“You’re on!”
“HI. WHAT’S YOUR name?” Carole asked. She was speaking to the girl about her own age who was on the gurney by the pony carts.
“Marie,” the girl responded glumly.
“I don’t know if we can get this rig into a cart safely,” Carole began.
“You can’t,” Marie said. She’s probably right, Carole thought, but there was something about Marie’s tone of voice that bothered her. Carole felt as if somebody had just slammed a door in her face. And somehow, Carole didn’t believe that Marie’s situation was that hopeless.
“What are you in for?” Carole asked.
Marie seemed a little irritated. “I have a fractured pelvis,” she said. “And in case that’s not enough, both my legs are broken, too. Don’t ask if you can sign my cast, okay? It’s not funny.”
“I didn’t say it was,” Carole retorted. She decided to try again. “Would you like to pat one of the ponies?” she asked.
“No.”
“So how come you’re here?” Carole asked.
“Because Miss Bellanger said it would make me feel better.”
“You’re going to make this very hard, aren’t you?” Carole asked. It was only after she’d said it that Carole realized how harsh she sounded.
But it worked. “I’m sorry,” Marie said. “Miss Bellanger tells me I have a way of taking my anger out on everybody else. I know you’re just trying to be nice, but, believe me, it doesn’t really help.”
“That’s fair.” Carole nodded. “Listen, I’ve got to help the next batch of kids into the cart. Would you like me to ask Miss Bellanger to take you back inside now?”
Marie was quiet for a moment. She seemed to be thinking over Carole’s offer. “No, thanks,” she said. “I’ll stick around.”
“Okay,” Carole said and turned her attention to the others. She didn’t want to let one person who was determined to be miserable ruin the day for the others.
“My turn! My turn!” said a little boy. Marco picked him up and put him into the pony cart. Once the boy was strapped in, he knew exactly what to tell his driver: “Andiamo!” The cart lurched forward and the singing began once again.
SPLAT! SQUISH! THUMP!
“Oh, no, I missed.”
“Here, try again. Aim higher this time!”
“You’re not allowed to duck!” someone called to Veronica.
“I am too!” she yelled.
The action at Booth Thirteen was never-ending and Stevie enjoyed every minute of it. She went on an inspection of the other booths. She helped restock the food booth with popcorn and candy apples. She took over temporarily at the balloon dartboard when the student working there needed to take a break. She solved problems, she gave directions, and she answered questions.
She watched as Carole and the Italian boys kept the pony carts going. The shrieks of laughter from that section of the fair were delightful. It was nice to have some of the hospital patients participating in their school fair. Somehow, everything was working.
Stevie wandered over to the table where tickets were being sold.
“How are sales?” she asked.
“Brisk,” came the answer from one of the student cashiers.
“Oh, yes. You’ve done a wonderful job here,” said the other cashier. It was Bobby Effingwell, Stevie’s opponent in the school election. “You know, you surprised me,” Bobby said. “When somebody told me I’d be running against you, I thought it would be easy. Nobody could believe that Stevie Lake could actually do something serious or take on a lot of responsibility. But you’ve proven me wrong, Stevie. I think you’ll probably win the election, and that’s great. You deserve it. I just want you to promise me one thing.”
Stevie wasn’t sure she was hearing Bobby correctly. If she’d been in his place, she’d be mad as a hornet at her opponent. He was being downright gracious.
“Sure, Bobby. What is it?” she asked.
“Promise me that when you do other projects like these as Middle School President, you’ll let me help you. I really want to be part of these things,” Bobby replied.
Stevie was even more surprised by that remark. It had never occurred to her that being President of the Middle School meant doing this kind of thing a lot.
“There are a lot more events coming up,” Bobby continued, “like the school cookie sale, the canned goods drive, and the book drive. I want to be right there in the middle of it all, okay?”
“Sure,” Stevie agreed. “You’ll be there. It’s a promise.”
“One more thing,” Bobby said. She nodded. “Can you cover for me here for a few minutes?” he asked. “I just have to get over to Booth Thirteen. I’ve bought ten tickets, see …”
“Be my guest!” Stevie said, laughing. She wouldn’t have thought sweet Bobby had it in him. “And throw one for me, okay?”
They shook hands, and he left.
By the time Bobby reappeared, claiming triumph with the soggy Nerf balls, Stevie’s family had arrived and she wanted to give them the grand tour. She looked at her watch. She couldn’t believe it was already after three o’clock. The pony carts were almost done for the day. Some of the booths were getting ready to close up, particularly the popcorn booth, which had sold out of everything. It was nearly time for the speeches.
Stevie could tell that her parents were very impressed with what she’d done. She had had the ability to surprise her parents a number of times in her life, but rarely with something they were proud of.
Her brothers might have told her what a great job she’d done except that all three of them were waiting in the line at Booth Thirteen! Stevie was almost beginning to feel sorry for Veronica. Her older brother, Chad, was a pitcher on the Junior Varsity softball team at Fenton. He was good. He wouldn’t miss.
