Yankee Swap (2 page)

Immediately hands shot up all around the ring.

Max smiled. “Great. You’ll all be working hard, but you should be able to manage to have some fun, too.”

“That’s for sure,” added Mrs. Reg. “Trust Max to leave out the best part. On the last day of the clinic, there will be a big party and dance here at Pine Hollow for all of the participants. You kids have all been working hard lately, and you’ll be working even harder next week. We thought you deserved a celebration.”

“Cool!” exclaimed Lorraine Olsen, one of Betsy’s friends. “A dance sounds like fun!” She immediately began discussing the prospect with Betsy and Meg Durham.

“Another chance for those girls to act like idiots around the boys,” Stevie commented sourly, watching them.

“Never mind them, Stevie,” Carole said. “Aren’t you excited about the jumping clinic? It will be a great chance to learn. You and Belle will have a chance to concentrate all your energy on jumping. It’s really perfect timing for you, since you’ve been talking about doing more jumping with her.” Belle was Stevie’s horse. Stevie hadn’t owned her for very long, so they were still learning a lot together. But Belle was a talented horse, and Stevie was a talented rider, and Carole was right. Max’s jumping clinic couldn’t have come at a better time for them.

“It’s perfect timing for someone else, too,” Lisa pointed out. “Merrill. Remember? I told you she’s just started jumping.
What an opportunity! She’ll have a chance to learn from the best—Max.”

Just then Joe Novick leaned over and joined their conversation. “I’ll tell you what’s good timing,” he said with a grin. “That party on Saturday. It just happens to fall on my birthday.”

“That’s great,” Stevie exclaimed. “Hey, Max, guess what? Joe’s birthday is the day of the party!”

Max raised one eyebrow. “Really? Well, then, we’ll have to think of something special to help Joe celebrate.”

Joe waved one hand modestly. “Really, just a new car would be enough,” he said.

Carole laughed. Noticing that Lisa wasn’t laughing, she turned and saw that her friend had a funny look on her face. “What is it, Lisa?”

“I just remembered,” Lisa said, a smile spreading over her face. “That same Saturday is Merrill’s birthday, too! I had totally forgotten until Joe spoke up.”

“Wow,” Carole said. “Then the clinic and party will be like an extraspecial birthday treat for her—on top of visiting you, that is.”

“That’s right,” Lisa said. “Being enrolled in Max’s jumping clinic is the best birthday present any beginning jumper could have.”

Just then Mrs. Reg, who had disappeared, returned with a bag.

“All right, everyone,” Max said. “You all know how important it is to learn to bandage properly. Bandages protect your horse’s delicate legs in all sorts of situations, including traveling
in a trailer or van. Bandaging is a pretty basic skill, but one that always bears more practice. Today I’ll be showing you a few tricks you can test out on your own legs. Then in a few minutes we’ll try them out on the horses. Stevie, go ahead and pass out a bandage to each person.”

Stevie nodded and dug into the bag. Pulling out a handful of neatly rolled and pinned bandages, she handed them out to Lorraine, Betsy, Adam, Meg, and Polly Giacomin.

“Hey, you forgot me, Stevie,” said Veronica testily. She was sitting between Meg and Polly.

“Oh, sorry, Veronica,” Stevie replied sweetly. She peered into the bag. “I think there’s a very special bandage in here just for you, though.” She reached in, pulled out a bandage, and handed it to Veronica.

Veronica stared down at the object in her hand. It looked just like the rest of the bandages except for one thing: Someone had written “Gucci” all over it.

As soon as the other students saw what Stevie had done, they burst out laughing. Veronica loved to brag about the expensive clothes she wore. She was a real snob when it came to designer labels, and everyone at Pine Hollow knew it. For her part, Stevie just stood back and grinned proudly.

Veronica stared at the bandage for a moment. Then she looked up at Stevie, with eyes narrowed. “I suppose this is your idea of a joke,” she said coldly.

“As a matter of fact, it is,” Stevie said, still grinning.

