Star Pupil (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 4)

by Claire Svendsen

  I don’t know how long I sat there in the dark and cold but the music still droned on in the distance and I wasn’t going back until I was sure that the whole ordeal was over. Then I heard voices. Low and whispering in the darkness.

  “You didn’t give him enough last time. I’m not paying you to make me look like a fool.”

  “It’s all right for you. This is my job. If I get caught then I’ll be fired. Then what?”

  “You said you’d take care of it. We had an agreement. You can’t back out now.”

  “Do you know how hard it is to do something around here without somebody noticing? There are people everywhere all the time.”

  “Well you’d better figure something out. I wouldn’t want to have to tell Miguel about your little problem.”

  I crept to the edge of the stall and listened. It was Jess and the black haired groom and they were talking about drugging Blue Midnight. I’d been right all along only I didn’t feel vindicated at all. I just felt sick again. Jess would do anything to get to the top including trampling over people and horses on her way up. Maybe exposing this scandal would be the very thing that would put a stop to her once and for all but I needed concrete evidence. Proof.

  “He’s getting too much,” the groom whispered angrily. “He’s building a tolerance. If I keep increasing his dose, I could kill him.”

  “You kill him and my father will have your head on a platter,” Jess snapped.

  “Why? Just collect the insurance money and move on to another one.”

  “You know as well as I do that you can’t collect insurance money on a dead horse. After all, you were the one who helped me get him in the first place.”

  “And I’m sorry I ever did.”

  “Just quit moaning and do what we agreed.”

  “Look, I can’t. It’s my day off tomorrow. We get one day a week and Miguel insists that we don’t come anywhere near the barn. If he sees me hanging around then it’s going to look suspicious.”

  “I don’t care,” Jess said.

  “I’ll get caught,” the groom sounded frantic. “You can tell Miguel whatever you want but I can’t be here tomorrow. Don’t worry though, I scored you this.”

  I peeked through the bars and saw him hand Jess a white tube.

  “What is it?” she said.

  “Something to keep him calm. You don’t even have to inject it. Just stick it under his tongue before you ride and you’ll be good to go.”

  The door to the lounge opened and a couple of people spilled out into the barn aisle laughing, their voices echoing loudly through the dark night.

  “I have to go,” the groom whispered.

  He slipped away and Jess was left standing there with a tube of what I didn’t know. She looked at it for a moment, then put it in her little sequined bag. I wanted to burst out of Bluebird’s stall and tell her this was madness. That drugging her horse was only going to get him hurt or her killed. It wasn’t worth it. But I knew that just as winning was everything to me because I didn’t have the money to get ahead on my own, winning was everything to Jess because her father had drummed it into her head since she was born. She’d once told me that Eastford’s were winners and I knew that nothing I said would make any difference at all. For a moment I tried to imagine what her life must be like but even if I had all the money in the world and a father who would punish me if I didn’t win, I’d never harm a horse. Not in a million years. I’d rather die.

  Still that didn’t mean I wasn’t bursting out of my skin to tell someone, feeling vindicated that I had been right all along. Becka was still inside the lounge and the party seemed to have reached epic proportions. The lights had been dimmed and someone had broken out a stack of glow sticks. It was like a mini rave happening right there in the barn.

  I pushed through people looking for Becka. Hadley was spinning around with a girl whose name I couldn’t remember, their faces a blur in the flashing light.

  “Have you seen Becka?” I shouted over the music but they didn’t hear me. Just continued to spin and dance.

  At this rate no one was going to be any use at all on the back of their horses tomorrow. Maybe that was Miguel’s big plan. Weed out the serious riders from the ones who would rather just party. Peter was over by the food table looking all red and sweaty. Three girls were hanging around him, hovering like flies over a manure patch.

  “Have you seen Becka?” I asked him.

  “No,” he said.

  Then I heard voices rising and falling above the music, rolling towards us like a wave. And in my heart I knew that something bad was about to go down.

  I pushed through people, trying to get to Becka. I knew that she wouldn’t back down and if Jess provoked her then there would be a flat out fight right there in the middle of the barn lounge.

  “I told you to stay away from me,” Jess said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I not good enough to be in your personal space?”

  Becka and Jess stood inches away from each other, both flushed and angry. I didn’t know what had started it but the fight was escalating quickly.

  “Come on,” I pulled on Becka’s arm. “Whatever she said, just forget about it.”

  “No,” Becka shouted and pushed me away. “No one says things like that about me behind my back.”

  “I didn’t say them behind your back,” Jess shouted. “I said them to your face.”

  Things were getting ugly really fast. People were already taking sides. I was there next to Becka with Peter and Hadley behind me and Sarah was hovering about beside Jess, not looking sure whether she should throw a punch or run for help. Miguel was nowhere to be seen, thank goodness and so far the grooms that hadn’t deserted the party, had yet to notice.

  “If you hang around with scum like her,” Jess pointed at me. “How do you expect to be treated?”

  “Don’t you dare talk about my friend like that.”

  “She’s not your friend. You don’t even know her. If you saw the shitty little barn she comes from then you’d know to distance yourself from that sort of trailer trash. Shit rubs off you know.”

