“I think my favorite part was when I finally got that sticky, gooey egg onto my spoon,” Carole said, dangling her feet in the cool water.
“My favorite part was when I heard Veronica drop her egg,” Stevie said, standing up. “It sounded like—this!” She performed a perfect cannonball into the water.
“As much as I dislike wishing other people bad luck at horse shows,” Kate admitted, wiping splashes of water off her sunglasses with her towel, “I kind of liked that, too.” She glanced over at Carole and giggled.
“C’mon, you guys!” Stevie said, jumping up and down in the water. “This feels great—especially after getting all hot and sweaty from riding.” She swam over to where Carole was sitting and tried to pull her in.
“I think I’ll stay here,” Carole said, using her feet to splash Stevie. Kate grinned at them both.
Lisa slipped gracefully into the water. “I liked it when I got you all to say Star Wars in the charade race.”
“That was a neat race,” Carole said. “I’m really glad you thought it up,” she told Lisa.
“That wasn’t my idea,” Lisa said. “It was yours.”
“It was?” Carole asked in surprise. “I don’t remember that.”
“When you’ve been working so closely together that you can’t distinguish one person’s ideas from another’s,” Kate said, “then you know you’ve really got a team.”
“Speaking of teams, where’s Chad?” Carole asked. “He should be here celebrating with us. It’s his victory, too. Max gave him a blue ribbon today along with ours.”
“He should be here—and it would be fun to have him around—but it seems that he’s totally out of horseback riding,” Stevie said. She did a few handstands in the water, then climbed out of the pool and flopped on her towel.
“And he doesn’t even want pizza with us?” Lisa asked. She pulled herself out of the pool as well.
“Nope,” Stevie said. “See, while he was doing all those setups at the gymkhana, he spotted Betsy Cavanaugh’s older sister in the cheering section. I think he’s in love—again. Sorry, Lisa,” she added with a giggle. “I think he’s definitely off horses for good.”
“That’s good, but what’s he onto?” Carole asked with a grin.
“He doesn’t know it yet, but you all know Betsy’s sister April, right?”
Carole and Lisa nodded and then began giggling.
“What’s the joke?” Kate asked, turning over on her towel.
“The joke’s on Chad,” Carole explained. “April is really nice and very talented, but if Chad wants to take up what interests her the same way he took up horseback riding for Lisa, it’s going to be a big challenge to him.”
“How’s that?” Kate asked, still confused.
“April is a ballet dancer,” Stevie explained. “And Chad’s going to look silly in a leotard—especially with his arm in a sling!”
All four girls began laughing at the image of Chad trying to be a dancer!
Just then, Stevie’s brother Alex appeared at the poolside with the pizza, which had been delivered. They thanked him and quickly shooed him away. “It was some trick to figure out exactly which ingredients had to go on which side of this,” Carole said, admiring their work, and reaching for a piece from the non-green-pepper side.
“It’s a breeze when you’re good at teamwork,” Kate said, returning to a subject Carole wanted to talk about some more.
“Speaking of teamwork,” Carole said, leaning back on the towel and taking a bite of pizza. “Now that you’re riding again, we have a team we’d like you to join permanently. Would you like to join The Saddle Club?”
“Great idea!” said Lisa.
“Oh, yes!” Stevie agreed. “You’ll just love it when you ride more at Pine Hollow. And we have our meetings about once a week, but it’s all pretty informal. All you have to be is horse crazy, and we know you’re that.”
“There’s something I haven’t told you guys,” Kate said. “I’d love to join your club, but only if you’ve got out-of-town memberships.”
“Oh, no!” Carole said dejectedly.
“What?” Stevie and Lisa said together. “I thought you’d decided to stay here,” Lisa added.
“It’s a transfer, isn’t it?” Carole continued. “Dad was wondering why your father was being so funny about whether you would buy a house here. I guess that means that the Marine Corps has got some other bright ideas about where you all should live. And if I know the Corps, it’s not Hawaii!” Carole joked.
“No, it’s not. Actually, it’s not even the Corps. Dad came to Quantico because he wants to retire. He’s been talking to the brass about it. Two months ago, he and Mom made a down payment on a dude ranch out west. They both like horses and thought it would be perfect for me—until I ruined it by deciding to stop riding!”
Suddenly, everything that had happened at her first meeting with the Devines at Quantico a few weeks before became clear to Carole. She understood why the Devines had been so evasive about their plans. And she and her dad had thought it was because it was top secret stuff!
“But you’ve solved the problem now, haven’t you?” Carole asked. “You’ve rediscovered what’s fun about riding.”
“I didn’t solve the problem,” Kate said. “You did—all three of you. That shows the power of good friends.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Carole said, finishing a mouthful of pizza. “Personally, I don’t think it’s friend power, I think it’s horse power.”
“Could be!” Kate agreed. Lisa and Stevie laughed at Carole’s joke.
“You know, I’ve always wanted to go to a dude ranch for a visit,” Carole said. “I know it’s very different from the kind of riding we do at Pine Hollow, but horses are horses and I bet it would be great. Will you write to us and tell us all about it?”
“I’ll do better than that,” Kate said. “I’ll invite you all out to be our guests after it opens.”
“Now that’s horse power!” Carole declared.
“Hmm,” Stevie said. “Maybe we could plan a gymkhana for the Devines’ ranch. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“Only if we can have Kate on our team!” Lisa declared.
And they all agreed that would be perfect.
About the Author
Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including the Saddle Club series, the Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tales series.
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