“Wow,” Phil said when she finished. “What do you think Veronica’s—”
At that moment the little bell over the door tinkled as someone came in, and a gasp of surprise went up from the diners facing the door. A second later, everyone was turning and craning their necks to see who had come in.
The Saddle Club turned, too. Lisa gasped. “Tessa!” she exclaimed.
Tessa was standing just inside the door, looking upset as she scanned the familiar faces in the restaurant. She was also looking very posh, as she would have described it. She was still wearing the fancy outfit she had put on to go to the meeting. It was no wonder people were staring—Tessa looked very out of place in the casual atmosphere of the pizza restaurant.
Tessa soon spotted her friends and scurried toward their table, dropping into the empty seat between Carole and Lisa. Her face was red. “You won’t believe this one,” she muttered, glancing around cautiously.
Lisa looked around, too. She saw that many of the diners had already lost interest and returned to their meals. But not the other Pine Hollow students. Most of them were still shooting curious or disbelieving glances at Tessa and whispering to their friends.
Lisa gulped. This wasn’t good. Tessa had almost convinced everyone that she was a nice, normal girl like anyone else. But now here she was, looking just as snooty and regal as could be.
“What happened?” Carole demanded. “Where are your other clothes?”
Before Tessa could answer, the bell over the door tinkled again and Veronica strolled in. She came toward The Saddle Club’s table.
“There you are, Tessa,” she said casually. “You rushed out of the car so fast I couldn’t keep up.”
“What do you want, Veronica?” Stevie demanded, glaring at her.
Veronica shrugged. “Oh, I just wanted to apologize to Tessa again,” she said smoothly. She turned to Tessa with a fake smile. “I’m so sorry about the little accident with your other clothes. You really shouldn’t carry things around in paper bags like that—they’re just not waterproof at all.” She shrugged. “But I told the servants to fish everything out of the pool and have it dry cleaned. So no harm done, right?” She grinned and left before the others could say anything.
Carole watched with a frown as Veronica sat down with Betsy and her friends. “I think I’m starting to figure out what’s going on,” she muttered.
“Me too,” Stevie said. “And I don’t like it.” Suddenly remembering the boys, she quickly introduced them to Tessa.
Tessa politely said hello, then sighed. “This is horrible,” she said. “Now the entire state of Virginia will think Veronica was right—I’m just a big snob who’s looking down her nose at everyone.”
“There wasn’t any judges’ meeting, was there?” Lisa asked.
Tessa shook her head. “Mrs. diAngelo wasn’t even home. Veronica set this whole thing up to humiliate me by having me arrive at Papa’s dressed like opening night at the opera.” She sighed again. “I must admit, she’s a better actor than I would have thought. The whole ride over there in the car, I would have sworn she was upset about having me come to her house.”
“She’s getting sneakier and sneakier,” Phil commented. “I bet she made sure all these kids from Pine Hollow would be here, too.”
“You can count on that.” Stevie looked angry. “She took care of all the details. She even goaded Tessa into dressing up more than she would have normally.”
“As soon as my regular clothes ‘fell’ into the pool—” Tessa began.
“How did Veronica manage that, anyway?” Carole interrupted.
“She insisted on using the phone by the pool to summon the chauffeur for me,” Tessa said. “When we were out by the pool, I set the bag down for a second and she ‘accidentally’ kicked it into the water.”
“You should have gone back to Pine Hollow,” Stevie said. “You could have borrowed some of the extra clothes from our cubbies.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Tessa admitted sadly, blinking hard. “Besides, I didn’t realize all these people from Pine Hollow would be here. I thought I would just look stupid in front of Phil and A.J. and a bunch of strangers.”
Lisa could tell that Tessa was really upset. “It’s okay,” she said, trying to cheer her up. “Being seen in Stevie’s ratty old jeans wouldn’t have been any better for your reputation than this, believe me.”
Just then a waitress approached their table. “Are you ready to order?” she asked, her pad and pencil at the ready.
