If this was morning, why was it so dark?
You have to open your eyes, doofus. The little voice worked nearly as well as the alarm that had been yelling at her for … she squinted her almost-open eyes … twenty minutes! Yikes! DJ bailed out of bed and into the bathroom without her feet even touching the floor.
Flying through the kitchen a few minutes later, she grabbed a breakfast bar and a juice box just as she heard the Yamamoto car honk in the driveway. “Where’s Mom?”
“She isn’t feeling too hot this morning, so I took over,” Robert answered.
DJ stopped in her rush. “Migraine?”
“Nope, morning sickness.”
“Oh.” She’d heard about that.
“See ya.” She tapped each boy on the head with her juice box as she headed for the door.
“Good morning to you, too. Got your backpack?” Robert called after her. Robert would get the boys off to kindergarten on his way to whatever jobsite he was working on at the moment. Her stepfather owned a very successful construction company, which was why they had recently moved into a fantastic house with a soon-to-be barn for the soon-to-be ponies for the boys.
“It’s by the door. Thanks.” Nothing like a rush to get ready for school to get the old adrenaline pumping.
“Have a good Monday,” Robert called.
“Bye, DJ,” the twins chorused.
“You too. Bye.” The closing door cut off any further answers.
“Sheesh.” Amy rolled her eyes at DJ’s flyaway hair as DJ slammed the car door. “You forget to set your alarm?”
“Nope, slept right through it.” DJ clenched a scrunchie between her teeth and attacked her hair with the brush she’d stuffed in her backpack. Once the dark honey-blond strands were confined in a ponytail, she spritzed the sides of her head to keep any stray locks in place.
“Wait until you see the last roll of film I shot,” Amy said. “Totally awesome pictures of those pinto babies we found. John says with this computer program we just got, I can add things like hats and banners and stuff to the photos. I can’t wait.”
“You know how to do all that already?”
“Not exactly. She’s paying John with chores time to teach her.” Mrs. Yamamoto looked in the rearview mirror to smile at the girls in the backseat. Amy’s older brother, John, was a computer whiz and tired of helping the girls with their money-making schemes. Their growing card line, however, was becoming more than a harebrained idea, as he had referred to it in the past.
“Bummer.”
“Yeah, if he has his way, he’ll have me doing the dishes for the rest of my life.”
“I think you’re learning the programs mighty fast. Wish I did algebra the same way.”
“Concentration helps.”
“Don’t I know it.” DJ’s algebra grade had gone from nearly flunking to a B at midterm. It was either pull it up or say good-bye to her Olympic dream until after high school.
“Ya know, now that I’m winning in that area of my life, I know I can conquer just about anything.” DJ smoothed some gloss on her lips and rubbed them together.
“Yeah, well, school isn’t over yet.”
“Hey, I thought you were supposed to cheer me on. Isn’t that what friends are for?”
“What I better do is call you every morning so we aren’t late.”
The two girls bailed out in front of the Acalanese High School, thanking the driver as their feet touched down on the sidewalk. One more month and school would be out. They wove their way through the crowd to their outside lockers and quickly swapped the books they’d need for the first class.
“You got your algebra done?”
“Did that Friday. Good thing because I fell asleep in the tub last night.” DJ stuffed another book in her backpack. “Oh, Amy, you won’t believe what’s happening now.”
“What?” Amy pulled her head out of her locker, where she was looking for something. “Uh-oh, you’ve got that look on your face.”
DJ dropped her voice. “My mother is pregnant.”
“A baby! You’re going to have a baby?” Her squeal brought looks from the kids around them.
DJ could feel her face flame. “Not me, my mother!”
“I know that. But you never had a baby brother before.”
“Or sister.”
The warning bell buzzed their attention.
“How cool.” Amy had three brothers and sisters and had made sure that DJ felt part of their family for all the years they’d known each other. “You okay about it?”
DJ nodded. “I guess. Mom and Robert sure are. He’s trying to talk her into quitting work. Can you believe that?” They followed the flow into the classroom and took their seats, so they couldn’t continue their conversation.
