17. Mandy
“I’m tired of placing second to Jed,” Tommy says. “Aren’t you?”
I blink. “I’d love to be second. So far, I’ve been dead last each time.” I can’t help chuckling. “Guess you’re realizing that you chose poorly.”
“I like a dark horse.”
But then they’re telling us the obstacle course—which involves riding and roping—and it looks hard. Mr. Wallace is leading a pair of horses up to the entrance by the squeeze chute, and they’ve uncovered the contents of two more tents. One covered two sets of poles we’ll have to run—easy—but the other was hiding a pile of old bags and crinkly tree branches we’ll have to ride across. . .on unknown horses.
We’ll be lucky not to break our necks.
“You take the poles,” Tommy says, “and I’ll?—”
“And for the final part,” Principal Lyons says, “you’ll need to rope one of these sheep.” He gestures to the sheep they’re leading to a pen in the far corner.
“Never mind.” Tommy’s smiling. “We only have two of us, and both of us can ride. “You do the poles and the spooky crinkle run, and I’ll take over for the roping.”
I don’t even bother arguing, because there’s no way Jed can beat Tommy once we get to the roping part. No one in the entire county can beat Tommy at roping and tying. And hopefully they gave us horses who won’t try to kill us when walking over a few tarps and feed bags.
A girl can dream.
I’m climbing up on the little buckskin Mr. Wallace hands me the reins for, while Jerry’s mounting the leggy sorrel. “Do we know what these horses are used to doing?” I ask.
“They’ve both run the course,” Mr. Wallace says. “We’re not trying to break anyone’s neck.”
“But I can’t ride,” Denise wails. “We don’t even have horses.” Her family owns the auto repair shop, and her dad has famously said anyone who rides horses is an idiot.
“Looks like Mandy’s found some luck finally,” Tommy says.
And then they wave us forward. I fly through the poles course—my buckskin gelding is a champ, and very willing. We come out at least a horse length ahead of stupid Jerry and his sorrel, and I shoot toward the crinkle pile.
“Wait,” Jed says. “If they had a third member, they’d have to mount and dismount before they could go to the next part.”
“You’ll have to get off and back on,” Mr. Wallace says. “It’s the only way to keep things fair.”
I roll my eyes, because what parts have been fair up until now? But I swing off.
Just as some kind of noise from the audience spooks my buckskin, who darts ahead. I barely keep my hands on the reins, popping the poor guy in the mouth to stop him. He swings around, dancing backward, his eyes rolling, his sides heaving, but I manage to calm him down and tug him back to my side.
Meanwhile, I’ve lost my lead. Denise is being helped up onto the skittish sorrel, which is clearly looking around for whatever spooked my buckskin, when I see it.
A small blue sticker flutters down from Denise’s elbow.
“Wait,” I shout. “Denise is dead.”
“What?” Jed asks.
Everyone in the arena has frozen.
I point at the tiny sticker. “That fell off her elbow.”
“What do we do now?” Tommy asks.
“Jerry will have to take over,” Principal Lyons says. “But we’ll postpone the vote until the end of the obstacle course.”
That’s a stroke of luck for Jed—but then I realize, it’s not. Jed killed his own teammate because she was a liability. I’m annoyed, but also a little impressed. Too bad it didn’t really help him much.
I swing back up and manage to get the jump on Jerry. My buckskin doesn’t mind the tarps, but he hates the tree branches, whereas Jerry’s sorrel just tromps right across all of it.
They’re ahead of us when I finally charge through and toward where Jed and Tommy are waiting. They’re arguing when I pull up, but they both shut up as we approach.
I don’t wait for a complete stop before I swing off, and I practically throw the reins at Tommy. “Go, go, go! We need that broom!”
But Jed’s smiling at Tommy. He doesn’t care whether Tommy gets the broom. Because he knows Tommy’s the stepmother. I close my eyes and exhale. I’m pretty sure I’ve just been played.
I watch as Tommy ropes the sheep in half the time it takes Jed, and Principal Lyons awards him a broomstick with a flourish. Then Tommy wheels our cute little buckskin around, rides over to my side, dirt clods spraying, and tosses me the broom.
His horse, predictably, freaks out. You really shouldn’t ever throw things around a horse, even one you know. But Tommy calms him down, and I catch the broom. Before they can push for another stupid vote, I shout, “Jedediah Brooks, I know you’re the witch.” I start running across the arena. “And as Gretel, I’m here to slay you and save my brother.”
Jed looks utterly floored.
I jab him with the end of the broom, and even though he’s sitting on a horse, I manage to strike his stomach.
“Wow,” Principal Lyons says. “That was even more exciting than we had hoped it might be.”
Mrs. Lyons nods. “I suppose we have a winner. Gretel has saved her brother Hansel, and she has vanquished both the stepmother and the witch.”
The audience cheers.
Even more surprisingly, they all vote, and the audience, Principal and Mrs. Lyons all vote me in as prom queen. It happens so fast that it feels like I’m reeling. “But I got dead last in everything.” I blink.
“But you managed to convince Tommy to betray his own best interests,” Mrs. Lyons says. “That shows an impressive amount of team building. Your showing in the horse was admirable, too. But, because Jed beat Tommy each time, and because Tommy turned on his own teammate, he loses. For the second year in a row, Amanda Saddler and Jedediah Brooks are our prom king and queen,” Mrs. Lyons says. “Congratulations to them both!”
