Nothing But Horses (23 page)

I hoped he wouldn’t say that he’d pick up the
slack around the farm. It wouldn’t work because Mom would view that
as him taking over the place. She’d freak. Shamrock Stable was her
third baby and she loved it as much as she did me and Autumn.

“What’s your idea?” Mom asked, the hint of an
edge in her tone. This might be her shortest engagement yet, less
than five hours.

“You’re having the first riding club meeting
on Sunday,” Dave said. “That would be a perfect time for your
pre-owners to sign up to learn to do horse care. You’ll need at
least four people each day, two per barn.”

Wow, he was so smart. He and Mom went into
the kitchen, discussing how she could teach our serious students to
muck stalls, water and feed the horses. I woke up Autumn and told
her that we finally would have a dad soon. And we went to
celebrate!

* * * *

Lake Windemere, Washington

Saturday, January
18
^th
, 2:00
pm

Centennial Middle-High had its own top of the
line theater. It wasn’t hard to find where we were supposed to meet
since most of the cars were in the lot closest to the
hexagon-shaped building. When I walked inside, I recognized some of
the teens hanging out near the stage from my Choir class at Lincoln
High. Dani waved at me and kept chatting to Nikki Tiernan. I went
to join them. “Hi. What’s going on?”

“Not much yet,” Dani said. “You need to put
your name on the sign-up sheet.”

“Okay. Then, what?”

“Come talk horses with us,” Nikki said. “When
I moved here last month, Grandma gave me one of her black Arabians.
Donnybrook is a major monster, but I love him.”

“Sounds like my No, No Veda.” I went off and
wrote my name on Mr. Haller’s clipboard. Then, I headed back to ooh
and aah over the pic of a glamorous coal black colt on Nikki’s new
phone. She told us all about her last lesson when Donnybrook
decided going forward was against company policy. She did Cowboy
Dressage and made him go backwards around the ring at all four
walks. “The instructor laughed at us and wanted to know if I was
going to make him trot and gallop that way too. I said I would
unless he gave up. Luckily, he did so I didn’t have to get into a
major war with him.”

“I’ve never seen a horse gallop in reverse,”
Dani said. “Is it even possible?”

“Watch Robin’s dad do it sometime when he’s
roping,” I said.

“I saw it at Marvella’s Winter Frolics a
couple years ago in California when my mom and I went,” Nikki told
us. “It was amazing. Their performers did all kinds of tricks on
horseback, liberty work, Roman riding, vaulting and everything. And
the
haute ecole
acts were totally incredible.”

“What’s Roman riding?” Dani asked.

“It’s when you have two horses together,” I
said. “You stand with one foot on each horse’s back and try to keep
them as close as possible so you don’t fall between them.”

“Marvella’s Spring Fling opens in Redmond
soon,” Nikki said. “Grandma says if we want to go, she’ll take the
Horse Heaven Angels, but we have to buy our own tickets and they’re
expensive.”

“Time to hold a car wash or a bake sale to
raise money.” I wished I could go to the show too, but I was pretty
sure that we wouldn’t have the funds this early in the year. If
only Marvella began their circuit down south and ended it in
Washington State, but the Canadian production company actually
opted to begin the season here.

“Why did your grandmother call her club, the
Angels?” Dani twirled a strand of gold hair around her finger.
“Shouldn’t she have chosen a more horsy type name?”

“She wanted one that incorporated the name of
the barn so people would be able to figure out where we were based.
This way it builds the membership and she makes more money. The
horses get better care and more to eat.”

Good point
, I thought. That made
Vicky’s choice of the Shamrock Stars more appropriate for our new
club. If we tweaked it a bit, it would be even better. I pulled out
my phone and texted her, a new version.
Shamrock Stable
Stars
.

I’d just put away my phone when Mr. Haller
waved to us. We headed toward him to start the auditions. I figured
I’d do my best and not worry about the rest. This was one of those
times when I wouldn’t give up on my dreams, although I might have
to discover what they were first.

