Pride & Princesses (37 page)

    
Mark was still packing away a lighting cable. I was shocked that he seemed to enjoy his rustic but lonely ‘menial tasks.’

    
We met as I was racing down the stairs and he was walking up them.

    
We had to turn on our sides to pass each other, but our bodies touched. It was kind of uncomfortable, but in a good way.

    
‘Does this mean you’re my girlfriend?’ Mark said sarcastically, when we had about one inch of space between us.

    
‘You wish,’ I said, mortified he may have discovered my Boy Rating Diary where I had highlighted the
‘why girls should stop treating boys like Princes and other girls like minions,’
page for Teegan.

   
As the secret and real versions had started to merge, along with our animosities, we had all become more curious about each other’s experiences and more willing to share. The more we shared, the more we learnt about the way boys think and the games they play and the more we stopped being total frenemies and embraced what could (almost) be described as ‘friendship.’ Why couldn’t girls be more supportive in real life? Perhaps we just needed a common goal (the greater good) in order to work together.
 
Imagine how much we’d missed when we were unsupportive of each other. Everything was changing. Boys like Mark and Jet and Joel and Ethan were in for a wild ride.
  

Chapter 22

Twelve Go Dating

    
We met on the rotunda near the lake, not far from the riding stables in Sunrise Park. There were two swans paddling together in the water creating an unlikely picture in the foreground, a fantasy image of loving but docile harmony. Perhaps if they’d stayed in view for longer we might have witnessed their territorial animosity.

    
Mouche and I were a rowdy pair that morning. All the items had been gathered apart from two disparate ones: the bracelet and a pair of shoes. We’d broken the rules by allowing ourselves to date Mark and Jet more than once, but since that rule was unspoken, we decided it was ours to navigate. Besides, a morning spent at the Sunrise Pony Club was something we all looked forward to and a group date was hardly the same as a one on one encounter. We’d decided another date with Mark would drive Teegan and Tory wild and Mouche was absolutely willing to go riding with Jet (‘I can’t believe he is so literate,’ Mouche said, ‘his sweet smile belies a formidable intellect!’) What we didn’t know, was, by the time we arrived, Brooke and Freya had invited Tory and Teegan and all their previous dates along as well. We joked about it in the
Boy Rating Diary
afterwards, ‘
it was like pony club for teenagers...’

    
We arrived at 8am at the Sunrise Stables. The Princesses were dressed in riding outfits from head to toe and had dragged along their unwilling partners. Mark and Jet seemed surprised but amused and Mouche and I were absolutely willing to go with the flow. I was paired up with Mark, because although I had refused to dance with him, I hadn’t refused to ride with him.
 
We’d since reached a point where, let’s face it, I was seriously interested in him and it was going to be hurtful to have to give him up to others to date. Still, he could always refuse other offers, but I have a feeling he won’t. Men like to be popular (almost) as much as girls, but that’s a whole other chapter.
 

    
Jet, of course, was very eager to ride with Mouche and make amends for the missed date. Mouche looked very good in her new outfit and she rode quite well. I wore my favourite blue jeans, no ridiculous riding britches for me.

    
Teegan and Tory wore navy blue jodhpurs and made a beeline for Mark, simultaneously, ignoring their surprised dates, Jack Adams and Tom Allen.

    
‘After all,’ Tory said, ‘we can go riding with them any weekend, but it’s not every Saturday that Petra joins us.’

    
Petra was brushing her horse and looked up and smiled at us as Tory spoke.

     
Mark looked pleased.

    
‘Is she coming along the trail with us?’ Tory inquired.

    
‘No, Petra wants to finish grooming her horse, Hobbit.’ (Hobbit had new shoes and was apparently having some difficulty trotting comfortably). Tory couldn’t resist a snigger when she thought no one was watching. ‘But, she’s going to meet us when we get back. Why don’t you both join us for lunch? Phoebe and Mouche are coming as well. The more the merrier,’ Mark said amiably. He seemed to have channelled Jet’s personality recently.

     
‘Oh, that would be fabulous,’ the girls said because they knew Mark went riding every
 
Saturday morning after soccer practice and it was important to befriend his sister in order to grow closer to him. They’d seen them both in the club house a few weekends ago. Of course, it’s also possible that self-interest wasn’t paramount in their thoughts. It could be that they just liked Petra and wanted to get to know her better. After all, if she teamed with Ella and Katie and their younger sisters, there would be a whole future generation of Princesses.

    
‘That would be lovely. We’d love to join you all,’ Teegan said a little over-enthusiastically, I thought.

    
Mark had already ridden off when Teegan said under her breath as she fixed the saddle, ‘wonder why she was late arriving this morning?’

    
Petra had arrived after us, just as we were all about to set out on the trail ride.
 

