She shook her head firmly. “No,” she said. Lisa had never cut a class in her life, and she wasn’t about to start now. “School’s no good anyway. Too many other people around.”
“And it’s not as if A.J. goes there every day anymore, anyway,” Alex added ruefully. “Phil told Stevie he skipped again today.”
“Well, there’s still one place he goes regularly, at least according to something Stevie said a few days ago,” Lisa said. “Cross County Stables.”
“Aha!” Alex’s eyes lit up. “You mean he’s still taking care of Crystal? I guess maybe there’s hope for him yet.”
Lisa nodded. When A.J. had first owned his sweet gray mare, he’d kept her in the small, two-stall stable in the Marstens’ backyard where Phil’s horse, Teddy, lived. But a year or two ago Phil’s younger sister had gotten her first pony, so now A.J. boarded Crystal at Cross County, the stable where both boys had learned to ride.
“Phil should be able to find out what time A.J. usually goes over there to exercise her,” she said logically. “Then I thought if we sort of ambushed him on his way out of the stable …”
“We could force him to talk to us,” Alex finished for her. “Or at least to stick around and listen to us. Physically, if necessary.”
Lisa gulped. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I doubt physical force will be necessary,” she said. “I mean, once he sees us there and realizes there’s no easy escape, he’s got to give up and hear us out. Right?”
“Probably,” Alex agreed. “But desperate times call for desperate measures, right? So we’ll be ready for anything.”
Lisa nodded reluctantly. As much as she hated the thought of resorting to physical force, she had to admit that her boyfriend was right about things being desperate. And if it came down to it, it wouldn’t be any problem at all for the guys to restrain A.J. long enough to make him listen to what they had to say. A.J. had always been slight, and he was still shorter than average—Phil could probably subdue him all on his own if necessary.
“We’ll be ready for anything,” she agreed softly.
The oven timer began chiming gently. “Garlic bread’s ready,” Alex announced, grabbing an oven mitt from its hook on the side of the refrigerator.
“Everything else is just about ready, too.” Lisa glanced at her watch and switched off the burner under the pasta pot. “I wonder what’s keeping Mom? Usually she can’t get away from her miserable job fast enough. She’s almost half an hour late. I hope her boss isn’t making her—”
The phone’s shrill ring interrupted her. Lisa hurried over and grabbed the receiver. “Hello?” she said.
“Lisa, honey,” her mother’s breathless voice came from the other end of the line. “It’s me. I just realized the time, and I thought I should call so you didn’t wait dinner for me.”
“What?” Lisa’s heart sank. If her mother’s slimy boss was forcing her to stay late to do more inventory or something, that would surely mean the end of her refreshing good mood. “Why?”
Mrs. Atwood laughed. “Don’t sound so heartbroken, sweetie,” she teased lightly. “I’m sure you can manage without me for one night. I’m just going to grab a bite to eat with a friend from work.”
Lisa was too surprised by that to answer for a moment. Since when does Mom have friends at work? she wondered. I thought everyone except her loser boss was some kind of student. Besides, even if someone her own age started, she’s not exactly a friend magnet these days.
“Okay, then,” her mother chirped. “I’ll see you later tonight, sweetie.”
“Bye, Mom.” Lisa hung up and turned to face Alex, shaking her head in amazement. “I hope you’re hungry. Mom’s suddenly turned into a social butterfly. She won’t be home for dinner.”
Alex raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Wow,” he said. “Call out the press.”
“I know.” Lisa walked over to turn down the stove burner. “I guess wonders never cease.”
SIX
“Hurry up,” Stevie commanded. “It’s six-oh-two.”
Alex shot her a disgruntled look as he pulled a sweater over his head. “I know, I know,” he said. “And a minute ago it was six-oh-one. I’m moving as fast as I can.”
Stevie glanced at her watch again, feeling anxious. It was Friday, and they were due over at Cross County Stables by six-thirty to put Lisa’s plan into action. Stevie wasn’t sure it would work, but at this point she was willing to try just about anything. And Phil had actually sounded kind of hopeful about the whole thing when he’d called to set the time. “Come on,” she said as her brother grabbed his sneakers out of the hall closet. “We’re going to have to practically break the sound barrier as it is. We don’t want to be late or A.J. could get away.”
