Cheers, Chocolate and Other Disasters Read online

  Celine said, “Come on into the kitchen. You can sit at the bar, and I’ll get some snacks.”

  A few minutes later, Julie, Jaime, and Celine were laughing and talking like they’d been friends forever, while I nibbled on chips and sipped my soda. I licked my lips, savoring the salty rim the chips left. The soda was cold and crisp going down my sore throat, but I almost choked on it when I heard some of the things Celine told the J’s. The way they ate up all the stuff she told them about her very rich life in New York made them look as if they were hypnotized. I wasn’t buying it.

  I felt neglected and angry. The J’s and I were best friends. Now this Celine chick popped up out of nowhere, and they were acting like I wasn’t even in the same room.

  I slipped off the stool and looked at the horse pictures. Across the hall was an open door leading to another large room. Since no one had even noticed I wasn’t at the bar, I walked over and peered inside. There were two big desks covered with computers, monitors, and more telephones than we had in our whole house.

  Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder. It hurt so bad I thought someone had put me in a vice.

  A rough voice said, “Who are you and what are you doing snooping around? Answer me!”

  I struggled to turn around and wished I hadn’t. The woman holding me looked positively evil. She was tall and skinny, with blunt cut black hair that barely touched her shoulders, and the meanest eyes I’d ever seen. Her face was broad and covered by acne pits. A long scar ran from the corner of her left eye, across her nose, down her right cheek and disappeared somewhere under her shoulder-length hair.

  For the first time in my life, I knew exactly what that old cliché meant about something ‘making your skin crawl’.

  She grabbed my other shoulder and shook me. Her hands were big, almost like a man’s, and they felt like steel.

  I cleared my throat and tried not to sound as scared as I felt. “Uh, my friends and I…we…uh…we’re here with Celine. I was just looking at all the horse pictures and saw this room. I’m sorry if I did anything wrong.”

  The woman looked me over from head to toe, then gave me a hard push. “Go back to your friends, and don’t ever let me catch you anywhere near this room again. You hear me?”

  I felt like saying, “Or what?” but figured that might not be such a good idea. I nodded and backed away. Still scowling, she went into the room and slammed the door.

  I walked back to where the J’s and Celine were sitting. They were still laughing and talking. Obviously, they hadn’t even noticed I’d been gone.

  “Hey,” I said abruptly, “it’s been fun, but I have homework and barn chores to do. Julie and Jaime, we still have more work to do on the history project. What time do you want to come over tonight so we can work on it?”

  The J’s looked at each other. “Um, AJ, since Celine is new and doesn’t have a science partner, she’s going to work with us. We’re coming back here tonight. That way we can show her what we are doing, so she can catch up.” Julie didn’t look at me.

  It got real quiet all of a sudden. The J’s had funny little half-smiles on their faces, but Celine definitely had a smirk on hers. Yeah, they were hypnotized all right.

  “Fine, do what you want. I have to go.” I strolled out of the kitchen, deliberately brushing some chip crumbs from my shirt on the snowy white carpet. I slammed the front door, pulled on my shoes, and ran down the driveway.

  At home, I took an apple out of the refrigerator and stalked out to clean the stalls. I put my apple on the wood rail on Sunni’s stall and the next thing I heard was her chomping. Sunni loved apples, and I knew better than to leave one where she could get it. Terrific! Some weird blonde was stealing my friends and now my mare was stealing my snack. I snarled at her the whole time I was cleaning stalls, but she just kept right on chomping. Every once in a while, I looked over at her, and she stared back at me with those big brown eyes, like “What did I do?” Of course, I melted and went over to give her a pat.

  While I was cleaning the stalls, my thoughts veered from the way the J’s were behaving to that strange room in Celine’s house. My parents each had a home office, but neither looked like that. There were at least six different computers and monitors, plus some other electronic machines I didn’t recognize. I couldn’t figure out why they would need all those telephones in one house…well, actually, in one room. The woman who grabbed me sure didn’t look like any housekeeper to me. I wondered what kind of family Celine came from.

