Lisa

by Bonnie Bryant

  “I don’t want you looking at these now,” he told us. “You have two weeks to look at them. So for now, just fold them and put them aside.”

  I did as he said, and so did my friends and the other Horse Wise members.

  Then Max explained what the papers were for. “A Know-Down is a little bit like a spelling bee,” he began. “You’ll get the chance to test your knowledge of horses by answering questions. Each of you will be able to choose the difficulty of your questions, from one to four points. A four-point question might have four points to the answer, like, for instance, ‘Name the parts of a horse’s back between the shoulder and the dock.’ ”

  “Withers, back, loins, croup!” Stevie called out excitedly.

  She was right, though Max scolded her for interrupting. Then he went on to explain that we’ll be able to choose easier questions worth fewer points, but that if we want to win the Know-Down, we’ll have to learn a lot of information.

  “It’s all there,” he said. “Study hard. Two weeks from today at our next unmounted meeting, we’ll have the Know-Down.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carole and Stevie exchanging glances. I immediately guessed what they were thinking. A little earlier, they had reported that they’d invited Phil and Cam to come to our next unmounted Horse Wise meeting, and both boys had promised to be there. I guess I haven’t written much about Carole and Cam in my diary lately, though I probably should have. They’ve been writing back and forth on e-mail pretty often, and they’ve talked on the phone a bunch of times since they met at the horse show a couple of months ago. But they haven’t seen each other again in person, and even though Carole isn’t talking much about it, I’m sure she’s excited. Probably a little nervous, too.

  Especially after she found out about the Know-Down. Carole isn’t very confident around boys sometimes, and I know that when she first met Cam she was worried about which of them knew more about horses and that kind of thing. It’s probably partly Stevie’s fault—she’s so hyper-competitive with Phil that the two of them don’t exactly provide the best example for other couples to follow. Still, Carole isn’t Stevie. Knowing her, she’s just as worried that she’ll do better than Cam at the Know-Down as she is that he’ll do better than her.

  Carole and Stevie whispered back and forth for a moment or two. I didn’t bother to try to hear what they were talking about, since I was sure I already knew. Unfortunately, though, Max overheard their whispers.

  “Ahem,” he said, staring pointedly at Stevie. “Did you say something?”

  Since Max had already yelled at Stevie just a couple of minutes earlier, I decided to jump in and save her. I had something I wanted to mention anyway. “No, it was me,” I called. “Sorry, I should have raised my hand.” I raised my hand, and when Max nodded, I continued. “We checked the mare before we came in here and she seems edgy. Doesn’t that mean she’s about to foal?”

  “Maybe,” Max said. “It could also mean nothing. Judy made her daily vet check yesterday and didn’t seem concerned. She’ll be back this afternoon and will check again.”

  “But I know that when a mare gets edgy, it’s a sign that she’s about to foal,” I persisted, surprised that Max, too, seemed so careless about the pregnant mare’s condition.

  “It can be,” Max agreed. “There are other signs, too. Does anybody know what they are?”

  Hands went up all over the room, and the group began providing various answers. Soon we’d heard a whole list of possible symptoms that different mares might or might not have just before foaling.

  “So,” Max said at last, “it seems that the only way to be sure a mare is about to begin serious labor is when serious labor begins. It’s just not a simple question.”

  When he said that, I felt almost as annoyed with him as I’d been with my friends earlier. Why wouldn’t anyone pay attention to what I was saying? I’d seen that mare myself—her entire personality was different than it had been before. To me, that’s a really strong indicator that she’s going to foal soon. Maybe nobody is listening to me now, but the mare will prove me right soon enough. I just hope there’s someone around to help her through foaling.

  Anyway, one other thing happened right after the meeting. I was heading for the door when I heard Max call my name. He also called May Grover, one of the younger riders.

  “I want you two to work together on something,” he told us. “I’m going to start a Big Sister/Little Sister learning program, and you’re my test case.”

