by Kate Lattey
“There’s just one problem though,” he continued, keeping his eyes fixed on mine. “I kinda have a thing for her sister.”
I could feel my face going bright red, and this time there was no bell to save me. Fortunately, there was someone else with impeccable timing.
“This guy bothering you?” Anders slapped Harry on the back as he walked up behind him, making Harry jump.
“Always.”
“Hey now. We were having a nice conversation,” Harry told my brother, who raised an eyebrow at me sceptically before turning back to his friend.
“Been meaning to say, cheers for keeping an eye out for Lexi,” Anders said, unwittingly walking into our conversation.
“Yeah, no worries,” Harry assured him. “Always happy to help out a friend. Although she keeps inviting me over for dinner. I think she’s trying to seduce me.” He winked at me, and I looked at Anders.
“Yeah, about that,” Anders started, but Harry shook his head.
“It’s fine, really. Except I’m starting to run out of polite ways to say no.”
“You know polite ways to talk to people?” I asked him in mock amazement.
Harry grinned at me as Anders gave me a shove with his elbow that sent me stumbling sideways into the lockers.
“Pretty sure it’s you that doesn’t have a civil tongue,” he told me before turning back to Harry. “So say yes. There’s always room for one more at our table, especially since Aidan’s moved out and Dad hasn’t quite got used to cooking for one less person. Even with Poss here eating us out of house and home, there’s plenty to go around.”
“Hey, watch it,” I warned him, but he just laughed.
“You can’t take me and you know it.”
“I’ll call for backup,” I retorted.
“Mate. I’ve seen your skinny friend, and I know I can take her.”
At last the bell rang like it was supposed to, and I realised belatedly that I was miles from my classroom. “I’ve gotta go!”
“See you later,” Harry said with a grin, then listened as Anders started telling him where we lived, and what time to turn up. Shaking my head, I walked off, only to have Anders catch me up moments later as I hurried to the next building.
“Jeez Poss, you rude enough? Anyone would think you didn’t like the guy.”
I glared at him. “Who says I do?”
“Captain Obvious, for starters,” Anders replied. I kicked him in the ankle, and he shook his finger at me.
“Watch it.”
“What’d you do that for anyway?” I asked him. “You’re only going to encourage her and we both know he’s not interested in her like that.”
“We know that,” Anders agreed. “But Mum and Dad are weirdly excited about Lexi possibly having a boyfriend, though why they’d find that anything other than terrifying I honestly don’t know. But it’s time they met Scud and formed their own opinions, don’t you think?”
I thought about that for a moment as I pushed through the double doors to the next block of classrooms. Our parents were busy people but they weren’t fools. They’d know as soon as they met Harry that he was completely wrong for Lexi, and it would be equally clear that he didn’t reciprocate her enthusiasm for a relationship.
“I guess.”
“You guess? You mean, Oh wow Anders you’re completely right, as usual, what on earth would I do without you? You’re welcome, by the way.”
“For what?”
“Come on Poss. It’s written all over your bright red face.”
“Stop it.”
“Just don’t come home stinking of horse,” he told me as he stopped outside his classroom. “It’s a real turn-off.”
“His dad’s a farrier, remember?” I shot back. “I’m sure he’s used to it.”
“Yeah, right. Because guys love a girl reminding them of their old man. Great plan.”
He gave me a thumbs-up and laughed at my expression, then sauntered into his class as I turned away and hurried on towards mine.
Despite Anders’ suggestion, I did get home that night with the pungent scent of horses clinging to me. I’d gone to Katy’s after school as usual to ride Squib, then she’d asked me to school Gull for her because she was swamped with the number of ponies she had in work. So that had taken another hour or so, and then I’d helped her to feed out and rug up and lead Lucas out down the driveway for his allocated exercise for the day, all of which had taken much longer than I’d anticipated and made me late for dinner.
In my defence, I hadn’t realised that Anders had extended the invitation for that same night. So I walked into the house with my hair all messy, my shirt covered in horse slobber and my jodhs absolutely filthy and was astonished to find Harry sitting next to Lexi on the couch, chatting politely to Mum, who was home from work at a reasonable hour for once.
