Hoof Beat (5 page)

Lisa headed through the stable and across to Samson’s paddock.

Trudy stood next to the fence, outside the paddock. She watched Carole silently.

“Isn’t he cute?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah,” Trudy said. “Nice pony.”

“He’s actually not a pony,” Lisa said. “A pony is a
small
horse, not a young horse. Samson is a foal or a colt. When he grows up, he’ll be a horse.” Lisa liked explaining horse facts to other people. It didn’t seem like it was so long ago that she didn’t know anything—when she would have made a mistake like that. She was proud of all she’d learned. It was going to be fun to have somebody new to teach about horses.

“Looks like a pony to me,” Trudy said.

Lisa decided to hold off on the lessons for a bit. It was just possible that Trudy wasn’t as eager a student as Lisa had been.

Carole finished putting the halter and lead rope on Delilah. She handed the lead to Lisa, who looped it around the cleat on the outside of the ring. Lisa knew that the cleat was on the outside for the horses’ safety, and she was all ready to explain it to Trudy, but Trudy didn’t seem very interested. Lisa just did the small chore and returned to Trudy’s side.

Once again, Carole patted Delilah’s neck to show Samson that they were friends. She held the colt’s halter and lead in her other hand behind her back. Carole was aware that Samson was watching her alertly. As before, she approached him calmly, expecting him to stay by his mother’s side where she could put the halter on him.

It didn’t go that way. As soon as she rounded Delilah’s rear, Samson took off. That was odd. He didn’t seem frightened of her, he just seemed to want to run. Since she’d rarely seen him run before, except when his mother was also running, she was surprised. She stood still next to Delilah. Samson returned, taking shelter on Delilah’s other side.

Carole peered around Delilah’s rear. Samson peered around Delilah’s rear. Carole spotted Samson. Samson spotted Carole and hid again quickly. Carole smiled to herself. It was just as if he were playing peekaboo. She squatted down to look at the colt from under his mother’s belly. Samson lowered his head and looked through Delilah’s legs at Carole. As soon as he could see her, he withdrew. Carole laughed again. He
was
playing peekaboo.

It was fun, but it wasn’t training.

Carole stood up and walked calmly around Delilah’s rear. She paused for just a second, but it was enough. Samson took off like a shot. He circled the paddock and then returned to his mother’s other side. Carole tried again. So did Samson.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked. His answer was to run away again.

It didn’t seem as if he was frightened. He didn’t run in fear. Instead, it was more as if he were playing a game—just the way he’d played peekaboo, only this time, it was tag and she was It.

When Samson went to circle the paddock yet another time, Carole decided to show him she wasn’t playing the game. She left Delilah’s side and walked over to Trudy and Lisa.

“What’s going on with him?” Carole asked.

“I wonder if you could teach him to fetch,” Trudy said. “I got my dog to do it very easily. That kind of game seems to come naturally to a lot of animals.”

Carole ignored the suggestion. The purpose was not to teach Samson games, but to teach him to wear a halter.

“Was he doing this yesterday?” Carole asked Lisa.

“Oh, yes,” Lisa said. “Stevie had a great time with him.”

“Did she get the halter on him?” Carole asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa answered. “I couldn’t stay very long. But I know she spent a lot of time with him, so she must have.” Lisa glanced at her watch. “Oops, I’ve got to get going now. See you!”

Carole noticed that there was something secretive about Lisa, and she seemed to be doing a lot of disappearing lately. Normally, Carole would have been very
curious. Today, however, she was much more interested in what was going on with Samson.

“Okay, see you,” she said. She returned her attention to Samson. “Come on, boy. It’s time for you to learn some manners.”

If Samson thought that the proper way to respond to somebody who was walking toward him was to run, then she’d just have to teach him to walk toward somebody who was standing still. He had to learn to come to a call.

She stood next to Delilah and whistled. Samson’s ears perked up. He looked at her, interested. She whistled again. She continued that until, finally, the colt walked over to her. As soon as he was within an arm’s length of her, she reached out to pat him—his reward. It was the signal he’d been waiting for, so he bolted, playing tag again.

Trudy laughed. Carole did not.

“It’s so
funny
!” Trudy said.

“Not from where I’m standing,” Carole said. She tried again. The same thing happened several times until, finally, the horse realized that Carole wasn’t playing the same game he was. He stood still long enough for her to pat him, but it was nowhere near long enough for her to put the halter on him.

“It’s as if we’ve never done this before,” she said in total frustration. “Somehow, he’s forgotten everything I taught him just two days ago. Poor Stevie must have
had a terrible time yesterday. Did she say anything to you?”

“Not at all,” Trudy said. “She just said she had a lot of fun.”

“Well, this isn’t fun. He must not have been doing this!”

Carole held out the halter for Samson to examine. He looked at it very tentatively, curiously. She remained still, not wanting to distract the excitable colt. He stepped toward her extended hand.

“I don’t believe that girl!” Stevie huffed, storming out of the stable area. “Veronica diAngelo is just impossible. Impossible. She wouldn’t give me the time of day, much less lend me money. I must have been crazy to ask her!”

Samson bolted.

Carole sighed. Nothing was going right today. Just when there seemed to be a chance that Samson might learn something, she was interrupted. There was no point in losing her temper at Stevie, though. That was just the way she was.

“What’s the problem?” Carole asked resignedly.

“All I did was ask Veronica a simple question—”

“Nothing about Veronica is ever simple,” Carole reminded her. “So what did you ask?”