  For a moment I forgot about the mare. That sounded interesting.

  “One of the things we rarely have time for here,” Max went on, pulling a small paperback off the office bookshelf, “is working with hitching horses and ponies to carts and wagons. It’s just something we don’t do much and that’s too bad because it’s fun. Lisa, I want you to take this book and learn how to do it yourself and teach May to do it. Then in ten days, after our Tuesday riding class, I’d like the two of you to do a demonstration for the rest of Horse Wise. Will you have time to work on this together? You can use Nickel and hitch him to the cart we use for pony rides sometimes. Then, if you’d like, you can take your classmates for rides.”

  I took the book from him. What could I say? May is a nice kid. She’s smart, she works hard, and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. And learning about hitching a horse to a cart did sound sort of interesting, I guess. Still, I wasn’t crazy about Max’s idea—at least not the timing of it. Preparing for the Know-Down is going to be a full-time job. Plus I was already planning on spending some extra time with the pregnant mare, since nobody else seemed very concerned about her.

  But May seemed so excited … and Max seemed to expect an automatic yes from me … and the book isn’t very long … I found myself nodding and saying “Sure.”

  So for the next half hour, I was stuck checking out the pony cart with May. I didn’t want to be there—I wanted to be at the mare’s stall when Judy Barker arrived so I could hear her diagnosis for myself. But I had a responsibility to May now, and I didn’t want to let her down. I did my best to stay focused on the little girl.

  “Are you excited about the Know-Down?” I asked her as we headed for the shed where Max keeps the pony cart.

  “Am I ever!” May declared. “The trouble is, I won’t know which to work on harder—the Know-Down or our project.”

  “You’ll find time for it all,” I assured her. “All you have to do is study your sheets for the Know-Down.”

  “I know,” May said. “I put them in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose them …” Her voice trailed off, and she began patting one pocket, then the other. “Oh no!” she cried in dismay. “I’ve lost them already!”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “Max will give you another set. Just ask him when we get back.”

  “I don’t want him to know I lost them,” May said, her lower lip trembling slightly.

  She looked terribly upset, and I understood how she felt. I hate losing things, too. “Here, take mine,” I told her, pulling my own set out of my pocket. “I can borrow one of my friends’ and copy them so Max will never know that either of us lost a set, okay?”

  May was so happy about the idea that I was glad I’d made the offer. It even made the next few minutes seem to pass a little faster as we reached the shed and looked over the pony cart. May seemed fascinated by everything about the plain little wooden cart, but I didn’t share the feeling. Our project might seem useful and worthwhile, but right now, I’m afraid it’s just going to eat up too much of my valuable time.

  I finally managed to drag May away from the shed, only to find out that Judy had already come and gone. I rushed to the mare’s stall and found Carole and Stevie there.

  “Where have you been?” Carole asked.

  “I’ve been with May Grover—Oh, it’s a long story.” I didn’t want to take the time to explain about the Big Sister/Little Sister project just then. “What did Judy say? Didn’t she say that the mare’s moodiness meant she’s
about to foal?”

  Stevie shrugged. “Oh, I forgot to ask. Judy was only here for a minute.”

  I couldn’t believe it. Weren’t my friends paying attention at all? “But didn’t she say the mare could foal at any time?”

  “I don’t think so,” Carole said. “She just checked on her and nodded, like everything seems to be on schedule. She’s not due to foal for another two weeks, you know.”

  I knew that. But I also knew that mares didn’t always foal on schedule.

  So why aren’t my friends taking my ideas more seriously? Just because they’ve been riding longer than I have, does that mean they automatically think they know better than me about everything that has to do with horses? I don’t think so. Maybe the Know-Down will be an opportunity to show them how much I’ve learned. Of course, having a brand-new foal toddling around Pine Hollow within the next few days—as I’m sure we will—will show them the same thing!