* * * *

Shamrock Stable, Washington

Sunday, January
19
^th
, 1:00 pm

For the first meeting of our new riding club,
Mom arranged for us to have pizza and pasta delivered by Parthenon
up in Stewart Falls. We had a decent turn-out, twelve riders
besides me, Autumn, Vicky, Robin, Dani and Tom. After we had food,
Mom passed out the meeting agenda.

Wow, when did she do this? Normally, she
handed me a handwritten note and I pulled together posters or
brochures or even the information packet for camp. She’d obviously
spent time during the week typing up her list of things she wanted
to cover.

Mom rapped on the table with a little wooden
hammer. “I’m calling the first meeting to order. We need a name for
our club, followed by electing officers so I don’t have to run
things and neither does Sierra. We have plenty to do, so let’s get
started.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Marysville, Washington

Monday, January
20
^th
, 7:05 am

When I walked into the Commons, I saw Robin
at her favorite table. I carried over the cardboard tray of
espressos and passed her a mocha. “So, how does it feel to be
elected the first president of the Shamrock Stable Stars?”

“Remind me that we’re friends so I forgive
you for nominating me.” Smiling, Robin stirred her coffee with the
straws. “It stunned Felicia when I told her that the vote was
unanimous. She said she didn’t know that many people liked me.”

“Wow, what a slam. I don’t think I’d ever say
anything that mean to my sister.”

“Yeah, but consider the age difference.
Felicia is barely three years older than I am and there’s nine
years between you and Autumn.” Robin shrugged. “Besides, Autumn
doesn’t steal your makeup, read the juicy parts of your diary to
your crush or dump a cat-box in your bed.”

“No way.” I pulled out a chair and sat down,
stunned. “We elected a total psycho witch as our president. How
could you be so rotten to your big sister?”

“Let’s see. Her makeup was amazing when I was
ten. She was only thirteen and she used to do this thing about how
she could wear it and I couldn’t.”

“And the diary? Journals are private,
Robin.”

“Yeah, that was nasty. I got grounded for a
month when Mom found out and Dad wouldn’t speak to me for a week.
He totally shunned me. Jack called me the Princess Spy and told all
his friends not to talk to me or I’d pass their personal info
around school. But, that wasn’t the worst.”

“It doesn’t sound too awful. Nobody hit you
or called you really evil names.”

“The second week in, Felicia forgave me. She
was decent to me and made Jack stop being a jerk. She said her
crush never would have asked her out if I hadn’t been such a
monster. He was majorly shy and couldn’t believe she actually liked
him.”

“Whoa. So, what could have been bad turned
out okay.”

“Yeah, but like Dad said that wasn’t my
intention so he and Mom wouldn’t back off on the grounding.”

“I wouldn’t have either. Okay, I have to
know. What was the deal with the cat-box?”

“She kept pitching a fit last summer about
the orphaned kittens I rescued. They hadn’t learned to use the
sandbox and I was up all night, feeding them every two hours for a
week straight. One of them pooped on the bathroom floor and she
stepped in it. She pounded on my bedroom door and woke me up,
screaming. I got mad. One thing led to another and I dumped the
litter in her bed. She really screamed then.”

I laughed. “All right. I give up. You and
Felicia can work out the details of your relationship on your
own.”

“We’re cool. We got along great when she was
home for Christmas break. We talk a lot now on the phone and she
gave me awesome advice about guys when I didn’t know what I wanted.
She told me the best kind to date are the ones who like you for
yourself. If you have to change who you are to please them, they’re
not worth it.”

“She’s pretty smart. I wish someone would
have given that advice to my mom years ago. Hey, did you see her
ring?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe Rocky went for a cop
this time,” Robin said. “I asked him and he said he never did
rodeo. He has issues with the way they treat the bucking horses and
steers.”

“I can believe that. He’s totally into
animals first and people next.”

“No wonder he gets along so well with you
horse-crazy folks.” Robin smiled at Dani as she approached. “Hi,
Ms. Vice-Prez. What did your parents say when they called last
night?”

“They’re cool with it as long as it doesn’t
interfere with my showing Lady. When I said I could add the 4-H
shows to my roster, they were totally jazzed.” Dani took the mocha
I offered. “I threw in a bunch of
ma’ams
and
sirs
and
they were happy campers. They thanked Louise and promised her yet
another raise because my manners are so much better.”

