The A Circuit 04- Rein It In

by Georgina Bloomberg

  “Sounds like a plan.” Jamie stepped in and grabbed Scooby. “Time for you to come in too, buddy.”

  Soon Orion was in his stall nosing at the pile of fresh-smelling hay one of the grooms had put in there. Joy pulled out her cell phone and wandered off down the aisle with it pressed to her ear while Tommi and Jamie stood watching the horse.

  “Don’t worry. Burt will have him feeling better in no time.” Jamie glanced at her. “But you realize what this means, right?”

  Tommi’s heart sank. She’d been so anxious about Orion that she hadn’t thought beyond trying to figure out what was behind his lameness. But now she realized what Jamie was saying. An abscess wasn’t a serious problem, but it was serious enough to keep Orion home from the upcoming show.

  “Yeah,” she said, feeling her chances at Harrisburg’s prestigious Medal Finals limping away. “Oh well, that’s horses for you, I guess.”

  “All right, Kate.” Ms. Chen handed Kate’s English quiz back to her across her desk, an expression of mild concern on her face. “I realize Shakespeare can be challenging and you were away last week, but I’m concerned that if this happens again, your grade for the semester will suffer. Please ask for help next time if necessary, okay?”

  “I will, I swear. Thanks.” Kate grabbed the paper and shoved it into her bag, heading for the door before the teacher could change her mind.

  That had been close. Kate had been so desperate to finish her chemistry homework on the drive home from Cap Challenge that she hadn’t had time to finish reading Macbeth, and yesterday’s quiz had taken her completely by surprise. Good thing her grades in English had been mostly decent otherwise this year. Because all it would take was one teacher calling Kate’s parents before the trailers pulled out the next afternoon, and she could kiss Harrisburg good-bye.

  She tried not to think about that. For one thing, she didn’t have time. It was Tuesday afternoon, and the juniors had a lesson in a little over an hour. Before that, Kate was supposed to repack the tack stall drapes for the show, and there was a feed delivery scheduled that she might need to help organize. …

  Kate was so busy listing off tasks in her head as she hurried across the student parking lot that she didn’t notice anyone else was around until she heard a cough followed by Nat’s nasally drawl: “In a hurry, Katie?”

  Kate stopped short. Nat and Cody were sitting on the tailgate of his battered pickup, passing a bag of Doritos back and forth between them. The truck was parked right across from Kate’s car, which was one of the last remaining in the lot.

  “H-hi,” Kate responded cautiously. She and Nat hadn’t spoken since chemistry class the other week, and for a second Kate wondered if it was a good sign Nat was talking to her now. Was she finally starting to thaw?

  Fat chance. “Let me guess.” Nat popped a chip in her mouth and glared at Kate as she crunched. “You’re rushing over to that fancy-schmancy snob barn of yours, right? Gotta hurry up and get there so the rich bitches can order you around.”

  Cody snorted with laughter. “Here’s an order for you, Kate,” he said. “Go get me a beer.”

  Nat ignored him, keeping her eyes trained on Kate’s. “That where you’re going, Katie?” she asked.

  “It’s not like that there—you know that, Nat,” Kate blurted out, sidling a few steps closer to her car.

  Nat shrugged. “While you’re there, say hi to my horse, would ya?” she said. “Or wait. I guess you don’t have to do what I say—you think you’re better than me now, right? Only the rich bitches get to tell you what to do, and you just suck up to them and take it like some yappy little dog nobody really likes.”

  Kate didn’t stick around to hear any more. She raced to her car, her hands shaking so badly she could barely get the key into the ignition. Finally jamming it in, she gunned the engine and took off without looking back.

  She was still stewing over the confrontation with Nat when she arrived at Pelham Lane ten minutes later. Grabbing her well-worn paddock boots out of the backseat, she quickly yanked them on and hurried inside. Nobody was in the entryway except one of the barn dogs, so Kate headed for the office to see if Jamie still wanted her to try to do the stall drapes before the lesson.

  On her way, she passed the grooming stalls. Horses were cross-tied in several of them—Fitz’s leased eq horse, Marissa’s hunter, and Dani’s jumper—though it looked as if their riders hadn’t even started grooming yet, let alone tacking up.

