Carole didn’t bother to answer. She still felt shocked when she thought about how many of her friends had started drinking at a party Stevie and Alex had thrown the previous Saturday night. Stevie’s older brother, Chad, had left some beer in the garage, and someone had found it. Before long everyone knew it was there, and it had seemed to Carole that almost everyone had been eager to help themselves. It had all come to a screeching halt when a neighbor had called the police, but Carole still remembered how helpless she had felt when she’d realized that the party was spinning wildly out of control.
She urged Samson closer to the fence and let him stretch his head curiously toward the goats that had gathered on the other side, pushing and nipping at each other in their eagerness to get a look at the newcomers.
Stevie nodded at the closest one, a large brown goat with a scraggly beard, one horn, and a surly expression. “What do you think? Doesn’t that one there remind you of Veronica?”
Carole giggled as the goat in question bleated loudly. “I think it’s insulted,” she commented.
“Sorry,” Stevie told the goat contritely. “You’re right. You’re way more intelligent and classy than she is. Better-looking, too.” She rolled her eyes. “Plus, you probably don’t butt in with your stupid opinions about everything all the time, right?”
At that moment the billy goat turned and butted at another goat that was angling for a position at the fence and let out a loud bleat of annoyance. “I don’t know, Stevie,” Carole joked. “That sounded an awful lot like something Veronica might say.”
“Tell me about it.” Stevie snorted. “Ever since Veronica decided to sink her hooks into Scott, she’s been even more obnoxious than usual. She’s so busy trying to impress him with how helpful she is to his campaign that she’s totally getting in my way.”
Carole nodded sympathetically, but she didn’t comment. Until a couple of years earlier, Veronica diAngelo had ridden regularly at Pine Hollow, and Carole had learned the hard way that it was usually better to ignore the spoiled, wealthy girl as much as possible. But Stevie had never quite learned that lesson. While age and different interests had softened the two girls’ antagonism, Stevie and Veronica could still butt heads like a couple of ornery goats when the right situation arose.
After a moment the two girls rode on, heading for the shortcut through the woods that would lead them back to Pine Hollow. “The worst part,” Stevie commented, obviously still thinking about Veronica as she flicked a fly from Belle’s dark mane, “is that Scott is actually listening to some of her ideas.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Her latest is for Fenton Hall to get in on the Willow Creek High School homecoming dance. Miss Fenton has been promising us a fall dance in a couple of weeks, and since we don’t even have a football team and are totally homecoming-deprived, Veronica figured she could convince her to arrange things with your principal to combine the two dances into one big bash.”
Carole raised an eyebrow. “Really? But homecoming’s this weekend, isn’t it?” She scanned her memory, wondering if she’d gotten the date wrong. Sometimes she got mixed up about things that didn’t have to do with Pine Hollow, but she definitely recalled hearing an awful lot about homecoming in the morning announcements at school for the past week or so.
Stevie nodded. “The dance is Saturday night. Sounds like an impossible dream, right? But apparently Veronica spent quite a while discussing it with Scott at the party, and they’ve been working on it all week.” She pushed back the cuff of her riding glove and glanced at her watch. “Actually, Scott is meeting with Miss Fenton and Mr. Price even as we speak.”
“Hmmm.” Carole didn’t want to say so, but she had to admit that the idea wasn’t as terrible as Stevie was making it out to be. Willow Creek was a small town, and most of the students from the public high school had friends at Fenton Hall and vice versa. While Carole herself wasn’t planning to attend the homecoming dance—she had too much work to do at the stable—she was pretty sure most students at both schools would love the idea of holding a joint dance.
Stevie shot her a quick glance as they reached the edge of the woods. “You can say it,” she said sourly. “The idea does make some sense. I can admit it. Even if Veronica’s the one who thought of it.”
“Well, it’s probably too late for them to arrange it for this year, anyway,” Carole pointed out diplomatically.
“Don’t count on it.” Stevie made a face. “Veronica’s stupid family connections have brought them this far in less than a week. Who knows what she can pull off in the next two days?”
