Hayride Read online

  “I guess she couldn’t get one of her underlings to exercise her today,” Stevie remarked. They each gave Garnet a quick pat.

  The “she” that Lisa and Stevie were referring to was Garnet’s owner, Veronica diAngelo. She was the one girl at Pine Hollow whom The Saddle Club had given up on liking. Although she rode—and rode fairly well—she usually did it more for appearances than for love of the sport. In fact, she often bribed, hired, or “allowed” other girls to exercise the mare when she couldn’t find the time. She liked being able to tell people she met, especially boys, how much her parents had spent buying Garnet for her. And the diAngelos liked having pictures in their living room of their daughter riding, as all the “best families” in town did.

  “Speaking of Veronica, do you think Carole’s going to invite her to the hayride?” Lisa asked as they led Topside and Barq out to the horseshoe.

  “I forgot about her,” Stevie said with distaste.

  “I guess she should probably come—it’s too mean to leave one person out.”

  “I guess even I have to agree with that,” Stevie said.

  “Agree with what?” Carole called. She was already mounted and walking Starlight in a businesslike manner. She wanted to teach him that even trail rides required good behavior.

  “We were just talking about whether you were really going to invite everyone our age from Pine Hollow,” Lisa said.

  “Oh, you mean, is Veronica invited?” Carole guessed.

  Stevie and Lisa nodded, laughing.

  “Yeah, I thought about that, and I decided I just can’t invite everyone but Veronica.”

  “That’s what we think, too,” Lisa said.

  “Yeah,” Stevie echoed. “Anyway, look on the bright side. If you invite her, you don’t have to worry about entertainment. She’ll put on a horror show all her own.”

  Carole grinned. “I’ll tell Dad to stop worrying. Who needs a clown or a magician when you’ve got Veronica?”

  Lisa and Stevie checked their girths and mounted, and the three girls turned their horses toward the woods. In front Carole set the pace, starting off at a brisk walk.

  When they got to the trail entrance, they saw another horse and rider coming in the opposite direction.

  “Looks like someone’s been out trail riding alone. Max wouldn’t like that,” Stevie said. Everyone at Pine Hollow knew that it was dangerous to go off by yourself: If you fell, there was no one to get help. “Can you see who it is?” she asked.

  “It’s Patch, but I don’t know who’s riding him,” replied Carole. Patch was a quiet school horse whom many of the beginners, including Lisa, had started on. Carole politely halted Starlight as the rider approached, and Lisa and Stevie followed suit.

  “Oh,” Lisa said with a groan. “That’s Simon Atherton. No wonder he’s out riding alone. He just started at Pine Hollow. I’m sure he doesn’t know any better.”

  “How do you know him?” Carole asked.

  “He’s in my class at school.” Both Lisa and Carole went to the regional public school, but Lisa was a grade ahead. Stevie attended a local private school, Fenton Hall.

  Simon grinned as he trotted up to them. “Gosh, Lisa, it’s great to see you out here,” he said.

  “Hello, Simon,” Lisa replied flatly. “These are my friends, Carole Hanson and Stephanie—Stevie for short—Lake.” She gestured at her friends.

  “Gosh, it’s great to meet you both,” said Simon, still grinning from ear to ear.

  Lisa said abruptly, “I guess we’d better keep going. The horses don’t seem to like standing here.”

  Carole and Stevie exchanged grins. It was true Barq, Starlight, and Topside were moving around impatiently, but Lisa knew as well as anyone that it was up to-the rider to control her horse at all times and never be controlled. Obviously, Lisa wasn’t interested in lingering to chat with Simon.

  “Okay, Lisa,” Simon said. He nodded in Carole and Stevie’s direction. “Nice to meet you. Have a great ride.”

  “We will. Thanks,” Lisa said.

  As they started off, Simon called over his shoulder, “See you bright and early, first-period math tomorrow, right?”

  “Right!” Lisa yelled. Then she muttered under her breath, “Thanks for reminding me.”

  Stevie and Carole giggled softly.

  “Not your type, huh, Lisa?” Stevie commented to her friend.

  Lisa just groaned again.

  At that moment they reached a grassy stretch, and Carole urged Starlight into a trot.

