Preppy Little Liars

Chapter 1

Please note that this is a serialized version of my published novel. I will be posting two chapters a week until the conclusion. My main goal is to get more readers in my target audience and feedback for book two in the series, which is due out next spring. Any reviews will be greatly appreciated!

And now, onto the story.

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I watched in awe as Margaret Bean flew above her competition the day of our school's equestrian exhibition. And I'm not being hyperbolic-she actually flew.

She'd climbed up on her horse, Thunderbolt, with the ease of a practiced jockey and gripped his reins in her Hulk-like hands. She was poised and confident, and she dwarfed all the other girls on horseback. It always amused me that the way she was built belied her last name: she was huge for a girl. Like WrestleMania big.

When her massive frame got tossed from Thunderbolt's back and vaulted through the air like an Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast, it was surreal, like a Monty Python sketch come to life. Who knew someone with that much heft could get such great height?

We all sat with our mouths open as Margaret's shriek echoed around the course. "We" being myself and 200 students and faculty at Haverton Prep. Some people gasped, others laughed, but most of us were barely breathing. It was almost like we thought our collective air deprivation could keep Margaret suspended in the air forever.

It didn't work. She hit the ground with a sickening thud. Thunderbolt galloped back towards the stable leaving his rider moaning and groaning on the freshly cut grass.

Well, at least she was alive. Though she probably wanted to die of embarrassment.

"Yo, Meg-did you see that?"

I grinned at Stephen as he hopped down the bleachers and slid into an empty seat beside me.

"No, I suddenly went blind in the last thirty seconds."

He tilted his head and grinned back.

"Did I ever tell you how funny you're not?"

I punched him in the shoulder and he feigned hurt.

Stephen and I were on the Haverton Gazette together, he as our resident photographer and me as a features reporter. So I wasn't the least bit surprised when he whipped out his digital camera and started snapping shots at the field.

I was surprised it wasn't his long lens.

"Could you be anymore insensitive?"

"What?" he said, looking over his shoulder at me for a brief moment before turning back to his subject. "This will make a kickass photo editorial."

"Yeah. Too bad you didn't get pics of her mid-flight."

His shooting finger paused over the clicker. "You think she'd re-enact that part?"

I rolled my eyes and watched as Margaret was carted off the course on a stretcher. Stephen's flash flickered like fireflies in the background.

I felt sorry for Margaret. She was undoubtedly the best rider in our school and the regional equestrian competition was in two weeks. She would miss it, and lose out on the gold medal, all because of some freak accident. Worse, our team would lose regionals and Kitty Cooper would lose her shit.

No one was safe when Kitty was on the warpath.

Kitty Cooper was Margaret's teammate and the class mean girl. She was also my arch-nemesis. I'd had the misfortune of being paired with her for a debate project freshman year and when I'd invited her over after school to work on our presentation, she spent most of the time making snide comments about my "quaint little house." And when she wasn't constantly putting down my home and my parents, she kept rewriting my discussion points because, according to her, my arguments were "uninformed and unintelligent." I could only imagine what she'd say about Margaret's little display on the field that day.