“At Fenton Hall?” Carole asked, stunned. She knew she’d heard Lisa right. She just didn’t believe it.
“That’s the Middle School I go to,” Stevie said. A little bit of irritation had crept into her voice.
Carole grinned. “Fenton Hall will never be the same.”
“Hey, guys, give me a break, will you?” Stevie asked. “Maybe I’m the one who’s going to change. After all, I’m the one who’s going to be escorting the Italian riders around and I’m the one who’s in charge of the Children’s Hospital Festival.” Stevie made a final adjustment on Topside’s girth and then slid open his stall door. She led him into the hall, next to where Carole stood. “And look at this,” Stevie said. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out one of her campaign posters. Dozens of them had been taped up in the school hallways. She didn’t think one less would make much difference. “I took it down for my scrapbook,” she explained rather sheepishly. “Anyway, look at this. I’ve got lots of qualifications for the presidency.”
“Sure. Biggest troublemaker in the school,” Lisa suggested. “Where does it say that?”
Stevie looked annoyed. “It doesn’t say that. It says that I’m the Voluntary Chairman of the Children’s Hospital Festival. Now that’s a person who cares about others and who cares about her school. That’s a person who can really give her all to representing her schoolmates’ best interests. Even if it’s my first elected office—”
“Spare me the speech,” Carole interrupted, “and tell me what this Spring Fair is that you got elected to.”
“Spring Fair? I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it. What’s a Spring Fair?” Stevie asked.
“Sounds like some sort of fund-raiser for the school,” Lisa suggested. “When was it?”
“Was? Spring has just started. Anything called a Spring Fair ought to be coming up soon,” Carole said.
“Must be some kind of mistake,” Stevie said, dismissing her friends’ concern. “Maybe it was something I did last year that I’ve just forgotten about. What interests me now are the things I’m going to be doing. You see, I seem to be a person other people like to count on to help them. Like you, for instance, Lisa. Let’s check on Pepper’s girth now, okay?”
Lisa and Carole were used to Stevie’s willingness to help them whenever they needed it. They weren’t used to her being so expansive about it.
“Everything she’s said since she got here sounds like a campaign speech,” Lisa said to Carole.
“And we can’t even vote for her,” Carole added.
“I’m just trying to turn over a new leaf,” Stevie said defensively, a little surprised by her friends’ response.
“We like the old leaf just fine,” Lisa said.
“Come on. Let’s get to class,” Carole reminded them. She had the feeling that this conversation wasn’t getting them anywhere but into trouble.
The three girls led their horses to the outdoor ring, brushed the stable’s traditional good luck horseshoe, and mounted. Veronica and Garnet were right behind them.
“Say, Veronica,” Lisa said. “When’s the Fenton Hall Spring Fair?”
“Um, let me think,” Veronica said, making a show of putting her index finger to her chin. “The Spring Fair, hmmmmm. Oh, yes, that’s always the last Saturday of this month. Are you planning to come?” Lisa thought she saw a slight smirk cross Veronica’s face, but there was nothing new about that. Slight smirks were always crossing Veronica’s face.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Lisa replied.
“Me neither,” Veronica said. This time her smirk was unmistakable, and something about it made Lisa very nervous.
“SO TELL US about your bright idea for the Children’s Hospital Festival,” Lisa said to Stevie on Friday night. “You said it had something to do with horses, didn’t you?”
The three girls were having a sleep-over party at Carole’s house, and for them, sleep-overs always turned into long Saddle Club meetings. Carole was lying face down on her bed, with her chin resting on her hands. Lisa was sitting on an upholstered chair by the closet door, and Stevie was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Carole’s coal-black cat, Snowball—so named because she always did the exact opposite of what anybody told her to do—was curled up and sleeping soundly on Stevie’s lap. Stevie continued to pat the cat gently as she spoke.
“Okay, but I haven’t gotten very far. What I want to do is have some kind of riding demonstration. Then I want to get Max to let us use his pony cart to give the kids rides. Maybe we could even saddle one of the ponies and give rides to anyone who could sit up in one. What do you think?”
