Best Enemies

by Jessica Burkhart

  “Aren’t we leaving? What happened?” I looked behind me.

  Ryan, an incredibly cute guy from Paige’s math class, stood at the counter. He’d also played a security guard at her Teen Cuisine premiere party.

  “Omigod,” I whispered. “You like Ryan!”

  Paige picked up the menu and shielded her face.

  “Paige!” I reached over and pulled down the menu.

  Paige inched down into the booth. “Yes,” she whispered. “I like him. But I can’t talk to him right now. I don’t know what to say.”

  “He hasn’t seen you. Don’t worry.” I glanced over my shoulder again, pretending to look at the wall clock. The barista handed Ryan a soda and he walked out the door.

  “Phew,” Paige said. “Let’s go in case he comes back.”

  It was so funny to see Paige act this way! She was usually so calm and supercomposed. I’d never seen her this flustered.

  We got up and walked to the door. Paige checked out the window to be sure Ryan had walked away before we went outside.

  “You should totally talk to him,” I said. “He was into you at your party. I know it.”

  Paige’s eyes widened. “You think?”

  “I know.”

  21

  OWNED!

  “TODAY’S GOING TO BE AWESOME,” I SAID. “Cross-country!” I peered out the window of our room, overlooking the sidewalks and lawn. A gentle breeze swayed the trees and puffy clouds filled the sky.

  Paige, looking up from her homework, nodded. “Your fave. And tonight…”

  I pretended to think. “Something’s on tonight. Let me think… Friday night… there’s a show on Friday night… some show with a girl and there might be, like, cooking.”

  Paige tossed a wadded up piece of notebook paper at me. “Meet me in the common room for snacks and stuff.”

  I pulled on my boots. “I’ll be there.”

  *

  At the stable yard I mounted Charm as Callie led Jack toward us. Callie looked like a riding catalog model— she wore a royal purple three-quarter-sleeve shirt, black breeches, and matching cross-country vest.

  “I’m so psyched for cross-country!” Callie said.

  “Me too,” I said. “I’m ready.”

  “Ready to get owned at cross-country?” I asked Eric with a teasing smile when he and the rest of the team finally arrived.

  “Oh, please,” Eric said. “You’re good, but not that good.”

  I folded my arms. “Excuse me? I’m so gonna take you down for that.”

  Eric just shook his head.

  “That’s new,” I heard Heather say. I followed her gaze. Mr. Conner was on horseback. He trotted Brooklyn, a gelding he was training, over to us. I wasn’t used to seeing him on horseback during our lessons.

  Mr. Conner let Brooklyn trot past us, and then looked back over his shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s go!”

  The rest of us urged our horses after Mr. Conner and we let them trot across the field to the start of the course.

  “One at a time on the course,” Mr. Conner said. “Heather will go first, then Eric, Jasmine, Sasha, and Callie. After the rider in front of you goes, wait five minutes before you start. Pay attention to the course flags. If you get into trouble, remember that someone will be a few minutes behind you.”

  We nodded.

  “And Callie,” Mr. Conner said. “If we don’t see you within ten minutes after Sasha comes in, I’ll be on the course.”

  I rubbed Charm’s neck and he snorted. Neither of us could wait to get out there.

  “Like last time, I’m going to take a shortcut across the field. I’ll be waiting at the finish line,” Mr. Conner said.

  Mr. Conner cantered Brooklyn away from us and Heather circled Aristocrat.

  “Try not to end up in the creek, Heather,” Jasmine said.

  Heather turned in her saddle and glared at Jasmine before settling into Aristocrat’s saddle. Finally, she asked him to canter. Aristocrat’s long strides carried them to the stone wall. Aristocrat jumped the wall and he and Heather disappeared into the woods.

  A few minutes later, Eric adjusted his cross-country vest and started out.

  “Good luck,” I said.

  “Gag,” Jasmine said, rolling her eyes. “Would you just go already?”

  Eric tapped his heels against Luna’s sides and she quickly accelerated into a canter. Her strides were shorter than Aristocrat’s, but she was fast. Eric guided her to the wall and she took it without hesitation.

  Jasmine rode off a few minutes later, then it was finally my turn.

  “Have fun,” Callie said. “And don’t even worry about the creek. Remember, you can jump the skinniest part on this course.”

  I nodded and sank my weight into the saddle.

  “Ready, boy?” I gave Charm rein and urged him forward. He cantered across the field and we reached the low stone wall with ivy growing along the top and sides. Charm lifted into the air and tucked his forelegs under his body. We landed on the other side and I let him canter for a few dozen yards down the straight dirt path.

  I slowed Charm as we approached a log pile. Charm leaped the logs and he cantered for six strides before we made a gradual turn and started toward the creek. I tried not to tense in the saddle, but I was nervous. I took a breath and paid attention to Charm’s body language—waiting for a flicker of nerves from him. But his canter didn’t slow as we approached the creek. I started counting strides. Four, three, two, one, and up! I squeezed my legs against Charm’s sides and he pushed with his hind legs, propelling us over the creek. I let out a breath when we landed on the dirt bank on the other side.

