8 
8 Lauren
“WHAT SHOULD WE DO?” I whispered to everyone. “They’ve already seen us! We’d look dumb just turning around, right?”
“Why would we go back?” Zack asked. He held Nero’s reins in one hand as the liver chestnut gelding walked beside Scout, Garret’s mount.
“Because I can’t see who they are, and we probably don’t know them,” I said.
“Plus,” Ana said, angling Breeze, her strawberry roan mare, closer, “they’re totally breaking Briar Creek’s rules. We all know we’re not allowed to jump the wall and ride on the neighbor’s land. He’s some insane farmer who would probably have those riders arrested for trespassing.”
Cole pulled Valentino, his black gelding, beside me. “We should say hi. We’re not the ones doing anything wrong. Why cut our ride short?”
I looked at Drew. I needed his opinion. He always knew what to do.
“I agree with Cole,” Drew said. “Let’s ride past them and just be casual.”
Whisper tugged at the reins, seeing the other horses and wanting to get closer. I kept her at a slow walk.
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “You guys are right—we’re not done riding, and there’s still more trail to see.”
Our group moved at a faster walk across the meadow. I squinted at the other riders and horses, but they were still too far away. None of them moved—the two horses and riders on the wrong side of the property stayed there, and the rest of the riders waited on our side of the wall.
“Lauren,” Khloe said. “Omigod. On the other side of the wall. Is that—?”
“Sasha Silver!” I said, cutting her off. “No way! Those are her friends from Canterwood!”
I’m going to kill Kim, I thought. She knew all along that I was going to run into Sasha out on the trails. Knowing Kim, if she hadn’t said anything to us, then Sasha was in the dark, too, to keep things fair.
I spotted someone I thought was Callie Harper, and a girl who looked like Heather Fox on the other side of the wall with Sasha. Sasha was the parfait model student at Canterwood. I’d never heard about her getting into trouble. Maybe I didn’t know as much about Sasha as I thought.
I lifted my hand in a friendly wave, and Sasha glanced at Heather, then waved back. She looked comfy but chic in fawn breeches, boots, a black helmet, and a coat. She motioned for us to come over.
“I think I’m going to faint,” Lexa said in a whisper. She slowed Honor, her mare. “I’ve never met Sasha Silver!”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for this!” Khloe added. “It’s like meeting a celebrity.” She squared her shoulders, dropped her heels, smoothed Ever’s black mane, and tucked in her elbows. Quickly, the rest of my group fixed their riding posture too.
“Lauren!” Sasha called. “Hi!”
“Hey!” I said. I drew Whisper to a halt as we reached her friends.
“What are you doing here?” Sasha and I asked each other at the same time.
Everyone laughed—kind of an uneasy laugh. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what to do in this situation.
“I came home for Christmas and brought my friends with me,” I said. I introduced everyone. Clare choked out a “Hello” and stared with wide eyes at Sasha.
“What about you?” I asked Sasha.
“Same as you,” the older girl said. “I’m with my parents for the holidays, and I convinced my besties to come along.”
“This is so insane,” I said. “We’re all here, and you guys have your horses too.”
“Who wants to spend the holidays without their horse?” Sasha asked, smiling.
“So, Lauren,” Heather said. “You’re not going to gallop back to the stable and tell on us, are you?”
I gulped. Heather made me nervous. I remembered Sasha telling me that she and Heather weren’t enemies any longer, but Heather had done something to become an arch-nemesis of Sasha’s. I was going to be extra careful around her.
“Um, no, of course not,” I sputtered. I wanted all of Sasha’s friends to like me, and I didn’t want any of them to think I was a tattletale.
“Um,” Heather said, her tone mimicking mine. “Are you sure?”
I was glad there was a wall separating us. The girl was scary!
“I’m not saying anything,” I said. I lifted my chin and locked eyes with Heather.
“Heather, chill,” Sasha said, shooting her friend a look.
“What are you guys doing?” Khloe asked. I was glad there was someone else other than me talking from our group.
“We were trail riding,” Sasha said. “But Heather gets bored kind of easily. She dared all of us to jump the wall onto the neighbor’s land.”
“The crazy, grumpy farmer?” I asked. I almost said, Aren’t you scared?! but I didn’t want to seem like a baby.
Sasha nodded. “Yeah. We know we’re not supposed to be here, but we’re jumping right back over.”
“I’m the lookout,” a guy, Jacob, said. “I’ve only ridden a couple of times and never jumped, so I got out of this dare.”
“I’m not really a rider either,” Taylor said. The two guys exchanged understanding looks. Despite Tay’s lack of experience, I doubted anyone would have been able to tell from the way he sat astride Zombie—a gray gelding of Kim’s.
A redhead, Paige Parker, I think, raised her hand. “I’m on lookout duty too.”
I was glad for Taylor that there were other new-slash-not-really-riders among us.
“You guys said ‘dare,’ ” Clare said. She’d edged Fuego, her fire-colored chestnut gelding, closer to Sasha’s crew. “Who’s next?”
Heather exchanged a look across the wall with Alison Robb—a willowy girl. Alison was on a beautiful palomino Arabian. The gelding’s face was delicate, and he had a gorgeous dished nose.
“How about you?” Heather said to Clare.
I shot a look at Clare. Wait a second! I wanted to say. This was Sasha and her friends’ thing. My group and I were staying out of trouble and were having plenty of fun trail riding—on the right side of the wall.
Clare’s hesitation was palpable. Her face blushed almost the same color as her hair. I wanted to jump in and answer “No, thanks” for her. But I didn’t want to look like a chicken in front of Sasha and her friends.