Stevie took her parents over to the bowling alley, where Phil had somehow been talked into taking over as pin-setter. For a second, she asked herself how she had managed to con so many of her friends into working so hard. Then she decided that some questions shouldn’t be asked.
When Stevie looked at her watch again, it was three-thirty. That meant it was time to close down the pony carts so the Italian boys could get back to Pine Hollow in time for their demonstration. She helped the last load of children out of the carts, patted the ponies herself, and sent them on their way.
“I’m sorry I can’t be there,” she told Enrico. “Tell the others, too. But I’ll be there tomorrow. Okay?”
“It’s okay, Stevie,” Enrico said. “We know you’ve been awfully busy today. We understand.”
“You’ve been pretty busy, too,” Stevie said. “Have I worked you too hard?”
“Work? No, this has been wonderful fun. How else would I have known what an awful singing voice Marco has?” Enrico smiled and waved his pony whip gently, urging Nickel to return to Pine Hollow.
Stevie waved to all four boys, wondering if there was any real way to thank them for all they had done for her.
There was a moment of quiet, Stevie’s first all day. She leaned against a tree, enjoying the cool shade, and breathed deeply, sighing as she let out the air.
“Tired?” someone asked. It was Phil.
“I guess I am,” Stevie said.
“You’ve worked awfully hard today. You’ve done a lot.”
“That’s for sure,” Stevie agreed. “But everything worked out. Can you believe it?”
“Yes, I can,” Phil said. “You have this way of taking on an outrageous job and somehow succeeding. It’s one of the things I like about you.”
“Not the only one, I hope,” Stevie said, looking into his deep green eyes. “Because, I promise you, I will never, ever again take on this much at one time in my whole entire life!”
“Just talk,” Phil teased.
“Just you see,” Stevie said. And for once, she meant it.
IT WAS THREE fifty-five.
All of the booths except Number Thirteen were closed down. The last customer took a last toss
at Veronica. She ducked unsuccessfully one last time.
“Quitting time!” Stevie announced, freeing Veronica from the torture of the day.
“So soon?” Veronica asked icily.
There was nothing to say to that. Stevie handed Veronica a towel and watched as she disappeared toward her home. Stevie almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
The crowd was heading for the platform, where the fair program had promised the school speeches and debates would take place. Stevie walked in that direction as well, and as she did so, she scanned the people milling around. Where were Lisa and Carole? What had happened to Kate and Christine? Why didn’t she see Phil anywhere? Then she remembered the Italian boys’ riding demonstration. They must have all decided that that was more exciting than listening to her speech. She tried to hide her disappointment, but it wasn’t easy. If she’d ever needed friends, she needed them now. After all, she told herself, I have to wait until tomorrow to see the demonstration. Why don’t they? What’s the Saddle Club about? Aren’t you supposed to help and support your friends when they need you?
“Whoa,” she told herself. It didn’t make sense to get upset about something she couldn’t change. After all, she was about to deliver an important speech.
She reached into her right-hand back pocket, feeling for the comfortable lump of paper that she’d spent so many evenings scribbling on lately. It was her speech.
There was no comfortable lump.
She smiled encouragement to herself. Of course there was a lump of paper. She just hadn’t put it in her right-hand back pocket. She must have put it in her left-hand back pocket.
She reached into her left-hand back pocket. Still no lump. Then she began to get worried. She checked her front pockets. She started to check her shirt pockets until she realized the shirt she was wearing didn’t have pockets. Her speech was nowhere to be found.
Stevie took another deep breath. She felt terribly alone. Her friends had left without saying anything, and now she didn’t even have her speech to reassure her.
She looked around, hoping for comfort. All she could see were about a hundred schoolmates and their families. Every one of them was headed for the place where they were expecting to see Stevie, the new Stevie of the new leaf, pull one more rabbit out of one more hat. All she had to do was to work one more, final miracle of the day. Could she do it?
She’d worked on the speech for so long that every phrase was familiar to her. Could she remember it standing in front of more than a hundred people?
Well, she’d have to try, or else she’d have to think up something entirely new to say on the spot. Stevie’s mind began racing as she proceeded to the platform.
The whole day, and the three and a half weeks leading up to it, flashed through her mind. It had been quite a time. Even with a lot of help from her friends, she’d seen her grades slip a bit and she’d had to skip a couple of riding classes. No doubt about it, she didn’t want to go through a period like that again. Of course, the experience had had its rewards, too. For one thing, she was having a lot of fun spending time with the Italian boys, and she had most definitely gotten the best of Veronica diAngelo. Most important, however, the Festival had been a wonderful success for Children’s Hospital and the Fair had made a lot of money for her school. She hadn’t counted the proceeds yet, but she was pretty sure they’d exceeded their $1,500 goal. Stevie’s new leaf had been a lot of work, but it was worth it. The question was, would her leaf stay turned for good?
Stevie sat where Miss Fenton indicated and tried to remember what it was she wanted to say. The only good news at that moment was that Bobby was supposed to go first.
He stood up and the crowd became quiet. Stevie saw his parents in the front row. His grandmother was there. She waved to him.
