Shying at Trouble

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Wow.” Stevie couldn’t imagine how she would react if her parents ever dropped such a bombshell on her. Still, she couldn’t help shivering a little with excitement on Emily’s behalf. Australia! Kangaroos, the outback, crocodiles and dingoes and didgeridoos—it sounded so exotic, so interesting and cool.…

  Suddenly she noticed that Callie didn’t look excited at all. She just looked sad.

  It must be tough for her, Stevie thought as she pulled her sneakers out of the bottom of her locker. She hasn’t known Emily anywhere near as long as the rest of us, but she’ll probably miss her even more than we do because of her physical therapy. She tries to be so tough and independent and everything, but it’s obvious that she totally relies on Emily when it comes to that.

  “How come they’re leaving PC here?” she asked. “I know they’re pretty strict over there, because of all the problems they’ve had with imported species endangering native plants and animals.”

  Callie nodded. “There are major quarantine rules.” She gave Stevie a sidelong glance. “Actually, horses aren’t even native to the continent. Did you know that?”

  “I think I did,” Stevie replied, jamming her feet into her sneakers and leaning over to tie the laces. “I seem to remember Carole telling me something like that when she was on one of her international horse-information kicks.”

  Callie smiled slyly. “But did she tell you how the equestrian events for the Melbourne Olympics—I think that was back in the 1950s sometime—had to be held in Sweden because of Australia’s regulations?”

  Stevie shrugged. “Of course.” Then she grinned. “Okay, I’m lying. I don’t remember her telling me that. But she probably did.” She finished tying her laces and sat up, glancing at Callie. “Sometimes when Carole’s on a roll with one of her horse-related lectures, it’s hard to take in every single thing she says.”

  Callie laughed out loud at that. “Right. But in any case, I don’t think the quarantine stuff is the main reason Emily decided to donate PC back to Free Rein.” That was the name of the therapeutic riding center where Emily had learned to ride and where she had first paired up with PC. “She’s going to look for another horse when she gets over there—she’s pretty excited about having a chance to help train it herself.”

  Stevie stood and slammed her locker door. “Sounds like fun. And Free Rein will be thrilled to have PC.” Secretly, she was a bit surprised that Emily was so eager to get rid of the horse she’d ridden for so many years. She knew that Emily wasn’t particularly sentimental, but Stevie herself couldn’t imagine just tossing Belle aside if her family moved—or for any other reason. The two of them were a team, just as Emily and PC had always been a team.

  As if reading her mind, Callie continued. “Emily knows that PC will be appreciated at Free Rein,” she said. “Plus she’s trying to consider what’s best for the horse. PC’s not old, but he’s not exactly young, either.”

  “Oh.” Stevie hadn’t thought about it from that point of view before. “Shipping him all that way would probably be tough on him, wouldn’t it?”

  Callie nodded. “I’m sure he’d adjust. But Emily still doesn’t want to put him through all that. Not to mention making her family take on the shipping expenses, and the cost and hassle of all the special vet stuff they’d have to go through before and after quarantine.…”

  Stevie nodded slowly. It all made sense in a way, though she wasn’t sure she could ever come to the same decision if she and Belle were put in a similar situation. Still, she knew that Emily had never been afraid to embrace change or new opportunities. “Sounds like she made the mature choice,” she mused aloud.

  Callie leaned back against a locker. “I’m sure PC will miss her, but he’ll get over it,” she said. “I just hope the rest of us can, too.”

  Stevie shot Callie a sympathetic look. Once again, she realized that the other girl was upset about losing her therapeutic riding coach. But in her usual self-sufficient way, she was trying not to let it show. “We’ll never stop missing her.” She shrugged and grinned. “But look on the bright side. Now that we’ll have a friend to stay with in Australia, there’s that much more chance our parents will decide to let us all go!”

  Callie laughed. “Right,” she said. “What’s a couple of thou for the airfare when we have a free place to crash?”

