Rival Revenge (3 page)

“So,” Paige said, pausing. She played with the gold circle on her necklace.

Paige and I had been instant BFFs from the second we met. We'd never fought about anything. But I knew she realized I was keeping something from her. And I knew it hurt her feelings. But I just couldn't. Not when
she was starting this relationship with Ryan. She was also Callie's friend. All I wanted was to pretend that night had never happened and to keep the rest of the semester drama-free.

Just then, Alison Robb, one third of the Trio, walked in and sat beside Paige. Alison and I had actually kind of become friends in a weird way. Not so much friends, I guess, but she was the one out of the Trio who I knew the best. Whenever Julia, the final part of the Trio, wasn't around, Alison was a pretty cool girl.

“Homecoming!” Alison said, grinning at us as she sat down.

And that's when I knew this was all I'd be hearing about until the end of next week.

“I know!” Paige said. “I'm
dying
. I can't wait.”

I opened my notebook and tried to concentrate on reading my notes instead of listening to them.

“Omigod, the football game will be
awesome
!” Alison said.

Her voice was so high, it was impossible not to listen to her. Every sentence she and Paige exchanged ended with an exclamation point. Or two.

“Are you going with anyone?” Paige asked. “To the dance on Friday, I mean.”

Alison shrugged. She tousled her sandy brown hair with one hand. “I don't think so. I don't know if anyone will ask me or not. Julia's going with Ben for sure. But I think Heather's going solo, so we'd just go together.”

And I definitely wasn't going at all. Jacob and Callie would be there. Eric would probably go too, even if he didn't take a date. Plus, I had a bad track record with social events—like the Sweetheart Soirée and my birthday party—so I was staying far away from this one.

The other eight students straggled into the classroom and Mr. Davidson was right behind them.

“Welcome, class,” he said. He pulled a well-worn copy of
The Secret Garden
from his pocket. “I hope you all had time to complete the reading and are ready to discuss the assigned chapters. Who wants to lead the talk?”

I raised my hand. Whenever I hadn't been riding Charm, I'd been studying. Getting good grades was right behind riding on my list of important things to do. I couldn't have even the tiniest thing get in my way of not staying on the Youth Equestrian National Team—the goal I'd worked so hard to achieve. If I lost the YENT …

“Sasha,” Mr. Davidson said, pointing to me. “Go ahead.”

“I … um … I related a lot to how Mary felt about
being in a new place,” I said. “I felt that way when I first came to Canterwood. She didn't have any friends and when she meets Colin and Dickon, she finally starts to be happy. No one ever loved her and when she realizes she can love and that her friends love her back, she starts to enjoy her new home. But the place she feels most comfortable is the garden.”

“And why do you think the garden makes her happy?” Mr. Davidson asked me.

“Because she can escape from everything and everyone. Maybe she can forget what's going on around
her.”

Mr. Davidson nodded. “Excellent. Thank you, Sasha.” He looked around. “Who's next?”

Alison raised her hand. “I loved how Dickon was like an animal charmer. It was sort of like the snake charmers in India, where Mary used to live, and I wonder if that's why Mary liked him so much.”

“Wonderful point, Alison,” Mr. Davidson said. “Dickon felt familiar to Mary and her old life in India, so that's a great observation about her comfort with him.”

I listened as the rest of the class discussed the book and how lonely Mary was until she had friends. The class debated about whether or not Mary would have wanted
to run away from the mansion if she'd been the only kid and hadn't found Colin and Dickon.

I took a quiet breath. Even school was beginning to remind me of my current state of friendlessness.

TEMPORARY QUARTET

I WENT STRAIGHT TO THE LUNCH LINE, NOT
looking into the caf. All morning, I'd avoided thinking about lunch and where I'd sit. For a minute, I thought about hanging in the bathroom, but I couldn't. Then it would look as if I felt bad about what I'd done. And I couldn't give off that vibe. I had keep up my fake
Yeah I tried to steal a boy
act.

I never wanted Callie to question even for a second that I'd lied about what had happened with Jacob. Callie needed to hate me so she didn't look at Jacob and start to wonder about the truth. But, like Paige, Callie knew me well. Eventually, she'd start to think about Friday night and maybe she'd start to wonder about who to trust—her boyfriend or her ex-best friend.

I stepped forward in the line, still deep in thought. Paige would definitely want to eat with me, but I wanted more time on my own to think and not to have to answer any potential questions. I still worried that not eating with Paige would hurt her feelings.

“Hon?”

I looked up at the lunch lady, her hand hovering over the choices of salad dressing. “Yeah? Sorry?”

She smiled. “Ranch or Italian dressing?”

“Ranch, please.”

I moved through the rest of the line and lifted my chin as I stepped into the cafeteria. I tried to channel Heather as I walked. She always looked confident and as if she didn't care what anyone thought. Maybe I needed to take secret lessons from her because that was exactly the feeling I needed to project right now.

Eric sat across from Rachel, her friends and Troy and Andy—Eric's friends. His back was to me.

I waited for jealousy to burn in my chest that Eric was sitting with Rachel, the pretty seventh grader who'd been openly crushing on him for a while. But nothing came. Not even one twinge of envy at seeing them together. I'd hurt Eric so much—he could sit with any girl he wanted—he deserved to have whatever he wanted.

Eric threw back his head, laughing. He must have felt the same—he didn't look as if he wanted to try and find me to talk anytime soon. He sat there smiling and laughing as if nothing bad had ever happened. As if
we'd
never happened.

That hit me.

Hard.