  Kate soon saw why. All three riders were huddled just down the aisle, along with Zara and Summer. The buzz of excited conversation drifted toward Kate. Was something going on?

  Fitz looked up and spotted her. “She’s here,” he said loudly, which for some reason made the others fall silent.

  “What’s going on?” Kate took a few cautious steps toward the group. Zara waved at her, looking weirdly excited. Dani had a funny half smile on her face, and Marissa and Summer were staring at Kate as if she were the most fascinating thing they’d ever seen. Which was definitely not normal, especially for Summer, who rarely looked directly at Kate unless she was ordering her to do something. Sometimes not even then. For the ghost of a second, Nat’s accusations darted back into Kate’s mind, though she tried not to focus on them.

  Fitz was already hurrying to meet her. “Hey,” he said softly, bending to brush her lips with a quick kiss. “I guess you haven’t heard yet, huh? Come on over here. You’ll want to see this.”

  “See what?” She followed him back down the aisle. Zara held out her phone.

  “Check it out,” she said with a grin. “Guess this explains why Joy’s been acting weird lately.”

  Kate blinked, not sure what she was talking about. Then she recalled Zara talking about the blog and Joy at Cap Challenge, though Kate had been too busy to do more than glance at it when Zara stuck it in front of her face at dinner one night.

  “There’s something about Joy on the blog again?” Kate said, taking the phone.

  “Not just Joy.” Fitz’s arm slipped around her shoulders and squeezed. “Read it. All the way through.”

  Kate scanned the post:

  Your faithful blogger just uncovered some blockbuster news out of Pelham Lane Stables. Remember how assistant trainer Joy was acting funny? Well, now we know why—she’s preggers! What does this mean for the future of PLS? Only head trainer Jamie Vos knows, and he’s not saying—but odds seem good that he’ll be looking for a new assistant very soon. Who will it be? Again, nobody knows for sure—but some say a certain working student will likely be asked to step into the job!

  Chapter Eight

  “What do you think?” Marissa asked Kate, her eyes shining with excitement.

  Kate couldn’t answer. Her mind felt numb, unable to process this.

  Summer wrinkled her nose. “I think it’s totally weird to picture Joy with a baby,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t even realize she was married.”

  “Yes, you did,” Dani told her. “She brought her husband to the barn picnic last spring, remember? He’s super shy and adorable. Works in real estate, I think.”

  “Not really the point here, guys.” Fitz shot them an annoyed look. Then he turned to Kate. “Congratulations, babe,” he said with a grin. “Should we call you Madame Trainer, or just Boss?”

  Kate was still too stunned to respond, or even really take in what he’d said. She was still staring at the blog post on Zara’s phone, trying to make sense of the words blinking at her from the tiny screen. Was Joy really leaving Pelham Lane? It was hard to imagine—she’d been there since long before Kate had arrived.

  Even if that part was true, could the other part possibly be right? Could Jamie actually be thinking of offering Kate the more-than-full-time position of assistant trainer?

  “This can’t be for real,” she blurted out at last. “I mean—it’s crazy, right? I’m only sixteen.”

  “You’ll be seventeen in a few months,” Fitz reminded her.

  “No, she’s right,” Summer said. �
�It’s totally crazy. Kate can’t be the assistant trainer.”

  “Why not?” Zara challenged her. “She rides better than anyone here except maybe Jamie.”

  “Yeah,” Fitz agreed, giving Kate’s shoulders an extra squeeze. “She’d be awesome at it. She practically runs this place as it is.”

  Just then Tommi rounded the corner leading Toccata. “What’s going on?” she asked when she saw them all standing there.

  Zara and the others practically tripped over themselves filling her in. Tommi’s eyebrows shot higher with every word, and halfway through she grabbed the phone out of Kate’s hand and scrolled through the blog post.

  “This is nuts.” She frowned at the screen. “I doubt it’s more than some stupid rumor, like most of the other stuff on this blog.” She handed Zara’s phone back to her. “But even if Jamie goes temporarily insane and offers Kate the job, there’s no way she’d accept it.”

  “Says who?” Fitz looked annoyed.

