“You know, we don’t have to stay inside the house all day,” Ava told Kylie, as they ate lunch on Saturday afternoon. “I’m allowed to walk around and stuff.”
Kylie smiled. “Yeah, I know. But your mom texted my mom to make sure you weren’t going to ride any horses, so I thought it would be depressing if we went out to the stables.”
Ava swallowed a bite of her ham sandwich. “Well, it wouldn’t hurt to go look at the horses, would it?”
Kylie’s mom walked into the kitchen. She had the same friendly smile as Kylie, and she wore her hair in braids too, although hers were always tied up in a neat bun.
“Mom, can we go down to the stables if we promise that Ava won’t ride?” Kylie asked.
Mrs. McClaire looked at the girls with narrowed eyes. “Do I have your word?”
“Yes!” Ava and Kylie said at the same time.
Kylie’s mom smiled. “Then of course. Just clean up after your lunch first, please.”
Ava and Kylie grinned at each other and quickly finished their sandwiches and carrot sticks. They cleaned up and headed out to the stables.
“You haven’t seen Checkers yet!” Kylie said, practically bouncing with excitement.
“Is Checkers a new horse?” Ava asked.
Kylie nodded. “She’s a painted pony, white and black. Gorgeous. She’s broken in, but she still needs a lot of training. Mom and Dad are letting me do it,” she said proudly.
“She sounds beautiful,” Ava said, and when they reached the stables, Ava saw how beautiful the horse really was. Checkers had a black-and-white pattern all over her coat, from her legs up to her mane. She wasn’t as tall as some of the other horses at the ranch, but Ava’s head still only came up to her shoulder.
Kylie slowly approached her and stroked her nose.
“How’s my girl?” she asked, and the horse nodded her head, nuzzling into Kylie’s hand.
“It’s so cool that you get to train her,” Ava remarked.
Kylie nodded. “I should really give her some exercise today. . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Kylie, you can totally ride her!” Ava said. “Don’t worry about me.”
“But that’s not fair, if I get to ride and you don’t,” Kylie said.
“It’s okay, really!” Ava said, and she meant it. “It’ll be fun to see you ride her. Besides, I’ve got enough pain in my legs right now without being sore from riding, too,” she joked.
Kylie looked hesitant, but Ava urged her on.
“Come on, saddle her up!”
“Let me grab my helmet first,” Kylie said, grinning.
She left the stable and came back a minute later wearing her riding helmet. Then she attached a rope to Checkers’s halter, slowly leading her into the tack room in the stables. The horse calmly followed her. Kylie threw the rope around a ring in the tack room wall and began to saddle her up. She gave Ava a mini lesson as she worked.
“First you put the bit into her mouth,” Kylie explained. “That’s the hardest part for me. She doesn’t seem to like it. But once it fits into that groove into her mouth, she calms down.”
Kylie slowly and carefully put on the rest of the tack, explaining each step to Ava as she did it. She pulled the bridle up over Checkers’s ears, put a blanket on her back, and then strapped on the saddle and cinched the girth underneath her chest. Finally she attached the straps on the front of the saddle to the horse’s breast collar.
With each step, Kylie petted the horse and spoke to her in a soothing voice. “There you go, Checkers. That’s my girl,” she said.
Ava was impressed. “You are really like a horse whisperer or something.”
Kylie looked pleased. “It’s in my blood, I guess.”
She grabbed the reins, and Ava followed her as they moved to the paddock.
“I’ve got to ride her inside the fence while she’s training,” Kylie explained. “I’ll just take her around the perimeter a few times.”
“I’ll take pictures!” Ava offered, holding up her phone.
Kylie brought Checkers inside the paddock and locked the gate behind her. Then she used a set of small steps to climb up on the horse’s left side. Checkers skittered a bit as Kylie mounted her, but she calmed down as soon as Kylie had her feet in the stirrups and both hands on the reins.
“Let’s go, Checkers!” Kylie said, and the horse broke into a gentle trot. Ava watched her friend go, remembering how nervous she had been the first time Kylie had brought her to the ranch. Watching Kylie ride so confidently made her itch to give it another try.
Then a noise made Ava turn her head.
Vroom! A motorcycle was coming down the long drive to the ranch. In the paddock, Kylie patted Checkers’s head.
“Nothing to be afraid of,” she told the horse.
But Ava could see thick white smoke pouring from the bike’s exhaust. The bike sputtered. And then . . .
Boom! It backfired, making a sound like a loud gunshot.
Startled, Checkers reared up high on her back legs.
“Kylie!” Ava screamed.
Kylie’s hands gripped the reins tightly as Checkers lost her footing. The horse stumbled and toppled to the ground, taking Kylie with her!
Her heart pounding, Ava ignored the pain in her ankle as she ran back up to the ranch.
