Pony Jumpers 4- Four Faults

by Kate Lattey

  I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?” Susannah asked, but Katy cut her off.

  “Maybe means yes. Huh. Told you.” She lay back down and folded her arms behind her head, looking up at the ceiling.

  “You didn’t tell me,” AJ argued with her friend. “I said Do you think they’re dating? And you said I don’t know, probably.”

  “Probably means yes.”

  “And all these years I’ve been thinking that yes means yes,” Susannah said drily, making me giggle.

  “More fool you,” Katy replied. I was getting used to her slightly acidic sense of humour, and realising that she didn’t mean any offense by it.

  “So you kissed him, but you’re not going out with him?” Susannah asked me.

  I tried to see her face in the dark room, wondering how she meant that.

  “I guess. I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about it.” I could sense their attention all focused on me, and I wasn’t sure I liked it.

  “You should probably get onto that,” AJ advised me. “Because he seems like a really nice guy.”

  “Yeah, he grew up cute. Who’d have thought when he was such a scrappy little pain in the butt as a kid?” Katy said idly, and AJ leaned over and punched her.

  “There is more to guys than what they look like, you know,” she muttered.

  “Um, I do know. I also happen to notice people’s looks, so sue me. Just because you’re selectively blind, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have eyes in our heads.”

  “No. Don’t. Stop it.” AJ rolled onto her stomach and pulled her pillow over her head, blocking out the sound of Katy’s voice.

  “AJ’s brother,” Katy told us, “is super hot. Like, blindingly. And she’s in total denial about it.”

  AJ muttered something unintelligible from underneath her pillow.

  “Well, he’s her brother,” I said. “She’s not supposed to be attracted to him.”

  “Thank you,” AJ said, propping herself up on her elbows and letting her pillow fall onto Katy’s face. “Exactly.”

  Katy threw AJ’s pillow across the room before turning to Susannah. “You’ve seen him,” she said. “He’s hot, right?”

  Susannah sounded sleepy. “Who’ve I seen?”

  “Anders.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Yes you have. When you were looking at Molly, he came to Hastings and watched us ride.”

  Susannah shrugged vaguely. “I don’t remember.”

  Katy rolled over and looked at me. “What about you, Tess? I know Hayley met him, because she was practically following him around drooling all afternoon. She must’ve mentioned him later.”

  “She might’ve. I usually tune her out,” I said truthfully, which made AJ snicker.

  “You lot are hopeless,” Katy said, flopping back and hitting her head on the floor, because AJ had stolen her pillow while she wasn’t looking. “Hey!”

  She grabbed at the edge of her pillow, trying to pull it out from under AJ’s head. I listened to them tussle for a moment, then Katy shrieked.

  “Ow! Did you just bite me?”

  “You don’t grow up with two older brothers without learning to defend yourself,” AJ told her as the door opened and the light came on.

  We all cried out and covered our eyes, blinded by the sudden brightness. Katy’s mum stood in the doorway, glaring at us.

  “Would you lot shut up and go to sleep?”

  “AJ bit me!” Katy told her mother, holding her wrist out for inspection.

  “Good for her. Go to sleep,” Deb said unsympathetically.

  Katy stuck her tongue out at her mother as the light went off again, and the door was closed. I curled up on my side and listened to Katy stumbling across the room to retrieve her pillow, but fell asleep before she even made it back to her sleeping bag.

  Deb was in a better mood in the morning, threading her way between our sleepy, prone bodies as she headed to the kitchen.

  “Wakey wakey, rise and shine!” she told us, pulling the curtains back and flooding the room with daylight.

  “I’m melting…” Katy cried, shimmying down into her sleeping bag and pulling it up over her head.

  AJ was still fast asleep, snoring softly through the commotion, and Susannah and I blinked at each other as Deb switched on the kettle and started rummaging through the fridge.

  “Who wants eggs?”

  The ponies were almost as tired as we were, though they’d undoubtedly slept more soundly, so Katy decided to mix things up.

