Penalty Points Read online

  “It’s weird,” Lisa went on thoughtfully. “Doesn’t it seem like nothing ever really gets finished anymore?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Lisa shifted her weight slightly in the saddle. “You know. Just when you think some crisis or whatever is over—or just when you think you know what’s going on, or how to handle some problem—something else comes up. It never really ends, you know? You can never just wrap up all your problems and coast.”

  Carole glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye, wondering why Lisa suddenly sounded so philosophical. It must be Prancer, she told herself. She’s got eight more months to go, and that really does seem like forever sometimes. Especially at times like this when we’re afraid there might be a problem.

  “I know. But this pregnancy really won’t last forever,” Carole pointed out, steering Starlight around a rock outcropping in the field. “By the time Prancer’s foals are weaned and you’re riding her again, we’ll probably wonder what we were all so worried about.” They had almost reached the edge of the forest by now, and both horses were pricking their ears forward at the trees, as they always did.

  “It’s not just the pregnancy. It’s more like everything. Things just seemed so much simpler before I went away, you know?” Lisa shrugged.

  “Sure,” Carole said uncertainly. “I guess.” She wondered if Lisa was thinking about her mother, who had recently started dating a much younger man she’d met at work. Carole’s mother had died several years before, and Carole knew firsthand that having a single parent who went out on dates could be pretty weird, especially when you didn’t approve of the person they chose. She was about to say something to that effect when Lisa spoke up again, her words startling Carole out of her thoughts.

  “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t even gone to California at all.”

  “Really?” Carole was surprised. Even though she and Stevie had missed Lisa like crazy while she was gone and known that she’d missed them right back, she had thought that Lisa’s West Coast experience had been mostly a positive one. She’d gotten to spend time with her father; her new stepmother, Evelyn; and her baby half sister, Lily. A bonus had been having the opportunity to see a lot of Skye Ransom, a popular young actor and an old friend of all three girls. Plus Skye had helped Lisa land an incredible job for the summer, working as a stable hand on the set of a new TV show set at a dude ranch. When she thought about it, Carole couldn’t help thinking that that summer Lisa’s life itself had sounded a little like some kind of glamorous TV show.

  Lisa picked up on the surprise in Carole’s voice and glanced over with a slight smile. “Okay, not really, I guess,” she admitted. “I’m glad I went. But I can’t help thinking sometimes that a lot of things would have been easier if I’d never gone.”

  “What do you mean?” Carole still felt perplexed. She sensed that they weren’t only talking about Prancer anymore, or even Mrs. Atwood’s new boyfriend, but she couldn’t imagine what else was on Lisa’s mind.

  Lisa slowed Eve as they stepped into the cool shade of the forest edge. “Well, for one thing, obviously, I would have been riding Prancer all summer, so I probably would have known about it when Max decided to breed her.” Her voice grew softer. “And, well, there wouldn’t have been so many secrets.”

  For a second, Carole assumed again that she was talking about the secret that had come between them regarding Prancer’s pregnancy. But something in Lisa’s face—something faraway and almost wistful—made her think that might not be what she was referring to at all. “What secrets?”

  Lisa hesitated. “Well …”

  By now Carole was really curious. She wished Stevie were there—she wouldn’t have had any qualms about dragging Lisa’s thoughts out of her. “Um, you don’t have to tell me, obviously,” she said awkwardly. “But if you want to, you know you can trust me.”

  “You have to swear not to tell anyone.” Lisa pulled Eve to a stop and turned to gaze at Carole seriously as Starlight drifted to a halt as well. “Not even Stevie.”

  Carole gulped, not liking the sound of that. But she nodded. “I promise. I won’t breathe a word.”

  Lisa took a deep breath. “It’s about Skye.”

  “Skye?”

  “Right.” Lisa bit her lower lip. “You see, something happened between us at the end of the summer—something I never told you and Stevie about. He said something … something about how he’d been thinking about what might have been—how things could have been different between us if—” She broke off, smiling sheepishly. “Well, it doesn’t sound like much when I put it that way. But basically he was letting me know that he wished there was a chance we could be more than just friends.”

