Back in the Saddle

by Bonnie Bryant

  In any case, Stevie decided there was no point in beating around the bush. “I’m here to join the Sentinel,” she explained. “I want to be a reporter.”

  Theresa didn’t bat an eye. “Okay, great,” she said calmly, taking a seat at the nearest empty table. “We’re always glad to have newbies. Why don’t you come back at lunchtime and we can talk more about what you and the Sentinel have to offer each other?”

  “Sure thing,” Stevie agreed. She was a little disappointed at being put off, but she figured it was for the best. At lunchtime, she and Theresa would have much more time to talk. That way they could figure out which beat would be best for Stevie—politics? sports? student life?—and figure out how soon she could get her first story into print. And then my spectacular new career can really get off the ground, she thought with a grin as she glanced around the media room once more before heading for the door. I can’t wait!

  A little later that morning, Carole Hanson was standing in front of her open locker, staring at a photograph she’d taped to the inside of the metal door. It was a picture of her horse, Starlight, standing in the back paddock at Pine Hollow and looking over the fence. As she gazed into his big, dark eyes, she could swear she heard him speaking.

  Carole, he said woefully, in a voice that sounded an awful lot like Mr. Ed’s, why don’t you ever come to Pine Hollow and ride me anymore?

  “Carole!” a much more familiar voice said from right behind her.

  Carole jumped, then turned with an embarrassed laugh. “Lisa,” she said. “Hi. Uh, you startled me.”

  “Sorry.” Lisa Atwood smiled, her gaze straying to the photo. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your mental conversation with Starlight.”

  Carole blushed. Her friends knew her too well. Then again, almost everyone who’d ever met Carole knew that she spent much more time thinking about horses than about anything else. Carole knew that some people thought she was a little strange—a bit too single-minded in her devotion to horses. Then again, she thought anyone who didn’t have any interest in horses or riding was pretty strange. What did those people find to think about all day long? She couldn’t imagine.

  Carole had known for as long as she could remember that she planned to spend her life working full-time with her favorite creatures. The only question remaining was what, exactly, she was going to do. Would she find her future in riding horses in competition? Training them? Healing them? Or maybe following in Max’s footsteps and teaching others to love them as much as she did? Carole wasn’t sure yet which path was meant for her, but she was determined to figure it out soon.

  “So what’s up?” she asked Lisa, quickly grabbing her English notebook and slamming her locker door shut.

  Lisa checked her watch. “We have a substitute in senior lit this week, so I have a study hall next period. I figured it was the perfect chance to track you down and catch up.” She smiled, pushing a strand of blond hair out of her eyes. “I miss you, you know, and I figured you missed me a little, too. Almost as much as Starlight, maybe.”

  Carole laughed. “Definitely,” she teased. “Definitely almost as much, I mean. Come on, why don’t you walk me to my English class?” She smiled ruefully. “These days, I can’t afford to be late to anything. Otherwise Dad might not let me ride until Memorial Day.”

  The two girls fell into step as they headed down the crowded hall. Carole was glad Lisa had found her. One of the hardest things about being grounded was being kept away from horses. But being kept from her friends was hard, too. Stevie and Lisa had been there for all of the important moments in her life, good and bad, for so long that Carole could hardly remember a time when she hadn’t known them. Her life just didn’t seem quite complete when she couldn’t talk to them about things. The three of them had always complemented each other perfectly, their friendship stronger because of their differences rather than in spite of them. Fun-loving, impulsive Stevie was the group’s clown, but she also offered strength and loyalty that were second to none. Lisa was the most logical and sensible of the trio, a responsible citizen and an A student. Of course, that didn’t stop her from occasionally succumbing to doubts or insecurity, especially since her parents’ divorce. Carole sometimes thought of herself as the glue that cemented their three-way friendship. Her friends’ strong opinions rarely clashed, but when they did, Carole was always there to remind them that their friendship was more important than any disagreement.

