Yankee Swap (15 page)

“I’m sure she was,” Lisa said.

“Good,” Stevie replied. “Because I’m already working on a foolproof plan to convince our parents to let us go …”

Carole ignored her. She turned to Lisa. “I hope Merrill keeps jumping,” she said. “I think she could be really good with more practice.”

“I think she’ll keep it up. And I think she’s grateful for what you did for her while she was here, even if she didn’t quite know how to say that directly,” Lisa said.

Carole nodded. “I could tell.” She was silent for a moment. “I really would have missed Barq.”

“We all would have,” Lisa replied, and Stevie nodded.

“But he was there for her when he needed to be,” Carole went on. “Barq, I mean. He helped her gain a little bit of confidence in herself.”

“And then Belle and Prancer and Starlight and Teddy and Crystal helped her realize it,” Lisa said.

“That’s right,” Carole said. “I guess it’s just one more great thing horses can do for a person.”

“That’s for sure,” Stevie said. “Although I don’t know if the horses can take all the credit for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Lisa asked.

Stevie grinned. “The fantastic time Merrill had at the party
on Saturday night. I think Joe Novick was at least partly responsible for that.”

The others couldn’t help but agree. Joe and Merrill had spent a lot of time dancing and talking together.

“Still, Merrill spent some time at the party with the other boys, too,” Lisa reminded Stevie. “She’s coming out of her shell a little—she never used to have anything to say to boys at all. But I don’t think you can count her as one of the boy-crazy girls yet.”

“Thank goodness,” Stevie said fervently. “It just goes to show that she has enough sense to know there are more important things in life than boys and romance. Some
mature
people don’t always seem to realize that.”

Her friends knew she was referring to girls like Betsy and Veronica. Stevie had told them her theory about why Veronica had bought the expensive soccer paperweight, and they had agreed that it was one of the sneakier things Veronica had ever done in her long career as a sneak.

“Speaking of mature people,” Stevie said, “what did you think of my great prank at the Yankee Swap?”

“Well …,” Carole paused and glanced over at Lisa. “To tell you the truth, I thought it was a little mean—”

“What?” Stevie interrupted, beginning to look annoyed.

But Carole hadn’t finished, “Yes, it was a little mean—but much,
much
more creative than pouring sugar all over someone’s stuff. In other words, it was pretty clever and definitely well-deserved, though maybe a little dangerous.”

Stevie looked mollified. “Thanks. But what do you mean by
dangerous? I’m not afraid of the likes of Veronica diAngelo. She doesn’t have a creative bone in her body.”

“Revenge doesn’t have to be creative to be unpleasant if you’re on the receiving end,” Lisa pointed out. “And you’ll be receiving some from Veronica, unless I’m badly mistaken.”

Stevie shrugged. “That doesn’t scare me a bit,” she declared. “In fact, I look forward to it. A quiet, predictable life without any surprises might be fine for someone shy and retiring like Merrill. But as for me, I like some excitement once in a while to spice things up.”

Just then the waitress approached with their sundaes. She set them down without a word and left quickly.

Stevie picked up her spoon and took a big bite. “Mmm …,” she began, looking contented. But suddenly a horrified look crossed her face, and she started choking.

“Stevie!” Lisa cried. “Are you okay?”

“Mmm!”
Stevie held a hand to her face, which was rapidly turning very red. She swallowed hard, then grabbed her glass of water and gulped it down without pausing. Then she grabbed Carole’s glass and drank her water, too.

When every drop was gone, Stevie wiped her mouth with her hand and managed to gasp out, “H-hot sauce!”

“Huh?” Lisa asked.

But before Stevie could reply, a very smug-looking Veronica diAngelo stepped out from behind a nearby booth, one hand hidden behind her back. “Hello, Carole, Lisa,” she said. “Hi there, Stevie. What’s wrong? You look a little hot under the collar.”

Stevie glared at her. “You!” she sputtered. “You did this, didn’t you?”

Veronica pretended not to know what she was talking about for a moment. Then she broke into a smirk and pulled her hand out from behind her back. She was holding a bottle of triple-alarm hot sauce.

“Oh! I think there’s been a terrible mistake,” she said sweetly, glancing down at Stevie’s dish. “It looks like you got
my
sundae by mistake—the super-spicy special.” She gave an exaggerated shrug. “I guess the waitress must have
swapped
our orders.”

She walked away without another word. At the look on Stevie’s face, Carole and Lisa—faithful friends though they were—couldn’t help themselves. They burst into laughter.

B
ONNIE
B
RYANT
is the author of more than a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Super Editions, the Pony Tails series, and Pine Hollow, which follows the Saddle Club girls into their teens. She has also written novels and movie novelizations 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 still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.