Chasing Gold

by Catherine Hapka

  “I’m getting there, Zina,” Haley murmured, brushing her fingers across the picture. She couldn’t wait to meet Zina and soak up everything she could from her. All she needed was a little more money to pay the clinic fee. Then she and Wings would be on their way to moving up the levels. And maybe someday it would be them jumping a huge obstacle in some important competition. . . .

  “Yo, Duncan,” a voice interrupted Haley’s daydreams.

  Blinking, she turned and saw Owen Lemke standing there, grinning at her. “Oh,” she said. “Hi.”

  She’d known Owen for as long as she could remember. Not only were they in the same class at school, but he was a rider too. Haley often competed against him when she took Wings to local play days and team pennings. It wasn’t eventing, but it was still fun—especially when she and Wings beat out Owen and his fancy registered quarter horse.

  “What’re you doing?” Owen leaned past her, peering at the pictures in her locker. “Trying to figure out where to get a real horse instead of that weird East Coast thing you’ve been riding?”

  Haley rolled her eyes. “Hardly. And even if I was, you’re the last person I’d ask for help.”

  Owen grinned. “Don’t be a hater, just ’cause Chance and I beat you at that penning last month.”

  “Only because our last cow was a dud. And don’t forget, Wings and I beat you the three times before that,” Haley countered. “It’s nice to have a horse who’s good at everything, instead of one who can’t do anything except chase cows.”

  Owen snorted. “What else is there?” he said. “I’d never ask Chance to prance around in a fancy-prancy English saddle. If I did, he’d probably buck me off.”

  “Probably,” Haley agreed with a smirk. “Come to think of it, you’re probably better off sticking to Western. If you didn’t have the horn to hold on to, you’d probably fall off the first time your horse broke out of a slow Western Pleasure lope.”

  Owen’s friend John appeared just in time to hear the last exchange. “Ooh, burn!” he cried, shoving Owen into the lockers.

  “Get out of my face.” Owen shoved John back. “What, are you thinking of trading in your cowboy boots for some tight britches, just like Haley?”

  “No way!” John shoved Owen again.

  Haley rolled her eyes as the two boys continued to trade taunts while they moved off down the hall. She was glad they’d forgotten about her. The teasing about being an English rider was familiar, and normally she didn’t mind it. But today she was too tired to come up with good comebacks.

  “I told you, Haley!” Tracey exclaimed, rushing over with her blue eyes wide and excited. “Didn’t I totally tell you?”

  “Tell me what?” Haley dug into her locker, wondering if she’d remembered to stick her math book in her bag before she left home.

  Tracey poked her in the arm. “That Owen so obviously likes you!” she said in a loud stage whisper.

  “What? Oh, please.” Haley sighed. Tracey had told her that—probably a million times in the past two weeks, or at least that was how it felt to Haley. What had happened to Tracey this year? When had she turned so boy crazy?

  Never mind—Haley knew when it had happened. Over the summer, at the same time Tracey suddenly became interested in clothes and makeup and the latest hairstyles. Before that, she’d been a tomboy just like Haley. In fact, the two of them had always looked enough alike that people often took them for sisters. Tracey’s light-brown hair was just a smidge darker than Haley’s strawberry blond and tended to get snarled by the wind just as easily. With their matching pointy chins and constantly sunburned noses, they’d been “two peas in a pod,” as Uncle Mike always said.

  But over the past year, some of that had changed. Tracey still had the pointy chin, but she’d cut her hair shorter and added blond highlights. She’d grown taller, too, spurting up nearly two inches and even adding the beginning of some curves to her skinny frame.

  The physical changes in Haley’s best friend were weird enough. But it was the other changes that bugged her a lot more. Haley still wasn’t sure when she’d first noticed that Tracey was more interested in hiking through the local mall than through the woods, but it had been impossible to ignore after Tracey’s older sister had whisked her off down to “the city”—that was what Tracey had started calling Chicago—for a back-to-school haircut at some fancy salon last month.