  “Since you’re all here, you might as well help me get the rest of the ponies exercised,” she declared as we scraped our breakfast plates. “Susannah can ride Molly, since she likes her so much.” Susannah looked delighted as Katy’s gaze swivelled to AJ. “I’ll take Rascal,” she continued. “And Tess can ride Puppet.”

  “What about me?” AJ wanted to know.

  “Oh yeah, you. You can ride Orlando.”

  AJ groaned. “I knew you’d get your revenge on me somehow,” she muttered.

  “Serves you right, too,” Katy told her haughtily, shoving her chair back and standing up. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

  “You’ll like Puppet,” AJ told me as we pulled our boots on. “He’s a bit wild sometimes, but nothing you can’t handle, I’m sure.”

  I felt my stomach clench nervously, but I tried to play it cool. “Nothing can be as bad as Misty,” I agreed.

  “Probably true. He looks like fun though.” I raised my eyebrows, and she shrugged. “What can I say? I like them a little crazy.”

  “You can say that again,” Katy told her, and AJ immediately obliged by repeating herself.

  “If you don’t like him, why don’t you sell him?” Susannah asked me as she zipped up her tall boots.

  “Because Hayley won’t let me.” I waited for her to roll her eyes and tell me that I should just stand up to my sister, but she didn’t. She just nodded, as though she understood.

  “Good thing you’re a lot nicer than your sister,” Katy said abruptly.

  “That’s not exactly hard,” Susannah muttered.

  “Guys, come on,” AJ said with an anxious look in my direction, but I shook my head.

  “It’s okay,” I told her. “It’s true.” It felt good to say it out loud. “Being nice isn’t exactly high on Hayley’s priority list.”

  “True story,” Katy agreed. “She must be a pain in the butt to live with.”

  “Siblings generally are,” AJ said. “Not a word out of you, you don’t have to live with two stinky brothers and you have no idea how bad they actually are.”

  They walked off, mildly bickering as I pulled my half-chaps on and zipped them up. Susannah stood and waited for me, and we walked in companionable silence over to the stables as I re-evaluated my opinion of her. I’d always pegged her for a complete snob, and had done my best to avoid her. Her friendship with AJ and Katy was a recent development, but I was discovering that although she was a bit of a princess, she really wasn’t as bad as I’d once thought. But I didn’t know how to say that to her without it coming out sounding rude, so I kept my mouth shut.

  Then Susannah turned and looked at me. “Nobody likes my brother either,” she said abruptly. “So I know how it feels.”

  “I guess we drew the short straws in the sibling lottery,” I said, trying to keep my voice light. “Unlike AJ, apparently.”

  Susannah smiled. “Maybe. It’d be easier if we didn’t still love them though, despite everything.”

  I swallowed hard, trying to keep my emotions in check, but I was glad that she understood. “Yeah, you’re not wrong about that.”

  Despite AJ’s warning, I didn’t have any trouble with Puppet. We rode the ponies in the arena, schooling them around the scattered obstacles left over from yesterday’s ride. Puppet was well-schooled and supple, obedient to my hand and leg and he tried really hard to do what I wanted, which also made a refresh
ing change from Misty.

  “Nice work, he looks good,” Katy said as she trotted past on a little roan pony with a Roman nose, apparently a schooler that had come to be broken of his bolting habit. But he didn’t seem to be putting up any kind of argument today, going around with his ears pricked and his short legs running like a sewing machine.

  Susannah was smiling as she rode Molly, putting the experienced pony through her paces and making it all look easy. The only one in the arena who wasn’t enjoying herself seemed to be AJ, who was battling it out with a fat, lazy skewbald pony with hairy legs and a dopey expression.

  “This pony is the worst,” she grumbled as she rode past, kicking furiously as she tried to get him to canter. Katy just laughed.

  “You’re just a lazy rider,” she told her friend. “You’ve got to learn to ride forward!” She brought Rascal alongside me and grinned. “He’s a lot better if you have spurs on him, but I told AJ that if he feels spurs he’ll buck like a bronco, and she was dumb enough to believe me.”

