Free Wild Horse Spring by Lisa Williams Kline Page B

off, Cody gave the ATV gas with a flick of his wrist. With a jerk that snapped my head back, we tore after them. I closed my eyes and tightened my hold on his waist, pressing my cheek against his back. Diana’s arms wrapped even more tightly around me. The ATV leaped forward, bumping over the dunes and picking up speed, and we closed the gap between us. My heart was beating so hard I could barely breathe. When our ATV was a few yards behind them, Diana yelled, “Stop chasing the horses!” But with the noise of the three vehicles, there was no way to hear.
    The boys turned and glanced at us and then picked up their speed. They began to pull away, following the horses that had all raced out of sight to the left of a stand of live oaks, except two foals in the rear, struggling to keep up with their mothers.
    Cody, with another flick of his wrist, upped our speed. “I’m going to cut them off,” he yelled back at me, and headed out to the right of the oaks.
    I buried my face on his shoulder. As we curved around the trees, we spotted the horses on the other side, racing for a flat, marshy area just beyond us. Cody cut behind them and kept going straight, and in the next second, the other two boys emerged from theopposite side. They veered to our right to try to get by us and stay with the horses, but Cody stayed on target, aiming right at them.
    “Hey!” Curly shouted. “Watch out!”
    Cody didn’t flinch. He kept going, heading directly for them.
    “Cody!” I screamed, burying my head in his back.
    The others, at the last minute, slammed on their brakes and skidded, brakes squealing, throwing up chunks of black dirt.
    “What are you doing?” Buzz Cut screamed.
    Cody hit the brakes and turned the handlebars into a skid so quickly, Diana and I both went flying.
    I landed in a heap on the sand, sliding along my side, but I had so much adrenaline, I hardly felt a thing. As I scrambled to my feet, Diana was already up, screaming at the boys, shaking her fist at them.
    “How dare you! Stop it! Stop chasing the horses!”
    “What’s wrong with you? What the hell were you doing?” yelled Curly.
    “She said don’t chase the horses!” Cody said.
    “Are you kidding?” said Buzz Cut. “Are you trying to kill us, you moron?”
    “Stay out of our way, you stupid idiots!” yelled Curly.
    When those words came out of their mouths, I felt like someone had just slapped me in the face.
    “Shut up!” Diana shouted. “These horses are defenseless! They aren’t hurting you! Leave them alone!”
    “You shut up!” said Buzz Cut. “Come on, Jesse. Let’s get outta here.”
    My chin had begun to tremble, and I was afraid I would cry if I tried to talk.
    Curly revved his engine and spun away, deliberately trying to spray dirt in our faces. Buzz Cut lurched after him.
    “I’m going to report you!” Diana choked out, running after them.
    I was shaking all over.
    “Stephanie, are you okay?” said Cody.
    “I … I’m not sure.” I looked down and saw I had scrapes and bruises on both legs, and one of my arms was bleeding. “I … I just feel like someone beat me up. What were you doing? We could have crashed.”
    Cody shrugged. “Diana said to go after them.”
    “Do you do everything people tell you to do?”
    “Well, it worked,” said Diana. She was trying to brush sand and dirt from a scrape on her thigh. One of her elbows was bleeding. But she was looking at Cody with a new, respectful expression on her thin face.
    “Luckily!” I said.
    “Are you okay, Diana?” Cody asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “Whew.” I sat down on the ground, just to stop the trembling of my legs. “Imagine how scared those horses must have been, with people chasing them like that.”
    “I’m going to report them,” Diana said, wiping dirt from her cheek. “I met a lady who’s a volunteer for the Wild Horse Fund. I’m going to call them and tell them what we saw.”
    “What lady?” I said.
    “A lady named Sally. She told me to let