Best Enemies (Canterwood Crest) (13 page)

“Heels!” Alison called. I pushed down my heels.

“Cross over the center and reverse direction,” Alison said.

I trotted Sunstruck past her and did a sitting trot around the arena. Alison coached us for a half hour before she finally nodded. “Ready to quit?” she asked.

I slowed Sunstruck to a walk and hopped off. “He’s a great guy,” I said, rubbing his neck. “I’m in love with Arabians now.”

Alison laughed. I handed her the reins and unsnapped my helmet. “I’ll take it back to the tack room,” Alison offered.

“Thanks.” I handed it to her. “And if you want me to ride him again, just ask.”

“I will, thanks.”

We looked at each other for a minute.

“Go ahead,” Alison said. “Ask. You know you want to.”

“If you guys
didn’t
cheat, why does Drake keep saying there was evidence that you did?” I asked finally.

Alison looked me in the eye. “Jasmine.”

“What? What does Jasmine have to do with anything?”

“I don’t know why, but I just
know
she set us up somehow.”

“But how?” I asked doubtfully.

Alison shook her head, staring at the ground.

“Have you told Heather that? You know she’s looking for any excuse to take Jas down.”

Alison nodded. “Don’t say anything to anyone. Just forget about it.”

Alison and I weren’t friends, but I’d seen a different side to her before. My stomach turned in on itself. Suddenly, I had a sick, sinking feeling. What if Julia and Alison really were innocent?

19
HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

AFTER CLASSES ENDED FOR THE DAY, I
dropped my books in my room and changed to go riding. Mr. Conner had a meeting with YENT scouts today, so he’d scheduled an extra practice for the advanced team this weekend. I eyed the pile of homework on my desk.

“It’s growing,” I said to Paige.

She nodded. “But you’ll get it done. Only two more weeks of school before summer!”

“It seems so far away,” I said. “But at least today’s Sweet Shoppe day.”

Paige nodded, her eyes widening. “Yeah. I think we each deserve
two
cupcakes today.”

“Agreed.”

When I got to the stable I found Eric by Luna’s stall.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hey,” Eric said. “Feels like I never see you outside of the stable.”

“No kidding. With finals coming up, homework, riding, and a zillion other things, it’s been kind of crazy.”

Eric reached out to take my hand. “Don’t get too stressed out.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said, concentrating on forming words. It was hard to talk to him when we held hands. “And to give us plenty of energy for homework, Paige and I are going to the Sweet Shoppe after I ride. Want to come?”

“Sure,” Eric said.

“Be right back,” I said. “I’m just going to grab Charm.”

I walked down the aisle and stopped when I peered into Charm’s stall. It was empty.

Not. Happening. Again. Hiding horses was so last semester!

I spun around and almost slammed into Jasmine.

“Watch it, Sasha,” Jasmine said, shaking her head. “You could hurt someone.”

“Where’s Charm?” I asked. “Did you move him? If you did anything to him, I’ll—”

Jasmine held up a hand. “Calm down. Poor Charm looked bored in his stall, so I turned him out in the back pasture.”

“What? Why?” I asked. “Why would you move
my
horse when you knew I was coming to ride?”

Jasmine pouted. “I’m sorry. I thought I was doing something nice for him. And since you’re not so serious about the team, I figured there’d be a chance that you’d skip riding.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I argued. “Whatever. I’m going to get Charm.”

I stepped away from Jas and took a side exit, heading for the back pasture.
Charm’s hooves are going to be sooo muddy,
I thought, thinking about the downpour earlier today. It was going to take me at least twenty minutes to get them clean. I stopped midstep.

My horse wasn’t a chestnut anymore. He’d turned bay! Charm was coated from forelock to tail in mud. A
thick
coat of mud.

Jasmine.

Was.

Dead.

“Charm!” I said.

Charm trotted up to me and bumped my arm with his muzzle, streaking mud on my jacket sleeve.

“Hey!” I cried. But Charm blinked innocently. He loved it.

I grasped his mud-coated halter and led him out of the pasture and into the stable.

As he walked down the aisle, mud splattered onto the floor. Eric’s back was to me as he cleaned Luna’s hoof.

“Help!” I wailed.

Eric looked up and almost dropped Luna’s leg. He set it down and stared, shaking his head. “What happened?”

“Jasmine! She turned Charm out and did this to him. I’m going to find her and—”

Eric stepped away from Luna. “She just left. Forget her—focus on Charm. Want my help washing him?”

“If you want,” I said. “But you totally don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind,” Eric said. “We’ll finish faster together and then we can go riding.”

We walked Charm to the outdoor wash stall. Eric clipped him into the crossties and I filled a bucket with warm water and Mane ’n’ Tail shampoo. I turned the hose on low and aimed it at Charm’s hooves. I moved it up his legs, then his chest, and finally let water run down his back.