  “Is he another schooler?” I asked her, and she nodded.

  “Yeah, he’s from the riding school up the road. They send their ponies to me sometimes when they get real stuck and dead off the leg. He’s going ten times faster now than he was when he got here, but he is pretty hideous to ride. I can’t imagine anyone riding him and wanting to continue in the sport, but I guess they just persevere in the hope they’ll someday move up to a live animal.”

  I looked across the arena at the pony’s lumbering canter, and couldn’t help laughing at the pained expression on AJ’s face.

  “Poor Orlando.”

  AJ pulled up next to us, puffing harder than the pony was. “This is horrible. Wanna swap?” she asked me. I shook my head.

  “No way. Puppet’s awesome.”

  AJ pulled a face. “He’s lulling you into a false sense of security,” she told me. “He’s plotting to overthrow the kingdom, just you wait and see.”

  “Just because you can’t ride him doesn’t mean Tess can’t,” Katy replied. “Unlike you, she actually knows how to ride flatwork.”

  I opened my mouth to object to that, but AJ beat me to the punch. “Well yeah, obviously,” she said, sounding entirely sincere, much to my astonishment. “It’s not my fault nobody ever taught me how to do dressage.”

  “I’ve tried,” Katy said. “But it goes in one ear and out the other.”

  “Nobody taught me dressage either,” I said. “I mean, not properly. Just what I learned at Pony Club and stuff.”

  “Ugh, stop it,” AJ told me. “You’re making it worse. Just go on being perfect while I try to make this fat lump move.” She shortened her reins and looked determined. “Come on you little land whale. Go!”

  We rode the ponies up over the farm and found some logs to jump, then dropped in on Katy’s neighbours, who owned Puppet. I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t want someone else riding him, but they seemed happy enough, and invited us to stay for lunch. We sat on their lawn and ate sandwiches while the ponies stuffed themselves with hay, then rode home and helped Katy with the yard chores.

  Katy was mucking out the loose box that her injured show jumper Lucas was in when a dark green sedan drove into the yard. She immediately dropped the muck fork and leaned over the partition to Susannah, who was scrubbing out the automatic waterers.

  “Ready to have your mind blown?”

  I looked up from the feed buckets I was hosing out to see a tall blonde guy unfold himself from the car and look in our direction. Katy came out of Lucas’s box and he smiled at her, showing a straight set of white teeth.

  “Mornin, Katy-did.”

  “Hi Anders. AJ’s around somewhere.”

  “Hiding from me, probably.” He looked over at me and Susannah, who were both staring at him, and waved. We immediately turned away in embarrassment, but Susannah caught my eye as she turned and mouthed “Oh my God!”

  I had to admit that Katy was right. AJ’s brother was stupefyingly good looking, and her crush on him was entirely understandable. He was clearly a year or two older than her though, and seemed intimidatingly grown-up. Katy’s flirting wasn’t very subtle, but Anders seemed to be enjoying it, and was giving back as good as he got.

  AJ walked around the corner of the building and saw them, then rolled her eyes at me.

  “If there was one thing I could change about Katy,” she muttered. “I’d make her a lesbian so she wouldn’t be drooling over my brother all day long.”

  Susannah snorted. “Good luck with that.” She looked over as Katy dragged herself away from Anders and approached us. “He is entirely drool-worthy.”

  Katy shot AJ a triumphant look. “Your brother’s here.”

  “Yeah, I noticed. I’m coming, keep your hair on,” she called to Anders, who was tapping his watch impatiently.

  He saw me looking at him and winked, and although I felt my skin flush, I also knew something else for certain in that moment. However outwardly attractive Anders was, he wasn’t a patch on Jonty.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I got a ride home with Katy’s dad, who lived in Palmerston North and was passing through Waipuk on his way back. He was nice enough, and we made some idle chit chat for a while, but for the most part we just listened to the radio while I replayed the weekend in my head. It was funny how much things had changed in the past couple of weeks. A month ago, if you’d asked me who my friends were, I’d have listed off Evelyn and Jodie and Mia, without hesitation. I’d have considered Bayard to be my best friend, and closest confidante, but now I was realising that I’d never really talked to him much at all. Not about the things that mattered.

