“Okay, it’s all up to you, Adam,” Mrs. Reg said. “If you’re happy with what you get, then everyone else is stuck with what they have.”
“Oh, the pressure,” Adam said, pretending to be nervous. He unwrapped the last gift—another paperback book. He looked at the cover with raised eyebrows. “Gee, I don’t know if I should keep this or not,” he said. “It looks pretty exciting.” He held it up so everyone could see. It was a romance novel called Summer Passions.
Lorraine gasped when she saw it. “I didn’t even know that was out in paperback yet!” she exclaimed excitedly.
Adam grinned. “In that case, let’s trade, Lorraine,” he said.
Lorraine tossed him the gift certificate and eagerly grabbed the book. “Cool!” she said. As she opened it, a bookmark fell out. “Hey, look, a bonus prize—a horse bookmark.”
“No fair,” Adam said. “I may have to trade back.”
Lorraine clutched the book as if afraid he really meant it. “No way,” she said. “I’ve been dying to read this. It’s from you, isn’t it, Polly?”
Her friend shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “I didn’t pick you.”
“Are you finished, Adam?” Max asked.
“No way,” Adam said. “I’ve got some more trading to do. This TD’s gift certificate is tempting, but there’s someone here who deserves it more than I do. So hand over that cap, Stevie.” Once that trade was made, he turned to Merrill. “Your turn as the local big mouth is over, Merrill,” he said. “But the good news is, you’re now an official honorary member of Horse Wise.”
Merrill accepted the cap happily and put it on. “Thanks,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Max replied, giving away who had bought the cap.
“I’m still not done,” Adam said. “I’ll trade this bullhorn for that paperweight, Max. Of course, it has nothing to do with your being a big mouth—I just want the paperweight.”
“Nice save, Adam,” Max said drily.
“I didn’t know you liked soccer, Adam,” Lorraine said.
Adam grinned as he took the paperweight from Max. “I don’t,” he said. “But my dad is a huge soccer freak, and his birthday is next week. This will make a nicer gift than anything I could afford. Thanks, whoever bought it.”
“I did,” Veronica said. She shot Adam a dirty look—she obviously hadn’t wanted him to get it.
Then Veronica smiled sweetly at Joe. “It’s just too bad that someone who really likes soccer didn’t end up with it,” she cooed.
Stevie gasped. Suddenly everything became clear to her. Veronica hadn’t bought a gift for whoever she had chosen—she had bought one for Joe instead, trying to impress him! Stevie could hardly believe Veronica was willing to ruin the game for everyone by not playing by the rules. Luckily, everything had turned out okay despite her.
“Is that it, Adam?” Max asked. When the boy nodded, Max stood and spoke into his bullhorn. “Then I declare this Yankee Swap officially over. Everyone is stuck with what they got!”
Fortunately, everyone except Veronica was very happy with the gift they ended up with. In fact, as people began to own up to who had bought what for whom, it turned out that everyone had ended up with the exact gift they were meant to. Lorraine had gotten the computer game for Polly, whose family had just bought a new computer. Joe had bought Lorraine the romance book—they were in the same study hall at school, and he had noticed her reading an earlier book by the same author instead of doing her schoolwork. Adam had bought Lisa the film and frame. Meg had chosen the training book for Carole. Polly had picked out the colorful socks for Betsy. And of course, Red had bought the TD’s gift certificate for Stevie. “I figured that was easier than making you come and beg me for money every time,” he said.
Stevie grinned. “That’s for sure,” she said. “And all this goes to show that our Yankee Swap worked out perfectly. Everyone got the gift that he or she deserved.” She smiled sweetly at Veronica, who ignored her.
Instead, Veronica turned to Joe. “Is it time to start dancing yet?” she asked him pointedly.
Max overheard. “It sure is,” he said. “Let’s head back to the ring. Red has volunteered to play deejay for the evening, so if he’s ready to go we can get this party started.”
Stevie hurried back to the indoor ring with the others. She watched in annoyance as Veronica smiled flirtatiously at Joe. She had to do something. “Hey, Red,” she called out. “I think we need a special first song. The birthday boy and the birthday girl should have the first dance together, don’t you think?”
Red nodded and put on a slow song. Merrill started blushing furiously, but Joe stepped forward eagerly. “That’s a great idea, Stevie,” he said, offering Merrill his arm. “May I have this dance, Merrill?”
She nodded shyly, and they started dancing together. After a few seconds she stopped looking embarrassed and started looking happy.
When Stevie saw the look on Veronica’s face as she watched the dancing couple, she was happy, too. And when Phil and A.J. arrived and Phil immediately hurried over to ask Stevie to dance, she knew things couldn’t possibly get much better.
THE FOLLOWING MONDAY afternoon, Stevie, Carole, and Lisa were seated in their favorite booth at TD’s. They had decided that using up Stevie’s gift certificate from Red should be a Saddle Club project. They had just placed their orders with the waitress, who, as usual, had been horrified at Stevie’s request: pistachio ice cream with black cherry and caramel toppings.
“I’m going to miss Merrill,” Stevie commented, leaning back in her seat. “She was fun.”
“Me too,” Lisa said, taking a sip of water. “I have to admit I’m a little surprised you liked her so much, though, Stevie. She’s so quiet and shy, and you’re so … well … not.”
“Oh, if I had a little more time I could cure her of that shyness thing entirely,” Stevie said with a wave of her hand.
“Really?” Carole said skeptically. “I think we’re lucky we helped cure her of her fears about jumping before she actually took Barq back with her to Maine.”
“Speaking of Maine, do you think she was serious when she invited us to come visit her?” Stevie asked.
“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 sho
w 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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BONNIE BRYANT 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.
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