Unfriendly Competition (11 page)

The five of us went back to the stable, discussing our rides with Mike. Mr. Conner had trained him well, and I just knew that one day, Mike would be teaching advanced and YENT classes.

I made sure Charm was cool and shiny before I left him in his stall. There was one thing left to do before I went back to Orchard. I took a turn down the side hallway and stopped in front of Mr. Conner's dark office. The poster board Nicole had put up was almost full with notes and signatures of all different colors of pens and markers. Nicole, smart girl, had put a can of a dozen pens and markers for everyone to use.

I looked through them and picked up a navy blue glitter pen. There was a tiny open space near the bottom left corner. I uncapped the pen and turning
sideways a bit, I didn't need a moment to think about the message I wanted to write.

Mr. Conner—I'm sorry you got hurt, but know that if nothing else, it made a group of riders into a team. ~Sasha

10

LEGENDARY FOR . . . CANTERWOOD?

WHEN BRIT AND I GOT BACK TO OUR ROOM,
we showered and sat together on the floor, a sparkly metallic folder spread open in front of us.

“Julia and Alison should be here in a few minutes,” Brit said. “Then we'll have everything set for Heather's real party.”

“I'm so glad we're doing it for her,” I said. “She's acting like she's not upset or nervous about her mom coming, but she is. Wait until you meet Mrs. Fox. You won't believe how awful she really is.”

Brit frowned. “That's rough. And you said her dad's horrible, too, isn't he?”

“Unfortunately. He's a total stage parent. All he wants Heather to do is practice. It's the only thing he
wants her to excel at. But, also like Mr. Fox, he's not coming to her party.”

“
What?
” Brit's mouth opened a little. “He's not coming to his daughter's thirteenth birthday party? Not even to see her?”

“Nope. Heather told me. She's glad he's not coming, but she's still hurt at the same time.”

“Well, we're going to give her an amazing movie party. It'll make her forget all about her parents.”

Someone knocked on our door and I stood up, opening the door for Julia and Alison.

“Hey,” they both said. They were both dressed in cropped pajama pants, Havaianas, and VS Pink hoodies.

“C'mon in,” Brit said, waving them over.

We all sat down next to Brit.

“How did you sneak away from Heather?” I asked. “She always knows
everything.
”

Alison laughed. “True. Originally, we were going to tell her we were going to study at the library, hoping she wouldn't want to go. But we got sooo lucky because Troy called and they'll be on the phone for, like, ever.”

That made everyone grin.

“Perfect,” I said. “Let's run though final details and we're set.”

Brit and I had been keeping all of the party info at our room since we didn't want to risk Heather finding it in the Trio's suite.

I pulled out the checklist.

“Here's what we've got,” Brit said, looking over at the list. “Alison picked up the movies, and they're in our closet. Julia's already got the popcorn, movie candy, and big plastic cups for soda.”

Both girls nodded.

“Sasha took a piece of poster board and made it into an
ADMIT ONE
movie ticket for Heather that we'll give her as a card. We talked to Stephanie and got the okay to sleep over in your suite for a night and to stay up late, even though it's a school night.”

“I also got the delivery of streamers and a happy birthday sign from my Internet order,” I said. “Plus, birthday candles and everything else we need to throw a real party.”

“Yay!” Alison said, bouncing on the floor. “She's going to looove this. I'm so excited!” She turned to Julia. “Aren't you, Jules?”

Julia smiled, but it was thin. “Yeah, I'm excited. But I'm
really
into her mom's party, honestly. I know how Heather feels about her, but her mom throws killer
parties. This one is going to be epic. Legendary for Canterwood and we're going. I ordered my dress from Saks the second Heather told me her mom was throwing it.”

“Saks?” I asked. My gaze darted from Brit to Alison. I'd planned on wearing a cocktail dress I'd gotten from Macy's before school had started.

“Where else would I get a dress?” Julia asked with a snort. She shot me a glare. “Please tell me you did
not
get a dress from, like, Target or something.”

“Excuse you,” I said. “I like Target, first of all, so get over it. But no, I have a dress from Macy's.”

“I got mine from there, too,” Alison chimed in, shooting me an
ignore Julia she's being mean
look.

“And mine's from a vintage store when I went to New York City last summer,” Brit said. “I think our dresses are going to get us in the door.” She directed the last comment at Julia.