  The next morning Julie came by with Celine. Big surprise. Celine’s yellow-checked shirt was tucked into pressed jeans and she wore the same polished boots. Her tiny waist was emphasized by a wide black belt and shiny silver buckle. Aaghh!

  At least today my jeans and sweater were clean, but my boots were the ones I mucked stalls in. They were old, comfortable, and dirty. They smelled. Too bad. Julie had on her usual outfit of old jeans and boots, with a sweatshirt that came almost to her knees. When we picked up Jaime, she had on her best jeans, and what’s more, they were pressed. She even had on her good riding boots.

  “Gee, Jaime, what’s with the pressed jeans and your dress boots? You trying out for a fashion show or something?” Julie and I both started giggling.

  Jaime blushed. “AJ, what’s wrong with ironing my jeans? They came out of the drier all wrinkled, so I ironed them. And, uh, well, my regular boots were really dirty and I didn’t have time to clean them, so I just put on my good ones. Besides, what difference does it make? Are you the clothes warden now?” Jaime was getting mad. I guess she didn’t think I would notice she was dressed almost like Celine.

  “No, but you never dress that way for school. I just thought it was funny.”

  Jaime glared at me, so I shut up. I glanced at Celine out of the corner of my eye, and she was smirking. I was going to see a lot of that smirk in the next few months.

  At school, we climbed the wide stone steps to the front door. West Haven Middle School spread out on two sides from a dome-topped rotunda in the center. The first time I saw it, it reminded me of a bald-headed man holding his arms out.

  We walked into the rotunda, and Celine said, “That’s the biggest statue of a horse I’ve ever seen. Why is it here in the middle of the entrance?”

  Julie laughed. “Well, before the town of West Haven was built, herds of wild horses roamed around here. My mom says when they built this school they wanted to honor all of those horses, so that’s why it’s here. Everybody loves this horse, so don’t let anyone hear you making fun of it.”

  “Yeah, especially not our principal, Mr. Fox. He walks up and down the corridors and you never hear him until he reaches out and grabs you. We all think he must be part fox like his name. He stalks his prey and then pounces!” Jaime curled her hands into claws and jumped at Celine. The J’s and I started giggling, but Celine drew her mouth down into a sneer and raised one eyebrow. I guess she thought we were being childish.

  We hurried past the horse and down one of the hallways leading to the classrooms. As usual, the halls were ripe with the odors of boy sweat, cheap girl perfume, and the fruity aromas of forbidden chewing gum. I could see Celine wrinkling her nose. I wondered if the school where she came from had some kind of exotic smells ours didn’t have.

  I couldn’t seem to get rid of Celine. Everywhere I looked, she was there — in my social studies class (she wasn’t there yesterday), walking down the hall with that cute boy from my math class…the one I tried to get to notice me and he wouldn’t. She wasn’t in our math class, so I wondered how she met him.

  And, of course, when the J’s and I had lunch and walked home, Celine was right in the middle of everything. She had only been here two days and she was already becoming a permanent fixture in our lives. That really sucked.

  * * * *

  Thursday Celine wasn’t in school. I was so happy because it was just the J’s and me again. After school, we went to my house, and Jaime immediately went to my dresser, got out some n
ail polish, and jumped on my bed to polish her toenails. It was like old times, until she said, “AJ, how come your father is never here anymore?” She was looking intently at her toes while she applied the bright red polish.

  My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. I didn’t want to answer that question. Mainly because I didn’t really have an answer.

  Julie looked at me. “Jaime, don’t be such a dork. That’s not any of our business. You’re being nosey.”

  I was still trying to come up with an answer when Jaime said, “There! Did you ever see such bee… uu…ti…ful toes in your whole life? I’m not being nosey, I just want to know. I mean, he’s here for a day or two and then he leaves for a long time. And when he is here, you always seem unhappy. What’s going on, anyway?”

  She looked over at me. “Oh, gosh, AJ, I’m sorry. Are you going to cry? I’ll shut up, honest.”