I stopped and stared at them as soon as I walked through the door. Their heads all swivelled towards me, and I felt suddenly self-conscious, especially since our big German Shepherd was busy snuffling around my butt with great interest.
“Dax, geddoff!” I told him, shoving him away and wondering if I should explain that Katy had shoved me into the muck heap that afternoon, which was why there was manure on the back of my jodhs. But Mum spoke up before I could.
“Hi honey, dinner’s almost ready. This is Lexi’s friend Harry,” she added, beaming across the room at Harry, who smirked at me, dropping a slow wink on the side my mum couldn’t see.
“Hi there.”
“We’ve met,” I told her as Anders walked into the room behind me, wrinkling his nose.
“Stench!”
I jabbed my finger at him. “Worse.”
“Impossible.”
“Dinner’s ready!” Dad announced, coming in from the kitchen with a pair of tongs in one hand and wearing his favourite apron with This is what a really cool Dad looks like written on the front. Harry immediately complimented him on it, which was annoying because Dad was super proud of the apron, but the rest of us thought it was completely ridiculous.
“He bought that for himself, you know,” I told Harry as he walked past me towards the dining table.
Dad snapped the tongs at me, almost catching me on the nose. “It’s not my fault that I’m underappreciated around here,” he replied.
“I appreciate your self-confidence,” Harry told Dad as he sat down at the table in my usual seat, leaving me next to Anders. But Lexi immediately called him on it.
“You can’t sit there. That’s AJ’s place.”
Harry stood up again as I took Aidan’s former spot instead.
“It’s fine,” I told Lexi. “I don’t mind.”
“I do,” Anders said. “I can smell you from here.”
“Be quiet the lot of you. Harry, sit down, you’re fine,” Mum assured him. “He’s your guest Lexi, I think it’s appropriate that he sits next to you.”
Lexi furrowed her brow, trying to deal with that as Dad came in with a big tray of marinated ribs and set it down in the middle of the table.
“Where’s Astrid?”
We all turned to look at her empty seat at the table, then I pushed my chair back with a sigh. “Head stuck in a book, probably. I’ll get her.”
“Have a shower while you’re at it,” Anders told me when I was too far away from the table to hit him.
“You’ll keep.”
I walked down the hall with Dax still snuffling me intently. I pushed him away, then went into my room and swapped my jodhs for a clean pair of jeans, and replaced my polo shirt with a cotton t-shirt. Not because Anders was giving me a hard time, or for Harry’s sake, but because even I could smell the manure stain on my jodhs, and I didn’t want to put everyone off their dinner. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to make it look a bit more reasonable, then gave up as a useless job. At least I didn’t have any visible dirt on my face today.
On my way back down the hall then stuck my head into Astrid’s room. “Oi. Grub’s up.”
My little sister was curled up on her bed as I’d expected, but she didn’t have her head in a book for once. Instead she was staring like a zombie at her cell phone, a recent acquisition for her thirteenth birthday. She didn’t even look up as I spoke.
“Hey, Chook.” I walked into the bedroom that she’d claimed the moment that Aidan moved out last week. “Hello?” I waved my hand in front of her face, and she reached out to push me away.
“Go away, I’m not hungry.”
That was when I realised that her face was streaked with tears. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Well that’s obviously not true,” I told her, sitting down on the bed next to her. Astrid pulled her knees up closer to her chin and did her best to ignore me, but there wasn’t much space on the single bed. Dax followed me into the room and stuck his face into Astrid’s, licking the salt off her cheeks.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, pushing Dax away.
“You’re crying about something that doesn’t matter?” I asked her. She still wouldn’t talk to me, so I reached towards the cell phone in her hand. She yanked it back towards her stomach, her body going rigid.
“Leave me alone!”
I reached out and put a hand on her back, rubbing it gently. “Is someone being mean to you?” I saw the tears spring fresh to her eyes, and knew I was on the right track. “They’re not worth it, Chook.”