  In any case, I’m not planning to let the mare out of my sight for long until she has her foal. I checked on her once more before we left this afternoon, and she still seemed cranky and skittish. I just hope she doesn’t foal tonight. I don’t want to miss it.

  When we got back here to Carole’s house, we fixed ourselves a snack. Colonel Hanson had to go to his office for a while because of some kind of minor emergency, and before he left, he warned us—well, actually Carole—not to touch anything on his desk. It was kind of a weird thing for him to say, but we soon figured out that it probably had to do with Carole’s birthday, which is coming up in the not-too-distant future. (He also warned us not to eat all the peanut butter, which wasn’t a weird thing for him to say at all—though it was a hard thing for us to do!)

  After he left, we prepared to start studying for the Know-Down. That’s when we realized that none of us had the study sheets Max had given us. I had given mine to May. Stevie and Carole had mailed theirs straight off to Cam and Phil, not wanting to have an unfair advantage over the visitors.

  “What are we going to do?” Stevie asked.

  I didn’t know what to say. I knew it would be easy enough to ask Max for new sheets tomorrow, but we’d all been counting on getting a lot of studying done tonight.

  “Dad,” Carole said suddenly, her expression brightening. “He’s a volunteer.”

  I had almost forgotten that Colonel Hanson is one of Horse Wise’s parent volunteers. Of course he would have a copy of the sheets. But he might not be home for hours. After some debate, we decided to check on his desk. We figured it would be all right as long as Carole wasn’t the one to do the checking and just as long as we didn’t look too hard at anything other than the Know-Down sheets.

  We were in luck. Stevie found the sheets right away. We hurried to a neighbor’s house to make copies, and then, finally, we were able to get to work.

  There were seven sheets, all of them chock-full of information about horses, starting with one-point questions and going up to four-pointers. We quizzed each other on everything—stable bandages, hand faults, conformation, and who knows what else. Finally, we called it quits and watched a movie. Carole and Stevie fell asleep right after that, and I think I’m finally about ready to follow their example.

  I wonder if there really will be a brand-new foal waiting for us at the stable tomorrow? I can’t wait to find out.

  FROM: MayFlower

  TO: LAtwood

  SUBJECT: Big Sis/Little Sis

  MESSAGE:

  Hi, Lisa! It’s me, May Grover. I hope you don’t mind, but I looked up your e-mail address on the Horse Wise member list. I just wanted to write and say thanks again for promising to teach me all about hitching a pony to a cart. It’s going to be fun—I can’t wait! I even asked my mom to take me out and buy me a copy of that book Max gave you to read. It looked really interesting, and I bet it would help if we both read it, right?

  Thanks again, Lisa. See you at the stable!

  Dear Diary,

  It’s Monday night, and I’m feeling kind of guilty. Still, we didn’t do anything wrong on purpose …

  I’d better begin at the beginning. This afternoon at the stable, after checking on the mare—still no foal, surprisingly—I went in search of May. I’d accidentally left the book Max gave me at Carole’s house on Saturday night, but luckily May had gone out and bought herself a copy on Sunday. She had also read it from cover to cover, which was a relief since I hadn’t so much as skimmed it at the sleepover.

  I was able to cover by asking May to explain what she’d learned. She was eager to figure things out for herself, so the session actually went pretty well. She’d read hard, studied hard, and learned, which meant that Max’s project was working—though maybe not in quite the way he’d imagined. Still, as long as May learns what she’s supposed to learn, I’m sure he’ll be happy.

  Anyway, I wasn’t really concentrating very hard on May or our project. I was busy thinking about the mare and the Know-Down. I checked on the mare one more time before joining my friends for another study session. We decided to hold this one in Prancer’s stall. It’s a big box stall, and it’s empty this week while Prancer is off getting some extra training. So it seemed like the perfect spot.