“Heather, stop,” Sasha said, glaring at her friend. “Leave Lauren and her friends alone.”
I said a silent thank-you to Sasha. Whew. That settled it, and now we could leave Sasha’s group alone to their dare and keep going on our trail ride.
Clare straightened in the saddle and looked at Heather. “You’re on.” She turned Fuego away from the wall and broke apart from our group.
I wheeled Whisper around and rode next to Clare. “What are you doing?” I hissed. “It’s a huge rule not to ride on the neighbor’s land. What if Kim finds out and we get kicked out of Briar Creek for the rest of break?”
Nero, Zack’s liver chestnut gelding, snorted as if he understood me and was offering his opinion.
“We won’t,” Clare said. “Laur, it’s Sasha. I can’t say no to jumping in front of her and the rest of her friends. I’ll jump the stone wall, turn around, and come right back over. I promise.”
“I completely understand you wanting to impress Sasha,” I said. “I feel the same way. But she doesn’t care if you say no to a dare. You’ll have a chance at Canterwood for her to see you ride sometime—I know it.”
Clare’s big blue eyes looked into mine. “Please don’t be mad about this. I won’t get us in trouble.”
I pulled Whisper to a halt, sighing. “Okay,” I said with a small smile. “Just hurry back over. Go kill it.”
I circled Whisper back to face my friends and Sasha and her group. “We’re not going to get in trouble,” I said to my friends. “If anyone else wants to join in, go for it.”
Khloe, who was beside Zack and Nero, walked Ever next to Whisper and me. The bay mare and Whisper sniffed each other’s muzzles. Subtly, Khloe tilted her head toward the other side of the meadow. We let the horses amble away from the group, making it look as though we were keeping them warmed up.
“You sure you’re okay with this?” Khloe said in a whisper. “I know you don’t want to potentially make Kim mad.”
“I didn’t like it at first,” I admitted. “I don’t want to break Kim’s rules and disrespect her. But no one’s hurting anyone and there’s no one else here. We’ll be back to the stables before we know it.”
Khloe nodded. “I’m glad you feel okay. I know you would have said no if you had felt uncomfortable. You’re not really an easy mark for peer pressure, no matter how piercing blue the eyes are of the girl offering the dare.”
I laughed. “Right?! I’m glad it’s not just me.”
We turned the horses around and rejoined the group.
Across the field, Clare cantered Fuego in an even circle, then slowed him to a trot. She walked him close to the creek bed before turning him to face the wall.
“Go, Clare!” Khloe cheered.
“Shhh!” at least four people from Sasha’s group said simultaneously.
“Sorry,” Khloe said in a whisper. She made an oops face at me.
Clare moved Fuego into a trot, and after a few strides, he moved into a canter. Clare’s royal-blue jacket contrasted sharply against Fuego’s red coat. The pair moved toward the wall, and I crossed my fingers for Clare. She was a great jumper, and now I was glad she’d accepted Heather’s challenge. She was representing us, and I knew she was going to do it well!
All of our heads turned to watch as Clare and Fuego swept by us and reached the wall. Clare lifted out of the saddle, hands sliding along Fuego’s neck, and he pushed off the ground. He rose over the stones with inches to spare and landed lightly on the other side. I wanted to cheer as Khloe had done, but I didn’t want to draw attention to what we were doing. Maybe the farmer had supersonic hearing or something.
A grinning Clare turned Fuego back to face all of us. Now she was one of the three on the other side of the wall. Quickly, she wiped the grin off her face and replaced it with a look of nonchalance. Like it was every day that she jumped a stone wall at a strange stable onto forbidden property.
“Niiice!” Sasha said to Clare. She put up a palm for a high five.
Clare couldn’t stop her smile this time. Beaming, she slapped Sasha’s palm and stroked Fuego’s neck.
Heather merely nodded at her before turning her gaze back to the fourteen of us on the other side. “Next person better get over here,” Heather said. As if to back up her words, her liver chestnut struck the ground with a foreleg. “I don’t want to be waiting until New Year’s.”
Without a word, Callie turned her gelding, cantered in two circles, then cleared the wall.
One by one, the rest of us jumped the wall. Cole, Khloe, Alison, Drew, Garret, Carina, Brit, Ana, me, Brielle, Zack, Eric, and Lexa.
Taylor, Paige, and Jacob were left on the opposite side of the wall. They’d sidled their horses next to each other and had been chatting while we jumped. I’d caught a few words like “PlayStation” and “Nintendo.” Paige had a look of “Boys!” on her face.
“I declare this dare complete,” Heather addressed us. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at me and my friends. “It was a surprise to have you join us and not bail, kids.”
“It was fun. We’re the kind of ‘kids’ who don’t back down,” Khloe shot back.
Alpha female against alpha female. Both blond girls eyed each other—neither breaking contact.
Finally Heather nodded. “Maybe we’ll see you on the trails again while we’re here.”
Sasha’s lips curved into a small smile. I wanted to dance in my saddle. We—the lowly just-turned seventh graders—had gotten an invitation from Heather Fox to ride with her. Heather was practically as big a deal on campus as Sasha. This was huge!
“You should def text me when you’re coming over to ride,” Sasha said, looking at me. “We’ll join you if we’re free.”
“Cool. I will,” I said.
“Let’s get back on our turf before anything happens,” Sasha said.
With that, we each took turns jumping our horses over the wall. I didn’t let out a full breath of relief until each and every one of us was back on Kim’s land. If this was what trail riding with Heather was like, something told me that I’d better prepare myself.