Home Sweet Drama Read online

  Heather never got any less infuriating. Ever.

  I hurried through cooling, untacking, and grooming Charm. I checked the time on my phone. Still five more minutes before I could meet them. As much as I wanted to hear what Heather had to say, I’d already made myself look desperate for news. So I wasn’t showing up until exactly thirty minutes after she told me to meet her.

  Thirty-one minutes later, I climbed the ladder and stepped onto the platform of the hayloft. No one but Mike, Doug, and Mr. Conner were supposed to come up here, but I’d seen Mike and Doug trimming the grass in an empty pasture and Mr. Conner was teaching a lesson.

  “You’re late,” Julia snapped, peering at me from behind a stack of hay bales. “Get back here, already.”

  I didn’t argue, I just followed her. Alison and Heather were waiting, each seated on a hay bale. I took an empty bale next to Alison and she was practically bouncing.

  “Ohhhhmiiiigod,” Alison said. “You’ll never ever guess what we heard just before your lesson.”

  I looked around at them and suddenly felt a little nervous. Whatever it was, I didn’t want it to have anything to do with me. Or Homecoming.

  “Heather’s been taunting me with it for forever,” I said. “So just tell me.”

  Heather leaned closer and I knew it was something big. They hadn’t called me up here for nothing.

  “We were walking down the side aisle to the tack room to chat before we got our stuff,” Heather said. “We heard people talking inside and when we stopped to listen, we realized it was Callie and Jacob.”

  I grasped a fistful of hay. Part of me didn’t want to ask, but I couldn’t help it. “What was going on?”

  “Jacob apologized to Callie for being so busy lately,” Alison said. “He said he’d been unfair to her and he was sorry.”

  Whew. I let go of the hay.

  “He said his parents are making him crazy about his grades and he’s juggling a lot with track and everything else going on with school,” Julia added. She picked at a piece of hay.

  “I’m glad he explained to her what was going on,” I said. “I’d seen them together and he was being weird. At least Callie knows what’s up and she won’t be worried.”

  “Sasha,” Heather interjected. She paused and shifted, crossing one leg over the other. “Callie won’t be worried anymore because … Jacob broke up with her.”

  I stared at her. It was all I could do. It was like I forgot how to speak or move.

  “What?” I finally said. “He did what?”

  “Shhh,” Heather said. “Don’t be so loud. He told her the timing was wrong and he was sorry, but they couldn’t be together.”

  It was almost too much. My brain couldn’t process what Heather was saying.

  “What did she say?” I managed to ask.

  “Callie was crying,” Alison said, her voice soft. “She wanted to work things out so they could stay together, but Jacob insisted they had to break up.”

  I looked at Heather and her eyes met mine.

  “Callie and Jacob are over,” she said.

  14

  HIDE OUT

  FOR THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON I HID IN the library. On the top floor. In one of the locked study rooms. Without telling anyone where I was.

  Every five seconds my emotions changed. At first all I could think about was looking for Callie and comforting her. Jacob was her first boyfriend and she had to be a wreck. I knew she was in pain and it killed me not to be able to be there for her as she went through her first breakup.

  After I thought about Callie, my mind went to Jacob. His claims about school, parents, and sports were probably all true, but it wasn’t the reason he’d broken up with Callie. I knew it. And it made me feel so guilty. But when that melted away, just for a second, I wondered what would happen if we ever tried again. I knew we couldn’t—not after everything we’d gone through to protect Callie from the truth the night of my party.

  I sat in the library until just before dusk. My phone buzzed and I opened it to see a text from Paige.

  Where r u? need 2 get ready 4 bonfire!

  Oh, my God. I rubbed my eyes. I’d completely forgotten about that. Callie, Jacob, Eric, and I along with the other nominees were all forced to go to the bonfire since we were junior royal court nominees. Headmistress Drake would be there so there was no way I could back out.

  B rite there, I texted Paige.