Veronica tossed her head. “Well, I think it’s about time you grew up a little, Stevie Lake,” she said. “These silly pranks might have been amusing when we were all children, but you
can’t keep acting like a five-year-old forever.” With that, she tossed the Gucci bandage back into the bag Stevie was holding.

Stevie’s grin faded. Without another word, she continued passing out the bandages.

“S
HE
HAS
SOME
NERVE
,” Stevie fumed to Carole and Lisa later. All three girls were busy wrapping and rewrapping the bandages as Max had showed them. “Who does she think she is, calling me a child in front of the whole class?”

“Don’t take it so hard, Stevie,” Lisa advised. “We all know Veronica is humor impaired.”

“Right,” Carole agreed. “That’s why it’s so much fun to play tricks on her, remember?”

“I guess so. But it still burns me up that she thinks she’s so darned mature,” Stevie said. “And Betsy Cavanaugh, too, for that matter. Just because she never thinks about anything but boys and dating and stuff doesn’t make her any more mature than anybody else. I mean, I have a boyfriend too, for goodness’ sake!” Stevie had been dating Phil Marsten, who lived
in a town a few miles from Willow Creek, ever since they had met at summer riding camp.

Carole patted Stevie’s arm. “We know.”

Max sent a glance in their direction. “More wrapping and less talking, people,” he said sternly.

The Saddle Club quieted down and concentrated on their bandages for the rest of the lesson.

“A
NYBODY
FOR
A
Saddle Club meeting at TD’s?” asked Lisa, as the girls got ready to leave Pine Hollow later that day. TD’s, also known as Tastee Delight, was an ice cream parlor at the local shopping center.

“Definitely,” Stevie said. She dug into her pockets. “Oops, I guess I’m a little short of cash right now.” She gave her friends a hopeful look.

“Sorry, Stevie,” Carole said. “I’d lend you some money, but I barely have enough for myself today.”

“Me too,” Lisa said. “I spent most of my allowance on new film for my camera.”

“Not to worry,” Stevie said, glancing around. “Time for Plan B.” She spotted Red O’Malley, Pine Hollow’s stable hand, entering the locker room. “Make that Plan R.”

She smiled at Red as he approached them. “Hello there, Red,” she said. “How’s it going?”

“Fine, Stevie,” Red replied. “How are you?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, not too great,” Stevie said sadly. “I just found out I have a very rare disease. It’s a digestive thing.”

“Really,” Red commented drily. “How did you find out? Did Belle give you the diagnosis?”

“Of course not,” Stevie replied disdainfully. “Don’t be silly. Anyway, the problem is that I have to go on a very specific diet. I have to eat certain foods at certain times of the day or I’ll waste away—”

“Let me guess,” Red interrupted with a twinkle in his eyes. “Right now you’re scheduled for ice cream, and you haven’t got a cent.”

Stevie gave a pathetic sigh. “You’re so sensitive, Red. How did you know?”

“I guess I must have missed my calling to be a doctor,” he said, digging into his pocket and pulling out a few dollars. “It’s a good thing I didn’t become a banker, though. This is the third time I’ve loaned you money this month, and I haven’t seen a cent in return.”

“Thanks a million, Red,” Stevie said, taking the money from him. “I’ll pay you back soon, really.”

“Right,” Red said, looking a little skeptical. “As soon as the story of your new ice-cream disease is made into a movie of the week, right?”

M
OMENTS
LATER
THE
girls slid into their favorite booth at TD’s. The waitress came over to the table immediately. “Okay, let’s get this over with,” she said by way of greeting.

Stevie blinked up at the woman innocently. She knew very well that the reason for the waitress’s comment was that Stevie always ordered outrageous ice cream concoctions, but she wasn’t about to admit that. “I’m still making up my
mind,” she said sweetly. “Carole and Lisa, why don’t you two go first?”

After Carole and Lisa had ordered, the waitress turned back to Stevie. “No more stalling,” she said.

“Well, I’m in the mood for something a little different today,” Stevie said. “So I think I’ll have a scoop of mocha-hazelnut ice cream.”

“That’s it?” the waitress asked in disbelief.