  “Says anyone with half a brain.” Tommi led her horse into an open grooming stall and clipped on the cross-ties as she talked. “I mean, think about it. She’d have to drop out of school, and college would be out of the question.”

  “That’s true.” Marissa glanced at Kate thoughtfully. “I hadn’t really thought about it that way.”

  Zara shrugged. “Not everybody has to go to college. My dad didn’t, and look where it got him.”

  Kate’s mother hadn’t gone to college, either, though she didn’t bother to mention that. Since when was Tommi so gung-ho about college, anyway? Wasn’t that the whole point of this horse-selling deal she had going with her father—that she didn’t want to settle for being some generic college-bound drone? That she wanted to follow her dream of working with horses for a living? What made that okay for her but not for Kate?

  Tommi was scowling at Zara and the others. “I’m just saying it’s not realistic. And probably not even true.”

  Dani glanced at Kate. “You’re being awfully quiet, Kate. What do you think? If it is true, would you take the job?”

  Suddenly every eye was on Kate, making her feel like a butterfly in a jar. Her face was hot, and she wished she could be anywhere else. Why did that stupid blog have to write something like this, anyway? She had enough on her plate right now without one more thing—one more big thing—to worry about.

  “Um …,” she began.

  “Quiet!” Marissa hissed suddenly. “Jamie’s coming.”

  Kate followed her gaze. The trainer had just rounded the corner. He frowned when he saw them.

  “Why are you all standing around? Lesson starts in twenty minutes sharp.” He glanced at the horses waiting more or less patiently in the grooming stalls nearby. “And it looks like some of you are going to have to hurry to be ready in time.”

  “Sorry, Jamie. We’ll be ready,” Marissa said, scurrying into the grooming bay, where her horse was dozing.

  Jamie turned to Kate. “I was looking for you,” he said. “Mind riding Mrs. Walsh’s mare today instead of Fable? She was kind of a wreck at Cap Challenge, and could use another good schooling before she gets back on the trailer tomorrow.”

  “Sure. I’ll go get her ready.” Not quite meeting Jamie’s eye, Kate took off down the aisle.

  After the lesson, Tommi untacked as quickly as possible. Toccata hadn’t put a hoof wrong, and Tommi was sure he’d be a superstar at Harrisburg. But it wasn’t her hunter division she was thinking about as she returned the horse to his stall, fed him a peppermint, then headed toward the stable office. She’d had a brainstorm halfway through the lesson, and she needed to talk to Jamie about it right away if it was going to work out.

  As she headed toward the office, she encountered Fitz and Marissa lounging in the aisle outside the tack room a couple of doors down. “Is Jamie in there?” Tommi asked them, nodding at the closed office door.

  “Yeah.” Marissa pursed her lips, shooting the door a meaningful glance. “He’s with Joy.”

  Tommi swallowed a sigh. Were they still all worked up about that? Okay, so maybe it wasn’t too hard to believe the part about Joy’s pregnancy. That would actually explain a lot about the assistant trainer’s behavior lately. But could anyone seriously think Jamie would offer her job to a teenager—even one as responsible, hardworking, and talented as Kate?

  Fitz seemed to guess what Tommi was thinking. “It could be true, you know,” he said, sounding a little defensive. “Kate could do the job. I’m sure Jamie knows it. He’d be a fool not to consider her.”

  “Okay, fine.” Tommi wasn’t going to argue. Let them believe some crazy Internet rumor if they wanted. She just hoped Kate had enough sense not to fall for the story.

  Tommi’s phone buzzed, and she dug it out of her pocket. “Hot date?” Fitz teased.

  Tommi glanced at the screen. “It’s my friend Abby. You guys probably know her—she goes to Kirk with you.”

  “Sure, everyone knows Abby.” Fitz nodded. “She’s cool.”

  “Yeah, she’s in a couple of my classes.” Suddenly Marissa looked worried. “She’s not saying anything about a math quiz, is she?”

  “Nope.” Tommi scanned the text. “She’s all excited because she just sent off her application to Stanford.”

  “Already?” Fitz raised an eyebrow.