Carole was a little surprised that Stevie was so down on the dance idea, even if Veronica was the one who might make it happen. I thought the whole point was to get Scott elected, she thought. This sounds like it could only help.
Suddenly she remembered Stevie’s grounding, and a little light blinked on in her mind. Of course. Even if Veronica and Scott worked a miracle and the dance came off, Stevie wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. She would be sitting home, doing chores to help pay for the damage the party had done to her house, imagining the fun her classmates were having, and wishing she could be right there with them, dancing with her boyfriend, Phil Marsten, and having a good time.
She decided it was time to take Stevie’s mind off all that. “Belle looks good today,” she said, glancing at Stevie’s mare. “You two might just surprise everyone in the dressage competition.”
“Thanks.” Stevie’s expression brightened slightly. “She does look good, doesn’t she?” She leaned forward in the saddle and patted her horse affectionately. “I just hope I can keep up with her.” She nodded at Carole’s mount. “I guess I don’t have to tell you how awesome Samson looks.”
Carole grinned. “Nope. But it’s always nice to hear.” She was proud of the training she’d done with the big black horse. Samson had already been in terrific shape when he’d arrived at Pine Hollow, but thanks to Carole’s tireless work, he was now in peak condition. “He seems to get better and stronger and smarter every day.”
“Thanks to you,” Stevie pointed out.
“Thanks to him,” Carole corrected, ducking slightly to avoid a branch hanging over the trail. “He’s the best horse I’ve ever worked with. I sometimes think he’s teaching me just as much about jumping as I’m teaching him. It’s like sometimes you find a horse, a special horse, and you feel like you’re really speaking the same language, you know?”
Stevie patted Belle again and smiled. “I know.”
Carole sighed happily as she thought about the upcoming competition. She couldn’t wait to show off what she and Samson could do together. “I’ve never really felt this way about a show before,” she commented. “I mean, I usually have an idea that I could do pretty well, or I know I probably shouldn’t be entering. But this time it’s like there’s nothing we can’t do. I’m not even talking about ribbons. It would be nice to win, but this time it’s really like Max is always telling us: I just want to go out there and do my very best. For my own sake, and for Samson’s, too. He doesn’t deserve anything less, and I don’t want to let him down.”
“Whoa,” Stevie joked. “I knew you were smitten with our friend here, but this is sounding serious. Maybe you should just ditch ol’ Starlight altogether and get your dad to buy Samson for you for your birthday.”
Carole blinked, startled by her friend’s words. For one thing, she’d almost forgotten that her seventeenth birthday was coming up in less than three weeks. But more importantly, the very idea of replacing her own horse with Samson gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It’s probably because I’ve never really thought about the two of them together like that, she told herself. They’re so totally separate. I mean, Starlight is my horse, and I love him as much as ever. How could Stevie even joke about my giving him up?
Suddenly she noticed that Samson was shaking his head, and she realized she’d tightened up on the reins without meaning to. She loosene
d them immediately, sending the big gelding a mental apology.
But she still felt a bit tense as she thought about Stevie’s careless remark. She’d owned Starlight for so long now that it was something she took for granted. He was a part of her life in the same way that her father was, or her best friends. She couldn’t imagine tossing him aside for another horse, any more than she could imagine tossing aside any of the people she cared about.
But where does that leave Samson? she thought. Isn’t he an awfully big part of my life these days, too?
She knew the answer to that without having to put it into words, even in her own mind. She had loved Samson even before his return to Pine Hollow. And with every day that she worked with him, rode him, and took care of him, her feelings for him grew stronger and stronger.…
Just then a starling darted past right in front of the horses’ noses, and Samson shied violently. Carole managed to keep her balance despite her distraction and moved with the horse as he nearly careened into a tree. Setting to work with her legs, voice, and reins, Carole did her best to soothe Samson.
When she was back in control and Samson was walking along calmly again, Carole heaved a sigh of relief. “That was close,” she told Stevie; who had been carefully keeping Belle back to prevent Samson’s sudden panic from infecting her as well.
