Turf Wars (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 8)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Sorry it’s so boring,” I said.

  “It’s not really boring,” Chloe replied.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to lie. It’s the most boring barbeque ever,” Mickey said.

  “See, she knows she can tell me the truth.” I grinned. “It was my mom’s dumb idea.”

  “At least she made an effort,” Chloe said. “The only time we ever had a barbeque, the whole thing was catered, my mom actually forgot what time she told everyone to come and then it rained.”

  “I wish it would rain.” I looked up at the clear, blue sky that showed absolutely no sign that it was going to fulfil my wish anytime soon. “How long do you think we have to stay here before making a getaway?”

  “Ten more minutes?” Mickey guessed.

  “Right. Ten more minutes and then let’s go up to my room and watch horse movies.”

  “Awesome,” Chloe said.

  I was about to go over and grab the last of the hairball radishes when I heard laughing. The sort of loud, raucous laughing that meant trouble was coming and I looked up to see Jake and Peyton, arm in arm with Cat. Cat had a bottle of vodka in one hand and a cigarette in the other. They all looked completely hammered.

  “Thank you for coming to my barbeque,” she shouted.

  Everyone stopped talking and looked at the three teenagers, standing on the steps glaring defiantly down at us.

  “I’m sure you all know by now that my darling stepmother is a wonderful cook.” Cat pointed over to my mother who was standing there with a spatula in her hand and a look of horror on her face. “But really, you should know that she sucks as a mother.”

  “Catherine,” Derek yelled, dashing over to the steps. “That’s quite enough.”

  “Is it Daddy dearest?” She raised an eyebrow. “Is it now?”

  “Yes,” he said. “How dare you embarrass me like this?”

  “Oh don’t worry, I won’t tell everyone that you bought the ribs because you didn’t know how to cook them.” She looked around and put her hand over her mouth. “Whoops. I guess I just did.” She fell into a giggling fit.

  “Stop it,” I yelled at her.

  “Stop it?” she said. “Why? Because I’m embarrassing you in front of all your stupid barn friends?”

  My face turned red and I wished I hadn’t said anything.

  “You were right you know. Jake does think you suck, as a person and a rider. He says you’ll never make it to the top so you might as well just forget all this talk about going to the Olympics. You’re just making a fool of yourself.”

  I lunged forward but Mickey grabbed hold of my arm and held me back.

  “Oh what?” Cat laughed. “Little sis is going to fight me? Okay then, bring it on.”

  She tossed Peyton and Jake off her arms and took a swig from the bottle, then she threw it onto the barbeque. The bottle smashed on the grill and a fireball exploded up into the sky.

  “This is nothing like my mother’s barbeque,” Chloe said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  It would have been a pretty cool special effect if the barbeque hadn’t been under a tree branch. The flames bellowed upwards like fire from the mouth of a dragon and when the smoke finally cleared, our poor lonely tree was on fire. People scrambled to get out of the way and Peyton, Jake and Cat disappeared faster than a magicians trick. People were grabbing their kids and leaving. I didn’t blame them. If it hadn’t been my house, I wouldn’t have stuck around either.

  Derek was busy calling the fire department. I wondered if he’d tell them that it was his darling daughter who caused the fire in the first place. Probably not.

  “Want to go up to my room now?” I asked Mickey and Chloe.

  They both nodded, a little dumbstruck. I couldn’t see Frank anywhere. He was probably totally embarrassed that two of his students had been involved in such a spectacle.

  “So much for you guys coming down here to lay low,” I told Chloe.

  “It was a dumb idea anyway,” she said.

  We sat up in my room watching a sappy horse movie but really our attention was on the back yard. The firefighters came with a giant hose and put out the fire, which had spread further up into the tree and along the fence. Just before they got there, I was starting to worry that the house might actually catch on fire but luckily that didn’t happen. Only now the backyard looked like a tsunami had gone through it. The table was overturned with all the food floating away on a sad river of firefighter water. A pink cupcake rode the wave before finally disappearing under the fence.

  “If they think I’m helping to clean that up, they have another thing coming,” I said.

  “They should make Cat clean it up.” Mickey came to the window and looked out at the mess. “It was her fault in the first place.”

  “Don’t you know,” I said. “Nothing is ever her fault.”

  “Your stepsister is crazy,” Chloe added.

  “I know,” I said.

  Cat had suddenly crossed the line from being annoying to dangerous. If she didn’t care about things like catching the house on fire, what hope did we all have of surviving living with her? Derek was bad enough as it was. Now I had to worry about two of them and somehow I didn’t feel like sleeping with my door locked was going to cut it anymore.

  “You think Peyton and Jake will still be allowed to go to the show?” I asked Chloe.

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe. Frank really needs us to win.”

  “Why?” I asked curiously. “No offense but doesn’t he have lots of students back home?”

  “None taken,” she said. “But he doesn’t have lots of students anymore. We’re not supposed to talk about it but there is this hip new trainer, Frosty Wilcox, who poached almost all of his good riders.”

  “Frosty Wilcox?” Mickey laughed. “That’s his real name?”

  “Yeah.” Chloe nodded. “He’s really good too.”