DJ thought about Amy’s comment while the homeroom teacher took roll. Was she okay, or was that the little green-eyed monster of jealousy that pricked her every once in a while? She had to keep reminding herself that things were different now. Her mother wasn’t the sole breadwinner anymore and didn’t always put the twins before her real daughter; it just seemed that way at times. DJ knew she’d prayed about feelings like this, but still, sometimes they came. Calling herself names about it didn’t help, either.
She sighed. Sometimes her I can do all things through Christ verse got stretched. Or was it her that got stretched? She’d have to ask Gran about this.
“Miss Randall, would you like to join us?”
“Huh?” DJ looked up from her doodling on her notebook. Her face flamed hot enough to boil water. In fact, her brain felt like it was doing just that—boiling. “Sorry.”
“Daydreaming can best be used at other times, all right?”
She nodded. If only she could crawl out of the room full of snickering kids and douse her face in the washroom sink.
At least the day didn’t go downhill too far from then on. The high point? She got eight out of ten points on the algebra quiz. And she nearly had another problem done, so only one had been over her head. First thing had been a quick prayer for God to clear her mind and help her to do her best. Then she took Robert’s coaching to heart. As he’d suggested, she sucked in a deep breath and focused all her attention on the problems, doing the easy ones first. When the day came that she got a perfect score on a test or quiz, she planned to frame the thing. Robert had promised her dinner at any restaurant she wanted.
Waiting for her grandfather to pick them up after school, DJ picked at a piece of dead skin around her thumbnail. At least she now had fingernails—the urge to chew on them came only when she was freaking out, like in class this morning. “There oughta be a law about embarrassing your students.”
“Get real.” Amy slung her backpack off and set it on the concrete curb. “Boy, was your face red.”
DJ put her hands on her cheeks. “I can still feel it. Worse’n any sunburn I ever had.”
Joe pulled up in front of them and leaned across the pickup seat to open their door. “Your taxi awaits.”
“Thanks, Mr. Crowder.” Amy slammed the door behind them.
“Mr. Crowder?”
“Well, I figured a taxi driver needed a better name than GJ or Joe.” Amy set her backpack on the floor.
“I’ll take Captain.”
“You can’t, you’re retired.” DJ nudged her grandfather with her elbow. “How’d your lesson go with Ranger?”
“Ranger isn’t the problem.” Joe eased his way onto Pleasant Hill Road. He flexed his right arm. “If I ever learn to throw a rope, it’ll be a miracle.”
“Just don’t go in for bulldogging, okay? Gran will have a heart attack for sure.”
“I won’t. These old bones couldn’t stand that. In answer to your question, Mark said Ranger has all the right instincts. He just needs experience.” Mark was a trainer who specialized in training cutting horses.
“And more training?”
“Uh-huh, but I got me a feeling it’s going to take longer to train the rider than the horse.”
DJ nudged Amy. “Is that a negative comment I just heard?”
Amy nodded. “I think we should tell Bridget. What is it she says?”
“Something about I can do it?” DJ and Amy made absolutely sure their faces matched in serious mode. They both leaned forward to look at Joe.
“All right, all right, I get the hint.”
“Hint?” DJ’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. “That was a hint? Wait until we hit him with both barrels.”
“What got into the two of you? Picking on an old man like this?”
“Old man!” Now they sounded just like the twins, in perfect unison.
Joe dropped Amy off at her house, then took DJ home to change so they could get to the Academy as soon as possible. Even with the days getting longer, the time between school and bed rushed by with the speed of a supersonic jet. Today was DJ’s solo jumping lesson, Wednesday was dressage, and Friday was group jumping with Tony and Hilary. On Tuesday she taught what she used to call her “girl’s class,” but now with Andrew Johnson in it, too, she had to come up with another name. Beginners sounded too babyish for the sharp kids she taught. And while the girls rode Western, Andrew rode English.
As soon as she walked into the barn, Andrew met her at the tack room. “Guess what!”
“What?” She turned to see the kind of grin she wasn’t sure she’d ever see on this little boy who was working so hard to overcome his fear of horses.
“Mom is buying Bandit—for me!”
“Wow, that’s awesome.”
