Best Enemies (Canterwood Crest) (3 page)

Heather had guessed my secret at Paige’s
Teen Cuisine
premiere party on Friday. She’d encouraged—and by “encouraged,” I mean “threatened”—me to tell Callie about Eric so I could finally be open about our relationship. The party, meant to spotlight Paige’s new gig as the host of a show on The Food Network for Kids, hadn’t gone at all like I’d planned.

Eric looked at me sideways.

“She actually gave me good advice once,” I said. “Not that I
ever
admitted that.”

“Admitted what?”

Eric and I finished eating and agreed to text each other later. I was hurrying down the hallway, shuffling through
songs on my iPod, when I looked up to see Julia and Alison.

“Stop looking at us like that,” Julia said.

“Like what?” I asked.

Julia tucked a lock of her blond bob behind her ear. “Like we’re losers who cheat.”

I shrugged. “Not that I was looking at you in
any
way. But you did cheat.”

Alison’s cheeks went pink. “We. Did. Not. Cheat!”

“You never studied,” I said. “Every time we were at the library, I saw you messing around instead of studying.”

“So we didn’t study at the library. So what? You don’t live at Orchard—you wouldn’t have seen the work we did there,” Julia argued. “And why would we cheat this close to the YENT? We’d
never
mess with that.”

It was just too difficult to believe her. Canterwood classes were beyond hard—no one knew that more than me. If they hadn’t studied enough, it wouldn’t have taken a big leap to believe they’d cheated. And the headmistress had said there’d been proof—so what were we even arguing about?

Julia stepped closer to me when a group of girls walked by us. “You know what? I wouldn’t have cared what anyone
thought—but they took riding away from us for something we didn’t do.”

I sighed. “But if you didn’t—”

“We
didn’t,
” Alison interrupted.

“Then prove it,” I said, walking away.

4
KEYWORD: EMERGENCY

WHEN I GOT TO WINCHESTER LATER THAT
afternoon, I dropped my heavy book bag on the floor of our dorm room and went straight to my closet. Paige wasn’t back yet, which was very unfortunate because this was prime BFF/roommate bonding material. I pulled open the doors and started yanking out every possible date outfit. Why was everything I owned suddenly so pathetic and horrible? I tugged every shirt off its hanger, took out all of my shoes, and went through every skirt in my closet. Nothing screamed
first date
.

The only thing I was sure that I’d wear was my charm bracelet. Not exactly an outfit.

The dorm room door opened. Paige stopped and put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the mess. Clothes
were piled on my purple bedspread, over our tiny coffee table, and on my desk.

“Um,” she said, closing the door.

“Paige!” I wailed. “All of this is wrong. Help!”

Holding back a laugh, Paige pulled her red hair into a ponytail and picked up clothes as she walked across the room. “Turn on your laptop,” she said. “You have to feel confident. If none of these clothes work, we’ll find you something that does.”

“And that’s why you’re my favorite roommate,” I said.

“I’m your
only
roommate,” Paige pointed out.

She helped me hang up my clothes while the computer started. We put it on the center of my bed and sat crosslegged in front of it.

Paige took over the mouse. “Definitely a blue shirt,” she said. “You look good in blue.”

She clicked through Express’s website and with expertise that only comes from being a Manhattan shopper, she quickly selected a floaty knee-length black skirt, black kitten heels, and a baby-blue top with three-quarter sleeves.

“Like?” she asked as we reviewed the items in my cart.

“Love,” I said. “You totally saved my date.”

Paige nodded. “Obviously. Since Eric only likes you for your clothes.”

I hopped off the bed and grabbed my “emergencies only” credit card from my desk drawer.

“My date’s tomorrow,” I said.

“Overnight shipping is the only option or the clothes won’t be here in time. This qualifies as emergency, right?”

Paige nodded. “Duh.”

I clicked the order button and crossed my fingers that Mom and Dad would agree on the emergency status. I shut off my laptop and walked to the door.

“I owe you popcorn and soda,” I said. “Be right back.”

“’Kay,” Paige said. She barely looked up from rearranging the clothes she’d hung back up in my closet. That was my Paige.

In the common room I grabbed a bag of kettle corn and popped it into the microwave. Popcorn was pretty much the only thing Paige trusted me to make. I’d only ruined it once when I’d hit twenty-two minutes instead of two, left the common room, and forgotten to come back. Luckily, Livvie—our dorm monitor—had noticed my mistake before the bag caught fire. But the entire dorm had smelled like burned popcorn for weeks.

