Competing for the Cup

by Bobbi JG Weiss

  The equestrian supervisor had his list of things to do before the House Cup in front of him and a pen in his hand. “The stables need to be pristine,” he told Will.

  “Do we have a decade to do that?” Will asked sarcastically. The list of things to do was a page full of impossible jobs they had to accomplish in a very short time, and Will knew that Rudy knew it. They also knew they had no choice but to somehow make it happen, or Lady Covington would very likely barbecue them both on a giant spit.

  “Nope,” Rudy said. “Just a few days until the cup.”

  “When all the horses have to be show groomed?” Will noted. “What are we, a hair salon?”

  “Apparently, we’re the maids, too,” Rudy griped. “The tack room’s got to be organized. Proper.” He said the last word the way Lady Covington always said it.

  It was a good thing that Lady Covington didn’t appear to hear him as she swept into the dining hall. “Mr. Bridges, is everything all set for the Covington House Cup?”

  Will held back a grin when Rudy replied, “Done and dusted, Lady Covington!”

  Will couldn’t resist chiming in, “And you should see the tack room, too. It’s pristine.”

  “Excellent,” said the headmistress. “This first league event will cement your reputation. It’s very difficult to recover from a bad first impression. Nevertheless, I’m glad to see you have time to linger over your breakfast.”

  Rudy jumped to his feet. “Will and I were just going to go work out in the barns.”

  “Oh, really? I thought they were already spotless.” Lady Covington turned to Will. “Will, see me in my office at ten, please?” She hurried away, off to her next executive duty.

  Will felt as if lightning was now scheduled to strike him at precisely ten o’clock. “Do you think she’s going to throw me a surprise party?”

  Rudy gave him a sympathetic smile.

  Later that day, as Josh was working at the tuckshop, his part-time job on campus, Anya took the opportunity to speak with him privately. “We need to be more careful, or she’s going to catch on,” she told him.

  “To which thing?” Josh asked. “To the whole us fake-dating thing or the whole Princess Anya thi —”

  “Don’t say it! Either thing. Both things!”

  As Anya said this, Kit dodged around a couple of students and slipped behind a wood molding that decorated the nearest doorway. That put her right next to the tuckshop, but neither Anya nor Josh could see her. She, on the other hand, could hear them!

  “Well, then maybe we need to spend less time together,” she heard Josh say.

  “You don’t want to hang out with me?” Anya asked. Kit detected hurt in her roomie’s voice.

  “No, I’m not saying that. Maybe it’s just the right thing. For you.”

  “I just came to buy snacks! I wasn’t asking to share your every moment.”

  Kit had heard enough. She popped out of hiding. “Ah-HA! You are dating! Why would you keep that from me? I thought we were friends.” She glanced from Anya to Josh and back to Anya, wondering why the two of them seemed so distressed.

  Anya stuttered nervously as she tried to explain. “I — I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m really, unbelievably sorry.”

  “But why?” Kit asked.

  “I — I just didn’t want to make things awkward.”

  “Well, I’m not going to say you nailed that,” Kit said. “Anyway, why would things be awkward? It’s not like I want to go out with Josh!”

  To which Josh exclaimed from behind the tuckshop counter, “Hey! I’m right here!”

  “It just hurts,” Kit said. “Because other people knew first. I mean, Elaine knew.” She was relieved when Anya seemed to understand.

  “I promise,” Anya said, “I will tell you anything you want to know.”

  Kit still felt left out, but she hoped that things would be better now. “Deal,” she said. She was about to give Anya a hug when Josh leaped over the counter.

  “All right, come on,” he said. “Group hug. Come on, you know you want to.”

  Kit actually did want a group hug. If Anya was dating Josh now, that made Josh a closer friend to her. She gave her friends a hug. “Oh, Anya,” Kit said afterward. “Could you meet me in the ring after class? I was hoping for some help.”

  “Anything for you,” Anya said, though there was a strange note in her voice. Kit couldn’t place it. It wasn’t nervousness. There wasn’t anything to be nervous about anymore. And it wasn’t anger or sadness or anything that weird. It was sort of like . . . guilt?