“It’s bad enough I had to gulp down my dinner as fast as I could to be ready on time,” Alex complained, hopping on one foot as he pulled on his left sneaker. The Lakes’ dog, a big golden retriever named Bear, wandered out of the living room, yawned, and gazed curiously at Alex as he lost his balance and crashed into the wall. “Do you expect me to go barefoot, too?”
Stevie ignored him. She knew he was grumpy because he hadn’t had time for a third helping of mashed potatoes. Besides, her own stomach was feeling a little unsettled at the moment—she wasn’t sure whether it was nerves or the result of eating too fast. Among his other new antisocial habits, A.J. had taken to going over to his stable when most people, including his own family, were eating dinner so that he wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. That was fine with Stevie, even though it had meant bolting her own dinner. It meant there wouldn’t be any interruptions.
And if the guys have to knock him down a few times to knock some sense into him, there won’t be anyone to come rushing to his rescue, she thought grimly, leaning over to scratch Bear behind his furry butterscotch-colored ears. She knew that Lisa and Carole still felt a bit queasy at the idea that they might have to resort to physically restraining him to get A.J. to listen to them. But Stevie was well past that by now. She was ready for anything. She just wanted to resolve this—today.
That was one reason she’d made an extra effort to drum up more people for this confrontation than the last one—more friends from school, from Cross County, from Pine Hollow. Lisa and some of the others might think the purpose of the big crowd was to impress upon A.J. just how many people his behavior was affecting, and that was certainly part of it. But between themselves, Phil and Stevie were completely honest about the other benefit. The more people there were surrounding him, the easier it would be to intimidate him into listening to them.
“Anyway, I don’t know why you’re rushing me.” Alex was still complaining as he grabbed the car keys off the hall table. “Lisa isn’t even here yet, and neither is—”
The doorbell cut him off. “That’s probably them now,” Stevie announced, shoving Bear aside unceremoniously and grabbing the keys out of her brother’s hand before he could react. She had no intention of letting him drive today. If she had to sit in the passenger’s seat all the way to Cross County with nothing to do, she was liable to go crazy.
As Alex opened the door and met Lisa with a quick kiss, Stevie turned to grab her purse with her driver’s license inside. As she did, she saw her younger brother, Michael, wander into the hall.
“Are you guys still here?” Michael said, checking his watch and ignoring Bear, who had wandered over and leaned amiably against his legs. “I thought you were all rushing off for your big A.J. thing.”
“We’re leaving,” Stevie said shortly, noticing that Lisa had entered alone and shut the door behind her. That meant there was still one member of their party who hadn’t arrived yet. “Just as soon as the last one of A.J.’s real friends gets here.” She was feeling more than a little annoyed with Michael at the moment. She had hoped he would want to come along and be a part of things—he had known A.J. just as long as the rest of them, and the older boy had always been nice to him. But Michael had claimed to have other plans that evening. As if a thirteen-yea
r-old’s plans could be so important! Stevie thought irritably, turning away to greet Lisa.
“Are we ready to go?” Lisa asked, sounding slightly nervous.
“We will be,” Alex replied. “As soon as—Aha!” he interrupted himself as the doorbell rang again.
“Since when does he ring the doorbell?” Stevie muttered as she flung the door open. “It’s about time! We were waiting …”
Her voice trailed off as she saw who was standing there. It was a girl a few years younger than Stevie, petite and pixie-faced with long brown hair. Stevie vaguely recognized her as a neighbor who lived across the street from Lisa. What was her name again?
“Fawn,” she managed, digging up the name from some corner of her memory. “Fawn Montgomery. Hi. What are you doing here?”
The younger girl’s cheeks were pink. She glanced shyly at Stevie from beneath long lashes. “Um, hi,” she said hesitantly. “Um, is Michael—”
“Hi!” Michael said, shoving his way past Stevie, his jacket in hand. “Sorry about that. I thought they’d be gone by now.” He shot Stevie and Alex a dirty look. “Come on, let’s go.”