“Put the patients on horses?” Carole asked.
Stevie nodded. “Think it’s a bad idea?”
“No. I think it’s a fabulous idea,” Carole told her. She thought about the sad and bad times in her life. No matter what was going on, she’d always had riding to comfort her. “It’s a great activity to share with other kids, even—or maybe especially—if they’ve got troubles.”
“Will Max go along with it?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know,” Stevie said. “I know he’s pretty happy with the stuff I’m doing for him with the Italian boys—not that that’s any trouble. So he really ought to be nice about this.”
“Sure, and you could always get Miss Fenton to call him, if necessary,” Carole suggested. She smiled. She’d never met Miss Fenton, but she’d heard a lot about her from Stevie. The image of laid-back Max and uptight Miss Fenton talking was very funny.
“What a pair they would make,” Stevie mused, obviously thinking along the same lines as Carole. “On second thought, I think I’ll take care of it myself.”
“You’re taking care of a lot of stuff yourself,” Lisa reminded her. “Speaking of which, what happened with the Spring Fair?”
Stevie shrugged. “I’m helpless on that one. I guess I did run for chairman, though I thought I was sick the day they had the nominations. Anyway, that’s something we pretty much do the same way every year. Everything is stored away. I just have to get people to set up the booths. And, of course, I’ve got to find people to do stuff like bake cookies.”
“That reminds me,” Lisa interrupted. “Didn’t I see some brownie mix in your kitchen when we were eating supper? It looked like it was just sitting on the counter, dying for somebody to come along and crack an egg, add water and oil, maybe some walnuts, and chocolate chips. What do you think?” she asked Carole.
“Okay,” Carole agreed, “but you know what my father’s like when we bake something.”
They did know what Carole’s father was like. He was one of their favorite people. Sometimes Carole teased Stevie that she was only her friend so she could spend time with Colonel Hanson.
“Yeah, we know,” Lisa said, pretending that it was a grave problem.
“He’s going to want to lick the bowl,” Carole warned.
Stevie grinned. “That’s fine, as long as I get dibs on the spoon! Come on, Snowball, stay asleep,” she commanded. Snowball woke up immediately and bounded out of Stevie’s lap.
The three girls headed for the kitchen. As Carole had predicted, Colonel Hanson, who had been watching television, soon joined them there.
“I love it when you three beautiful ladies get together,” he said.
“Don’t worry, Dad,” Carole told him. “You can lay off the flattery. We’ve already decided you can lick the bowl.”
“I’ve raised a mind reader!” He laughed.
“Now there’s an idea,” Stevie said, putting a bowl on the counter.
“For what?” the colonel asked.
“For my school fair,” Stevie said. “See, I’m chairman of it, and we’ve got all these booths and stuff, but I get to decide if there are going to be any new things to do. I like the idea of having a mind reader. We could get a crystal ball or something and set up a mind reader, fortune-teller type thing. Like it?”
“I love it,” Lisa said, cracking an egg. “And even if nob
ody goes to it, you can still make a fortune. Get it? A fortune?”
Stevie and Carole groaned. Colonel Hanson chuckled. “That’s so bad it’s funny.” He loved corny old jokes and often swapped especially awful ones with Stevie.
Carole measured the water and oil, added them to the mix in the bowl, and handed Stevie a wooden spoon. Stevie began stirring carefully. “Carole, why don’t you chop the walnuts. And Lisa, see if you can find some chocolate chips. Then grease the bottom of the baking dish.”
“Aye aye, ma’am,” Carole said. She and Lisa saluted and then followed instructions.
Colonel Hanson raised his eyebrows. “She’s gotten a promotion to boss these days?” he asked Carole and Lisa.
Carole looked up from the pile of walnuts she was about to chop. “Of the whole wide world,” she said.
“It’s a new leaf,” Lisa explained solemnly.
“Come on, guys. Give me a break, will you?” Stevie asked.
“Sure, but why don’t you tell Dad all the things you’re doing these days?” Carole said. “You’re going to be so busy we’ll never even see you at Pine Hollow any more.”