  Nah.

  Precisely at ten o’clock, Will stood before Lady Covington’s desk. The headmistress placed his academic report card in front of him.

  Will rarely thought about how many classes he was taking. It wasn’t as if he had a choice about it anyway. But to see the long list stunned him for a moment: Drama, Mathematics, English Language, English Literature, Biology, Chemistry, History, Geography, Physics, and Equestrian. Was he really studying all those subjects at once? Add to that all the hours he spent working in the stables, and Will suddenly understood why he always felt tired.

  “Are those grades acceptable to you?” Lady Covington asked him.

  Will answered truthfully. “No, Lady Covington.”

  “You are dragging down the school’s grade point average. This is unacceptable.”

  In his defense, Will said, “I spend a lot of time in the stable.” She couldn’t argue with that. It was true.

  “That is not an excuse for this abysmal performance,” Lady Covington responded harshly. “Ask your roommate. Ask Miss Whiltshire. Ask any number of other students who balance things successfully.”

  That wasn’t a fair comparison. Nav didn’t have a job, Elaine got tutored all summer so she practically knew everything before each school year started anyway, and everybody else — again, they didn’t have to work in the stables. Will tried to make his point again. “I help a lot of students with their riding.” Did she have any idea how many students rode as well as they did because he gave them advice and showed them useful tricks to manage their horses?

  Lady Covington was not impressed. “Your ban from extracurricular riding will continue. I suggest you use the extra hours to study. Harder.”

  That was the last word, and Will knew it. “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  “In addition, it has been decided that you will not ride in the Covington House Cup.”

  Will felt like he’d just been sucker punched. “But I need a rank for the Equestrian League —”

  “Riding in the cup is a privilege. I will arrange for you to ride separately on a makeup day. That is all.”

  So that was it. Will knew he wasn’t a very good student. After all, he’d already been kicked out of Tonbridge, Charterhouse, and Harrow. If he botched up Covington, where else could he go? His father would probably ship him off to Antarctica for the rest of his life rather than let him shame the family by attending a secondary school alongside England’s unwealthy, nonelite children — his father had a rather unflattering name for them. How insulting.

  There was no way to change things now, though. The best he could do was to tell the Juniper Cottage team his bad news and hope for the best.

  He made his way to the practice ring where Rudy was working with Nav and Josh. As he neared the ring, he could hear Rudy say, “I think we got a shot at this.”

  Nav proudly stated, “We can defeat most of the other houses with our hands behind our backs.”

  Then Josh said, “But what about Rose Cottage? Elaine has been training them around the clock.”

  Will reached the ring as Rudy said, “Nah. We’ll annihilate them! Are you kidding me? With the three of you, there’s no way we can lose.”

  The moment had come. Will reluctantly announced, “I can’t ride.”

  Rudy, Josh, and Nav all began talking at once. Will cut them off. “Lady C just banned me from riding in the cup.” He leaned against the rails and wished he could just blow
away in the wind. Just his luck — there was no wind blowing.

  “She can’t do that!” said Josh. “Dude, you’re our best jumper!”

  Rudy calmly said, “I don’t understand. What happened?”

  “My academics,” Will said quietly.

  “That’s a little above my pay grade, son,” Rudy said. “There’s not much I can do.”

  Nav finally made the attack that Will was expecting. “How could you do this to us?”

  “I didn’t do anything to you,” Will answered.

  “Your failure affects the team! That’s something that I consider when I set my priorities, which is why you’ve never seen me miss a single night of studying.”

  Will wanted to say, “Well, la-dee-dah for you,” but not only would that be childish of him, he knew that Nav spoke the truth. Still . . . “Are you saying I deserve this?”

  In answer, Nav maneuvered Prince toward the closest jump and urged his mount gracefully up and over.

  Will just scowled at him.

  Classes were over for the day. Rudy decided to clean up his desk in the tack room, but not because his desk was a mess. It was because Sally was there with Elaine doing an inventory of Rose Cottage supplies for the cup competition.

