Riding Lesson (7 page)

It was finally dawning on Stevie that she and Priscilla just didn’t have much in common aside from attending the same school. And the worst part was that Priscilla didn’t like Stevie’s two best friends in the world. As much as she would have liked a new friend at Fenton Hall, Stevie realized that Priscilla might not be the person for the job.

When math class finally ended, Stevie hurried to biology class. She saved a seat for Priscilla, who arrived a moment later.

“Stevie, I just had a great idea,” Priscilla said breathlessly as she sat down. “Since we can’t get together today, why don’t you come to my house for a sleepover on Saturday night? You could bring those yearbooks, and we could rent some movies or something.”

Stevie stared at her. “Priscilla, you know I have that sleepover with my friends on Saturday,” she said. “I mean, come on, it’s all I’ve been talking about for days!”

Priscilla shrugged. “Well, I know, but you don’t really have to do that, do you?” she said. “I thought you’d be excited to have another offer. I mean, who really wants to sleep in a stinky old barn anyway?”

“That’s it,” Stevie exclaimed. Now she knew for sure that she was right about Priscilla. She took a deep breath, trying to think of the best way to say what she had to say. “Priscilla, this isn’t working out.”

“What isn’t?”

“Our being friends and hanging out together,” Stevie said. “I’m sorry. It’s not that you’re not a nice person. I just don’t think we have much in common. I mean, I like horses, you like clothes, I like my riding friends, you don’t—I just don’t think it’s going to work. I’m really sorry.”

Stevie was afraid Priscilla would be hurt, even though she’d tried to be as tactful as possible. But instead the other girl just shrugged. “Well, all right, if that’s the way you feel,” she said. “Thanks for showing me around.” Without another word Priscilla turned to the student sitting behind her, Coreen Maloney. “Hi there, I’m Priscilla Tyler. Aren’t we in the same art class? It’s Coreen, right?”

As she listened to Priscilla chatting with Coreen, Stevie shook her head in disbelief. People were certainly full of surprises. She would have thought Priscilla would be crushed to hear that her new best friend didn’t want to hang out with her anymore—especially after she’d been telling Stevie all week how much she liked her. But from the sound of things, Coreen had already been auditioned and accepted as Stevie’s replacement.

It’s just as well, Stevie decided as the teacher called the class to order. Now she could really concentrate on Marie and the sleepover. To begin with, she vowed to spend this class period figuring out the best way to ask Max for his permission to use the hayloft.

“B
INGO
!” S
TEVIE CRIED
triumphantly as she emerged from Max’s office that afternoon.

“He okayed it?” Marie asked.

“He sure did,” Stevie replied, throwing an arm around Marie’s shoulders and grinning at her.

“Was it hard to convince him?” Lisa asked.

“Not at all, thanks to my superb negotiating skills,” Stevie said. “Well, actually, that was only part of it. He was in a good mood because he and Deborah have finally zeroed in on the perfect china pattern.
And
he said he’d been looking for something special to do for our guest of honor while her mom is away.” She winked at Marie.

“I guess that makes it just about unanimous, then, doesn’t it?” Carole muttered. She’d been stewing all afternoon
long about the juice-box incident, and she wasn’t feeling particularly friendly toward Marie right then.

Stevie turned to stare at Carole in surprise, her arm dropping from Marie’s shoulder. Carole’s comment had sounded almost nasty. Stevie caught Lisa’s eye and shrugged. Lisa shrugged back. Neither of them knew what was bugging their friend, but they figured they’d find out sooner or later.

“Come on, let’s hit the trail,” Lisa said. “I’ll help you find Chip’s tack if you want, Marie.” Max had suggested that Marie ride Chippewa, an even-tempered Appaloosa gelding, on the trail ride that day.

“Thanks,” Marie said gratefully. “I can never find what I’m looking for in that tack room. It’s a worse mess than my bedroom.”

