Horse Guest

by Bonnie Bryant

  Stevie turned Belle and cantered back toward the cooler full of snowballs.

  “Forget it, Stevie,” Lisa called, riding over to meet her. “You’ll never catch up now.”

  “I know,” Stevie said as she dismounted and tossed Belle’s reins to Carole, who had followed Lisa over. Then she started pulling all the leftover snowballs out of the cooler. “I’m not trying to win the race. I’ve got something else in mind for these.”

  Stevie smiled grimly as she stacked the last of the snowballs in the crook of her arm. She had had enough. It was time to teach Veronica a lesson.

  Maybe a dozen snowballs down her back will convince her to try a little harder, Stevie thought. She ran back toward the center of the ring, where Veronica had dismounted and was picking at her jagged nail.

  “Yoo-hoo!” Stevie said. “Veronica! I have something that might help.” Before Veronica realized what was going on, Stevie had grabbed her by the shoulder.

  But before she could start shoving snowballs down Veronica’s shirt, Stevie happened to glance at the bleachers. She paused in midmotion, hardly believing her eyes. Two people had just entered the ring and were taking seats in the front row.

  One of them was Stevie’s mother.

  The other was Grandma Lake!

  STEVIE DROPPED VERONICA’S shoulder immediately, gasping in horror.

  “What’s the big idea?” Veronica whined, rubbing her shoulder.

  Stevie ignored her. She dropped the snowballs on the ground and raced back to her friends. “Look!” she whispered. “My grandma’s here!”

  Carole and Lisa turned to look at the bleachers. Stevie turned, too. When Grandma Lake saw them looking, she waved, smiling cheerfully. Stevie’s mother waved, too.

  Stevie returned their smile weakly and gave a quick wave. Then she turned back to her friends, biting her lip anxiously. “I’ve got to do something about this,” she muttered.

  “But what—” Lisa began. Then she stopped. Stevie had already raced away.

  “What do you think she’s going to do?” Carole asked.

  Lisa shrugged and sighed. “Who knows?” she replied, gathering up Prancer’s reins. Belle had turned to gaze after her mistress, and Lisa reached over to pat the mare. “But I can’t really blame her for being worried.”

  Carole’s glance strayed back to Stevie’s grandmother. “Me neither,” she said. “The gymkhana so far has been wild and crazy and exciting, just like always. That’s good for us—well, most of us, anyway,” she added as Veronica hurried past, filing busily at her fingernail with the emery board she had just pulled out of her jacket pocket.

  “But bad for Grandma Lake,” Lisa finished her friend’s sentence.

  Stevie was thinking the exact same thing as she grabbed Max by the arm. “Max!” she exclaimed breathlessly. “Which event is next?”

  Max glanced down at the clipboard he was holding. “The shopping race,” he said. He gestured to the far end of the ring, where Red was setting up the large signs Lisa had made. One read BLOOMINGDALE’S BRIDLES, another SAKS FIFTH AVENUE STIRRUPS, and so on. Nearby, Mrs. Reg was setting out the shopping bags at one station and the “merchandise” at another. According to the rules that veronica had devised, each team would draw a receipt listing the names of items and stores. The riders would then have to locate their assigned items in the pile of merchandise, find the shopping bags with the correct store names, and drop them off at the corresponding store signs. Whoever delivered his or her items correctly and made it back over the finish line first was the winner.

  Stevie thought fast. The shopping game was sure to be a wild scramble, with lots of excitement and thrills as the riders mounted and dismounted, scrabbled through the pile of items, grabbed at the shopping bags, and so on. She had to give Veronica at least a little bit of credit: Despite herself, the snobby girl had actually come up with a fun and wacky game. It was too bad that Stevie had to put a stop to it.

  She tugged on Max’s sleeve as he started to turn away. “Max,” she said urgently. “Um, I think Veronica wanted to change the rules to the shopping game a little.”

  Max rolled his eyes. “It’s a bit late for that,” he said. “What does she want to do?”

  “Well, first of all, she’s worried about safety,” Stevie said, “so she wants the riders to keep to a slow walk during the game.”

