Changing Leads

by Bonnie Bryant

  Callie nodded understandingly. “I don’t blame you for being upset about that. I have to admit, I don’t get it myself. Scott isn’t usually weird like this. So I don’t know what to tell you.” She sighed, sounding so frustrated that Stevie glanced at her in surprise.

  “Are you okay?” Stevie asked, for the first time noting the worried crease in Callie’s forehead. “Now that I think about it, you aren’t looking so hot right now yourself.”

  Callie shrugged. “It’s nothing,” she replied. “Much.” For a moment that seemed to be all she had to say. Then she went on, speaking so quietly that Stevie had trouble hearing her over the noise of the students in the hallway. “I had a doctor’s appointment today during lunch. I asked Dr. Amandsen when he thought I could ditch these.” She gestured to her crutches.

  “What did he say?”

  Callie sighed and lowered her eyes. “He said it was too soon to be talking about that yet.” Her disappointment was audible.

  Stevie understood and searched her mind for a way to help. But there was no time. She knew the seventh-period bell would be ringing any second. “Listen,” she said. “We’ve both got to get to class. But why don’t we meet up afterward and head over to TD’s? It seems like we could both stand to drown our problems in ice cream.”

  Callie glanced over at her and cracked a smile. “You know, I think you may be right about that,” she said. “It’s a date.”

  “… and then this other time, I decided to go all out,” Stevie said, waving her spoon for emphasis. “I told the waitress to mix together all the toppings she had in a blender and dump them on top of the ice cream.” She leaned back in the booth and grinned. “Believe me, if looks could kill, I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now.”

  Callie laughed. It was amazing how much her mood had changed since the doctor’s appointment earlier that day. She and Stevie had met after school as planned and come straight to the little ice cream parlor. The place wasn’t crowded, so the two of them had snagged the best booth and ordered sundaes. Callie had wrinkled her nose at Stevie’s choice of sundae—butterscotch on banana ice cream—and ever since, Stevie had been entertaining her with tales of the much more outrageous ice cream combinations she had loved to order when she was younger. Apparently it had been quite a hobby of hers to go out of her way to disgust the waitress who had worked there back then, which, to Callie, sounded just exactly like something Stevie might do.

  It’s amazing how much of a difference it can make to just sit around and laugh instead of worrying about things, Callie told herself. Just a few hours earlier, Dr. Amandsen had told her it wasn’t realistic to think about losing her crutches any time before Thanksgiving, no matter how hard she worked. Callie had been ready to rush home, bury her head in her pillow, and give up. That wasn’t like her, she knew. Normally a challenge like that would have made her buckle down and work twice as hard to prove the doctor wrong. Hadn’t she done exactly that by making such fast progress in her therapeutic riding? But this time it’s different, she thought dejectedly. This time hard work may not be enough.…

  She let the thought drop. She would just have to figure out how to deal with this situation somehow.

  Stevie was still talking. “… and so the waitress refused to do it, and I was ready to make her call out the manager.” She grinned and shrugged. “But Lisa and Carole talked me out of it. They even offered to pay if I’d order a normal sundae and leave the waitress alone.”

  Callie chuckled. “I probably would have made the same offer,” she admitted. “Still, it sounds like you three have always had a lot of fun together.”

  “Yes, we have,” Stevie said. “The three of us used to spend absolutely all our time together. We must have had sleepovers at each other’s houses at least once a week, and we even spent a lot of our vacations together.” She slurped a bit of melted ice cream off her spoon. “So whenever Alex starts complaining about how Lisa spends more time with me than with him—which is so not true, by the way, since he totally hogs her attention—I just remind him it could be a lot worse.”

  Stevie chattered on about her past adventures with her friends. Callie continued to listen, sipping her water, eating her ice cream, and laughing in all the right places. But she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, as she often did when Stevie or Carole or Lisa started talking about all the fun times they’d had together in the past. It was hard not to feel like an outsider sometimes when they started reminiscing, no matter how careful they were to include her in the conversation.

