I WOKE WITH THE SUN ON THURSDAY MORNING. As it started to cast light over the campus, I pulled on black yoga pants, a pale pink T-shirt, and my black Nikes with sky-blue laces. There was just enough light peeking through the curtains for me to leave the lights off and let Khloe sleep. Her blond hair was spread across her zebra-print pillow and she was on her side, hugging her unicorn Pillow Pet.
Drew and I’d had lunch together yesterday, and we talked about how stressed we both were. I brought up our shared love of running, and Drew asked me to run with him this morning before classes.
I quietly closed the bathroom door behind me and turned on the light. Eyedrops helped take the sleepiness out of my eyes, and I pulled my long hair into a high ponytail. A splash of cool water on my face felt refreshing.
Then it hit me.
Hard.
I was going running with Drew Adams. Oh, mon Dieu! What if I couldn’t keep up with him? Or what if he was the slow one? Stop, stop, stop, I told myself. Do you really believe Drew is going to be slow? I shook my head at myself.
I squeezed a dime-size dollop of Neutrogena moisturizer with sunscreen into my hand and quickly rubbed it onto my face.
I turned off the bathroom light, grabbed my yellow-and-green rubber SLAP Watch, and tiptoed out the door. Khloe didn’t move as I shut the door behind me. She’d been up later than me last night. After homework, she’d claimed to be working on lines for Beauty and the Beast. That would have made sense, because Khloe was taking over Riley’s role of Belle instead of playing Mrs. Potts. But I’d caught a glimpse of a paper Khloe was writing on and saw birthday on it.
“I don’t remember ‘birthday’ being in any of Belle’s lines,” I’d said to her last night.
Khloe had given me a guilty grin. “Um,” she’d said, her voice veeery high. “You wouldn’t remember it. It’s an addition to the play.”
I’d stared at Khloe. And stared. And stared.
She’d burst into giggles, holding up her hands. “Okay, okay! I’m obvi not working on the play. I’m working on my roomie and BFFL’s birthday plans.”
“Can I see?” I’d made puppy-dog eyes. “Pleeease, KK. Just one tiny hint?”
Khloe had grasped the papers to her chest. “Nope! And don’t puppy-dog-eye me, Lauren Towers. You know way too much already. Stay on your side of the room or I’ll be forced to call security.”
I’d snorted. “Security? You mean, Christina? Like, ‘Christina, help! My roommate is trying to look at my secret papers. Cuff Lauren and take her to Hawthorne jail immediately!’”
Khloe had made a serious face. “Exactly. That’s what I’ll do.”
We’d laughed and I’d let her alone, only occasionally pretending that I was going to pounce onto her bed and grab a paper.
I smiled as I walked down Hawthorne’s quiet hallway. Every door was shut, and there wasn’t a sound except for my footsteps on the carpet. I put on my watch, checking the time. 4:56 a.m. Perfect timing. Drew and I had agreed to meet at the fountain at five.
I opened the glass door and stepped out into the muggy air with hint of coolness. This morning, fog blanketed the campus. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me. Sun peeked through clouds, but it wasn’t enough to burn off the fog. It was so gorgeous.
I walked toward the center of campus, taking deep breaths. My body—and mind—had missed this. Running had always been my stress reducer, but I’d had no time to run since I’d come to Canterwood. It had become apparent, though, that I would have to make time. Running was part of taking care of myself. I needed that to be on top of my game as a student and rider.
I sped up, squinting as I saw the courtyard come into view. I followed the sidewalk down to the center, and through the fog, someone walked toward me.
“Nice timing!” I said, smiling at Drew. We both reached the fountain at the same time.
He nodded. “No kidding.”
Drew looked très adorable this early in the morning. His hair was a little ruffled, and he had a slight pillow-crease imprint on his left cheek. He was dressed to run in red Adidas, black pants, and a black T-shirt.
“Want to stretch here?” I asked.
“Let’s do it.” Drew smiled at me and put a foot on the fountain rim. He leaned forward, grabbing his ankle.
I stepped back, giving us both room. I spread my legs until I felt a slight pull from my inner thighs to my knees. Bending forward, I slowly inched my hands toward the cobblestones. My legs started to burn, so I let myself straighten, took a few seconds, and then bent forward again. This time, I was able to place my palms on the cobblestones. I repeated the stretch a couple more times.
“Do you have a set stretch routine that you always do?” Drew asked. He was stretching his hamstrings.
“Most of the time, I do the same stretches, just in a different order from the last time I ran,” I said. “But if I read about a different stretch in a magazine or online, I’ll try it and add it to my routine if I like it.”
Drew nodded, sitting and flexing his feet. “I’m the same way. I like variety, but with stretches I know work.”
I raised my right arm, bent to the left, and grabbed my left ankle. I kept my right hand pointed up and held the pose for a few seconds before switching to the other side.
“That’s a cool one,” Drew said.
I blushed, wiggling my toes in my shoes. I didn’t know he was watching watching.
“It’s good,” I said. “You should try it sometime. I’ve been doing it forever.”
Drew watched me do the stretch again, then mimicked me. “That feels great,” he said. “Cool. I’ll have to think of one to show you.”
Drew and I stretched for a few more minutes before my muscles felt loose and warmed up.
“I’m set, if you are,” Drew said. The pillow crease was gone from his cheek, and his eyes were wider and he looked more awake.
“I’m ready to run, Adams,” I said, grinning. “You get a pass this time because you know the campus and have to show me the best running trail.”