  Sometimes Carole missed the days when the three of them would spend virtually all their time together, not seeming to want or need anyone else. That didn’t mean that Carole didn’t like Callie and Scott or Phil and Alex. It just sometimes seemed that there were so many other people in her friends’ lives these days that there wasn’t enough time left for their friendship.

  “So how was your trip?” Carole asked, dragging her mind out of the past. She seemed to spend too much time there lately, especially considering that she was trying her best to focus on the future. “Did your father give you a hard time about the college thing?” While Carole and Stevie were juniors who had done little to prepare for college so far, aside from taking the PSATs a month or so earlier, Lisa was a senior, and she’d recently decided to attend nearby Northern Virginia University. Unfortunately, she hadn’t shared her decision with either of her parents until after she’d already responded to the school, and Carole knew that they were very upset about that, especially since Lisa had applied to several much more prestigious schools in other parts of the country.

  Lisa wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, he was all over me at first,” she said. “But he got distracted when my brother turned up.”

  “Your brother?” Carole was surprised. Lisa’s older brother, Peter, had been living abroad for so long that Carole had met him only a few times. She raised her voice as they turned a corner and entered a different hallway, where half a dozen guys were horsing around. “I didn’t know he was coming back to the States for Thanksgiving.”

  “None of us did,” Lisa replied, dodging as a foam football whizzed past her head. “But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. It turns out he went and got married without telling any of us. Plus, his new wife’s a few years older than him, recently divorced with a couple of kids.”

  Carole shook her head, her eyes widening. “Wow. Talk about a bombshell.”

  “I know.” Lisa sighed. “But I’ll fill you in on all that later when we have more time to talk. Right now, the major news flash is that Rafe dumped Mom while I was away.”

  “Really?” Carole said, not certain how she should respond. Lisa’s mother had been dating a much younger man named Rafe for a while now—Carole had lost track of how long. But she knew that Lisa had never liked him. So why did she actually seem upset that he was out of her mother’s life?

  “Uh-huh. She took it kind of hard.” Lisa bit her lip, casting her eyes downward as she walked, a slight frown creasing her forehead. “She’s pretty bummed.”

  “Oh.” Now Carole understood. After the breakup of her twenty-seven-year marriage, Mrs. Atwood had been deeply depressed for a very long time. Inappropriate or not, her relationship with Rafe had snapped her out of her gloom and made her start living life again.

  “It’s not like I miss having Rafe around or anything, but I really wish Mom had dumped him instead of the other way around,” Lisa commented, pausing and bending over to smooth out one of her leggings, which was slightly bunched above the top of her left ankle boot.

  “Hey, Atwood! Looking good, sweet thang.” A popular senior named Nate Mondale grinned and winked at Lisa as he loped past into a nearby classroom.

  The only indication that Lisa had heard the comment was a slight pink flush that colored her high cheekbones as she straightened up. Carole had always known that her friend was beautiful—she’d had guys asking her out for as long as Carole had known her. Even her long-term relationship with Alex didn’t stop guys like Nate from lusting after her.

  I guess that’s another way the three of us are different,
Carole thought, not for the first time. She glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye. Lisa’s always been a man magnet, with guys falling all over themselves to be with her. Stevie’s always been kind of a tomboy, so lots of guys have liked her, too. But Stevie went out and found the perfect guy for her, and they’re practically an old married couple by now. Lisa and Alex hooked up, and they’ve been living happily ever after. And then there’s me: Ms. Pathetic.

  For about the millionth time in the past couple of weeks, she thought about Ben Marlow. She’d known Ben for more than a year and a half, ever since he’d started working as a stable hand at Pine Hollow. But even after all that time, she still had no idea what she thought of him. Or what she felt about him. The only thing she knew for sure was that she felt something. But was it merely friendship born of their mutual love of horses, of admiration and respect for Ben’s immense talent in communicating with his favorite animals? Or could there be something more between them?