  “I bet he’s going to ask you to the dance.” Tracey pulled a compact mirror out of her purse and peered into it, poking at her elaborately blow-dried bangs. “Too bad that freak John came along and interrupted.” She snapped her mirror shut and elbowed Haley. “I’m so psyched about the dance! Aren’t you?”

  “Sure, I guess.” Haley probably would have forgotten all about yesterday’s announcement of the back-to-school dance as soon as she’d heard it, except that Tracey and Emma had spent the entire lunch period talking about it.

  “It’s going to be so amazing!” Tracey hugged herself, practically vibrating with excitement. “I need to figure out what I’m going to wear.”

  Haley blew out a sigh of relief as she finally found her math book at the bottom of her locker. That answered the foggy question in her mind about whether she’d done the homework—obviously not—but at least she wouldn’t have to explain to strict Mr. Washington how she’d forgotten the book.

  “Let’s get to homeroom,” she told Tracey. “I need to do those math problems.”

  “Okay. Want to copy?” Tracey fell into step as they headed down the hallway.

  Haley shook her head. She’d never cheated on an assignment in her life, and she wasn’t planning to start now. Besides, Tracey had always been terrible at math. The last thing Haley needed was a bad grade on an assignment, or Aunt Veronica and Uncle Mike might change their minds about letting her do all that extra work to earn money for the clinic.

  When Haley and Tracey walked into homeroom, Emma was already in her seat, bent over a magazine. She looked up when Tracey called her name, smiling and peering at her friends through the thick lenses of her glasses. Emma had albinism and was legally blind, which meant she needed those glasses to see well enough to get by. Her funny-looking glasses, white hair, and pale-lavender eyes had made her a target of teasing during elementary school, and occasionally even now. But Haley and Tracey had always stuck by her loyally, and Haley hardly even noticed Emma’s differences anymore.

  Well, not the differences brought on by her albinism, anyway. Like Tracey, Emma seemed to be developing a strange obsession with clothes, makeup, and boys. Haley wasn’t sure which of her friends had gone crazy first, or why they were acting that way all of a sudden. She just hoped they both got over it soon.

  “You’re finally here!” Emma exclaimed as Haley and Tracey took their seats on either side of her. “I’ve been dying to talk about the dance. What are we going to wear?”

  Tracey squealed and started chattering about dresses and shoes and makeup, but Haley tuned out as she flipped open her math book. She was halfway through the set of problems when Emma poked her on the shoulder.

  “Earth to Haley!” Emma said with a giggle. “Did you hear what Trace just said?”

  Haley blinked. “No, sorry. What?”

  “I said we need to plan a serious shopping trip,” Tracey said, leaning past Emma’s desk. “I wish we could get down to the city and shop on Michigan Avenue for something really cool. But we might not have time to plan that kind of trip, so I guess we’re stuck with the mall.”

  Emma nodded. “That’s okay—I saw some really cute dresses at Finders Keepers last time I was there.”

  “Ooh, good call. I love that store.” Tracey glanced at Haley. “So when do you want to go? How about Friday?”

  “Friday?” Haley hesitated, not sure how to respond. She was way too busy to take time out for stuff like shopping or dances. Besides, even if her friends managed to drag her to the dance, there was no way she was wasting any of her hard-earned money on a new dress. Not when she was still coun
ting every penny she earned, hoping it would be enough to pay the clinic fees.

  “Yes, Friday.” Emma giggled. “You know, it’s the day that comes after Thursday? And before Saturday?”

  “We really should go then,” Tracey urged, pulling a lip gloss out of her purse and slicking it on. “The dance is next Friday. And we’ll need some time to plan our hair and makeup to go with whatever dresses we get.”

  “I’m not sure I can afford a dress,” Haley said. “I’m saving up for that clinic, remember?”

  Tracey shrugged. “Just ask your aunt and uncle. They buy the rest of your clothes, right? A dress for the dance is just as important as jeans or whatever.”

  Not to me, it isn’t, Haley thought. Probably not to Aunt Veronica and Uncle Mike, either.

  Besides, her uncle had just replaced his old tractor and had been grumbling about being in the poorhouse ever since. No way was he going to give Haley money for some stupid dress she’d probably only wear once. No way was she even going to ask him.

