Home Sweet Drama (17 page)

She turned around, her black hair flipping over her shoulder. “Are you
talking
to me?”

Her tone almost made me wince, but I forced myself to keep talking. “I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about—”

Callie shook her head. “Oh, my God. Please. Don't even. I can't believe you'd start to say that.”

“But I
am
sorry,” I said.

Callie's brown eyes darkened. “I told you not to ever talk to me again. Leave me alone.” She shrugged. “Besides, I give you twenty-four hours before you and Jacob are together. He's all yours—your birthday wish is granted.”

I sat through the rest of the game and didn't move from my seat. Every so often, Paige, Ryan and other people in our skybox would jump up and scream.

Near the fourth quarter Paige reached over and touched my arm.

“You okay?” she asked. She almost had to yell the last word when the crowd screamed.

“Fine,” I said. “Just tired.”

Paige nodded and flicked her eyes to Callie's back. “I saw what you—”

I slashed my hand across my throat, cutting her off. “Not here,” I said.

“Okay.”

Paige looked back at the field.

I sat through the final minutes of the game, ignoring every tackle and field goal. I didn't even look at the score. I just watched the clock tick down the final minutes to when I could leave. Finally, the clock hit 00:00. The Canterwood crowd exploded with cheers.

“YESSS!” Paige screamed beside me.

“All right!!” Ryan yelled. Screams for our team rang out across the field and I finally looked at the scoreboard. We'd won by three points.

I grabbed my empty cup and slung my purse over my shoulder. I turned and looked down the row of seats.

Jacob was staring back at me.

22

HOMECOMING FREAKOUT

BY THE TIME MS. UTZ'S HEALTH CLASS started on Friday, the level of excitement over Homecoming had reached code red. I'd taken every side hallway that existed to stay away from the noise and craziness. Nobody seemed worried about getting to class on time—everyone was talking in the hallway or texting. On a normal day, no one would even dare use a cell in the hall. It seemed like all the rules disappeared today.

I walked to my desk and sat down, ignoring everyone who was chattering nonstop about Homecoming.

“Omigod, can you believe the dance is tonight?” asked one girl.

“Nooo!” said a girl sitting next to her. “There's so much we have to do!” She flipped open a notebook and
stared down at a page of paper. “Manis, pedis, blowouts, tweezing …”

I turned away. This was
ridiculous.
Of course they were excited—they weren't being forced to go! The classroom started to fill up and I watched Eric, and then Jacob, walk inside. I didn't want to look at Jacob. I'd hurried out of the skybox last night after I'd caught him staring at me.

I paged through my health book, not even able to read the text. I couldn't concentrate with everyone talking at top volume. Paige came in and sat beside me, grinning.

“We should have had the day off,” Paige said. “This is such a waste of time.”

“Yeah. Totally.”

“No one can concentrate. We're all focused on the dance!”

I just nodded. I was thinking about the dance, but my reasons were different from Paige's. I really didn't want to dampen her first big school event with Ryan, so I had to make an effort.

“Are you more freaked out or excited about the dance?” I asked.

Paige paused, smoothing her purple T-shirt. “Can it be equal?” she asked, smiling. “It's the first time I'll be dancing with Ryan and I'm so nervous. You know that I took
dance lessons, but it's been a while. What if I've forgotten everything and I step on his feet or something?”

“You won't do that. You're a great dancer—Ryan will have to work to keep up with you.”

Paige's tense shoulders relaxed. “And you'll help me with clothes and makeup, right?”

“Given!”

Ms. Utz walked into the room. Usually the talking would cease and everyone would wait for her to take attendance. But today, the noise level stayed the same.

“Class,” Ms. Utz said, looking up from her notebook. “Let's stop the talking now. We're about to start.”

The loud talking turned to quiet chatting. Ms. Utz started to take attendance, but the whispers didn't stop.

“Excuse me,” Ms. Utz said. Her voice was stern. “I realize that it's the last day before fall break and the dance is tonight. However, this does not permit you to continue to talk when class has started.”

Now everyone fell silent.

“Thank you,” Ms. Utz said. She went back to taking attendance. I tuned her out and went back to thinking about the football game. I had to have been caught up in the moment and pumped up by the craziness around me. I
did not
want to date Jacob. I didn't even want to
be thinking about him! But then why did my chest feel crushed whenever he looked at me?

I had to stay away from him—
faaar
away from him. Especially during tonight's Homecoming. We'd be forced to hang out together for a while for junior royal court stuff, but I'd stay by Paige and away from him.

Ms. Utz finished taking attendance. She flipped through her teacher's guide and settled on a page. “Let's go over the final chapter about first aid for cuts and burns, then we'll talk about homework during break.”

“Paige,” she said. “Please start reading at the top of page ninety.”

Paige started reading aloud and I made myself take notes as she read. I needed anything to distract me from thinking about tonight.

When I got to theater class, I looked for Heather. I'd made up my mind that I wasn't going to even so much as glance at Jacob. I was too afraid that people were already expecting me to be with Jacob. They probably thought we'd gotten together the second he'd left Callie. We had to keep distance between us as much as possible.

