Summer Rider

by Bonnie Bryant

  Phil nodded. “I think that’s a good idea,” he said. “We’ll need someone to help us hammer out the details.”

  Stevie thought she had hammered out most of the details pretty well already, but she decided the point wasn’t worth arguing about. “Okay, if you insist,” she said. “But who? It has to be someone we can trust.”

  “How about Betty?” Todd suggested.

  “No way,” Stevie said. “She and Barry are like this.” She crossed her fingers. “She’d definitely rat on us.”

  Carole thought about the rest of the staff. “I’ve got it,” she said after a moment. “Mike!”

  “You mean Mike the stable hand?” Lisa asked. Mike was a laid-back, cheerful young man who had been working at Moose Hill for several summers. He was a favorite with all the campers, including The Saddle Club.

  Phil nodded. “He’s cool. I’m sure he’d help us out.”

  “Well …” Stevie still didn’t like the idea of bringing an adult into their plan. But Mike was awfully great. In fact, most of the time he hardly seemed like an adult at all. “I guess that would be okay.”

  The five friends hurried into the stable. They found Mike in the tack room cleaning a bridle. “Yo,” he greeted them with a smile.

  The others glanced at Stevie, waiting for her to start. “Mike, we’ve got a favor to ask you…,” she began, then proceeded to tell him the whole story.

  When she got to the part about the developers, Mike nodded. “Can’t say I’m totally surprised,” he admitted. “I’ve seen the suits hanging around, and, let’s face it, Barry’s mood has been a real roller coaster lately. I was starting to put two and two together.” He sighed. “It’s a real shame. This is a great place, and it’s been a lot of fun for me. I’ll hate to see it end.”

  “That’s kind of what we wanted to talk to you about,” Stevie said. “We want to make sure it doesn’t end.” She told him about her plan, speaking so quickly that her words started to get jumbled together.

  Mike seemed to understand every word anyway. By the end of Stevie’s speech, he was nodding. “Awesome plan, Stevie!” he exclaimed. “I never would have thought of it. I’m not sure you’ll really be able to pull it off—I mean, the thirty thousand bucks. But if you want my help, I’m definitely your man. It’s worth a try, right? And by the way, you can put me down right now for a three-thousand-dollar loan if Barry wants it.” He shrugged. “I wish it could be more, but that’s all I’ve got in my savings account.”

  “Great,” Stevie said. To her friends’ astonishment, she pulled a small calculator out of her shorts pocket and punched in some numbers. “That means each rider needs only ten sponsors at three dollars a fence.”

  “Where did you get that?” Carole asked.

  Stevie held up the calculator so that Carole could see the number at the top. “It’s right here on the calculator, see?”

  “I know,” Carole said. “I meant, where did you get the calculator?”

  Stevie grinned. “I’ll never tell.” She winked at Phil. “You didn’t really think I figured out all those numbers in my straight-C-plus head, did you?”

  THE NEXT MORNING, Stevie spent every spare moment on one of the pay phones in the rec hall, calling everyone she knew who might sponsor her. She also did her best to spread the word about the fund-raiser to as many campers as possible. Most of them were horrified at the thought of Moose Hill closing and promised to do what they could to help. But to Stevie’s annoyance, some people seemed downright disinterested in the whole thing.

  “Can you believe it?” she fumed to Carole when she ran into her in the tack room between classes. “I just talked to that girl Arianna from Cabin Two, and she said she couldn’t care less whether Moose Hill gets bulldozed.”

  Carole shook her head as she hung Starlight’s bridle on a hook on the wall. She had received one or two similar responses herself. “Luckily, she’s in the minority,” she said. “Most of the people I told are dying to help.”

  “Good.” Stevie grabbed the saddle soap and started to clean Belle’s saddle as quickly as possible. “How many sponsors do you have so far?”

  “Not many,” Carole said. She leaned against the wall and started ticking off the list on her fingers. “Just my dad—he said he wants to sponsor you and Lisa, too, by the way—and his secretary, and my relatives in Florida. Oh, and I called Pine Hollow, and Red said he’d sponsor The Saddle Club as a group.”

