Changing Leads

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Right after school.” Carole leaned forward and patted Samson. “We were in the indoor ring for a while, but when I saw that Callie’s session was finished, I decided we might as well take advantage of the nice weather and move out here.”

  Phil reached out to rub Samson’s dark nose. “He’s looking good, Carole. The fresh air must agree with him.”

  Stevie grinned. “I bet it would agree with poor Starlight, too,” she quipped. “He just told me he’s been cooped up in his stall so long he forgot what sunlight feels like.”

  “Don’t worry about him,” Carole said quickly. “Samson and I were just finishing up. I’m going to tack up Starlight right away and give him a nice long workout.”

  “Good. See you.” Stevie turned away, her mind already returning—despite her best intentions—to worrying about Phil’s new friend, Scott Forester.

  ELEVEN

  Lisa was humming as she left school on Friday afternoon. It had been a good day—her Spanish class had gotten their first quiz grades back, and Lisa had scored an A+. “Perfecto,” she whispered to herself as she unlocked the door of her car in the student parking lot, relishing the memory of her teacher’s comment. She smiled as she slid behind the wheel, only wincing slightly as her hand touched the hot vinyl seat. So far her senior year was off to a great start, academically at least.

  She was still humming a few minutes later as she spun her steering wheel expertly, swinging her car into Pine Hollow’s gravel driveway. Now that the school week was over, she was really looking forward to today’s trail ride. She had barely seen Carole all week, aside from the occasional greeting in the halls. Because they were a year apart, they ate lunch at different times and had no classes together. And she hadn’t seen Stevie at all, although she had talked to her on the phone to plan this get-together.

  She parked in the shade and jumped out of the car eagerly. As she turned to lock the door—completely unnecessary at bucolic and crime-free Pine Hollow, but a habit drummed into her during her summer in southern California—she heard the sound of another car crunching toward her over the gravel. She looked up, squinting against the glare bouncing off the chrome fender but immediately recognizing the dark blue two-door that Stevie and Alex shared.

  Lisa stopped whistling when she noticed that Stevie wasn’t alone in the car. Callie was sitting in the passenger seat, tying her blond hair into a ponytail as she laughed at whatever Stevie was saying. What’s she doing here? Lisa wondered, her stomach clenching involuntarily.

  Then she relaxed. Callie and Stevie went to school together. Stevie was just giving her a ride here. Why should she let something like that bother her?

  She did her best to smile sincerely as the two of them climbed out of the car. They didn’t notice her at first.

  “… so that’s when kids started calling her Ms. Smoochie behind her back. It stuck even after she and Mr. Wensleydale stopped dating.”

  Callie was practically doubled over with laughter. “No wonder everyone snickered when she told us on the first day not to bother to ‘kiss up’ to improve our grades.”

  “Believe me, ever since then Miss Fenton has frowned upon letting teacher couples chaperone the—Oh, hi, Lisa,” Stevie said, interrupting herself.

  Lisa greeted them both politely. Then she turned to Stevie. “Ready for our trail ride?”

  “Sure,” Stevie replied cheerfully. “Oh! I hope you don’t mind. I invited Callie along, okay?”

  Lisa did her best not to let the sharp stab of disappointment she was feeling show on her face. “Great,” she said with as much false cheeriness as she could muster. It was no big deal. It was just a trail ride. Why shouldn’t Callie come along if she wanted to? “Let’s go get tacked up, then. Is Carole here yet?”

  Lisa forced herself to make small talk with the other two girls as they entered the stable building. Then she excused herself as the others turned toward the tack room.

  “I want to give Prancer a quick grooming first,” she told them. “It won’t take long—I promise.”

  She felt herself relaxing again as she hurried down the aisle toward Prancer’s stall. It was silly to be so uptight about Callie’s presence. It wasn’t as though this was some kind of Saddle Club reunion trail ride or anything like that. It was just a few good friends getting together for a relaxing excursion. And wasn’t Callie a good friend?

