The A Circuit 04- Rein It In by Georgina Bloomberg

his head.
    “Easy,” Kate said, reeling him in and nudging him back over.
    The pony soon settled and Kate stifled a yawn, deciding there was no point in trying to guess when she might actually make it to sleep that night. Still, she couldn’t help wondering what time her friends had gone to bed. Zara had said something about trying to hit some party the juniors from a different barn were throwing, but Tommi and Marissa had seemed skeptical. In any case, Kate was sure that all of them had been snoring away in their hotel rooms for at least the past couple of hours. And would probably still be sound asleep when Kate arrived back at the showgrounds to help the grooms feed …
    Realizing she was sinking into a pity party, she did her best to shake it off and focus on what she was doing. This was what she’d signed on for, right? This was the life she loved, living and breathing horses and showing and all the rest. The onlyway she could be a part of this world was through hard work and long hours. Sometimes really long hours.
    And that was okay. Even at times like this, when she was so tired she was yawning every ten seconds and could hardly muster the strength to keep her grip on the reins, she felt lucky and grateful to be here. It wasn’t easy, but it was her life—the only life she could imagine. If her parents and her teachers could just understand that and maybe cut her some slack once in a while …
    “Heads up!” a voice rang out.
    With a burst of adrenaline, Kate realized she’d drifted into the path of the lumbering chestnut as it headed toward a jump. She quickly kicked Dazzle into a canter to circle out of the way.
    “Sorry!” she called to the other rider.
    Shaking her head to clear it, she did her best to banish all thoughts of schoolwork, her parents, and the rest. She could worry about that stuff later. Right now she had a job to do.

Chapter Five
    “I can’t believe it’s Saturday already—it feels like we just got here like two seconds ago, I swear,” Marissa chattered, her words coming so fast Zara had trouble following them. “Where did the week go?”
    “You got me.” Zara grabbed the rag out of Marissa’s hand before she could spook her cross-tied horse by flapping it around. The girl got nervous before every class, but this was ridiculous. “Trust me, I’m not exactly thrilled about going back to school in two days. I doubt I’ve even finished half the crap my teachers gave me to do.”
    “You and me both,” Tommi put in, glancing up from the next set of cross-ties, where she was tightening her junior hunter’s girth.
    Summer was leaning against the wall nearby, watching Tommi and Marissa get ready for their large junior hunter under saddle class, though Zara noticed she didn’t seem to feel any need to help like Zara and Fitz were doing.
    “I got all my homework done yesterday,” Summer announced,studying her manicure. “I wanted to enjoy the last weekend of the show without school stuff getting in my way.”
    “Well, aren’t you special,” Zara said with a snort. “I guess every barn needs a resident nerd.”
    Summer frowned, while everyone else laughed. Well, almost everyone. Kate was dashing around helping with this and that—rubbing a little more oil on the horses’ hooves, wiping an invisible spot off Marissa’s saddle flap, whatever. It made Zara tired to watch her, especially since Kate seemed even more stressed than the two people who were actually about to ride in the class.
    “We’d better hurry.” Tommi pushed back the cuff of her jacket to check her watch. “Where’d I put my bridle?”
    “Here it is.” Kate lunged across the grooming area and grabbed a bridle off a hook. “I’ll help you.”
    “Can you help me, too?” Marissa begged, clutching her own bridle so hard her knuckles were white. “I’m a total fumble fingers when I’m nervous.”
    “Got you covered,” Zara said, stepping forward. She took the bridle from Marissa and slung the reins