    
‘Probably busy barfing,’ Tory added under her breath.

    
The Princesses were returning to form again.

   
‘I happen to know Teegan was a functioning bulimic in ninth grade. It’s so typical for her to attack someone else over a problem she secretly has,’ Mouche added as we trotted off.

   
I rode up alongside Mouche who seemed surprised I could sit a horse, but I’d been going to pony club from the age of six, long after Mouche dropped out. My attendance had been less frequent since Daddy ran off with the family fortune.

  
Mark’s Aunt had invited us all for lunch and I was excited that we’d get the chance to explore Mark’s house afterwards. It was sure to be very formal and opulent.
 

   
Ethan had agreed to accompany Teegan but was constantly ignoring her and glancing over at Mouche, flexing his fingers in between gallops. He’d been practising ‘some concerto’ for a competition the night before.

    
‘Honestly, I’m just surrounded by high-achieving talents. It’s making me quite insecure,’ Teegan whispered sarcastically.

    
Freya, who’d been pony clubbing since age three, invited us over to her place last week. We consolidated ‘date-notes’ and admired her amazing walk-in closet and riding trophies.
 
There were hundreds of shoes and boots in the latest styles, all
color
co-ordinated along with her jackets, and we compared and contrasted fashion. Freya even allowed Brooke to try on her costumes from previous school musicals. Tory and Teegan tried on some of them as well. The rest of us sat on Brooke’s bed, beneath the crucifixes, adding extra notes to the
Boy Rating Diary
and that’s when Tory and Teegan told us they intended to go riding on Saturday.

    
Mouche and I thought our wardrobes were quite extensive but, on the one night we babysat Wednesday last month, we had total access to Mrs Mouche’s closet which is way fancier. Mrs Mouche has loads of her mom’s vintage fashions and hundreds of pairs of vintage shoes.

    
However, the walk-in closet to end all walk-in closets really belonged to a most unexpected individual: a girl none of us knew well, Mark’s sister, Petra.

   
Petra surprised us all by meeting us half-way. She was an excellent rider and made Teegan and Tory look like amateurs.

   
When we met, the boys, Jet (who was his normal charming self) and Mark (minus his usual scowl), had already been riding for half an hour to ‘warm up the race horses’ as Tory put it. I don’t think he’d expected Mouche or me to be so good. We both knew something about riding, even if we didn’t do perfect little canters and jumps like Brooke and Freya who were in the opposite paddock by now with Tory and Teegan cheering the boys on like homecoming queens.

   
They were clapping out of time to the beat and if Jet so much as whispered, they took notes. They knew full well this was an arranged date and although we didn’t totally ignore them, it was a little uncomfortable having to pretend to be inclusive when they rode over to try to get the attention of Jet and Mark, under the guise of preparing for their respective trail rides.

   
Mark seemed intent on helping Mouche handle the bridle ‘properly’ and though Teegan yelled out, ‘look at this!’ Mark only glanced up and seemed vaguely unimpressed. I felt sorry for the Princesses once we’d all actually gone for a gallop. Their behaviour had exposed them as desperate and slightly incompetent.

   
At one point Jet was giddying up my horse and Mouche was trotting around the ring on a horse named Flame. Flame took off and Mark followed her. The animal was going faster and faster until Mark grabbed the reins off Mouche in a very timely and masculine way.

   
‘Whoa,’ Mark said.

    
He managed to slow down the horse and prevented the possible accident that may have occurred as the horse ran wild into the distance.

   
‘Here...take my hand,’ he said, as Mark offered Mouche assistance.

    
Mouche smiled at him gratefully as he helped her down onto solid ground to recover. I was trailing behind them slightly. Mark patted Flame, then looked at Mouche calmly and said in a protective fashion, ‘are you okay?’ to which she replied, ‘I’m a little cold,’ and he took off his own jacket and wrapped it around her.

   
My heart beat skipped.

   
Mark checked the horse, ‘Oh look, a rock under the saddle. That is sure to disturb the horse when weight is pressed up against it.’
 
Mark glanced at one Princesses in particular.

   
Teegan flushed guiltily.

   
Mouche’s face had turned white. The Princesses and their dates had halted their horses behind us and pulled up looking shocked.

   
Afterwards there was a bit of a truce as Mark and Jet invited everyone back to Mark’s aunt’s house.

   
‘I have a prior engagement,’ Teegan said, because she couldn’t stand not being the centre of attention and everyone suspecting her of sabotage.
 

  
‘Oh we can go to The Grove later,’ Brooke replied to a withering stare from her sister.
 

   
The other girls seemed to have reverted to their former ways and wandered off with their original group. Tory said they had half the football team lined up for a ‘skate off’ at Sunrise Roller Derby at 2pm anyway.