Kate was rinsing the suds off a stout pinto pony. “Hey,” she greeted Tommi breathlessly. “You made it. We’re running a little late. But Jamie thinks we can start loading the horses in about an hour or so.”
“Cool.” Tommi glanced around to make sure they were alone. “Listen, can I talk to you about something?”
Kate grabbed a towel and dried her hands. “Sure. What is it?”
Tommi took a deep breath, forcing herself to meet Kate’s eye. They were friends; she didn’t deserve any less. “It’s about Fable.”
“Fable?” Kate looked confused. “What about him?”
“You know Orion’s out of action for Harrisburg, right?”
Kate nodded, her blue eyes sympathetic. “Timing sucks. At least you’ll probably only have to miss the one finals, right?”
“That’s the thing,” Tommi said. “I worked hard to qualify, and I really didn’t want to miss this one. So I arranged with Jamie to, uh, to lease Fable for Harrisburg.”
Kate’s jaw dropped. “What? Um, I mean, wow. I didn’t hear about that.”
“It only got finalized last night.” Tommi watched Kate carefully. “You okay? I would have talked to you about it first, but with the timing …”
“No, forget it, it’s fine. It’s not like you need my permission or whatever.” Kate grabbed a sweat scraper and went to work on the pony, scraping the moisture from its clean coat. “I was just surprised, that’s all. But I’m glad it worked out.”
“Really?” Relief flooded through Tommi’s body. “Awesome. I was afraid you might … Well, I just know how hard you’ve been working with Fable these past few months. He wouldn’t be ready to do an eq final if it wasn’t for you.”
Kate glanced at Tommi over her shoulder. “He’s a cool horse. You know that—you rode him a few times at the beginning of the summer, right?”
“Yeah. That reminds me.” Tommi checked her watch. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on him. I was hoping there might be time to hop on and take him for a quick spin before we leave. What do you think? Is it worth asking Jamie?”
Kate nodded. “Like I said, it’ll be at least an hour before the guys bring the trailers up. I’m not sure where Jamie is, but you could text him.”
Moments later it was settled. Jamie called back and gave permission for Tommi to squeeze in a short ride on Fable. “It’ll probably be good for him,” the trainer said, sounding distracted. “Take the edge off, since he’s just been sitting around eating for most of the past two weeks.”
Tommi thanked him and hung up. Kate was watching her.
“If you want …,” Kate began, then hesitated. “I mean, I just have to finish with this pony, and then I should have a few minutes free. I could come give you some pointers. Not that you need them, but you know …”
“That would be amazing.” Tommi smiled. “You probably know Fable better than anyone at this point. Meet you in the indoor in ten?”
“See you there.”
“Thanks, Kate.” Tommi hurried off, feeling a million times calmer than she had a few minutes earlier.
Twenty minutes later, Kate stood in the center of the ring and watched as Tommi trotted Fable around her. There was only one other rider in the indoor, an older adult rider who didn’t attend the fall shows. She was working on small figure eights at the far end, leaving most of the ring for Tommi. That was a good thing, since Fable was full of energy and didn’t mind letting his rider know it. He blew through an obvious half-halt, bounding from the trot into an exuberant canter.
“Don’t be afraid to be firm with him,” Kate called out. “He likes to test you, but he’ll listen if you convince him it’s worth his while.”
“Got it.” Tommi’s expression was focused and determined as she half-halted again. This time Fable responded well, coming back to trot and rounding up.
“Nice!” Kate called. “That looks great.”
She wasn’t surprised that Tommi was already getting the hang of the big gray gelding. Even though some people seemed to believe that Tommi had bought her way to success in the show ring, Kate knew better. Her friend was talented, brave, and always working hard to become a better rider. She rode anything Jamie offered her, never complaining if a horse had quirks or needed reschooling. She deserved to show that off at Medal Finals instead of having to sit it out. It would be good experience for Fable to compete in one of the big, prestigious finals, too.