  I thought that Becka was going to explode but she just stood there with her mouth open. Then it happened. She launched herself at Jess and everything happened so fast that I didn’t even know who was where or what was going on. There were fists and hair flying and people started cheering. My heart was pounding a million miles a minute. We were all going to be kicked out of the clinic. No one was going to get picked for the team. Miguel would hold other clinics and pick other kids. Thanks to Jess and Becka, none of us stood a chance.

  Only the lights snapped on, a piercing whistle cut through the noise and something flew over the crowd. It hit the mirror ball which came loose from its tether and fell to the ground, smashing into a million pieces. Everyone jumped back to escape the shards of glass. Becka was on one side of the mess. Jess was on the other. Both had ruffled hair and torn dresses.

  Miguel stood in the doorway, a look of thunder on his face. I waited for him to start screaming at us but it was worse than that. Instead he just looked disappointed.

  “I think it’s time for bed. Don’t you?” he said.

  We all slunk past him like puppies that had just peed on the floor. I knew Becka was just defending her honor and mine but it wasn’t the time or the place. How would Miguel ever believe anything we said now?

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  I never got a chance to tell Becka about the drugs and the groom because she was so mad that she spent ages in the bathroom and when she finally came out, she threw herself under the covers and wouldn’t speak. I lay there in the dark, listening to her breathing slow down until gentle snores rumbled under the blanket. But I couldn’t sleep. Surely Miguel wouldn’t punish us all for Jess and Becka’s bad behavior? It hadn’t had anything to do with me, not really.

  I went to the window and sat there watching Bluebird root around for some stray piece of grain under his feed tub. After tomorrow everything woul
d go back to normal. Only I didn’t really feel like I had a normal anything anymore. There were two strangers living in my house and I wanted them gone just as much as I wanted Jess gone from the clinic. Mom and I were peaceful. We both did our own thing with as little fuss as possible and if we ever fought, slammed doors and the silent treatment were usually the extend of it. I wasn’t used to the shouting and screaming, the throwing of things. That wasn’t normal, was it? If this was what my life was going to be like from now on then I was going to have to try harder than ever to make a name for myself in the horse world. After all, it was my only ticket out of there. I wasn’t smart enough to get a college scholarship and even if I was, I wouldn’t have wanted to go. I wanted to ride. I wanted to win. I wanted to compete in the Olympics one day. Most of the other girls here would grow up and marry and have kids but I would never do that. I had to make Miguel see that I was the one he should pick for his team.

  Eventually I drifted off to sleep but I woke early and dressed quietly so as not to wake Becka. She was sleeping with one arm and one leg sticking out of the bed, her face set in a frown. There was no way I was going to risk waking her up. I didn’t need that kind of drama on my last day here. I needed to focus and I needed to make sure that Bluebird was ready to focus too.

  I crept through the apartment and out the door, down the stairs and into the barn. A couple of the grooms were already up, cleaning stalls in the milky light. One of them waved and I waved back, grabbing a rake and slipping into Bluebird’s stall.

  “This is it,” I told him as he ate his breakfast. “It’s the big day. Our last chance.”

  I should have been nervous, scared, worried about my last chance to show Miguel what I could do but oddly I didn’t feel anything. It wasn’t a show were we had to race against the clock to win a blue ribbon. It was just me and my pony, doing what we did best.

  I had Bluebird groomed and his stall picked before anyone else even surfaced. Jess and Becka passed each other in the aisle, each one with a look of thunder on their face as they ignored the other and went into their respective stalls. I tacked Bluebird up and slipped outside into the pre-dawn light. I’d grabbed a granola bar for breakfast. There was no way I was going to step into the lounge this morning and find myself bombarded with gossip and speculation. I may not have been nervous but I still needed to concentrate.

  I walked Bluebird around the property, following the dirt path that other horses had worn out before us. Some of Miguel’s horses were already out in their paddocks, grazing on the pristine grass. They were all so beautiful and I recognized some of them from the magazine articles I had read and the videos I watched online. We’d been strongly encouraged not to go anywhere near them in the barn and I had stayed at our end as requested but I would have loved to have seen one of them up close. So big and powerful and majestic.

  We wandered over to the grass jump field. There was a new course set up and I wondered whether this would be our final test. It didn’t look all that hard but when it came to jumper courses, I knew that looks could be deceiving.

  “Trying to get the inside scoop?”

  I jumped and Bluebird startled as a voice came from behind us. It was Miguel, sitting on the back of that chestnut I knew so well, Interstellar.

  “No,” I said. “I, we, well, I was just stretching Bluebird out.”

  “I’m glad to see someone has their mind in the game,” he said. “You weren’t involved in that scuffle last night, were you?”

  “No,” I said and I wasn’t, at least not really.

  “Good,” he said.

  “That’s Interstellar, isn’t it?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “Yes,” Miguel patted the big guy’s neck.

  “He’s gorgeous.”

  “He’s a ham,” Miguel said.

  “And a winner,” I added.

  “Yes but don’t go discounting your own pony. He’s plucky. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a little guy with such guts.”