Stevie’s jaw dropped as she took in his red face and embarrassed expression. She exchanged looks of amazement with her twin. So Michael had a little girlfriend! That explained a lot about his extra-weird behavior for the past week or so.…
But Stevie didn’t have time to ponder that then. They were already late.
Lisa was staring toward the door as Michael slammed it behind him and Fawn. “Was that—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Stevie said impatiently, opening the door and glancing toward the street, ignoring Michael and Fawn, who were hurrying off down the sidewalk. “Looks like Michael’s joined the dating game.”
“I wonder if Mom and Dad know?” Alex commented, shoving Bear back inside as he and Lisa followed Stevie onto the front porch. Mr. and Mrs. Lake were out at a business dinner.
“Worry about it later,” Stevie said briskly. She had just spied another familiar figure climbing out of a battered old Volkswagen in front of the house. “Chad’s here. At last.”
“Chad’s coming?” Lisa looked surprised. “Doesn’t he have classes?”
Alex glanced up at her as he checked to make sure the door had locked behind them. “Not this late on Fridays,” he replied. “He thought he could catch a ride down from school in time to come with us.”
Stevie was already heading for the driveway as her older brother waved good-bye to the attractive girl behind the wheel and hurried toward the group. “Sorry I’m late,” Chad called, running a hand through his sandy brown hair, which Stevie noticed had grown a little long since he’d left at the end of the summer. “We blew a tire on the way down, and—”
“Forget it,” Stevie said, opening the door of the little blue car she and Alex shared. “Hop in. You can sit in the back since you were late.”
Chad grinned at her. “Good to see you too, sis,” he said as he managed to fold his lanky frame into the tiny backseat of the two-door car. “You know, I turned down a date with a hot fine arts major to come to this thing.”
Stevie didn’t bother to respond. Her older brother was legendary for switching girlfriends more often than most people changed their shirts.
She waved to Alex and Lisa, who were coming toward the car much too slowly for her taste, their hands intertwined. “Move it,” she said. “It’s already almost quarter after. We don’t want to miss him.”
Twenty minutes later, Stevie settled herself more comfortably on the grass behind the hedge that surrounded Cross County Stables’ small, hard-packed dirt parking lot. From where she was sitting, she could see the handlebars of A.J.’s familiar green ten-speed through a bare spot in the hedge.
“I’m glad we didn’t miss him,” she told Phil for about the fourth time, glancing around at the crowd of almost two dozen people who had turned out. “If Alex and Lisa had their way, we’d still be back at that stop sign outside of town.” She’d had to drive a little faster than she normally did to get there on time, and her passengers had seemed kind of frightened at moments—except for Chad, who had kept making jokes about the sound barrier and the speed of light from his spot in the backseat. As they had all climbed out of the car a couple of minutes earlier, Lisa had joked a bit shakily that she was never riding with Stevie again. In spite of their comments, Stevie knew that her friends were pleased to see her relaxed and confident behind the wheel—especially after the events of the summer. And after all, they were all there in one piece and on schedule, and that was what really mattered right then.
“I’m glad you guys are here.” The petite redhead sitting on Phil’s other side had just leaned over to address Stevie. “I’m so nervous I could die. I just hope this does some good.”
“Don’t worry, Julianna.” Stevie smiled at A.J.’s ex-girlfriend. “I’m sure it will. It’s got to.”
“I think one of the hardest things will be leaving PC,” Emily said thoughtfully, picking at a blade of grass.
Lisa pretended to be insulted. “PC?” she said, leaning back on her elbows as she waited with the others for A.J. to emerge from the stable. “Hey, what about the rest of us? Aren’t you going to miss us, too?”
“Sure,” Emily agreed with a grin. “But remember, PC can’t use e-mail.” She shrugged. “He tried, but it was no good. His hooves are just too big for the keys.”
Lisa laughed. “Well, e-mail or no e-mail, we’re all going to miss you like crazy.” She automatically glanced at Stevie and Carole as she said it. Stevie was sitting nearby with Phil and Julianna. Carole was leaning against a tree a few yards beyond them, talking to Ben.