  Julie slid off the bed and put her arm around me. “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell us anything, and we’re not going to say another word, are we?” I saw her glare at Jaime.

  I walked over to the window and started twisting the blinds. When I could talk around the lump in my throat, I turned around. “You know my dad’s an attorney for a national corporation. Well, he’s got clients all over the country, and he’s gone all the time to wherever they live, so he can represent them in court.”

  Jaime edged away from Julie, like she was afraid Julie would hit her when she asked the next question. “Oh. Well, it seems like you would be really happy to see him, then, when he does get a chance to come home. But you don’t act that way.”

  “Jaime!” Julie looked embarrassed.

  I sat on the floor and leaned against the bed. “Okay, I’ll tell you why. Something happened at the National’s in July. I was going to tell you about it, but I just never got around to it. After we won, I was in the barn unsaddling Sunni when Dad came in with this man. Well, I’d just won a national championship, so of course I thought he was going to make a big deal about it. But instead, he told me the man wanted to buy Sunni, and he would give me twenty thousand dollars for her.”

  Julie and Jaime looked at each other. “Sell Sunni! Oh my gosh, AJ, you’re not going to sell her, are you?” Julie asked.

  “No, of course not.” I was impatient. “Quit interrupting and let me tell you the whole story. The man was Mr. Ferris, and his daughter had come in fourth, so I knew why he wanted to buy Sunni. And twenty thousand dollars! Wow, that was more money than I ever heard of. But I said, ‘Dad, what are you talking about? Sunni isn’t for sale.’”

  “He said it was a good offer, and I could use the money for college. I couldn’t believe he said that. I’m only thirteen, why should I be thinking about college? Anyway, I just ignored him and went back to brushing Sunni.

  “Dad got mad and started yelling at me, so I yelled back. I told him Sunni was not for sale and I didn’t know why he would think she was. I threw the brush across the floor and took Sunni into her stall. Then Dad and Mr. Ferris left, and Mr. Ferris said something about my dad being in trouble if he let me talk to him that way. I don’t know what Dad said but I know he was mad at me.”

  Jaime said, “Twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money, AJ. But I wonder why your dad thought you would sell Sunni, even for that?”

  “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t sell her for a million dollars. I’ve raised her from a foal, and I love her with all my heart. I don’t care what Dad says, I won’t sell her. But…”

  “But what? Geeze, now you’re sad again. I’m sorry we even started this conversation.” Julie looked as if she was going to cry.

  “No, it’s okay. I’m not happy when Dad is home because now all he wants to talk about is selling Sunni. Even when he calls while he’s gone, he keeps bringing it up. My dad and I used to be so close, closer than he was to Andrew or the twins. We started team penning together when I was eight. I could always talk to him about anything. Then when he had that accident with his horse two years ago…”

  Julie interrupted me. “Was that when you stopped riding together?”

  “Yeah, the back injury prevents him from riding, and it really changed him. He doesn’t even want to be around the horses, and for some reason, I can’t get close to him anymore, either. It really hurts.”

  I refused to cry, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from filling with tears.

  “I’m so sorry, AJ.” Jaime’s voice was soft, and so was her cheek when she leaned it against my face.

  “Um…there’s something else, too. He and my mom aren’t getting along at all. I don’t know what’s going on, but they either fight a lot or don’t talk at all except when they are being really polite to each other.”

  Now why did you tell them that? My pesky inner voice was practically shouting in my ear.

  The J’s were quiet, which was unusual for them. I pretended to fiddle with my boot and looked at them sideways. They were making faces at each other, which I knew meant one of them…probably Julie…was telling the other to shut up and change the subject.

  After a minute I said, “Um, look, we need to finish the history project. Can you guys come over after dinner so we can work on it?”

  Julie began shredding the wrapper from the candy bar she had just eaten.

  “Oh, Jules, come on! You’re not going to tell me you’ve lost your notes again, are you?”