  “Really? He said that?” Carole couldn’t help feeling astonished. How do these things happen? she wondered, not for the first time. She had seen plenty of movies and TV shows and read lots of novels where people made similar pronouncements as a matter of course. Still, she had trouble imagining things like that happening in real life, to people she knew, in between the more everyday stuff like eating, doing homework, and mucking out stalls.

  “He didn’t put it in exactly those words, but it was pretty clear,” Lisa confirmed. “He was as nice and understanding as could be about my relationship with Alex, and he told me he didn’t want to ruin our friendship or anything, but he felt like he had to say something. Just so we would both know where we stood.”

  “Wow.”

  There was a moment of silence. Carole nudged Starlight with her foot, setting him walking again. Lisa did the same with Eve, and the two friends rode along, each lost in her own thoughts. Carole was still trying to figure out how these sorts of exciting, romantic things happened in real life, and why they never happened to her. Not that I would know how to deal with it if a guy said something like that to me, she thought ruefully. I would probably totally misunderstand him and think he wanted to hire me to train his horse or something.

  “Anyway,” Lisa went on after a moment, in a tone of voice that indicated she’d had enough of the discussion and was ready to end it, “as you can imagine, that little situation has caused some tension since I’ve been back. You know, with Alex.”

  Carole nodded, even though she couldn’t really imagine it at all.

  TWO

  “Hurry up with those balloons,” Stevie ordered Phil briskly. “The party’s tomorrow, you know, not next month.”

  Phil rolled his eyes and grabbed a handful of multicolored balloons out of the box next to him. “And Emily’s sixteen, you know, not six,” he joked. “Are you planning to hire a clown and set up some pony rides for this party, too?”

  Stevie just snorted in response and leaned over from her seat on the living room sofa to check the clipboard at her feet, which held a list of things to do. She knew that balloons and streamers weren’t exactly the decorations of choice at most high-school parties, but she didn’t care. She wanted Emily to know that she was special enough to warrant a little extra effort. Besides, she figured the patriotic red-white-and-blue theme could only help with the other goal of this party.…

  That thought brought her mind back to her favorite topic these days. “It’s hard to believe Election Day is only a week and a half away,” she commented, sitting up and running her hands through her long, thick, dark blond hair. “There’s so much more to do before then. Still, Scott and I have really made some progress this week—he’s such a natural campaigner that he makes my job look easy.”

  She smiled as she thought about the past week. Scott Forester was a senior at Fenton Hall, the private school that she and her brothers attended. Stevie had met him over the summer, soon after his family had moved to town from the West Coast to join his father, who had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives the year before. Scott’s sister, Callie, who was a junior like Stevie, had come to Pine Hollow because she was a competitive endurance rider—or at least she had been, before the car accident that had damaged her right leg and had temporarily par
alyzed her whole right side. Callie was still learning to walk normally again, aided by three things: the metal crutches she used to get around, the therapeutic riding sessions she attended faithfully at Pine Hollow, and her own determined, proud, sometimes stubborn personality.

  Scott could be just as determined as his sister, but he showed it in a much different way. Whereas Callie could sometimes come across to people who didn’t know her well as aloof or haughty, Scott had a way of putting people at ease that made him instantly popular wherever he went. It was a quality he had inherited from his politician father, and it had made him a natural choice to fill the recently vacated post of student body president at Fenton Hall. Scott had asked Stevie to be his campaign manager, and she had thrown herself wholeheartedly into the job.

  “I figure this party is a natural place for Scott to talk to a lot of people and get his ideas out there in a fun setting,” Stevie mused, sitting back on the couch and rubbing her hands together excitedly. “Especially since Valerie Watkins will be out of town and can’t steal any of his audience. Of the three people running against Scott, she’s the only real contender.”

  “I know,” Phil said patiently, tying off the balloon he’d blown up while Stevie was talking. “You mentioned that before. A few dozen times.”

