Shying at Trouble

by Bonnie Bryant

  That couldn’t be it. Ben had as many training duties as she did. It wasn’t as though he was spending all his time mucking out stalls while she was off practicing her jumping. Then what? Did this have something to do with their friendship?

  “I—I don’t understand,” she said uncertainly.

  Ben shrugged and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “He’s not the only horse around.”

  “What do you—” Unbidden, an image of Starlight flashed into her mind. Carole gulped and started again. “What do you mean by that? I know he’s not the only horse around. He just happens to be the horse Max asked me to work with the most these days. You know that.”

  Ben took a deep breath. “Samson’s taking up a lot of your time …”

  His voice trailed off. Carole could feel anger bubbling up inside her. Where did Ben get off lecturing her on time management, anyway? He was the one who’d practically stopped speaking to her that summer when she’d tried to find out more about him. He was the one who valued his precious privacy so much he seemed willing to go through life without any real friends. Carole had tried to be a friend to him despite that, and look where it had gotten her. “I can take care of my own schedule, Ben,” she said coldly.

  “Sure,” he said, meeting her gaze at last.

  When she saw the look of concern in his dark eyes, Carole was a little taken aback. It was almost as if he knew about … But no. She hadn’t told anyone about that test—not her father, not her best friends, and certainly not Ben Marlow. If any of them ever found out what she’d done, they would probably never be able to look at her the same way again. Anyway, my problems at school don’t have anything to do with my work at the stable, she told herself firmly, doing her best to ignore the tight little knot that seemed to cinch her stomach these days anytime she thought about that test. And that means it’s none of Ben’s business.

  Ben was watching her closely, and the doubt in his eyes was still obvious.

  That brought Carole’s irritation sweeping back. He wasn’t her father or her boss. He wasn’t even much of a friend most of the time. It wasn’t as if she could ever count on any answers from him.

  “Well, whatever you may think,” she said evenly, glaring at him, “I guess Max must not agree with you. If he thought I was having some kind of problem, he never would have asked me to ride at Colesford.”

  That thought made her feel better immediately. Max was the one who had asked her to train Samson. He was the one who’d invited her to ride Samson in the big show. Who was Ben to second-guess those decisions? And why was she even standing there listening to him?

  “Look,” she said abruptly. “If you’ve got a problem with me or my work, you’ll just have to deal with it yourself.”

  “But I just want to—”

  Carole didn’t let him finish. “Because as far as I’m concerned,” she snapped, “everything’s just fine.” With that, she hurried off toward Lisa and Emily without a backward glance.

  Stevie checked her watch. It had stopped sometime during the ride between her house and Cross County Stables, so she grabbed Phil’s wrist and checked his. A.J. still hadn’t showed, though a few minutes ago someone—a boy from Cross County High School Stevie didn’t know—had sneaked over to check the stable and reported that A.J. was definitely still inside.

  Stevie sighed impatiently. A couple of other Cross County students had come over and started talking to Phil and Julianna about some sort of history project, and Stevie wasn’t interested. Glancing around, she saw Alex and Chad standing near a break in the hedge a few yards away.

  “Be right back,” she told Phil absently, already climbing to her feet.

  She hurried over to join her two brothers. “Hey, Stevie.” Chad glanced at her. “Is A.J. coming?”

  “Not yet.” She glanced over her shoulder toward the stable roof, which was barely visible above the line of the hedge. “I hope he comes out soon. The suspense is killing me.”

  Alex grinned. “So what did you think of Michael’s little surprise visitor?”

  “Oh!” Stevie was genuinely amazed to find that she’d almost forgotten about the Fawn incident already. But now that she remembered, she started grinning, too. Michael hadn’t even been interested in girls the last time Stevie had checked, and now here he was with a real live girlfriend.… “I think it’s very interesting,” she told her brothers with a smirk. “In fact, it’s so interesting that I may have to find a way to express my great interest to Michael.”