  Callie was still thinking about Emily’s move as she and Stevie walked out of the locker room into the gym. Because of her crutches, she had been excused from participating in phys ed this semester, but that didn’t mean she was excused from attending. Ever since school had started at the beginning of September, she had been sitting in the bleachers, bored out of her mind for forty minutes twice a week, watching her classmates jog or do sit-ups or play dodgeball.

  The last day and a half made her long for those dull days. Since that idiotic article had appeared in the national press, she and Scott had been the talk of the school. She was sure that today’s phys ed class was going to be no exception.

  As she entered the gym, whispers were audible above the hollow bouncing of basketballs and the squeaking of dozens of sneakers. Almost every one of her classmates turned to look at her curiously as she walked past on her crutches. Most of them were obviously trying not to look as though they were staring. But one girl—one tall, pretty girl with long, straight dark hair—was staring openly. As Callie averted her eyes, the girl smiled and started toward her.

  “Uh-oh,” Stevie murmured in her ear. “Veronica alert.”

  It was too late for Callie to respond or try to escape. She pasted her most convincing fake smile on her face as Veronica reached them.

  “Hi, Callie,” Veronica said brightly. “How’s it going?”

  Callie shrugged, feeling suspicious. Veronica was the leader of the most popular clique of juniors and seniors at Fenton Hall. She had always been cool at best to Callie in the past, when she had bothered to acknowledge her existence at all. “It’s going,” she replied cautiously.

  “Right,” Stevie added. “I guess that means you should be going, Veronica.”

  Callie winced. She knew that Stevie and Veronica had never gotten along—she’d heard enough hair-raising stories about the stunts they’d pulled on each other to leave no doubt in her mind about that. Still, she sometimes wished that Stevie could be a little more tactful—a little less blunt in expressing herself. Callie never hesitated to stand up for herself, but she didn’t like the sorts of unnecessary confrontations the other girl seemed to thrive on. If only Stevie could develop a little more … finesse. It was one of Callie’s mother’s favorite words.

  Fortunately, Veronica didn’t take the slightest notice of Stevie’s comment. She was still gazing at Callie with that smile on her face. Callie noticed that her lip gloss exactly matched the shade of her T-shirt. “Okay,” Veronica said cheerfully. “Well, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I mean, being in that accident and all must have been kind of rough.”

  “Well, that all seems like ages ago now,” Callie said lightly. “But thanks.”

  “And that newspaper article,” Veronica continued. “It must have made things just awful for your father—your whole family.” She leaned a little closer. “I just wanted to let you know, Callie, if you need someone to talk to, I’m here for you. I understand how difficult it can be, coming from a prominent family.”

  Stevie couldn’t help letting out an inelegant snort. Veronica’s family might be one of the wealthiest in Willow Creek, but that hardly put them in the same league as the Foresters. She could hardly believe the load of manure Veronica was shoveling out at the moment. Did she really think Callie was going to forget that she had spent the past four or five weeks ignoring her at best, insulting her at worst?

  Obviously she did. She didn’t bother to acknowledge Stevie’s snort as she continued to stare empathetically at Callie. And Callie was smiling back as if this conversation were the most normal thing in the world.

  Stevie knew how Veronica’s shallow, self-
involved little mind worked well enough to see straight through her, even if Callie couldn’t. Veronica must have just realized that Congressman Forester is a prominent member of the House, and that in her own pathetic, feeble set of priorities that makes Callie someone worth knowing, she thought in disgust.

  At that moment one of Veronica’s friends called to her, and Veronica excused herself—to Callie, again ignoring Stevie—and hurried away. Callie let out a long sigh when she was gone.

  “Wow,” she said quietly. “Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I’m not sure which of her personalities is worse.”

  Stevie let out her own sigh of relief. She was glad Callie hadn’t fallen for Veronica’s about-face. “Tell me about it. Now that you’re on her friendship list, she’ll make your life a living hell until you agree to be her best friend forever.” She shrugged. “The best thing to do is just tell her right now that you’ll never be friends with such a sniveling, spiteful, self-absorbed princess in a million years, so she can just forget it.”