Vicky arrived next and I handed over her
favorite peppermint latte. She eyed me, then said. “I saw you
playing ball with Tom and Dave last night. You were kicking their
buns. I told Jack that you dunked eight times in a row and he said
you definitely aren’t joining his team. The guys can’t compete with
that. You couldn’t have been hurt too badly at the game on
Thursday.”

“I’m fine. It only hurt that night. Every
time I felt a twinge on Friday, I opted for ice. By Saturday
afternoon, I did okay at auditions.”

“Are you joking?” Dani demanded. “You nailed
that song. You and Patricia were the best from our school. The only
one better was that dark-haired chick from Centennial and I can’t
see her pretending to be a guy. She has too good a figure.”

“Well, I’m going to tell Mr. Haller to choose
her when we get to Choir class,” I said. “They should opt for Ms.
Incredible. Patricia and I agreed that we’ll have an awesome time
creating costumes for her. Besides, she’s a senior. Starring in the
last production would look great on her college apps.”

“Okay, you’ve convinced me. Now, how did you
get Patricia on your side?”

“Piece of cake,” I said. “We decided that
basketball comes first and we want the team to go to State. We can
really focus on our games if we don’t have to stress over
rehearsals. Anyway, she’ll probably be the star’s understudy.”

“Her name isn’t Ms. Incredible, is it?” Robin
asked.

Dani and I looked at each other. She shrugged
and so did I. “Sorry, we don’t know her real name,” I said. “She
has this voice. After she did
Le Jazz Hot,
Mr. Haller asked
the three of us to come back and do a different song,
Crazy
World
from the same show.”

“How did it go?” Vicky pulled the cap off her
cup. “How did you and Patricia do?”

“We were okay. Patricia was better than me. I
messed up the bridge.”

“And then Ms. Incredible nailed that one
too,” Dani said. “She does have as much talent as Sierra says.”

“It’d be wrong to take the part away from
her.” The first bell rang and I stood. “So, I’m not doing it and
neither is Patricia. Now, we get Mr. Haller on board and he can
call Centennial and work it out with the other drama teacher.”

* * * *

Marysville, Washington

Tuesday, January
21
^st
, 3:10 pm

Basketball practice started with stretches
and then we ran lines to build our stamina. I stayed with the herd.
Okay, so the squad wasn’t horses, but the theory was the same. The
lead mare took responsibility for a herd of wild mustangs when they
raced across country while the stallion stayed at the back as a
rear guard. I’d known that fact before I read it again in Monty
Roberts’ book. There was safety in numbers. If I wasn’t out in
front, I couldn’t be accused of trying to be a star.

After we ran lines forever, we did lay-up
drills again. This week I’d figured out Coach Norris would switch
things up and I was right about who would begin shooting baskets.
So, I made sure I was the last in Olivia’s line. I deliberately
missed when it was my turn. I continued to mess up all my shots on
a regular basis for the rest of the practice drills.

During the scrimmages, Dr. Danvers and a
short, silver-haired guy in a dark suit that I recognized as
Principal Gallagher arrived. They stood just inside the gym doors
and watched us play. I passed to Kanisha who took the ball down the
court. She got it to Cedar who scored. I expected Coach Norris to
speak to the administrators while we played, but he didn’t.
Instead, he kept watching us. He also didn’t send in a sub for me
when he did for everyone else.

I continued passing and avoiding any
opportunity to shoot. When I was the closest to the basket and
couldn’t avoid it, I air-balled. Finally, the whistle sounded. We
jogged off to begin our cool down laps. Ten minutes later, we
headed over to Coach Norris who stood with the counselor and
principal.

“Two wins in two weeks.” Principal Gallagher
smiled around at the group of us. “I can’t wait to see you at
State. Keep up the good work.”

Patricia led us into the locker room and Dr.
Danvers followed. She walked up beside me, and put an arm around my
shoulders. “Sierra, can I offer you some advice?”

“What? I don’t need any
shrinky
words
of wisdom. I get enough of those from my regular counselor.”