  Chad looked slightly worried. “What do you mean?” he asked cautiously. “You know Michael’s kind of touchy these days. I’m not sure he’s going to be in the mood for any teasing about something like this.”

  Stevie shrugged and shot her older brother an annoyed glance. “Since when are you Mr. Sensitive? Anyway, this will just be payback for all the teasing I got from him—from all three of you—back when Phil and I first started going out.” She wrinkled her nose as she thought of those days. “If Michael can dish it out, he’ll have to take it.”

  “Aren’t you getting a little too old for that revenge stuff?” Alex commented.

  “Watch it, buddy, or you’ll be next.” Stevie shot him a wicked grin. “Remember, I have really easy access to your girlfriend. And I’m not afraid to use it.” She rubbed her palms together briskly, already thinking and planning. “Let’s see,” she said pensively. “Michael was always a sucker for phone pranks. I could call and pretend to be Fawn and then record all his embarrassing lovey-dovey chat to play over the PA system at school. And then there’s her name, of course. Fawn, Fawn—I should be able to do something with that. Maybe I should rent Bambi and see if it inspires anything.…”

  As she leaned against a tree on the grass near the Cross County parking lot, Callie found her gaze wandering toward Emily for the fifth time in as many minutes. She sighed and forced her attention back to George Wheeler, who was talking earnestly at her about some assignment they were supposed to do that weekend for their chemistry class.

  “I’m sorry,” she told him. “What did you just say?”

  George looked a bit hurt. “I said if you want, we could get together at the library or someplace and go over that lab,” he said. “I mean, since you said you were having trouble with it today in class.”

  “Oh, right.” Callie smiled apologetically at him. George might be a little serious and bland for her taste, but he was a nice enough guy. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have given up his evening to sit there and wait around for A.J., who was a casual acquaintance at best. More importantly, George was a whiz in chemistry, while Callie herself was definitely not. “Sorry. I guess I’m preoccupied by all the suspense about A.J.”

  That was a white lie, since Callie had hardly thought about A.J. since she and Scott had arrived at the designated meeting place. After all, there wasn’t really much to think about—they had all been over the problem often enough in the past few weeks. All they could do now was wait for him to show up and take it from there.

  “Oh,” George said, not seeming to suspect a thing. “That’s okay, I understand. I mean, I don’t know A.J. that well myself, but …”

  Suddenly feeling guilty for fibbing to someone as trusting as George, Callie cut him off. “Actually,” she said, “that’s not really why I was distracted.” She took a deep breath. “You see, I just found out that Emily—you know Emily, right?—is moving to Australia in, like, two weeks.”

  George nodded and glanced toward Emily, who was talking to Lisa and Carole nearby. “I heard about that. It must be kind of a shock—I mean, she’s been helping you with—you know—your leg and everything. Her horse, too. Right?”

  “Exactly.” Callie smiled with relief at not having to spell it out for him. George was clearly a little uncomfortable pointing out her temporary handicap, and she hurried to put him at ease. “So you can understand why the news took me by surprise.”

  George nodded quickly. “You’re being awfully brave about it.” His deep-set gra
y eyes gazed into hers sincerely. “In fact, I—I’ve been wanting to tell you, I think you’ve been really brave about this whole thing. The accident, I mean, and—well, you know.”

  “Thanks, George. That’s sweet of you to say.” Callie was feeling a little uncomfortable with this conversation herself. After what had happened with that newspaper article, it was harder than ever to have an honest conversation and talk about her feelings. Still, she was glad she’d told George the truth. He really was a nice person—and Callie could use as many kind, caring, trustworthy friends as she could get. She smiled at him. “Anyway, your idea about getting together this weekend sounds good.” She glanced at her brother, who was sprawled on the grass nearby chatting with a couple of Cross County kids. “I’ll just have to check and see when Scott can drive me.”

  George nodded. “Great!”

  “Hello, everyone,” a breezy voice announced from the break in the hedge. “Hope I’m not late for the party.”