  “I’ve never heard of him,” I said.

  “He was over in Europe for a while and just came back. He has some rich old widow backing him and she buys him all the best horses.” She picked at a loose thread on my blanket. “And now he has all the best students too.”

  “But Frank’s been around for ages,” I said.

  “Exactly,” Chloe said. “He’s not young and hot anymore. Who would you rather ride with?”

  “The person who can teach me the most,” I said.

  “But you want to make a career out of this, I can tell,” she said. “Most of the girls at my barn are doing it because their parents want them to or their friends are doing it or because they think they look hot in breeches and can snag a rich trainer who will fall madly in love with them and marry them.”

  “Really?” Mickey sat on the floor next to Chloe. “They want to marry a rich trainer? Why?”

  “Why?” Chloe said. “Why not? You get to go to all the big shows and not have to do any of the work. Sip champagne and rub elbows with the best while you cheer on your sexy husband as he wins big checks and gold cups.”

  “I’d rather do the winning myself,” I said.

  “Yes but you’re different,” Chloe said.

  “And crazy,” Mickey added. “I think it sounds like an awesome idea.”

  “That’s only because you think it sounds like Pretty Woman,” I told her. “And that movie is totally old and eighties and not even believable.”

  “It’s not old, it’s retro,” she said.

  “If you say so.” I threw a cushion at her head.

  She squealed and threw it back and before I knew it, we were having a pillow fight and the horrible barbeque and my awful step sister were momentarily forgotten.

  Later, after Chloe and Mickey left, I thought about what Chloe had said. How I was different. I didn’t feel different and I didn’t think I was different. So I didn’t want a boyfriend or a husband. Who would? They seemed like more work than a difficult horse, always wanting your attention and being all needy. I could do without that thank you
very much. And why would I want to cheer on my partner when they could be cheering me on? It didn’t make any sense.

  I wandered downstairs where my mother was still in floods of tears over her ruined barbeque. Derek obviously wasn’t interested in comforting her since he was on the phone, yelling at whoever was on the other end of the line.

  “Don’t worry Mom.” I put my arm around her. “Up until the fire, it was a great barbeque and let’s face it, no one will ever forget it.”

  “They’ll never forget it because it was so bad,” she cried.

  “People love stuff like that,” I told her. “It gives them something to talk about.”

  “I don’t want people to talk about me like that,” she sobbed.

  “No one cares about your stupid barbeque.” Derek had hung up the phone but was still pacing around the kitchen. “How do you think my daughter feels?”

  “How does she feel?” Mom wiped her eyes angrily. “I don’t care how she feels. She’s the one who ruined everything.”

  “And now she’s disappeared. Are you happy?”

  “Of course I’m not happy but you raised her. You’re the reason she turned out this way. In fact, maybe you should just disappear too.”

  Derek stood there for a moment, opening and closing his mouth like a codfish. Then he turned and stormed off. I heard the front door slam and his car squeal out of the driveway but I knew him disappearing forever was too good to be true.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  By the next morning, Cat still hadn’t shown up. Derek went to the police station to file a missing person’s report and Mom had big, dark circles under her eyes.

  “I’m sure she’ll turn up,” I said. “She’s probably just crashing with one of her friends.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Mom replied.

  But deep down I hoped that I wasn’t right at all. I really hoped that Cat had run away and maybe even gone back up north to live with her real mother.

  “Will you be alright if I go to the barn?” I asked her.

  “Fine.” She nodded. “You don’t need to be around Derek when he is like this anyway. Go. Enjoy.”

  She was right about that. Derek had come home sometime around one in the morning and I’d woken up to them yelling at each other. I had to hand it to Cat, she was actually doing a pretty good job at driving the two of them apart. Maybe she wanted the same thing I did, for everything to go back to normal and for Derek and her to leave permanently.

  “That barbeque was the best thing I’ve ever been too.” Chloe rushed over to me as soon as I got to the barn. “I’ll never forget it.”

  “That’s what my mom is afraid of,” I told her.

  I was just glad that Esther hadn’t been there to see the meltdown of my family but Frank had. I was worried that he might think we were some kind of trailer trash or something but it seemed he had more important things to worry about. Jake and Peyton had been shipped back home for their bad behavior and Melanie was in the process of arranging for their horses to be shipped back as well.

  “I suppose he’ll want a refund for the stalls.” Esther was standing in the doorway to her office looking worried. “And I thought this summer was going to be such a breeze.” She shook her head. “I should have known better.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told her, feeling guilty. “I told my mom not to invite them but she did it behind my back.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “Those two were trouble anyway. The boy threatening you like that just for riding his horse? That was unacceptable.”

  I had to admit that with Jake gone, it felt like a giant black cloud had been lifted from the barn. Faith and Mackenzie were huddled over Mackenzie’s iPad, playing a game and Chloe was actually humming to herself as she stroked Winter’s nose.

  “Morning,” Frank said gruffly as he went by.

  I ran after him, wanting to apologize.

  “Frank,” I said when I caught up to him. “I’m so sorry about yesterday. My stepsister, she’s not a good person. I’m so embarrassed and my mom is too. She wants you to know how sorry she is.”

