Star Pupil (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 4) Read online

  It was late by the time Dan pulled into the drive.

  “You’re home,” he said.

  There was Esther, standing at the front of the barn waving madly in her ugly rubber boots, her hair pulled back in a familiar headscarf.

  “Did you have a good time? Was Bluebird good?” She ran over and hugged me.

  “He was amazing,” I said. “I wish you could have seen how good he was and Miguel loved him.”

  “I’m so glad,” she said. “Let’s get him unloaded. He must be exhausted.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  I looked around and didn’t see Mickey anywhere.

  “I guess Mickey is still mad at me?” I said.

  “Let’s just get Bluebird settled,” Esther said as Dan unloaded him and handed me the lead rope.

  And right then and there, I knew that something was horribly wrong.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  Esther wouldn’t tell me anything until we made sure that Bluebird was settled in his stall. I rubbed liniment on his legs and put his wraps on with shaking hands, all the time wondering what could have happened. By the time he was eating his hay, I had convinced myself she was dead. Her mom was a horrible driver. They could have got in an accident on the highway. This whole time I had been mad at her because she hadn’t replied and all that time she was dead.

  “She’s dead isn’t she?” I asked Esther, my voice shaking.

  She beckoned me into her office and motioned to one of the chairs but I shook my head.

  “I’d rather stand,” I said. “Just tell me, please.”

  “Mickey had an accident,” she said calmly. “And she’s not dead but she is in a coma.”

  “I knew it,” I sank into the chair anyway. “Her mom drives like a maniac.”

  “No,” Esther shook her head. “It wasn’t a car accident. She fell off Hampton.”

  “What?” I cried. “No. That horse is a saint. He would never do anything wrong. How could this happen?”

  “She rode to the beach without my permission,” Esther said. “She was crossing the road when Hampton spooked. I don’t know why she did it.”

  “Mickey would never do that,” I said. “Why would she do that? She doesn’t even like to ride out of the ring. Why would she try and ride all the way to the beach on her own?”

  But as it started to sink in, I knew there was one reason that Mickey would risk everything and ride down to the beach on a whim and that was to impress a boy.

  “There is something else,” she said.

  “Great, and to think I was looking forward to coming home,” I said. “What? The barn is closing down or something?”

  “No,” she said. “Mickey’s parents have decided that they want to sell Hampton.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I jumped up. “They can’t just sell him while Mickey is in the hospital. She’ll want to know that he is okay and I’m sure she’ll be back in the saddle as soon as possible. They just can’t do that to her.”

  “Emily,” Esther said, her voice calm and quiet like when she talked to nervous horses. “The doctors don’t even know if she is going to wake up and when she does if she’ll be able to walk and talk, let alone ride.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “They can’t sell him. I won’t let them.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  I lay in bed that night but I couldn’t sleep. Downstairs my mom and Derek were arguing over Cat. It seemed that she hadn’t exactly been the model daughter and while I’d been gone, she’d been caught shoplifting at the mall. Mom wanted to send her back. Derek wanted her to stay. I didn’t care what they did. My only concern was making sure that Hampton stayed exactly where he was so that Mickey would have a horse to come home to.

  “I’m glad you had a nice time,” Mom had said, smiling weakly. Derek just grunted. He had his own problems now and I was the least of them.

  Mom had promised to take me to the hospital to see Mickey after school. I had to go and tell her that I was sorry, even if she was in a coma. I had to. Sometimes people in comas could hear what you said, I know they could. It was always in those made for TV movies where the girl would be in a coma, her hair all fanned out and pretty on the pillow as her boyfriend sat by her side, day after day, telling her how much he loved her and how he would never leave her. And then one day, her eyes would flutter open and she would groggily sit up. He would kiss her and all the doctors would say that it was a miracle. Mickey would love that.

  But if the worst thing imaginable happened and she never woke up, then the last words I spoke to her were in anger. We had a stupid fight about a stupid saddle and it would be the last thing we ever said to each other. I couldn’t let that happen. She had to wake up. She just had to.

  THE END

  COMING SOON

  SHOW JUMPING DREAMS BOOK 5: SALE HORSE

  While Emily was off at her show jumping clinic, Mickey had a horrible riding accident. Now she’s in a coma and no one is sure if she’s ever going to wake up. To make matters worse, her parents are intent on selling Hampton but Emily knows that Mickey needs her horse to be there when she gets better. So she sets out to sabotage every prospective buyer who comes to the barn.

