Here's chapter seven! It's extra-long to make up for the long period I didn't update...writers block is my new least-favorite sickness. It took me a long time to decide on my chapter title.
The riding lesson I promised is also included...but that's not all! Read to find out! (Wow, I sound like an overenthusiastic salesperson.) By the way-do any of you guys actually read the bolded parts? Or does it actually kind of distract from the reading a little?
Thank you for all your reviews, you all rule! Anyway, READ AND COMMENT!
-MuseGoddess
Chapter Seven
"It's Too Late, To Apologize"
I turned over and blinked myself awake. Something was ringing, the sound punching through the walls of drowsiness. It took a few seconds to recognize it as my ringtone.
"Uhhh…" Brit yawned. "Turn it off…"
I made a swipe for my bedstand and felt for the green answer button.
"Hello?" I asked groggily.
"SILVER!" At the sound of Heather's furious voice, I woke up completely.
"What is it?" I said, annoyed.
"Our morning lesson is right now! Where are you?"
"Huh?" I replied. "It's not until seven-thirty."
"Exactly."
"You don't mean…" I chanced a quick glance at the pool-blue wall clock. "Seven-fifteen? Oh my god."
"Yeah. I'm already at the stable, so why don't you and Brit HURRY UP? I have…something to tell you."
"Okay, okay. We'll be there. Thanks," I told her, throwing off my blankets and shooting to my feet.
"You owe me. Big-time." And on that happy note, Heather hung up.
"Brit!" I hurried over to my dresser and yanked a pair of breeches on, not even caring what color they were. "Brit! We need to get up. It's seven-fifteen, and we'll be late for our lesson!"
Brit stretched and sat up. "What happened to the alarm?" she asked, pressing a few buttons on the white alarm where my pink iPod was docked. She peered closely at the screen and showed it to me. The bell icon wasn't there.
I winced. "I didn't set it yesterday on accident."
"I told you to last night!"
"Oh, sorry. Must've forgot."
"We can't be late, not this close to Essex!"
Essex. I'd completely forgotten about that. It made me change faster. "I know!" I said, yanking a shirt on my head. I didn't register anything about it except the fact that it was yellow. "Come on!" I told her.
I brushed my teeth as fast as I could while Brit hastily did my hair. Then I did the same for her. We pulled on our boots in record time, and then raced each other to the stables. We burst inside just as Heather was unclipping Aristocrat's crossties.
"Indoor arena. Jumping," she told us. "And Sasha, you look like a traffic sign."
I spared a quick glance at my yellow shirt, red breeches, and dark-green paddock boots. Ugh.
"Whatever. I'll fix it later. But I need you to distract Mr. Conner."
"What?"
"Just do it! Please!"
She rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath. I pushed past her horse and sprinted to Charm's stall.
"Charm! I woke up late and we're late for our lesson and you need to get up so I can tack and groom you!"
At the word "tack," he opened one eye and got to his feet.
"Good boy." I raced out of the stall, grabbed his tack, and hurried back, setting it down on his trunk.
Charm understood that I needed to move fast, because he stood perfectly still as I tied him to the bars of his stall door. I skipped over brushing him with the currycomb since I was in a hurry, and used a dandy brush to sweep bits of hay and dust from his coat. I whisked the fuchsia body brush over him in one quick stroke. So his coat didn't sparkle like a fresh-minted penny. I'd make it up to him later.
I picked his hooves so fast my hands shook, thanking the fact that he hadn't been let out yet. Charm grunted as I pressed down on a tender spot, and he winced. "Sorry, boy!"
Dropping the tools back into his box, I smoothed his saddle pad on his back and heaved the white saddle on top. Tightening the girth took seconds. I untied him, slipped the reins around his neck, and held the bit in my palm. He took it quickly. I pulled the crown piece over his ears, grabbed my helmet, and led him quickly down the aisle, weaving him around students and horses in crossties. Apparently, not so much weaving as plowing. Charm kept stepping on other riders' feet and shafting horses to the sides. They glared at me and hissed, "Watch it!" or squealed, "Ow!"
I entered the indoor arena at a canter. I quickly scanned the arena, waving hello to Heather and half-smiling at Callie. No Mr. Conner. But where was Brit?
As I started a working trot around the arena, hoofbeats signaled Brit's arrival. She petted Apollo's mane, and rode him over to me. Heather moved Aristocrat closer to join us.
"Wow, that was close," Brit said, pretending to wipe sweat from her forehead. "I'll have to extra-groom Apollo after our lesson."