The fact was that Carole was worried about everything Stevie had taken on. It wasn’t that Stevie wasn’t capable of doing these things. She was. She could do every one of them and more. The problem was that they were all coming up soon. Even though some of them, such as the Italian boys project and the Hospital Festival, would be vaguely related to horses, they were all going to cut seriously into Stevie’s riding time.
Carole continued to voice her concern. “I mean, are you even going to have time to come to Pony Club meetings?”
“Of course I am,” Stevie said positively. “I wouldn’t miss my riding for anything, any more than I would miss spending time with you two—uh, three,” she corrected herself, glancing at Carole’s father.
“Thanks,” he said, pleased to be included. “But tell me what you’re doing that’s got my daughter so upset.”
“She shouldn’t be upset,” Stevie began. “She should be excited for me. After all—”
The phone rang. Since all three girls were involved in the brownie-making, Colonel Hanson answered it. As soon as they heard him say “Oh, hi, Frank,” they were interested.
Frank was Frank Devine, a retired Marine Corps friend of Colonel Hanson. He was also the father of Katharine Devine, better known as Kate, one of the Saddle Club’s out-of-town members. Kate had been a championship rider in the horse show circuit, but had given it up when she found that the competition had interfered with her enjoyment of riding. She’d only started riding again when the Saddle Club had roped her into helping them with a gymkhana. Now her family ran a dude ranch in the Southwest, and she’d taken up another kind of riding. Stevie, Lisa, and Carole had visited her twice. They couldn’t wait for another chance to see her. All three of them wondered the same thing as they listened to Carole’s father on the phone. Was this the chance?
“Spring break, huh? Christine, too?”
Carole’s eyes widened. This was sounding good. Christine Lonetree was also an out-of-town Saddle Club member. She was a Native American girl who lived a few miles from Kate. The girls had met her on their visits to the Bar-None Ranch.
“No, Carole’s in school then,” Colonel Hanson was saying. “Her spring break isn’t until—”
The girls looked at each other. Now, it wasn’t sounding so good.
“Oh, I suppose it would be fun for them—”
All pretense of brownie-making had stopped.
“But there’s no way—”
What was going on?
Colonel Hanson laughed into the phone. “No, I mean there’s no way I could say no. Carole would never speak to me again—to say nothing of Stevie and Lisa—”
That sounded much better!
“Okay, so that’s the fourth weekend of the month. Let’s see … wait a minute. I just need to find—” Colonel Hanson looked around. The girls sprang to his assistance. Carole handed him a calendar, Lisa gave him a pencil, and Stevie offered a scrap of paper. He accepted the things with a wink.
He looked at the calendar, scribbled something down on the paper, and spoke. “All right, we’ll see all three of you then.”
“We will?” all three girls asked at once. The colonel nodded and listened.
“Okay, I’ll wait to hear from you then, and somebody will meet the girls. It’s too bad you have to go right back,” he said.
It can only mean one thing, Carole hoped. She held her breath while her father finished his conversation.
“All right. Good-bye. Love to Phyllis,” he told Frank, then hung up.
“So?” Carole asked, about to explode with excitement.
“You think that had something to do with you?” he teased.
“Come on, Dad,” Carole pleaded. “We can’t stand the suspense.”
Colonel Hanson smiled and hugged his daughter. “Well, my dears,” he told all three girls, “it turns out that Frank’s piloting skills are needed.” Frank, a former Marine Corps pilot, sometimes flew a plane for a wealthy neighbor with business in Washington. “He’ll be making a couple of round trips at times that coincide with Kate and Christine’s spring break. Now, it’s not your spring break, but I thought you all could enjoy a visit anyway. So, they’re coming the fourth weekend of the month and staying for a week.”
Carole whooped. “It’s going to be fabulous! Imagine, both Kate and Christine here for a visit at the same time. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Lisa hugged her friend with excitement. “And they’ll be here in less than three weeks!” she shouted gleefully. “Won’t it be wonderful, Stevie?”
