning around in Will’s chest flare up like evil firecrackers — longing, loneliness, frustration, rejection, and guilt, lots and lots of guilt. He felt guilt for disappointing his father, though he didn’t even know how he might have done that, and guilt for making his mother want to leave the family and the country, though he didn’t know how he’d done that, either, and on top of all that, guilt for having injured the equestrian supervisor, who was the first man who had ever shown an interest in him as a person rather than seeing him as a burden. Will thought he might explode.

  He shot to his feet. “I have something to tell you.”

  Rudy turned around.

  “I’m the one who did it.” The words felt like ashes in Will’s mouth. “I caused the whole thing. I didn’t think anything bad would happen. We just wanted to win. I didn’t think it through.” He cringed, figuring that Rudy would get angry. He was right.

  “You don’t mess with the horses’ living environment!” Rudy yelled, looking shocked by the admission. “They’re stuck — they can’t run!”

  “I know! It was really stupid, I get that now, and I’m sorry!” Will waited to get chewed out more, but Rudy just turned his back on him. That was it, then. Will and Rudy had had something good going. Now it was gone, and it was his own fault. “You must really hate me,” Will said.

  “No,” Rudy replied, drawing out the word so that it sounded like a sigh. “It takes character to admit when you’ve done something wrong.”

  “It would have been better to just not do it in the first place.”

  “Yeah, and it would be better if I won the lottery and didn’t have to dig out a stall for the rest of my life, but that’s not the world we’re living in, is it?”

  Nearby, in TK’s stall, Kit was beside herself with joy. “My big, brave handsome boy, I am so super-mega-crazy proud of you!”

  TK tossed his head and whinnied as if in agreement.

  “Oh,” Kit said. “And so modest.” She exited the stall and closed the door. “Now, you get all your beauty sleep, because there are more fun times to be had tomorrow.”

  Head toss, whinny, grunt, grunt, whuffle!

  Kit laughed, imagining that TK wasn’t just looking forward to tomorrow. He had definite plans of his own for fun times, and she couldn’t wait! As she hung his lead rope on a hook, she heard a voice from the tack room. It was Will. “I know, I know — I have to tell Lady Covington.”

  Then her dad said, “Well, no one else can do it for you.”

  Curious, Kit opened the tack room door and peeked inside. She saw her father sitting on the edge of his desk, arms folded. He did not look happy as Will’s voice continued: “So I just go in and say, ‘All right, Lady Covington! I’m the one who stole all the Guys and hid them in the ceiling, so I’m responsible for Mr. Bridges’s accident and for spooking all of the horses and everything and —’” He stopped when Kit opened the door all the way. “Kit . . .”

  She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Will? All along it had been Will? “How could you do this?” she cried, and fled the room.

  This is so wrong! Kit thought in a daze, passing stall after stall, walking as fast as she could with no idea where she was going. She didn’t care, as long as it was away from Will Palmerston. Of all the people to pull such a horrible stunt, he was the one? And all this time, he had hidden it from her, during all those hours that night with her at the hospital, all the classes they’d had together since then, all the meals they had shared, and all the times when they’d just smiled at each other as they’d passed in the hallways? She was so angry! No, that’s not a strong enough word, she thought. I’m furious! I’m enraged!

  “Kit!” Will yelled from behind her. “Kit, stop! Please! It was an accident!”

  Accident? The word made her whirl around, fists balled. “Oh, so you accidentally stole every other house’s Guy?”

  Will caught up with her. “No, I guess not,” he admitted.

  “So the accident part was when you accidentally hid them in an incredibly dangerous place with the horses?”

  “I know!” Will said. “It was a really big mistake!”

  Kit saw the pain and guilt in his eyes and tried to calm down. At least he knew what a stupendous jerk he’d been. But she deserved to have her say. “Everyone makes mistakes — I get that. I really do.”

  That surprised him. “Yeah?”

  “But you didn’t make a mistake,” she went on. “A mistake is forgetting your textbook or setting your hair on fire in eighth-grade science.”

  Will paused. “That happened?”

  So not what she wanted to explain. “It was a Thursday, third period. David Kempton laughed so hard, he fell off his stool. But the point is, I didn’t hurt another person or an animal!”

  “I didn’t know all that would happen —”

  Kit didn’t let him finish. He wasn’t allowed to defend himself. This was her rightful chance to react to the full scope of what he had done, and he was going to listen. “What were you even thinking?” she demanded. “The horses could have been hurt, too!”

  “I know —”

  “Like, seriously hurt! What if it was Wayne? Or Prince? Or any of them?”<
br />
  “I didn’t know the roof would cave in. I didn’t think.”

  And now came the core of it all. She had to say it out loud, as if to purge her heart of all the fear and worry that she’d been carrying around since that fateful bonfire night. “TK is afraid again. Of everything! And my dad’s foot got fractured. They’re all I’ve got!” That made her cringe. How had her life gotten so small that her “family” consisted of one man and a horse? And the mother she no longer had . . . “I can’t just pretend that this didn’t happen,” she finished quietly. There. I said it, she thought. Now please apologize, Will. Apologize and end this mess, okay?

  Will’s jaw clenched. He stared off to one side, unable to face her.

  Please, Will. I can’t do it. You have to. Say you’re sorry so we can start over again. Show me that our friendship is strong enough to handle this, please! I need you to do this for me!

  Will remained silent.

  The moment passed.

  “Right.” Tears stung at Kit’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Quite the contrary — she stood straighter, set her shoulders back, and said, “See you around.” She forced herself to turn and leave with controlled, purposeful strides.

  She didn’t hear Will say softly, only after she was gone, “I’m sorry.”

  Nav showed up, dressed for his afternoon ride on Prince. “Hey, Will,” he said. Then, seeing Will’s expression, he asked, “Everything okay?”

  “Just back off,” Will snarled, walking away.

  “If you need to kick some walls,” Nav called after him, “do it on your side of the room!”

  Wednesday came around, and Kit found herself at another afternoon tea in Lady Covington’s spotless office.

  By now Kit knew the drill: how to dress properly, how to act, and what things to compliment, such as the beautiful fern that the headmistress grew by the window or the lovely quality of the tea (which she couldn’t actually taste, but that didn’t matter — the compliment did). “These tiny sandwiches are just delicious, Lady Covington,” she said super politely.