High Horse (2 page)

A few minutes later she handed it back to the boy.

“Peter, brush the tail,” she said.

“You don’t catch Veronica diAngelo doing tails,” Carole commented.

“Oh dear no,” Lisa said. “Too vulgar.”

Max glanced over at the girls, deliberately placing a finger over his lips.

Peter let the dark chestnut hair of Garnet’s tail fall through his fingers as he brushed it. Garnet nodded her head and nickered with pleasure. The horse was definitely wasted on Veronica.

While Peter finished grooming Garnet, Stevie watched impatiently. Usually she loved Pony Club meetings, especially the mounted ones, but she couldn’t wait for today’s to be over. She was dying to tell her friends the wonderful idea she’d come up with to save the MTO. She’d decided to ask Max if her boyfriend Phil Marsten could come along. Phil was a member of another Pony Club called Cross County. Recently he had been with Pony Wise on a mock hunt, and Max knew that he was a skilled and experienced rider. It was perfect, Stevie mused. Max would get another rider; and she and Phil would have a great time.

Suddenly Stevie’s head was filled with pictures of her and Phil on the MTO. They were riding side by side at dawn in a windswept meadow. Stevie could smell the wet earth, feel a cool mountain breeze.… She closed her eyes.

“Stevie!” It was Max. “How do you evaluate this demonstration? Is something missing?”

“Unh,” Stevie said, blinking. “Veronica’s fingernail?”

A few riders tittered, but this time Max was really annoyed. “Does anybody know?” He turned to Peter. “Do you?”

Peter’s face turned redder, but he nodded.

“What?”

“We didn’t pick Garnet’s hooves,” Peter said in a voice so soft that it was hard to hear. “We should have started with the hoof pick.”

In spite of Max’s annoyance at her for missing the answer, Stevie grinned. Veronica had been barking orders so fast that she hadn’t given Peter a chance to make a single suggestion. Peter must have realized from the start that Veronica was making a mistake, but he’d been afraid to tell her. Stevie loved it—the little brother was showing up the big sister.

“That’s right,” Max said, giving the young rider an encouraging nod. “The first step in grooming is to clean your horse’s hooves. A pebble caught between shoe and hoof can cause serious injury.” Veronica’s face turned beet-red. Not too long ago she hadn’t been able to ride Garnet for two weeks for this very reason. She’d neglected to clean her horse’s hooves properly.

Max turned to Veronica. “Teamwork goes both ways. Peter knew you’d forgotten the hoof pick, but you didn’t give him a chance to say so. Now that
we’ve got the Big Sister/Little Brother demonstrations underway, I’m going to start rating each one.”

Lisa remembered back to the first demonstration. She had been a big sister to May, one of the younger riders. The demonstration had been a disaster because Lisa had been so bossy. She was glad Max hadn’t rated it.

“I’m going to give this Big Sister/Little Brother team a rating of two out of a possible five, which means it needs improvement,” Max said.

Stevie sighed with pleasure—not that she wished any harm to Peter. But on the other hand—

“And Stevie Lake’s listening gets a rating of minus one out of a possible five.”

Stevie felt herself flush. Max was joking, but he’d made his point.

“Thanks a lot,” Veronica said, looking at Peter as if the whole thing were his fault.

“Veronica, you just learned something important,” Max said. “In Big Sister/Little Brother projects both members of the team are equally important.”

Veronica looked as if she thought this was complete nonsense. Peter, on the other hand, took a deep breath and stood up straight.

“Horse Wise dismissed,” Max said.

Stevie headed straight for Max.

“I think I’ve got someone for the MTO,” she said eagerly. “What about Phil Marsten? He’s an experienced rider. He’s good at loading horses. And he knows Silverado State Park because he lives near there.”

“Phil would be fine,” Max said, looking pleased. “I was impressed with him on the hunt. The only thing is, I have to know definitely whether he can come.”

“Believe me, Phil will be on the MTO,” Stevie quickly reassured him. If she knew Phil, there was no way he’d turn down the chance to ride for two days in the glorious mountains of Virginia.

Max grinned, his weathered skin crinkling. “When you say it that way, Stevie, I know it will happen.”

