RAIN SLAMMED AGAINST MY DORM ROOM windows. I’d made it back to my room before the downpour after I’d untacked Whisper and left the stable. I was on my stomach on my bed, reading all of the pages I’d missed in my horse manual.
The bathroom door opened, and steam followed Khloe out. A brown towel was wrapped around her hair, and she’d pulled on blue-and-green-striped cotton pants and a matching T-shirt. Khloe gave me a tiny smile, her eyes falling on my book. She’d just gotten back from her lesson and hopped in the shower.
“How’s the reading?” Khloe asked.
I slid in my bookmark and closed the book. “I caught up on all of the past chapters and took notes. Just got to today’s chapter, but I’m going to break and read it later this weekend.”
“Good plan. You read a lot, too.” Khloe pulled the towel turban off her head and shook out her blond hair. She sprayed Bumble and bumble Prep through her locks and used a wide-toothed comb to detangle any knots.
“I wouldn’t have had a lot of reading if I’d kept up with it in the first place,” I said. “Today was totally my fault, and I learned my lesson—believe me.”
I got up, grabbed my assignment calendar off my desk, and walked over to Khloe, who sat cross-legged on her bed.
“See?” I pointed to each day’s assignment block for the next week. “I’ve got it on my calendar to read for riding. If it’s in here, it’s as good as done.”
Khloe smiled, peering at the calendar. “I’ll have to use you to keep me on track. Especially since we learned that my ESP needs some fine-tuning.”
“Should I add that to my calendar?” I teased.
Khloe’s phone buzzed. She leaned over and checked the screen on her BlackBerry.
“Zack,” she said, grinning. “He wants to know if I’m busy tomorrow night!”
“You’re going on another daaate! You know what that means . . . spa day tomorrow.”
Khloe’s fingers moved furiously over her keypad, and then she looked up at me. “Spa day sounds perfect.”
“I’ll make a list of what we can do so we don’t forget anything. Especially since we got some new products since last time.”
I went back to my desk, found a pink notebook with light purple paper inside, and took it to my bed. I glanced at Khloe—she was lost in Zack Land. Smiling to myself, I opened the notebook. On a clean page, I started writing.
♥ Khloe & Lauren’s Spa Day:
Pedicure
Use tea tree oil and mint scrub, metal foot files, foot polisher, lotion
Remove old polish
Prep nails for painting: trim cuticles, clean under nails, trim nails, file, buff, apply coat of base
Paint toenails
I read over my pedicure section, double-checking to make sure I’d included everything.
My phone chimed, signaling a new e-mail. I opened my mail. It was a comment on my latest blog post from “Anonymous.” My stomach dropped when I read the message.