Lisa

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Just give it to us,” Carole said. “We’ll see to it that it all gets done.”

  “Sounds like a good deal to me,” Max said. “And as I said, I’ll see about tickets. If I have time. I’ve got to get going now. And you’re about done with Topside’s tack, aren’t you?”

  “Almost,” Carole said.

  “You know,” Max mused, “one of the problems with one really clean saddle is that it makes all the other ones around it look dirty. Well, see you!” With that, he left.

  We took the hint. By the time we stumbled out of the tack room for that well-deserved snack at TD’s, the gleam of clean leather was practically blinding.

  So we have our list of chores, and it’s pretty long. But we definitely don’t want to miss out on the horse show, so we’re determined to get everything done. I even volunteered to make a list so we can keep track of how we’re doing. I created it on the computer and printed out copies for each of us. I also printed an extra copy to paste in here.

  PINE HOLLOW CHORES TO DO BY FRIDAY

  sort specialized riding clothes (Max’s house—attic)

  check bales of hay in hayloft for mold

  mix grain rations for the week

  mix special grain ration for Garnet

  clean and check all leather tack in tack room

  sort through spare irons bucket; arrange bits by size and match stirrup irons in pairs

  sort riding hard hats by size

  sort out medicine cabinet in tack room; discard out-dated medicine and organize remaining contents

  clean stall for new stallion

  Dear Diary,

  I don’t want to sound like a bad friend, but I’ve been noticing lately that whenever Stevie has one of her “brilliant” ideas, Carole and I seem to end up doing an awful lot of the work to make it happen. And it’s definitely happening again.

  Monday morning—was that really only yesterday???—I gave Carole and Stevie their copies of my list. I’d decided that the best way to handle the enormous list of chores was to spread out the huge ones, like sorting the riding clothes, over the whole week. That way we could get a little done each day, and also do some of the smaller chores each day.

  Stevie gasped when she saw the list. “Does anyone ever get time off for good behavior?”

  “Of course.” Carole looked a bit peeved. “That’s what’s going to happen Friday night. That’s what we’re working for here, and I don’t think you should joke about it.”

  “I’m not joking,” Stevie said. “There’s nothing funny about all the work Max expects us to do.”

  “Are you complaining?” I asked. I was a little suspicious—I had already noticed that I’d been doing a lot of work that was really Stevie’s responsibility lately. Judging from the expression on Carole’s face, I’d guess she was thinking the same thing. It really is a big list of jobs—we’re all going to have to work hard if we expect to finish by Friday.

  But Stevie surprised us. “Oh, no,” she said. “Really I’m not. I just meant that there’s so much work here that I hate to think how much more work Max must have to do himself!”

  I hadn’t thought about it that way, but Stevie did have a point. Sometimes it’s easy to take what Max does for granted. But running a big, busy stable like Pine Hollow can’t be easy.

  “You’re right,” Carole told Stevie. “I guess I was only thinking about us—not about Max. Poor guy.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “But what are we going to do about it?”

  Stevie looked thoughtful. “We’re going to do everything he asked us—plus something.”

  “What something?” I asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Stevie said. “The idea, though, is that he needs our help and he’s going to thank us by taking us to the horse show. We need to find a way to thank him for that. Something fun.”

  In the meantime, we got to work. We each tackled one or two of the smaller chores from the list. When those were finished, we met up again at Max’s house to start sorting through the fancy riding clothes in his attic. It was interesting. The place is absolutely stuffed with all sorts of specialized costumes, like formal outfits for saddle-seat equitation, sidesaddle skirts (actually, they’re pants made to look like skirts), and shadbelly jackets. We had a great time digging through boxes and trying on all the clothes.

  One of the outfits Carole tried on was the inspiration for Stevie’s new idea. It was a pearl gray formal outfit with one of those sidesaddle skirts. Stevie topped it off with a piece of white mosquito netting she found, which made Carole look like a bride who was ready to ride down the aisle.

  As we all exclaimed over the outfit, a certain look came into Stevie’s eyes. “We can have a wedding!” she declared.

  “We’re only missing two things,” I pointed out. “A bride and a groom.”

  “No, we’ve got them already. The new stallion is the groom and Delilah is the bride!” Stevie was doing that thing where she’s thinking so fast, and talking so fast to keep up, that her words were tumbling over each other to escape from her mouth. “It’s going to be great. We can do it on Saturday after the horse show. You can ride Delilah, wearing that outfit—you might want to consider adding a string of pearls somewhere—and then one of us can wear the outfit I had on before—you know, the Southern-gentleman thing—and that person can lead the stallion, and then the other one can be the justice of the peace.”

  “Just where is this going to take place?” Carole asked.

  “In the paddock,” Stevie said quickly. “Or maybe we’ll think of someplace more romantic. Anyway, we can ask all the members of Horse Wise to bring food. We can make it a surprise for them, too …”

  And she was off. I don’t even remember all the plans she was thinking up right on the spot. I was too busy wondering how on earth she expected us to plan an entire wedding—even a horse wedding—in four days when we already had so much other work to do. But there’s no stopping her when she’s on a roll like that.