Lisa looked over at Tessa. “Do you know what you want?” she asked. “You’re the guest of honor, so you can pick the toppings.”
Tessa smiled weakly, then rested her head in her hands. “That’s okay, you guys go ahead and decide,” she said. “I’m not very hungry.”
Lisa could tell that even Tessa’s natural high spirits were having trouble overcoming this problem. The worst part was, she didn’t look angry, as she had after Veronica’s other obnoxious pranks and nasty comments. She just looked upset. Lisa could understand that—she was sure that Tessa really hated the thought of everyone thinking she was snobby and full of herself.
But what could they do to cheer her up?
“STEVIE! PHONE FOR YOU,” Stevie’s brother Chad shouted later that night. “I think it’s Belle. She wants to talk to you about some manure.”
“Very funny,” Stevie muttered, hurrying into the kitchen and snatching the phone from her brother. “Hello?” she said into the receiver.
“Hi, it’s me,” Lisa said on the other end of the line. She was talking so quietly that Stevie could hardly hear her.
“Speak up,” Stevie said. “How’s Tessa?”
“That’s why I’m whispering,” Lisa replied. “She’s in the other room with my mom, and I don’t want them to hear me.” A noisy sigh came through the phone. “She’s still pretty depressed.”
Stevie bit her lip and played with the hem of her nightshirt. She had been thinking and thinking about how they could get back at Veronica and cheer up Tessa, but she hadn’t come up with a thing.
“I’m really getting kind of worried,” Lisa went on. “I’m afraid Tessa might decide to cut her visit short because of this.”
Stevie gasped. “Are you serious?” Tessa was supposed to stay through the July Fourth weekend. It would be horrible if Veronica’s stupid prank made her go back to England before that.
“Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating,” Lisa admitted. “But she sure seems a lot less enthusiastic about riding at Pine Hollow now. She thinks everyone there except us hates her.”
“Thanks to you-know-who,” Stevie muttered. “We’ve got to think of a plan!”
“But what can we do?” Lisa asked, sounding hopeless. “If we so much as look cross-eyed at Veronica, she’ll go running to Max. And we can kiss our horses good-bye for the rest of Tessa’s visit—at least.”
Stevie knew she was right, but she didn’t like it. “Well, let’s keep thinking,” she said stubbornly. “Maybe something brilliant will come to us.”
“Okay,” Lisa said. “By the way, Dad wants to get an early start, so we’ll be picking you up around eight-thirty, all right?”
“Oh.” Stevie had almost forgotten about the trip to Washington, D.C. For a second she wished they didn’t have to go. But once she thought about it, the timing couldn’t have been better. Maybe getting away from Willow Creek and Pine Hollow for the day would help Tessa’s cheerful personality bounce back. “Okay,” she told Lisa. “I’ll be ready.”
“Great,” Lisa said. “I’d better call Carole.” She said good-bye and hung up.
Stevie returned the phone to its cradle and wandered out of the kitchen, thinking about their problem. Veronica had succeeded in her goal—she was making Tessa completely miserable. How could the rest of The Saddle Club stop her before she totally ruined Tessa’s trip?
Stevie sighed as she plodded up the stairs. Normally there would be so many things they could do. They could fill Veronica�
��s Pine Hollow cubby with peanut butter. They could sneak into Danny’s stall at night and dye him purple or neon pink. They could replace Veronica’s expensive riding boots with a pair of flip-flops.
But all of those ideas were impossible now. Lisa was right—it wouldn’t take much to make Max carry out his threat to suspend their riding privileges.
Still, Stevie and the others had to do something to help Tessa. They just had to. After all, wasn’t that the whole point of The Saddle Club?
Stevie took a deep breath. She had reached a decision. They couldn’t just stand by any longer. There was no telling how much worse Veronica’s pranks could get. It was time to put a stop to them. And if that meant facing the consequences with Max, then they would just have to live with them.