  For a moment Max seemed to be staring at something over Stevie’s left shoulder. But then he returned his attention to her. “Oh, really?” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “A walk, hmm? Anything else?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes,” Stevie said. She thought it was a good sign that Max was listening. Maybe she could still salvage this situation. “I think we should—um, I mean, Veronica thinks we should make the whole race less competitive. You know, concentrate more on cooperation.” She smiled brightly. “Teamwork. Just like you’re always teaching us in class. So instead of racing each other to return the stuff to the right store, the players should all help each other match things up. That way everybody wins.”

  Suddenly a loud, peevish voice came from just behind Stevie. “Hey, what’s going on? You can’t change the rules of my game, Stevie!”

  Stevie whirled around to find Veronica standing there with her hands on her hips. She shot a desperate glance past Veronica toward the bleachers. How could she make Veronica—and more importantly, Max—understand how important it was to keep things calm from now on?

  Veronica didn’t give her a chance to come up with an argument. “My game stays exactly how I planned it,” she said firmly, glaring at Max and then at Stevie. “Got it?”

  “Okay, Veronica,” Max said. “Calm down. Your game will go on as planned, don’t worry. I’m sure Stevie’s ideas were just suggestions.”

  Veronica tossed her head. “Well, they were stupid suggestions,” she snapped. She turned on her heel and started to stomp away.

  Unfortunately, Britt had chosen that moment to approach. She tried to jump aside, but Veronica was moving too fast. The two girls slammed into each other—hard. Veronica had momentum on her side and managed to keep her feet. Britt went flying, ending up on her backside in the dirt.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed. She was blinking hard, obviously trying to hold back tears. “I’m sorry, I—”

  Veronica didn’t let her finish. “I thought I told you to watch where you’re going!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. A hush fell over the ring as everyone turned to see what the commotion was about. Veronica glared down at Britt, who was still on the ground. “You’re always getting in my way! Someone as clumsy as you are shouldn’t even be allowed near horses!”

  Britt was blinking faster, but she didn’t say anything. She just sat still where she had fallen, her face turning red.

  Stevie didn’t say anything, either. But she didn’t stay still. She couldn’t. Britt might not be a full-fledged member of The Saddle Club yet, but that didn’t matter. Even if she had been a total stranger, Stevie couldn’t have let this pass. Especially not after the way Veronica had been acting all during the gymkhana.

  Stevie turned and raced back to the center of the ring, where the snowballs she had dropped had started to melt in the warmth of the stable. Several of them had begun to merge, forming a large, icy blob. She grabbed the blob. The bottom of it was coated with a thick layer of dirt, sawdust, grit, and straw, which was clinging to the frozen mass.

  Seconds later, Stevie had returned to the scene of the incident. Britt still hadn’t moved. Neither had anyone else. Max seemed too stunned to respond, and nobody else seemed sure what to do. Out of the corner of her eye, Stevie saw Ms. Lynn start to rise from her seat.

  Veronica alone seemed unperturbed by her own obnoxious behavior. She turned away from Britt and carefully rearranged her riding hard hat, which had been knocked slightly askew in the collision.

  Stevie strode up to her. “Oh, Veronica,” she said in a singsong voice.

  Veronica looked up, an irritated expression on her fac
e. “What do you want?”

  Stevie grinned and held up the grimy snow blob. It was too big to shove down Veronica’s shirt. She shoved it in her face instead. “This is what Britt and I think of your obnoxious behavior,” she said, knocking off Veronica’s hat and rubbing the dirty slush into her expensively cut hair.

  Veronica shrieked in dismay. Britt gasped in surprise. Max looked uncertain whether to start yelling or laughing. And from the direction of the bleachers came a hoot and then the sound of applause. “All right, Stevie!” someone yelled.

  Stevie glanced over, expecting to see Ms. Lynn leading the cheers. Ms. Lynn was clapping, all right. But the one standing on the bleacher seat, hooting and hollering and grinning from ear to ear, was Grandma Lake.