“You’ll have to promise to send me pictures of Prancer’s foals after they’re born,” Emily told Lisa. “Do you know how to do that by e-mail?”
“I’ll figure it out,” Lisa assured her. She was dying to tell Emily the other part of the Prancer secret. But a promise was a promise. Telling Alex was one thing—that was sort of like telling another part of herself. But Carole would never forgive her if she told anyone else, even Emily. “You’ll have to figure it out, too—we’ll definitely want to see pictures of your new house and all your new Australian friends, and of course your new horse.”
“It’s going to be pretty scary at first,” Emily said thoughtfully. “Getting used to all that new stuff, I mean. But I think I’m mostly looking forward to it. Does that seem weird?”
Lisa shrugged. Maybe coming from some people it would have seemed kind of odd—most people weren’t that eager to start all over in a new place. But Emily had always been one of the bravest and most adventurous people Lisa knew. “Not really,” she said. “I think you’ll do great.” She sighed, thinking about how much she’d miss Emily’s familiar cheerful, high-spirited presence. “I just hope the rest of us can survive without you.” Suddenly she brightened. “Hey, I just had a great idea. Why don’t we throw you a big good-bye blowout party before you go?”
“Why don’t you?” Emily agreed quickly with a wide, surprised grin. “You’ll have to hurry, though. We’re shipping out the week before Halloween.”
That didn’t give them much time. Lisa was already wondering what she’d gotten herself into by suggesting a big bash. Still, Emily definitely deserved a party. And if everything worked the way it was supposed to today, maybe they’d have even more to celebrate.
“Don’t worry,” she told Emily. “I’ll talk to Stevie and Alex about it as soon as this A.J. thing is over. If anyone can plan a party to remember in record time, it’s the two of them.”
“… and so I told Max I thought Samson and I should enter Open Jumping as well as maybe some Intermediate and Junior classes,” Carole said eagerly. She glanced automatically toward the Cross County stable building. The whole group had been waiting for a good ten minutes, but there was still no sign of A.J., which meant that Carole had some more time to talk over her Colesford entries with Ben. She was still a little surprised that Ben had wanted to tag alon
g with her to this meeting—he hardly knew A.J.—but she wasn’t going to worry about it. It was his business if he wanted to spend his evening standing around in the grass beside an almost empty parking lot, not hers. Her thoughts returned to the horse show. “I mean, I know a lot of the riders there will have a lot more experience at these kinds of shows than I do, but I figure that with Samson’s talent we should be able to hold our own at least.”
“Hmmm,” Ben said.
Carole took that as an invitation to continue, so she did. “Even if we don’t win anything at this show—and you never know, we could surprise everyone, right?—it should give me a really good idea of Samson’s strengths and weaknesses in competition. That way I’ll have a better idea about what I should be working on in his training, and then the next show we enter—”
“Carole.” Ben’s voice held a slight edge as he interrupted her stream of words.
She stared at him in surprise. “What?” she asked, a bit irritated that he didn’t seem to be paying attention to her plans for Samson after all. Wasn’t he interested in hearing about Pine Hollow’s newest star? He certainly didn’t look very interested. Usually the one time he relaxed a little was when he was discussing Pine Hollow’s residents with her or Max. Now he seemed anything but relaxed. His brow was furrowed beneath the shock of dark hair that hung over his forehead, and he was standing so far back toward the hedge that he was in danger of falling into it.
“I just don’t think …” Ben paused and took a deep breath. His dark eyes danced here and there, seemingly looking everywhere except directly at her. “Be careful.”
“Of course I’ll be careful,” Carole said quickly. “Do you think I’ve never been in a horse show before? I really don’t think Open Jumping will be dangerous for Samson, not when he’s clearly—”
“No.” Ben’s voice was louder when he cut her off this time. “Don’t get so caught up with that horse.”
Carole wasn’t sure how to respond. What was Ben driving at? Was this about her work at the stable? Was he jealous that Max had assigned her an interesting task like training Samson?
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