“It is pretty awesome.” Mrs. Johnson, her arm still in a cast, stopped beside her son and laid her other hand on his shoulder. “Thanks to you. I talked to the McDougalls one afternoon. I thought of putting Andrew up on another pony, but that might set him back. They said they were thinking of selling Bandit since their youngest girl just isn’t interested in horses, so …”
“He’s mine now.” Andrew stood a bit straighter and smiled up at DJ. “Now I have to take care of him, huh?”
“You sure do, tiger. The more time you spend with Bandit, the better friends you’ll become.”
“I’m going to ride him now.”
“Just for fun, huh?”
The boy nodded. “Mom’s new horse will be here soon, and my dad says he might get one. Then we can go riding up in Briones with you.”
“Oh man, I haven’t been up in Briones forever. Soon as school is out, we’ll all take lunch up there.”
“Joe too?”
“Joe too.” That grandfather of mine is becoming pretty popular around here, DJ thought on her way to Major’s stall. She looked over her shoulder to see Andrew talking to the tall man with square shoulders and a crew cut. Joe said that way his gray hair looked more blond.
Major nickered as soon as she turned the corner to the outside stalls. While this area had a roof, poles held it up instead of walls, and aluminum rails separated the stalls. Ranger had the stall next to Major’s, so it made cleaning them and caring for the horses easier. Joe took care of them in the morning, and DJ usually did the evening shift.
When she didn’t answer, Major cranked up the volume.
Laughing, DJ clamped her hands over her ears. “Hey, I heard you the first time.” She held out both closed fists, and when he nosed one, she showed an empty palm. “Ha. Fooled you.” He nosed the other and took his carrot piece off her palm with an extra whiskery twitch. Munching that, he rubbed his forehead on the front of her T-shirt and leaned into her to get a good ear rubbing. When she stopped, he nosed her cheek and blew in her face.
“Ah yes, carrot breath. Just what I wanted.” DJ turned so he could drape his head over her shoulder, the better for her to stroke his face and forelock. When he sighed in contentment, she giggled. “You big sweetie, I must be the luckiest girl in the whole wide world to have a horse like you.” The thought of what those two men had said the day before flitted through her mind. “They just don’t understand how much I love you, that’s all.”
“Who doesn’t understand?” Joe set a grooming bucket down at her feet.
“Two guys above us on the bleachers yesterday. They said it was a shame Brad didn’t give me one of his horses so I’d have a decent horse to ride.” Saying the words again made a red haze pass in front of her eyes.
“Don’t let it get to you, kid. If that’s the worst thing you hear, you’ll be fortunate.”
“I know, but the nerve! They don’t know me and Major.”
“In a way, they gave you a compliment.”
“How so?”
“They must have thought you were a good enough rider to need a bet—” He cut off the word. “A … ah …” He winked at her. “A blooded horse, that’s it.”
“Good thing you didn’t say ‘better.’ ” DJ gave Major one last nose pat and opened the stall door. Slipping into the stall, she took a brush in each hand and, starting on one side, brushed down her horse’s neck and shoulders.
“I gave him a good brushing this morning.” Joe took the hoof-pick and set to work on his own mount.
“That’s okay. I think I do this as much for me as for him. There’s something about grooming a horse that settles me, gets me ready for my class or something. I don’t know, maybe I just love the feel and smell and sound of horses.”
“You forgot sight.” Joe straightened and slapped Ranger on the shoulder. “Stop that.”
Continuing the rhythm of brushing, DJ looked over the barrier. “What’d he do?”
“Tried to take a chunk out of my rear, not that I don’t have extra, but …”
“So cross-tie him.” DJ hid her grin by leaning closer to Major. Crosstying was good sense, but she didn’t usually do it with Major, either. At least not in the stall here in their home barn. He loved grooming so much he stood like a rock. “After all, Ranger’s just a kid.”
“Yeah, and a smart aleck one at that.”
“You about done with that pick?” she asked after a couple of quiet minutes. She took a cloth out of her back pocket and wiped down Major’s face.
“Yep. Here.” Joe passed the pick between the rails. He crossed his arms on the top bar. “You are going to have to have another horse, you know, and if you want to progress as fast as you can, it’ll have to be soon.”
DJ raised up from picking Major’s off front hoof. “Don’t say things like that in front of my friend here. You might hurt his feelings.” But DJ knew it was her feelings she was more concerned about. How could she stand showing without Major?