CHAPTER CHAPTER “YOU’RE HERE!” NINA blurted out when she turned the corner toward her locker on Friday morning and saw Leah standing there talking to Trinity. “Wow, Leah, I was starting to think you’d transferred schools or something.”
Leah shot her a sour look. “Sorry I didn’t alert the media,” she muttered. “I was sick, okay?”
“Okay.” Nina blinked at her. Leah could be prickly sometimes, but she seemed extra cranky today. Then again, she’d never dealt that well with pain or illness. Back in fourth grade she’d sprained her ankle playing kickball, and had complained nonstop about it for at least three months.
“Glad you’re back, dude,” Trinity told Leah. “Want to look at the math homework?”
“That’s okay, I’ll get it later.” Leah slammed her locker shut and slung her purse over her shoulder. “I have to hit the bathroom. See you.”
Nina opened her mouth to say something, but Leah was already disappearing around the corner. She shrugged and glanced at Trinity. “So what was wrong with her, anyway?”
“She didn’t really say.” Trinity spun the combination on her own locker. “She didn’t have much to say at all, actually.”
“Maybe she’s still not feeling well.” Nina bit her lip, glancing in the direction her friend had disappeared. “I need to talk to her about something, though. See you in homeroom, okay?”
She hurried to the nearest girls’ bathroom. Leah was inside, staring at herself in the cracked, cloudy old mirror over the twin pedestal sinks.
“Hi,” Nina said. “You ran off so fast I didn’t get to ask you—did you talk to your parents about the Expo?”
Leah met her gaze in the mirror for a second, then looked away. Her expression was frosty. “Actually, I’ve had other things on my mind. Like being sick. So lay off, okay?”
Nina took a step back, startled by the testiness in Leah’s voice. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize you were that sick.”
Leah turned and pushed past her, not meeting her gaze. “Why else would I be out for two whole days? Duh, Nina, use your brain for a change.”
With that, she slammed through the door and stormed off, leaving Nina standing there with her mouth hanging open.
“So you never got to talk to her about the Expo?” Jordan shot a look down the stable aisle. She and Nina were tacking up their ponies for their Saturday-morning lesson.
“I tried.” Nina adjusted Breezy’s girth. “She just kept blowing me off. And she didn’t answer my text last night, either.”
“And now she’s late for our lesson.” Jordan checked her watch. “We’d better get moving, or Miss Adaline will be mad.”
Ten minutes later, Nina and Jordan were mounted and walking their ponies around the ring to warm up. Miss Adaline was leaning against the fence, periodically glancing toward the entrance to the barn to look for Leah.
“Where is that girl?” she exclaimed at last. “We’re going to have to start without her if she doesn’t get her behind on a horse soon. I have lessons to teach after this and I don’t want to be running late the whole day long because Leah decided to sleep in.”
Nina winced. “She’s probably just a little behind. She was sick this week,” she told the instructor, allowing Breezy to drift to a halt.
Miss Adaline pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “Well, let’s see if she’s planning to grace us with her presence today.”
As Miss Adaline made her call, Nina traded a worried look with Jordan, who had stopped Freckles nearby. Where was Leah? She might have her quirks, but before now she’d always been on time for lessons.
“Maybe she’s sick again,” Jordan murmured. “What did she have, anyway?”
“I don’t know.” Nina shook her head. “She didn’t say.”
“Huh?” Jordan looked perplexed. “What do you mean, she didn’t say? Didn’t you talk to her at all?”
“I tried.” Nina shrugged. “She wasn’t exactly in a superchatty mood.”
A moment later, Miss Adaline hung up with a frown. “No answer,” she told Nina and Jordan. “That’s it, then. Let’s start without her. If she shows up, we’ll figure out what to do with her.” She smiled and rubbed her hands together. “Two or three laps at rising trot without stirrups might remind her to be more prompt. . . .”
Nina laughed, then urged Breezy into a walk. When Miss Adaline called for a trot, Nina squeezed both legs against the pony’s sides. A few strides ahead, Freckles surged into a trot. But Breezy just kept walking.
“Trot, boy,” Nina said, squeezing again, then adding a little kick with her heels. “Trrrrot!”
Finally the pony lumbered into a slow trot. Miss Adaline was watching.
“He looks a bit sluggish today,” she called. “You’ll have to be stronger with your aids.”
Nina nodded, already out of breath from squeezing with every stride to keep her pony from slowing down again. “So much for all that energy from the other day. I guess his spring fever passed already.”
She couldn’t help being a little disappointed by that. This was her first chance to ride since that fabulous lesson on Tuesday afternoon, and she’d been hoping that Breezy would be equally lively. But it seemed he was back to his usual lazy self—even worse than usual, if anything.
