Back in the Saddle

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Wow.” Stevie shot Carole a sidelong glance. “You really have been talking to people here, haven’t you? You’re practically a professional CARL cheerleader.”

  “It’s a great cause,” Carole said, blushing slightly as she started brushing paint onto the narrow space between the door and the adjacent wall. “I guess I can get kind of worked up about it sometimes.”

  Lisa smiled. “Kind of. But we understand.”

  Stevie watched as Lisa grabbed a paint pan and carefully poured some of the yellow paint into it. “Too bad I won’t get to write that article about the fund-raiser,” she muttered. “You could have helped me a lot with my research.” A couple of weeks earlier Stevie had joined the staff of her school newspaper, the Fenton Hall Sentinel. So far she’d had the chance to write a couple of interesting articles, but as a new reporter, she was pretty much last in line when it came to the really juicy assignments. When Carole had told her about the CARL fund-raiser the afternoon before, Stevie had been so sure that the story was her ticket to the front page that she’d called the editor, Theresa Cruz, at home to tell her about it. She still couldn’t believe what Theresa’s response had been. Sorry, Stevie, the editor had told her briskly. You’re a little late. Mary Zane came up with the same idea back in November.

  “That is too bad,” Carole agreed, bending down to pick a piece of lint out of the paint can. “You would have done a great job, Stevie.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “Don’t encourage her, Carole, please,” she begged in mock dismay as she picked up a roller and started spreading yellow paint over the white primer on the wall. “The whole drive over here, all I heard about was how unfair it was that another reporter gets to do her big story. Never mind that this all happened, like, weeks before Stevie even decided to join the school paper in the first place.”

  Stevie frowned, reaching for the second roller to help with the painting. “Very funny,” she said. “It is unfair. Mary doesn’t even have any pets. What does she know about an animal shelter?”

  “You’re still coming to the fund-raiser, though, aren’t you?” Carole asked anxiously. “I mean, I know I only got two free tickets, but—”

  “Don’t worry,” Stevie interrupted, smiling at the worried look on her friend’s face. “I’m still coming. And you and Lisa can use those tickets. Phil and I don’t mind paying for ours. The price is kind of steep, but our parents already said they’d help out if we’re a little short. And it’s all for a good cause, right?”

  “Carole?” one of the young men broke into their conversation, walking over at that moment. “We just finished taping off the doors. Can you and your friends handle the painting for a little while? Jay and I haven’t had a lunch break yet.”

  “Sure, Louis,” Carole replied. “We’ll be fine. Have a good lunch.”

  When the three girls were alone, Stevie cleared her throat and glanced at Lisa. She’d been thinking about something ever since the topic of the fund-raiser had come up—and it didn’t have anything to do with the Sentinel. “So, Lisa,” she said hesitantly. “Um, I was just wondering. Er, it sounds like this fund-raiser is going to be kind of, um … Well, it sounds like there will be dancing and stuff. So I was just wondering if you were planning to, you know, ask anybody. As a date.”

  Lisa shot her a quick, unreadable glance. Then she shrugged. “I don’t think so,” she replied. “I know Alex and I are supposed to see other people—that’s what we agreed to do—but it’s kind of soon.”

  Stevie tried not to let her relief show. Lisa had been dating Stevie’s twin brother, Alex, for the better part of a year. Just a few days earlier, the two of them had decided to take a break from their relationship and see other people for a while. Stevie still wasn’t sure she understood why—she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to take a break from her boyfriend, Phil Marsten, even though they’d been together much longer than Lisa and Alex had. As far as Stevie was concerned, it was kind of silly for two people who cared about each other to choose not to be together.

  “I hear you,” she said casually, not wanting Lisa to guess what she was thinking. “Still, maybe you just need to jump right in and do it. Why not ask a guy you like as a friend? I mean, not every date has to be some huge romantic thing, right? You could just ask someone as, like, a buddy thing. Say, someone like Scott.”

  “Scott?” Carole put in, looking surprised. “You think Lisa should ask Scott out?”

