Best Enemies (Canterwood Crest) (15 page)

Callie shook her head and took a seat on a couch near the back of the common room. “Nope. He’s going to text me later.”

I dropped my bag on the ground and rifled through it till I found my notebook. “I started making a list of everything I need to fix before the YENT tryouts,” I said,
flipping to the right page and handing the notebook to Callie.

Callie’s eyes scanned my notes. She glanced back at me, folding her legs under her.

“Sash, this is a great list. But… you can’t be a
perfect
rider. No one can. We can all try to improve on these things, but you’ll never be a flawless rider.”

I held out my hand for the notebook. I looked at my list again. “Deeper seat, better extension, no rushing jumps, no fear of water, less tension from me.” I stopped reading. “You don’t think I can fix all of those things in a week and a half?”

Callie nodded and scooted closer to me. “Of course! Improve—absolutely. But trying to make sure your ride is totally perfect? None of us can do that. I think you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. It could make tryouts even harder if you’re worried about a list this long.”

“Maybe.” I blew out a breath. “But I still want to do everything I can to have the best possible ride. Aren’t you worried too?”

“I’d be crazy if I wasn’t!” Callie said. “But just try not to stress too much.”

I started to pause for a second, thinking about how un-Callie-like she sounded. Callie, always the champion
of hard work, was telling
me
not to worry? Usually, it was the other way around. But maybe Callie was grasping that ever elusive balance between riding, school, boys, and friends—something I still hadn’t found.

“You’re right.” I tore my page out of my notebook and crumpled it. “I don’t need a list to tell me what to do,” I said. “Charm and I will be ready.”

“Exactly,” Callie said. “No more obsessing about tryouts today. What are you up to tonight?”

I put away my notebook. “Nothing,” I said. “Just… oh, no!” I jumped up off the couch and grabbed my bag.

“What?” Callie looked up at me, her brown eyes wide.

I smacked my forehead. “I was supposed to meet Paige right after class to watch
Teen Cuisine
. I’m late!” I started toward the door. “Wanna come?”

“Absolutely!”

I picked up the crumpled list and dropped it in the trash as we left the media center. Callie was right—I knew what I needed to do.

22
TEAMWORK TRAIN WRECK

BY TUESDAY ALMOST EVERYONE ON CAMPUS
was in crazy mode. Finals started next Monday and the teachers had kicked reviewing into overdrive. I walked into bio class and sat down. Julia and Alison, who’d been whispering when I’d walked in, turned to look at me.

“How’s practice?” Alison asked. Usually, this would have felt like a trap. But she looked genuinely curious.

I made a noncommittal so-so motion with my hand. “Okay. I’m just ready to get tryouts over with.”

Julia shook her head. “At least you
have
a shot.”

As Jasmine entered the room, she took one look at my face and shook her head.

“Wow,” Jasmine said. “Sasha, the YENT tryouts aren’t even here yet and you look superstressed—
the dark under-eye circles look good on you.”

I focused on the whiteboard in front of me.
She’s not worth it,
I repeated to myself. But as evil as she was, could she really pull off framing Julia and Alison?

“Turn to page one-seventy and we’ll get started,” Ms. Peterson said.

As Ms. Peterson continued with the lesson, I forced myself to take notes and reminded myself what Callie had said. I couldn’t let Jas’s trash talk mess with my head.

At our afternoon lesson, Jas was even worse. She smirked every time she looked at me and kept rolling her eyes at Eric.

“Sasha, please pay attention,” Mr. Conner called out. “I know we’re getting close to tryouts and that’s exciting, but I need everyone to focus.”

I blushed and nodded.

“Now that your horses are warmed up, let’s run through a few drill exercises,” Mr. Conner said.

Next to me, Jasmine sighed quietly.

“I want you to line up your horses one behind the other with a few strides between them. This is called a ‘nose to tail’ exercise. We’ll start with lots of space between each horse then gradually decrease it.”

Heather lined up first, then Jasmine, Eric, Callie, and I. We looked to Mr. Conner for instructions.

“Walk to the halfway point of the arena, then trot,” he said.

Heather started and we followed behind her. Everyone kept their horses at the right distance and when she reached the halfway point of the arena, Heather urged Aristocrat into a trot. Jasmine and Eric followed, maintaining the space between them. Charm trotted behind Jack and worked to keep his speed even.

As we started the turn, Callie let Jack slow down. It shortened the distance between Charm and Jack.

“Watch the pacing, Callie,” Mr. Conner said. “Everyone needs to maintain the same distance between their horses.”

