Chasing Gold (5 page)

“Ta-da!” Tracey leaped out of the dressing-room stall and struck a pose. She'd traded her jeans and T-shirt for a cream-colored lace baby-doll dress. “What do you think? Is it totally me?”

Haley smiled weakly from her seat on a bench near the three-way mirror. The dress was way too short and tight—there was no way Tracey's strict father would let her leave the house in it. But she suspected that wasn't the response Tracey was looking for.

Meanwhile Emma peeked out of the next stall. “Let me see!” She poked her glasses back up her nose. “Whoa, you look gorgeous, Trace!”

“Thanks.” Tracey twirled and giggled. “Do you think Nick would agree?”

Emma giggled too. “He thinks you look gorgeous in gym shorts,” she said. “He'll die if you show up at the dance in that!”

“So, what do you think, Hales?” Tracey stepped over in front of Haley. “Is it me?”

“Um . . .” Haley shrugged. “I don't know. I think I liked the blue one better.”

“Which blue one?” Tracey glanced into her dressing room, which was crammed with at least half a dozen dresses. “The one with the sequins, or the one with the full skirt?”

“Don't forget the one from the last store,” Emma put in. “Remember? With the chiffon? I thought you looked amazing in that one.”

Haley stifled a yawn as the two of them started chattering about the relative merits of the three blue dresses. So far, this shopping trip hadn't been much fun. Still, she told herself that keeping her friends happy was worth a few hours of boredom. She'd still have plenty of time to
school Wings when she got home, and Aunt Veronica had even offered to set the table for her so she wouldn't have to cut the ride short.

Besides, I could tell Tracey was really happy I changed my mind about today,
Haley reminded herself.
Maybe now she won't be as mad when I tell her I really can't make the dance next Friday.

Because the more she thought about it, the more certain she was that she couldn't fit in the dance. Not if it might mess up Saturday's lesson. Her last couple of dressage schoolings had reminded her of several things she wanted to ask Jan to help her with before the clinic, and she needed to be wide awake and ready to focus. After all, this was important. She and Wings definitely didn't want to embarrass themselves in front of Zina Charles!

If
they actually made it to the clinic, that was. There was still a ton to do before then, including figuring out how to make up for today's lost babysitting money. Haley also wanted to find time to polish her tall boots, and oil her jumping saddle, and clip Wings's muzzle and fetlocks, and . . .

She blinked as she realized Tracey was waving a
hand in her face. “Wake up!” Tracey said. “You're totally spacing out!”

“Sorry.” Haley blinked and straightened up. “Um, what were you saying?”

Emma popped out of her dressing room, wearing a cute pale-pink dress with a full skirt. “She was saying you need to try on some dresses already. How do I look?”

“Adorable!” Tracey exclaimed, hurrying over and tweaking the sleeve of Emma's dress. “That color is perfect on you.”

Emma grimaced. “Thank goodness. I looked like a ghost in that red one!”

“No, you didn't,” Tracey said loyally. “But this one's definitely better. Don't you think so, Hales?”

“Sure,” Haley agreed. “I like it.”

“Good. It's definitely on the list.” Emma surveyed herself in the mirror, turning this way and that to check out all the angles. “Anyway, that red dress might look better on one of you. Why don't you try it, Haley?”

“Um, I don't know.” Haley shrugged. “I really don't want to spend any money on a new dress.”

Tracey poked her on the shoulder. “So what? That doesn't mean you can't have fun trying some on.”

Wiggling into one scratchy, uncomfortable, too-girly dress after another wasn't Haley's idea of fun, but she didn't bother to say so. Shouldn't her best friends already know that? After all, until recently
they
hadn't liked that kind of thing either.

“Okay,” she said. “But I don't think the dresses at this store are really my style. I'll wait for the next one.”

Tracey and Emma traded a look. “That's what you said at the last store,” Tracey said. “But whatever, we're going to Finders Keepers next. I bet we can find you something cute there.”

“True. That place really is more Haley's style,” Emma said, heading for her dressing room. “Come on, let's get changed and head over there.”

Ten minutes later, Haley trailed behind her friends as they hurried down the mall aisle. She sneaked a peek at her watch and was surprised to discover that they'd only been shopping for a little over an hour. It felt more like a day and a half!

She immediately felt guilty for thinking that. Okay, so maybe Tracey and Emma were acting as if they'd been abducted by aliens and replaced with shopping-obsessed pod people. They were still her best friends. Maybe Haley just needed to relax and stop worrying about all the other things she could be doing right now. She should at least
try
to have fun, right? Especially since she might not have another chance to hang out with her friends outside of school until after the clinic.

“Is anyone else getting hungry?” she asked, hoping to distract the others from their dress-seeking mission. “I was in such a rush to meet you guys that I didn't get an after-school snack.”

“Me!” Emma rubbed her stomach. “Let's go to the Mexican place—I love their milk shakes.”

The mall's food court was crowded, as it almost always was on Friday afternoons. Haley spotted Jake goofing off with some of his high school friends over by the ice cream place, and she recognized several other kids from around town as well.

Wow, I guess Tracey and Ems aren't the only ones who
like to come here,
Haley thought with a flicker of surprise. She hadn't really imagined that everyone she knew rushed home to clean stalls and ride horses after school. But somehow, she hadn't thought much about what they might be doing instead, either.