  Elaine pawed through a box of tack. “Ten Rose Cottage blankets,” she reported, setting them aside to see what was underneath.

  Sally, standing next to her with a clipboard, checked it off on her list. “And how are we for Rose flags?” she asked.

  As Elaine looked, Rudy took the opening to have a little fun. “Oh!” he cried in mock innocence. “Were those yours? I thought they were fancy bandanas! See, I’ve been using them to wipe my face — you know, I’ve been working so hard.”

  Sally gave him a smirk. “Very amusing, Mr. Bridges. You will not shake our team with your jokes. Right, Elaine?”

  “Yes,” responded Elaine, all business. “And we have ten flags, too.”

  Rudy was used to coaching students about horses, not adults about humor, but even he could see that Sally needed to work up some good old spirited team rivalry. “Come on, Miss Sally. This is the part where you say you’ve been using the Juniper Cottage flags as napkins for your bangers and mash festival!”

  “Internecine rivalries ought to remain amicable,” Sally stated primly.

  Rudy wasn’t even sure what that meant.

  Sally explained: “There shouldn’t be fighting between teams. We’re all friends.”

  Rudy rolled his eyes. “Well, where’s the fun in that?”

  With a straight face, Elaine said, “I agree. That’s why I used all the Juniper Cottage flags to line Thunder’s stall.”

  “Ha!” said Rudy, pleased. “See? Elaine’s got the spirit! I need an opponent here!”

  Sally regarded him as if he were a year one student. “And you shall have one, Mr. Bridges — out on the field, where that sort of thing belongs.” She turned on her heel and strode out the door with a smug “Ta-ta!”

  Strange. As she left, Rudy noticed how she ran her fingers over a horseshoe that was nailed to the wall. No way could it have been an accidental move. She had touched that horseshoe deliberately. Why?

  Rudy decided to find out.

  As she had promised, Anya was ready to go meet Kit at the practice ring. If Kit wanted to try some jumps with TK, Anya wanted to be there to cheer her on. She had donned her riding gear and was just about to go outside when Josh rushed up behind her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and physically steered her around a corner.

  Anya squealed in surprise, then snapped, “You are becoming a truly terrible fake boyfriend!”

  “Has anyone said anything?” Josh asked her sharply. “About the incess-pray ing-thay?”

  “Huh?”

  “The princess thing —”

  “Shhhhh!” Anya hissed. “No. Why?”

  “Ducasse was on some random gossip website in the common room, and the picture was there. The Princess Anya one?”

  Anya wasn’t sure which part of her dropped lower, her jaw or her stomach.

  “It’s okay — don’t worry,” Josh said. “I completely contained it.”

  “You poisoned him and buried his body far, far out on the moors?” Anya asked, presuming that he knew she was just joking. Then again, it certainly would solve the problem. . . .

  Josh replied, “Close. I bribed him with a whole box of chocs from the tuckshop. But I would go tell Kit, like, now, because this thing is only snowballing.”

  Anya shook her head. “I can’t do that. I’ll lose her forever. She’s the first person who’s liked me for who I am.”

  “Uh, hello?” Josh said, looking insulted.

  Anya managed a smile. Josh had a way of making her smile even when she was upset. It was one reason on a growing list of reasons why she liked him so much. But him liking her? “Oh, come on, you didn’t like me that much before you knew.”

  Josh shrugged, as if to say, “Well, of course! Why else would I?”

  Anya gave him a playful swat and started to leave.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  “I’m late to meet Kit!”

  “Well, I got more chocolate bars if the bribes have to grow. Just let me know!”

  While waiting for Anya to show up, Kit decided to give TK a pep talk. She walked him around the practice ring, leading him by his reins. “Okay, here’s the plan. When Anya gets here . . . if she gets here . . . we’re going to try out some jumping. Just at the baby height.”

  TK made one of his whuffling sounds.

  “Yes, I know. You don’t have to remind me of your quirks. But we can do this! It will be a team thing. If Anya would just help us —” She paused as she spotted someone approaching. “Oh, great. Wish for an Anya and wind up with an Elaine.”