“Easy for you to say,” Astrid spluttered. “You’ve got lots of friends.”
“So do you. You were at your friend’s place just the other night,” I reminded her, but she shook her head and looked even more miserable.
“She doesn’t like me anymore.”
“Since when? Today?” Astrid shrugged, averting her eyes, and I leaned down to hug her, wracking my brains for the right thing to say as I wished girls didn’t have to be so mean to each other. “Well that’s dumb, but sounds like you dodged a bullet. You don’t want to be friends with people who just ditch you for no reason.” It was the best I could do, but even I could tell it wasn’t really very helpful for her right now.
Astrid sniffled, rubbing her eyes. “Is there something wrong with me?” she asked sadly. “You’ve got lots of friends, and everyone likes Anders, and even Lexi has a boyfriend now…”
“He’s not her boyfriend,” I said quickly. “He’s just a friend.”
Astrid pushed her hair back and sniffled, momentarily distracted from her own melancholy. “She said he was her boyfriend.”
“I think you’ll find that’d be news to him.”
“Oh.” She looked thoughtful. “So why’d he come over then?”
“To annoy me.”
Astrid sat up at last, tilting her head to the side curiously. “Do you like him?”
Why was everyone asking me that? “No. I was kidding. He’s on Anders’ rugby team, he’s probably just greasing up because Anders is the captain. Anyway, we’d better get our butts to the dinner table before Mum comes looking for us.”
Astrid’s face fell again. “I’m not hungry.”
“You know the house rules. The family that eats together, stays together.”
My sister gave a martyred sigh and stood up. “Fine. Can you tell I’ve been crying?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
She straightened her shirt and pushed her hair back behind her ears. “Do I have to be nice to that guy?”
“Definitely not.”
“Okay.” She drew herself up taller and pushed her shoulders back. “Let’s go.”
Dinner was an awkward affair, mostly due to Lexi trying to monopolise the conversation and Astrid still looking miserable, although I’m not sure anyone else really noticed. Mum and Dad were both very taken with Harry, asking him questions and seeming impressed with his polite answers. He was like a different person from the smart aleck I’d met a few days ago, and far from giving me a hard time over dinner, he barely spoke to me at all. By the time we were eating dessert, I was starting to wonder if maybe he was interested in Lexi after all.
I excused myself as soon as dinner was over with a feeble excuse about needing to study. I was sitting on my bed and scrolling through Facebook when Harry walked past my room and saw me. He stopped and leaned against the doorjamb, his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his jeans.
“So how’d I do?”
“A little too well,” I told him honestly. “I didn’t know you were that good at acting.”
“Hey now. I can be charming when I want to be.”
“You were gunning for charming?” I asked disbelievingly. “I thought you’d gone for full-on butt kisser.”
“Still not working for you, huh?” He was grinning at me, self-assurance still dripping off him. I was starting to find his arrogance more obnoxious than attractive, much to my relief.
“Nope.”
He sighed. “Well that’s a disappointment. At least your sister likes me.”
“Don’t mess with her,” I warned him again, and Harry held his hands up, palms facing me in a gesture of surrender.
“Like I just told Anders, I have no intention of doing that. And I’m not exactly getting those kind of vibes from her anyway, so I think you’re all worried about nothing.”
“You wouldn’t…but that doesn’t mean…” I shook my head, unable to explain how my sister’s brain worked. “Just tread carefully, okay? She doesn’t need to get hurt.”
“Not my intention,” he assured me. “School’s out for the summer now anyway. I’ll make myself scarce for a while, how’s that?”
I looked at him warily, reading between the lines and knowing that he wanted me to register disappointment. “Sounds ideal.”
Harry let out a heavy sigh and shook his head at me. “You’re killing me, AJ. What’s a guy gotta do to get you interested?” He glanced around my room and answered his own question before I could respond. “Have four legs and a tail, by the looks of things.”
“Hey, you know what they say,” I told him. “If you want a stable relationship, get a horse.”
“You horsy girls are impossible to please. Well, maybe I’ll see you round sometime.”