Technically last year, we were just the prince and princess, and Jed skipped out on prom, so I think he should forfeit his title. I don’t point any of that out, and when I look around to joke about it with Tommy, I’m alarmed to realize that he’s gone.
But they’ve released Clyde from his cage, and he’s now strolling across the arena toward me and Jed. “Nice work, little brother. You didn’t embarrass the Brooks family name.”
Jed looks like he might snatch the broomstick away from me and impale his brother with the very blunt end. I grab Jed’s hand and wave with my free hand as I tug him toward the edge of the arena. “We need to talk.”
He’s resisting, but not nearly as much as he would have been a few months—heck, even a week ago. We do manage to jog nearly to the opposite end of where the audience is now spreading across the arena dirt.
“You are going to talk to me for once,” I say. “Because if we’re supposed to be prom queen and king together, you’re going to have to.” I drop my hands to my hips, releasing him.
“What would I even say?” Jed asks.
“You could tell me how you’re feeling, having Clyde here.”
He shrugs.
“Or you could tell me that you’ve been an idiot for the past two years.”
His scowl deepens.
“You could congratulate me on winning,” I say.
“You only won because Tommy threw you the win.” He crosses his arms.
“So what?” I ask. “He’s my friend, and?—”
“You have a lot of friends,” Jed mutters. “That’s the problem.”
“Only because my best friend stopped talking to me,” I say. “Who would you say is to blame for that?” I arch one eyebrow.
“I’ve always been your friend.” Jed’s still scowling.
“Oh, yes,” I say. “I can see that. Most people’s friends never talk to them, and they scowl all the time, and they refuse to do anything with them.”
“Who do you think has cut all your wood for the last two years?”
“What?” I blink. “What are you talking about?”
“Or what about your fences?” he asks. “You think they’ve been mending themselves?”
“Jed, are you saying?—”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”
I shake my head. “I don’t do that stuff. My dad does.”
His mouth opens, but he doesn’t speak.
“Have you really been coming to my house and chopping firewood?”
He sighs. “Not that it matters, apparently.”
“But why would you?—”
“Hey, gorgeous.” Clyde has finally reached us, and he waves. “They want a photo of Hansel and Gretel for the school yearbook.”
“They—what?” I shake my head. “Don’t be stupid.”
But Principal Lyons is actually waving us over.
“They’ll get photos of the prom king and queen later,” Clyde says. “Don’t be sore. Just come on over and smile.”
Only Clyde Brooks would somehow figure out how to be featured in the school’s yearbook two full years after he’d already graduated. “I’ll be over in a second.”
“Just go,” Jed says. “It’s not like we have anything else to talk about.” He’s scowling as much as he ever was.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” I shove Clyde’s arm. “Stop being such a nuisance and give me a second.”
Clyde’s eyes dart between Jed and me. “Is there something going on?—”
Jed kicks the ground, spraying dirt all over his brother. “Just go for once, will you?”
Clyde, covered in a spray of dirt, finally walks away, his eyes wide. “Calm down. Geez.”
“It’s a waste of time,” Jed says. “You and I are doomed, and we always have been. The timing’s always wrong. The universe is stacked against us.”
“That’s a little dramatic,” I say. “If you’d been willing to talk to me?—”
“I couldn’t,” Jed says. “I’ve tried, believe me, but I keep thinking. . .” He sighs. “Just go, get your photo, and then go home.”
I realize that we’re not going to get anywhere big right now, not with a dozen people watching us, but at least he’s talking to me. It’s progress, right? It has to be.
After my photo with Clyde, I look around for Tommy, but both he and Jed are gone. I can’t find them anywhere. I try riding my bike to Jed’s house to talk to him more, but his family isn’t home. They must have gone out to get food or something.
I should go home. I should tell my mom and dad what happened before they hear about it from, well, from most anyone. But instead, I find myself pedaling over to Tommy’s place. “Just to tell him thank you,” I tell myself.
But in the moment they announced that I had won, and that Jed and I would be prom king and queen, and in the second that Jed actually spoke to me, I wasn’t as elated as I thought I’d be.
I was confused.
Over the past two years, I’ve thought a few times that maybe, just maybe, Tommy and I. . .but each time, I’ve been wrong. Tommy has always inadvertently shown me just how wrong I was.
I told myself I’d never find myself here again.
But I can’t help it.
I pedal to Tommy’s house with the flimsy excuse that I need to thank him, but really, I want to tell him that I like him. It’s not the same as I felt about Clyde, or even about Jed, either. No, when I think about Tommy, I’m not elated or excited or fizzy.
I’m nervous.
I want to crawl out of my own skin and dance around. I feel far too small for my own body, and I want to touch his hand, and the thought of that makes me want to die somehow, too.
It’s confusing and stressful and I can’t not see him.
Even if I’m about to look like an idiot yet again.
Only, when I get to Tommy’s house, he and his mom are loading his dad up in the car, and his mom’s crying, and I watch stupidly as they drive away, bound for the hospital in Vernal.
The next morning, I hear that his dad died.
A few days later, Tommy and his mother are both gone, never to return.