“Nice work.” Stevie urged Belle forward, quickly catching up to Carole again on the wide, smooth trail. “He really trusts you.”
Carole nodded, feeling uncomfortable as Stevie’s previous comment popped into her mind again. Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. She was just joking about that. Getting all worked up about a silly joke makes about as much sense as—as freaking out because a bird flies by. You’re allowed to love Starlight and Samson. No one is forcing you to choose between them.
“Can we trot?” she asked Stevie, doing her best to keep her voice normal. She didn’t want Stevie to guess what she’d been thinking—she felt stupid enough about it as it was. “I promised Max I’d help out with the Halloween party after the intermediate riding class lets out, and it’s getting late.”
“Sure.” Stevie clucked to Belle, sending her into a brisk trot. “Catch us if you can!”
Carole smiled and urged Samson forward after her.
TWO
“Stop looking at your watch,” Alex Lake pleaded, grabbing Lisa Atwood’s hand across the Formica tabletop. “It reminds me that I have to go back to prison soon.”
“Sorry.” Lisa squeezed her boyfriend’s hand. “I just don’t want you to be late. Your parents might decide not to let you go to soccer, either, and then I’d never see you at all.”
Alex sighed and dropped her hand, picking up his spoon and scooping up a bite of ice cream from the dish in the middle of the table. “I know,” he muttered. “You’re right. It just really sucks, you know?”
“I know.” Lisa watched her boyfriend sympathetically, wishing there were something she could do to smooth his furrowed brow and banish the depressed expression in his hazel eyes. But his parents had grounded him for the foreseeable future, and she and Alex were just going to have to deal with it. “Look on the bright side,” she told him as cheerfully as she could manage. “At least you are still allowed to be on the soccer team, so we can hang out after your games like this, right?”
Alex tugged at the grass-stained jersey he was wearing. “Right,” he agreed ruefully. “I guess it pays sometimes to have lawyers for parents.” He shrugged and managed a weak grin. “It means we can at least try to plea-bargain.”
Lisa was glad to see that his sense of humor hadn’t been totally crushed by everything that had happened lately. Until just a week or so earlier, Lisa would have believed that nothing could ever come between her and Alex. Ever since the day some nine months before, when Alex had suddenly gone from being Stevie’s cute, slightly goofy twin brother to being the love of Lisa’s life, Lisa had been certain that they would be together forever.
But now she realized that things had started to change between them as early as the previous summer. Lisa’s parents were divorced, and her father had invited her to spend her summer vacation in California with him and his new family. Alex had never really understood her decision to go, mostly because he was upset at the thought of spending so much time apart.
That was the first thing that came between us, Lisa thought as she watched her boyfriend scoop out another spoonful of ice cream. And the second thing was Skye.
Alex had always been jealous of her friendship with Skye Ransom, a handsome actor whom Lisa, Stevie, and Carole had met years earlier. It had been hard enough for Lisa to tell her boyfriend that she had landed a summer job working behind the scenes on Skye’s new TV series. How could she tell him about what Skye had said to her a few days before she’d returned home? How could she admit that Alex’s worst fears were true—that Skye wished that he and Lisa could be more than friends?
Carole had saved her the trouble, accidentally spilling the secret at the party on Saturday night. Alex hadn’t bothered to listen when Lisa had tried to explain that she didn’t return Skye’s interest—that she loved only Alex. They’d had a terrible fight and broken up, and even though they’d patched up their relationship by the end of the party, things still weren’t the same between them. Lisa knew they had a lot of work to do if they ever wanted to go back to normal.
That was why they were sitting at a private corner booth at TD’s, the ice cream parlor in the sleepy little shopping center on the edge of town, while Alex’s soccer teammates were celebrating their victory at a pizza place across the street from Fenton Hall. Lisa and Alex were trying to spend as much time as possible alone together these days, though it wasn’t easy. There was no time for leisurely trail rides at Pine Hollow or for long, romantic dinners on Saturday night—or for much of anything else, for that matter. The only exception Mr. and Mrs. Lake had been willing to make was for soccer practice, though Lisa suspected they might not even have allowed that if they hadn’t already promised Stevie that she could continue practicing for the Colesford Horse Show.