“Maybe.”
Harry straightened up and took a step away, then turned back to me. “If you need that pony of yours shod, just give Dad a call and he’ll fit you in.”
“Thanks, but I think he’ll be fine.”
Harry shrugged, tapped the door frame with one hand, and walked off. I listened to his footsteps, fighting a weird impulse to go and say a proper goodbye, when a message popped up at the bottom of my screen. It was from Charlie, who’d sent me a friend request after Pony Club the other night. We’d had some interesting conversations since then, and she’d been fully supportive of keeping Squib barefoot, sending me links and videos of other riders around the world who competed their horses without shoes in show jumping competitions, often with plenty of success. Her latest message was more of the same.
Here’s something you’ll like. First video in shoes, second video barefoot and bitless, taken a year apart. What a difference!
I clicked on the link and watched the two clips. In the first, the big bay mare was fighting to get to the fences, straining against the bridle and the set of draw reins that the rider was using as she struggled to keep the horse under control. In the second video, the same combination cantered smoothly over a course of jumps with a light contact on a bitless bridle, looking infinitely happier. I was blown away by the comparison, and more sure than ever that I was doing the right thing by my pony.
* * *
Two days later, when Katy and I were sitting around the stables waiting for her ponies to finish their feeds, I showed her the videos on my phone.
“Nice horse,” she said as we watched the first clip. The mare was certainly a talented jumper, clearing the fences with plenty of air, but was fighting hard against its rider the whole way round the course, and I knew Katy wouldn’t approve of the use of draw reins while jumping.
“Now check this out. Same horse and rider, one year later,” I explained as I clicked on the second link. Katy leaned in closer to watch as the video started to play, but it wasn’t long before she was shaking her head.
“Is this supposed to convince me of the magical powers of barefoot trimming?”
I shot her a look. I hadn’t even told her that the horse’s shoes had been removed, but she’d apparently picked up on it right away.
“It’s also bitless now,” I pointed out, shifting the focus to another part of the horse. “But shoes or not, look how much more relaxed she is, going on a soft contact, not fighting or plunging towards the jumps, staying on a nice rhythm the whole way round.”
“Yeah, it looks happier,” Katy agreed, leaning in again to look at the video. “But it jumped better before. In the first video it was really strong, punching off the ground from its hindquarters, really propelling itself through the air. But here it’s not jumping off its hocks anymore. It’s still clearing them but it’s travelling upside down between the jumps, and it’s lost half of its muscle.”
I could see what she meant as she pointed it out, but I couldn’t agree with her priorities. “So jumping ability is worth more to you than a happy horse?” I asked, bitterness creeping into my voice.
Katy looked offended. “Of course not! But she didn’t have to go to that much of an extreme. If she’d just taken the junk out of its mouth in the first place and schooled it correctly, she’d have ended up with a fit, strong, rideable horse that could still power off the ground like it used to.” She looked at my face and her expression softened. “Hey, it’s still a nice horse and it’s obviously very talented. And her equitation is awesome,” she added, almost as an afterthought. “Look at her lower leg, it doesn’t move!”
I definitely agreed with that. “I know. I wish I could ride like her! Anyway,” I shrugged as the clip ended and I shoved my phone back into my pocket, “the horse is still winning consistently, so there can’t be too much wrong with it.”
Katy looked ambivalent. “Hmm, but imagine how well it could be jumping if it was allowed to be stronger. Not to mention how much higher. I’m sure that rider thinks she’s doing the right thing, and the horse doesn’t look lame or anything, so whatever. Each to their own and all that. But I just don’t think you should look at that as a model for where you want to be, because that horse is not Squib. He’s young and he’s green and he’s not going to be able to canter slowly up to a metre-thirty and glide over it. He’s not built that way and that’s not how he wants to jump. If you get too carried away with relaxation and softness, he’ll find it too hard and he’ll stop caring.” She stood up and shook her ponytail over her shoulder. “You want a pony that wants to get to the other side clear as much as you do. That’s what makes an ordinary horse into a champion.”