  True, those feelings had decreased over the months as she had gotten more comfortable with Stevie and Carole. But Callie felt them welling up now, stronger than they’d been in a long time.

  I bet I know exactly why that is, Callie told herself ruefully, glancing down at the crutches leaning against her seat. But she veered away from that thought, unwilling to explore it further until she had to. Instead, she wished for the millionth time in her life that her father could be happy with an ordinary job like other fathers had. It would be so nice not to have to watch everything she said and did because her family was in the public eye, to be able to have close, caring, long-term friendships like the ones Stevie and Carole and Lisa had with each other without worrying so much about people’s motives …

  She bit back a sigh and did her best not to let her emotions show as she returned her attention to Stevie, who was in the middle of talking about some horse show or other that she and her friends had helped organize.

  It must be so wonderful to be normal, Callie thought wistfully.

  “I’m starting to feel paranoid,” Lisa told Alex as they strolled toward the shopping center. It was another hot September afternoon, and Lisa had just driven them over from the stable. “No matter how many times I ask Max what’s going on with Prancer, he just keeps telling me she’s ‘under observation.’ What on earth does that mean?”

  Alex reached for her hand and squeezed it. “You asked me that already. Six times, I think. And I still don’t know.”

  “Sorry.” Lisa shot him an apologetic smile. His tone was mild, but she knew he was probably genuinely sick of talking about this. Somehow, though, she just couldn’t seem to drop it. “I wish I knew what was going on,” she murmured, thinking back over the week. She had only had time to get over to Pine Hollow twice, but both times she had found that Prancer was off-limits and nobody would tell her why. It was really starting to scare her. What could be so terrible that Max wouldn’t even talk about it?

  Alex swung his arm, moving their joined hands back and forth between them as they walked. “I thought you talked to Carole about this.”

  “I did.” Lisa ran her free hand through her hair, lifting it off the nape of her neck to cool herself. “I talked to her a couple of days ago. She still claims everything’s fine.”

  Alex raised one eyebrow questioningly. “‘Claims’?” he repeated. “That makes it sound like you didn’t believe her.”

  “I did believe her at first.” Lisa sighed. “But after today …”

  Alex gave a slow, puzzled shrug. They had reached the sidewalk that ran the length of the storefronts, and he turned to face her. “I’m trying to be supportive here, Lisa,” he said. “But to be honest, I’m still not even sure what you’re worried about.”

  “I’m not sure, either.” Lisa stared at the ground. “I mean, Prancer doesn’t look sick.” She sighed and met Alex’s sympathetic eyes. “I know I’m probably just being silly.” Forcing a slight laugh, she added, “For all I know, Max could be doing this on purpose to get me to ride different horses, like you said. He does get kind of hyper about his riders getting lots of experience.”

  Alex reached out to brush a strand of hair off her cheek and smiled at her. “You probably shouldn’t worry about this too much. If there was anything important going on, Carole would have told you. She wouldn’t lie to you.”

  Three weeks ago Lisa would have automatically agreed with him about that. But today, she couldn�
��t keep a tiny sliver of doubt from wiggling its way into her mind. Best friends didn’t lie to each other. They didn’t keep secrets. Did they?

  Lisa sighed again as she and Alex continued toward TD’s. She tried to tell herself, as she had been doing for the past couple of weeks, that she was just getting worked up about nothing. But that was getting harder and harder for her to believe. It was true that Max could sometimes get so caught up in stable business, he forgot that people couldn’t read his mind. Come to think of it, the same could be said about Carole. But this time, Lisa couldn’t quite convince herself that that was all that was going on.

  And she didn’t like that thought at all, mostly because the possibilities were too terrifying. After all, Prancer wasn’t anywhere near old enough to be retiring. And Max surely wasn’t selling her—actually, that was least likely of all, since Judy Barker was part owner of the horse. And the last time Lisa had seen Judy, at the dry cleaner’s a couple of days after returning from California, Judy had asked after Prancer and commented on how well suited the mare and Pine Hollow were to each other. That didn’t seem like the comment of a woman who was thinking about selling her horse.

