Tight Rein

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Our plan worked,” Lisa said. “I can’t believe it. Shhh! Let’s hear what else they’re saying.” She and Carole waited in silence, but most of the rest of Stevie and Chad’s conversation was too quiet for them to catch. All they could hear was Chad saying, “Don’t hug me or anything.”

  “Just like a boy,” Lisa said in disgust.

  “More like a brother than a boy,” Carole corrected her with a smile. “I told you, I’ve got this sibling thing figured out.”

  “I’m glad at least one of us does,” Lisa said. She sat down in the clean sawdust in the stall. Now that she knew Stevie would be able to go to camp, she wasn’t much interested in the rest of her conversation with Chad. Camp with Stevie was all that mattered. No, Lisa corrected herself, make that camp with Stevie and Prancer.

  “We’re quite a team,” Carole said softly, sitting down beside Lisa. “I figure out the sibling thing, you make the plan.”

  “We out-Stevied Stevie,” Lisa said with satisfaction. “We made a scheme all our own, and it worked.”

  Carole looked at Lisa and shook her head. “You made the scheme,” she said. “You out-Stevied Stevie, not me.” Lisa looked up, surprised and doubtful. Carole continued. “I mean it. You’re the one who thought of everything in the first place. You came up with the dirt idea, and the coffee, and you convinced Chad that we were serious. All I did was follow your lead.”

  The two girls looked at each other. “Did it bother you?” Lisa asked at last.

  “No,” Carole said, “because I thought your idea was good.” She thought for a moment. “No, that isn’t true. It did bother me a little, Lisa—just a very little bit. You’re so smart, you always get As in school, and sometimes I wish I could figure things out as fast as you do.”

  “The way I sometimes wish I knew as much about horses as you do,” Lisa answered.

  “Exactly.”

  Lisa felt a sudden flush of happiness. At first she thought it was because she’d finally done something Carole couldn’t do. Then she realized she was happy because she finally understood that Carole felt the same way she did. Carole sounded just a little bit—well, envious of Lisa. And that made Lisa glad because it made her own envy seem less wicked.

  She smiled. “It’s a little bit like being sisters, isn’t it?”

  Carole stretched, yawned, and smiled. “Yes, and, girl, I’m telling you, I’ve got this sibling thing figured out!”

  Lisa rolled onto her knees and pressed her face against the crack in the wall. “Chad’s gone,” she announced.

  Carole knelt beside her. Across the aisle, Stevie was fastening Belle’s halter behind her ears. While they watched, Stevie carefully smoothed Belle’s mane and forelock away from the leather. Stevie snapped her lead rope onto the halter, opened Belle’s door, and started to lead her from the stall. Before they had gone two steps Stevie stopped and threw her arms around Belle’s neck. Stevie’s face shined with pure joy.

  In the stall, Lisa reached for Carole’s hand and squeezed it. She knew Carole was right—her plan had reunited Stevie and Belle. Lisa finally felt the equal of the rest of again.

  STEVIE GAVE BELLE another hug and a pat. After having been away so long, she didn’t think she could ever hug her horse enough. Then she took Belle out of her stall and fastened her to the cross-ties.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she called. “Carole, Lisa, I know you’re here somewhere. Guess what? I’m not grounded anymore!”

  Giggling, Carole and Lisa rushed out of Barq’s stall and hugged Stevie. “Hooray!” Lisa said. “We’re so glad to see you!”

  “And talk to you,” Carole added. “No more paper airplanes. But how did you know we were here?”

  Stevie shrugged. “Where else would you be? Starlight was in his stall, so I knew you weren’t out on a trail ride. Plus, I thought I heard someone—two someones—whispering.”

  “We weren’t exactly trying to eavesdrop,” Carole said. “I mean, we didn’t think you’d be having a really private conversation with Chad—”

  “—but we couldn’t help overhearing—” Lisa said.

  “—that I’m going to camp!” Stevie finished. After a round of celebratory high fives, she added, “And you two were great—fantastic!”

  “We tried to take good care of Belle,” Carole assured her. “We groomed her every day and made sure she was turned out in the pasture. But the important thing is, she’s not sick at all.” Carole could feel her face flush. “Stevie, I am so, so sorry for what I told you yesterday,” she continued. “Belle wasn’t colicking at all. In fact, she ate fine the entire time you were gone. I know how worried you must have been. I really am sorry.”

  She felt so bad, she could hardly look at Stevie. Even though she thought lying to Stevie had been justified in this case—especially now that Stevie really was going to camp—she had never told even the whitest of white lies to Stevie before, for any reason. The night before, the image of Stevie’s horror-stricken face had haunted Carole’s dreams.

  To Carole’s amazement, Stevie grinned. “I wasn’t worried at all,” she assured them. “Not the slightest bit.”