  “Sure,” Stevie replied. “Why not? He’s a nice guy, right? Not bad-looking. Totally presentable.” She smiled blandly. Scott Forester and his sister, Callie, had moved to Willow Creek the previous summer. Their father was a congressman who commuted from the peaceful small town to nearby Washington, D.C. Callie had been a junior endurance champion in her old hometown on the West Coast, so Stevie and her friends had adopted her into their group almost immediately. Then one rainy night over the summer, Stevie, Carole, and Callie had been involved in a serious car accident, which had left Callie unable to walk without crutches for many months. Right after the accident, Scott had been very angry with Stevie, blaming her for his sister’s problems, since she’d been driving the car. But eventually he had seen that no one was at fault, and before long Stevie could hardly imagine a time when she and Scott hadn’t been friends.

  “Scott?” Lisa repeated dubiously, pausing in her painting long enough to tuck her hair behind her ear and glance at Stevie. “I don’t know. I mean, I like Scott and everything, but it’s not like we’re best friends. If I wanted to ask any guy on a friendly date like you’re talking about, I’d probably ask someone like A.J.”

  Stevie frowned. “A.J.?” she said. “Forget A.J. Scott would make a way better date. I mean, A.J.’s, like, short.”

  Lisa looked surprised. “So what if he’s short? What do you have against A.J. all of a sudden?” she demanded.

  “Nothing.” Stevie grinned weakly, realizing she might be coming off as obnoxious. Maybe even a little psychotic. After all, A.J. McDonnell was Phil’s best friend of many years, and Stevie had always been crazy about him. “A.J.’s cool. I was just, um, kidding.”

  “I think it’s a great idea,” Carole put in, glancing over from her work near the door. “Why don’t you ask A.J., Lisa? You’ll still have the free ticket, so each of you would only need to come up with half the price of a ticket.”

  “Wait!” Stevie exclaimed, feeling rather desperate. The conversation was rapidly rolling out of her control. “Forget A.J. What about Scott?”

  “What about him?” Lisa asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. “What’s with you, Stevie? Why are you suddenly so hyped to hook me up with Scott?”

  Stevie realized there was no point keeping her problem from her best friends. Maybe they could even help her figure out a way to deal with it. Feeling sheepish, she took a deep breath. “Okay, I might as well tell you guys. I think Scott might, um, like me. You know—as in like like me.”

  “Huh?” Carole shot her a suspicious look. “I don’t get it. What’s the punch line?”

  “This isn’t a joke!” Stevie protested. “I mean it, I think Scott has a crush on me. Haven’t you noticed the way he always seems to be hanging around Pine Hollow lately? At first it made sense, since he had to drive Callie around everywhere. But her leg is all better now—she could easily walk to Pine Hollow from their house, so there’s no reason for him to be there all the time, since he doesn’t even ride.”

  Lisa looked pensive. “Hey, you know, you’re right,” she said. “I hadn’t really thought much about it, but Scott does hang out at the stable a lot.” She grinned. “Still, what makes you think you have anything to do with it? Maybe he just secretly dreams of joining the beginners’ class.”

  “Yeah, right,” Stevie replied sarcastically. “Or maybe he’s hooked on the smell of manure. Come on, guys. It’s not like Scott couldn’t find something better to do with his time. He’s not exactly Mr. Shy and Lonely, in case you hadn’t noticed.” That was an understatement, and Stevie knew it. Scott h
ad inherited his politician father’s gift for connecting with people and making friends. “So why would he start spending all his spare time at Pine Hollow for no apparent reason?”

  “Okay, that’s a point,” Carole said diplomatically. “But seriously, Stevie, what makes you think he’s interested in you? Not that you’re not, like, totally lovable and all, of course.” She grinned. “But like you said, Scott’s no pathetic Mr. Lonely Heart. And he knows about Phil.”

  Stevie shrugged. “I know. But he’s always, you know, talking to me and saying hi in the halls at school and stuff. Um, and we did spend a lot of time together when he was running for student body president a while back.” She paused and bit her lip. When she said it out loud, it really didn’t sound like much to go on. Carole and Lisa were both students at the public high school in town, so they had no way of knowing what went on at Fenton Hall, the private school that Stevie and the Foresters attended. “Come on, though,” she insisted. “Evidence or not, I’m not imagining things here. Really. You know how it is—you can always sort of tell when a guy is into you. It’s just a weird sort of feeling, right?”

