Home for Christmas (23 page)

My breath caught. All I could do was stare. The girl flipped off her horse's back and landed in the arena dirt.

Oh. My. God.

This was my worst nightmare.

“Charm!” I almost didn't believe it when Charm finally slowed into a trot. I grabbed his lead line with shaking hands. His sides heaved and the whites of his eyes receded
as he began to calm. I pulled him into the arena entrance, ignoring my burning palms. We ran over to the girl who hadn't moved since her fall.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” I asked. Charm stood still next to me and lowered his head.

“Where's my horse?” the girl asked, her voice surprisingly strong for someone who had just had a serious fall.

“Right over there,” I pointed. “He looks okay,” I said, hoping that was true as I looked over to where he stood at the far end of the arena. The girl struggled to sit up.

“Wait,” I said. “Should you sit up?”

The girl wiped dirt from her eyes.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Just help me take off my helmet.”

My trembling fingers unfastened her chin strap and I lifted the helmet from her head. “I'm so, so sorry. Please let me go get help.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark-haired girl duck under the fence and grab the Thoroughbred's reins.

“Mr. Conner is coming, Heather,” she said, leading the Thoroughbred. Charm lifted his head to eye the new horse, who stood quietly and peered down at his rider.

“Thanks, Callie,” the blonde—Heather—said.

“Did you hurt anything?” Callie asked.

Heather wiggled the fingers on her left hand. “This arm.”

“Is Heather's horse okay?” I asked Callie.

Callie's dark brown eyes flickered over Heather and then toward me. She felt the horse's legs. “I don't feel any heat. Aristocrat seems fine to me.”

My old instructor, Kim, had taught me that, too. If Callie felt any heat, Aristocrat could have sprained or pulled something.

“Thank God,” Heather moaned. “We have a show in a month.”

“Thank you so much for grabbing him!” I said to Callie. “I can't believe that happened on my first day!”

A tall man with thick, dark hair strode over. I recognized him immediately from the Canterwood Crest Academy website: Mr. Conner, my riding instructor. And he definitely wasn't happy.

“What happened?” he asked, kneeling down to check on Heather.

“My horse got loose, sir,” I confessed, my voice shaky. “He spooked and I couldn't hold on to him.”

“Who are you?” Mr. Conner asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Sasha Silver. I'm new this year.” I wondered if I would set a school record by getting expelled on my first day.

Mr. Conner felt Heather's arm from her shoulder to her fingers. “Nothing feels broken. But let's get you to the nurse, Heather, just to make sure.”

Heather clutched her right arm. “It hurts, Mr. Conner.”

Mr. Conner motioned to Callie. “Callie, please take Aristocrat back to the stable, untack him, and be sure he's fed.”

“Yes, sir,” Callie said. “I saw what happened. It really
was
an accident.”

I mouthed a silent
thank-you
to Callie and she smiled in return before leading Aristocrat out of the arena.

“I'm feeling kind of dizzy,” Heather said. “Could I sit for one more second?”

“Of course,” Mr. Conner said, kneeling beside her. “Take a few deep breaths.”

What if she had head trauma? How could I tell Mom and Dad that in the ten minutes they left me alone, this happened? No way would yoga breathing be enough to calm them down if I got expelled my first ten minutes at Canterwood.

“Were you not taught how to control a spooked horse?” Mr. Conner asked. “You're not here to learn the basics.”

I couldn't believe this! First days were for good impressions. Charm and I had been practicing harder than ever
lately. We'd worked all summer on form and jumping—sometimes thirty hours a week.

“It happened so fast,” I said. “I wasn't able to catch him.”

Charm shifted his weight and his ears drooped. Mr. Conner helped Heather to her feet. When they started walking, I noticed she wasn't clutching her arm anymore.

“I expect you and your horse to be on your best behavior for the rest of the week, Ms. Silver,” Mr. Conner called back over his shoulder.

I exhaled. “Noises like that never scare you, Charm,” I whispered. “What happened?” Charm blinked and gave me his trademark sad puppy eyes. “We caused trouble in our first fifteen minutes, boy. Not a good start.” He lowered his head. “It's all right. Let's go find your stall.”