  Stevie scratched her head thoughtfully, hardly hearing him. “Still, I think we have the edge. Valerie has been at Fenton Hall a lot longer than Scott has, and she has some interesting ideas, but she’s a little too quiet. Too shy about putting herself out there. I think when people hear what Scott has to say, they’ll realize he’s someone they can count on to get things done, you know?”

  “Sure.” Phil flicked the balloon across the room and reached for another. “You’ve already convinced me. But I can’t vote, since I don’t even go to Fenton Hall, remember?”

  Again, Stevie hardly heard her boyfriend’s comment. She was still thinking about Scott and his busy week of campaigning. “He’s been trying to talk to everyone he can this week.” She frowned slightly. “The only thing getting in his way is that he still won’t tell Veronica to get lost. She keeps hanging around him all the time, flirting her head off and trying to distract him.”

  “Sounds like classic Veronica.”

  Stevie nodded sourly. Veronica diAngelo had never been one of her favorite people. Why is it that nice people like Emily have to move away and obnoxious snobs like Veronica stay put? she wondered. Veronica came from one of the wealthiest families in Willow Creek, and that had always given her the idea that she was better than everyone else. It had also given her the idea that she could have anything she wanted, and what she seemed to want at the moment was Scott Forester. Scott wasn’t exactly giving her any encouragement in that direction, but he wasn’t being discouraging, either—at least not as far as Stevie could tell.

  “I don’t know how he puts up with her,” Stevie muttered, kicking at a balloon that had drifted toward her. “I think that’s the only downside of this past week’s campaigning. I’ve had to spend way too much time with Veronica.”

  Phil grinned and reached over to poke her playfully in the side. “That’s not the only downside. You were too busy making posters to meet me at the diner when I was hit by that sudden chocolate milk shake craving, remember?”

  “It’s a good thing,” Stevie said pertly. “If you keep sucking down milk shakes the way you do, you’re going to weigh nine hundred pounds by Thanksgiving.”

  Phil pretended to look insulted, but Stevie just grinned, running her eyes over his athletic, well-toned physique. She wondered idly, not for the first time, how she’d been lucky enough to find such a good-looking, wonderful boyfriend. Of course, he’s pretty lucky, too, she reminded herself contentedly. After all, he ended up with me!

  Soon, though, she found her mind drifting back to the election. “Anyway, I’m going to do my best to make sure that Scott spends some time talking to every Fenton Hall student who shows up tomorrow night,” she said, tucking her legs up beneath her on the sofa and reaching into the box for a balloon. “I just hope Veronica doesn’t get in the way too much.” She grinned. “You’d knock her down and tie her up if I asked you to, right?”

  “Hey, I didn’t know this was going to be that kind of party,” Phil said, pretending to look worried. “Neither did your folks, or they’d never have decided to leave town this weekend.”

  “Heh heh heh,” Stevie cackled evilly. Then she grinned again. “Seriously, though, that reminds me—we owe Chad big-time. Despite all the brilliant arguments Alex and I came up with, I think the only reason Mom and Dad decided to leave us alone this weekend and still let us have the party was because they knew he’d be in town.”

  The day before, Mr. Lake had suddenly been called to New York City for an important business dinner on Saturday. Mrs. Lake had been tempted to go with him and make a weekend mini-vacation out of the trip, but when she had remembered Emily’s party, she had thought better of it. Fortunately Stevie’s oldest brother, Chad, a sophomore in college, had called at just the right moment to tell his parents that he was coming home to Willow Creek that weekend for an older friend’s bachelor party. After he had promised to check on his younger siblings before and after his own party, and after Stevie and Alex had sworn that they would act no differently with their parents in another state than they would if they were sitting in their bedroom upstairs, Mr. and Mrs. Lake had reluctantly agreed to leave the kids alone for the weekend.

  “When’s Chad getting here?” Phil asked.