Stevie felt a little better. She knew she wouldn’t be feeling too great when she was banned from riding Belle for weeks and weeks, but she decided to worry about that later. She had some plotting and scheming to do.
She was trying to figure out exactly how much peanut butter it would take to fill an entire cubby when she wandered past the open door to her brother Michael’s room. Loud hoots of laughter coming from inside the room caught her attention.
“What’s going on?” she demanded, pausing in the doorway.
Her three brothers looked up at her. Chad and Alex were laughing hysterically. Michael was frowning and looking annoyed.
“Oh, hi, Stevie,” Alex choked out. He pointed at Michael and started laughing again. “Remember those?”
Stevie glanced at her younger brother and started to grin as she realized what her other brothers were laughing at. Michael was wearing his weirdest pajamas, which had been a Christmas gift from an eccentric older relative. They were made of bright magenta cotton, which had faded—but not enough!—to a pale pink, and decorated all over with embroidered bunnies and lambs. Stevie knew that Michael had hated the pajamas on sight and had tried to hide or destroy them many times. But their parents had always found them and made him wear them again.
Michael’s face was bright red. “Shut up!” he shouted at his laughing siblings. “I had to wear these. All my other pajamas are in the laundry, and Mom made me.” He glared at Stevie. “Besides,” he added, “that stupid shirt of yours is even worse.”
Chad stopped laughing and looked at Stevie’s favorite oversized horse T-shirt. “You know, Michael, I think you’re right,” he said. “Who else but Stevie would keep wearing something until it fell apart into individual molecules just because it happens to have a picture of some stupid horse on it?” Soon all three boys were pointing and laughing at Stevie.
Stevie just rolled her eyes and continued down the hall. She knew her nightshirt had seen better days, but she still liked it. “Boys!” she said in disgust, hurrying into her room. She slammed the door as she heard the sounds of laughter moving out into the hall behind her. With a snort, she thought back to all the times her brothers had crashed Saddle Club sleepovers to make fun of what she and her friends wore to bed. “What’s so funny about pajamas, anyway?” she muttered.
Suddenly her eyes widened. She started to grin, ignoring the sounds of her brothers pounding on her door and her father shouting for quiet.
She hurried toward the phone beside her bed. She had to call Carole and Lisa right away. She had just come up with the perfect plan! She didn’t have all the details worked out yet, but her mind was clicking along in high gear.
Stevie grinned as she dialed Lisa’s number. This would really put Veronica in her place.
But that wasn’t even the best part. If everything worked out as Stevie thought it could, Max need never be the wiser!
“I LOVED THE Smithsonian!” Tessa declared on Saturday morning as The Saddle Club walked into the stable for their Horse Wise meeting. “I’m still thinking about everything we saw yesterday. Where else could you see dinosaur bones, famous spacecraft, lovely paintings, the Hope Diamond, and live insects all in one place?”
“Does that mean you were more impressed by holding that tarantula at the Insect Zoo than by our tour of the White House?” Carole teased. She was happy that Tessa’s mood had improved so much since Thursday night. She was sure that their fun-filled day in Washington had had something to do with that. But she was equally certain that Stevie’s new plan had done its part as well. The four girls had spent most of their sleepover the night before making plans.
There was one aspect of the plot that still worried Carole, though. “Do you really think we can convince Max to go along with this?” she asked as she and her friends headed for the locker room. “I mean, we’re not exactly on his good side these days.”
Tessa tossed her head. “He’s not mad at me, is he?” she reminded them.
Soon the girls had saddled their horses and were gathered in the outdoor ring with the rest of the class. Max perched on the fence and addressed the group.
“As you can probably guess,” he began, “we’ll be spending most of today’s meeting practicing for next week’s point-to-point at the country club. I know most of you are entered in the junior hurdle race, and I also know that this race is going to be a little different than anything you’ve attempted before. So I want to make sure you’re as ready as possible.”
“Did you hear that?” Stevie whispered to Carole excitedly. “He’s practically playing right into our hands!”
