Broken Horse (6 page)

“A
LL
RIGHT
,
GIRLS
. Line up in alphabetical order.”

Lisa followed her gym teacher’s order automatically, taking her place in line between Melissa Albright and Caitlin Avery. It was Monday, and the students were being tested in physical fitness. The boys were gathered on one side of the big gymnasium and the girls on the other. The teacher was telling the girls about the tests they would be taking. She was having some trouble getting her message across, since many of the girls were ignoring her and peeking across the gym at the boys, who were already warming up by doing push-ups. Lisa wasn’t paying attention to any of it. She was too busy thinking about the sick mare.

She had called Pine Hollow first thing that morning. Max
had told her that the mare had had a restless night and seemed no better than yesterday. That wasn’t the answer Lisa was hoping for.

She watched blankly as Sue Adams started doing sit-ups while the teacher counted. In her mind’s eye she was looking over the edge of the hill in the state park at the bonethin, miserable mare in the tiny, dirty pen below. It was an image she doubted she would ever forget—just as she would never forget the sight of poor Sal struggling through his final days in the corral at CARL. She remembered the way he had reached forward and gently taken a clump of grass from her hand. Even though his owners had left him to rot, he had still trusted humans, and there was something heartbreaking about that.

She hadn’t been able to do anything to help Sal. But this time things would be different. Lisa was going to do everything she could to make sure of that. That morning she had given her father the roll of film she’d used on Saturday. He had promised to have the pictures developed that day and to stop by the police station to drop off copies of the ones Lisa had taken of the mare. Lisa hoped her photos would help the police to convict the mare’s owner.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Melissa Albright nudged her in the ribs. “Hey, Lisa,” Melissa said. “Did you hear who just asked Kimberly Poe to the Christmas dance at Fenton Hall?”

Lisa just shrugged. She really couldn’t care less right now about who was taking Kimberly to the big holiday dance at Stevie’s school.

But Melissa didn’t seem to notice her disinterest. “Bobby Effingwell! Do you know him? He’s the class president over there, but he’s kind of a nerd. Still, Kimberly is excited about going.”

“That’s good,” Lisa said with a sigh. “I’ve met Bobby. He’s nice.”

“He may be nice, but I wouldn’t go with him,” Melissa chattered on. “Hey, but speaking of Christmas, I heard that Mrs. Norton’s homeroom class is chipping in to buy her a Christmas present. They’re trying to get enough money to buy her a silver necklace to replace the one that fell down the drain when she was chasing that hamster around the science lab. Isn’t that nice? My homeroom class would never do something like that, but that’s because we have Mr. Ernst. We can’t stand him—he never lets us talk after the first bell. What a grouch. I’d be surprised if he ever gets presents from anybody. So what are you getting for Christmas this year, Lisa?”

Lisa breathed a sigh of relief when the teacher finally called on Melissa to take her turn at sit-ups. Now she could go back to thinking about the mare.

But once the sit-up test was over and the group began the next activity—rope climbing—Lisa found herself standing
near a cluster of girls discussing that Friday’s performance of
The Nutcracker
in Washington.

A girl named Christy Marks noticed Lisa and drew her into the group. “Didn’t you tell me that you’re going to the ballet on Friday, too, Lisa?” she asked.

Lisa nodded halfheartedly. “My friend Stevie’s parents are taking us.”

“It should be great,” commented a short, cheerful girl named Emma. “I don’t like most ballets that much, but
The Nutcracker
is great. It makes everything seem so Christmassy!”

“No, I’ll tell you what’s Christmassy,” Christy said. “It’s hearing them play the same carols over and over again while you’re shopping at the mall.”

The other girls laughed, and Lisa did her best to pretend to join in.

Another girl, Amy Russo, finished her turn on the rope and joined the group. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

“What else? Christmas,” said Emma.

“I can’t wait for vacation to start,” Amy said dreamily. “I’m going to spend the first three days sleeping. Then I’ll spend the next three days at the mall. Then I’ll probably just do nothing for the rest of the time. It’ll be great.”

