Beach Ride (12 page)

Lisa thought Max was trying to keep from laughing, but she couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t exactly like Max to laugh when all discipline got lost.

“Ahem,” he said. That didn’t do it. “Class!” he said, speaking louder and more forcefully. The riders continued squirting one another. “All right, you dirty rats!” he declared, bringing a super-soaker squirt gun out from behind his back and pointing it at the riders. There was silence.

Everybody was stunned to see their serious riding instructor standing there with a gigantic water gun in his hands.

“I just wanted to try this thing,” Max said somewhat sheepishly. And with that, he turned and aimed
at the targets. A long and powerful stream of water emanated from the huge water rifle, found its mark, and annihilated one of the paper targets. The stream of water stopped. Max tipped the water gun so that the end of the barrel was near his face. Carefully, he blew away imaginary smoke, and then holstered the rifle.

“This here’s mah town,” he said, cowboy style. “What I say goes, understand?”

“Yes, sir!” the students replied, falling into character.

“An’ ah say class dis-
missed
!”

Lisa looked at her watch. She always had fun in class, and it always seemed to go quickly, but she didn’t think this class could have been more than fifteen minutes long. Her watch told her the truth. A full hour had passed by. She couldn’t remember when she’d had so much fun in class before.

Reluctantly, the students walked their horses toward the stable. Lisa brought Barq up alongside Stevie and Topside.

“That was great, wasn’t it?” Lisa asked.

“Totally fun,” Stevie agreed.

“Carole’s going to be so jealous that she missed it,” said Lisa.

“Oh, don’t feel sorry for Carole,” Stevie said. “Remember,
she’s down in Florida, having a wonderful time and probably riding along the beach by the Atlantic Ocean without a care in the world!”

“I guess,” Lisa agreed.

“Lisa? Stevie?” A voice called them from behind.

The girls turned around. It was Alice. They stopped and waited while she rode up to them.

Lisa and Stevie had both wanted to talk to Alice before class, but now that she was here and they all had had so much fun, they really didn’t know what to say.

Lisa tried to speak for both of them. “I, uh—” she began.

“It’s okay,” Alice assured her. “I just wanted to thank you two.”

“Thank us? What for?” asked Stevie.

“For making me come back,” said Alice.

“You’re welcome,” Lisa said, and she meant it. It was nice to know that they’d done something right.

“B
UTTER-PECAN ICE
cream with blueberry-crumble cheesecake topping, marshmallow fluff, and Reese’s Pieces,” Stevie told the waitress at TD’s.

“You want whipped cream and chopped nuts on that, too?” she asked.

Stevie grimaced, and shook her head. The waitress left the table with a proud grin on her face. This time she had succeeded in grossing out Stevie.

“Boy, it’s nice to be home,” said Carole.

“But didn’t you have any fun in Florida?” Lisa asked.

“Yes, tell us all about it. Did you get to ride on the beach?” Stevie asked.

“Did I ever!” Carole began. She told them everything. She told them about the family party and the day at Disney World. Then she told them about her beach ride and her surfing and the riptide and her rescue by Sheila and Maverick.

“I never heard of a horse rescuing a swimmer!” Lisa said.

“Horses are good swimmers,” Stevie said.

“This wasn’t just swimming,” said Carole. “This was heroism. In fact, the story got written up in the local newspaper. Somebody was taking pictures of us coming up out of the water. Aunt Joanna’s phone was ringing this morning.”

“With people wanting interviews and stuff?”

“No, people wanting to buy Maverick!”

“They wouldn’t—” Lisa began.

“Not for a million dollars,” Carole said. “Aunt Joanna is through with her meddling on that score.” Then she told her friends about Midge and how nice she was and how Joanna kept meddling by trying to push Midge and her father together. “Dad and Midge were both nice about it because they didn’t want to hurt Aunt Joanna’s feelings, but Aunt Joanna just wasn’t getting the hint. She’s wonderful and all that, but she’s the world’s greatest meddler.”

Lisa grimaced. “I think Stevie and I are competing
for that award, too,” she said. Then she explained to Carole what had happened with Alice.

“We thought the jump around the curve was a perfect setup,” Stevie said. “And it worked, too. Starlight loved it. Alice didn’t.”