  “Great,” Stevie said. Red O’Malley was the head stable hand at Pine Hollow. “But you’ve got to get more sponsors.”

  “I will,” Carole promised. “My dad is going to call my relatives in Minnesota, and he’ll also talk to some of our neighbors and his friends at work. And I’ve got a list of friends from school that I have to call.”

  Stevie nodded. “I already talked to Max, and he and Deborah are sponsoring all three of us for five dollars a fence.” Deborah was Max’s wife.

  “Fantastic,” Carole said. “If everyone is that generous, we’ll have more than enough money before all this is over.”

  “Keep your fingers crossed,” Stevie said. She gave the saddle one last swipe with her rag and stood up. “I’ve got to run. I have a free period next, and I want to make some more calls.”

  Carole nodded. “Lisa has a free period now, too,” she reminded her. “Maybe you two can coordinate your efforts. As for me, I’ve got an unmounted class. So I guess I’ll see you at lunch.”

  The two parted ways, and Stevie hurried out of the stable, patting her pocket to make sure the calling card her parents had given her was still there. But she stopped short at the sight that greeted her just outside. Lisa was riding Major toward the jump course that was set up at one end of the meadow.

  “What are you doing?” Stevie cried, running toward her. “I thought you had a free period now.”

  “I do.” Lisa glanced down at her friend from Major’s back. “I’m going to go through the course a few times and then practice lead changes for a while.”

  Stevie could hardly believe her ears. “But you have calls to make!” she exclaimed. “Sponsors to seek! Money to raise! Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already.”

  “Of course not,” Lisa said, sounding a little annoyed. “But I have a lot of other things to do, too. I’ll make my calls later.”

  “When?” Stevie said. “We don’t exactly have months to spare, you know.”

  Lisa sighed. “Look, I’ll spend part of the lunch hour on the phone, okay? I promise.”

  Stevie decided she would have to be satisfied with that. She left Lisa to her riding and raced to the rec hall.

  Her first call was to her house. She had spoken to her parents earlier that morning, but none of her three brothers had been home at the time.

  Her twin, Alex, picked up the phone. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, sounding less than thrilled.

  “Nice to hear your voice, too,” Stevie said sarcastically. Then she remembered why she was calling and decided to try to be nice. “Um, so how’s it going?”

  She could almost hear her brother shrug over the phone. “It’s going,” Alex said. “Mom and Dad are both out. So if you’re calling to ask for money, you’ll have to try again later.” He laughed loudly at his own joke.

  Stevie gritted her teeth and did her best to keep her voice pleasant. “Actually, it’s funny you should mention money,” she said. “I have sort of a favor to ask.” She quickly filled him in on the situation. “So how about it?” she finished. “How much should I put you down for? Does three dollars a fence sound about right?”

  Alex snorted. “Try negative three dollars,” he said. “That way you’ll owe me money—if that mangy horse of yours makes it over any fences, that is.”

  Stevie clutched the phone cord so hard that her fingernails dug into her palm. She hoped all her sponsors weren’t going to be this annoying. “Come on, Alex,” she said, her voice getting dangerously close to a whine. “I’m serious about this. If I don’t get enough sponsors, Moose H
ill will close.” Suddenly she remembered something. “Besides, I’d hate to have to be the one to tell Mom and Dad that you snuck out after curfew to meet your girlfriend that time.”

  “Hmm.” Alex paused to think about that for a moment. “Well, I guess that stupid camp serves some purpose—it keeps you away from here for a few weeks every summer.”

  “Right,” Stevie said brightly. “So how much is that worth to you? Two bucks a fence? Even a dollar would help.”

  “I’ll give you ten cents a fence,” Alex said.

  “What!” Stevie exclaimed. “That’s it? One lousy dime? Remember, you were out way after curfew—and it was a school night, too …”

  “All right, a quarter a fence,” Alex said. “But that’s my final offer.”

  Stevie could tell he meant it. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll take what I can get. A quarter it is. Put Chad on, will you?”

