Blue Ribbon Summer (13 page)

Robin didn't stop there, turning Royal toward another line of higher jumps nearby. This time the horse didn't hesitate, cantering over those jumps easily as well.

When Robin pulled up near the girls, she was grinning from ear to ear. “Who's a naughty boy now?” she
cooed, reaching forward to rub Royal's neck with both hands. “Not you, Royal.” She winked at Livi. “Ready to give it another try?”

Soon Royal's owner was back in the saddle. Brooke held her breath as Livi aimed the horse at the jump.

“More leg, more leg!” Robin called. “Okay, a little too much—half halt! Good!”

“Go, Livi!” Paige cheered as Royal cleared the jumps.

Robin had the pair do the line once more, then hurried over to give Royal a treat and Livi a pat on the leg. “There, how'd that feel?” the instructor asked with a smile. “He really is a good boy—he just needs a confident ride to feel confident himself. And that time you gave him one! Well done.”

“Thanks.” Livi looked happy as she patted her horse.

“Wow, Robin really is good,” Brooke whispered to Paige.

“Yeah.” Paige bit her lip. “It's so obvious she loves horses and riding and teaching so much. How can she even think about giving it all up and moving to the city?”

CHAPTER

THAT NIGHT, BROOKE PUSHED HER
chair back from the dinner table. “May I be excused?” she asked Robin. “I was hoping to check my e-mail again, if that's okay.”

Robin looked up from her plate. “Sure, go ahead. Leave the computer on when you're finished—I need to pay some bills later.”

“Okay.” Brooke hurried down the hall to the office. She paused in the doorway, studying the walls and their pictorial story of Robin's life with horses. After watching Robin with Royal earlier, Brooke and the others had been unanimous: they couldn't give up yet. Maybe Robin thought she was ready for an easier life. But
watching her ride, Brooke knew she'd regret it if she gave up horses. Every chance they'd had all day, the girls had tried to think of ideas to convince Robin of that. So far, though, they'd come up blank. Just about the only decision they'd made was to let the older campers know what was happening, though there hadn't been a chance to do so yet.

Logging on to her e-mail account, Brooke found a couple more notes from her mother, a short one from the twins, and a mass-mailed party invitation from a girl at school. Still nothing from Adam. She opened a new blank e-mail and started typing.

Hey! It's me. Camp is good so far.

What's going on at home? How's swim team? See u soon!

B.

She hesitated briefly, then added Adam's address and hit send. There. At least that way he'd know she was
checking e-mail at camp. If he wanted to write back, he would. If not, well, she wasn't going to worry about it. At least not right now.

Soon she was on the Pony Post site. She was scanning the entries when she saw a new one pop up at the bottom of the page:

[HALEY]
Hi all! Just checking in. Wings and I had a good ride today. My brothers cut down a big tree to make a dirt bike trail, and I turned part of it into a rly cool XC jump. Wings loved it! Will get pix soon. What's up w/ all of you?

Haley was on the site right now too! Brooke quickly opened a text box.

[BROOKE]
Hi, I'm here too!

She hit enter, then waited. A moment later Haley posted again.

[HALEY]
HI!!!!!! How's camp? Are you having the best time ever?

[BROOKE]
Sort of. I mean sort of? At 1st I wasn't sure I was going to like it here.

[HALEY]
What do u mean?

[BROOKE]
The other girls are much better riders than me. They all have big fancy show horses.

[HALEY]
Ooooooh! :-P Are they snobby?

[BROOKE]
I thought they were. But they're not. They're actually rly nice. I just needed to get to know them, I guess.

[HALEY]
So u are all friends now?

[BROOKE]
Yeh. But we have a BIG problem . . .

She typed as fast as she could, telling Haley the whole story. When she finished, she sat back. It wasn't long before another entry popped up.

[HALEY]
Wowowow. That's wild! What r u going to do?

[BROOKE]
Not sure. I was hoping u might have some ideas, lol.

[HALEY]
Hmm. U don't have much time if Robin has to give an answer by next wk. So be sure whatever u decide to do makes sense. No wacky plans like some of Maddie's, lol! (Don't kill me when u read this, Mads! U know I love u!)

[BROOKE]
Haha, no, I get it. Sooooo . . . any brilliant ideas?

Brooke felt a twinge of hope as she hit enter. Haley was one of the most down-to-earth, practical people
Brooke knew. If anyone could come up with a way to save Pocomoke Stables, it was her.

Suddenly the door flew open, and Brooke's bunkmates burst into the office. “Good, you're still in here,” Hannah exclaimed. “Listen, Robin and Preston just headed down to the barn for night check, so we figured this was a good time to talk.”

“Yeah.” Livi came in and perched on the edge of the desk, peering curiously at the computer. “Hey, what's that?” she asked, pointing at the Pony Post logo at the top of the screen.

For a second, Brooke wished she'd had time to log off before the others came in. Too late now. Another post from Haley had just popped up:

[HALEY]
What about the daughter? Can u talk to her about this? She knows her mom better than anyone.