I spotted Heather sitting in the front row and I walked down the main aisle to her row. The theater lights felt
harsh at this distance from the stage and I felt like a spotlight was on me.

“Omigod,” I said, falling into the chair beside Heather. “Last class for an entire week.”

She rubbed her forehead. “I know. And it's the last day of Homecoming. If it had lasted any longer, I would have locked myself in my room until it was over or something.”

“Me too. We just have to get through the dance and then we've made it.”

Heather nodded. “I just want to go riding and pretend the dance isn't happening.”

“Agreed.”

And as excited as I was about this being my last class for an entire week, I hadn't let myself think about break yet. Things with Paige were still a tiny bit off and if I thought about spending the week with her, I started to worry about things getting weird if she asked me about the party or if I had any interest in trying to be with Jacob. I glanced quickly behind me to see if he was here yet. He was sitting two rows behind me and a few seats over. I turned my attention back to the stage.

Ms. Scott walked up the stairs and stood at center stage. She wore her trademark red lipstick and her black hair was pulled into a half updo. “You all aren't thinking
about, I don't know, the dance tonight, are you?”

Everyone laughed.

“I'm not the kind of teacher who assigns homework over a break,” Ms. Scott said. “How is it a break if you're working?”

“Exactly!” a girl a few seats down from Heather said.

Ms. Scott smiled. “It's the last class of the day and as my ‘happy fall break' gift, I'm letting you go now. I'm sure you've got lots of things you'd like to do before the dance, so go.”

The class started cheering and clapping. Even Heather and I smiled at each other. Who cared
why
class was canceled—at least it was!

“Have a fun, safe break and see you all soon,” Ms. Scott said.

I was out of my seat before she finished her last word. Heather followed me up the aisle and I almost broke into a jog to get out of the theater before Jacob could try to talk to me or something.

“I'm definitely
not
using the extra time to get ready for the dance,” Heather said. “I've got my riding clothes in my bag, so I'm changing and riding before our lesson.”

“Totally thinking the same,” I said. “Maybe the stable will be quiet since lessons were optional today.”

Heather snorted. “No one's going to show today. We'll be the only people there when lessons start—you know it.”

Mr. Conner had sent an e-mail this morning and had said lessons were optional for all students who wanted to use the extra time to pack for a trip home if they were going off campus for fall break or to get ready for the end of Homecoming. There was no way either Heather or I would miss a lesson—especially not one for the YENT.

The farther away we got from the theater building, the more I relaxed. Jacob wasn't coming after me to talk and Callie was still in class.

We walked into the stable and the main aisle was deserted. It was so weird to be here without the usual crowd.

“Are Julia and Alison riding after class?” I asked.

“They better ride since they just got their privileges back, but they're being crazy about Homecoming, so I don't know.”

We changed in the bathroom and got our horses' tacks. I smiled at Charm as I walked down the aisle toward his stall. His head was hanging over the door and he pointed his ears at me as I approached.

“Hi, guy,” I said. I put down his tack and reached up to
run my hand down his blaze. “I'm glad we get to hang out more together before I go to Paige's for break.”

I unlatched his stall door, clipped a lead line to his halter and led him out. I put him on crossties closest to his stall and got his tack box from my trunk. I wanted to take my time grooming him—he deserved extra attention since I'd be away for a week. But I trusted Mike and Doug to take excellent care of him and Charm loved them both.

I grabbed Charm's hoof pick and ran my hand down his leg, squeezing above the fetlock. He raised his hoof and I scraped out what little muck had accumulated since yesterday. After his hooves were clean, I brushed him until he was super shiny. His chestnut coat gleamed softly under the overhead lights and from the sunlight that came in through the windows.

I tacked him up, thinking about how Heather was probably about ready to come find me to see what was taking so long. I snapped on my helmet and we started toward the indoor arena. It was too hot to ride outside right now.

“What took you so long?” Heather asked when I led Charm inside. She rolled her eyes as she rode Aristocrat over.

“I wanted to spend more time with him,” I said. “I'm going to miss him over break.”

Heather nodded and the attitude disappeared from her face. “I get that.” She reached down and patted Aristocrat's neck. “I'm going to miss him too. But it's only for a week. When we get back, we'll practically be living in the stable to get ready for the schooling show.”

“That's true.” I smiled. “We'll be back for a day and we'll start complaining about the schedule.”

Heather rolled her eyes. “You know it.”

I let Charm into a trot and we moved toward the arena wall. Heather followed behind us on Aristocrat and I dropped my shoulders, which had inched toward my ears all day because of the stress about tonight. I busied myself with thinking about something else I had to do: pack. I'd been ignoring it all week as my relationship with Paige went up and down. Tonight was important—I didn't want anything to go wrong at the dance—especially the night before I went to Paige's for a week.

“Drop your hands, Silver,” Heather said. “You look ridiculous.”

Oops. My hands were at chest level. I settled them over Charm's neck.

We worked through a solid warm-up and coached each other while we waited for our lesson to start.