  As Alex yelled for their older brother, Stevie sank down to the floor and leaned against the wall. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  STEVIE DIDN’T SLOW down her efforts for the next couple of hours. She made more calls, she told more campers about the fund-raiser, and she urged the ones who already knew about it to keep on working at getting sponsors. In fact, she was so busy that she was almost late for her afternoon jump class. Although the girls had had separate classes that morning, The Saddle Club were all in this class together, along with Phil and Todd.

  “Hi,” she whispered to her friends, riding into the ring just as Betty called the class to order.

  “We thought you weren’t going to make it,” Carole whispered back.

  Stevie reached down to finish tightening Belle’s girth. “Me too,” she replied. “But I have some good news. My mom’s law partner agreed to sponsor me. She’s only pledging a dollar a fence, but that’s more than some people are willing to give.”

  Phil glanced cautiously at Betty, who had turned to help another camper with her stirrups. “I know,” he said. “You’d be surprised how many of the people I’ve asked think even a dollar is too much. My sister Barbara would only pledge a quarter a fence.”

  “She and Alex should get together,” Stevie said. “Anyway, we’re just going to have to make it up in volume. And Mike had a great idea about that. He offered to take a few of us into town tomorrow afternoon to look for sponsors.” The next day was Saturday, and there were no afternoon classes. During time off, campers were sometimes allowed to make trips into the closest town, as long as Barry gave them permission.

  “What are you going to tell Barry?” Lisa asked.

  “I’ll think of something,” Stevie said. “I’ve got to. We need this trip if we’re going to have any prayer of getting the kinds of numbers we need.”

  Just then Betty turned to glare at them. “Excuse me. Am I interrupting your discussion, kids?”

  “Sorry,” Carole said contritely.

  “Okay then.” Betty turned back to the rest of the class and continued. “As I was saying, it’s almost time to decide whether you feel up to the challenges of show jumping or if you’d rather stick with hunter jumping.”

  Stevie sat up a little straighter. With all the excitement over her plan, she had almost forgotten about the show-jumping event.

  “I want you to take this decision seriously,” Betty went on. “You’ve got to be realistic about whether you’re ready. Show jumping is a strenuous event for you and the horse. As you know, the pace is fast and the fences are higher than in hunter jumping—though of course ours won’t be nearly as high as some of those you may have seen on TV.”

  “Whew,” Todd said loudly, and the others laughed.

  Betty smiled. “Okay, let’s ride—once through the course, one at a time, at a canter. I know you’re all probably dying to talk about the show, so go ahead. Just listen for me to call your name. Melissa, you’re up first today.”

  As Melissa moved forward, Stevie turned to her friends again. “Well, we’re almost to the moment of truth,” she said with a grin. “Who’s up for the challenge of show jumping? Besides me, that is.”

  “Count me in,” Carole said eagerly. “I can’t wait. It’ll be a fantastic learning experience for Starlight.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s why I’m doing it, too,” Phil said, turning to wink at Todd. He grinned. “Actually, I think it will be a blast. I’m in for sure.”

  Todd was shaking his head. “Sounds a little rich for my blood,” he said. “I haven’t been riding as long as the rest of you, and I happen to like my bones just the way they are—unbroken.”

  Stevie opened her mouth to tease Todd about his decision, but Carole shut her up with a sharp look. “I think that’s a smart decision, Todd,” she said. “When it comes to riding, better safe than sorry is a good rule. It never pays to rush things.” She turned to Lisa. “Have you made a decision yet?”

  “I made my decision ages ago,” Lisa said without hesitation. “I’m going for it.”

  Carole and Stevie were surprised at her confident tone. Lisa was definitely a better rider than Todd, but she hadn’t been riding a whole lot longer than he had. It was easy for her friends to forget that sometimes, but not now.

  “Oh, right,” Carole said uncertainly. “Um, I mean, that’s good.” She was afraid to say anything more—Lisa had been so touchy lately.

  Stevie was entertaining similar thoughts. There was no way she was going to suggest that Lisa reconsider her decision, at least not directly. But when Phil and Todd rode off to talk to one of their cabin mates, she leaned closer to Lisa and winked at her.

  “Are you really sure about this show jumping thing?” she asked teasingly. “I mean, yeah, it’s going to be exciting. But wouldn’t it be even more exciting to be in the same class with hunky Todd?”