“Kylie needs help!”
“But Checkers is okay, right?” Kylie asked weakly.
“Honey, we’ve told you that already. She’s fine,” Mrs. McClaire said. She looked up at Ava, Alex, Coach, and Mrs. Sackett, who were gathered around Kylie’s hospital bed.
“A broken leg, and all she can think about is that horse,” said Mrs. McClaire.
Mrs. Sackett put an arm on her shoulder. “You look tired, Renée,” she said. “How about we go get a cup of coffee and leave the kids alone for a bit?”
Mrs. McClaire looked at her daughter. “Will you be okay? Dad is right outside talking with the nurse.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Mom,” Kylie joked, and managed a small smile. Mrs. McClaire seemed satisfied.
“All right, but just for a few minutes,” she said, and she left the hospital room with Coach and Mrs. Sackett.
It was seven o’clock that night, and Ava had been waiting for hours to see Kylie.
“Kylie, this is all my fault!” she blurted out. “I’m the one who said you should ride Checkers.”
“Ava, it’s okay,” Kylie said. “It was a freak accident.”
“We heard you’re going to need surgery to fix your broken leg,” Alex said.
Kylie nodded. “The doctor says the surgery’s nothing major. But I’ll be on crutches for a long time. And maybe even in a wheelchair at first.”
Then she managed a small smile. “Look at us! We’re injury buddies!”
Ava looked down at her small brace and then at Kylie’s leg, which was propped up on the bed and supported by a wicked-looking brace with metal rods. Kylie looked small and scared and hurt in the big hospital bed. Suddenly Ava’s sprained ankle didn’t seem like the end of the world anymore.
“Yeah, but you get some time off school for your injury,” Ava said.
“I could bring you all your homework while you’re recovering,” Alex offered cheerfully, but Kylie groaned.
“Please! Getting out of homework might be the only good thing that comes out of this!” she said.
“Yeah, what were you thinking, Al?” Ava joked.
Alex’s phone chimed before she could answer. She tapped on the screen to see a video from Lindsey. It was the Dancing Divas—the name Lindsey, Rosa, Emily, Charlotte, and Annelise had chosen for their Variety Show act—practicing their dance routine, along with a message.
Dance with us! Practice Tuesday.
Alex rolled her eyes.
“What’s up?” Ava asked.
“It’s Lindsey,” Alex answered. “She and some of my other friends are doing this silly dance routine for the Variety Show, and she keeps asking me to join them. But there is no way I would be caught onstage doing that dance! We all know I’d make a fool of myself. And they keep bugging me to join them, even though I keep saying no.”
“Oh no, the Variety Show,” Kylie said, and her eyes filled with tears. Ava suddenly realized that she’d never seen her best friend cry before. Poor Kylie!
“Were you going to be in it?” she asked sympathetically, but before Kylie could answer, there was a tap on the open hospital door. It was Owen Rooney, a tall boy with dark, curly hair. He was a receiver on the Ashland Tiger Cubs—and Kylie’s sort-of boyfriend.
“Your mom said it would be okay if I came in,” Owen said.
“Of course,” Kylie said, sitting up a little.
Owen walked closer to the bed and pulled a book out of his jacket pocket. Kylie’s eyes got wide.
“Is that the newest Andromeda Saga book?” she asked.
Owen nodded. “Yeah, it just came out this week. I thought you might want to read it while you’re stuck in here.”
“But you should read it first!” Kylie protested.
“I have my own copy,” Owen said. “This one’s for you. I thought we could read it at the same time and, you know, talk about it.”
Owen handed her the book, and Kylie looked really cheered up. Ava couldn’t help thinking about that time back in Massachusetts when bronchitis had kept her out of school for a week. Her sort-of boyfriend, Charlie, had come by every day to talk to her. He brought her goofy presents like a tiny teddy bear and every sports magazine he could find.
Charlie had a new girlfriend now, and he and Ava didn’t text as much anymore—especially now that the Patriots’ season was over. I haven’t thought about Charlie in a while, she realized wistfully.
Alex nudged her out of her reverie. “We should probably, you know, leave these guys alone,” she whispered.
Ava looked up and saw that Owen and Kylie were deep in conversation about some alien princess or something and nodded to her sister.
“Kylie, I’ll come back and visit,” Ava promised. “And I’ll make sure Alex doesn’t bring your homework.”
“That was a genuinely nice offer,” Alex protested as Ava dragged her out of the room.
They found their parents talking with Mr. and Mrs. McClaire. After a round of good-byes, the Sacketts headed home.
“Thanks for bringing me,” Ava said on the ride home.
“Of course, sweetheart!” said Mrs. Sackett. “I’m just glad that Kylie is going to be okay.”
“So am I,” said Ava.
And I’m going to be okay too, she thought. From now on, no more moping around!