  Part of the reason she’s so excited is that Saturday is April Fools’ Day, a holiday that must have been created with Stevie in mind. Apparently she and Carole had just been talking about it, and Carole was begging her not to pull her usual troublesome pranks this year. Stevie thought this was the perfect solution—it was a fun joke that everybody could enjoy. I guess she’s right about that, but as she chattered on and on about her plans, it sounded like more and more work to me.

  As I said, though, there’s no stopping her. Today before riding class, she managed to convince everyone to bring refreshments to Saturday’s Horse Wise meeting without actually telling them why they were doing it. I think she told most people it’s Max’s birthday on Saturday. She even convinced Adam Levine to bring the bunch of folding chairs that his parents have in their basement.

  Of course, while she was running around doing all that, the clock was ticking. Class was only five minutes away when she finally got around to tacking up Topside. Carole and I knew there was no way she would make it without our help. So we pitched in. As usual.

  But that’s what The Saddle Club is about, right? Helping each other.

  In class, Max announced the news about the stallion. He’s definitely coming to Pine Hollow this weekend, and his name is Geronimo. Everyone in class was excited, and nobody minded a bit when Max asked us all to pitch in and help smooth out the ground in the paddock where Geronimo will be spending most of his time.

  Well, nobody except me and Carole, that is—at least a little. We had a lot of chores to do from our list that day. But Max seemed to expect us to join in, so we did.

  Stevie was another story. She told Max she couldn’t stay because she had to go to a dentist’s appointment. When she said that, Carole and I just looked at each other in disbelief. We knew it wasn’t true.

  “I’ve got to go to the shopping center and pick up some things for Saturday,” Stevie whispered to us on her way out.

  Carole and I did our best to look on the bright side as we set to w
ork in the paddock with the others. Even though it seemed a little unfair that Stevie got to do something sort of fun, like shopping, while we were stuck spreading dirt around a lumpy paddock, we had to admit that she was probably the best one to go. The wedding was her idea, and she’s great at finding interesting stuff to buy.

  While we worked, Carole and I talked about the show. I had no idea what Nigel’s Gambler’s Choice event was all about when Max first mentioned it, but Carole explained it to me. She said each rider in the event has a certain amount of time, maybe ninety seconds, to run the course. There are lots of different jumps out there, and they can choose which ones to go over. The easy ones are worth less, maybe ten or twenty points, and the harder ones are worth more, like forty or fifty points. That means riders can just go over the easy jumps again and again if they want. But if they want to win, they have to take chances—gamble. That’s how the event gets its name. Then, at the end, there’s a really huge jump called The Joker, which is worth tons of points. But if a rider attempts it and doesn’t make it, that many points are deducted from the score. It sounds really exciting—I can’t wait to see it in person! I only hope we finish all our chores in time to go …

  Thornbury Hall

  London, England

  Dear Lisa,

  Hi, sis! Your last letter was really interesting. It sounds like Carole had a close call with that riptide. And it sounds like you and Stevie learned a lot from Alice Jackson, even if it wasn’t the easiest lesson.

  I have some good news of my own. I had a few days off from my classes recently, and I got some work done on my screenplay. Actually, it’s not really the screenplay itself. It’s just some brief sketches of my three main characters. I thought you might like to see, so I’ve enclosed them with this letter. Let me know what you think of them!

  Love,

  Peter

  Three Character Sketches

  by Peter Atwood

  L is a girl, thirteen or fourteen years old. She is slender and attractive, with shoulder-length light brown hair and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. L is mature for her age, sensible and smart. She is logical and determined and knows exactly what she wants out of life. A straight-A student, she is very organized and resourceful. Her favorite after-school activity might be editing the yearbook or running the student council. She is the least likely of the three girls to stumble into trouble because she is so careful, though her courage, honesty, and loyalty to her friends would make her take any risk to help them. She would face down any danger to help a friend.

  S is around the same age as L or a little younger. She is a rambunctious girl with dark blond hair and a quick laugh. S doesn’t always look before she leaps. She likes to live life on the edge. Her favorite thing to do on the weekend might be cooking up wild pranks to play on people. Sometimes S gets into hot water because she isn’t afraid of anything—even things she should be afraid of. She loves riding fast, playing hard, meeting new people, and most of all, having fun. She would face danger to prove she isn’t afraid.

  C is the same age as S. She’s a slender African American girl with wavy long hair. She is an accomplished horseback rider and takes riding very seriously. She can be careless about other matters, and her friends sometimes tease her for being scatterbrained. She is the most likely of the three girls to wander into trouble, because she doesn’t always pay attention. Her favorite daydream would be riding off into the sunset on the world’s most perfect horse. She is so gentle and kind that she could be more easily duped than her friends. But she would face any danger to save a horse.

  Dear Diary,

  Wow, I can’t believe it’s Sunday already! I’ve been so busy that the time since my last diary entry has felt like one very long, very busy day. Of course, it’s been a very fun day, too—at least for the most part.

  But now that I’ve had a little time to rest, I’m ready to write it all down here. This past week definitely falls into the category of times I want to remember!