  “What are you doing?” Elaine demanded. “Why are the jumps out?”

  “Because I want to jump,” Kit replied.

  As expected, Elaine went snarky. “Yes, and I want to eat roast pheasant with the queen, but neither thing is happening.”

  “Yet,” Kit said. She was about to add, “Hey, anything could happen,” when Elaine quickly reached into her pocket. Her phone must have vibrated, Kit thought, and waited for Elaine to check it. If Kit knew anything, it was that she should never try to come between Elaine and her mobile. But Kit didn’t expect to see Elaine look so surprised.

  “I knew it!” Elaine said triumphantly. “Now the whole school knows, too!” She held up the phone so that Kit could see the picture — of Josh and Anya in formal dress, surrounded by photographers. “I told you they were dating,” Elaine continued. “I’m always right.”

  Kit only glanced at the photo. What caught her eye was the caption. “Forget dating! This says Anya is a princess!”

  Gripping TK’s reins in a fist, Kit swept past Elaine and headed to the stables. She was angry. She was soooo angry! Anya was supposed to be her friend, and she never said she was a freaking princess? Only when TK balked, snorting nervously, did Kit realize that she’d started grumbling to herself, and it was frightening him.

  She stopped walking, took a deep breath, and petted TK’s forehead. “Sorry, boy,” she said in a soothing voice. “I don’t mean to upset you. And I’m sorry we aren’t going to jump now. I just need to sort this out.”

  Calmly, Kit finished the trip back to TK’s stall, removed his tack, gave him a carrot, and then headed directly for Rose Cottage. At first she thought her dorm room was empty, but then she spotted the telltale lump under her roommate’s thick duvet. “I’m looking for Anya,” she called out. “Actually, I’m not sure — that may not be her real name.”

  After a moment, a muffled voice said from under the duvet, “Of course it is!”

  “Yeah, but you left out the princess part, which, hello, is kind of the most important part!”

  Two hands appeared from under the duvet and yanked down the edge enough for Anya’s face to show. “But it’s not!” she said. “It’s like Miss or Mrs. Or something. An
d I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  Kit took in the fact that Anya was in bed. In the middle of the day. Fully clothed. “What are you doing in here?”

  “The e-mail blanketed the whole campus, like a monsoon,” Anya replied. She pulled the duvet back up to her nose, adding, “It was all I could think of to do.”

  “Fine. Whatever. I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me! Speaking of which, I totally forgot to mention I’m Dolly, a pop star posing as a student to gather material for my new album!” Kit struck a typical teen-star pose. “Crazy, right?”

  Anya pushed the duvet off and sat up. “Listen, I’m sorry, okay? Can I at least explain why?”

  “You can try. Sure.” Kit folded her arms and waited.

  Anya began softly. “I used to play with our cook’s daughter when I was small, until I noticed that we only did what I said we should do. So the next time we played pretend, I asked her what she wanted to do — ballerinas or fairies . . .” She smiled at the memories, then grew somber again. “She told me that she’d always been told to let me choose.”

  That didn’t sound like a problem to Kit. “I know, it’s terrible when people are nice to you,” she said.

  “But that’s not being nice!” Anya pointed out. “It’s being . . . not real! It’s fun to play what your friends want to play, too. And . . .” She sighed. “We kind of just stopped after that. Every time people find out that I’m a princess, on holiday or whatever, any kind of real friendship is over. They just want to borrow my jewelry or ask me about Prince Harry, and they stop telling me about themselves.”

  “I don’t care that you’re a princess!” Kit said. Didn’t Anya get it? Social status like that was exciting, but it wasn’t how Kit chose her friends. Her mom had always taught her that people are people and that everyone is equal. Sure, some have money and some don’t. Some have lots of toys and some don’t. Some are smarter than others, and some have better creative ideas than others. Everybody has different qualities, from physical appearance to beliefs to what they prefer to eat for breakfast. “But when the sun sets every day, we’re all just people going to bed to dream our dreams,” her mother would say.