“And that’s a pass how?” he asked as we left the courtyard.
“I have to keep pace with you and not run ahead or I’ll get lost,” I said. “But next time . . .” I shrugged. “I just might have to leave you behind.”
“Ohhh, Lauren.” Drew shook his head, his lips pressed together. “I was going to take it easy on you the first time out, but I think I have to take that back. You have to keep up with me or you’ll get lost. I hope you brought a GPS.”
We increased the speed of our walk as Drew led me toward the woods.
“Please,” I said. “All I brought is this.” I flashed my wrist at him. “To keep track of how long it takes you to catch me at the finish line.”
Drew smiled and we both laughed.
“You’re a lot of fun at five in the morning,” he said. “I usually don’t want to talk to anyone this early.”
“I am a morning person. But running with a partner is going to be different. If it’s anything like stretching with you, though, I think I’ll like it.”
We reached the edge of the woods. I recognized one of the trails I’d been on a few times with Whisper and some friends.
“Are we going on a horse trail?” I asked.
“No.” Drew stopped, looking at me. “Walkers and runners are supposed to stay off the horse trails. There are usually riders on the trails either conditioning their horses, or getting a breather—something. There are too many twists and turns for people to be walking where someone could be cantering behind them.”
“I’d hope I’d hear a horse coming, but . . .” My mouth formed an O. “I’ve usually got my iPod on.”
“Exactly. That’s the dangerous part. Last year one of the guys on the swim team got confused about what trail to take. He guessed and ended up on a horse trail, unknowingly. He was walking to catch his breath and he had music blasting.”
“Uh-oh,” I said.
“Almost.” Drew shook his head. “One of the older riders, a legendary older rider, I should add, was cantering her horse with her friend. They came around a sharp corner and almost ran over the guy.”
“Oh my God.” I covered my mouth with my hand.
“Their horses swerved at the last second, apparently, and the guy didn’t even know horses had been close until dirt clods flew back at him from the horses’ hooves.”
“Um, maybe we should run on the track instead,” I said, only half joking. “Please make sure we go on a human trail.”
“Promise,” Drew said.
Fog surrounded us, making it feel as if there was no one else for miles. The moment felt like something out of a book.
I realized it was my turn to talk and I hadn’t said a word. “Okay. Let’s go—I’m trusting you here.”
Drew bumped my shoulder with his. “You can trust me.”
“Who was that rider?” I asked as I followed him into the woods. “The ‘legendary’ one?”
“Sasha Silver.”
I sucked in a breath at her name. Sasha Silver. Sasha Silver. Her name rolled around in my brain as I followed Drew on autopilot as we entered the woods. We’d stepped onto a well-worn path. The dirt was marked with shoe imprints instead of horseshoes. Without a word, we started at a slow jog, side by side.
“Where did you go?” Drew asked. He had a soft smile on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re here, but you looked far away. Like you were thinking about something serious.” Now our footsteps hit the dirt in tandem.
“Oh, I was just thinking.” I paused midsentence. “You said ‘Sasha Silver.’ She and I are kind of connected in a way.”
Drew motioned with his hand to the left side of the trail where it forked into two separate paths. We kept our jogging at a steady pace. When we really started to run, if we were doing it right, we wouldn’t have the breath to talk.
“Don’t tell me—she’s your stepsister,” Drew said.
I laughed. “No. But she and I both trained at Briar Creek Stables with the same instructor before we came to Canterwood. Her family still lives in Union, too, where my family is.”
“Wow,” Drew said, looking over at me. “Working with the same coach as Sasha is an incredible opportunity. Also a little scary and intimidating, I bet.”
Drew got me. I don’t know how, but he just did.
“You have no idea,” I said. “You’re the first one here to pick up on the scary part without me having to explain it first. Usually, I tell people that I trained at Briar Creek after Sasha and I get the ‘Omigod, you were in the same stable as Sasha?! With her instructor? Did you see her?’ and a zillion questions like that.”
I adjusted my stride as my legs continued to warm up.
“I completely understand that,” I continued. “Like you said, though, on the flipside I feel as though people are expecting me to be just like her. To be the next Briar-Creek-to-Canterwood-Crest prodigy.”
“Do your parents make you feel that way?”
“Oh, not at all!” Thinking about them even for a second made my chest tighten. I missed them. “My parents are the best—they’re not stage parents, and they don’t want to micromanage my career. They were always there for me but never pushed me to compete.”
Drew smiled. “They sound cool. I’m glad they didn’t make you feel like you had to be Sasha two-point-oh when you came here.”
“Not for a second. Mr. Conner hasn’t either. I mean, I haven’t even seen Sasha yet. The stable is always so busy. I’m not exactly looking for her, but I’d try to get enough courage to introduce myself if I ever see her.”
“This is a small school,” Drew said. “It doesn’t feel that way, to me anyway, but you’ll see Sasha sometime. When you do, I know you’ll be fine—talk to her like the Lauren I’m chatting with now.”
I smiled, knowing I was blushing. Hopefully, Drew would think it was because of the exercise.
Under the cover of trees, we were still shaded from direct sunlight. It came through in patches, lighting different spots of the trail, and had begun to burn off the fog.
“Thanks, Drew,” I said. “If and when I do see Sasha, you’ll be the first to know.”
He grinned. “Good. Want to pick up the pace?”
I nodded. “I’m always ready.”