  Wednesday after school, the three of us met at Pine Hollow as planned. Stevie wanted to hold a rehearsal for her horse wedding, so Carole and I spent far too much valuable time posing and smiling for the “photographer” (if you can use that word to describe Stevie squinting through her hands and wiggling her finger to pretend she was snapping rolls of film).

  The good part was that this all took place during a trail ride. Stevie had somehow managed to convince us that we needed to relax a little before getting down to work. I was riding Delilah, and I was discovering that she was just as sweet and wonderful as I’d always assumed. It was no wonder that Judge Gavin had been so grateful to Carole for matching him up with her.

  But that was about the only good part of that afternoon. Stevie was being just about impossible, as only Stevie can be. Most of the time her impossible side is offset by her mischievous, fun-loving side. But that day her impossible side was coming out more than usual, and she was being downright bossy. Anytime Carole and I tried to have a conversation, Stevie broke in to return the topic to the wedding.

  Finally we’d had enough. While Stevie started thinking out loud about the aisle the horses would walk down for the wedding, Carole and I exchanged glances. Without speaking, we both nudged our horses and trotted away down the trail. Stevie didn’t even notice until we were already halfway across a nearby field. She called after us, but we ignored her, letting our horses drift to a halt in the middle of a patch of wildflowers. Delilah stretched her neck down to take a bite of grass, which also included a few yellow blossoms.

  “She’s always loved flowers,” Carole observed. “They must taste good.”

  I nodded. “She reminds me of Ferdinand, the bull who likes to smell the flowers.”

  “That gives me an idea,” Carole said. “I think I know how we can make our point to Stevie.” She dismounted, secured Starlight to a fence a few yards away, and then returned to the flower patch. “Let’s be Ferdinand ourselves.”

  I understood right away. After tying Delilah up beside Starlight, I joined Carole in the middle of the flower patch. We plucked a few blossoms and smelled them. Then I started twining mine together to make a daisy chain. Carole wanted to know how to do it, so I showed her. When my chain was about a foot long, I wove the ends together to make a circle and then put it on top of my riding hat.

  A moment later, I heard approaching hooves. I didn’t look up. I was sure Stevie was going to be mad. I wasn’t looking forward to facing her famous temper.

  But when Stevie spoke, her voice sounded perfectly friendly. In fact, it sounded downright excited. “Nice!” she exclaimed. “I like it! I thought you two were giving up on me, but look at you! You’ve figured out how to get flowers into our wedding. Great!”

  Carole and I looked at each other. We couldn’t help laughing. Stevie really is one of a kind, even when she’s being a tiny bit annoying. It just seemed a lot easier to go along with her than to try to rebel any further. We remounted and let ourselves be bossed around for the next hour or so before returning to Pine Hollow and getting to work on more of the chores on the list. Or rather, Carole and I got to work on the chores. Stevie insisted on racing back to her house to stow the flowers we’d picked in her refrigerator, and it took her a while to return. When she did, she suddenly remembered that she had to make some phone calls to make sure that everybody knew what to bring on Saturday.

  That was pretty much how Thursday went, too. Carole and I worked our fingers to the bone while Stevie strained her brain with plans for the wedding. By the time Friday arrived, we weren’t sure we’d ever finish everything Max had asked us to do. Still, most of it was done—enough to hope that Max would let us go to the horse show that evening.

  The only other problem was Stevie. She was so gung ho about her wedding plans that she actually made us meet her at Pine Hollow before school for another wedding rehearsal. Then, right after school, we all returned for a couple of hours of hard work.

  It was all worth it, though. Max came thr
ough with the tickets, and we headed for the show right after dinner. The minute we entered the arena, we could feel the excitement of the horse show. We were even more excited ourselves when we saw how great our seats were. We were practically in the ring!

  Dorothy DeSoto found us shortly after we’d taken our seats. She had big hugs for Max and Mrs. Reg and for all of us.

  “I’m so glad you could all come tonight!” she exclaimed. “This is one of my favorite nights of the show. It’s going to be great.”

  We had to agree with that—especially when Dorothy invited us backstage to see what was going on behind the scenes. She also promised to introduce us to Nigel.

  When we met him, he was not only incredibly handsome, but as nice as can be, too. “Nigel, here they are,” Dorothy told him. “This is Carole, Stevie, and Lisa—better known as The Saddle Club.”

  “Ah, the American girls who ride at Max’s stable,” Nigel said with a smile.

  I was a little awed by Nigel at first, actually. He’s one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met. He was very tall and slender, with strong features, wide-set dark brown eyes, and impeccably combed hair. I might have been downright scared of him if it weren’t for his wonderful, warm smile.

  “I suppose it wasn’t really me you wanted to meet, though, was it?” Nigel joked. “It was my horse, right?”

  “Well, we do love horses,” Stevie admitted with a grin.

  “Then come right this way.”

  Dorothy excused herself, saying she’d meet us all back at our seats. We followed Nigel to the area where the British Equestrian Team was set up. There were four members of the team at the horse show, and they were competing in a variety of events, including the Gambler’s Choice later that evening. Nigel introduced us to two of his teammates, Camilla Wentworth and Alastair Brown. Then we met the horses, who were positively wonderful, although Camilla was a bit worried about her horse, Elementary.