I waited for the popcorn and looked up when the door opened. Jasmine stepped inside, looking like
she
was going on a date tonight in an off-the-shoulder black
shirt and vintage-looking jeans. She stared at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, just got an e-mail from Mr. Conner,” she said, grabbing a ginger ale from the fridge. “Eric and I are testing next week. On Sunday.”

“Good luck,” I said. “I know Eric’s going to be practicing nonstop.”

Jas hopped onto the counter and looked at me. “What’s it like going out with Intermediate Eric?”

“Stop calling him that,” I said. “’Cuz then I have to keep reminding you that you’re intermediate too.”

“Till next week,” Jas said. “But your boyfriend doesn’t belong on the advanced team and you know it.”

The microwave timer beeped. “Whatever,” I said. “We’ll see who makes it and who doesn’t.”

I turned away from her, opened the microwave, and retrieved my popcorn. I poured it into a bowl and headed out of the room.

“You’re the one who needs luck,” Jasmine called. “You’re totally delusional about your chances at the YENT.”

I slammed the door behind me before she could say another word.

She was wrong. My chances were as good as anyone’s— and I was going to make sure it stayed that way.

5
AQUAPHOBIA

ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON I WAS IN MY FAVORITE
place in the world—Charm’s saddle. The April air was warm and the sun beamed down on Callie, Heather, and me. The recent rain had made the grass lush and I knew Charm was eyeing every clump of clover. Mr. Conner had taken us to the outdoor cross-country course—my and Charm’s favorite.

Mr. Conner gathered us around him. “We’re going to do the modified version of the course,” he said. “Take your horse over the path you walked yesterday. I’ll be waiting at the other side of the woods. Heather will go first. Sasha, count to one hundred before you start.” I nodded. “Callie, please do the same after Sasha.”

Heather, Callie, and I traded smiles. Today was going
to be fun! Mr. Conner hadn’t brought up Heather skipping out on the last lesson and she had shown up today with her game face on.

“I’m going to take a shortcut to the other side. Remember that if something happens, another rider will be just behind you. Callie, if we don’t see you a couple of minutes after Sasha finishes, I’ll find you on the course, okay?”

“Okay,” Callie said.

“Heather, you may go when you’re ready,” Mr. Conner said. He started across the field.

Heather turned Aristocrat toward the course, then looked over at me. “Oh, don’t look so smug, Silver,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re not the only one who can do cross-country.”

Callie and I made
well, excuse me
faces at Heather behind her back when she turned around. She pushed her black helmet down on her head and settled into the saddle. She heeled Aristocrat forward and the dark chestnut leaped into a collected canter.

Heather’s gold-blond hair streamed out behind her as Aristocrat’s hooves churned up the grass and they darted away. Aristocrat jumped the low stone wall and they disappeared into the woods.

“She’s good,” I said. “Unfortunately.”

Callie nodded. “Very unfortunate.”

I brushed a blade of grass off the sleeve of my plumcolored jacket. “You getting nervous about the YENT?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Callie said. “But we still have, what, five weeks? We can practice all the time.”

“Totally,” I said. “We’ll be ready.”

Relief washed over me that we were friends again. I’d missed her more than I’d even realized.

“Okay,” Callie said. “You can probably go now.”

“Wish me luck!” I tensed in the saddle, shoving down my heels and adjusting my grip on Charm’s reins. I’d picked the ones with rubber grips for today.

“Gooo, Sasha!” Callie cheered, doing an awkward dance in the saddle.

I tossed a grin over my shoulder at her as I urged Charm into a trot. Three strides later, he broke into a canter and I focused on the stone wall.

At the just the right moment he lifted into the air and I gripped with my knees to stay in the saddle. He landed easily on the other side and we cantered the last few yards of open field as the course shifted into the woods. I slowed Charm as my eyes adjusted to the darker lighting.
The trees cast strange shadows over the woods and a light wind blew through the leaves.

We cantered a few more strides before we approached a three-foot log pile.
Three, two, and up!
I chanted in my head. Charm snapped his knees beneath him and lifted into the air. He cleared the logs with ease, pointing his ears forward when we landed—his attention drifting.

“Hey, pay attention,” I said, doing a half halt. Charm, listening, flicked both ears back to me.

We cantered down the dirt path that twisted through the woods. Charm leaped a few fallen trees that had been laid purposely across our path. The woods got more dense and I slowed him to a fast trot. Uh-oh. We were about to approach the creek.

At this part of the course we were supposed to trot down the creek’s bank, splash through the water and climb up the other side. But last week, Charm had developed a random creek phobia. He wanted to try and leap the span of the creek to avoid the water. But most sections were too wide for that.