“My parents are having a big formal holiday party on New Year’s Eve,” Christy confided. “My mom said I can wear a
strapless dress if I can find one that’s not too expensive. So that’s my goal for the holidays.”

As Lisa listened to the other girls talk, she began to wonder if everybody in the world had been infected with the Christmas bug except for her. She couldn’t imagine getting excited about the holidays or stupid parties or strapless dresses. She had much more important things to think about.

She sighed as the teacher announced it was time to start the fifty-yard dash. It was turning out to be a very long day.

S
TEVIE
’
S
DAY
WAS
going just as badly as Lisa’s, but for a different reason. The reason was Alex.

It seemed that every time Stevie turned around, someone else was telling her about how ridiculous her twin was acting these days. One girl had stopped her in the hall to describe how Alex and Paige had held hands under their desks all through homeroom. Another had told Stevie about how Miss Fenton, the school’s headmistress, had caught the couple smooching in the science lab. A third had spotted them feeding each other bites of cookie at lunchtime. And worst of all, every time Stevie spotted Alex herself, he had the dopey, lovesick expression on his face that she was quickly growing to hate.

“Stevie, you’ll never guess what happened today in history class,” exclaimed Patty Featherstone, catching up with Stevie in the hall between classes.

Stevie sighed. “Don’t tell me,” she muttered. She already knew that it was going to have something to do with Alex.

“Ms. Galloway caught your brother passing a mushy love note to Paige,” Patty said with a grin. “She took it away from him and read it out loud in front of the entire class.”

This was getting out of hand. Normally Stevie loved to see Alex humiliated, but normally she was the one humiliating him. The longer her brother’s romance went on, the more eager he seemed to be to make a fool of himself at every opportunity. And Stevie was afraid it was starting to rub off on her.

She smiled weakly at Patty. “I’d better go. I don’t want to be late for English,” she said. She turned and headed down the hall. As she passed a group of kids standing by an open locker, they all turned to look at her. Then they turned back to the locker and started giggling. Stevie recognized some of them as members of Alex’s history class, and she sighed. That must have been some note.

She had almost reached her English classroom when she saw them. Paige was standing against the wall, a pile of books by her feet and a single yellow flower in her hand. Stevie recognized the flower. Just that morning it had been happily growing from the orchid plant her mother had spent months coaxing into bloom. Stevie wondered if her mother had missed it yet. She had a feeling that when she did, Mrs. Lake was going to be very, very upset, but that pleasant
thought would have to wait. Right now she had to try to talk some sense into her twin.

Alex didn’t notice his sister approaching. He was leaning forward, his face only inches from Paige’s, one hand against the wall by her shoulder. His other hand was brushing wisps of hair away from her face.

Stevie stopped behind him, her hands on her hips. She cleared her throat. She tapped her foot. They didn’t notice.

Finally she decided it was time to stop being subtle. “Hey, lovebirds,” she said loudly.

Alex glanced back at her over his shoulder. “Oh, hi, Stevie,” he said.

“Hi, Stevie,” Paige echoed. Then the couple returned their complete attention to each other. Paige tapped Alex on the nose with the flower, and they both giggled.

Stevie rolled her eyes. If they were upset about having their love note intercepted, they sure weren’t showing it.

“Listen,” Stevie said. “I just thought you two should know that everybody in school is talking about you. You’re making complete idiots out of yourselves.”

Alex didn’t respond for a moment. Finally he glanced back at her again. “Sorry, Stevie,” he said. “What did you just say?”

Stevie let out a loud, frustrated sigh. “Never mind.” She stomped away to class, wishing that Christmas vacation would start right that second so she wouldn’t have to put up with this humiliation any longer.

She spent the entire class period stewing about Alex and Paige. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take of this. It was hard to believe that Alex had found yet another way to make Stevie’s life miserable, but he had. Even the opportunity to tease him didn’t make up for this. And if he and Paige were this annoying now, she couldn’t imagine how horrible they would be after the big, romantic school dance on Friday. She just hoped that Paige would come to her senses before long and realize what a nerd Alex really was. Because if she and Alex didn’t break up soon, Stevie was going to have to break both of their necks.