  They trotted for several minutes until they came to a stream that had to be navigated at a walk. Starlight put up a fuss about crossing it. He was only four years old and could still be silly about some things. He dug his hoof in at the water, but Carole steadied him with her firm seat and hands and made him step into it. After the first step, he was fine. “Good boy,” Carole told him several times, patting his neck. It was just as important to praise a young horse as it was to correct his faults, and Starlight seemed to remember praise much better than punishment.

  Topside and Barq walked right through the stream, barely even noticing it. They were both old hands—Topside an ex-show horse and Barq an experienced school horse.

  When they reached the other side, Carole stayed at a walk so that talk of the party could continue.

  “Okay, so who’ve we got as definites?” Carole asked.

  Stevie was eager to reply. “The way I see it, it’s the three of us, plus Veronica, Betsy Cavanaugh—she’s really gotten nicer since she’s been going out with James Spencer—Helen Sanderson, and both Megs—Meg Roberts and Meg Durham from Pine Hollow. Plus maybe Adam Levine—he’s not that cute, but he likes Meg Roberts. I mean Meg Durham. And then from school—”

  “No,” Lisa interrupted. “You mean he likes Meg Roberts. I saw them holding hands at the mall.”

  “Really?” Carole asked. “Because I heard from Helen’s twin brother Tom—the one that used to ride Comanche till he quit—that Meg Roberts told Meg Durham that she—Meg Durham—could have Adam Levine if she wanted because she—Meg Roberts—had met A.J. at a Pony Club meeting and she liked him better.”

  “Oh, no!” Stevie shook her head. “That’s not what happened at all. John O’Brien is in Tom’s class, and I heard him tell Adam that Tom was just saying that Meg Roberts liked A.J. because he heard A.J. liked her, and Tom wanted to help get them together, so that Tom could ask Meg Durham out himself, but of course John has a huge crush on Helen, and Tom keeps getting in the way whenever Adam goes to see Helen, so since Adam is mad at Tom, you can’t trust what he says about Meg.”

  “Durham?”

  “No, Roberts.”

  “Oh.”

  Carole digested Stevie’s information for a moment. “Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “So how about inviting Meg Roberts and A.J.; or Meg Roberts and John, Meg Durham and Tom; or Meg Durham and John, Betsy and James, Adam and Helen. And if John doesn’t work out with either of the Megs, why not John and Amy Wilensky? She’s always liked him.”

  “Until Amy found out that John dumped Polly and Jen last summer after going out with both of them at the same time for two weeks,” Lisa reminded her.

  “True,” Carole said, sighing.

  “But,” Stevie piped up, “Polly totally fell in love with him after he dumped her and Jen, because she adores anyone who does anything nasty to Jen because of the Peter Schwartz incident.”

  “Right. So it’s Polly and John, Meg Roberts and A.J., Meg Durham and Tom, Betsy and James, Adam and Helen, Stevie and Phil, me and Cam and—” Carole paused and looked at Lisa. Although Lisa had occasionally dated—and had almost had a romance with a boy out West—she currently did not have a boyfriend. Stevie and Carole were always careful not to leave her out with boyfriend talk. Lisa didn’t seem to worry too much, but Carole thought it would be fun to arrange something for Lisa at the party and have it work out.

  “Is there anyone you have in mind, Lisa?” Carole inquired.


  “Yeah, this is the perfect opportunity. You can invite someone as your date without his even knowing it,” Stevie said.

  Lisa thought for a minute.

  “How about Simon Atherton?” Stevie joked. “He’s kind of cute.”

  “No way!” Lisa said. “Not even if he was the last guy on earth.”

  “He does seem nice,” Stevie commented.

  “That’s because you couldn’t actually see his nerd pack,” Lisa told her.

  “Hey, my dad uses a plastic pocket liner!” Stevie declared in mock protest.

  “Okay, forget Simon,” Carole said. “If Lisa doesn’t want him, he’s not going to come. Let’s think of somebody else.”

  Lisa paused. It was hard to tell even her best friends about the boy she had a crush on. “Well, if you’re really going to set me up with somebody, I think Bob Harris is really cute,” she said in a rush.

  “You mean the blond Bob Harris who goes to Fenton Hall? The soccer player?” Stevie asked excitedly.