  Unless she’s selling her half of Prancer to Max, Lisa thought suddenly, her heart lifting. That idea hadn’t occurred to her before. But it made a lot of sense. Maybe Max was buying out Judy’s ownership of the mare. The lovely Thoroughbred had been a wonderful riding horse over the years since she had come to Pine Hollow—why shouldn’t Max decide that he wanted to own her outright? And why shouldn’t Judy agree to that? She wasn’t really getting much out of her half of the deal, and she knew Max would take good care of Prancer.…

  Lisa smiled as she and Alex walked along, feeling relieved. She was sure she had figured out the truth. It was so obvious that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. It explained why Max was being so secretive. It had nothing to do with Prancer’s health after all, as Lisa had feared. At least I hope not, a suspicious little voice inside her said. But she squashed that voice and held on to her new optimism.

  “After you,” Alex announced, pulling open the door of TD’s and holding it for Lisa.

  “Thanks.” Lisa stepped into the ice cream parlor, still caught up in her thoughts.

  But Alex was scanning the small room. “Hey, check it out,” he said. “There’s my dorky sister, gulping down ice cream as if her life depended on it.”

  “Stevie’s here?” Lisa smiled. But when she followed Alex’s gaze to the corner booth on the back wall, her heart sank. Stevie wasn’t alone, and she wasn’t with Carole or Phil. She was with Callie. The two of them were leaning forward over half-empty ice cream dishes, deep in conversation.

  Lisa’s first instinct was to leave before they spotted her. But Alex had already grabbed her arm and was dragging her forward.

  “Yo!” he called. “How’s it going, guys? Got room for two more?”

  Stevie looked up, smiled, and waved. “I don’t know,” she joked. “We definitely have room for Lisa. But as for you …”

  Alex rolled his eyes and shoved Stevie aside. Plopping onto the vinyl seat next to her, he leaned over and gave her a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, sister dear,” he said. “I love you, too.”

  Stevie wiped her face, pretending to be disgusted, but she was having trouble keeping a straight face. Meanwhile, Callie looked up at Lisa and smiled. “Have a seat,” she invited, moving her crutches and sliding over to make room beside her.

  Lisa smiled back and sat down. “Thanks.” She felt a little uncomfortable, though she was trying not to let it show. She hadn’t been prepared to run into Callie right then. And she didn’t like feeling unprepared.

  After flagging down a waiter, Alex settled back in his seat. “So what were you two gabbing about when we got here?” he asked Stevie and Callie.

  “How ugly you are,” Stevie replied promptly.

  Callie smiled. “She’s kidding, Alex,” she said. “Actually, we were just talking about Phil’s friend A.J.”

  “That’s right,” Stevie admitted, sounding much more serious. “Phil has been so upset he never seems to talk about anything else anymore. Callie was just helping me figure out how to handle that and make him feel better.”

  Callie shrugged. “I don’t know how much help I’ve really been,” she said modestly. “I just told Stevie she had to let Phil work through this. He’s complaining so much to her because he can’t talk it out with A.J. So all Stevie can really do to help him is be supportive and let him talk whenever he needs to.”

  Lisa was liking this conversation less and less. It had nothing to do with A.J. and his problems, whatever they might be, and everything to do with Callie. It wasn’t that Callie’s advice to Stevie wasn’t good. On the contrary, it sounded very much like what Lisa might have said herself—if she’d been asked.

  And that was what was really bothering her. Once upon a time she would have been asked—Stevie had always discussed these sorts of problems with her and Carole. Only her and Carole. Now she was sharing her life with Callie, too. And Callie seemed all too comfortable in the role of pragmatic, responsible friend—the same role Lisa had always filled—to the often impulsive and irresponsible Stevie. Lisa didn’t like the implications of that. She didn’t like them at all.

  She had to head off those kinds of thoughts before she gave herself away. The last thing she wanted to do was cause a scene. The waiter arrived at that moment with their orders, so Lisa had a few moments to collect herself.