“Good afternoon,” he began. “I’m here to try to convince you to vote for me for Middle School President and I’ve got to say it’s not going to be an easy thing to do, not after the show Stevie Lake has put on for us all today.”
The crowd laughed. Stevie found herself feeling vaguely uncomfortable. After all, those people out there didn’t know that the biggest reason she had done any of this was because of Veronica diAngelo and four Italian boys. She shifted in her seat and tried to smile.
Bobby went on. He had prepared a good, thoughtful speech. He had a lot of proposals for the Middle School, including ideas for several community projects, canned goods drives, and book drives. He explained that he had always been on committees at school and wanted to be helpful to the students as well as to the town.
Stevie listened. Bobby Effingwell cared. He really cared. He was earnest, sincere, and hardworking. She’d hardly ever talked to him, but she found that she could really admire the boy who was giving the speech she was hearing. Stevie began to feel a little rotten about how confident she’d been about winning the election. Life just wasn’t that simple.
While she was listening attentively, Stevie saw something out of the corner of her eye that she could hardly believe. It was Max’s truck, pulling a four-horse van. As soon as it drew to a stop, Christine, Kate, Carole, and Lisa piled out, as well as Phil, Enrico, Marco, Andre and Gian. They began unloading horses and equipment from the van. Stevie couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but she knew it was true. Her friends had decided to move the demonstration from Pine Hollow over to the hospital. It was a great idea that had never occurred to her!
Stevie’s thoughts were interrupted by polite applause. Bobby stepped back to his chair and sat down. Stevie reached over, took his hand, and pumped it.
“You’re something,” she said. Bobby looked at her curiously.
“Stevie Lake,” Miss Fenton announced.
Stevie gulped. For a second, her entire body shook. She was very, very nervous, but she knew what she had to do. She saw her Saddle Club friends and the Italian boys join the audience, standing at the back. She took a deep breath, stood up, and walked toward the audience. She was ready.
“This has been quite a day,” she began. “I guess you all don’t know it, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to do all these things. I’m such a dummy, I didn’t even realize they were all happening on the same day!” People laughed. Stevie wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t trying to be funny. “Anyway, the day is here and mostly over now and there are a few things I have to say. First of all, I want to thank my friends. I couldn’t have gotten through the day, and you wouldn’t have had such a good time, without them. That goes for all my classmates who worked so hard and for some other friends who don’t even go to Fenton Hall. In case you think that group has finished working, you should see what I see, too. Right after my speech, you’re all invited to go over to the pony cart course, where you’ll see one outstanding demonstration of riding by an international team of riders, better known to all of you as the Singing Pony Carters!”
Everybody looked over their shoulders to see what was happening.
“But the other thing I want to say,” Stevie continued impulsively, “is what a terrific person Bobby Effingwell is. All day, he worked hard selling tickets. He never complained. He just did the job. He told me how much it meant to him to be involved. Well, I think Bobby is involved and I think he ought to stay involved. He told me he hoped I would ask him to help on other projects that I run. But, Bobby, you’ve got that backwards. I’m not good at running projects. I’m only good at getting my friends to do things. You’re the one who’s good at running things. I think you should have a chance at running the student government of the Middle School.”
Stevie was astonished to hear the words coming from her mouth. But they were absolutely right. Bobby would be perfect. He’d do the job right and he deserved it. Besides, she would never make it in a job like that. One more bottle of glue spread out under one more teacher’s shoes and she’d be out of the job anyway.
She was ready to finish her speech then. “I’m going to vote for Bobby Effingwell, and I think that all of you should, too.”
“All right now,” Stevie said. “Enough of this political stuff. Let’s get back to fun things—the horses!”
With that, the entire crowd moved over to the pony cart area for the demonstration.
Stevie wanted to go over there right away, but there was something else she had to do first.
She dashed into the hospital and found Miss Bellanger in her office. “There’s one more thing,” she said. “There’s going to be a riding demonstration in a few minutes. I bet a lot of the patients would like to see that, too. Can you get them to the windows?”
“A riding demonstration?” Miss Bellanger said. “Do I recall authorizing that?”
“Well, not exactly,” Stevie said. “But I promise you, it will be neat. The kids will love it.”
Miss Bellanger sighed. “Like I said, Stevie. You think of everything.” She reached for the microphone to the P.A. system and made an announcement. All Stevie heard of it before she raced out the door was, “Your attention please. We have more good news, courtesy of the indomitable Stevie Lake—”
“THEY’RE JUST AS good as we thought, aren’t they?” Carole asked Stevie as the two of them stood and watched the Italian boys do their demonstration.
“Absolutely,” Stevie said.
“How do they get their horses to do those things?” Lisa asked.
“Training,” Kate supplied.
The four boys were working through intricate patterns with their horses. Some of the riding was a little like the drill work that Stevie, Lisa, and Carole had practiced, though the boys were much better than they had been. A lot of their performance was a dressage demonstration, in quadruplicate.
The four riders lined up and began walking their horses toward the far end of the oval. At an invisible signal, all four horses began prancing, in step with one another.
Team Play Page 8