Kate bit her lip, trying to ignore the tiny voice bubbling up inside her, reminding her that she was supposed to be the one to give Fable that experience. She was the one who’d worked with him all summer, teaching him what he needed to know, fighting his stubborn streak through countless lessons, riding him to an increasing number of ribbons at the shows. …
She tamped down those feelings as best she could. It didn’t matter. Kate hadn’t qualified for finals. She’d started too late in the season, the horse had been too green at the beginning, and there had been no time or money for last-minute point chasing at the end. Meanwhile, Tommi was qualified and thus able to ride any horse she wanted in the finals. End of story. Kate should be happy for her friend, not resentful or upset.
“Loosen up on your outside rein a little,” she called out as Tommi trotted past again. “Let him carry himself. That’ll tell you he’s ready to go to work.”
Tommi nodded, doing as Kate suggested. After that, she proceeded to canter and even popped over a few fences. When she pulled up a few minutes later, Tommi was smiling.
“Thanks for talking me through that,” she said. “I feel pretty good about this now.”
“You look pretty good. Great, actually.” That was true. And Kate was happy for her friend. Really.
So why did she feel so weird about this?
“Knock knock!” Without waiting for a response, Dani burst through the open door to Zara’s hotel room. “What are you doing?”
Zara hit mute on the TV remote. It was a little after nine thirty on Wednesday evening, and the entire barn had come back from dinner about half an hour earlier.
“Nothing,” Zara said. “You look happy. Are you drunk? And if so, are you planning to share or what?”
Dani giggled. “Not drunk, just psyched to be back at the shows.” She flung herself onto Zara’s bed. “I was bored out of my skull while you guys were at Cap Challenge.”
“So we should celebrate your triumphant return.” Zara grinned. “Party in your room?”
“Funny you should mention parties.” Dani rolled over onto her back, smiling up at Zara. “I was just hanging out with some friends from Top Meadows—”
“Where?”
Dani laughed again. “Right, I forgot you’re still new to the East Coast scene. Top Meadows is this barn in South Jersey. You know that really pretty girl with the Celtic horse tattoo on her wrist? She rides there.”
Zara had no clue what girl Dani was talking about, but that didn’t seem important. “So?” she prompted.
“So Jane heard one of the guy riders from Fordleigh—that’s this other barn in New Jersey—is throwing a party in his room to help kick off junior weekend.”
Junior weekend was the reason they were all there. It started the next day and consisted of three straight days of junior hunter and pony divisions, followed by the Hunter Seat Equitation Medal Finals on Sunday. Zara tossed the remote aside. “So what are we waiting for? Hang on, I need to find my shoes.”
Soon Zara and Dani were hurrying down the hall. “Which room is Tommi in again? Is it number eight or nine?” Dani paused, glancing from one closed door to the other.
“Nine, I think.” Zara raised her hand to knock.
Dani grabbed it. “Wait!” she hissed with a nervous giggle. “Are you sure? We don’t want to knock on, like, Jamie’s door by mistake, or some random person!”
“What, you’re afraid to live dangerously?” Zara shook her hand free and pretended she was going to knock on the door anyway, then pulled back and dug her phone out of her pocket. “Ok
ay, we’ll play it safe.”
She texted Tommi. A few seconds later one of the doors opened.
“See?” Zara told Dani. “I was right.”
“What’s going on?” Tommi asked.
“Party,” Zara replied. “You in?”
Tommi glanced at her watch and shrugged. “Sure, I guess. Probably won’t stay late, though—I want to get over to the show early and work with Fable.”
“We’ll see.” Zara grabbed her arm and dragged her out into the hall.
“Wait!” Tommi protested. “Give me a minute to change—I’m not going like this.”
Belatedly, Zara noticed that Tommi was dressed in flannel pajama pants and slippers. “Fine, but hurry up.”
“It’s room thirty-seven,” Dani told Tommi. “We’ll meet you there.”
As Tommi nodded and disappeared back into her room, Zara glanced at Dani. “Who else should we invite? Where’s Marissa?”
“Doing her makeup,” Dani said. “I’ll hurry her along if you go try to talk to Kate.”