  STEVIE WAS SO stunned by her grandmother’s behavior that she hardly heard Veronica apologize to Britt at Max’s stern command. She barely saw Veronica stomp off, face dripping with filthy melted snow, in the direction of the bathroom, or return a few minutes later with wet but clean hair and a freshly scrubbed face. She might not even have noticed when the shopping game started if Carole and Lisa hadn’t come over with Belle, shoved a receipt into her hand, and helped her to mount.

  The players lined up, and Stevie glanced down at her receipt. “Wait!” she cried when she finally snapped back to awareness of her surroundings. “We’ve got to keep to a walk during this game. Did everyone hear me? Don’t go any faster than a walk!”

  Everybody ignored her. As soon as Mrs. Reg gave the command, all the players rode pell-mell toward the pile of shopping bags.

  Stevie followed, her heart in her throat. What had she done? Not only had she failed to convince Max to keep the gymkhana calm, but she had caused a big ruckus herself and gotten her grandmother all worked up. Why did Veronica have to be such a jerk? And why couldn’t she, Stevie, contain herself and plan some suitably humiliating revenge for sometime when Grandma Lake wasn’t around?

  Still, Stevie told herself as she dismounted and grabbed the Bloomingdale’s shopping bag from the pile, it had almost been worth it to smash that dirty, disgusting pile of slush into Veronica’s obnoxious face.

  She shook her head. What was she thinking? It hadn’t been worth it at all. Getting revenge on Veronica was a million times less important than protecting her grandmother’s health.

  Stevie was so distracted by her thoughts that she came in last in the shopping race. Next came the backward obstacle course, and once again Stevie tried to convince Max to tone down the excitement.

  Once again, he refused. “Don’t be ridiculous, Stevie,” he said. “The whole point is riding backward. The course is too easy if you ride forward. It wouldn’t be a challenge at all.”

  That didn’t sound like a problem to Stevie. No challenge meant no excitement, and no excitement meant no problem for her grandmother. But Max stood firm. As the race started, Stevie crossed her fingers for luck. Just in case that failed, she also started trying to figure out the best way to tell her father that she had been responsible for his mother’s heart attack.

  “I THINK WE set a new record out there today,” Carole said ruefully as she led Starlight out of the ring.

  Lisa was right behind her with Prancer. “You mean for having the lowest team score in gymkhana history?” The award ceremony had ended a few minutes earlier. The Saddle Club’s team had come in dead last. Carole and Lisa had walked their horses at one end of the ring to cool them off after all of the exercise, and now Starlight and Prancer were ready to return to their stalls.

  Stevie joined her friends just in time to hear their comments. “I’m sorry, guys,” she said morosely. “I know I wasn’t exactly performing my best out there. I guess I was a little distracted.”

  “It’s okay,” Lisa said sympathetically. “We know you were worried about your grandma. Besides, Veronica was so grumpy after you humiliated her that she did even worse than you.”

  Carole giggled. “Boy, was she mad,” she said. But when she saw Stevie’s face, she stopped laughing immediately. “Don’t worry, Stevie,” she said. “I’m sure your grandmother is fine. Where is she now? Did you check on her?” When Stevie hadn’t joined them while they were cooling down the horses, the other two girls had assumed that she was with her grandmother.

  “I tried,” Stevie replied. “But on my way to the bleachers, Ms. Lynn stopped me to thank me for sticking up for Britt. By the time I got over to where my mom and grandma had been sitting, they were gone.” She let out a heavy sigh. “They’re probably rushing to the emergency room for some oxygen or something.”

  Lisa was pretty sure that that wasn’t the case. Grandma Lake hadn’t looked all that frail to her when the older woman was stomping on the bleachers and cheering at the top of her lungs. But she knew Stevie too well to say so. Stevie wasn’t going to stop worrying until she saw for herself that her grandmother was still alive and well.

  “Come on, let’s get these guys put away,” Carole said, gesturing at the horses.

  Stevie nodded and patted Belle on the neck. “They all did their best, even if we can’t say the same for their riders,” she muttered.

  Lisa gave her a comforting look. “Don’t worry about it, Stevie,” she said. “Now come on. We’ve still got to go check on Magoo when we’re done with our horses. After that, maybe we could go to TD’s for a quick snack. A nice butterscotch swirl, lime sherbet, and marshmallow sundae is sure to make you feel better, right?”