  “But,” Carole protested, puzzled, “I told you Belle was colicking. Colic is really serious.” She felt immensely relieved that Stevie wasn’t angry at her, but at the same time she wondered whether Stevie had lost her mind. Stevie was always properly concerned about her horse—why wouldn’t she worry about something as scary as colic? “You looked really upset when I told you,” Carole said.

  “Oh, believe me, I was,” Stevie replied airily. She twined her fingers through Belle’s mane as she spoke. “In fact, after you left I cried for half an hour. Nice and loud. It really got to Chad.”

  Carole stared in amazement. Lisa began to laugh. “You mean you knew?” she asked. “You figured out what we were doing?”

  “Of course,” Stevie said. “It was obvious.”

  “I don’t think it was that obvious to Chad,” Lisa pointed out.

  “No, of course not,” Stevie replied patiently. “Nothing’s obvious to a blockhead like him. But among higher life-forms such as ourselves—oh, come on, Lisa, of course I thought it was obvious. It was exactly what I would have done.”

  Lisa grinned. If she hadn’t managed to out-Stevie Stevie, at least she’d tied her.

  “It wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t acted worried, too,” Stevie pointed out. “If only you and Carole had seemed upset, Chad would have smelled a rat for sure.”

  A sudden thought made Lisa’s mouth fall open. From the look on Carole’s face, Lisa knew she was thinking the same thing. “Mrs. Reg!” she said.

  Carole began to laugh. She laughed so hard she had to sit down. “Stevie, you would have loved it, it was unbelievable,” she said between giggles. She related what Mrs. Reg had told Chad. Lisa patted Belle sadly on the neck and mimicked Mrs. Reg. “ ‘Poor baby, she’s dying of a broken heart.’ ”

  Stevie gave a shout, and for a moment the three of them were convulsed with laughter. “Mrs. Reg said that?” Stevie asked when she had partly recovered.

  “As Carole is my witness,” Lisa said. “I thought the two of us would die right there.”

  “You’ll never know how much you owe us, Stevie,” Carole said. “I had to struggle so hard not to laugh in front of Chad that I probably strained some very important muscles. I probably shortened my life by three years.”

  Stevie stroked Belle’s nose thoughtfully. “But I wonder why she did it,” she said. “I mean, Mrs. Reg couldn’t have believed that Belle was really sick.”

  “Not for a moment,” Lisa agreed. “She knows way too much about horses for that.”

  “Good thing Chad doesn’t,” Stevie mused. “His ignorance comes in handy sometimes.”

  “Plus, Mrs. Reg knew Belle had been tranquilized,” Carole said thoughtfully. “She was standing in the aisle looking at the lesson chart when Judy gave Belle the injection. I’m sure she saw the whole thing.”

  A sud
den thought occurred to Lisa. “She told that goat story,” she said, her eyes growing large with amazement. “Remember, Carole? The story that seemed completely pointless but gave me the idea for our plan? She started the whole thing!”

  “She couldn’t have done it on purpose!” Carole protested. Mrs. Reg occasionally showed a sense of humor, but she never approved of The Saddle Club’s pranks—much less encouraged them.

  “Let’s ask her,” Stevie said. They hurriedly finished grooming Belle and put her back into her stall. Then they went into Max’s office. Max and Deborah were there.

  “Stevie!” Max said with an enormous, slightly mischievous grin. “Glad to see you back! How are you feeling?”

  “Fine, thanks,” Stevie said.

  “And how is Belle?” Deborah asked, with a grin that mirrored her husband’s.

  “She’s fine.” Stevie didn’t feel like going into details. She suspected from the way Max and Deborah were smiling that they knew all about poor, sick Belle and her miraculous recovery. “We’re looking for Mrs. Reg.”

  “She’s in the tack room, I think,” Max said. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

  “I’m all over my funny-bone-itis, if that’s what you mean. Thanks, Max.” Stevie shut the office door.

  “Funny-bone-itis?” Carole asked as they walked toward the tack room.

  “Inflammation of the funny bone,” Lisa answered.

  Stevie nodded. “It causes excessive prank-playing. I took a rest cure.”

  “Meaning she was grounded, so she got over it,” Lisa explained.

  Stevie just grinned. Mrs. Reg was indeed in the tack room, and when she saw the three girls, her face lit up in a somewhat secretive smile.

  “I’m so relieved that your horse is feeling better, Stevie,” she said before they could ask her anything. “Tell me, has she developed a taste for coffee yet?”

  Lisa and Carole snorted, but Stevie was confused. “No,” she said. “Why would she?”

  “That’s good,” Mrs. Reg said. “I was worried that she might start liking it.”

  Carole and Lisa exchanged glances and began to giggle. So Mrs. Reg knew about the coffee, too! “Mrs. Reg,” Carole said, “why did you—”

  Mrs. Reg held up her hand to stop her. “You think you’ve got problems,” she said to Stevie in a serious voice. “I had four of them.”