  Stevie and Carole certainly seem to think so. The little voice in her head piped up before she could squash it. Lisa shook her head. She would feel better when she felt Prancer’s soft nose shoving at her neck, looking for treats.

  She picked up the pace, eager to greet the loving mare. But when she reached the stall and peered inside, she found an unpleasant surprise waiting for her. Prancer was nowhere in sight.

  “Prancer?” Lisa said, feeling slightly foolish. It wasn’t as though Prancer was going to leap out of a dark corner at her call. The stall was empty.

  Lisa glanced around the aisle helplessly. Hadn’t she told Max she would be going on a trail ride this afternoon? She thought back carefully. Yes, she was sure of it. In her usual organized manner, she had called and left a message on the answering machine at the stable office as soon as she had gotten off the phone with Stevie. So where was Prancer? It had been almost a week since the day Max had told her the mare was off-limits, so it couldn’t still have something to do with that, could it?

  Maybe he never got the message, she told herself uncertainly. Then she thought of another possibility. Or maybe Prancer is on her way back right now.

  That made her feel a little better. Prancer had become very popular with the junior-high Pony Clubbers while Lisa was away. And those younger riders didn’t always have the clearest grasp of the concept of time. Maybe someone had taken her out right after school and was just running a little late in getting her back for her scheduled ride with Lisa.

  That must be it, Lisa reassured herself. I just hope she’s not too tired for another ride. I may have to keep it to a walk today …

  At that moment she heard footsteps approaching, and a second later Ben came into view around the corner, a halter slung over one broad shoulder and a grooming bucket in his hand. He glanced at Lisa and gave her a brief nod of greeting.

  “Hi, Ben,” Lisa said, putting out a hand to stop him as he started to hurry past. “Listen, do you know where Prancer is? I mean, did one of the younger kids take her out?”

  “Nope,” Ben said.

  Lisa frowned. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Ben’s taciturn habits. “Well, where is she, then?” she asked rather testily.

  Ben didn’t seem to notice. “Judy’s got her out back.”

  “Judy?” Lisa repeated, feeling her stomach clench with worry. Judy Barker was the local equine vet. “Is anything wrong?”

  Ben shrugged again. “I wouldn’t know about that. You’d have to ask Max.”

  Lisa’s mind was working overtime to process this new bit of information. Why would Judy have taken Prancer out of her stall? Suddenly all her vague suspicions and vaguer worries of the past few weeks focused on that one fact. “There’s not something wrong with her weak foot again, is there? I mean, did she go lame or—”

  “I told you,” Ben muttered, ducking his head. “You’ll have to talk to Max. All I know is I saw Judy leading her down the aisle a few minutes ago.”

  He started to turn away, but Lisa grabbed him by the sleeve. He stared down at her hand for a second, looking surprised and slightly disturbed at the contact. “What is it?” he growled.

  Lisa ignored his expression. She couldn’t worry about Ben’s famous gruffness right then. She wanted to explain to him how worried she was—how much she loved Prancer. How she was terrified at the very possibility that something could be wrong with her, wrong enough for Judy to come. Instead, her mouth formed completely different words. “But I was supposed to ride her today,” she said blankly. “I called ahead.”

  Ben shrugged. “Things happen.”

  Lisa couldn
’t help noticing that he didn’t seem terribly sympathetic. I don’t know why Carole cares if this guy is her friend or not, she thought with a flash of anger. I mean, he’s pretty cute, but he could definitely use a personality transplant!

  She immediately felt guilty at the uncharitable thought. Ben’s heart was in the right place, and he was wonderful with horses. She knew that. He just needed a little work on his people skills.

  Lisa took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain patient. If she wanted Ben to help her out, she couldn’t start yelling at him. That wouldn’t do either of them any good. Ben would probably just walk away, and Lisa would be left feeling guiltier than ever—and no closer to any answers about Prancer. “Okay,” she said evenly. “I guess we have a bit of a problem here. I’m supposed to be leaving on a trail ride right now, and I called ahead to reserve Prancer. What do you think I should do?”