  She looked over at Jaime. “Well, Jaime can’t find hers, either.”

  I had never figured out how they could be almost straight A students when they were forever losing notes and always put off studying for a test until the night before. If I did that, my grades would go down the tubes.

  “Well, don’t panic. We’ll just work off of mine. Let’s set a time after dinner, ’cause I’ve got barn chores to do now.”

  When they left, I picked up the mess Jaime had left on my bed and headed for the barn. That night was the last time we worked together on the project. Celine was back in school the next day, and that’s when my life started falling apart for real.

  Chapter Three

  Trouble Begins

  On the way home Friday afternoon, Celine said, “AJ, Julie and Jaime told me you have a champion mare. What is she a champion of?”

  I frowned at the J’s. I didn’t see why they had to tell her anything about me.

  “Sunni and I are the Junior National Team Penning Champions.” I left it at that. If she didn’t know what team penning was, that was her problem.

  “Oh. Well, can I come and see her?”

  I stopped. The last thing in the world I wanted was to have Celine anywhere near my house or my barn, but I didn’t know how to get out of it. I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why? She’s a Quarter Horse, not a Thoroughbred like you have.”

  Jaime laughed. “Come on, AJ, don’t be such a doofus! She just wants to see Sunni.”

  I glared at Jaime, but turned around and led the way around my house to the barn.

  Celine walked in ahead of me, but turned around with her nose wrinkled up and a look of disgust on her face. “My gosh, AJ, I don’t want to go in there. Your barn stinks! Isn’t it ever cleaned?”

  I looked at her in astonishment. Our barn didn’t stink. It smelled like barns were supposed to smell — the sweat of horses mixed with the oily scent of just-cleaned leathers; fresh-cut hay, the sticky-sweet aroma of alfalfa and molasses feed, and the woodsy fragrance of pine shavings used for bedding the stalls. Even the faint odor of horse manure which always lingers in the air didn’t make it stink. Besides, our barn was the only one in town that had been featured in our local paper.

  Celine was looking at me, her nose still wrinkled and another smirk on her face. I started to say something when Jaime said, “Gee, Celine, you’re right. I never noticed that before. AJ, your barn does stink!”

  “The barn doesn’t stink. It smells like every other barn. What’s your problem, anyway, Celine? You’ve got horses, don’t you ever go into your barn?”

  Without giving her a chance t
o answer, I turned to Jaime. “Can it, Jaime! Your barn doesn’t smell any different from mine. I’ve been there too many times, remember? What’s with you, anyway? You have to mimic everything Celine says?”

  Celine’s voice was slimy with insincerity, “Oh, I’m sorry, AJ. I didn’t realize you had to clean the barn yourself. I guess you have to groom your own horses, too, don’t you? We have stable hands who keep the barn clean and grooms to brush and saddle the horses. I don’t ever have to go into our barn.” Her smile was triumphant.

  I hate people who bragged, so I ignored her. I looked at Jaime to see if she was going to answer my question, but she turned away. “Come on, Julie, we need to get home.”

  “Oh, I thought Celine wanted to see my champion mare?” I tried to make my voice as frosty as a snow cone.

  “Well, AJ, if she comes from a barn like this, she can’t be much of a champion.” Celine’s voice dripped venom, and there was a malicious glint in her eyes.

  I was so mad I could spit, but before I could reply, they turned around and walked away. I was glad to see them go, until I remembered the history project.

  “Hey, wait a minute, J’s. Are you coming over tonight to work on the last part of the history project? We’ve still got a couple of pages plus the bibliography.”

  They looked at Celine, and Jaime said, “Uh, well, I’ve got some things to do at home, so I can’t come over.”

  Julie mumbled, “Um, gee, I think I’m supposed to go shopping or something with my mom.” She dropped her head and refused to look at me.

  Okay, I thought, they’re going to be over at Celine’s tonight and I’m not invited. I’ll finish the project myself, but no way am I going to put their names on it. I don’t care if they both get an F. That’s a lie, said my little voice.