Fire With Fire by Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian Read Free Book Online

me, of course. But she does walk over to Melanie and tell
her to work on her timing.
In the locker room when we’re getting changed, Rennie
invites Ashlin to come to her house for dinner. She does it
right in front of me. Ash says, “Yeah!” and then, when she
remembers that I’m standing there, she frowns and asks,
“What about you, Lil? Come with?”
Rennie immediately turns her back to me and faces her
locker, so I know I’m not welcome.
“Can’t. I have to go to the stables.” I don’t really have to
go, but I’ve been meaning to for weeks. Nadia’s been riding
Phantom much more than I have lately. I don’t want him to
forget me. Plus, I don’t want to seem like I care. Monday is
pizza night at Rennie’s house, and I don’t love the place where
they order from. They put way too much sauce on, in my
opinion.
Rennie snorts at my excuse. She’s never liked Phantom.
She tried to ride him once, but as soon as she was in the
saddle, he started trotting sideways, because Rennie had her
legs squeezed around him and his bridle pulled left. I told
her to lift up on the reins, but instead she freaked out and
jumped right off him while he was moving! She fell hard on
the ground and skinned both her knees in the dirt. The stable
guys ran over to help her up, but they were yelling at her too,
because it is very dangerous to dismount a horse that way.
Rennie was so embarrassed. She went and pouted in the parking lot by herself while I led Phantom back to his stable and
got his saddle off.
I drop Nadia off at our house. At every stop sign I wait to
see if she’ll say anything about the way Rennie’s been acting,
if she’s noticed the cold shoulder, but Nadia spends the whole
ride texting her friends.
As I drive over to the stable, I can’t help but think that Kat
and Mary would never do something like this to me. Ice me
out of the group for no reason. I decide to call Mary’s house
and throw Kat a text, to see if they want to meet at the stables
and hang out a for a bit. I bet Mary will love Phantom. I’ll
even show her how to brush him.
Kat texts me back right away. Horseshit?! I’m soooo in! I
laugh out loud, and it already makes me feel better.
I call Mary’s house and her aunt answers. Her voice sounds
groggy, like she was sleeping. “Hello?”
“Hi, is Mary home?” I ask her.
There’s silence on the other end.
So I go ahead and say, “This is Lillia; I’m a friend of Mary’s.
I’m calling to invite her to the stables to go horseback riding
this afternoon.” More silence. “So . . . if you could give her
that message, that would be great.”
There’s heavy breathing. Then a click and a dial tone.
She hung up on me! I know Mary said her aunt’s kind of
weird, but geez. That was freaky. I swear, I’m getting her a cell
for Christmas.
I get to the stables too late to ride, so I head to Phantom’s
stall to groom him. He stands perfectly still while I brush his
coat. I whisper to him as I pull the bristles through, and he
shines like black velvet. When I get to his neck, he keeps trying to turn his head and nuzzle me.
When Nadia comes to ride Phantom, she always asks the stable
guys to brush him down and scrape the mud out of his hooves for
her. But that’s my favorite part of riding him. You have to build up
trust with your horse. And I trust Phantom completely. I know
he’d never hurt me. Even though I haven’t been here to see him in
weeks, he greets me like no time at all has passed. I used to be so in
love with Phantom I would have slept at the barn if my mom had
let me. When did that feeling go away? When I started cheering?
I wonder if Phantom noticed, if it made him sad that I stopped
coming around so much. The thought makes me want to cry.
One of the stable guys knocks on the door. “You’ve got
someone here to see you, Lillia.”
“Oh, great.” I peer out of the stall, down the length of the
barn. There’s Kat, her fingers pinching her nose closed. I wave
my arm at her. “Down