  For a long time, Carole hadn’t really thought much about it. She’d never been that comfortable when it came to dating and romance, and it had seemed easier just to accept that she and Ben were friends and coworkers without worrying about the strange feelings she sometimes had when she saw him.

  Then Ben had kissed her and everything had changed. Now she couldn’t look at him or even think about him without blushing and feeling uncomfortable, especially since Ben himself seemed determined to pretend that it had never happened. To make matters even more complicated, Carole had recently discovered that Ben was somehow related to an intriguing little girl with huge, dark eyes. But little Zani seemed to be one more topic that Ben wasn’t interested in discussing with Carole. So she still had no more idea of who the four-year-old child was than she knew what Ben really thought of her.…

  Glancing over at Lisa to see if she’d noticed her consternation, Carole saw that her friend was looking anxious, probably still thinking about her mother. That seemed to be Carole’s cue to change the subject—for both their sakes. The first new topic that sprang to mind was one that was never far from Carole’s heart. “Have you been to Pine Hollow since you got back?” she asked as they reached the door to Carole’s classroom.

  Lisa nodded. “Alex and I met there yesterday for a ride,” she said. “Stevie was there, too.” She shot Carole a quick glance. “But it just wasn’t the same without you.”

  “Thanks.” Carole shrugged and sighed. “You know, I feel like it’s been forever since I was there. I still can’t believe how much longer I have to stay away.” Not wanting her friend to think she was complaining—after all, she’d brought this punishment on herself by cheating on that test—she cleared her throat. “Um, but I’m trying to look on the bright side,” she said. “I figure since I can’t ride for a while, at least I can spend the time being, you know, constructive. I want to try to figure out what I really want to do with my life. You know, specifically.”

  “Really?” Lisa looked surprised. “Hey, good for you. So have you narrowed it down yet?”

  “No,” Carole admitted. “I’m trying, but I’m not quite sure how to go about it. The only thing I’m sure about is that I’m seventeen years old now, and it’s definitely time to get a clue.”

  Lisa nodded thoughtfully. “I know what you mean. Maybe you could start by listing all the careers you can think of,” she suggested.

  “That’s mostly what I’ve been doing so far.”

  “Good,” Lisa said. “When you have the whole list of possibilities, you can figure out the pros and cons of each one. That way you can maybe start to eliminate some of the ones with way more cons and think more seriously about the ones that are mostly pros.” She shrugged. “That’s basically how I did it when I decided where to go to college. When I decided the pros of NVU were totally overwhelming, my mind was made up.”

  Carole couldn’t help thinking that deciding her entire future sounded like a huge and daunting task, no matter how organized she was about it. But before she could figure out how to express that to Lisa, the bell rang, signaling that third period was about to begin. “Oops,” she said. “Better go. See you later.” Pushing the future out of her head—for the moment, at least—she hurried into her classroom.

  TWO

  “And of course, one always has a responsibility to one’s sources,” Theresa said somberly.

  Stevie nodded, wondering if the editor could hear her stomach grumbling. She’d hurried straight to their meeting from her fourth-period class, not even bothering to stop at her locker and pick up her bag lunch. It was rapidly becoming clear that that had been a big mistake. Theresa had been droning on and on about journalistic ethics for almost five minutes straight, and Stevie had hardly been able to get a word in edgewise.

  “Okay,” she broke in as Theresa paused for breath. “I get it. Following the rules is key. But what about the good stuff? As in the writing and reporting of actual stories? Isn’t that kind of the point of the whole deal?”

  Theresa blinked. “Well, yes,” she allowed. “But there’s a lot more that goes into a good newspaper than just what gets printed on the page. If all The Wall Street Journal paid attention to was writing and reporting, it wouldn’t be the great publication it is. And a good newspaperman or woman should be familiar with all aspects of the news business, from financing to circulation to how the ink gets into the presses.”