“No, you interrupted me,” Stevie said. “I’ll also have a scoop of lime sherbet, with caramel topping and mini marshmallows.” She leaned back, satisfied.

The waitress wrote it all down without another word. Then she spun on her heel and stalked away.

“Now,” Stevie said to her friends, “it’s time to talk about Merrill’s visit. What fun things will we do while she’s here?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Lisa said. “I really want her to have a good time, especially since she’ll be here for her birthday.”

“How did you and Merrill meet, anyway?” Carole asked Lisa curiously. “I don’t think you’ve ever told us.”

“We met in a public speaking class our mothers made us take,” Lisa explained. “My mother thought it would be a useful skill for me to learn.”

“What a surprise,” Stevie said with a laugh. Stevie and Carole knew that Lisa’s mother liked to make her take all sorts of classes and lessons, from piano to tennis to ballet. She thought it would help turn Lisa into a proper young lady. It wasn’t one of Lisa’s favorite things about her mother, but at
least one good thing had come of it: It had been Mrs. Atwood’s idea for Lisa to take riding lessons.

“Anyway,” Lisa continued, as the waitress appeared with their sundaes, “Merrill’s mother made her take the course, too. Merrill’s always been really quiet and shy, and her mother thought it would help her get over all that.” She picked up her spoon and dug into her hot fudge sundae.

“Did it?” Carole asked.

Lisa shrugged. “Not really. For the last class, we each had to give a speech in front of our classmates and everybody’s parents, and she was just terrified at the thought of getting up and talking in front of all those people. She worried about it more and more as the time to give the speeches got closer. Soon she couldn’t think about anything else. She was even having trouble sleeping and eating because she was so nervous.”

“Wow,” Stevie said, trying to imagine that. She got nervous herself on occasion, but she never thought twice about giving a speech in class—unless she hadn’t prepared for it, of course, which had been known to happen. In any case, she certainly couldn’t imagine being so worried about speaking in front of people that she couldn’t eat.

“What happened?” Carole asked. “Did she give the speech?”

Lisa nodded. “She begged her parents to let her drop out of the class, but they wouldn’t let her. The night of the speeches, I found her in the bathroom. She was crying and shaking like a leaf. I knew I had to do something to help her.” She shrugged. “I started off by reminding her of a trick our teacher
told us: She could imagine that everyone in the audience was sitting there in their underwear.”

Stevie grinned. “I’ve heard that one,” she said.

“She didn’t seem very convinced that that would work,” Lisa continued. “So I said she could try picking out just a couple of people in the audience to focus on, so it would feel more like she was talking to one or two people rather than speaking in front of a crowd.”

“That’s a good idea,” Carole said. “Did it work?”

“Well, not exactly,” Lisa said. “She didn’t seem very confident about that trick, either. So I figured it was time to get creative. I told her she should combine the two methods. She should go up there thinking that she could only look back and forth from me to our teacher, because everybody else was wearing pink polka-dot underwear. That did it. She actually started to smile. I just kept talking, describing all the weird and crazy underwear that everyone was wearing, and soon she was even laughing a little. By that time it was her turn to speak, so I got a seat in the front, and she gave her speech.”

“How did it go?” Stevie asked.

“Okay,” Lisa said. “She was still nervous, but she got through it. And I saw her smile when she looked around. We’ve been good friends ever since, even after her family moved to Maine.”

Carole took a sip of her root-beer float. “I can’t wait to meet her,” she said. “I wonder if she’s gotten any less timid since she started riding. Sometimes just being around horses can bring out the best in people.”

“Like us, you mean?” Stevie queried with a smile.

“Exactly!” Carole replied, smiling back. “But seriously, look at what riding has done for all of us. It’s made Lisa more independent; you more responsible, Stevie—”

“And you more organized?” Stevie added teasingly. Carole was definitely not organized—except when it came to horses.

Carole shrugged and laughed. “You got it.”

Lisa looked thoughtful. “You know, you may be on to something, Carole. Horses just may be the key for Merrill, too. If she’s a good rider, she’ll be more self-confident.”