Charm and I approached the stable entrance when a girl with curly hair asked, “New rider, right?”

I nodded. “I'm Sasha and this is Charm.”

“I'm Nicole Allen,” the girl said. She patted Charm's shoulder. “Don't worry about it,” she whispered. “No one will remember this tomorrow.”

“Do you know where I should take Charm?” I asked her, recognizing an ally.

“I'll show you,” Nicole said. Charm and I followed her into the stable.

I tried not to compare Canterwood to Briar Creek once I was inside the stable's main aisle—it felt disloyal. But this place was even nicer than the National Equestrian Club we had visited in Washington, D.C.! The aisles here were wide, the stalls were enormous, and no one was riding in jeans. I almost did a double take when I saw “Charm” on the gleaming gold nameplate on the stall door. The box stall, with light wooden boards, looked brand-new.

“I've got to go practice,” Nicole said. “But I'll see you later.”

Charm sniffed his new blue water bucket and lipped a few pieces of hay from the hay net. I fumbled in my pocket for my pink cell phone and pressed speed dial four.

“Hello?” Kim said.

“I haven't even been here a full half hour,” I croaked into the phone. “And I've already humiliated myself.”

“No,” Kim said, her voice soothing. “What happened?”

“Charm got loose,” I said.

“Oh, dear,” Kim said.

“He spooked another horse and a girl fell.”

Kim gasped. “Was she hurt?”

“Yes. No! I don't think so. She walked away on her own, but she was leaving for the infirmary.”

“That doesn't sound too serious,” Kim soothed. “It's only the first day. By tomorrow, something else will happen and no one will remember that Charm got loose. Believe me.”

“I don't know,” I said, as Charm started to nose my boot. I couldn't be mad at him when he looked so scared. He was new, too, and probably afraid of his new home. “Maybe I should have stayed at Briar Creek.”

“Sasha, I loved having you here, but I taught you everything I could. We both know you want to grow as a rider.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

“I'm so proud of you, Sasha. And you can call me anytime you need to talk. Okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed. “Thanks, Kim,” I added, and said good-bye.

Charm nudged my back and I threw my arms around him. “It's going to be okay,” I soothed. “We can do this.” I reached under his jaw and tickled his hairy chin the way he liked. Charm flapped his lower lip up and down. It made a suction sound when it hit the top of his mouth. I laughed. “Thanks, boy. You always make me feel better.”

“Sasha?” Mom called from behind the stall door. “Wow! This is such a nice space for Charm.”

“I know, isn't it incredible?” I asked.

Dad glanced at me sideways. “You look upset. Everything okay?”

If I was going to make it, I couldn't be crying to my parents about every little thing. “Everything is fine. I'm just excited to see the dorms.”

“Let's go, then!” Dad said.

Jessica Burkhart (a.k.a. Jess Ashley) writes from Brooklyn, New York. She's obsessed with sparkly things, lip gloss, and books. She loves hanging with her bestie and watching too much TV. She is also the author of the Unicorn Magic series (2014) and the novel
Wild Hearts
(2015). Learn more about Jess at
www.JessicaBurkhart.com
. Find everything Canterwood Crest at
www.CanterwoodCrest.com
.

Other books in the

CANTERWOOD CREST SERIES:

TAKE THE REINS

CHASING BLUE

BEHIND THE BIT

TRIPLE FAULT

BEST ENEMIES

LITTLE WHITE LIES

RIVAL REVENGE

HOME SWEET DRAMA

CITY SECRETS

ELITE AMBITION

SCANDALS, RUMORS, LIES

UNFRIENDLY COMPETITION

CHOSEN

INITIATION

POPULAR

COMEBACK

MASQUERADE

JEALOUSY

FAMOUS

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN M!X

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First Aladdin M!X edition November 2013

Copyright © 2013 by Jessica Burkhart

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Designed by Jessica Handelman

Cover Designed by Jessica Handelman

Cover Photograph Copyright © 2013 by Monica Stevenson

The text of this book was set in Venetian 301 BT.