  “She’s applying early action. It’s her first choice. And yeah, it’s still early—Abs comes across as laid-back, but she can be a little type A about some stuff. ”

  Even via text, Abby sounded really excited—she wanted Tommi and their other friends to meet up with her right now to celebrate. Tommi quickly texted back that she was out at the barn and couldn’t make it.

  “Early action? Oh good.” Marissa looked relieved. “I’ve barely started my apps—my mom was harassing me about it just yesterday. She’s afraid I’ll run out of time ’cause I’m so busy with Indoors.”

  “Where are you applying?” Fitz asked. “Don’t forget, my dad said he’d write you a rec for Colgate if you decide to apply.”

  “I know, and thanks, that’s amazing.” Marissa grimaced. “I’m afraid it might take more than that to get me in there, though.”

  “Hey, you won’t know unless you go for it,” Fitz said. “What have you got to lose?”

  “You’re right. I’ll probably apply and cross my fingers.” Marissa smiled. “I heard they have an amazing art history department. And that the people there are really nice.”

  Fitz nodded. “My dad loved it. He’s making me apply, even though I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be my first choice.”

  There was more, but Tommi stopped listening. Marissa was always enthusiastic about everything she did, but even Fitz sounded weirdly geeked about the whole applying-to-college thing. So did Abby, when she talked about Stanford, and Court when she sorted and re-sorted the list of schools she wanted to apply to, and most of Tommi’s other senior friends, too. Even Duckface—crazy, life-of-the-party, devil-may-care Duckface, for god’s sake—was all about getting into Yale these days.

  Tommi just didn’t get it. They all seemed so eager to move on all of a sudden. Their lives would be so totally different this time next year—why rush it? What was the big hurry for things to change?

  She closed her eyes, hating the unsettled feeling the whole topic gave her whenever she let herself think about it. It was like time was moving too fast and too slowly at the same time—and worse yet, there was nothing Tommi could do about it.

  “What about you?” Marissa asked, breaking into Tommi’s thoughts. “I don’t think I’ve even asked where you’re applying.”

  “Let me guess—the old man’s probably making you apply to Georgetown, right?” Fitz grinned and elbowed Tommi.

  She smiled weakly. “I haven’t really narrowed it down yet. I’m mostly focused on Indoors right now, and finding another project to train up.”

  That was true, mostly. Tommi didn’t like to admit it, even to herself, but sometimes she wondered—what if she couldn’t make t
hings work in the horse business? Everyone was always saying how hard it was, and Tommi had really only made one successful transaction so far. What if the next horse she tried to flip was a dud, or colicked right before the sale went through? What if she never found that second horse at all?

  Maybe Tommi’s father wasn’t all wrong when he said she should consider all her options. Maybe she needed to think about what her future might look like just in case her horse business didn’t pan out …

  At that moment the office door swung open. Joy hurried out, holding a clipboard. “Hi, guys,” she greeted Tommi and the others. “Looking for Jamie? He’s inside.”

  “Great.” Tommi stepped toward the door. Then she paused and glanced at Fitz and Marissa. “You guys weren’t waiting for Jamie too, were you?”

  “Nope, he’s all yours,” Fitz said as Marissa waved Tommi on.

  “Thanks.” Pushing all thoughts of college applications, horse flipping, and assistant trainer jobs out of her mind, Tommi hurried into the office. Jamie was bent over some paperwork on his desk.

  He glanced up. “Hi, Tommi. What’s up?”

  Tommi took a deep breath. “I was thinking about something during the lesson today, and I had an idea I wanted to run past you.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Sure you don’t want to come, Little Z?” Zara’s father asked as he wandered across the loft, leaving a spicy scent cloud of aftershave in his wake. “Heard this place has the best sushi in New York.”

  “Nah.” Zara stuck her pen in her mouth, studying the Spanish workbook on the coffee table in front of her. A stack of other schoolbooks sat nearby, along with Zara’s laptop and a big cup of coffee. “I’d better stay here and study.”

  Her mother had been applying lipstick in the mirrored foyer wall, but she stopped short and turned around at Zara’s words. “Did I hear that right?” Gina said. “You’re turning down a night out to study?” She hustled over and pressed the back of one perfectly manicured hand to Zara’s forehead. “Doesn’t feel like you’re running a fever.”