A
FTER
SCHOOL
L
ISA
found Carole waiting for her by her locker.

“I thought we could walk over to Pine Hollow together,” Carole said.

Lisa just nodded and took her coat out of her locker.

Carole could tell her friend wasn’t feeling any better about the mare. Carole had spent a lot of time worrying about their patient herself that day, and she wasn’t feeling much more hopeful than Lisa looked. “I was thinking about the thrush, especially the bad case in that one forefoot,” she said. “We could ask Judy if she thinks it would help to repack it more often than we’ve been doing. What do you think?”

“Sure, we could ask her,” Lisa said. She pulled on her coat and grabbed the books she would need for her homework
that evening. Lisa was very responsible about her schoolwork, and usually she liked to do her homework early to get it out of the way. But tonight she couldn’t imagine when she would have time to get to it at all. “I don’t think the thrush is the most serious problem, though.”

“I know,” Carole said. “But every little thing we can do to help will be a step in the right direction.”

The two girls left the school building and headed toward Pine Hollow. Lisa was walking so fast that Carole had trouble keeping up with her.

“Hey, slow down,” Carole said. “By the time we get there we’ll be too exhausted to do any work at all.”

“Sorry.” Lisa slowed down a little. “I’m just eager to get there and see how she is.”

“Me too,” Carole said. “I hope a good night’s sleep in a nice, quiet stable has helped her. Maybe if she’s a little more relaxed today we could take her for a walk. Even though she’s weak, it might do her good to stretch her legs a little.”

“We can ask Judy about that, too,” Lisa agreed. “Maybe getting outside in the fresh air will make her feel better.”

“It couldn’t hurt. And if her mood improves, I bet her health will, too,” Carole said, shifting her backpack to the other shoulder as they walked down the sidewalk alongside a busy street.

“I think you’re right.” Lisa paused, looking thoughtful. “On the one hand, it doesn’t make much sense that feeling
sad would make a wound or a case of thrush heal more slowly. But on the other hand, it makes perfect sense. Actually, that’s what scares me the most about the mare.” “What’s that?”

Lisa paused to let a noisy truck go by before answering. “I’m afraid that if the mare doesn’t really want to get better, she won’t. No matter what we do.”

“But if part of what we do is make her feel secure and wanted, that will make a difference,” Carole argued. “All we have to do is make her see that life can be much better than it was with her last owner. Then she’ll change her mind and want to get better, right?”

“I guess so,” Lisa said. “But only if she changes her mind in time.”

Carole could tell that the conversation was making her friend more depressed than ever. She decided to try to take her mind off it, at least for a few minutes. “By the way, have you decided what to wear on Friday?”

“I haven’t really thought about it,” Lisa said, reluctantly turning her thoughts away from the mare. She had a pretty good idea of why Carole had suddenly changed the subject, and she appreciated her friend’s concern. “I guess I’ll probably wear that blue dress I got in September.”

“That would be nice,” Carole said. By this time the girls had reached the outskirts of town. The sidewalk ended, and they left the road and cut across a bare field that adjoined
Pine Hollow’s property. “I was thinking of wearing my green wool blazer, but then I thought I should save that for the Starlight Ride.”

“You could wear it both places,” Lisa suggested. Despite her worry about the mare, she couldn’t help feeling a hint of anticipation when she thought about the upcoming events. She loved going to the ballet, especially when it was
The Nutcracker.
And the Starlight Ride was always special. She just hoped the mare would start to improve soon so that Lisa would be able to enjoy the events without worrying about her every minute. If not, she suspected that neither the ballet nor the Starlight Ride would be nearly as wonderful as usual.

As the girls continued to chat about
The Nutcracker
and the Starlight Ride, the familiar pastures and buildings of Pine Hollow came into view. Lisa’s pace began to increase again without her realizing it. Now that she was almost there, she could hardly bear to wait another second to see how the mare was doing.

When they got inside, Carole offered to take Lisa’s school things to the student locker room along with her own. Lisa accepted gratefully, and after handing over her coat and backpack, she headed straight for the mare’s stall.