  My heart swelled about three sizes as I grinned up at him. Miguel Rodriguez liked my pony. Suddenly all the stupid head games melted away. Jess could do whatever she wanted. Her expensive imported horse wasn’t going to stop Miguel from liking mine. I never should have wasted so much time and energy caring about what Jess did. From now on I was going to focus on myself and nothing else. I’d let her become a distraction and I was mad that I’d let it go on for so long.

  “Want to watch him go?” Miguel asked, picking up his reins.

  “Oh yes please,” I said.

  I dismounted and loosened Bluebird’s girth, then watched as Miguel took his magnificent horse over the jumps. There were a lot of horses that could jump like that but none of them made it look so easy. Interstellar’s ears were pricked and he hopped over the jumps like they were cross rails, his knees tucked up to his chin. It was an amazing thing to watch in person and I couldn’t believe it was actually happening.

  “Wow,” I said as he came back to the gate where I stood.

  “That could be you one day,” Miguel said. “You ride well. You have instinct, a natural eye. You can’t teach that.”

  “Thank you,” I said, suddenly wondering if I was still asleep and dreaming.

  “Now you’d better go back to the ring. Tell the others I’ll be there soon.”

  Everyone else was standing in the arena next to their horses with looks ranging from anxious to bored. Jess was at one end, looking pale as Blue Midnight hung his head low to the ground. I guess she had given him whatever was in the white tube because he looked pretty out of it but I didn’t even care. That was Jess’s problem now, not mine. I was glad that I hadn’t gone to Miguel to rat her out. Let her fall flat on her face instead.

  “Where have you been?” Peter asked.

  “I was up early,” I shrugged. “We just went for a walk.”

  “You went for a walk? You’d better hope Miguel didn’t catch you slacking off like that,” he said. “This is the last day. It’s important. Don’t you want to make the team? You can’t just go wandering about.”

  But unless I did something to mess up really badly, I had the feeling that Bluebird and I were already members of the team. I just hoped that Jess wasn’t picked as well. The clinic had almost been ruined because of her. I couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be to have her as a team member.

  Miguel arrived for inspection and today everyone passed. No one was taking any chances on the final day. We were instructed to mount up and as I tightened Bluebird’s girth and swung lightly into the saddle I caught Jess out of the corner of my eye, having trouble getting her foot in the stirrup.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Hadley whispered as she walked by on Splash.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged.

  Jess looked as drugged as her horse. She hopped up and down, trying to spring up into the saddle and eventually pulled herself ungracefully up.

  “Pick up the trot,” Miguel called once everyone had walked around the arena a few times.

  I was the unlucky person who got stuck behind Blue Midnight and Jess. At first she couldn’t get him to trot. I watched her heels drum against his sides until she finally used her crop. He puttered along, his neck down and nose low and every now and then he tripped over his own feet. Jess was posting on the wrong diagonal, her head lolling about as she fumbled with her reins. I waited for Miguel to notice but he was busy on the opposite side of the arena with one of the other girls. I watched as Jess gave up posting all together and tried to sit the trot, bouncing around like a rag doll. I opened my mouth to say something but it was too late.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Jess was leaning further and further to the side and she had dropped her reins. Blue Midnight swerved into the center of the arena and Jess just slid off, landing at his feet. Sarah screamed, her voice echoing all around us.

  “Everyone, stay where you are,” Miguel called out as he ran over.

  I wondered if I should at least try and snag Blue M
idnight so that he didn’t step on Jess but he was far too drugged to run off today. Instead he stood next to her with his nose brushing the ground and then his knees buckled. He flopped down beside her with a sigh and closed his eyes. I wanted to laugh, it was so funny but I also knew that it was kind of serious. Overdoses were not something to be taken lightly.

  Miguel leant over Jess, shaking her shoulder gently but she was just sprawled out on the ground like she’d been too tired to ride and needed a nap.

  “What is going on here?” Miguel said.

  “I think she may have been drugging her horse,” Becka called out.

  I never had a chance to tell her about the mysterious white tube that the groom had given Jess but Becka knew about the syringe and my suspicions.

  “And herself,” Peter added.

  I looked at them both and smiled. They were grinning back. It was clear that Jess and Blue Midnight were not going to make it onto the team after all. Her plan had failed and the only thing she had succeeded in doing was making herself look like a fool.

  Despite our protests, we were all sent back to the barn while Miguel waited in the ring for an ambulance to come. As we left I heard Jess moan and looked back to see her groggily pushing Miguel’s hand out of the way.

  “Did you bring me my teddy bear?” I heard her say and as we finally made it out of earshot, we all started laughing.

  Tears were running down my face and I could hardly breathe, the laughs were coming out of me so hard and fast.

  “Bring me my teddy bear,” Becka said, wavering about on the back of Topaz like she was drunk.

  “She’s never going to live this down,” I said. “Not in a million years.”

  It took two grooms to get Blue Midnight up on his feet and as they brought him back to his stall, he swayed slightly from side to side. One of the grooms had to grab his tail to steady him as he went through the door of the stall. As soon as he got inside and they pulled his saddle off, he collapsed with a sigh, his eyes closing like the world was just too bright.