  Stevie shrugged. “I doubt it,” she said glumly. “But I might as well go with you. I’m in no hurry to get home and face the bad news.”

  The Saddle Club met up again in front of Magoo’s stall a few minutes later. The gelding had left his bandages alone for a change, and it didn’t take the girls long to check on him. As they were carefully grooming around his injuries, Britt stopped by the stall.

  “Oh!” Carole said when she saw her. “Hi. How are you?” She wondered if Britt was still upset by her unpleasant encounter with Veronica.

  Britt grinned, not looking upset at all. “Great,” she said, pointing to the blue ribbon clipped to her belt. Her team had come in first place in the gymkhana.

  “Congratulations,” Lisa said with a smile. She held the stall door open so that The Saddle Club could join Britt in the aisle. “Did you have fun?”

  “Definitely,” Britt assured her. She gave Stevie a sidelong glance, then stared down at her shoes. “Um, by the way, thanks for sticking up for me back there,” she said softly. “It was really nice of you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Stevie said. “You know, you shouldn’t be too intimidated by Veronica. Her bark is much worse than her bite.”

  Britt looked up and smiled. “I know that now,” she said bashfully. “Thanks to you.”

  Britt seemed embarrassed by the whole topic, so Carole decided to change it. “Hey, Britt,” she said cheerfully. “We were just about to head over to TD’s for a snack. Do you want to join us?”

  “Thanks,” Britt said. “That’s really nice of you to ask. But actually, my teammates and I were planning to go there together and celebrate.” She paused, looking uncertain. “Um, I’m sure Polly and the others wouldn’t mind if you guys came with us …”

  “No, no, that’s okay,” Stevie assured her quickly, perking up a little at the mention of Polly’s name. Maybe Britt was so eager to go out with Polly because she was interested in Romeo’s half brother! Stevie didn’t want to discourage that. “You go ahead.” It would be wonderful if Britt actually ended up buying the horse that Stevie had chosen for her. With all the bad things that had happened that day, Stevie couldn’t resist prying just a little in hopes of finding a nugget of good news. “Um, by the way, you never really told us what you thought of that horse Polly took you to see,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Did you like him? Polly didn’t try to talk you into buying him or anything, did she?”

  Britt smiled and glanced around to make sure nobody else was around. “Actually, now that you mention it,” she said, “I j
ust found out something wonderful. Can you keep a secret?”

  Stevie, Carole, and Lisa nodded, exchanging glances. Britt’s face was positively glowing. Whatever her news was, it must be really good. And unless they missed their guess, that meant that Britt had picked out her next horse. Which one had she chosen?

  Stevie tried to control her grin. She was sure it was Romeo’s brother. After all, that’s the horse they had been discussing when Britt had brought it up. And why else would the new girl be hanging around with Polly so much?

  Carole was of a different opinion. Britt and Coconut had performed brilliantly together in the gymkhana. They made a wonderful team—that was probably what had made up the girl’s mind.

  Meanwhile, Lisa was crossing her fingers and hoping that Applesauce was the horse the new girl was talking about. True, Britt had done well on Coconut. But the gymkhana games had been demanding. Maybe she had missed the mare’s cool and professional response to her every command. Maybe she had just realized how perfect Applesauce would have been in the gymkhana.

  “Polly convinced me to ask my mom, and she said yes!” Britt said, looking even more ecstatic. She turned toward the stall behind them and broke into a full-fledged grin. “She’s going to buy Magoo for me!”

  “Magoo?” the three members of The Saddle Club repeated in a single, astonished voice.

  “You’re buying Magoo?” Carole added in disbelief.

  Britt nodded and reached up to stroke the horse’s long nose. “Can you believe it?” she said happily. “I didn’t think we could afford it right now. But Mom said it was no problem. It’s so great—Magoo is the perfect horse for me!”

  Just then, Polly appeared at the end of the aisle and waved at Britt. Britt waved in reply, then turned back to The Saddle Club, looking anxious. “I guess they’re ready to go,” she said. “I was going to offer to help with Magoo, but—”