Stevie nodded, but something about Lisa’s words bothered her. Suddenly she didn’t feel very good. She put down her wooden spoon and picked up the calendar.
Colonel Hanson had circled the date of Kate and Christine’s arrival. They were coming on the fourth weekend of the month. Stevie counted off the days carefully. She looked again and counted again. Lisa was right: It was less than three weeks away.
“Isn’t it exciting, Stevie?” Lisa asked again. “Stevie?”
Stevie just stared at the calendar.
“Too much excitement for you, Stevie?” Carole teased.
“Yes,” Stevie said glumly.
Her friends fell silent. As long as they’d known Stevie, there had never been such a thing as too much excitement for her.
“What’s she staring at?” Lisa asked at last.
“The calendar,” Colonel Hanson said.
“Is there a problem with it?” Carole asked.
Stevie nodded numbly.
“What is it?” Carole wanted to know.
“The fourth weekend of the month,” Stevie said mechanically. “It’s less than three weeks away.”
Carole nodded. “Right, so—”
“The Italian boys arrive in three weeks,” Stevie said.
“Oh,” Lisa said. “Well, it’s really not a problem. After all, they’ll probably be thrilled to meet the famous Katharine Devine. Or are you worried that they’ll think she’s better than they are?”
Stevie didn’t answer the question. She kept counting the days on the calendar. It all came up the same. She tried to explain, but she was so upset she knew she wasn’t doing a good job of it.
“The end of the month is also in three weeks,” Stevie managed to say.
“Right,” Lisa agreed. “Thirty days hath September and all that. The fourth weekend is the end of the—oh, no.”
Stevie knew that Lisa had just understood the seriousness of the situation.
“What’s going on here?” Carole demanded.
“The end of the month is when the Hospital Festival is taking place,” Lisa explained.
Carole’s eyes widened. “Oh, no.”
“And that’s not all,” Stevie said. She’d finally gotten her voice back.
Carole, Lisa, and Colonel Hanson waited.
“The end of the month include
s the last Saturday of the month,” Stevie said.
Lisa and Carole looked at each other. Colonel Hanson just looked puzzled.
“That’s when the Spring Fair is supposed to take place,” Lisa explained.
“And that’s not all,” Stevie said dolefully. Her fingers traced the path of the short weeks between the date she was thinking of and the end of the month. It always came up the same.
“The end of the month includes the weekend of the 28th.”
“So what momentous event happens on the 28th?” Colonel Hanson asked.
“Debates for President of the Middle School,” Stevie informed him.
“Goodness!” he exclaimed. “My dear, if you can handle all of these things at once, you don’t need to worry about becoming President of the Middle School. You’ll be qualified to be president of the United States!”
“If I can get it all done,” Stevie said ominously, and her friends agreed.
LISA AND CAROLE walked slowly together toward Pine Hollow after school on Tuesday. Normally the excitement of an upcoming riding class made the two of them chatter nonstop on their way. But today neither of them was in a very talkative mood. Ever since Saturday, Lisa had been consumed with worry for Stevie. She suspected Carole felt the same way.
“She’s just got to give up some of it,” Lisa said out loud.
“That’s just what I was thinking,” Carole agreed.
Carole had understood right away what Lisa meant. The same thing was on both of their minds: Stevie was in trouble.
“I don’t know how—” Lisa began.
“She can’t,” Carole said simply.
“You’re right.”
They walked on in silence.
Ever since Saturday, Lisa had been upset. After Stevie had discovered that everything in the world was going to happen on the last weekend of the month, she’d refused to talk about it. She just kept saying that she’d turned over a new leaf and she’d handle it. To Lisa, it seemed as if Stevie wasn’t turning over a new leaf at all—or at least not a good new leaf. Stevie’s old leaf had constantly been in hot water. Her new one was heading for boiling point!
Even if it was possible that Stevie might somehow pull everything off and manage to host the Italians, entertain the young hospital patients, run for Middle School President, preside over the Spring Fair, and visit with Kate and Christine all at exactly the same time, one thing was certain: her grades would suffer.
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