  “Yeah,” Lisa said with a sigh. “I met him when I came to your house this summer. Alex introduced me.”

  “That’s the one,” Stevie said. “Other than the major character flaw of being friends with my twin brother, he seems like a great guy.”

  “Wonderful. Then it’s decided,” Carole declared, pleased with the sound of Lisa’s choice. “Now we just have to find a way to invite him without being too obvious about it.”

  “Oh, I’ll figure something out,” Stevie declared confidently. “I always see him at school. Or Alex might even invite him over to the house, and—” Suddenly Stevie paused. She thought back to the day Lisa had mentioned. She had a nagging feeling in her stomach—something Alex had told her about Bob. “Oh, no!” she said aloud. “I just remembered Bob Harris’s other tragic weakness. How could I have forgotten?”

  “What?” Lisa and Carole asked in unison.

  “His choice in women. He’s had a huge crush on Veronica diAngelo for months.”

  Before the girls could discuss the implications of Stevie’s announcement, a flock of starlings flew up from the undergrowth of the trail. Barq and Topside tensed momentarily and then relaxed when they realized what the noise was. Starlight, however, shied violently and tried to bolt. Carole eventually steadied him to a walk, but he kept breaking to a trot and straining against the bit. In a few minutes he was covered in a lathery sweat.

  “I think those birds really upset him. He still feels like he wants to take off,” Carole said worriedly.

  “Why don’t you try riding behind?” Stevie suggested.

  Carole agreed and halted Starlight on the side of the trail to let Lisa and Stevie pass. Unfortunately, going in back of Barq and Topside seemed to upset Starlight even more. He refused to walk at all, champing on the bit nervously. Like any good rider, Carole knew enough to recognize a losing battle when she saw one.

  “If he jogs all the way back, he’ll be so hot, it’ll take hours to cool him down,” she said. “I’m going to get off and walk him for a while. Maybe that’ll help.”

  Stevie and Lisa stopped and waited a few yards down the trail for Carole to dismount. Carole swung her right leg expertly over Starlight’s hindquarters and then dropped to the ground. As she landed, her left ankle gave out, and she dropped all the way to the ground. She struggled to her feet right away. Now her ankle was throbbing painfully. She tried to step forward but immediately had to grab the near-side stirrup iron to hold herself up.

  “Don’t you take another step!” cried Lisa. “Come on, Stevie. She needs help.”

  Stevie and Lisa turned their horses back toward Starlight. After they had hopped off, Lisa took all three pairs of reins while Stevie helped Carole.

  “Let’s try to get your boot off,” Stevie said. “I think I remember learning in Pony Club First Aid that you’re supposed to free the injured limb from all constriction.” Carole sat down on some rocks at the side of the trail. Stevie grabbed her left heel and gave it a gentle yank. Carole cried out in pain.

  “Forget the boot,” Lisa instructed. “We’ve got to get her home.”

  “How? She can’t walk,” Stevie pointed out.

  “Put me back on Starlight,” Carole said. “Then I won’t have to bear any weight on it.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to ride Starlight and you take Topside?” Stevie asked.

  “No, he’ll be fine once he realizes I’m hurt,” Carole predicted confidently.

  Instead of giving her a leg up from the ankle, Stevie grabbed Carole’s left knee and thrust it up Starlight’s side as high as she could. From that position Carole was able to climb on clumsily. She had been right about Starlight: He knew that for some reason Carole needed him to be calm. To Lisa and Stevie’s surprise, he quietly walked the mile home between Barq and Topside.

  TWENTY MINUTES LATER The Saddle Club arrived back at Pine Hollow. Lisa volunteered to take Barq and Topside in so that Stevie could untack Starlight and Carole could call home.

  “I don’t need to call home,” Carole protested. “My father’s already planning to pick me up. And I’m sure I can manage with Starlight.”

  “But what about your ankle?” Lisa asked.

  “Be reasonable, Carole,” Stevie pleaded. “You’re hurt. You can’t walk Starlight if you can barely walk yourself.”

  Carole had to admit that cooling her horse down would be difficult. Even with the walk home, he was hot and needed to be sponged, scraped, and walked some more. Reluctantly, she handed the reins to Stevie. “You’re not going to get rid of me so quickly!” she warned them. “I can still clean tack, you know!”