  When the waiter had left, she turned to her seat-mate. “So, Callie,” she said brightly, remembering their discussion at the barbecue a couple of weeks earlier. “Have you heard any more about that friend of yours? You know, the one you said might be coming to visit?”

  “You mean Sheila?” Stevie asked, reaching over to snitch the cherry from the top of Alex’s sundae. She was kind of relieved that Lisa had changed the subject. She was tired of talking about Phil and A.J.

  “I guess so,” said Lisa. Callie licked her spoon and set it carefully back in the empty ice cream dish. “Yes, it looks like she’s coming in a week or so. I can’t wait.”

  “That’s nice. Were you two friends for a long time?” Lisa asked politely.

  Callie nodded. “I’ve known her forever.”

  “That’s great.” Lisa took another bite of ice cream. “You must be very excited.”

  “I am,” Callie agreed. “Definitely.”

  Stevie finishing chewing her stolen cherry and glanced around the table. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something a little off about this conversation.

  Alex was busy shoveling his sundae into his mouth and seemed a lot more interested in the chocolate ice cream and marshmallow sauce than in anything the girls were saying. Stevie turned her attention to Lisa and Callie.

  Neither of her friends looked comfortable. Callie was squeezed so far over in the booth that her shoulder was pressed against the wall, and Lisa, seeming just as eager to keep plenty of space between them, was perched at the very edge of the seat. They were talking to each other politely enough, but they never quite seemed to meet each other’s eyes.

  Stevie frowned. She realized that Lisa and Callie didn’t know each other all that well, since they went to different schools. Still, they had hit it off well enough at the beginning of the summer before Lisa had left for California. And they were both such good friends with her and Carole that it only made sense they’d like each other.…

  “What’s Sheila like?” Lisa asked.

  Callie shrugged and toyed with her napkin. “Oh, you know. She’s smart, she’s nice—you’ll probably meet her while she’s here. She rides, and she’s already made me promise to show her around Pine Hollow.”

  Stevie’s eyes narrowed as she listened. While she recognized that not everyone was as exuberant as she was, she still thought Callie didn’t sound as if she was looking forward to Sheila’s visit very much. In fact, she seemed rather reluctant to talk about it
.

  At that moment Alex looked up from his ice cream. “Gross,” he announced, poking around with his spoon. “I told them to hold the walnuts.”

  “I’ll take them,” Stevie offered. She held out her spoon. “I love walnuts.”

  Alex pushed her spoon away. Fishing several walnuts out of his sundae with his own spoon, he held it out across the table. “Here you go, Lisa. Sweets for my sweetie.”

  “Gag me.” Stevie rolled her eyes as Alex fed Lisa the walnuts.

  Alex wiggled his eyebrows at her in mock menace. “That can be arranged, sister dear.”

  “Mmm. That marshmallow is good.” Lisa licked her lips, then smiled at her boyfriend beseechingly. “How about another bite?”

  Alex scooped up a spoonful of marshmallow topping. “Anything for you.”

  Stevie rolled her eyes again. “I think this is my cue to leave,” she announced, shoving at Alex so that he’d let her out of the booth. “If I have to watch you two lovebirds feeding each other much longer, I may never eat again.” Stevie really was ready to leave. The mood at their table was weirding her out, and besides, she still hadn’t come any closer to figuring out what to do about Scott. Callie, though sympathetic, hadn’t been much help. And Alex and Lisa were even less likely to have anything useful to contribute, especially since they were clearly slipping fast into their most annoying, goofily romantic mood. She glanced at Callie. “Want a lift home?”

  “Hi, it’s me,” Stevie said into the phone a few minutes later. She had just arrived home after dropping Callie off. Nobody else was around, so Stevie was lying on the couch in the living room with the phone on her stomach. “What’s up?”

  “Hey, Stevie,” Phil replied from the other end of the line. “Not much. I just got in.”

  “Really?” Stevie glanced at her watch. It was almost dinnertime. “Did you go riding today?”

  “Not yet. I was just getting ready to go out and check on Teddy.” Phil’s family had a small stable on their property, where Phil kept his horse. “Actually, I was with your buddy Scott.”