Mr. Conner made us do the nose to tail exercise at a walk, trot, and finally a canter. At a canter, it was challenging to pay attention to Charm
and
the horse in front of me. Mr. Conner kept switching up our riding order and I made sure I was even more focused when Jasmine was behind me.

“Great work, everyone,” Mr. Conner said, a half hour later. “We’ll stop here for today. Please cool your horses and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

We dismounted and led the horses in lazy circles around the arena. Eric and I cooled out Charm and Luna in comfortable silence.

“Biggest mystery ever?” Jasmine asked. “Why you even bother coming to lessons at all. You know
I’m
the only one who’s going to make the YENT. Such a waste of—”

“Shut
up
!” Heather hissed. Both girls halted their horses.

Jas cocked her head and placed a hand on her hip. “You did
not
just say that.”

“The trash talk is getting old,” Heather said. “If I hear one more word about how you’re the best rider on campus and how awful the rest of us are, we’re going to have a serious problem.” Heather’s eyes stayed locked on Jasmine.

Jas snorted. “Oh, Heather. You think you’re such a great rider. Heather Fox, Queen Bee of Canterwood. Puhlease. I’ve got news for you. You’re generic, at best. And also? I’ll say anything I want. If it makes you that insecure, then bonus.”

Heather looked as though she might leap over and pounce on the dark-haired girl. She made a face like she’d swallowed sour milk and gritted her teeth.

“
I’m
insecure?” Heather seethed.

“Clearly.”

Heather fake smiled, flashing her teeth. “The only thing that’s
clear
is that you have a choice to make. Either stop trying to mess with
my
team, or, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Jas interrupted. She walked Phoenix closer to Aristocrat. “I don’t think I need to remind you who my friends are.”

Heather laughed and smoothed back her hair. “Like I care about the Belles. The second they drop you—and they will—you’re going to be sorry you ever showed your face at Canterwood.”

I couldn’t stop watching. It was a total train wreck— and even though I’d been on the receiving end of Heather’s fierce reamings more than once, I wasn’t sad to watch Jasmine squirm. In fact, I was pretty much loving it. Jasmine took vicious to a whole other level. With a twinge, I thought once again about my conversation with Alison. I’d witnessed firsthand the non–study habits of Julia and Alison. I’d been with them on more than one occasion when they chose texting over cracking even one book. But would they cheat? I wasn’t so sure.

Jasmine, obviously having had enough, pulled Phoenix forward and led him out of the arena.

Callie and I traded looks—this incident would clearly require several hours of discussion.

“Sweet Shoppe?” I whispered to Callie.

“Given,” she said.

I led Charm over to Luna. Eric loosened her girth another notch and smiled when he saw me.

“Callie and I are going to the Sweet Shoppe after this,” I said.

“Cool,” Eric said. “Text you later.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

Callie and I groomed Jack and Charm and washed up in the Sweet Shoppe bathroom afterward. I watched as Callie expertly applied a layer of shiny pink gloss.

“You didn’t used to be so into makeup,” I said.

Callie glanced at me. “Yeah. I guess I didn’t. But I like it now.”

Because of Jacob,
I almost said. But I knew that would have been the wrong thing to say.

We walked out by the counter and scanned the rows of treats behind the glass.

“I’m feeling donuts,” I said.

“Me too,” Callie agreed. “Glazed
and
chocolate.”

“And that’s why we’re friends,” I said, giggling.

Minutes later, we were eating donuts and sipping pink lemonade at a corner table. I noticed that Callie’s eyes were glued to the tabletop.

“What’s up?” I asked. “You okay?”

Callie picked at her donut and finally glanced up at me. “There’s so much going on right now,” she said.

“You mean with riding and finals?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “And everything else.”

I put down my glass. “Everything else?”

“Jacob, I guess. I want to do things with him, too, but we’re both so busy. Riding takes up so much time. I mean, I love it, but I also wish we had more time to hang out before summer.”

“I get why you feel that way,” I said. “But Jacob understands. He knows this is a huge opportunity. And things aren’t always going to be like this—you’re not going to be practicing for the YENT forever.”

Callie nodded. “True,” she said. But she didn’t seem convinced.

23
SO BEYOND PIZZA PARTY

ON SATURDAY MORNING, ERIC AND I MET UP
for breakfast at the caf. He’d taken my order and brought us both plates of steaming hot blueberry waffles with whipped cream and giant glasses of OJ. He put down our plates and sat across from me.

“It’s like our last meal,” I teased. “The last weekend before finals.”

Eric groaned. “Don’t remind me.” He took a bite of waffle. “I’m trying to forget the fact that we’re about to go to the library to study for endless hours.”