“Just keep after him,” Miss Adaline said. “He might perk up as we go along.”
But Breezy remained lethargic throughout the ride, barely managing to heave himself over the jumps and dropping from a canter or trot to a walk or halt anytime Nina stopped pushing him for more than a second.
By the time she dismounted and ran up her stirrups, Nina was feeling a little worried. “Do you think he’s okay?” she asked Miss Adaline, who was helping Jordan loosen Freckles’s girth nearby. “It’s kind of hot today. Maybe he’s coming down with something.”
“I doubt it.” The riding instructor cast a critical eye over the pony, who was standing quietly with his head hanging low. “But he does look kind of blah, doesn’t he? Let’s check his vitals—just in case.”
Nina led the pony inside and untacked him while Miss Adaline fetched a thermometer and a stethoscope from the tack room. But when the instructor checked his temperature and heart rate, she declared him well within normal bounds.
“Guess he was just feeling pokey today,” she said, giving Breezy a pat. “Or maybe he overdid it so much on Tuesday that he’s still a little tired or sore. We’ll check him again tomorrow, but I wouldn’t worry about it.” She smiled at Nina. “You just have a lazy pony, that’s all.”
Nina was relieved. She fed the pony a chunk of carrot, which he gobbled eagerly. Then she grabbed a brush and went to work on the mark her saddle had left on Breezy’s spotted coat.
Jordan was combing Freckles’s mane in the next set of cross-ties. She glanced over at Nina as Miss Adaline hurried off.
“I guess Breezy isn’t sick,” she said. “I was afraid he’d caught whatever mystery illness Leah had.”
Nina chuckled, then shook her head. “I can’t believe Leah just ditched our lesson.” She dropped her brush in her grooming tote, then fished her phone out of her pocket. “Maybe I’d better check on her, see what’s up.”
She sent Leah a text, then waited a moment, staring at her phone in case there was an immediate reply. But none came, so she stuck the phone back in her pocket.
“Nothing?” Jordan peered at her over Freckles’s back.
“Nope, not yet.” Nina sighed. “I wonder what’s wrong.”
“Maybe she lost her brand-new fancy phone and her parents grounded her,” Jordan said with a laugh. “That would explain why she’s not texting you back. And why she’s so cranky, too.”
Nina smiled weakly. Jordan didn’t seem too worried, but she hadn’t known their lesson-mate as long as Nina had. It just wasn’t like Leah to pull a no-show for something she loved as much as she loved riding.
“I hope she’s not sick again,” Nina murmured. Her eyes widened as a new thought occurred to her. “Especially not really sick, if you know what I mean.”
“What, like with a disease or something?” Jordan wrinkled her nose thoughtfully. “Do you think she might be?”
Uh-oh. Jordan was a worrier by nature. Nina didn’t want her to overreact and start telling everyone that Leah had malaria or polio or the black plague or something. “Probably not,” she assured Jordan quickly. She bent down and fished a hoof pick out of her tote. “Anyway, we definitely shouldn’t borrow trouble, like my gramma always says. I’m sure Leah will be in touch when she feels like it.”
“Sorry you can’t come to the show tonight, Boo.” Nina’s father gave a tug on her ponytail. “No minors allowed in this club.”
“It’s okay.” Nina tried to attend as many of her father’s band’s performances as she could. But sometimes, like tonight, they had gigs at bars or clubs where all patrons had to be at least twenty-one years old. Besides that, it was Sunday, so Nina had to get up early for school the next day.
“Dinner’s in the fridge.” Her father went to the mirror over the console table to straighten his tie. “There’s leftover gumbo, or you can make yourself a sandwich with that chicken from Friday.”
Nina nodded, glad that her parents trusted her to stay home alone when they went out, even on weekends when the family’s long-time maid, Delphine, was off. Some of her friends weren’t so lucky, and a few even still had babysitters come over when their parents went out.
She glanced toward the hallway at the sound of high heels click-clacking on the tile floor. Her mother had just emerged, looking beautiful in a slinky emerald-green dress and glittery sandals. Both cats were trailing along behind her, probably hoping to rub some of their fur off on her outfit.
Nina let out a wolf whistle. “Wow, you guys are going to be the best-looking couple there,” she exclaimed.
Her father smiled and stepped over to put an arm around his wife. “You really think so?”
“The best-looking couple over sixty, anyway,” Nina amended, straight-faced.
Her mother laughed, then waggled a finger at Nina. “Just for that, you’re grounded, young lady,” she joked. “Seriously, don’t stay up too late, okay? It’s a school night.”