"Given," I smiled.
"So what was it this time?" Heather asked, executing a complicated twist in the saddle that loosened out her back.
"I…forgot to turn on the alarm yesterday," I told her. Saying it made a blush spread, hot and shameful, over my cheeks.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, Silver" was all she said before turning Aristocrat away and squeezing him into a collected trot. Charm, shaking back his mane, cantered after him. I grabbed his reins and steadied myself.
"No. Trot." I pushed my weight down, into my heels, and he slowed. I made him stop and wait. Apollo cantered past us, and I let him into a trot.
Charm bounced forward at what was most definitely not a trot, nearly tossing me. I pulled on the reins. He shook his head and snorted, but listened to me and moved toward the wall at a fast walk. I pushed him faster, and we made a neat circuit at a trot. I let him into a veerry slow canter, trying not to excite him, and we completed another circle around the arena.
We made two more circles, one at a near-gallop and one at a fast trot, before stopping. Mr. Conner had come in halfway through our warm-up, and studied us with a critical eye. He'd graduated to one crutch now, and he had his clipboard in his hand.
"Okay, girls," he said, and we all halted and looked up. "If you will, please move your horses to the side and let Mike and Doug set up…"
I heeled Charm, and he trotted briskly toward the wall, joining Heather. Brit pulled Apollo up on my other side as Mike walked in, making for the pile of jumps. He was closely followed by Doug.
Heather inched Aristocrat closer to Brit and I. I looked over at her and Brit peered over Charm to see what was going on.
Heather pulled out her glittery-gold-encased Blackberry.
"What are you doing?" I hissed, eyes on Mr. Conner. His most adamant rule, besides no abusing the horses, was phones in the arena. Heather faced being kicked out of the lesson if she was caught. He was currently advising Doug on where to place a striped vertical.
"It's important," she whispered back. "Julia texted me this morning."
"What?"
"She did? What did she say?" Brit asked.
Heather pressed a few buttons on her phone, and discreetly handed it to me. I half-buried it in Charm's mane to hide it and scanned the text.
To: Heather Fox
From: Julia Myer
Heather, I really am sorry 4 what I blogged abt u and evry1 else. I miss u guys, even Sasha and Brit, can u believe it?—I rolled my eyes.—Pls just txt me or something. Even just to say ur not ready 2 discuss. Jas is the only 1 here who pays any attention 2 me. Evry1 else treats me like an outcast. I wish I was back there w/u guys. ~J
I passed the phone to Brit, who read it quickly and handed it back to Heather.
"She really wrote all that?" I mouthed.
"Yeah," Heather replied, stowing the phone back in her royal purple jacket.
"Have you replied?" Brit asked.
"No, because I don't know what to tell her!"
Well, that would be a first, I wanted to say, but I kept my pina-colada-flavored-lip-glossed mouth shut.
"Well, you could say that—" Brit paused when Mr. Conner glanced at us "—you aren't ready to discuss it, like she said."
"I am ready to discuss it, there's just nothing to say! I just can't forgive her for what she did. Maybe later, but not now."
I thought for a minute. "But I could. I'll text her."
Brit nodded. "Good idea. I will too." Seeing the guilty, torn look on Heather's face, she added, "It's not your fault that you can't forgive. It doesn't make you a bad person. You were closer to her, so the scars are deeper."
"Yeah," I agreed. "She just has to wait. She can't demand that you forgive her right away. Scars—" I looked at Brit "—need their own time to heal."
Heather smiled. "Thanks, guys," she told us. For those three minutes, I saw the vulnerable Heather, the one that mourned over best friends and cowered before her dad.
Brit opened her mouth to reply, but Mr. Conner cut her off. "So, girls, what do you think of the course?"
I studied the jumps. It looked complicated.
The first part started out easy. Three verticals, with plenty of space between them. Then two oxers, fairly close together, painted sparkling gold and blue.
The sixth jump was a hogs back jump—one that I'd practiced a little bit, but never done in a show. It was one of the hardest jumps ever. Hogs backs consisted of three verticals of varying height clumped close together, making a fairly wide space for a horse to jump.
(A.N.-Okay, I know that in the first book Sasha and Heather face off when jumping a hogs back jump-remember, they try to both jump it but Sasha is the better person and pulls up, and Mr. C punishes them anyway. (Something like that.) Anyway, I needed something challenging so I used it. I hope you don't hate me.)
After that was a double combination, an oxer decorated with bright plastic flowers, and finally a high yellow-and-black vertical.