“I wish you could have plea-bargained your way to homecoming this weekend,” Lisa commented, thinking wistfully of the romantic evening she had expected to share with him at her school’s big dance.
Alex snorted. “Fat chance,” he muttered. He glanced at her. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I know you were looking forward to the dance.” He rubbed the back of his neck wearily. “I was, too. And I was looking forward to that Halloween party we were supposed to go to tonight, and to that new movie we’d talked about catching tomorrow night, and to just getting together with you whenever we felt like it instead of rushing around like this …”
“I know.” Lisa picked up her napkin and reached across the table to gently wipe a spot of chocolate syrup off his chin. “It doesn’t matter. There will be other dances and parties and movies. We’ll make it through this.”
Alex nodded glumly and stirred his rapidly melting sundae. “I guess.”
Lisa sneaked another quick glance at her watch. They didn’t have much time left before Alex would have to head home. But she knew she couldn’t let him go until she’d brought up the topic that had been gnawing at her since the party. She couldn’t put it off one more day. Her stomach clenched when she imagined how he would react to what she needed to tell him, but she couldn’t let her nervousness stop her. She had learned her lesson from the Skye fiasco—she wasn’t going to put off the hard news too long this time. That could only make things worse.
She took a deep breath, steeling her nerves as best she could. “Alex,” she began. “Um, there’s something I need to tell you.”
He looked up from his dish quickly, clearly recognizing the serious tone in her voice. “What is it?” he asked, looking a bit apprehensive.
Lisa cleared her throat. “It’s about Thanksgiving.”
“Oh.” Alex looked relieved. “Is that all? Listen, don’t worry about that. Mom and Dad said you and your mother can still come over
for dinner, even though Stevie and I are grounded. In fact, Mom said something just this morning about calling your mom and, you know, officially inviting her.”
Lisa gulped, realizing that once again she’d waited almost too long. “That’s not it,” she said, feeling her throat tighten with anxiety. “It’s just—well, I was pretty mad at you. You know. On Saturday night. I—I wasn’t sure if we would ever—well, you know. If we were going to …” She cleared her throat again, searching for the right words. “Um, the point is, I didn’t think our Thanksgiving plans were going to happen after all. So I kind of—well—I called Dad.”
Alex’s expression darkened slightly; he took on a wary, suspicious look. “Yes?”
“He wanted me to come to California for Thanksgiving,” Lisa explained. “I called him from your house after our fight and told him I was coming. I tried to back out the next day,” she added hurriedly. “I mean, by then we’d made up, and I had already promised you before the party that I’d come to your house …” She shrugged helplessly, avoiding his eyes. “But Dad had already bought my airline tickets over the Internet. Nonrefundable.”
Alex didn’t speak for a long moment. His expression shifted from shock to sadness to anger. But when he finally answered her, his voice was calm. “That’s, um, too bad,” he said carefully.
Lisa saw that he was gripping the edge of the table so hard that his knuckles were white. She could tell he was fighting against his own feelings, trying not to freak out at her news, and she appreciated the effort. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “I wish I hadn’t been so impulsive about it. It’s really not like me to just change my mind on the spur of the moment, you know that. But I was so angry and upset …”
“I know.” Alex forced a small smile. “Um, have you told your mother yet?”
Lisa nodded. “She took it surprisingly well,” she said ruefully. “I mean, I’m sure she still hates the fact that I’m going to be with Dad on what’s supposed to be a big family-togetherness-type holiday. But I guess she realized that this means she and Rafe will have a whole week to be together without worrying about me walking in on them.” She shuddered at the thought of her mother’s new boyfriend, a coworker some twenty years her junior. But she quickly pushed the thought aside. Her main concern just then was her own relationship with Alex, not her mother’s romance—if you could call it that—with Rafe. “So, uh, what do you think?”
Penalty Points Page 15