“Kate?” Zara was surprised. “I assumed she’d be back at the show, like, tucking the horses in or whatever.”
Dani shook her head. “She’s in our room, studying. I tried to convince her to come, but she wasn’t into it. Maybe you can change her mind.”
Zara nodded. Kate and Dani often shared rooms at shows to save money, though sometimes Zara wondered why Kate bothered getting a hotel room at all, since she seemed to spend about twenty-three and a half hours a day at the show working.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Zara told Dani. “What’s your room number?”
Soon she was knocking on another door. “It’s open!” Kate called from inside.
When Zara entered, Kate was sitting in the middle of one of the double beds, books and papers spread out around her. She looked stressed, but then that was nothing new. As far as Zara could tell, the girl lived in a constant state of stress.
“Hey, didn’t you hear?” Zara stepped over and flipped Kate’s textbook shut. “No studying allowed after nine p.m. It’s, like, a Pennsylvania state law or something.”
Kate didn’t look amused. “Stop,” she said, flipping through the book. “I really want to finish these problem sets.”
“They’ll wait till tomorrow. We’ve got a party to go to!”
“Sorry.” Kate found her page and huddled over the book. “I already told Dani I can’t go.”
“Says who?” Zara said. “Your math teacher isn’t here, and neither are your parents. Nobody’s going to tattle if you sneak off to have fun for five minutes. So come on—live a little!”
Kate glanced up with a frown. “Easy for you to say,” she snapped. “If I ever want to go to another show, I need to keep my grades up.”
Zara raised both eyebrows, startled by the bite in Kate’s voice. So not like her. Usually the girl was too nice and polite for her own good.
“Whoa,” Zara said. “Sorry, I was just kidding around. But seriously, what’s the big deal? You’ve got all week to study.”
“Not really.” Kate shook her head. “I mean, I’m still behind from Cap Challenge, and if I don’t catch up by the time we get back, my teachers are going to start calling my parents.”
“Yeah?” Zara still didn’t get it. “So they’ll understand, right? Indoors only happens once a year, and it’s a big deal.”
“Not to my parents,” Kate countered. “It’s practically a miracle they even let me come to this one. All they need is an excuse, any excuse at all, and they’ll make me skip the rest of the shows.”
“Wow.” If someone like Marissa or Dani or even Tommi had said the exact same thing, Zara would have assumed she was exaggerating. Kate could be sort of melodramatic at times, but Zara could tell that this time, she was deadly serious. “So your parents are pretty hardcore, huh?”
“They think school is, like, super important.” Kate played with the corner of her textbook, her long blond hair falling forward to hide her face. “They don’t get the horse thing at all.”
“Gotcha.” Zara flopped down on the bed next to her. “Then listen, it’s lucky you know me. I’m probably the world’s number-one expert at hiding bad grades—and all kinds of other stuff—from parents. I can help you.”
Kate looked dubious. “You can?”
“Sure. This one time a couple of years ago I was totally flunking out of math class, and I managed to keep my parents from ever finding out.”
“Really? How’d you do that?”
Zara shrugged. “Well, my dad was easy. He was touring in Australia at the time,” she said. “And of course I just deleted all the e-mails my teacher sent before my parents could get them.”
“Of course.” Kate looked a little shocked.
“Yeah,” Zara said. “And luckily this happened right when all the Oscar buzz was starting up, and I told my mom I overheard some people saying she was a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actress for some dumb-ass spy thriller she had out that year. She forgot I existed for the next two or three weeks, and by then I’d brought the grade up again.”
Kate smiled faintly. “Um, I don’t think the Oscar-buzz thing is going to work on my parents.”
“Good point.” Zara rubbed her chin. “Okay, then there was the time I should’ve gotten in huge trouble for appearing in this skanky tabloid in, let’s just say, not as many clothes as I should’ve had on.”
This time Kate actually laughed. “Wow,” she said. “Um, I’m thinking I wouldn’t have to worry about that one, because if my parents saw something like that they’d both have heart attacks and die.”
Kate actually looked a bit more cheerful. Zara grinned. Hey, at least her wild-child past was good for something.