  Ben shrugged again. “Ride another horse.” He clearly thought the answer was obvious.

  Lisa gritted her teeth, feeling her annoyance swelling again. He had totally missed the point. Of course she could ride another horse if she had to. Goodness knows, I’ve done that often enough recently, she thought. But first she needed to find out what was going on with Prancer. And she needed to find out immediately, before she left on her trail ride, before she drove herself crazy with worry. As she was trying to pull her thoughts together so that she could start explaining that to him, she heard a voice calling her name from the end of the aisle.

  “There you are!” Carole said breathlessly, hurrying over. She shot Ben a glance and a smile. Ben nodded in response, then slunk off.

  Lisa wasn’t sorry to see him go. “Do you have any idea what’s going on with Prancer?” she demanded, stepping toward her friend. “Ben just told me Judy took her out, but he wouldn’t say anything else. I’m afraid she must have hurt that pedal bone again …” Without waiting for a response, she turned and started down the aisle. Judy and Prancer were probably out in the back paddock, or maybe in the indoor ring. There was nothing to do but track them down and find out what was going on.

  “Wait!” Carole raced after her, breaking Max’s strict rule about running in the stable. She caught her by the arm. “Um, you probably shouldn’t bother them. Judy is busy, and—well, besides, you don’t have to worry. Prancer’s fine.”

  Lisa stopped and turned to look at her, hardly daring to believe her ears. Relief washed over her, so strong her knees went weak. “Are you sure?” she said. “What’s going on?”

  Carole blinked quickly a few times, then glanced from side to side as if searching for an escape route. Lisa had seen that look before. Suddenly suspicious again, she crossed her arms and waited, sure that her friend’s natural loyalty and honesty would win out.

  “Nothing’s going on,” Carole assured her, finally meeting her eye. “Judy stopped by to check on Romeo’s abscess, and she decided to take Prancer out for a quick ride. She is her co-owner, you know.”

  “Oh.” That stopped Lisa short. She had completely forgotten that the vet and Max had bought Prancer as partners. Suddenly her wild worry and panic fled as quickly as they had come, until she felt like a deflated balloon. “I guess that means I’ll have to ride someone else today. Again,” she said dully.

  “I guess so,” Carole said brightly. “And I have a great idea. Why don’t you give Eve a try? She hasn’t been exercised yet today, and she’s really sweet. Plus her trot is to die for—smooth as molasses but six times as fast.”

  For a second Lisa felt stubborn and opened her mouth to protest. She wanted to ride Prancer, not Eve, and if she couldn’t ride the horse she loved, she didn’t feel like going on a trail ride at all. But she snapped her mouth shut quickly, realizing how childish she was being. It’s no big deal, she told herself. I’m a mature human being. I can ride a different horse for one day—or rather, one more day—and still have fun.

  “Okay,” she said, forcing the word from her mouth. “Can you show me which tack is hers?”

  Carole nodded eagerly and headed in the direction of the tack room, chattering away about Eve.

  Lisa bit back a sigh as they walked down the aisle past Prancer’s empty stall. She knew that Carole was trying to make her feel better, and she knew that Eve was a very nice horse. She also suspected that she herself was overreacting a little.

  I can’t help it, though, she thought glumly, suddenly catching the faint sound of laughter coming from PC’s stall, which was close to Belle’s. It’s just one more sign that things aren’t the way they used to be around here.

  Carole wiggled her elbow to dislodge a pesky fly. Starlight cast his ears back toward her for a second, but then, apparently deciding that she wasn’t trying to tell him anything by wiggling his reins like that, he returned his attention to the trail.

  Carole smiled and patted him, making him flick his ears toward her again. Then she sat back in the saddle and glanced forward to see how Lisa was doing.

  She and Eve really seem to like each other, she thought hopefully, noticing the relaxed looseness of the gray mare’s stride. I just wish I could tell her the real reason …

  She sighed. Max’s secret was weighing more heavily on her with every passing day, and right then it filled her mind and made it difficult to relax and enjoy this trail ride with her friends. Behind her, she could hear Stevie and Callie trading quips and laughing easily. She only wished her guilty conscience would leave her alone so that she could join in.