Things are looking good, Stevie thought, as she started to lead Topside, the horse she always rode, back to the stable.

“Hey, Stevie.”

She jumped. It was Joe Novick. With his curly brown hair and dark brown eyes, Joe was universally regarded as the cutest male member of Horse Wise. Amie and Jackie had crushes on him. Veronica and her friends were always inviting him to parties. And the three girls in The Saddle Club thought he was a really nice guy and wondered why he didn’t have a girlfriend.

“I was thinking,” Joe began when he caught up to her. “I can help on the MTO. I know I’m not an expert, but maybe you could give me some pointers about the things I don’t know a lot about.”

“You’re doing great,” Stevie reassured him. “You don’t need my help.”

Joe shook his head. “Would you believe I don’t know how to pick hooves? I was standing there saying to myself that Peter Allman knows how to pick hooves and I don’t.”

“No problem!” Stevie said.

Joe broke into a grin. Joe was always handsome, but when he grinned, he was
really
handsome. “Then, you’ll show me?”

“Better,” Stevie said. “Next weekend you’re going to have the opportunity of sharing a tent with one of the world’s great riders. You remember Phil Marsten from the mock fox hunt?”

For some reason Joe didn’t look as pleased as she’d expected. “Yeah,” he said. “I remember him.”

“He can teach you all kinds of things,” Stevie went on eagerly. “He’s a great hoof picker.”

“I can hardly wait,” Joe commented drily. “Can’t you—”

“See you later, Joe,” Stevie interrupted, suddenly catching sight of Lisa and Carole leading their horses,
Comanche and Starlight, inside the stable. “Hey, wait up, you guys! I have some fabulous news.” She took off after her friends.

When Stevie reached Carole and Lisa, Carole gestured toward the spot where Stevie and Joe had been standing. “What was that?” she asked. “Has Handsome Joe finally gotten interested in a girl?”

Stevie laughed. “You’re way off, Carole. He wants me to help him learn to pick hooves.”

“Oh, right.” Carole giggled.

Then, as Stevie filled them in on her plan to invite Phil on the MTO, Carole and Lisa exchanged looks. It was pretty obvious that Joe had a crush on Stevie.

S
TEVIE WAITED UNTIL
all three of her brothers were out of sight. When her younger brother Michael had finally retreated to his bedroom to fuss with his guppies, and Alex, her twin, had gone over to his best friend Ron’s house, and Chad, her older brother, had left for TD’s, the local ice-cream parlor, with his current heartthrob, she sprang into action.

Stevie picked up the phone from the table where it stood in the hall and carried it into her room. Then, as a precaution that was frequently necessary in a household of brothers, she put a chair under the doorknob so no one could enter. Finally she dragged the phone into her closet and left the door open a crack
to give herself enough light to enter the number. She had something important to talk to Phil about, and she was taking absolutely no chances.

Phil and Stevie had been dating ever since they’d met last summer at riding camp. She got to see him only a few times a month, but whenever they got together, they had a great time. The two of them not only had their love of horses and riding in common, they each had a great sense of humor. In fact that was one of the things Stevie liked best about Phil.

At the Marstens’ house Phil’s father answered. “Hi, Stevie,” he said. “How’s my favorite fox?”

Stevie had been the fox in the mock hunt that had been held by Horse Wise and Phil’s Pony Club, and everyone still teased her about it. She had been an outstanding fox—perhaps the greatest human fox in history—but she was tired of being reminded of it. For months after the mock hunt Veronica and her friends had made jokes about Stevie’s bushy tail and pointy ears.

“Fine,” Stevie said briefly, wanting to give Mr. Marsten a gentle hint that she was tired of hearing about it.

Mr. Marsten seemed to get it. “I’ll go get Phil,” he replied hastily.

While she waited for Phil to come to the phone,
Stevie sat up straight, practicing her riding seat, something she did whenever she had an available moment. The secret was to be erect, but not stiff; firm, but flexible. Except, she thought, how can you be firm but flexible when you’re sitting on a pile of shoes?

“Hey, Stevie,” Phil said in his deep voice.

“Hi, Phil,” Stevie said. “How’s Teddy?” Teddy was Phil’s horse.