Lisa and Stevie laughed, but Carole frowned, annoyed at Marie’s criticism. It was true that the Pine Hollow tack room
looked
like a disaster area, with bridles, saddles, and other equipment covering every square inch of space. But in reality it was all very organized, with a specific place for everything. You just had to learn the system. Carole opened her mouth to tell Marie so, but then she noticed the grin on the other girl’s face and realized she had been joking. Carole watched Marie and Lisa walk off toward the tack room, chattering and laughing together like old friends, and bit her lip. Was she really the only one who
found Marie’s sense of humor irritating? She shook her head and headed for Starlight’s stall.

A few minutes later all four girls’ horses were tacked up and ready to go. The girls mounted, brushed the good-luck horseshoe on the wall, and set off at a leisurely walk. Stevie was riding first on Topside, with Lisa behind her on Prancer, then Marie on Chip. Carole and Starlight brought up the rear.

“Don’t forget, you guys, I’m a little rusty,” Marie commented as they crossed a field toward the woods. “I don’t spend every waking moment on horseback like you do, so I might need a refresher lesson.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” Carole said. “From back here I’ll be able to see what you’re doing wrong. For instance, right now your heels should be down more, and your arms look a little stiff.”

Marie obediently adjusted her position. “Better?”

“A little, but now you’re leaning back too much, and your legs are too far forward. You look like you’re sitting in a chair.”

“Oops,” Marie said quietly. Again she adjusted her position in the saddle.

“Okay, that’s a little better,” Carole said crisply. “Now let’s work on the way you’re holding the reins. Don’t curl your wrists, and keep your thumbs pointing up and your elbows in. And stop twisting around to look at me! You’re
going to confuse your horse. You’ve got to keep your eyes looking in the direction you want to go.”

Stevie broke that particular rule for a second by twisting around to catch a glimpse of Marie’s face. Marie looked harried, and no wonder. Carole barely seemed to pause for breath as she continued to bark out instructions. Lisa looked as surprised as Stevie felt at Carole’s behavior. Carole never hesitated to give advice to anyone who asked for it and a lot of people who didn’t. But usually that advice was helpful and constructive. The advice she was giving Marie sounded more like plain old criticism, and that wasn’t like Carole at all.

A few minutes later the girls heard the sound of hoof-beats on the trail ahead of them. Carole paused in her barrage of advice as the four of them saw Simon Atherton riding toward them on Patch. Simon wasn’t Stevie’s favorite person at Pine Hollow, but at this moment she was glad to see him. She would have welcomed any interruption to Carole’s drill-sergeant routine.

“Hi, Simon,” she said. “What are you doing out here all by yourself?” One of Max’s strictest rules was that nobody was allowed to ride out on the trails alone. It was important always to have at least one other person nearby just in case something went wrong.

“Oh, gosh, hi, Stephanie,” Simon said, bringing Patch to a stop with some difficulty. “Hi, everyone. I didn’t start out alone. Veronica was riding Garnet out, so I offered to
go with her so she could go on the trails. But I think she forgot that I’m kind of new at riding, and she cantered so far ahead that I kind of lost her. I was just heading back. I hope she’s all right.”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Lisa said dryly. Veronica diAngelo was a spoiled rich girl who boarded her purebred Arabian mare at Pine Hollow. It didn’t surprise any of them that Veronica had planned to ride Garnet out alone despite Max’s rules. Veronica seemed to think that most rules were made for other people to follow and for her to break.

It surprised The Saddle Club even less that Veronica had apparently gone out of her way to lose Simon. Ever since Stevie had schemed to get Veronica and Simon to go out on a date, he had been following Veronica around like a lovesick puppy. No matter how mean she was to him, he never got the hint, and so he ended up driving her crazy. Stevie considered that something of a personal triumph. But she didn’t bother to gloat over that at the moment, because she knew that most of the trail they were on wasn’t safe at a canter. She also knew that Veronica would never bother to think about that, especially when she was trying to get away from Simon. Stevie just hoped that Garnet hadn’t injured herself.