  Callie laughed, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Very funny, Stevie,” she said. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

  Before Stevie could explain that she hadn’t been joking, the phys ed teacher blew her whistle to start class, ending the discussion.

  “Toss me the tomato sauce, will you, sweetie?” Lisa said.

  Alex grabbed the open can of sauce from the Atwoods’ kitchen counter and pretended he was about to lob it across the room. Lisa held up her hands to shield her face, laughing.

  The two of them had been busy for the past half hour fixing dinner—fettuccine with tomato and mushroom sauce. Mrs. Atwood was due home from work at any moment, and Lisa was hoping that by surprising her mother with her favorite meal, she might extend her good mood for one more day at least. It had already lasted a lot longer than Lisa had dared to hope—almost forty-eight hours now!—making their house more peaceful and pleasant to live in than it had been for ages.

  Lisa stepped over and attempted to grab the tomato sauce out of Alex’s hand. “Give me that,” she commanded. “Otherwise I’ll send you home without any dinner.” She giggled as he pretended to take a sip out of the can before letting her wrestle it away from him.

  “I’m glad you’re in such a good mood,” Alex told her, his face growing more serious. “I was afraid you’d be upset because Stevie and Carole are both going to be in that horse show and Max didn’t ask you.”

  Lisa shrugged. “I probably should be,” she admitted, picking up a fork to check the pasta that was bubbling away on the stove. “But all I keep thinking about is how much work they’re going to have to do between now and then to be ready for such an important show. I’m thrilled for them, but believe me, I’ll be much happier in the stands cheering them on. Denise and George, too. And Ben.”

  She had almost forgotten to add the moody stable hand to the list. Ben had that effect on her—he tried so hard to be invisible and keep to himself that Lisa often simply forgot he was around. Still, when she did remember to think about it, she had to admit that he was an excellent rider—probably as good as Carole. He had an easy, natural rapport with horses that was really special. He and Topside would be a tough team to beat at the show.

  “Anyway,” she said, “it’s not like I have a competitive horse to enter the show on. Even Starlight wasn’t up to the task, remember?”

  “If Prancer weren’t pregnant …”

  “She wouldn’t be up to it, either,” Lisa admitted. As much as she loved the beautiful bay mare, she would be the first to admit that she would probably never win any blue ribbons at a show like Colesford. While her Thoroughbred breeding could probably rival any horse’s entered, Prancer simply hadn’t received the intensive show-ring training required to compete at that level. “This isn’t some casual little Pine Hollow show. The horses there will be tough—really tough.”

  “I know.” Alex reached around her for the salt shaker. “Stevie isn’t bragging about how she’s going to win every ribbon, like she usually does before these things. She’s actually being sort of humble for a change—you know, that ‘it’s an honor just to be nominated’ sort of thing.”

  Lisa chuckled. “Still, I bet secretly she’s at least a tiny bit pleased with herself because she’s going to be riding at Colesford and Phil isn’t.” Stevie and her boyfriend had a long history of intense competition. For some reason, Phil had always seemed to bring out the worst in Stevie when they were rivals for anything, no matter how minor. When they were younger, that had threatened their relationship more than once. With age and experience, they had both mellowed enough so that they could enjoy a friendly game of tennis or touch football without turning it into a blood sport.

  Glancing over at Alex, Lisa couldn’t imagine wanting to beat him out for anything. She wanted only the best for him, as he did for her. That was what their relationship was all about.

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Alex said. “But I’m sure Phil will be there in the audience, cheering her on with the rest of us.”

  “True.” Lisa paused to test the pasta once more. It still wasn’t done, so she set down her fork and glanced at Alex. “I wonder if A.J. will be there, too,” she said softly.

  Alex reached over and gently squeezed her upper arm. “Seeing him the other day really freaked you out, didn’t it?” he said. “Me too.”