“Teddy’s excellent,” Phil said. “Never better. And I’m sure he’ll be touched to know you phoned to ask about him.”

“Tell him Topside says hello,” Stevie said.

“Sure,” Phil agreed. Then he added, “Does Topside have a message for Teddy? I mean, is there something going on?”

“Could be,” Stevie said.

“Teddy and I are all ears,” Phil said.

Stevie giggled because Teddy was a fine-looking horse, but he did have big ears. When Phil leaned over his neck and talked to him, Teddy’s ears stuck straight up like TV antennas.

“Topside has got this severe problem,” Stevie said. “His eyes are kind of dull and he picks at his food. He keeps looking out the window of his stall and sighing.”

“Sounds like love,” Phil said.

“Spring fever,” Stevie said. “A definite case of spring fever.”

“Teddy and I can relate to that,” Phil commented.

“Well, you know,” she went on. “There’s only one cure for spring fever.”

“What’s that?”

“A Mountain Trail Overnight. One of the boys can’t come, and Max said we’d have to cancel the whole thing unless he could get another experienced rider. I told him you should come. He thought that was a great idea.”

“Hmmmm,” Phil said. “Sounds good to me, but …” His voice trailed off.

Stevie closed her eyes. Oh no, she thought. Phil can’t come. What am I going to tell Max? What will everyone in Horse Wise say when they find out he can’t go?

“Teddy was thinking more along the lines of the Bahamas,” Phil went on in a very serious tone.

Relief washed over Stevie. Phil had just been joking! “Promise to take him there next year,” Stevie joked. “This year he’s coming on the MTO.”

“I think I can convince him,” Phil replied.

“There actually is a problem,” Stevie said.

“I knew it.” Phil sighed.

“You’ll have to make a giant sacrifice.”

“Be polite to Veronica?”

“Almost that bad,” Stevie said. “It’s a long weekend, so there won’t be school on Monday, but you’ll have to miss school on Tuesday.”

“For you I’d miss school on Tuesday,” Phil said. “And Wednesday. Possibly even Thursday.”

“Gee, thanks, Phil. That’s so generous,” she replied.

“So who else is coming?” Phil asked. He knew most of the Horse Wise members from the mock hunt.

“The members of The Saddle Club, of course, including you,” Stevie quickly added. Although she, Lisa, and Carole were the main members of the club, there were a few out-of-town members as well, and Phil was one of them.

“Right,” he replied.

“Veronica diAngelo, of course,” Stevie went on.

“Ugh. Who else?”

“Polly Giacomin.”

“So many good-looking girls,” Phil commented. “What about Betsy Cavanaugh?”

Alarm bells went off in Stevie’s head. Betsy Cavanaugh had come to Carole’s birthday party not long ago with James Spencer, but she had also been eyeing every available boy. If The Saddle Club was horse crazy, Betsy Cavanaugh was boy crazy. Actually, Betsy Cavanaugh wasn’t boy crazy, she was boy
insane
. In
fact she ran through boyfriends the way other people ran through breath mints. She had broken the heart of Stevie’s brother Chad
twice
. Stevie hoped Betsy wouldn’t flirt with Phil on the trip.

“Betsy’s coming,” Stevie said finally.

“It should be a good overnight,” Phil said. “What about the guys?”

“Liam and Peter, who are kids. And Red O’Malley, the head stable hand, plus Max Regnery and Joe Novick.”

“Joe Novick,” Phil said. “Help me. What does he look like?”

“Curly dark-brown hair, brown eyes, not bad looking. You met him on the mock fox hunt.”

“Not bad looking, huh?” said Phil. “Do I sense some competition here?”

“No way,” Stevie replied. “He’s a nice guy, but I’m not interested. Anyway, you’ll have the chance to get to know him since you’ll be sharing a tent with him.”

“Fantastic,” Phil said, sounding distinctly unenthusiastic to Stevie. “Any other surprises?”

“Max says we should wear our oldest riding clothes because the weather may be rough.”

“No problem,” Phil said. “Old riding clothes are all I have.” The Marstens prided themselves on wearing well-aged riding gear. It was a family thing.