  “Anytime now.” Stevie glanced at her watch. Her parents had left an hour earlier, and so had her younger brother, Michael, who had made plans to spend the weekend at a friend’s house along with the Lakes’ dog. Alex was at Pine Hollow with Lisa, which meant that for the moment, Stevie and Phil had the house to themselves. “Which reminds me—we’re wasting a golden opportunity here. Can you even remember the last time we were all alone in this house?”

  “Heh heh heh,” Phil replied, pushing the box of balloons off the sofa and scooting closer to her. “What exactly did you have in mind?” He draped one arm comfortably around her shoulders, put his other hand on her knee, and pulled her toward him.

  Stevie’s lips were just meeting his when she heard the front door slam.

  “Yo! Anyone home?” Chad’s voice rang out.

  “Rats. Busted again,” Stevie said, pushing Phil away. “Nothing kills a romantic mood like hearing your brother’s voice, you know? Come on, let’s go see if he remembered to pick up our soda when he got the supplies for his bachelor party.”

  She hurried into the hall with Phil at her heels. Chad was setting down a case of two-liter bottles of cola. Behind him, another guy was holding a shopping bag filled with chips, pretzels, and other snacks.

  “Oh. Hi, Luke,” Stevie said when she saw the second guy. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

  Chad greeted Stevie and Phil cheerfully. “Luke needed a place to crash for the weekend, so I told him he could stay here,” he explained. “Luke, you already know my sister. This is her boyfriend, Phil Marsten. Phil, this is my buddy Luke Chatham.”

  As the two guys shook hands, Stevie was careful to keep a pleasant smile on her face, not wanting Chad to guess her true feelings about his friend. She had only met Luke once or twice before, but she didn’t like him much. She wasn’t really sure why—usually Stevie liked just about everyone she met until they gave her a reason to change her opinion. But something about Luke Chatham rubbed her the wrong way. She always had the sense that he was thinking something completely different from what he was saying and therefore couldn’t quite be trusted.

  “Come on, you two,” Chad said when the introductions were over. “Luke’s car doesn’t lock, and we don’t want to leave our stuff in there overnight. Help us carry it in.”

  Soon Stevie and Phil were standing by the trunk of Luke’s battered old junker. Stevie wasn’t surprised that the locks didn’t work—she was much more surprised that the car had actuall
y managed to make it the forty or so miles from the university without falling apart. “Nice ride,” she said dryly.

  Luke shot her a glance. “Hey, the radio works,” he said. “What more do you need?” He cast a sidelong glance at Chad. “Except for a backseat, of course,” he added with a playful leer. Walking to the back of the car, he opened the trunk. It was packed full of cans and bottles.

  It wasn’t until Stevie was holding one of the cases of cans that she realized it held six-packs of beer, not soda. “Whoa,” she commented. “Hey, Chad, since when are you old enough to buy beer?”

  Chad looked slightly embarrassed, but Luke glanced at Stevie over his shoulder as he hoisted a case himself. “Don’t worry, Officer, it’s all legal,” he drawled. “I turned twenty-one last spring.”

  “Whatever.” Stevie had just been teasing—she already knew that Luke was a year or two older than her brother. She headed toward the house, panting a little under the weight of the beer. Phil picked up a box of sodas and followed. “So where do you want us to put all this stuff?” Stevie called back to Chad. “I don’t want it in the living room—we still have to move the furniture around for the party.”

  “Let’s stick a couple of cases of the beer in the spare fridge in the garage,” Chad suggested, catching up to her on the front walk. “We’ll want some to be cold when we get to our party.”

  “No way,” Stevie countered. “You can’t use that. Alex and Lisa and I spent all afternoon yesterday clearing it out so we could keep soda cold for our party.” The extra refrigerator her parents kept in the garage wasn’t very large, and Stevie was already worried about having enough cold drinks on hand for all the guests she had invited. She wanted all the partyers to be as happy and relaxed as possible so that they’d be easier marks for Scott’s campaigning.

  Chad frowned. “Come on, Stevie,” he said. “You can put your stuff in there after we leave tomorrow. What’s the big deal?”