Carole nodded. She was just as excited about that as Stevie. But she was also excited at the thought of competing in the point-to-point. She gave Starlight a pat and then returned her attention to Max.
“Almost all of you have experience jumping in the show ring,” he said. “But a race like this is different. It won’t just be you and your horse performing out there all alone. You’ll be competing directly against lots of other riders. It’s probably a lot closer to the fox hunt we held here a while ago than to anything else we’ve done in Horse Wise.”
Tessa raised her hand. “That’s very true, Max,” she said. “After all, steeplechasing began as a way for hunters to show off their horses.”
“She’s buttering him up,” Stevie whispered gleefully.
Carole nodded. Max was smiling at Tessa and agreeing with what she had said. Then he went on to give a brief history of the sport of steeplechasing, including a lot of the information Tessa had already shared with her friends.
“Steeplechasing isn’t nearly as popular here in the U.S. as it is in Great Britain,” Max continued. “But its popularity is growing. Several major racetracks hold occasional steeplechases as part of their schedule. American steeplechases are two to two and a half miles long and usually have eleven or twelve jumps.”
“Wow,” Carole whispered to her friends. “Two and a half miles? That’s a lot longer than a regular horse race.”
Max went on. “But steeplechases held at racetracks are only one kind of jumping race,” he said. “There are a couple of other types. Can anyone guess what one of those is?”
“Point-to-point!” called out several students at once.
Normally Max didn’t like his students yelling out answers without raising their hands, but this time he smiled. “Right,” he said. “A point-to-point takes place cross-country over natural obstacles. In an old-fashioned style point-to-point, competitors choose their own path from start to finish—point to point—jumping whatever’s in their way.”
Tessa raised her hand. “That sounds just like that very first race between those two hunters back in Ireland,” she said.
“Right,” Max agreed. “In fact, even today a point-to-point is thought of as a race for hunters, especially in England. But these days it’s more usual for a course to be laid out beforehand with special fences set up. That’s what the country club has planned for next Saturday.” He smiled. “Although technically, I suppose their program could also come under the third category of jump racing—a hunt race meeting. That’s an informal day of half a dozen races or so. It might include flat races as well as jumping ones, over timber or brush obstacles. A
nd sometimes these meetings include restricted races, such as those for young riders only.” He smiled. “For example, the junior hurdle race that most of you will be riding in next weekend. The Maryland Hunt Cup is probably the most famous example of a hunt meeting in America.”
Tessa raised her hand again. Carole noticed several other members of Horse Wise giving the British girl disgruntled looks. She guessed that Tessa had Veronica to thank for that. Still, she was pretty sure she knew what Tessa was going to say next—and that the other students were going to like it.
“Yes, Tessa?” Max nodded for her to speak.
“I just have one tidbit to add to your history of steeplechasing, if you don’t mind,” she said. When Max nodded again, she went on. “I told some people about it last week. It was a notorious race known as the Midnight Steeplechase.”
Several students nodded as they remembered what Tessa had told them the previous Saturday afternoon. One or two also giggled as they recalled that the racers on that long-ago evening had worn nightshirts over their normal clothing.
But Tessa didn’t mention that aspect of the event. “The race took place among British cavalry officers stationed at Ipswich,” she explained instead. “It was held cross-country after dinner one evening.”
“That sounds like it was fun,” Max said with a smile. “All right, then—”
Stevie couldn’t hold back any longer. She had to jump in to make sure their plan worked. “Hey, Max!” she called, leaning forward in her saddle and waving her hand in the air.
Max frowned slightly. “Yes, Stevie?” he said.
“Wouldn’t it be fun to have something like that here?” she said brightly. “Maybe we could do it tonight!”
Max laughed. “Sure, Stevie,” he replied sarcastically. “Now, as I was saying—”
“Oh, but Max!” Tessa interrupted. “I think it’s a marvelous idea to hold our own midnight steeplechase. And it would be terrific practice for next week!”
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