  Callie looked up in surprise as Veronica diAngelo stepped through the hedge and glanced around at the group, a self-satisfied little smirk on her face. “Uh-oh,” Callie murmured under her breath. She couldn’t believe Veronica had actually showed up. Why would she bother? She didn’t care about A.J.—or anyone else but herself, for that matter. Callie had seen enough of her in the past week to realize that. Veronica had sought her out at every opportunity, stopping her in the halls between classes, waving at her during morning assemblies, even inviting Callie to join her at lunch. Callie had managed to fend off most of her advances politely enough, but she should have known that Veronica wouldn’t give up that easily, not when she’d obviously made up her mind that Callie was socially important. Now it seemed she was even willing to pursue Callie outside of school.…

  At that moment Veronica’s roving eye landed on Scott. Her smile growing wider and more self-satisfied than ever, she made a beeline for him, lowering herself carefully to the ground by his side. “Hi there,” she said loudly enough for the entire group to hear. “Is this seat taken?”

  SEVEN

  Stevie blinked. “Somebody pinch me,” she commented, “because this has to be a nightmare.”

  Alex obligingly reached over and pinched her hard on the arm.

  “Ow!” Stevie glared and punched him, then rubbed her arm as her gaze returned to Veronica, who was chatting animatedly at Scott. He was smiling back at her amiably. “What’s she doing here? Can’t she flirt with Scott on her own time?”

  Chad was staring at Veronica. “Is that who I think it is?” He sounded a bit awestruck. “Boy, did she fill out nicely. I mean, she was cute even back when I saw her last, but now—”

  Stevie smacked him on the shoulder. “Cut the drooling, dork,” she said irritably. “You should know better. Veronica’s a troll, no matter what she looks like. Even Callie sees that, though of course you know her—she always has to be polite, so she …”

  Her voice trailed off as she suddenly realized who must have mentioned this gathering to Veronica. She turned and hurried over to Callie, who was sitting on the grass with George.

  Callie gave her a sheepish smile. “Hi, Stevie,” she said. “Did I forget to mention that I told Veronica about what we were doing?”

  Stevie crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

  “She dragged it out of me,” Callie explained. “She was bugging me all week to go shopping with her today—I had to give her an excuse. I thought this would be the one thing she’d never want to be part of.”

  “Hmmm.” Stevie’s gaze wandered toward Veronica, who was leaning closer to Scott, whispering something into his ear and smiling. She couldn’t help noticing that Scott was still smiling, too. She rolled her eyes. “Well, I guess you’ve got more sense than your brother, anyway. He actually looks happy that she’s here.”

  “He looks that way with everyone, remember?” Callie said. “It’s one of those little politicians’ tricks he’s picked up from Dad over the years.”

  “Right.” Stevie was about to go on, but at that moment there was a flash of movement on the other side of the hedge. A second later, the Cross County boy who’d been acting as lookout raced through the break.

  “He’s coming!” he announced breathlessly. “He just left the building, and he’s heading this way.”

  Immediately Stevie was all action. “Everybody quiet,” she commanded. “Gather over here near the opening in the hedge. Phil’s going to lure him back here, and then I want everyone to surround him.” She glanced around to be sure she had everyone’s undivided attention, feeling a little like a general planning strategy in a key battle. “Don’t let him out of the circle until we get some answers. Understood?”

  There were nods all around as people scurried to get into position. Stevie herself took up a post near the break in the hedge. Without speaking, Alex and Phil took up positions on either side of her. Stevie smiled grimly, certain that they were thinking the same thing she was: If A.J. wanted to escape this time, he was going to have to get past them first.

  Phil leaned over and peered through the break. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered. He darted out into the parking lot.

  Stevie held her breath. Was this going to work?

  A moment later Phil’s voice drifted toward them from the other side of the hedge. “Hey, man,” he said cheerfully, sounding surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  Stevie grinned, feeling proud of him. If his planned career as a lawyer didn’t work out, there was a fine future for him in acting.