  That was the last straw. “Okay, Stevie, I’ve had enough,” Lisa exploded. “You’ve been hinting around about Todd all week, and I’ve told you over and over that I’m not interested in him. So cut it out, okay?” Major shifted uneasily under her, and she realized she was gripping the reins so hard that she was accidentally yanking on the bit. She loosened her grip, sending the horse a silent apology.

  Stevie was taken aback. Lisa was usually so even-tempered and reasonable that her friends sometimes forgot she had a temper. “Sorry,” Stevie said, wide-eyed. “I was just kidding around.”

  Lisa sighed. “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be yelling about it. But I really wish you’d let up a little. Todd is a nice guy and everything, but I’m just not interested in finding a boyfriend at the moment. I have too many other things on my mind right now.”

  Just then Betty called Lisa’s name, and she rode forward to begin the course. Stevie and Carole exchanged surprised glances. “What was that all about?” Carole asked. But at that moment Todd and Phil returned, and Stevie quickly changed the subject.

  AFTER THE JUMP class, Lisa headed to the rec hall for an unmounted lecture while Stevie and Carole cooled their horses down in preparation for an equitation class. Phil and Todd were in a different class, so the girls finally had a chance to talk about Lisa.

  “I can’t believe the way she jumped down my throat,” Stevie said. “I mean, she apologized right away, but still …”

  Carole nodded. “I know. It’s not like her.” She glanced at Stevie. “You have to admit, though, you’ve been pretty relentless about this whole Todd-Lisa topic.”

  “Well, maybe,” Stevie admitted, pausing to let Belle take a few sips of water from the trough by the stable entrance. “But I only had Lisa’s best interests in mind. I thought maybe if she got interested in Todd, she’d forget about all the problems she had during the first two weeks here.”

  “You mean like Piper disappearing?” Carole said. “I know what you mean. I’m afraid Lisa is a lot more upset about that than she’s letting on.”

  Stevie nodded. “I thought a nice summer romance would be the perfect solution.”

  “It was a good plan, even if it didn’t exactly work,” Caro
le said. “But I have a little plan of my own.” She told Stevie about her attempts to find out what had happened to Piper. “Barry won’t tell me a thing, and nobody else seems to know. I found Piper’s home phone number on Lisa’s bed—I think she’s still trying to reach her, even though she hasn’t mentioned it lately—but nobody answered when I called.” She sighed. “It’s as if she just disappeared into thin air.”

  Just then the instructor called to them. Class was starting. “We’ll have to talk more about this later,” Stevie said as they mounted and headed for the ring.

  ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH the equitation class, Barry stopped by to observe. Stevie and Belle were near the fence, waiting their turn to perform, when he arrived.

  “Hi, Barry,” Stevie said brightly. “You’re just the person I wanted to see.”

  “Oh, really?” he said, looking slightly suspicious. “Why’s that?”

  “I need a pass to go into town tomorrow,” Stevie replied. “Actually, a few of us were hoping to go.”

  Barry raised one eyebrow quizzically. “How many is a few? And why were you hoping to go?”

  Stevie bent over to brush an imaginary fly from Belle’s neck, stalling for time as she tried to think of a good answer. “Oh, six or eight of us, I guess,” she said, trying to estimate how many people could fit into Mike’s station wagon. “It’s sort of—um—a reading group.”

  “A reading group?” Barry repeated, looking surprised.

  Stevie nodded vigorously. “That’s right,” she said. “We want to go to the library and do some research on, uh, show jumping. You know, prepare for the show and everything. Mike already said he’d drive us. Can we go?”

  Barry shrugged. “I don’t see why not,” he said. “Far be it from me to discourage young people from reading.”

  He still looked a little puzzled as he walked away, but Stevie just grinned. He would understand everything soon enough.

  THE CLASS ENDED a few minutes early. Carole and Stevie headed to the rec hall to meet Lisa so that they could all walk back to the cabin together to change for dinner. They peeked into the room where Lisa’s class was being held, but she was nowhere to be seen. Carole frowned. “Where is she?” she whispered.