“I know it was wrong,” Lisa concluded. “But I’m still not sure why. I mean, when we three get together, it seems we do a lot of meddling. We’re always fixing things that people didn’t know needed fixing. Most of the time we seem to be right. Have we just been lucky until now?”

Carole shook her head. “It’s not the same thing,” she said. “Most of the time when we meddle, people know what it is that they want and we just help them get it. We do that with one another a lot. That’s just part of what being in The Saddle Club means, right?”

Lisa and Stevie agreed with that.

“But this was different. See, Alice knew what she wanted, and we just refused to accept that.”

Lisa thought it was generous of Carole to include herself in that with a “we.” It was Carole’s way of saying she would have made the same mistake.

“If we had just tried to talk her into changing her mind, that would have been one thing and that would have been okay. It was another thing altogether to try
to trick her into changing her mind. No wonder she was angry.”

The sundaes arrived then. The waitress had gone ahead and put whipped cream and chopped nuts on Stevie’s. “I couldn’t resist,” she said. “But I didn’t charge you for them.”

“Thanks,” said Stevie. “You’re too good to me.” Then, when the waitress left, Stevie leaned forward. “I knew she’d do that,” she said. “That’s how I can get extra toppings for free!” She giggled. Lisa and Carole thought she might actually mean it, too. Now they weren’t so sure
who
had won.

Stevie took a bite. “Mmmmmm.” Then she took a second. Lisa and Carole started their sundaes, too.

“Okay, so we did the wrong thing to Alice. But I still wonder why it is she doesn’t want to jump,” Stevie said after her third mouthful.

“I know the answer to that,” Lisa said. Her friends looked at her and she told them. “It’s none of our business.”

“Very good!” Carole said. “See, we have learned something!”

“So what happened finally with Maverick?” Stevie asked. “Is Sheila going to keep on riding him?”

“Oh, this is the best part!” said Carole. “Maverick’s going to be okay. The vet still thinks there’s going to
be some lameness for a while, but Maverick is definitely going to recover. He’s also definitely going to be Sheila’s pony for as long as he lives. But he’s not going to be her only mount. Uncle Willie resolved the argument about Maverick. He’s bought Sheila another horse—this time full-sized. Bright and early this morning, Sheila and I went to the stable that has horses for sale, and it didn’t take long to find her the perfect horse. He’s a seven-year-old gelding, a Thoroughbred mix. He’s sixteen point two hands, a bay with a white mark on his forehead that looks a little like an upside-down comma—sort of like a wave. The vet checked him, and they bought him and moved him to Sheila’s stable by the time Dad and I had to go to the airport this noon. It was something.”

“What’s she going to call him?” Stevie asked.

“I bet I know,” said Lisa.

“What?” asked Carole.

“It’s because of the marking, sort of,” she began.

“Yes, it is, sort of,” Carole agreed. “So what do you think it is?”

“Riptide,” said Lisa.

“You’re so smart. No wonder you’re my friend!” Carole joked.

“Really?” Stevie asked.

“Really,” Carole said. “The horse’s name is Riptide.
And, believe me, that’s the only riptide I ever want to ride again in my whole entire life!”

“Aw, come on,” said Stevie. “You can’t fool me. This whole thing was a setup, wasn’t it?” She took another bite of her sundae and let her suggestion sink in.

“Setup? What do you mean?”

“I mean, you figured that the only way to solve Sheila’s problem was to make her parents decide there was no way she could sell Maverick, so she’d just have to have a second horse. Then, when you got to the beach, the whole scheme came to you. You went out into the water, found the riptide, traveled a little out to sea, and let events take their natural course. Right?”

“You know what it was, Stevie?” Carole asked, playing along with the joke. “I just asked myself, ‘What would
Stevie
do?’ And it all came to me, just like you said. Then, in a matter of seconds, I risked my own life, to say nothing of Sheila’s and Maverick’s, just to have them go through a complicated and dangerous rescue so I could change my cousin’s results at horse shows and make my aunt and uncle happy!”

“I knew it,” Stevie declared. “See, when we Saddle Club members put our minds to it, there’s just nothing we can’t accomplish!”

B
ONNIE
B
RYANT
is the author of more than fifty books for young readers, including novelizations of movie hits such as
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
and
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid
, written under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She lives in Greenwich Village with her two sons.