  We settled down in the fresh, fragrant straw lining the stall floor and got started. It wasn’t long before Veronica stuck her head over the wall and interrupted us. “What are you up to in there?” she demanded in her snottiest tone.

  “We’re studying,” Stevie replied.

  “What for?”

  “The Know-Down, of course.” Stevie rolled her eyes at Carole and me before glancing at Veronica. “Haven’t you been studying? Or is that one of those things you get your butler to do for you?”

  Veronica shot her a dirty look. “Certainly I’ve been studying,” she said haughtily. “Very hard, in fact. Go ahead, test me.”

  Carole glanced down at the sheet she was holding and read the next question. “What’s another word for forging?”

  Veronica crinkled her forehead in thought. “Isn’t that where a horse just eats whatever it comes across in the wild?”

  I shook my head and glanced at my friends. Veronica was obviously confusing foraging with forging, which is another word for “overreaching.” It happens when a horse’s stride is too long and its hind toe hits its front heel.

  Carole read the correct answer from the sheet to Veronica, who looked surprised and annoyed. “That’s in there?” she demanded, glancing at the sheaf of papers Carole was holding.

  “Uh-huh,” Stevie replied. “As your butler no doubt knows.”

  Before Veronica could respond to Stevie’s comment, there was a shriek from the far side of the stable. It sounded like May, and it sounded like she was in trouble.

  We dropped everything and raced out of the stall and down the aisle. As soon as we reached the stable door, we saw that May had been working with Nickel and that the pony had escaped. We spent the next half hour recapturing the frisky pony and comforting May, who was pretty upset about the whole thing. By the time it was all over, it was time to leave the stable. That was when Carole discovered that her Know-Down papers were gone. She found them soon enough, stacked neatly in the far corner of the empty stall where we’d been studying. The odd thing was, she didn’t remember putting them there. But we didn’t worry about it too much at the time.

  As we were getting ready to leave, we ran into May again. She was still upset about what had happened with Nickel, but we managed to reassure her. Soon she was smiling again.

  “There’s something I’d like to know about,” she said, pulling several papers out of her backpack. “It’s this study sheet Max gave us. Can you help me with it?”

  “No problem,” Stevie said cheerfully. “Ask away.”

  May wanted us to explain the answer to a question about a horse’s body temperature. But that’s not the important part. The important thing is that when we looked at her papers, we realized they didn’t look anything like the ones we’d been using to study for the past
two days. May’s sheets included lists of information, not questions and answers. They weren’t divided by point value, either. They had some of the same information as ours, plus a lot more.

  That’s when we realized what had happened. Max had given the parent volunteers the actual questions and answers he was planning to use at the Know-Down. That was why Colonel Hanson had warned us against snooping on his desk. It hadn’t had anything to do with Carole’s birthday after all.

  “You know what this means, don’t you?” Stevie said once it had all sunk in.

  “It means we’re cheating,” I replied, swallowing hard as I said it. I had never cheated on anything in my entire life. I’d never needed to. I’d never wanted to.

  “That wasn’t what I had in mind,” Stevie said. “What it means is that we’re just about guaranteed to do better on the Know-Down than anybody else.”

  “True,” Carole said slowly. “We’ve been working very hard, too, and I know we’re learning a lot.”

  I was starting to see their point. We really were studying awfully hard, no matter what sheets we were using. There was a lot of information in those questions and answers, and it wasn’t going to be easy to remember it all, no matter what. “We’re learning the things we’re supposed to learn,” I mused. “Also, I know from experience in taking tests that the teachers usually focus on the most important information when they make up the test. All the things they ask questions about are the things they really want you to know. The point is that Max must have put the most important information into the questions he plans to ask. That’s what we ought to be focusing on. And since we’ve been studying exactly that, it is what we’ve been focusing on. We’re learning what he wants us to learn.”

  We were all silent for a moment after that, each of us thinking our own thoughts. Finally, Carole spoke up. “Lisa’s right, you know,” she said.