  I left the library and walked back to Winchester. I had to tell Paige what was going on before we got to the bonfire. I had no clue how she’d react to the news. I knew she’d be upset for Callie, but I wondered if that would raise more questions from her about what really happened between Jacob and me at my party.

  I opened the door to our room, barely realizing that I’d even walked down the Winchester hallway, and stepped inside. Paige turned around from her spot in front of our mirror and looked at me.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Something happened—I can see it in your face.”

  I sat at the edge of my bed and pulled off my riding boots.

  Paige sat on her desk chair and swiveled it to look at me. “You can tell me—whatever it is.”

  “I know,” I said. “It’s just hard to talk about.” I paused, taking a breath. “I was at the stable and just before my lesson, Heather told me she needed to tell me something.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “I know. I had to go through the entire lesson just waiting for her to tell me and I thought I was going to die. Then when it was finally over and I asked her, she told me to meet her at the hayloft with Julia and Alison in half an hour.”

  Paige shook her head. “So typical Heather. Dangling something in front of you and then saying wait. Again.”

  “Agreed. So after half an hour I met them. They said they’d overheard Callie and Jacob in the tack room.”

  I watched Paige’s face, but her expression gave away nothing. She sat still—waiting for me to finish.

  “Jacob told Callie that his parents were on him about his grades and he was feeling tons of pressure with sports. He knew he wasn’t being a good boyfriend and he apologized to her.”

  Paige leaned back into her chair. “She must feel better now, right? I mean, if he had all of that going on, she must have sensed that things were off and he was going through something.”

  I wrung my hands together. “I doubt she feels better. Jacob broke up with her.” I whispered the last sentence.

  “Oh, no!” Paige’s shoulders slumped. “Poor Callie! She must be a mess. Her first boyfriend.”

  “I know. She’s got to be so upset and I really do feel bad for her.” I had to choose every word carefully so that Paige didn’t think I still cared about Callie and missed her as my BFF. If Paige knew that, it would totally blow my cover story with Jacob.

  “The last thing she probably wants to do is come to the bonfire,” Paige said.

  And it’s the last thing I want to do, I wanted to say.

  “You’re probably right, but she has to,” I said.

  I pulled a jean skirt, platform wedge sandals, and a V-neck sweater from my closet. I couldn’t talk about Callie and Jacob anymore.

  “I’ll be ready to go in half an hour,” I said. “You can wait or go without me, if you want.”

  “I’ll wait,” Paige said, shrugging. “You won’t be too long and it doesn’t start till it gets dark, anyway.”

  In the bathroom I closed the door and sat on the edge of the bathtub. It was going to be a long night.

  15

  CAN’T LET THE NIGHT GO UP IN FLAMES

  PAIGE AND I WALKED TO THE BACK OF THE campus, near the spot at the woods where I’d ridden the new cross-country course.

  “You look nervous,” Paige said. “Don’t be. It’ll be okay. Really. The nominees have to be there, but at least you all don’t have to do anything together.”

  “But the odds of us all running into each other are ridiculous,” I said. “You know I’ll see someone.”

/>   Paige touched my arm. “Don’t worry. Even if you do, just walk away. It doesn’t have to turn into a thing.”

  That made my head jerk back a little. Did Paige think I always turned social events into “things?”

  “I don’t want it to turn into anything. I just want to be there until I can leave and then go.”

  Paige pressed her lips together, not saying anything. We walked the final distance across campus where the glow of the bonfire reached into the sky and illuminated darkness. I loved the smell of burning wood. The sparks of the fire flew into the air and shattered into ash.

  We reached the fire and it was so much warmer, even though the night air was cooling around us.

  “Hey,” Ryan said, walking up to us. He grabbed Paige’s hand and smiled at her, then me.

  “Hi,” Paige said. She touched his upper arm with her free hand.

  “A bunch of people are roasting marshmallows over there,” Ryan said, looking at us. “Want to?”

  Paige nodded. “Sure.” She looked over at me. “Sash?”