“I know, I know.” Nina picked up her father’s trumpet case and handed it to him. “And I’m not allowed to eat candy and soda for dinner, either.”
Soon her parents were on their way. Nina fed the cats, but she’d stopped at her favorite coffee house for a snack on the way home from the barn, so she wasn’t hungry yet. She headed to her room, where she grabbed her laptop and then continued out to the tiny walled garden behind the house.
She settled herself in one of the cast-iron patio chairs and logged on to the Pony Post. None of the others had posted since the last time she’d checked in, so she opened a new text box and started to type.
[NINA] Hi, all! Went to the barn this afternoon like I told you I might. B looked fine so I saddled up for a quick trail ride. But as soon as we got going, I could tell he was feeling lazy again. I asked him to trot, and he barely managed three strides before he dropped back to a walk again. It was like riding molasses!
She posted that much, then scrolled back to read it over, feeling worried anew as she thought back over the day’s ride. Breezy was always lazy, but these past two rides had been way beyond that. Nobody at the barn seemed to think there was anything wrong with him, but Nina knew her Pony Post friends would understand her concern.
[NINA] I was kinda worried, so I gave up on riding and got someone to help me check his temp and stuff again. He still seemed fine—just tired I guess. So I decided to give him a nice, long grooming session to make him feel better. By the time I finished he looked so shiny and clean and perfect he was ready to be in a show or something, ha! Then I walked him out to the closest place with grass and let him eat a while. That perked him up, lol!
She hit enter, and her words appeared on the screen below the others. Nina chewed on her lip, staring at a bird fluttering around in the vines on the garden wall and wondering if she really was making too big a deal out of her pony’s recent behavior. Maybe if he hadn’t been so perky on Tuesday, she wouldn’t even have noticed when he went back to being pokey.
Then she blinked as another text box appeared on the screen below hers.
[BROOKE] Nina, u still on??
With a smile, Nina quickly opened another blank box. The Pony Posters all had such different schedules in their different time zones that they only occasionally ended up on the site at the same time. But it was always nice when it happened—a happy accident, as Nina’s grandmother liked to say.
[NINA] I’m here! How r u? Did u ride Foxy today?
She waited, and Brooke’s response came within a couple of minutes.
[BROOKE] Ya, just a trail ride—ground is too wet from all the rain to do much jumping or ring stuff. But never mind that. U sound worried about BB—do u think he’s OK?
That made Nina smile again. She’d long since decided that Brooke was the most thoughtful and sensitive of the four of them, often noticing when someone was in a funny mood or thinking of ideas that never would have occurred to the others.
[NINA] I don’t know what to think. He seems to be as healthy as a—well, u know! But he’s just so LAZY! I mean he’s always lazy, but. . . .
[BROOKE] U know him best. If you think something’s wrong u should trust ur instinct. (But don’t panic, lol!)
[NINA] Lol! U know as much about horse health and stuff as anyone I know. Do u have any ideas? What could turn a slightly lazy pony into a total slug?
[BROOKE] Hmm, dunno. If he was sick he’d prolly have a temp or something, you know? Maybe it’s just cuz he’s getting older.
[NINA] Maybe. But he’s only 11 yrs old! Lots of ponies and horses I know are older than that and not slowing down at all. Like Haley’s Wings, for instance. And nobody would ever call HIM lazy, lol. . . .
[BROOKE] OK then do u know if they’ve changed anything about his feed lately? Or got a new kind of hay? Sometimes that can make a diff. . . .
They continued to speculate together for several more posts, but nothing Brooke suggested seemed like a likely cause of Breezy’s lazy attitude. Finally Nina decided it was time for a change of topic.
[NINA] I’m sure he’s probably fine and I just got spoiled by that nice lesson earlier this week, ha ha! But even if he’s not sick, I’m a lil worried that someone else I know might be…
She went on to share Leah’s absence from school and her moody behavior the day before. The more she typed, the more worried she felt. Breezy might be acting a little out of character lately, but Leah’s behavior was even more bizarre.
[BROOKE] Wow, that’s crazy. I hope she’s OK. But I’m sure she’ll talk to u eventually, right?
[NINA] Sure, I guess. The trouble is, I need to know if she’s coming to the Expo. It’s only 2 wks away now and I want to have time to figure out someone else to bring if she’s going to blow it off!!
[BROOKE] Oops, sorry, my stepdad’s calling me to feed Foxy, gtg. Hang in there, OK?
She waited, but there was no further response from Brooke, and Nina guessed she’d already signed off. She did the same, then wandered out to the kitchen to fix herself some dinner.