The air conditioning felt good where Samantha Forster sat in her small, compacted journalism class. It was so hard concentrating on her "What do you Think of Uniforms?" report when Jason Ek, the annoying kid who sat behind her, kept whispering over to his friend Mike.
"One more word out of him and that's that's," Sam muttered under her breath. "Shoot." The distraction of Jason's whispering led Sam to writer's block.
"Hey Mike I just thought of an idea," Jason said, holding in a laugh. "Tonight we should egg someone's house."
"Shut up and do what you're supposed to be doing!" Sam hissed, turning to face Jason, who's expression turned from amused to frustration.
"You shut up!"
"Oh you don't know how immature that sounds," Sam said, then turned back around, cleared her throat and raised her hand. A couple of annoying boys shouldn't keep her from making an A on something as easy as a uniform report.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop if you put down your arm," Jason said, tapping her raised hand.
Sam did. "You better," she warned, then turned around and went back to work.
Fifteen minutes had passed when the teacher said, "Okay, everyone drop your papers in the Inbox and then we'll discuss current events. Erica, you're up first."
"Mine is kind of long," The brunette said, walking up to the front of the class. Erica Smith, Sam's friend, was often the quiet one.
"Yesterday, in Silvane, Utah, 20 mustangs were rounded up and put into BLM corrals. Now we all know this is pretty common, but these weren't just healthy mustangs. Many were pregnant mares, and many foals died along with their mothers."
Sam gasped. When she looked around the room, everyone's mouth was open in shock.
"The number of wild horses in the world is reducing quickly, and we must do something to stop. When I did more research on this article I found that it's not just happening in Utah, but also places like Montana and Nevada. Not just those, either. Why are these people doing this? I don't know, but I don't like it."
Nevada. Sam thought of the beautiful, free mustangs running on the playa, and in the Calico Mountains, where her old home was. She missed her ranch and her family. Bad. And now the mustangs were in more danger than ever.
"We have to do something," Sam blurted. She almost winced at her sudden outburst until everyone smiled and agreed.
"Sam's right!" Chelsea Muton exclaimed. "What these people are doing is wrong!"
Soon everyone was talking at once.
"Class, settle down," The teacher said. "Now although I agree with all of you, we have to get on with this so we'll have time for our interviews."
Sam rolled her eyes. How could the teacher be so mean? Mustangs in danger were way more important than stupid little interviews.
After school was out, Sam told Aunt Sue to wait in the car as she gathered up all the people in her journalism class and met at the library.
"Okay, guys this is serious, no matter what our teacher says we really gotta do something!" Sam said. Erica was beside her backing her up.
"Well what can we do? We're just kids, how would anyone take us seriously?" Meg asked.
Sam paused. She thought of her and Jake, always exploring around, her riding Blackie and him riding Witch. Where she used to live people usually took her seriously, kid or not. But she kind of new what they meant.
"We just have to act mature and hope for the best," Sam said confidently, glaring at Jason.
"How should we help?" Mike asked. Jason nudged him but Mike didn't care.
Sam looked at Erica for support. She knew more about that stuff than Sam did.
"Well, first we should email the people involved telling them our opinions," Erica said. Her voice was quiet, and whenever she talked it seemed like the whole room went silent. "And maybe, just maybe we can convince Mr. Presli to let us do a special report on it, so we can get other people informed."
The room fell silent, then Meg said, "That sounds easy."
"Yeah," Everyone said. Sam and Erica exchanged happy glances. Their class was so good.
"Wait."
Sam immediately took that thought back. She forgot Jason. Of course he had to ruin something.
"People, this is crazy, don't listen to them. Do you really think just because a couple of kids call and write an article about it means they'll change their minds? These are horses. What are they good for anyway? I don't know about you guys but I'd rather not waste my time trying to save these stupid animals. They'll all be gone eventually."
"What!" Sam shrieked. How could he even live with himself? "First of all, yes, if we do those things they just might because that's what their supposed to do. Then the people who are against them can mention all of us. Second of all, We're not wasting our time, we're doing something good. What, you don't think egging someone's house is a waste of time?" Jason recoiled at her remark. "And third of all, Horses aren't stupid!"
Just as fast as she'd started her rampage, Sam stormed out of the room and ran to Aunt Sue's car. She didn't care if she had sounded evil. Horses were more important.
"What's wrong?" Aunt sue asked as Sam slid into the front seat of the blue honda.
"Aunt Sue, the horses need help before more and more die, but Jason thinks otherwise."
"Who's Jason?"
"This real annoying kid who sits behind me in Journalism."
Aunt Sue rolled her eyes. "Well, either just forget him or try to convince him how important the situation is."
The rumbling sound of Aunt Sue's car as she started the engine roused Sam's sick feeling. Her head felt like it was swinging around from dizziness.
"I just wish he wasn't in my class." Sam said.
Aunt Sue sighed. "Sam, there's always going to be someone like Jason in your life who you wish could just vanish. You just have to fight your way through this. Think of it as an obstacle course, and Jason as one of your obstacles."
"The only obstacle," Sam said rolling her eyes. "If he wasn't here everything would be just fine. But no. Now the horses are in even more danger because of him."
Out of advice, Aunt Sue turned on the radio but the music did little to relax Sam. She kept re-playing in her mind what Aunt Sue had said.
Fight my way through this.
She could handle Jason. After all, he was only one kid, just like they were all just one class. Still a little unsure, Sam sighed, knowing that proved how one kid could definitely make such a difference.