  A.J.’s voice was quieter. “Phil?” he said, not sounding half as pleased to see Phil as Phil had sounded to see him. “I’m here checking on Crystal. What are you doing here?”

  Phil mumbled something that Stevie couldn’t hear. Then he went on. “But actually, now that we’re both here, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “I’m kind of in a hurry.…” A.J.’s voice was taking on that cold, sullen tone it had started slipping into lately.

  “This won’t take long.”

  A moment later there was a cry of annoyance and a rustle of shrubbery, and Phil popped through the break in the hedge holding A.J. firmly by the arm. The smaller guy was squirming to break free, protesting all the while.

  But he stopped when he saw the others. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.

  Phil dropped his arm, stepping back to take his place in the circle. Stevie and Alex had already moved to close off A.J.’s access to the opening in the hedge. “We just want to talk to you, A.J.,” he said calmly.

  A.J. glared at the circle of his friends. He looked angry and defiant and upset and a bit frightened, like a caged animal deciding whether to choose fight or flight. Good, Stevie thought, forcing down the feelings of pity welling up as A.J.’s gaze met hers for a moment and then bounced away. He’s more likely to talk if he’s scared.

  “I don’t know what you people are up to,” A.J. said after a moment, anger seeming to take the upper hand. “But I don’t want any part of it. I’m out of here.”

  He started toward the break in the hedge, but Alex took a step forward and shook his head. “Sorry, A.J.” he said, his voice firm. “We’d really like you to stick around for a little while.”

  A.J. hesitated, seeming confused. “I’ve got to go,” he insisted. He took a couple more steps toward the break. “Let me go, all right?”

  Stevie moved closer to her twin’s side. “No way, A.J. Not until you hear what we have to say. We’ve been patient long enough.”

  Finally A.J. seemed to realize that they weren’t going to let him through. He scowled, glancing around as if searching for a weak link. But then his shoulders slumped and he shrugged resignedly. “Whatever,” he said heavily. “Why don’t you just say your piece, then. But hurry up—I haven’t eaten yet and I’m hungry.”

  “Fine.” Phil was obviously struggling to control his temper, and Stevie shot him a sympathetic glance.

  Remember that we’re here to help A.J., she thought,
willing her message to reach Phil somehow and keep him calm. Blowing up won’t help anyone.

  “We’re all here because we feel like we don’t know you anymore,” Phil went on evenly, his gaze never leaving A.J.’s face. “You’ve completely changed, and everyone’s wondering why.”

  “We’re your friends, A.J.,” Julianna put in, her voice soft and pleading. “We want to help you. You can trust us.” A few of the others murmured or nodded their agreement.

  A.J. just shrugged. “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “How can you say that?” Stevie protested. “You’ve been moping around for weeks, skipping school, refusing to talk to the people who care about you.…”

  “It’s nothing,” A.J. said sullenly. “There’s nothing I want to talk about.”

  “A.J.” Phil took a step toward his friend. “Please. Just tell us what’s bothering you.”

  “Nothing,” A.J. said again. “None of your business.”

  Stevie clenched her fists at her sides, wondering why she’d ever thought this would work. The way things were looking, they could keep A.J. there for days and he still wouldn’t tell them anything.

  Suddenly Veronica stepped forward. “Listen, A.J.,” she said briskly. “We all have better things to do than hang around here while you don’t tell us what’s turning you into such a freak.” She tossed her head. “Besides, we all know what the problem is, even if you won’t admit it.”

  Stevie’s jaw dropped. She had almost forgotten that Veronica was there—all she’d done since she arrived was hang on Scott’s arm and bat her eyelashes at him. Stevie would have bet money that Veronica didn’t even remember the reason they were all supposed to be there. So what was she doing?

  Everyone else, including A.J., seemed too stunned to react as well. Veronica put her hands on her hips and stared at A.J. “Everyone else here is just too timid to say what we’re all thinking,” she went on bluntly. “We all know what causes people to change like this, to get weird and antisocial like you’re acting right now.”