  To make matters worse, Esther has also decided to sell Harlow. While he is now riding sound, he’ll never be the jumper he once was. Deep down, Emily knows it is for the best and that it is selfish to not let Harlow move on and find a good home. But that is the problem. No one who comes is good enough for him. No one except the mysterious woman who talks to horses and smells of herbs and incense.

  So when the woman claims that she can bring Mickey out of her coma, Emily has to take a leap of faith and trust someone who on the surface seems like she might just be crazy. And with the chance of getting on Miguel Rodriguez’s show jumping team looming over her head, she still has to try and find time to ride. But if she loses her best friend, will she ever really want to ride again?

  SALE HORSE: CHAPTER ONE

  “I want to see her. Why won’t they let me see her?” I moaned.

  “They’ll let you see her when they think the time is right,” Mom said.

  We were sitting at the kitchen table. She was trying, unsuccessfully, to mend a hole in my breeches. Cat was sitting with us, eating a sandwich. I don’t know why she just didn’t go home. The longer she stayed with us, the more miserable she seemed. Today she was wearing a shirt that showed you how to sign language swear words.

  “Even if she does wake up, your friend is going to be a vegetable,” she said.

  “Don’t say that,” I shouted. “She’s not. She’s going to wake up and be just fine and everything is going to go back to normal.”

  “You’re delusional,” she said. “Don’t you know that nothing ever goes back to normal?”

  She got up and left us sitting there. Mom looked at me apologetically. Since Cat had moved in we had actually managed to mend a little of our broken relationship but just like Cat said, some things could never go back to normal and unless Mom divorced Derek, they most certainly would not.

  “Don’t worry,” Mom said, reaching out to pat my arm. “I’m sure Mickey will be fine. Just wait and see.”

  But it had been three days since I got back from my big clinic with renowned show jumping champion Miguel Rodriguez and found out that my best friend was in the hospital. I thought she wasn’t answering my texts because she was mad at me and the whole time she had been lying there in her hospital bed in a coma. And to make matters worse, the last time we’d spoken we were mad at each other. Fighting over something stupid, the raffle that she rigged so that I would win the new saddle I needed. She’d tried to help me and instead I’d been horrible to her and if anything bad happened, I’d have to live with that for the rest of my life.

  “How is Bluebird doing?” Mom asked, obviously trying to change the subject. “Has he settled back amongst the normal folks?”

  “He’s fine,” I said. “Esther thinks that it will be okay to ride him tomorrow.�
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  “That’s good,” Mom said. “It will give you something else to think about.”

  I’d given Bluebird time off since we got back from the clinic because I knew he was tired but the real reason was that every day I hoped I would be allowed to go and visit Mickey at the hospital and I didn’t want to miss my chance. Esther said that Mickey’s parents were going to sell Hampton but I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to talk to them and tell them how important it was for Mickey to have her horse when she woke up. She would be devastated if she found out that they’d just sold him like that. I couldn’t do anything to make her better but I could certainly do everything in my power to make sure things were the same when she finally came back to the barn.

  “Do these look any better to you?” Mom held up my breeches.

  There were big cobbled stitches across the front. I probably could have done a better job myself but at least she tried.

  “They’re fine Mom,” I said.

  “They’re not really,” she laughed. “Why don’t you let me take you to that tack shop that opened up in town and we can get you a new pair?”

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “Maybe? I offer to take you to a tack store and actually buy you horse things and you say maybe? Okay, where is my Emily and what have you done with her? This girl must be an imposter.”

  She reached out and put a hand on my forehead like she was checking my temperature.

  “I’ll think about it, okay?” I smiled, trying not to hurt her feelings too much.

  The tack store was the place where Mickey and I had come to blows over the saddle. I just didn’t think I could face going back there right now even with the offer of new breeches dangling in front of me like a carrot.

  “I think I’m going to go to bed,” I said.

  At school, nothing was the same without Mickey. I drifted from class to class, not paying attention to anything the teachers said. Everyone knew that she was my best friend and they also knew that she was in a coma so that meant that people I didn’t even know would randomly come up to me and say things that they thought were probably comforting but were totally not.

  “What if she wakes up and can’t remember her own name or anything about her life?”

  A girl had grabbed me on the way to math class and was holding me prisoner against the lockers. She had bad breath and crooked bangs.