Charm didn’t move. “You love a bath, but you won’t go through the creek?” I asked him.

Eric grabbed a rubber currycomb and started loosening the mud clumps on Charm’s forelegs. “How’s that going?”

“Not well,” I admitted. “I’ve been in the water more
than he has. But I’m going to get him over it before the YENT. I have to.”

“You will. And I’ll help you whenever I can.”

“That would be great.” I moved the hose over Charm’s back, trying to rinse away as much mud as possible before I started scrubbing. Water ran down Charm’s hindquarters, sending streams of dirty water down his tail and onto the rubber mats under him. I put down the hose and picked up a soapy sponge.

“At least I can see Chestnut now,” I said. “Before he was—ahhh!”

I shrieked when Charm swished his tail, slapping me in the chest and face. Globs of mud stuck to my jacket and I swiped at dirt on my face. “CHARM!”

Eric, crouched by Charm’s left foreleg, stood and peered around Charm at me. “Oh, Sasha. You…” He smirked and his shoulders started to shake.

“Eric!” I said, glancing down at my muddy jacket. “It’s not funny!”

“I know!” Eric said. “I’m sorry, but…” He couldn’t finish his sentence. He burst into laughter and walked over to me, grabbing me in a hug. Within seconds, I was laughing too. When he let me go, he had mud smudged on his gray shirt.

I ran my hand along Charm’s barrel, coating my fingers with mud. “This,” I said. “is for laughing at me!”

I wiped my hand on the side of Eric’s face and left a giant streak of mud.

“Sasha Silver!” Eric boomed.

I giggled. “Now we match!”

“Oh, yeah?” Eric grabbed the hose and held it, pointing the nozzle at me and daring me to move.

“You wouldn’t,” I said, taking a step backward. Charm looked at me as if to say,
Don’t even try to use me as a shield
.

Eric stepped forward and kept the hose aimed at me. “Oh, I think I would.”

“But! But!” I protested, laughing. “I’m your girlfriend. You can’t hose your girlfriend. It’s, like, a rule.”

Eric rolled his eyes to the sky, as though thinking. “Really? Never heard it.”

“Eriiiic,” I said. “Don’t—”

A stream of cold water hit me in the chest and I screamed. “Ahhhhh! Omigod! Eric!”

I reached down and grabbed the bucket of dirty water, sloshing it in Eric’s direction. He started to dart away from me and I soaked his back. Eric stopped and turned slowly, his hair dripping. He kept the hose trained on me.

I was out of ammo.

“Truce?” I begged.

Eric stared at me for what felt like forever before lowering the hose. “Truce.”

We collapsed into laughter near the grass beside the wash stall with Charm—the only clean one of the three of us—looking over us.

20
AWKWARD

LATER THAT AFTERNOON PAIGE AND I WENT
to the Sweet Shoppe together to meet Eric. We walked inside and looked for an empty table. At a booth near the back, Callie and Jacob had their heads bent together over an ice cream sundae. Callie, seeing us, waved. Jacob glanced up and nodded once before focusing back on the ice cream.

Why couldn’t he just stop being awkward around me?!

Paige and I sat at a table near the window.

“He can’t even look at you,” Paige whispered.

“I know. One second, he acts like we have a shot at being friends again and the next, he won’t even talk to me. I don’t get it.”

Paige played with her menu. “Maybe he just doesn’t know how to be friends. He—”

I shot Paige the
zip-it!
eyes when Eric walked in. I didn’t want him to hear us talking about Jacob. That would only result in more awkwardness.

“Hey,” he said sitting across from me. “You look a lot cleaner.”

“Ha, ha,” I said. “I told Paige what you did.”

Paige shook her head, teasingly. “Not cool, Eric.”

“But did Sasha tell you what
she
did to me?” Eric asked.

Paige peered at me. “Sasha?”

I tried not to look guilty. “I
might
have put a tiny bit of mud on Eric’s face.”

Eric’s brown eyes focused on me. “Tell the truth, Sash.”

“Oh, fine! I swiped an entire handful of mud on his face.”

Paige giggled. “You conveniently left that part out.”

I shrugged and we all cracked up.

“Let’s order,” Eric said, after we’d calmed down. “What do you guys want?”

I didn’t have to think about my order. “I’ll have chocolate pudding and a Coke,” I said.

“Sticking with the theme of the day, huh?” Eric asked.

I nodded. “Yep. The pudding will remind me of how I got you.”

He mock-rolled his eyes. “Paige?”

“Oooh, mint chocolate pudding for me, and a Coke too, please,” Paige said.

We handed Eric our student ID cards to charge the food to our accounts.

Callie and Jacob got up from their table and walked by. “See you, guys,” Callie said to Paige and me.