Brit whistled through her teeth. "Wow."
Even Heather was silent for a moment, but she regained her composure and tossed her hair back. "We can take it. We're the YENT team." Vulnerable Heather was gone, and Regular Heather was back again. She pushed back her shoulders and raised her chin.
Blackjack, Callie's Morab gelding, snorted.
"I know it look a little complicated girls, but I have complete confidence in you." Mr. Conner settled himself into his director's hair. "Heather, you're up first."
Heather steadied Aristocrat, and moved toward the first jump. She took the first three easily. Then, increasing Aristocrat's speed to a working canter, they leaped both oxers.
But before the hogs back, Aristocrat hesitated and slowed, his eyes wide and nostrils flaring. Heather tried to push him faster but it was too late. A second too late, they leaped and the last rail knocked to the ground.
I could read the disappointment on Heather's face but she hid it quickly. She moved toward the double combination, jumping it easily. Then they rode over to the flowerboxes. Aristocrat slowed again, already spooked from the hogs back. He took off and rushed the jump. It thudded hard to the ground, and ten seconds later he leapt cleanly over the last vertical.
Heather heeled Aristocrat over to Mr. Conner, waiting for judgment.
"What do you think of your ride?" he asked her.
She patted Aristocrat. "I think I did okay until the hogs back. Aristocrat wasn't used to the jump and slowed."
Mr. Conner thought this over, and said, "How would you think to fix it?"
"I could practice him over the jump more. This was only his second to third time on it." Heather worked to keep the defensiveness from her tone.
"I would agree with that. Overall, it was a good ride. Your form was near perfect, but on the jump you rushed you could've seen it and slowed him."
Heather took the compliments and errors with a nod and rode Aristocrat over to me.
"Sasha, you're up next." He settled back into his director's chair.
I took a deep yoga breath. "C'mon, Charm," I whispered to him. I'd think about what I would text Julia and say to Heather later. First, I needed to clear this course.
I circled him twice around instead of once because I needed to collect my thoughts, shoving them into the TOL (to open later) part of my brain. Then I pointed him at the first vertical.
He broke into a fast canter and leaped the jump. Two strides later he was back in the air. I tightened my legs and he leaped up, clearing the last vertical easily.
We cantered half a circle before reaching the oxers. The sunlight streaming in blinded me for a second, reflecting off the stripes and bouncing gold into my eyes, but I shook it away. I let him increase a notch to get over the oxer, blinking away the afterimage.
A stride later I moved my hands up his neck and he leaped the second oxer cleanly.
We headed for the hogs back. I took him in a wide circle around the arena to prepare, before pointing him at the hogs back.
"S'okay," I muttered. Not wanting to make the same mistake Heather had, I kept my legs tight and urged him faster. Charm's ears flicked back toward me, and he transitioned into a slow gallop.
Almost there. Now if we could just keep up this speed…
Six strides away, I felt him slow.
"No!" I murmured, but there was no time. Three, two, one! He leaped up, and I glanced down. His hoof brushed the third rail, but when we landed it didn't fall. We had been going fast enough that when he'd slowed it hadn't made so much of a difference.
I cheered silently, but then snapped back to focus. We still had half the course left.
I slowed Charm to a collected canter and we leaped the double combination easily. Charm's ears flicked toward the bright flowers on the next oxer, but I pulled on the reins and we managed to jump it cleanly.
Last jump. It was pretty high, designed to challenge the horse when they were most tired. Charm was already panting.
"One more, boy," I whispered, holding back his speed. He tossed his head, asking for more rein, but I didn't give. I counted down the strides. Six, five, four, three, two, one!
He pushed off from the ground and I panicked. Should I have given him more rein? With a jump of this height, we needed the extra speed. But Charm had a history of rushing last jumps.
We hung suspended in the air for a split second. A shudder ran through Charm's body as he brushed the rail. Then Charm landed firmly, though I felt the soft arena dirt beneath his hooves give a little. He cantered for a few strides, expending the momentum, while I listened for the inevitable thunk of the rail smashing onto the dirt.
I didn't hear it. Slowing Charm to a walk, I swung him around to face the last rail. Miraculously, it wobbled slightly but stayed in place.
We hadn't knocked the rail! This was one of our best rides yet!
I slowed Charm before Mr. Conner and rubbed his neck. "You did amazing!" I cheered. For the first time, I really felt like a YENT rider.
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A question: Does anybody know how to upload a cover picture to an already made story? It's been bugging me-I have this awesome Sasha pic but I can't upload it! : (