“So who’s your new buddy?” Simon asked, looking at Marie.

Stevie quickly introduced them. “Marie is staying with
Carole for two weeks. To celebrate, this is her first trail ride.”

“Are you an experienced rider?” Simon asked Marie.

“Well, I used to be an intermediate one, but I’m a little out of practice,” Marie explained.

“Yes,” Lisa said. “Carole has been giving her some—er—pointers.”

“Gosh, that’s great,” Simon said. “Carole really knows her stuff. Well, I’d better get going.”

Marie glanced at Carole, then at Simon. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to ride back with you,” she said. “I’m kind of tired. And I think these guys might have more fun without me—I think I’m even rustier than I realized.”

“Sure, no problem,” said Simon cheerfully. “Let’s hit the old trail.”

“You don’t mind, do you, Carole?” Marie asked as she turned Chip out of the line.

Carole shrugged. “It’s fine with me. You don’t want to wear yourself out.”

“Right,” said Marie. “And this way I’ll be there to meet your father. He should be coming to pick us up pretty soon.” She urged Chip forward after Patch, who had started ambling off toward home without bothering to wait for a signal from Simon. “I’ll see you all in a while.”

As Simon and Marie disappeared from sight, Stevie remarked, “It’s unusual for your father to pick you up on a weekday, isn’t it, Carole?”

“Yeah, well, a lot of unusual things have been going on around here lately,” Carole snapped.

Lisa and Stevie traded glances. They had a feeling that a change of subject would do them all good.

“So, Stevie, did you ever convince your new friend Priscilla to try riding?” Lisa asked.

Stevie touched Topside lightly with her heel, and he obediently moved off down the trail. “Not exactly,” Stevie replied. “In fact, I’ve been meaning to tell you guys what happened.” She quickly related her conversations with Priscilla at lunch and in biology class. “I finally realized that she wanted me as a friend, all right—but only if she could have me all to herself. She didn’t even care that she was asking me to give up all kinds of things that are really important to me, like you guys, for instance. As soon as I realized that, I had to call it quits with her. Nothing is going to split up The Saddle Club, and that’s that.”

“And that’s just what you told her?” Lisa asked.

Stevie nodded. “More or less. She took it better than I expected and went in search of a new best friend. Problem solved.”

“I just wish my problem were that simple,” Carole said, biting her lip.

“What do you mean?” Lisa and Stevie asked in a single voice.

Carole just shrugged in reply.

Before her friends could press her further, they were distracted by Prancer. The high-strung Thoroughbred seemed suddenly to have decided she didn’t want to be on a trail ride after all. Without warning she skittered to one side, almost banging into a tree. A surprised Lisa barely managed to keep her seat. Prancer shook her head and pawed at the ground. Lisa was riding between Stevie and Carole for a reason, though—not only was she the least experienced rider of the three, but Prancer was the least experienced trail horse. Now, with Topside ahead of her on the narrow trail and Starlight behind, the skittish mare had no place to go. She came to a dead halt and snorted.

“Quick, tighten up on the reins before she tries anything else,” Carole said. “You want to make sure she knows you’re in charge and paying attention.”

Lisa nodded ruefully as she did as Carole said. “Apparently she could tell that I wasn’t paying much attention to her a second ago,” she admitted.

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Carole advised. “It happens to everybody once in a while. Just be extra careful for the rest of the ride so it doesn’t stick in her mind that she got away with anything.”

“I will,” Lisa said. “Thanks.”

They decided to head back to the stable. On the way Lisa concentrated on keeping her horse under control and making sure she knew who was in charge. Prancer behaved
so beautifully most of the time that it was easy to forget that all this was still fairly new to her. Lisa really hadn’t been paying close enough attention back there, and that wasn’t good. She knew that a horse was only as good as its rider, and so she vowed to try to do better from now on.

Stevie was concerned about Prancer, too, but she was even more concerned about someone else. She had a feeling she had just figured out what was bugging Carole, and she vowed to keep a close eye on her to see if she was right.