She and her friends wound their way through the crowd to the taco stand and got in line. As they waited, Haley studied the menu.

“I think I'll just have an iced tea,” she said, digging into her pocket for the leftover change from lunch.

“What? I thought you were hungry,” Emma said.

“I was,” Haley said. “I mean I am, sort of. But I don't want to ruin my appetite so close to dinner.”

Emma blinked behind her thick glasses, her pale eyes confused. “But I thought you said you were going riding after this,” she said.

Tracey shrugged. “Actually, I was thinking about ordering the large nacho platter, but I'm not sure I can eat it all,” she said. “Want to share, Hales? My treat.”

Haley shot her a look. She suspected that Tracey had guessed the real reason Haley didn't want to order any
food. Namely, she didn't want to spend any of her hard-earned money. The cost of those nachos could make the difference between making it to the clinic and coming up a few dollars short.

Normally Haley wouldn't have accepted Tracey's offer without insisting on paying for her half. She didn't need charity from anyone, even her best friend. But her stomach was grumbling, and she still had a lot to do before dinner.

“Sure, thanks,” she said. “I'll get it next time, okay?”

“Whatever.” Tracey flashed her a smile, then hurried forward to order, waving away the money Haley tried to hand her for the iced tea.

Soon they had their food. Haley glanced around as they stepped away from the counter.

“It's pretty packed in here,” she said. “I don't even see a free table. Maybe we should go down the aisle and find a bench instead.”

“No, let's stay here,” Tracey said quickly. “I think I see a table over there.”

She hurried toward a tiny table shoved up against the
back of a waste bin. Haley shrugged and followed. Soon the three of them were crowded around the rickety table.

Emma slurped her milk shake. “So Haley,” she said as she licked off her chocolate mustache. “When's that horse clinic thing of yours again?”

“Two weeks from tomorrow,” Haley replied. “I can't wait!”

Tracey reached for a nacho. “Okay, so after that you'll be back to normal, right?” She giggled. “I mean, as normal as you ever get. As in, not always having to rush off to ride or do extra chores every second of the day.”

“I guess so.” Haley hadn't really thought about how her friends might see her behavior over the past couple of months. Had she really been that busy? “I mean, I'll definitely want to give Wings some time off,” she added. “He's been working really hard too, and . . .”

She let her words trail off. Tracey obviously wasn't listening anymore. She was staring at something over Haley's right shoulder.

Glancing that way, Haley saw that a group of rowdy boys their age had just entered the food court. There
were four of them, all dressed in matching soccer shirts. They were shoving and laughing their way toward the burger place.

“Look, it's Nick!” Emma hissed, her eyes bright with interest as she glanced at Tracey.

Tracey ran a hand over her hair. “Duh, I see him,” she hissed back. “Do I look okay? Anything in my teeth?”

Haley didn't know why Tracey was so worried about it. Nick Jankowski wasn't even looking in their direction.

“Are you going to go talk to him?” she asked.

“What?” Tracey let out a short, breathless yelp of laughter. “No way! But maybe he'll come over here.”

“Do you think he'll ask you to the dance?” Emma asked.

Tracey shrugged, her eyes never leaving Nick and his friends. “Probably not,” she said. “He's super-shy. But he might ask me to dance once we're there.”

“Or you could ask him,” Haley said. “
You're
not exactly shy.”

Tracey giggled. “What do you mean? I'm totally shy!”

“Yeah, right!” Emma let out a snort.

“Well, this is different.” Tracey shot Nick another look, then leaned across the table. “But listen, that reminds me. My mom said she'd talk to my dad about maybe letting me have a boy-girl party soon! Isn't that cool?”

Emma gasped. “Really? That would be so cool!” She elbowed Haley so hard she almost spit out a mouthful of half-chewed nacho. “Did you hear that, Hales?”

“I heard.” Haley didn't know what the big deal was. Back in elementary school, boys and girls had invited one another to their birthday parties all the time. She wasn't quite sure when that had changed. Come to think of it, nobody really had birthday parties much anymore. Haley hadn't really missed them, since she was usually busy with Wings on the weekend anyway.

“So when is it going to be?” Emma asked. “Your birthday?”

Tracey waved a hand. “I don't want to wait that long! I don't know, though. It depends what my dad says. But I'm thinking it'll be on a Saturday, so we'll have plenty of time to get ready. If it's not too cold yet, we can have it out on the deck and hook up my sister's speakers so we can dance, and . . .”

There was more, but Haley stopped listening. She wasn't that interested in some big boy-girl party, especially one with dancing. Besides, she had way too many other, more important things to worry about.

Shoving another nacho in her mouth, she started running through Wings's training schedule in her head while her friends chattered on.

CHAPTER

THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS PASSED
in a blur. On Tuesday after school, Haley stopped in the kitchen just long enough to grab a granola bar. She unwrapped it, shoved half of it in her mouth, and grabbed her boots from the mat by the back door.

As she pulled on one of the boots, her aunt poked her head out of her office, which adjoined the mudroom. “You're still going to help me plant those bulbs today, right, Haley?” Aunt Veronica said. “Or don't you have time after all?”