  He stopped and looked down at me. I suddenly felt very small and insignificant. I wasn’t a kid who had parents with money and he knew that now. He didn’t need students like me. He needed ones like Peyton and Jake who could pay him big training fees and buy expensive horses that he got commissions on.

  “Forget about it,” he said. “Your sister didn’t force my students to drink and act foolishly. They did that all on their own.”

  “But …”

  “I said forget it.”

  He walked off and left me standing there, my hopes and dreams in a puddle by my feet. There was no way he was going to invite me to go to the show with them now. In fact, since he only had two students left, I’d be surprised if they ended up going at all. And if they weren’t going to the show then none of them needed to stay here.

  I thought of all the empty stalls they would leave behind when they left. Ones that Esther would have to fill or else she would lose the barn altogether. It was all too depressing to think about so I saddled Bluebird and took him out to the jump field.

  We worked on the flat and I asked him for the canter and then worked on our flying changes. I tried not to dive or lean or do any of the things that Frank had criticized me for and I tried desperately to tell if Bluebird was late behind or not. I thought that maybe he was okay but I couldn’t be sure. His canter was so springy and bouncy that it was hard to tell. In the end I gave up and moved on to the jumps. After all, we weren’t doing the hunters or dressage. No one was going to give us a bad score if we got late changes or messed up changes or no changes at all. All that mattered was getting over the jumps fast and clean and that’s what we did best.

  “Come on boy,” I encouraged him.

  With all the boring flatwork stuff out of the way, Bluebird pricked his ears up. He knew what was coming next, the part both he and I loved the best. We cantered over a couple of the smaller jumps and then I pointed him at the big ones. He flew over them and I couldn’t help smiling. Jumping made everything better.

  Bluebird thought so too. He cleared them all, including the oxer that I’d messed up the last time. Today I saw the distance perfectly and he cleared it without a second thought. I pulled him up and patted his neck.

  “Good boy,” I cried.

  And as I walked him around in the shade to cool him off, I saw Frank over by the ring, watching me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  When Frank first arrived, I thought the sun shone out of his butt and I also thought that his students were golden eggs. These brilliant, talented kids who were far better than I could ever be. After all, Frank had trained Missy Ellison and she was the youngest rider ever in the Olympics. But now I saw that Frank was just a guy who got lucky. He knew how to point out a rider’s flaws and how to fix them but he wasn’t a magician. He had a lucky string of students with lots of money and great horses and maybe Missy had just been a fluke. Maybe she was just really talented like everyone said. But not everyone could be a champion.

  Chloe and Mackenzie were in the ring having a lesson as I walked Bluebird back to the barn. Chloe waved and I waved back. It was funny. When they came and took over our barn, I felt like they were invading my private, sacred place. Stealing our turf when we hardly had enough of it to go around ourselves. But now that Peyton and Jake had left, the barn felt quiet and peaceful and I wanted Chloe and Mackenzie to stay. I liked them, even though I’d told myself I wouldn’t.

  “Nice job out there.” Melanie was standing at the entrance to the barn and had been watching me too.

  “What height do you usually jump?”

  “Around three feet,” I said. “But sometimes up to four.”

  “Nice.” She nodded. “But if you are going to start going to rated shows, you’d better start talking about your heights in meters.”

  “Meters?” I said.

  “Yes, they don’t measure the classes in feet any
more. In fact they haven’t for a while,” she said.

  “Oh.” I shrugged, feeling kind of stupid. After all, I had no idea how tall three feet was in meters. “Well I guess I won’t have to worry about that for a while anyway.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that,” she called after me as I walked away.

  “You want to go to a fancy show and jump in meters?” I asked Bluebird as I took him to the wash rack and untacked him. He rubbed some slobber on me in reply.

  It was weird because part of me wanted to go to a show like that more than anything but part of me didn’t. I liked the idea of it but sometimes real things turned out to be not as good as the idea in your head and I was afraid that was what would happen. I had this image in my mind of shiny horses and spotless riders and blue ribbons the size of dinner plates. What if it didn’t live up to my expectations? What if I failed spectacularly at my rated show debut?

  “Still, we don’t have the money to go anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter,” I told Bluebird.

  I’d been putting away my winnings to pay for things like show entry fees and Bluebird’s care but we hadn’t been to any shows lately what with the hunter pace and the clinics and that meant that my savings were quickly dwindling away to nothing. After Esther told me how much the rated shows cost, I looked it up online hoping she was wrong but of course she wasn’t. Plus there were things like registration with the United States Equestrian Federation for both you and your pony. It all seemed a million times more complicated than just showing up at a local show and going for it.

  Most kids had trainers and parents to do all that stuff for them but I didn’t have anyone. Esther wasn’t really that involved in my career anymore. All she cared about was saving Sand Hill, which was great because without it we would all be out in the street but it didn’t exactly help me in other areas, like showing.

  “Frank says we’re still going to the show,” Chloe gushed as she came into the barn. “And now that Peyton and Jake have gone, I really feel like I’m learning something because Frank used to just be focused on them all the time but now he has time for me.”