“Box
brush to stone wall!” The girl beamed like
a lighthouse as she guided her chestnut mare into the center of the arena, a
large fenced oval of dirt cluttered with a few horses and riders and jumping
fences. The horses in the huge grass
pasture next to it turned their heads for a moment, then returned boredly to
grazing. The rider spurred on her horse,
who cantered easily over the low wooden fence and the faux stone wall. “That all right, Ellen?” she asked sweetly to
the trainer.
The
other riders hid their groans behind their hands. However, the loudest groaner was not a rider
but Lena Angeles, a dusty fourteen-year-old leaning on the fence, shuffling a
pack of ratty playing cards. “She’s such
a show-off, Buddy. I told you,” she
whispered to the golden retriever, who simply wagged his tongue in joyous
ignorance. Lena watched with a frown as
the showy rider jumped another perfect fence and flashed a grin. “Nice try, but you’re not fooling anyone,”
Lena grumbled. Just to prove to Buddy
that she wasn’t simply jealous, she added, “I would totally be that good if I
had five horses and private lessons every week.”
“Talking
to yourself again?”
The
cards flew from her hands, spitting out all over the ground. “Natalie!
Where’d you come from?” She stuck
out her tongue. “Definitely wasn’t
talking to you.”
Natalie
ran a hand through her dark hair. “Are
you going to whine about Sasha all day or are you going to help us muck stalls
before Ellen sees you? It’s your first
day back to work since . . .” She
frowned. “You probably shouldn’t be
slacking off.”
“Cool
it. I was just taking a break.” Lena chafed at the reminder of the
“incident.” Her mother already reminded
her every day. Shoplifting! How could her well brought up, innocent
little daughter be caught shoplifting? Apparently,
no one remembered that it was just one
time and it was only a fine. Well,
it was a couple of times. But she wasn’t
about to cop to the whole bunch.
“So .
. . uh, learning a new trick? I don’t
think you’re supposed to throw them.”
Natalie pointed, laughing, at the cards Lena was crawling after.
“Ha ha.
Trent got me a new magic book. I
was just practicing.”
“How
about practicing your mucking?”
“Oh,
come on, I’ve been mucking all day. Pick
a card.” She fanned them out in front of
Natalie, who sighed disapprovingly but drew one anyway. “Put it back.” She closed her eyes, waiting for Natalie to
set it on top, then shuffled through a few times. Sharply, she flicked the top of the deck and
a card flew off.
Natalie
picked it up. “That’s not it, Lena,” she
said, anxiously looking back to the barn.
Lena
smirked. “Nope, it’s right here.” She reached her empty hand behind Natalie’s
ear and flourished it, bringing it back with the three of spades facing out.
Natalie
snatched it. “How did you—”
“Nope,
we have to go muck, remember?” Laughing,
she put her cards in her pocket and raced Natalie away from the arena and up
the hill into the barn, breathing in deep the sharp scent of hay and
horse. The central aisle was surrounded
by horse stalls, all of which needed cleaning.
Natalie
smirked and shoved a rake into Lena’s hand.
“You’re lucky I don’t rat you out.
At least Ellen can’t give you detention.”
“Hey,”
Lena warned, brandishing the rake, “that was one time.”
“One?”
Lena’s
brow furrowed. “Three. Shut up.”
“Better than . . .” Natalie’s smile faded.
“Go on, say it. Better than getting arrested.” 
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