  She opened her mouth, trying to figure out how to explain that to her friends. The shrill buzz of the bell cut her off before she could say a word.

  As the homeroom teacher called for attention, Haley slumped in her seat, relieved.

  Saved by the bell, she thought.

  CHAPTER

  3

  AS SHE STEPPED INTO THE barn on thursday afternoon, Haley had forgotten all about her friends’ shopping plans. She’d forgotten about the long list of chores waiting to be completed before dinnertime. She’d even managed to forget—mostly—about blowing that English quiz earlier in the day. All she wanted to focus on right now was Wings.

  “Ready for a dressage schooling, Wingsie?” she said as she clipped the pony into the crossties in the asphalt aisle of the big, airy old barn. Wings hadn’t been happy about being pulled away from the pile of hay Haley’s uncle had just tossed into the pasture, and as usual, he wasn’t keeping his feelings a secret. He shifted his weight from one foot to another, tossing his head so the clips on the ties jingled against the metal halter rings.

  Haley sighed. She knew this mood, and if she’d been planning a cross-country session or even more trot sets, she wouldn’t be worried. Wings loved to eat as much as any other horse, but he was easy to distract with something fun. But with dressage on the agenda for that day, she knew it would be an uphill battle. She could only hope that Wings would settle down and focus once he was warmed up.

  “I know, buddy,” she said as she fetched her grooming bucket from the tack room beside the office, stepping over a cat snoozing in the doorway. “Dressage isn’t my favorite phase, either. But it’s important, and you know Zina Charles won’t be impressed if we rush through every transition and totally forget how to leg-yield.”

  Dressage was one of the three phases that made up the sport of eventing, the other two being cross-country jumping and show jumping. In the dressage phase, horses and riders had to perform a series of maneuvers and gait changes that tested the horse’s training, obedience, and gaits, along with the rider’s skill.

  Wings raised his head and pranced in place as Bandit dashed into the barn. “You goober,” Haley said with a laugh, poking the pony on the shoulder as he almost bumped into her. “It’s not like you’ve never seen a dog before.”

  She bent to give Bandit a head rub. Then she grabbed a hoofpick out of her bucket.

  “Stand still,” she ordered Wings. “We’re on a tight schedule today.”

  She was bent over picking out Wings’s left front foot when her cell phone rang. Releasing the pony’s leg, she straightened up and fished the phone out of her jeans pocket.

  “It’s me,” Tracey’s familiar voice said cheerfully when Haley answered. “Just calling to make plans for tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” Haley pulled the hoofpick out of Wings’s reach as he lipped at it, clearly wondering if it was edible. “What’s tomorrow?”

  “Duh, it’s Friday! We’re going shopping, remember?”

  For a second Haley’s mind went blank. Then she remembered that conversation earlier in the week and cringed as she realized she’d never bothered to follow up on it. Or even think about it again. She’d had more important things on her mind, like reminding Wings during their jump school yesterday that it was possible to jump a flower box without slowing down and trying to grab a bite of the flowers first. Obviously, her friends had taken her silence as a yes.

  For a second she was tempted to tell Tracey that she couldn’t go. But Tracey could be just as stubborn as Haley herself when she cared about something, and for some unknown reason she seemed to care an awful lot about this stupid dance. Besides, Haley had been so busy lately that she hadn’t had much time to hang out with her friends. Maybe a trip to the mall wouldn’t be the end of the world. Maybe it would even be fun—sort of, anyway.

  “Um, sorry, I sort of forgot about shopping,” she told Tracey. “But hang on—let me check.”

  Setting the hoofpick aside, she scrolled through the calendar app on her phone. She was scheduled to babysit the Vandenberg triplets on Friday evening starting at six o’clock. She didn’t get home from school until almost three thirty. Which left plenty of time to work Wings and do her chores before Mr. Vandenberg arrived to pick her up, but not nearly enough to add in even a short trip to the mall, which was a twenty-minute drive away.

  “Hales?” Tracey sounded impatient. “You still there?”

  “I’m here.” Haley pressed the phone to her ear. “Sorry, I don’t think I can make it tomorrow.”