  “Sure,” Lisa said immediately. “I know what you mean.”

  Carole shrugged. “I don’t,” she admitted. “You guys are the experts when it comes to this stuff, I guess.”

  Stevie shot her a quick glance. A few days earlier Carole had confided to her and Lisa that she was interested in Ben Marlow, one of the stable hands at Pine Hollow. Stevie hadn’t been totally surprised—she had noticed for a while now that Carole got kind of tongue-tied and confused when the topic turned to Ben—but that didn’t mean she was happy about it. Carole wasn’t very experienced when it came to guys and dating, and Ben was a difficult case, to say the least. The brooding young stable hand seemed determined to maintain a wall of coolness and suspicion between himself and the world, and Stevie didn’t want Carole to run up against that wall and get hurt. “Well, anyway, Lisa,” she said, “it would make me feel better if you could get Scott to focus on someone else for a while. Specifically, someone like you.”

  Lisa looked unconvinced. “I don’t know, Stevie,” she said slowly. “I’d love to help you out, but I’m just not sure I’m ready to ask anyone out on a date yet. Even a platonic friend like Scott.”

  “Oh.” Stevie was disappointed, but she knew better than to push it. She could tell Lisa’s mind was made up. “Okay, if you’re sure you don’t want to go with a date, I guess I can understand that.”

  “The only person I can imagine going with right now is Carole.” Lisa grinned at her friend. “So how about it? Want to be my date?”

  “I’d be honored,” Carole replied with a giggle. “It’s a date.”

  Stevie rolled her eyes and sighed. Still, she couldn’t really be upset about Lisa’s decision. Maybe this means I still have to figure out what to do about Scott, she thought, turning her attention back to her painting as Lisa and Carole started chatting about the fund-raiser. But at least there’s a definite bright side. If Lisa can’t even stand the thought of one date with another guy, maybe that means she and Alex will be back together even sooner than I expected.

  Carole hit the spell-check command on her computer, sat back in her desk chair, and stretched. Whew, she thought. I can’t believe I’m almost finished. Thank goodness—once this paper is behind me, maybe I’ll feel like this whole stupid incident is behind me, too.

  She glanced around her room, her gaze lingering briefly on the framed photo on the table beside her bed. The snapshot showed her horse, Starlight, leaning his big bay head on her shoulder as the two of them stood in Pine Hollow’s back paddock. It was one of Carole’s favorite photos, because it captured the gelding’s gentle, curious personality perfectly. She also loved it because, to her, it summed up the reasons she loved horses and planned to dedicate her life to them. Some people didn’t understand how she could feel that way, but to Carole, planning her life around horses was as natural as breathing.

  Then again, some people do understand, she thought, an image of Ben popping into her mind. At least I think they do. About how I feel about horses, if nothing else …

  She sighed, wondering why thinking about Ben always made her feel so mixed up and anxious. Why did things between them have to be so complicated? She wondered what it would be like to know how he felt about her. To know for sure that he cared about her as much as she did about him, to be in a real relationship with him—a romance, just like her friends had with their boyfriends—instead of always having to wonder if he even liked her at all.

  It would be nice if Ben could act more like a regular guy sometimes, she thought wistfully. Then maybe we would already be, well—we could be making plans to go to the CARL fund-raiser together. Like on a real date. She could picture it now: The two of them would meet at the stable for a quick ride. Then they would change into nice clothes and drive over to CARL, where they would dance for a while, then slip away to visit with the animals in the shelter and steal a little private time …

  She blushed, banishing the image almost as soon as it came. Maybe, just maybe, things were starting to look sort of interesting between her and Ben. They were talking again, and Ben had even shared a few things about himself and his past. That was a pretty rare occurrence, and Carole couldn’t help taking it as a sign that he thought she was special, at least a little. But it was a big leap from there to being an actual couple, dancing and going out on dates and hanging out with their friends at the pizza place or the mall.

  Carole sighed. She couldn’t imagine that. Ben at the mall? she thought wryly. Yeah, right. That will happen at about the same time Starlight starts doing my algebra homework for me.