  “It happened to my aunt,” she carried on. “She was in this car accident and was in a coma for years. Then one day, just before they were going to pull the plug, she woke up and started speaking Italian. She didn’t even know who she was or who any of us were. It was totally crazy.”

  “I, um, have to go,” I said, darting under her arm and making a beeline for the bathroom.

  Locked in a stall, I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. At the barn I had to be strong and at home there was no way I was showing my weakness, especially with Cat around. But I just couldn’t take it anymore. If I could just see Mickey then maybe I would feel better.

  “I heard she was going to meet Rock Simpson.”

  There were footsteps and voices. Two girls came into the bathroom talking. I tried to muffle my sobs so they wouldn’t hear me.

  “Rock Simpson?” the other girl said. “No way. I heard it was that new kid Jordan and he’s like, a total stud. But I don’t know what he would see in her. ”

  “I don’t know but it doesn’t matter now anyway. I’m sure he doesn’t date vegetables,” she said. Then they both laughed.

  I burst out of the stall I had been hiding in.

  “She’s not a vegetable,” I screamed at them before running off.

  When I got home from school, I changed my clothes as quickly as I could and peddled my bike to the barn. Bluebird was in the front field and when he saw me he cantered over, ears pricked and face happy.

  “Are you glad to see me or your carrots?” I asked him as I reached over the fence and gave him one.

  He nickered softly and then followed me up the drive. I dumped my bike at the barn and ran back to his field where he shoved his head into the halter eagerly.

  “Are you ready to ride too?” I asked him.

  I couldn’t wait to get back in the ring but as I stood in the barn with that saddle in front of me, I suddenly didn’t feel like riding. Mickey helped to get me that saddle. Now every time I rode, I would think of her. Even on the back of my own pony, I couldn’t escape the horrible thought of her lying there.

  “Ready to ride?” Esther asked, coming out of the office.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe I should wait.”

  “I thought you were dying to show me everything you learned at the clinic?”

  “I was,” I said. “But, I don’t know.”

  She came over and put her arm around me.

  “Not riding won’t make Mickey better,” she said. “What do you think she would want you to do? Sit around and pine for her or get your butt out there and ride.”

  “I think she’d want me to go to the mall and get her lots of get well presents,” I said.

  “True,” Esther nodded. “But after that?”

  “I guess she’d want me to ride.”

  “Of course she would. Now come on.”

  Bluebird was fresh after his days off. He pranced his way to the ring and I couldn’t help but grin. It didn’t matter how bad I felt, riding always made me feel better and I soon forgot about the saddle and Mickey.

  I turned Bluebird this way and that, using the dressage movements that Miguel had shown us to get his focus and loosen him up.

  “Very nice,” Esther called out as we managed a perfect half pass across the arena.

  She set up some jumps and as soon as Bluebird saw them, his ears pricked up.

  “You don’t care about all that boring flatwork, do you boy?” I patted his neck. “You just like to jump, like me.”

  I steadied him for the first line, a simple cross rail with four strides to a vertical, trying to remember everything Miguel had said. Don’t collapse on his neck. Use an automatic release. But as we took the jumps, I forgot everything and just let my body do the work.

  Esther directed us over other jumps and combinations and when we were done, she had a grin on her face as big as I did.

  “Well, you certainly did learn a lot,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

  “Thanks,” I smiled, leaning down and hugging Bluebird’s neck.

  But through my upside down view of the world I saw it. Sitting up again, I had to be sure. Yes. There it was. My mom’s car heading towards the barn. There was only one reason she would be here to pick me up. They had finally agreed to let me see Mickey.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Claire Svendsen fell in love with horses at age two when she got her first pony. The only trouble was that it wasn’t a real horse, it was a rocking horse. From that day on she begged, pleaded and bribed for lessons, riding clothes and a horse of her own. She had to wait and work really hard to finally get her first real horse but when she did, it was a dream come true. Over the years she has trained horses, given lessons and even run her own stable.

  No longer able to ride due to injury, Claire lives vicariously through the characters in her books. When she’s not busy writing, you’ll find her hanging out at the barn with her retired Thoroughbred Merlin who loves carrots, apples and bowing on command.

  STAY CONNECTED

  To keep up to date on all the Show Jumping Dreams news and to learn about horse and pony care, you can follow my horse Merlin on Facebook. He is the only one with the inside scoop. Plus he’s really cute!

  https://www.facebook.com/showjumpingdreams

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEV
EN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  COMING SOON

  SALE HORSE: CHAPTER ONE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  STAY CONNECTED