  I looked around to the spot Ryan was talking about. Roasting marshmallows sounded like a popular spot.

  “You go,” I said. “I’m going to go find a hot dog or something.”

  “You sure?” Paige asked.

  “Totally. Go and I’ll meet up with you later.”

  “’Kay,” Paige said. “Sounds good.”

  Hand in hand, Paige and Ryan walked away to the other side of the bonfire. I tried not to feel anxious about being on my own since I’d told them to go, but I couldn’t stop running through scenarios. What if I saw Jacob? Or Eric? Or Callie?

  I was most worried about seeing Callie. I didn’t trust myself not to run up to her, hug her, and tell her that she was going to be okay. Panic was just starting to rise in my chest when I saw Heather, Alison, and Julia walk up to me.

  “Is this not the lamest thing ever?” Heather asked. Lame as she claimed it to be, she’d dressed for it, too, in a black skirt, sandals, and V-neck T-shirt.

  “So lame,” I said. “We’re forced to be here. How wrong is that?”

  Alison rolled her eyes at us, grinning. “Stop it! It’s Homecoming week. It only happens once a year, so embrace it. Stop whining and just enjoy it. It’s a bonfire. Have fun!”

  My eyes met Heather’s and we rolled our eyes.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “Bonfire. Hot dogs. Yay.”

  Alison grabbed my arm and steered me around to the other side of the fire. “You’re going to have fun,” she said. “So deal.”

  I let her pull me over to where teachers had set up a food station. The Trio and I readied our hot dogs. We headed over to an empty spot near the fire and stuck our hot dogs near the flames.

  “I’m eating two and saving room for s’mores,” Julia said. “Did you see how many bags of marshmallows there are?”

  “I was too busy trying not to spear myself with the hot-dog roaster,” I said.

  We twirled our hot dogs for a few more minutes, watching how the seventh graders had clumped together on one side of the fire and we and the rest of the eighth graders had staked out our own space on the other side.

  “So glad we never looked like that,” Heather said, nodding her head in the seventh graders’ direction. “They look all scared and pathetic.”

  “We never looked like that,” Julia said. She glanced at me. “But admit it, Sasha, you totally did.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, okay! That’s true. At least I’m not like that now.”

  Heather stared at me as if she was going to argue, but smiled instead. “Yeah, you’ve gotten a little better.”

  “Ha-ha,” I said. “Thanks a lot.”

  We finished roasting our hot dogs and took them over to the table with plates and everything we needed to fix our hot dogs. We got plastic cups of soda and handfuls of chips while Alison looked around for a good spot to sit. I grabbed one of the blankets the school had stored in a bin for us to use.

  “Over there?” she pointed. Julia, Heather, and I nodded. She’d picked a spot that was quiet and just far enough away from the bonfire that we wouldn’t feel like we were melting.

  We put down our stuff and spread out the—what else— green blanket and started eating. Ketchup from Alison’s hot dog oozed out and plopped onto her plate.

  “Oops,” she said, giggling.

  “At least it landed on your plate and not your lap,” Julia said. “Remember when you spilled mustard down the front of your shirt just before that big show a couple of years ago?”

  Alison tilted her head back, looking up at the black sky. “Omigod, that was so awful. I just had to have a hot dog and of course I didn’t bring another shirt.”

  “Did you show with the stain?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Heather said. She grinned. “In some mysterious, strange way, another girl’s shirt disappeared from her clothing bag.”

  I munched on a barbecue-flavored chip. “You stole someone’s shirt? Did you give it back?”

  “After Alison’s class, we did,” Heather said. “So yes, Jasmine got her shirt back.”

  I burst into laughter. “Omigod!”

  All of us started laughing. We glanced up when someone walked by the end of our blanket.

  Callie. The fire light flickered on her face and I could see anger in her eyes, even in the semi-darkness.

  My laughter stopped instantly.

  She glared down at us and shook her head as she stomped by. The Trio exchanged glances. Without saying anything, we all went back to our food.