  Thinking of homework reminded her of what she was supposed to be doing. Focusing on the computer screen, she saw that it was blinking the word hitsory at her. With a grimace, Carole corrected it to history. Then she tapped the key to continue the spell-check search.

  I guess maybe that’s my problem, she thought. If I can’t even imagine being with Ben, how is it ever going to happen? She frowned slightly. I mean, if Stevie liked a guy, she would probably just march right up to him and ask him out. Why can’t I do that? I may tell myself it’s because it would scare Ben too much, but is that really it? Or is it that it would scare me too much?

  She didn’t like that thought. But what could she do? There was no way she was going to turn herself into Stevie. What would she do—walk up to Ben, tap him on the shoulder, and say, “Hey, good-looking. Want to be my hot date this Friday night?”

  Suddenly remembering something Stevie had said earlier that day, Carole sat up straight in her chair. Still, who says it has to be some big romantic date? she thought. There’s no law that says I can’t invite Ben to come along to the CARL thing just as a friend. After all, he loves animals, right? He would probably think this is as great a cause as I do. And I could give him my free ticket. I’m sure if I explained that Ben doesn’t have any money, Dad would buy me another one.…

  She actually wasn’t sure about that at all. While her father might not mind making a donation to CARL, he had been a little skeptical about her request to attend the fund-raiser. He’d agreed after some pleading, but Carole definitely didn’t want to test that decision too much.

  Well, maybe Lisa could hit up her dad for money for the third ticket, she thought uncertainly. Ever since the divorce, he buys her just about anything she wants. That way Ben and I could use the free tickets, and everything would be cool.

  “How’s it going, honey?” Carole’s father’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

  Glancing over, she saw him standing in the doorway to her room. “Pretty good,” she replied, quickly returning her attention to the computer. “I want to read through it one more time, but I think I’m just about done.” Her history teacher had assigned the research paper as a way for Carole to help make up for cheating on that test, and Colonel Hanson had been following his daughter’s progress closely.

  “Good.” C
olonel Hanson smiled, looking pleased. “Do you have time for a quick snack break? I just made popcorn.”

  “Sure.” Carole had had a very close relationship with her father ever since her mother had died when Carole was younger. They had become almost as much friends as just father and daughter. But their friendship had been on rocky ground after the truth came out about what had happened during that history test. It had only improved once Carole had really figured out just why her father was so upset and owned up to what she’d done without trying to make excuses.

  Of course, that’s nothing to the turnaround in Dad’s mood since those PSAT scores came, Carole thought as she followed her father down the stairs. Dad acts like acing that one test was more awesome than winning the Grand National and making the U.S. Equestrian Team all rolled into one.

  Soon the two of them were sitting at the kitchen table, glasses of cold soda and a large bowl of buttery popcorn between them. “I’m glad you’re taking this make-up assignment seriously, sweetheart,” Colonel Hanson said, reaching into the bowl and grabbing a generous handful of popcorn. “I’m proud of you.”

  “Thanks.” Carole took a sip of her soda.

  “Not just for finishing your paper early,” Colonel Hanson went on. “I’m also proud of the way you’ve learned from your mistake. You’re really doing a great job of getting your life back in balance.”

  “What do you mean?” Carole asked uncertainly, glancing up with her hand halfway to the popcorn bowl.

  Her father smiled fondly at her. “I mean, I’ve always been proud of you for how hard you work at your riding and at taking such good care of Starlight, you know that. But now, I really like seeing you putting your best efforts into other things, too. You’ve been doing a terrific job with Hometown Hope—your vice principal raved about what a hard worker you are when I ran into her at the supermarket a couple of days ago. And don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve been throwing yourself into getting CARL ready for their fund-raiser—I know it’s not just because you’re looking forward to the party, either.” He smiled and winked as he reached for a napkin to wipe the butter off his fingers. “I’ve also been noticing that your homework has been getting done well ahead of time lately, and I’m sure your next report card is going to reflect your efforts to do better on your schoolwork. And of course, there are your PSAT scores—I’m especially glad that you took that test seriously enough to do so well on it. If you do that well on the SATs in the spring, it will mean a lot of exciting choices for your future.”