  “Nice,” I said as we trotted uphill and then through the final yards of woods. Charm’s canter quickened as the dirt changed to grass. Four jumps left. We trotted up another hill and the ground leveled. I could see Eric, Heather, and Jasmine waiting with Mr. Conner.

  I aimed Charm at a stack of hay bales and he jumped them without blinking. He took two brush jumps, with only a couple of strides between them, and then moved toward the final jump—a wooden gate. Charm tossed his head, tugging on the reins. He wanted to stretch into a gallop over the final yards toward the gate.

  Not. Happening.

  I squeezed the reins with my fingers, deepening my seat and lengthening my legs. Charm cantered a few more strides at the same speed before slowing.

  Three, two, one, and up! I lifted out of the saddle and Charm jumped with too much force over the old brown gate. He jumped higher than necessary, landing heavily on the other side. My hands slid down his neck and I wobbled in the saddle. Gripping the saddle with my knees, I corrected my seat.

  I slowed Charm to a trot, then a walk. Mr. Conner rode Brooklyn up to us.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  “I was nervous before the creek,” I admitted. “But Charm didn’t have a problem jumping it.”

  “You did the right thing by doing a half halt to slow him before the gate,” Mr. Conner said. “He saw the other horses waiting and wanted to rush to get to them.”

  “He still jumped too high,” I said. “But I shouldn’t have lost my balance.”

  Mr. Conner nodded. “We’ll work on balance exercises before tryouts.”

  When we joined the others, Charm stopped by Luna and reached out his muzzle to bump hers.

  “Good ride?” Eric asked.

  “Decent,” I said. “Not our best. But at least now I know what to work on.”

  “Everything,” Jas quipped under her breath.

  I rolled my eyes, but I was really worried. I couldn’t make those mistakes during the final YENT tryouts. While we waited for Callie, I tried not to obsess over my ride. Callie and Jack finally appeared over the hill and I watched Jack fly over the gate with ease that I envied. It only made me more nervous about tryouts.

  Going into film class, I was still thinking about my cross-country mistakes.

  As I took my seat, I flipped open my phone to find that Callie had sent
me a text.

  Meet me aftr class?

  K.

  She’d promised to help me in whatever way she could so that we’d both be as prepared as possible for the tryouts. I put my phone away, glad for the millionth time to have my BFF back.

  Mr. Ramirez walked to the front of the room. “Happy Friday, everyone.”

  What movie was that from?! We looked around at each other—no one knew!

  Mr. Ramirez stared at us for a few more seconds before starting to laugh. “That wasn’t a quote, guys. I was really just saying ‘happy Friday.’”

  I laughed along with the rest of the class.

  “Please pass your homework forward,” Mr. Ramirez said. “And then we’ll get started.”

  Where was Jacob? His knee was fine—Callie had said so earlier today. I reached for my phone, then changed my mind.

  “Anyone have problems with the homework?” Mr. Ramirez asked.

  A girl in the front row raised her hand. “Question three?”

  “Okay,” Mr. Ramirez said, collecting the homework. “Let’s take a look at question three.” Mr. Ramirez stopped, his gaze focused on something else.

  “Sorry,” Jacob said, hurrying down the aisle and taking the seat next to me.

  Mr. Ramirez frowned. “I know it’s the last day of class, guys, but we still have work to do today. Let’s go back to Alicia’s question.”

  When Mr. Ramirez started talking, I leaned over to Jacob. “You okay?”

  He nodded.

  I looked at him. He kept shifting around in his seat and touching his hair, which I knew he did when he got nervous. I wanted to ask him if he was really okay, but decided to drop it. If he wanted to talk, he would.

  At the end of class, Mr. Ramirez told us that he had one last announcement. “Since I’m the nicest teacher at Canterwood,” he said, “you all already know there’s no final for this class. But the powers that be have insisted on something official in place of an exam. So instead, we’ll be having a class pizza party on Saturday afternoon.” Mr. Ramirez grinned. “We’ll watch a couple of my favorite movies and that will be that. It was either that or a final, so I hope you’re all on board.”

  “Um, yeah!” called a guy two rows in front of me.

  Everyone laughed and Mr. Ramirez dismissed us. Jacob gathered his bag and immediately walked down the aisle to Mr. Ramirez, probably to explain why he’d been late.

  When I walked out of the theater, I found Callie waiting for me. She’d pulled her hair into a high ponytail that showed off her pink dangly earrings.

  “How was class?” she asked.

  “Long, but okay. I can’t believe it was the last one.” We started to walk and then I paused. “Did you want to wait for Jacob?” I asked.

  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 hors
e 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.