  I hate this, she thought unhappily. Poor Lisa still has no idea, and I don’t know how much longer we can keep fooling her like this. She deserves to know the truth—but I can’t tell her. If it were anyone but Max … But I just can’t. If he found out I’d spilled the beans, he’d never trust me again.

  She knew she couldn’t risk that. She took her responsibility to Max very seriously. He had contributed more than any other single person in her life to her riding education. She owed him.

  Besides, he might get so mad he’d decide not to let me train Samson anymore, Carole reminded herself, shuddering at the thought. Anyway, Lisa will find out soon enough, whether I tell her or not. Then she’ll be so excited that she won’t even remember these little disappointments.

  Her conscience mollified a bit, Carole tried to forget about secrets and go back to thinking about Samson. She had been pleased with his progress that week—so pleased that she was giving him a day off to graze in the paddock while she was on this trail ride. Still, she figured that if they got back early enough, there might be time to longe him for a few minutes before she had to head home for dinner.

  That’s a great idea, she told herself. A little longeing would probably do him a lot of good.

  Looking forward to carrying out her new plan, she signaled for Starlight to lengthen his stride a bit. “Hey, you guys,” she called out. “How about we trot for a while?”

  TWELVE

  Stevie drummed her fingers on her desk. Her chemistry teacher was droning on and on about the periodic table of the elements and all sorts of other things that Stevie was sure were going to turn up on the next test, but she just couldn’t concentrate on any of it.

  Why do we have to go to school on Mondays, anyway? she thought irritably. She glanced through the wavy glass of the classroom’s old-fashioned bay window to the sunny afternoon sky. Especially gorgeous, perfect, sunny, summerlike Mondays like this one.

  It was a familiar thought—Stevie had entertained some version of it for each of the last eleven Septembers of her life—but today it wasn’t holding her full attention any more than Ms. Rourke’s lecture about cadmium and selenium and who knew what else. She was distracted by nagging thoughts about Phil—more specifically, her phone conversation with Phil the evening before.

  I still can’t believe he had such a great time at that stupid football game yesterday, she thought. But I guess he must have. Heaven knows he couldn’t stop talking about it for more than two seconds at a time.

  Her gaze wandered to a certa
in broad, polo-shirt-covered back in the front row of the classroom. She still found the idea that her boyfriend could be friends with Scott Forester more than a little irritating. When she thought about it rationally, she knew she shouldn’t feel threatened or angry or peevish about it. But Stevie wasn’t always good at looking at things rationally. All she knew for sure was that she wished that Phil had decided not to go to that Redskins game—that he and Scott had never had that first friendly chat in the locker room at Pine Hollow.

  Or better yet, Stevie added, that Scott had never moved here in the first place.

  She immediately took back that wish. If Scott’s family hadn’t moved there, she would never have met Callie. And despite the accident and all the heartache it had caused Stevie and other people, she couldn’t honestly wish for that.

  Besides, last night after hanging up with Phil, Stevie had convinced herself—almost, anyway—to cut him some slack and not worry too much about the whole Scott thing. For starters, Scott seemed to have some kind of hereditary politician’s compulsion to befriend everyone he met. He would probably forget all about Phil soon and move on to someone else. As for Phil, he would almost certainly be less interested in hanging out with Scott once A.J. returned to normal.

  Stevie sighed and leaned her chin on one hand, propping her elbow on her desk. Ms. Rourke had moved on to a description of an upcoming lab assignment, and Stevie knew she should probably try to pay attention. But there were just too many other things to think about.

  Her mind wandered back to A.J. On the phone, Phil had expressed as much concern as ever about his friend’s increasingly odd behavior.

  “He hardly talks to me anymore,” he’d told Stevie. “Sometimes when I say hi in the halls at school, he just looks through me like I’m not even there. And it’s not just me. He treats all his friends the same way.”