  16

  JUST TALK TO ME

  I STAYED WITH THE TRIO FOR A WHILE longer, then Ben walked over and pulled Julia up off the blanket.

  “Want to roast marshmallows with me?” he asked.

  “Definitely,” she said.

  “I need another soda,” Alison said, peering into her empty cup.

  “Me too,” Heather said.

  “I think I’m going to go find Paige,” I said. “I gave her space with Ryan for a while, but I know she wanted to hang with me, too.”

  Alison and Heather nodded and got up off the blanket. We split up and I started looking for Paige. There were a lot of people and it was hard to make out faces in the shadows. I walked past clumps of students and someone grabbed my arm.

  I turned to find Jacob’s handsome face glowing in the firelight.

  “I can’t talk now,” I said. “I’m looking for Paige.”

  He released my arm. “Sasha, please. Just talk to me for a second.”

  “No,” I said. “People can’t keep seeing us talk.”

  I moved away from Jacob and left him standing there.

  “Sasha!” Paige popped into view, a s’more in one hand and a bottle of root beer in the other. “I’m so glad I found you. Ryan just went to get more marshmallows. You have to hang with us for the rest of the night.”

  I smiled, not wanting her to see I was upset. “Actually, can we talk for a sec? Alone?”

  Paige frowned and stared at me. “Of course. Did something happen?”

  “We need to walk away from everyone else.”

  Paige followed me to the edge of the woods and we stood in the semi-darkness, away from the fire and the crowd.

  “Just tell me,” Paige said. She touched my elbow. “What’s going on?”

  I couldn’t hold it in for another second. “You’ve been right this whole time. I’ve been lying to you about what happened at my party. I’m so, so sorry, Paige.”

  Paige rubbed her forehead. “Jacob did try to kiss you, didn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sasha, I knew you’d never do anything like that. Why didn’t you just tell me?” Paige’s eyes were full of confusion.

  “I don’t know! I guess I was afraid to make him look like the bad guy and I never wanted Callie to know the truth, even though I know you’d wouldn’t tell her.”

  “No,” Paige said, her tone soft. “I’d never do that.”

/>   “I should have told you that night, but it just felt like the right thing to do not to tell anyone—Jacob and I both agreed.”

  Paige was quiet for a minute. “You gave up your other best friend to protect him. You lost so much—I’m sorry.”

  “I just wish I’d told you sooner. You would have been there for me. I’m really, really sorry I lied to you, Paige.”

  Paige leaned over, hugging me. “I’m sorry you felt like you had to. But I’m your best friend. You can always tell me anything. I’m glad I finally know the truth. I’d known something was off and—”

  Paige stopped talking when footsteps approached and Ryan came into view.

  “Hey,” he said to us. “Paige, the Homecoming committee is looking for you. They need to know where the extra packages of Hershey’s bars are.”

  I looked at Paige, waiting for her to tell Ryan we were having a chat and she’d help them when she could.

  “Okay,” Paige said. She smiled at him and squeezed my hand. “I’ve got to go. But thanks for talking to me. We can talk as soon as I finish with the committee.”

  And she and Ryan left me standing there.

  This was ridiculous. I hurried away from the fire and walked across the grass and to the sidewalk, my shoes thudding on the pavement. Obviously, Homecoming came before best friends.

  I took a breath and I saw Jacob’s face in the firelight. I sighed, wishing I could think of anything else. But now my mind was stuck on him.

  He was single.

  I was on my own.

  But it didn’t matter. We had to stay apart.

  17

  “spirit” day? don’t think so.

  WHEN PAIGE AND I WOKE UP, WE WERE BOTH quiet. It was Spirit Day, but it definitely didn’t feel like that in our dorm. We didn’t say much as we got dressed. I pulled on a hunter green skirt over black leggings and a gold T-shirt. Paige dressed in dark green cords and a white T-shirt with gold stitching.

  Neither of us said a word as we brushed our teeth, flatironed our hair, and put on makeup. It was the most awkward morning we’d ever had.