“Um . . .” Brooke suddenly felt as shy as she had on her first day at camp. Her bunkmates were all serious
show riders. Would they think the Pony Post was silly? “I met these other girls who have Chincoteague ponies—met them online, I mean—and we started a website to keep in touch and trade pictures of our ponies and stuff.”

“What a cool idea!” Paige said, leaning in for a look.

“Yeah, and the graphics are gorge,” Hannah added.

“Thanks.” Brooke grinned with relief. The only person she'd ever told about the site outside of her parents was Adam, and he'd been about as interested in it as he was in helping clean the manure out of Foxy's pasture. “Nina's mom is an artist. She helped us design it, but we came up with the idea ourselves.”

“That's awesome.” Livi grabbed the mouse and scrolled down to some photos of Maddie's big trail ride. “I never heard of a site like this. How many people are on it?”

“Just four of us,” Brooke said. “We're all over the country—Maddie is in California, Nina's in New Orleans, and Haley lives in Wisconsin.” She waved a hand at the screen. “I was just chatting with Haley, actually. She thinks maybe we should talk to Robin's daughter or something.”

Hannah's eyes widened. “Why didn't I think of that?”
she exclaimed. “I bet Morgan has no clue her mom's thinking about selling this place.”

“She'd probably come straight home if she knew,” Paige said, staring up at a photo of Morgan jumping a huge gray horse over an equally huge oxer. “I mean, I know Robin says she loves New York. But she loves this place even more, right?”

Livi clapped her hands. “Perfect! It's so easy—we let Morgan know what's happening and let her deal with Robin. No need to freak out.”

“Or talk to the olders.” Hannah grimaced. “I wasn't looking forward to listening to all of Jenna's snooty reasons why us youngers are total airheads who probably misunderstood the whole situation.”

Paige giggled. “Let's e-mail Morgan right now. I'll just log on to my account—I have her addy on there.”

“So you really think this will work?” Brooke stood up to let Paige take over the keyboard. She couldn't help thinking of Haley's warning—they didn't have any time to waste. It was Friday, which meant there was only one more week before Preston's deadline.

“Absolutely.” Hannah sounded confident as she leaned on the back of the chair Paige was sitting on “Morgan always knows what to do. She'll take care of it.”

They spent the next few minutes composing the e-mail. Brooke didn't say much, since she was the only one who didn't know Morgan. She was surprised when Paige sat back and glanced at her when she'd finished typing.

“Well?” she said. “What do you think, Brooke? How's it sound?”

Brooke leaned forward to read over the message:

Hi Morgan! It's us, your favorite Camp Pocomoke campers! We just thought you should know that your mom really misses you. She might even sell the farm!!! (Pls don't tell her we know that tho!!!!!)

Anyway, you should probably come home and talk her out of it. Who knows,
maybe you'll decide to stay! This place is way better than NYC anyway, right? lol!

Love,

Paige, Hannah, Livi, and Brooke

“It sounds good,” Brooke said. “But maybe you shouldn't include my name. She won't know who I am, and it'll just be confusing.”

“But you have to be on there,” Livi insisted. “You're the main reason we even know what's going on!”

“I have an idea.” Hannah leaned over Paige's shoulder. Typing with two fingers, she added an arrow pointing at Brooke's name and the words (
cool new camper 
) on the other end of the arrow. “There, how's that?” she said when she finished.

Brooke blushed. “Um, fine, I guess.”

“Good. Now send it—maybe she'll write back right away!” Livi said.

The four of them spent the next twenty minutes in
the office, talking and looking at Robin's pictures. Paige's e-mail account was still open, and the computer pinged several times to indicate a new message. But none of those messages were from Morgan.

Finally Livi checked her watch and sighed. “I guess she's not writing back right now,” she said. “She's probably out somewhere having fun in the big city.”

“Maybe she'll get back to us tomorrow.” Paige grabbed the mouse to log off her e-mail. “We might as well get out of here before Robin comes in and figures out what we're doing.”

“Are you sure about this?” Hannah sounded nervous.

Paige laughed. “Just get on already,” she said. “I can't believe you've never ever ridden bareback before!”

“The trainer at my barn doesn't allow it,” Hannah retorted with a slight frown. “And Vegas has killer withers—I'd be crazy to try it on him.”

“Whatever.” Livi leaned against the fence. “Foxy's the perfect shape, so stop stalling and get on.”

Brooke wasn't sure she'd ever actually seen Hannah
look nervous before. But there was a furrow in Hannah's brow as she stood beside Foxy, who was wearing only her bridle. It was Saturday morning, and the girls had just finished their riding lesson. While tacking up that day, Livi had complained that it was way too hot to make their horses wear saddles and they should just ride the lesson bareback. She was only joking, but Hannah had mentioned that she'd never ridden bareback before. And not just on Vegas, which Brooke could understand—he really did have bony withers, not to mention a tendency to buck unexpectedly—but on
any
horse.