  Carole hobbled into the barn. She went to the tack room, selected a bridle, and got to work with a sponge and saddle soap. Midway through the cleaning, Max poked his head into the tack room.

  “Why, Carole,” he said, “I’m surprised to find you here. I thought you had to go home or something—I just saw Stevie walking Starlight.”

  Carole explained the situation, being careful to make light of her injury. The last thing she wanted was for Max to drag her off to a doctor for a minor bruise that she had acquired from sheer clumsiness. Besides, she had been planning a whole afternoon of stable chores. If all she could do was soap some tack, then that was the least she was going to do.

  Luckily, Max had an adult lesson beginning in five minutes, so he didn’t have time to fuss over Carole. He told her to make sure she was okay, then grabbed a few riding crops and left hurriedly.

  Sitting on an overturned bucket, Carole got to work on some tack. It was soothing to sponge and oil the well-worn leather. Her foot hardly hurt at all. After cleaning two bridles, she decided to check on Starlight and thank Stevie and Lisa. She limped out to his stall. “Okay, so it hurts a little when I stand up,” she told herself. “Big deal. It’s not like I fell off or anything.” She gritted her teeth as she walked.

  By the time she got to Starlight’s stall, Lisa had finished putting Barq and Topside away and was helping Stevie. Together they were rubbing him down briskly, one on each side.

  “What are you still doing here?” Stevie asked. “I thought you’d be home with your feet up on the couch by now, watching From Here to Eternity for the tenth time.”

  Carole smiled. She often watched war films from the fifties with her father. And like Colonel Hanson, Stevie was a real old-movie buff.

  “Oh, I thought I’d clean some tack first. And of course I had to check up on the best horse in the world,” Carole answered, punctuating her last words with several pats on Starlight’s neck.

  “Don’t trust us, huh?” Stevie challenged.

  Carole gave her horse a once-over. “He looks better than if I’d done him myself,” she complimented them.

  “He really shines,” Lisa said, stepping back to admire her side. “We thought we’d put his sheet on, just in case, since we had to sponge him and everything,” she added.

  “Good idea,” Carole agreed. The sheet would ensure that Starlight did not
catch cold as his body temperature continued to drop. She picked up the light cotton-mesh blanket that was hanging over the stall door.

  “I’ll ask Red to take it off when he feeds him tonight,” Carole decided. Red was Pine Hollow’s head stable hand. Because The Saddle Club almost always made his work easier by helping out around the barn, he never minded doing them a favor. Veronica, on the other hand, expected him and the other stable hands to cater to her every wish, including grooming and tacking up Garnet whenever she rode.

  Momentarily forgetting her ankle, Carole took a big step forward to hand the sheet to Lisa. “Ow,” she said aloud. She bit her lip, but not before Stevie had seen the grimace of pain that crossed her face.

  “Hey, what did you do about your ankle? Did Max take a look at it at least?” Stevie asked.

  “He didn’t have time. Anyway, I don’t want to worry him about such a small thing. He’s got enough important stuff on his mind.”

  “But Carole—” Stevie started to say. Carole cut her off with a shake of her head.

  “Can’t we talk about something other than my ankle? Like my birthday party—we never finished planning the guest list. So there’s the two Sandersons, the two Megs, Adam Levine, Betsy Cavanaugh, James Spencer, A.J. …”

  Stevie and Lisa looked at each other and shrugged. If Carole was going to insist on ignoring her ankle, they certainly couldn’t force her to talk about it. They had learned that, at times like this, it was useless to try to talk sense into her head. “Sure,” Stevie said. “Back to the hayride extravaganza. Now, where were we?”

  “I think we had established that everyone who’s anyone will be there,” Lisa joked.

  The girls laughed. That was the kind of thing Veronica diAngelo would say about her social events.

  “But of course, darling,” Stevie said. “No one in their right mind would miss it for the world—if they’re lucky enough to be invited to such an exclusive event, that is.”

  Carole giggled. “I hope you’re right,” she said. “Because if we go to all this work to pair everyone up boy-girl and then the plan backfires, I’m never going to throw another coed party again! I mean, what if only the girls show up?”