  “Right,” Stevie said, her voice firmer this time. “That’s all, like, really interesting and everything. And maybe we can talk about it some more later. I’d love to learn all about the news biz. But for now, I really want to move on to what I can do for the Sentinel. As in, how to get started.”

  “Of course,” Theresa said. “I was just getting to that. I thought you could start right away—”

  “Great!” Stevie interrupted eagerly.

  Theresa nodded. “Yes, I’d love for you to jump right in and assist with proofreading this week’s issue, and we can always use help with distribution once the papers are printed. Do you have a way to get to school early on Friday? Say, around six-thirty?”

  Stevie blinked. “Huh? Um, maybe I wasn’t that clear before,” she said. “But when I said I wanted to join the paper, I meant I wanted to write for the paper. Not proofread and do that other stuff.”

  “I realize that. But every good journalist has to pay his or her dues,” Theresa said, her gaze slightly reproachful. “Besides, proofreading and distribution are vitally important jobs. If they don’t get done, there’s no paper. At least no paper worth reading.”

  Stevie had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Distribution and proofreading might be “vitally important,” but they also sounded vitally boring. Still, she didn’t want to alienate her new editor by saying so. “All right,” she said appeasingly. “Um, I’m sure I could squeeze in some distribution time before school on Friday or whatever. But can’t I do some writing at the same time? How am I going to get any useful experience if you don’t even give me a shot?”

  Theresa shrugged. “You make a valid point, Stevie. I suppose in a week or two, if all goes well, we could meet again and talk about your taking over a couple of small writing tasks, just to see how you do.”

  Stevie started to smile. Finally! she thought. Now we’re getting somewhere.

  Theresa rubbed her cheek thoughtfully. “I suppose we could let you try writing out the weekly lunch menus. Or maybe you could edit the classified ads—you know, call the numbers to make sure they’re legit, check the wording and spelling, that sort of thing.”

  Stevie’s smile faded quickly. But before she could say anything, she was interrupted by the loud, staticky crackle of the PA speaker over the door. “Attention!” the tinny voice of their headmistress, Miss Fenton, announced. “Attention, students. I would like all juniors to finish their lunches quickly and come to the auditorium for a special assembly. That’s juniors only, please. To the auditorium immediately. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  “I guess I’d better go,”
Stevie told Theresa, a little relieved to have their meeting cut short.

  So much for my high-flying career as a star reporter, she thought grimly as she stood and grabbed her backpack. Thanks to Theresa, it’s totally stalling on the runway. Still, maybe this assembly will give me a chance to come up with a plan to convince her what a waste it will be if all I get to do for the next six months is hunch over somebody else’s breaking news story with a dictionary and a grammar handbook.

  As she hurried down the empty third-floor hallway toward the stairs, Stevie wondered what the sudden assembly was all about. It wasn’t like Miss Fenton to be so mysterious.

  It’s for juniors only, she reminded herself as she rounded the corner into the stairwell. That means it’s probably got something to do with the PSATs or something like that. Miss Fenton probably wants to call us together to announce that Sue Berry got the highest score in the history of the world, or maybe to humiliate us all by reading off our scores in front of the whole class.

  She was only kidding about that last part. The scores for the standardized college-entrance prep test that all juniors had taken earlier that fall would be sent directly to their homes. In fact, now that Stevie thought about it, they were probably due to arrive any day now.

  Oh, well, Stevie thought. I just hope Alex and I did respectably enough that Mom and Dad won’t ground us all over again. Taking the last three steps in one jump, she scooted around the corner on the second-floor landing and started down the next flight.

  The auditorium was on the first floor, just down the hall from the school cafeteria, so Stevie was one of the last to arrive. As she paused in the wide, arched entrance, glancing around for a free seat, she spotted Callie waving to her from near the front of the large, cavernous room.

  As Stevie hurried toward her friend, she was so distracted by thinking about her meeting with Theresa that it took her a moment or two to recognize the slightly desperate expression on Callie’s face. Then she noticed the pudgy, moon-faced guy sitting next to her.