  If anyone asked me now, I had a wholly different reply. AJ and Katy and Susannah, of all people, felt like much stronger and closer friends than the girls I hung out with at school, who I was starting to realise I didn’t even like, let alone have anything in common with. I’d always felt like the odd one out amongst them, trying to fit in and to find the right thing to say that wasn’t going to offend or upset anyone, and half the time I’d failed miserably. This weekend had been entirely different. I felt like I could say anything with those girls – AJ and Katy in particular never seemed to think twice about the words that came out of their mouths – and nobody got offended or upset or thought the others were belittling them. We all just got along, and it was making me realise what I’d been missing all that time, without even realising it.

  And then there was Jonty. The complete opposite of Bayard in so many ways – talkative where Bay was terse, friendly where Bay was taciturn, always ready with a smile and laugh, and quick to act in an emergency, staying calm and taking control of the situation when Bayard or I froze up.

  A month ago, I’d honestly told my friends that I barely knew the guy. Now after two days apart, I missed him like crazy. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell him about my weekend, and the fun we’d had and the stupid games we’d played. And I was already planning another night ride on the next full moon…

  “You can stop here,” I told Katy’s dad as we came into sight of the farm cottage.

  He slowed, then glanced at me in concern as he pulled up in front of the rundown shack. I started to reassure him that I didn’t live there, then stopped. Let him think that, if he wanted. It didn’t matter to me.

  I unclipped my seatbelt and opened the door, stepping out onto the warm tarmac. “Thanks for the ride.” I pulled my bag out after me, and shut the door, then watched him drive away, undoubtedly looking at me anxiously in his rear-view mirror.

  Jonty came out of his house and smiled at me. “Hello stranger.”

  “Hello yourself. How’s it going?” I asked as I walked across the road to greet him.

  “Not bad. Better now you’re back.” My whole body flushed delightedly at those words, and when we met on the grass verge, he pulled me straight into a warm hug. I hugged him back, then noticed three faces in the window over his shoulder, watching us with noses pressed against the smudged
glass.

  “We have an audience,” I told Jonty, and his head swivelled around. He pulled a face at his sisters, who pulled equally grotesque ones back at him, making us both laugh.

  “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

  He pulled the backpack off my shoulder and slung it over his own before I could protest, although truthfully I wasn’t really inclined to. The bag was full of riding gear, and it wasn’t exactly feather-light. He was more than welcome to it.

  We started walking, and Jonty took my hand in his, threading his fingers through mine.

  “So. Tell me all about your weekend.”

  Halfway up the driveway, I noticed that both of my parents’ cars were parked out the front, and broke off halfway through my recounting of our night ride.

  “That’s weird.”

  “What?”

  “Mum wasn’t supposed to be home until Tuesday. She was going to take Hayley to look at a horse in Rakaia while they were down south.”

  “I guess they changed their plans.” Jonty’s voice was calm, but his grip tightened on mine, and my heart started beating faster.

  “Guess so.” I took a deep breath, then let it out. “I guess I’ll go find out.”

  Jonty squeezed my hand again before releasing it . “Good luck. I’m sure it’ll all be fine.”

  “Yeah. If it was anything bad they would’ve called me,” I said, trying to sound certain. Jonty nodded, as though what I was saying made complete sense.

  “I’ll see you on the bus tomorrow,” he said.

  “I’ll save you a seat.”

  His mouth crooked up into a half-smile. “I’m counting on it.”

  I’d almost convinced myself that everything was fine, until I stepped through the front door, letting it swing shut behind me, dropped my bag onto the floor in the hall and called out to my family.

  “I’m home!”

  There was no answering reply. The house was still and silent, and even Colin was nowhere to be found, his absence filling me with a sense of foreboding. Five steps down the hallway, things got exponentially worse. I could hear someone crying, and it sounded like my mum.