“I’ve just got to get some money,” Stevie said. “So I thought maybe she could lend me some. You wouldn’t be able to lend me a few dollars, would you?”

“Stevie, you know I’m saving up every penny for my dad’s birthday.”

Carole could have sworn that Stevie blushed. “Oh, yeah, right,” Stevie said. “Well, I’m not all that desperate, so forget I even mentioned it, will you?”

Stevie grabbed Trudy’s arm and pulled her back toward the stable.

Carole reflected on her day so far and quickly concluded that
everybody
was acting strangely. Lisa was into a disappearing act; if Stevie was desperate enough to try to borrow money from Veronica, she was in trouble; Samson wasn’t doing any of the things she’d worked so hard to train him to do the other day. And Trudy? Carole suspected that Trudy wasn’t any more strange that day than she usually was, but that was strange enough!

It was time to quit for the day. Carole climbed up over the fence, took off Delilah’s halter and lead rope, and returned the tack to the tack room.

Some days, nothing went right.

L
ISA COULDN
’
T HELP
grinning. She opened the copy of
The Willow Creek Gazette
and read the words “Hoof Beat by Lisa Atwood.”

It was like a dream come true. The article had come out to just six hundred words and Mr. Teller had seemed happy about that. Most of the article just listed the classes Max offered for young riders. Mr. Teller had said she had to include that even though it didn’t really seem like news. The last part
was
news.

Lisa sighed happily. She was glad both that she had news to report and that she’d done it in such a good way. She’d told what had happened, but even more important, she’d given somebody the opportunity to correct the wrong that had been done. Maybe the thief thought she could get away with it. Or maybe, just maybe, the thief was beginning to feel bad, and with the encouragement from her article would have second thoughts about taking somebody else’s property and return it.

Carefully, Lisa folded the newspaper and put it in her backpack to take to the stable. Most people in town did read the paper, and it was probable that they would have noticed
The Gazette
’s newest feature, but just in case, she wanted to have it with her.

It seemed to Lisa that the fifteen-minute walk to Pine Hollow had never gone faster. The whole way there, she thought about how pleased Stevie was going to be with what she’d done—how she’d asked the thief to return the money. And she also thought about how relieved Carole would be to have the story out in the
open so that she had a real shot at getting her money back. Most of all, she thought about how jealous absolutely everybody was going to be. She, Lisa Atwood, had her own column in
The Gazette
.

She was still floating on air when she entered the locker area. The whole place was full of her classmates. They were all talking to one another in little groups. In one corner, Polly Giacomin was showing some friends a new pair of sandals. In another, Betsy Cavanaugh was talking furiously with two other girls. Anna McWhirter was talking with Lorraine Olson. Lisa was thrilled. Almost certainly, everybody was talking about her.

The first person who spotted her was Stevie. She and Trudy had been standing near the doorway, talking intensely.

“Did you see?” Lisa asked proudly, pulling the paper out of her backpack.

She was expecting Stevie to shriek with joy. Stevie shrieked all right, but it wasn’t with joy.

“How could you do that to me!” she shrieked.

“What do you mean?”

“Writing about losing Carole’s money—she’s furious at me now! I’d already borrowed six dollars to give to her. I was going to get the rest in time, but you blew it. She may never speak to me again!”

Lisa was genuinely surprised to learn that Stevie hadn’t even told Carole about it yet. Carole was her
best friend. How could Lisa have known Stevie would keep something like that from Carole?

“But you’d
have
to tell her eventually,” Lisa said. “I just saved you the trouble.”

“Maybe I
would
have had to tell her eventually,” Stevie said, “but I should have done it, not you.” She spun on her heel and returned to the bench next to her cubby.

That sounded exactly right to Lisa. Stevie
should
have done it. Stevie was angry at her for doing something she should have done in the first place! It was just like Stevie to lose her temper without thinking over what she was saying, Lisa thought. She’d get over it. In the meantime, she wasn’t going to let Stevie’s little temper tantrum interfere with her pleasure over her first publication.

She ignored Stevie and found an empty cubby next to where Anna McWhirter was sitting. “Did you see?” Lisa asked, brandishing
The Gazette
.

“I saw,” Anna said coldly. Lisa suspected she was jealous. She’d get over that in time. Jealousy would eventually turn to admiration, she was sure.

“Do you think it’ll make the thief return the wallet?” Lisa asked.

“It wasn’t me, so you can just forget about that!” Anna said. She gave her boot a final tug, stood up, and walked away.

That surprised Lisa. She hadn’t expected that kind
of reaction at all. Then she remembered that Anna’s hat had been stolen, too. Lisa decided that Anna was jealous all right. She was jealous that Lisa had mentioned the theft of the wallet, but not of Anna’s hat. Well, she could do something about that in the next article she wrote, but it would be a week until that one came out.

Lisa busied herself getting ready for class, but her mind was on her next article. She didn’t notice when Veronica diAngelo came and stood next to her.

“I suppose you brought a search warrant,” Veronica said. “You can look all you want in my cubby for Stevie’s wallet. You won’t find it there.”

Veronica spun around and walked away too fast for Lisa to respond—but she wouldn’t have been able to say anything anyway. Lisa was more than a little surprised by Veronica’s reaction. Veronica was always convinced that everything she did was better than anything anybody else ever did. She was the last person at the stable that Lisa would have expected to be jealous. It made Lisa feel good that Veronica was so obviously jealous of
her
. Maybe, like Anna, she was a little jealous of Carole, too, just because Lisa hadn’t said anything about the theft of Veronica’s riding gloves.