Julia stared at Brit for a second, then grabbed the list. “Did we cover everything? I've got a zillion things to do, and it seems like we're ready.”

“We just got here,” Alison said. “Don't you want to take, like, two more minutes to at least make sure our best friend's party is perfect?”

“Chill, Alison,” Julia said. “Everything's covered. We're just going over the same stuff now.”

“Don't tell me to chill,” Alison snapped.

Ummm, whoa.
I'd never seen Alison talk like that to Julia. She always deferred to her. Maybe she'd finally had enough of Julia's recent mood swings.

“This is Heather's party. I'm staying until everything's set,” Alison continued. Her brown eyes never looked away from Julia's face, which, by the way, was getting redder by the second. “Go if you want. I'll see you back in our room.”

Julia hesitated. Her gaze flitted from Brit and me to Alison. “Fine,” Julia said, “See you back in our room.”

She grabbed her purse and stomped out of the room. When the door was closed, Brit and I looked at Alison.

“Believe me, I wish I knew what was going on,” Alison said. “Julia's been in a bad mood for a while. I'm guessing it's probably because she didn't make the YENT. But she knows she can try out again and what a good rider she is.”

“It's weird,” I said. “She was starting to become my friend and now she's back to hating me most of the time. I've never seen her talk to you like that, either.”

Alison snuggled into her hoodie. “I'm sure she'll come out of it. She might be having problems with Ben
or her parents or even class stuff that she's not talking to us about.”

“Total possibility,” Brit said. “There's nothing more we can do. She'll either start being nice again or she won't.”

The three of us went back to looking over the details of Heather's surprise party. Alison left about half an hour later, when we were all satisfied that things were in good shape and ready to go for tomorrow.

After Alison left, I opened my closet door and pulled out the dress I wanted to wear. The black cocktail dress was simple, but the pretty lace straps gave it something special. With the right jewelry, it felt appropriate for Heather's party.

“This is okay, isn't it?” I asked Brit.

“It's more than okay,” Brit said. “It's beautiful!”

I held up the dress in front of me and looked in the mirror. “This has to be okay—the party's tomorrow. I think with kitten heels and the right jewelry, it'll be perfect.”

Brit walked toward her desk, getting ready to start on homework. “Don't let Julia get inside your head. She's ridiculous. You have no reason to listen to anything she says.”

“Thanks, Brit.
I
love my dress, so who cares it's not from Barneys?”

That made Brit smile. “Exactly.” She sat on her desk chair, taking textbook out of her book bag and putting them onto her desk. “I've so much homework tonight. Don't teachers know that we're supposed to sleep, too?”

“And you're not the only one, trust me. We'll both be doing homework all night.”

I picked up my own bag and started getting my own homework ready. There was something in almost every subject. Ugh. I'd started for my desk chair, when my phone buzzed.

I opened BBM and there was a message from Jacob.

Jacob Schwartz:

I heard abt Mr. Conner. R u ok?

Homework could wait a few minutes. Just a few.

Sasha Silver:

I'm ok bc he's not srsly hurt. He DID break his leg, which is bad, but @ least he'll be back tomorrow.

Jacob Schwartz:

I heard you were pretty awesome.

Sasha Silver:

Aw, thanks.
But rlly, it was my entire team. And srry I didn't BBM u abt it. Lots of things have been happening today.

Jacob Schwartz:

Don't worry abt it! I know ur busy. H's party is 2mrw, right?

Sasha Silver:

Yup. U sure you don't mind being my plus 1?

I'd asked Jacob over BBM a few days ago if he wanted to go with me. His feelings about Heather were mixed. He hated all the mean things she'd done to me, but he knew we were kind of friends now.

Jacob Schwartz:

R u kidding? I better go—my mom bought and shipped a tux. JK.
I mean, I know I have to wear the tux, but it's worth it 2 b w/u.

Sasha Silver:

<3 Thanks. I'm rlly glad ur going. It'll b fun—we always find a way 2 have a good time 2gether.

Jacob Schwartz:

Def. I'm gonna get started on hmwk, but I'll c u 2mrw nite.

We said good-bye, and I plugged in my phone to charge. I needed a charger of my own—called caffeine—to get me through all of this homework.

*   *   *

Who knows how many hours later, Brit and I closed our books at the same time.