  Lisa nodded. A.J. had been on her mind more and more these past few days. Now that all the surprises regarding Prancer seemed to be out in the open, she actually had some energy to spend thinking about other things—starting with how a nice, funny, outgoing guy like A.J. had suddenly transformed into such a monster.

  “What could be going on with him?” Lisa bit her lip and glanced at Alex. “Do you really think it’s drugs?”

  Alex shrugged. “The more time passes, the more it seems like that’s the only thing it could be,” he said heavily. “It’s hard to believe something like that about A.J., but, well …”

  Lisa knew what he meant. It was horrible to think that any friend of theirs, especially A.J., could have gotten himself mixed up in something so stupid and dangerous. But what else could make him change so drastically, so suddenly, from the person they knew into a complete stranger?

  “We’ve got to help him somehow,” she murmured, more to herself than to Alex. “We’ve got to find a way to get through to him.”

  “How can we if he won’t even talk to us?” Alex asked.

  “Let’s think about this.” Lisa paused and thought, stirring the spaghetti sauce slowly with a wooden spoon. She’d been speaking casually when she’d brought up A.J.’s name. But now that she really thought about it, she realized that she—and most of the others, she suspected—had been relying on Phil and Stevie to come up with a plan to help A.J. In a way, that was only natural, since they were the closest to him. But now she couldn’t help thinking that maybe they were a little too close. Maybe their affection and concern for A.J. were keeping them from thinking clearly about all their options.

  Besides, we should all be doing whatever we can to help, Lisa told herself. Isn’t that what friends are for?

  She shared what she was thinking with Alex. “So how about it?” she said when she was finished. “Let’s try to come up with a new plan.”

  Alex nodded agreeably. “Okay,” he said. “But I have to admit, I thought the last idea was a pretty good one.”

  “Me too.” Lisa continued to stir the sauce automatically as she turned over the problem in her mind. “But let’s be logical about this. Why didn’t it work? Why wouldn’t he talk to us? What was the problem?”

  Alex leaned against the counter. “Obvious,” he said. “A.J. got away before we could even try to talk to him.”

  “And Phil has already tried the one-on-one approach,” Lisa said thoughtfully. “I suppose one person is just too easy to ignore, even if it is your best friend.”

  “Maybe we should send Stevie over there alone.” Alex grinned. “If we locked her and A.J. in a
room together and just let her talk his ear off, he’d be sure to crack. Of course, it might kill him—”

  “That’s it!” Lisa cried suddenly. With Alex’s words, the perfect plan had come to her in a flash.

  “What? You want to kill him?”

  “Of course not.” Lisa waved a hand impatiently. “It was what you said about locking him in a room so he couldn’t get away. That was really the reason why everything went wrong—he got away. You said it yourself.”

  “Right.” Alex looked uncertain. “So what do you want to do? Wait for him in his room this time?”

  “I don’t think so.” Now that she’d thought of it, the solution seemed so obvious that she couldn’t believe none of them had hit on it before. “But we should try again someplace where it’s not quite so easy for him to escape. I don’t think his house is the answer, though. In case it doesn’t work, it’s probably not a good idea to have his parents involved.”

  Alex nodded. “If he decides they’re out to get him, he may just take off or something.”

  Lisa shuddered. That wasn’t quite what she’d been thinking—she had just thought that he might not open up as easily or talk as freely if his mother and father were present, especially if his problem had something to do with drugs or drinking or shoplifting or anything else that could be considered scandalous. It was horrible—no, downright impossible—to imagine A.J. running away from home. But it was just as impossible to imagine him acting the way he’d been acting for the past few weeks.

  “Right,” she said, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. “Anyway, I was thinking that someplace more neutral would be better. But it has to be somewhere he goes on a regular basis. That way he’ll never see it coming.”

  Alex nodded. “The element of surprise,” he said. “But where were you thinking of? I mean, we can’t all cut last period to wait for him outside his school … can we?” he added with a sidelong glance at her.