I choked down a sob and composed myself. I was on my own—the way I was supposed to be. I had to put my attention back on the things that mattered—school and riding. I was done with guys for a while.

At a table in the back of the caf, Jacob and Callie sat together. Jacob's eyes were on his plate as he picked through his curly fries. Callie's eyes flickered over, her dark brown eyes turning almost black when she glared back at me. I glanced away and hurried forward, almost tripping on a chair leg. I went to the back of the caf and let my tray clatter onto the table. The noisy chatter of the caf seemed unusually subdued today. For once, I actually wished for it to be louder so that I didn't have to hear my own swirling thoughts for one more second.

I sat down and saw Paige looking at me a few tables away. She motioned to me and mouthed
Come over
.

I half-smiled and shook my head.
I'm fine,
I mouthed back.

Paige stared at me for a second before turning back to her friends. She was sitting with Geena and a couple of girls from classes we didn't share.

My phone vibrated.

Ur prob not up 2 sitting w every1. Want me 2 come sit w u?

It was Paige.

No. Stay w ur friends. I'm gonna eat and run. But thanx.
I texted back.

OK. But come over if u want.

Will do. <3

I speared a cherry tomato with my fork and started on my salad. I tried to focus on the tray in front of me, but my eyes kept glancing from Jacob and Callie to Eric and then to Paige. Paige seemed fine with her friends and like she'd accepted the fact that I wanted to eat alone. But I couldn't focus enough to eat. Being around all of them at once was harder than I thought.

“Silver.”

Heather stared at me, one hand on her hip. She looked perfect—as always—in skinny black jeans, ankle boots, and a striking red V-neck T-shirt.

“What?”

“Get up and come sit with us. You're embarrassing yourself. I can't stop watching how ridiculous you look. Usually I'd just sit and laugh, but this is beyond pathetic.”

I almost dropped my fork. “Sit with … you?”

Heather rolled her eyes. “Get your stuff now before I change my mind and decide to let you sit there and look like a total dork.”

Even though she was insulting me, I didn't care. Sitting with the Trio was better than sitting with Paige—as awful as that sounded.

I grabbed my tray and hurried across the caf after Heather. Heads turned at every table as I shuffled by with Heather. Sasha Silver, the new outcast, walked with the most popular girl in eighth grade.

At their table, I sat beside Heather and across from Julia and Alison. Both girls raised their perfectly waxed eyebrows and stared at me. Julia couldn't have looked more disgusted to see me. She put down her spoon from her beef-and-veggie soup.

“What's going on?” Julia asked. She ran a hand over her chin-length blond bob, flicking strands angrily from her face. “Why is
she
sitting with us?”

“Because she looked ridiculous and it was annoying,”
Heather said. “I don't want Jas thinking she has even the smallest advantage over any of us. Silver's sitting over there looking like a kicked puppy.”

I didn't even bother reacting to Heather's dig. At least I had someone to sit with. Even if it was the Trio. And even if everyone was looking at us.

“So we're pretending to like Sasha to … what?” Julia pressed.

Heather's blue eyes locked on Julia. I watched Julia shrink back a fraction. “Do I have to explain everything? We're making Jas insecure by acting like we're all together. She'll hate it.”

Julia and Alison nodded.

But I knew that wasn't all this was about. Heather was being nice to me because she didn't want me to be alone. She'd never admit that to Julia, Alison, or me, though. Heather was the only person sitting at this table who had a feeling that I'd been lying about Friday, and for whatever reason, even though she really didn't like me, she seemed to respect what I'd done.

Alison smiled at me and took a bite of her Greek yogurt. But Julia just glared. We were all silent as we went back to our food. Julia obviously wasn't going to say anything in front of me that she wanted to keep among her friends.

“How's riding?” Alison asked, looking at Heather and me. She took a sip of her Diet Coke.

Heather gave her the
That's the lamest question ever
face. But I thought it was smart—it was a neutral topic and we could all talk about horses and riding, even though Julia and Alison weren't allowed to ride right now.

They'd been banned from riding until next January after they had been caught cheating on a history test. Alison had sworn to me that they were innocent, but I wasn't sure if they were or not.

“It's going pretty well for me,” I said, deciding to jump in and answer the question. “I know I've got to do more dressage work with Charm so that we're ready for showing season.”

The three girls nodded. I didn't want to say too much because I didn't want to make Julia and Alison sad that they couldn't ride. But Alison
had
asked about riding, so I didn't want to ignore her question and make it a bigger deal than it was.

“Aristocrat and I are doing great,” Heather said with a half shrug. “All I care about is doing better than Jasmine. And we are.” She took a bite of her ham-on-wheat sandwich.

“How are you guys doing?” I asked Julia and Alison.

Alison shook her head. “It's so hard. Every time I pass one of the pastures or arenas, all I can think about is how much I want to be in there riding. Especially since I didn't do anything to deserve being kicked off the team.”

“That's the worst part,” Julia said. “Whatever you think, Sasha, we didn't cheat. And we're stuck watching everyone else ride. But we're not just going to sit here and do nothing.”

“You shouldn't,” I said. “If you really didn't cheat, then you should prove it.”

“We will,” Alison said. “Trust me.”

“Sooner or later, Jas'll make a mistake,” Heather said. “We all know that she had something to do with it. She's more arrogant than ever since she made the YENT.”

“And that's what's going to mess her up at shows, too,” Alison said, shaking her head. “It's good for us that she thinks she's so amazing. She'll probably start to slack off soon, thinking she's got it, and then she'll be caught off guard with riding and what she did to us.”

“I can't wait to watch it happen,” Heather said.