Zara had left the door ajar when she entered. Now it swung open and Fitz peeked in. “Hey,” he said. “Everybody decent in there?”
“No, but it’s cool. Come on in,” Zara called.
She saw Kate look over at Fitz, her whole face sort of lighting up when she saw him. Cute.
“Did you guys hear about the party in thirty-seven?” Fitz hurried in and dropped a kiss on top of Kate’s head.
“Yeah. I was just trying to talk your girlfriend into going,” Zara said. “She’s not buying it from me, but maybe your hunky manliness will change her mind.”
Fitz grinned and flexed. “I’ll try,” he said in a fake deep voice.
Kate laughed. “Seriously, you guys.” She brushed her hair out of her face. “I should study.”
She didn’t sound quite as convinced as before. Zara glanced at Fitz. “You grab her left arm, I’ve got the other one.”
“Cool.” Fitz caught Kate by the wrist and tugged gently. “Come on, gorgeous. We’ll just go for a little while, and if it’s lame, we’ll leave.”
“But …” Kate hesitated, glancing at her schoolbooks.
Zara gave a yank on Kate’s arm. “We’re not taking no for an answer,” she said. “Look, would it help if I promised to help with your homework tomorrow?”
“You?” Fitz looked skeptical. “Um, last I heard you weren’t exactly an academic superstar.”
Zara stuck out her tongue at him. “Says who? I could be a genius if I wanted to.”
Kate laughed, finally allowing them to pull her off the bed. “Fine, shut up, I’ll go. But only for a few minutes.”
Zara grinned triumphantly. “Awesome! Now hurry, let’s get up there before Dani drinks all the beer.”
Chapter Eleven
An hour later, the party was in full swing. Tommi had found herself a seat on the AC unit under the window, where she was listening without much interest as Marissa and some girl from Ohio whose name she’d forgotten argued over some stupid TV show Tommi had never seen. The hotel room was stuffy and overly warm, laced with the scents of sweat and beer. People were crammed into every corner of the place—it seemed as if every junior attending Harrisburg had turned up. A guy was digging through the minibar, tossing tiny bottles of alcohol, cans of soda, and bags of
peanuts at any cute girl who walked past. A couple was making out on one of the beds as if they were the only ones in the room. Several girls were dancing on the other bed, occasionally falling off to raucous laughter. The music was loud enough that Tommi couldn’t believe the other hotel guests hadn’t complained yet.
“This is great, isn’t it?” Marissa shouted into her ear.
Tommi forced a smile. “Sure,” she said. “But I think I should—”
Marissa had already turned away to shout something at the other girl. A second later she jumped to her feet.
“Need another beer?” she asked Tommi.
Tommi shook her head and held up her bottle, which was still at least two-thirds full. She wasn’t in the mood for getting drunk tonight. Not with the Large Juniors starting tomorrow. For some reason Toccata always seemed to find the ring at Harrisburg particularly distracting, and Tommi would need to be on her toes. Besides that, she meant what she’d said about wanting to get on Fable early. Her test ride that afternoon had gone pretty well, but “pretty well” wouldn’t take her far in the eq finals. If she was going to compete, she wanted to be ready to do her best.
The girl from Ohio was chattering to some guy who’d just wandered over. Marissa danced off toward the bathroom, where beer was chilling in the tub. Left alone, Tommi sneaked a peek at her watch, thinking about calling it a night.
She glanced at the door, trying to estimate the best path through the hordes of partying juniors. At that moment it swung open and three more people came in. One of them was Scott Papadakis.
Suddenly Tommi felt a lot more interested in the party. She watched as Scott traded high fives with a few of the other partiers and stopped to chat with a cluster of girls near the TV. Halfway to the bathroom door, he noticed Tommi watching him.
He stopped short and leaned over to say something to his friends. They both turned and stared at Tommi with interest. Then Scott peeled off and came toward her.
“Hey,” he said when he reached her. “What’s up, Tommi?”
“Not much.” She took a sip of her beer. “Quite a party, huh?”
The A Circuit 04- Rein It In Page 10