  “What? No!” Tracey exclaimed. “You have to come! We won’t have any fun without you.”

  Haley smiled weakly. “I wish I could. But I’m babysitting tomorrow night, and I really can’t skip a day with Wings right now, so close to the clinic.”

  “Sure you can. Wings is awesome—he’s not going to forget how to jump in one day, right?” Tracey laughed. “Come on, you have to come!”

  Haley hesitated again, trying to figure out if she could swap out Friday’s planned cross-country session with a shorter show jumping school and still make it to the mall and back in time to do stalls. . . .

  “No, sorry,” she said at last. “It’s not going to happen. I’m sure you guys will have fun, though.”

  There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Haley had known Tracey long enough to be pretty sure that she was just mustering her next argument. If she’d given up, she’d already be whining about it.

  But Haley’s mind was already returning to everything she had to do. Her uncle wanted her to help him dump and scrub the big water tank in the main pasture after her other chores, and she’d barely started her social studies paper—oh, and she couldn’t skip the reading for English again or even ditzy Ms. Reyes would probably notice. . . .

  “But what are you going to wear, then?” Tracey interrupted her thoughts. “It’s not like your closet is overflowing with super-stylish choices.”

  “I’ll just have to wear something I already have,” Haley said, picking a stray bit of hay out of Wings’s mane. “I’ve still got time to figure it out, right? When’s the dance again?”

  Tracey’s loud sigh carried through the phone, telling Haley more clearly than words that her friend considered her a hopeless cause. “Next Friday,” Tracey said. “As in one week from tomorrow.”

  “Next Friday?” Haley pulled up the calendar app again. When she scrolled down to the following weekend, her heart sank. She had a dressage lesson scheduled with her local trainer next Saturday—Jan had even agreed to come to Haley’s place to teach her, since Uncle Mike couldn’t haul Wings to her farm that day. Haley was grateful to the busy trainer for rearranging her schedule that way, and she wanted to show it. She’d been planning to give Wings a bath on Friday night so his white parts sparkled for the lesson, and maybe give her tack a good cleaning as well if there was time.

  “Hello?” Tracey said. “Are you there?”

  “I’m here. I was just lo
oking at my calendar. Um, I don’t think I can make the dance.”

  “What?”

  Haley winced as her friend’s shriek rang through the barn. Even Wings pricked his ears and looked at the phone.

  “Sorry,” Haley said. “My trainer is coming out early that Saturday morning and I have a ton to do to get ready.”

  “Can’t you reschedule?” Tracey said. “Maybe she can come later in the day, or on Sunday. Or the weekend after.”

  “The weekend after is the Zina Charles clinic.” Haley tried to stay patient. Okay, so she’d probably mentioned the date of the clinic about a thousand times. She couldn’t really be mad at Tracey for forgetting, though. After all, she herself couldn’t seem to keep that stupid school dance in her head for more than five minutes. Not that it was the same kind of thing at all . . .

  “I can’t believe this!” Tracey sounded genuinely upset. “Seriously, Hales, you’re going to regret it if you miss all your important middle school moments because you’re riding or whatever. This is the first dance of the year! What’s Owen going to think if you don’t show?”

  Haley couldn’t care less what Owen thought. But she didn’t bother to say so.

  “I’m sorry,” she said instead. “I’ll make the next dance—promise.”

  “But that’ll be months away!” Tracey sounded horrified. “Look, I swear I won’t even try to convince you to go out with Ems and me afterward. The dance ends at nine thirty, so you could be home in bed by ten.”

  For a second Haley considered that. Maybe she could tell the boys they’d have to do their own chores that day. If she rushed straight home from school, she just might be able to fit in her planned schooling with Wings, then still have time to give him a bath and do her own chores before the dance. Jan probably wouldn’t even notice the condition of her tack. . . .

  Haley shook her head. Why was she trying so hard to figure out a way to rework her schedule to fit in a dance she had no interest in attending in the first place? Since when did she compromise something she cared about for something she didn’t? Okay, so if things were different, if she had more spare time, getting all dressed up and going to the dance with her friends might not be so bad. It might even be fun. But she didn’t have time right now, and that was that.