  The three girls looked at each other, then back at Mrs. Reg. Four cups of coffee? Carole thought.

  “Four what?” asked Stevie.

  Mrs. Reg frowned as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. “Brothers,” she said. She nodded to them and walked away.

  “You know,” Stevie said as they watched her go, “the longer I know Mrs. Reg, the less I understand her.”

  “I don’t think it matters if we understand her,” Lisa said. “Poor, sick Belle!”

  STEVIE HAD ONE of the best trail rides of her entire life. She had never truly appreciated her wonderful horse, she thought, until she’d been forced away from her. Riding alongside Carole and Lisa in the warm summer sunshine, cantering through green woods, splashing through crystal streams—these were the best things in life. Stevie resolved to remember this the next time she felt like dismembering Chad.

  After the ride she spent a long time grooming Belle and fussing over her. At last even Lisa and Carole were ready to leave. Stevie stayed another half hour, lovingly cleaning her tack. In the end she had to run home so that she wouldn’t be late for dinner. Stevie didn’t need any black marks on her newly cleaned slate.

  “Belle’s fine,” she announced when they had finished saying grace and were passing the food around. “She seems entirely okay. I even rode her for a little while.”

  “Oh, good,” Chad said with a sigh of relief. “I know she looked much better when I saw her.”

  Stevie’s other brothers, Michael and Alex, told her how happy they were that Belle was okay. To Stevie’s surprise, her parents just smiled. They didn’t say anything. They didn’t act worried about Belle at all. Stevie knew they didn’t love Belle the way she did, but on the other hand, they paid the vet bills. “I don’t think we’ll need to call Judy again,” Stevie assured her father.

  “That’s nice,” he said. “Please pass the sliced tomatoes, Stevie.”

  Geez, Stevie thought as she passed the tomatoes, a person’s horse could die around here and everyone would just keep eating. She looked sideways at Chad. He was a cretin, but at least he had feelings.

  After supper Stevie loaded the dishwasher while Alex cleared the table. Upstairs she could hear the light bop-pop noises that meant Chad was dribbling his soccer ball around his room. When she was finished in the kitchen she went up to see him.

  Outside his door she paused. Chad had long ago plastered the entire thing with his bumper sticker collection, but right in the center was a brand-new sign in his handwriting: S. S. C. G. S. O.! Stevie had no trouble interpreting most of it: “Something Saddle Club Girls Stay Out!” She pushed the door open without knocking. “Does the first S stand for slimy or stupid?” she asked.

  Chad stopped dribbling. “Scurrilous,” he said proudly.

  “Wow.” Stevie was impressed. “Well,” she said, “I just wanted to say, like, thanks again. Like, I’m glad you don’t seem too mad about being grounded.”

  Chad went back to dribbling. “Whatever.”

  “Okay.” Stevie went back downstairs.

  She found her parents in the living room. Her mother was reading the newspaper, and her father was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling. “Belle really is okay,” she told them again.

  Her mother smiled. “We think Belle was probably okay all along,” she said.

  Oh, Stevie thought. That explains why they didn’t act worried—they knew it was a ruse all along. “Oh,” she said. “Then, urn, why—uh, never mind.” If she made her parents think about it too hard, maybe they’d change their minds and not let her go to camp after all.

  Mr. Lake looked at her and winked. “What we don’t understand is why Chad chose to admit his part in everything,” he said. “However, we’re glad he did. We were pleased all along with the way you handled your punishment, Stevie.”

  “We planned to let you go to camp all along, too,” Mrs. Lake added. Stevie’s mouth fell open. “If and only if,” her mother continued, “you took responsibility for your actions, accepted your punishments with grace, and quit playing pranks on your brothers.”

  “Especially the prank part,” Mr. Lake said.

  Stevie stood in front of them awkwardly. She didn’t know what to say. For a moment she felt disappointed. The Saddle Club’s whole scheme had been for nothing—except, of course, for getting even with Chad. That made her feel better.

  “Now that I understand how lonely Belle is without me, I’ll be better behaved,” she promised her parents.

  “How lonely Belle is, or how lonely you are without her?” Mrs. Lake asked.

  Stevie grinned. “Both,” she said. She ran up the stairs to her bedroom. She had to call Lisa and Carole—camp was only three days away!

  “LAST ONE DRESSED is a rotten egg!” Stevie challenged the cabin full of girls. She yanked her T-shirt over her head. The sun was streaming through the windows and screen door, and the wooden floor was smooth and cold under her feet. Their first full day at Moose Hill Riding Camp had dawned.

  “Too late,” said Elsa, one of the six other girls sharing their cabin. “I’m already dressed!” She pulled the top of her sleeping bag over the pillow on her bunk.

  “I didn’t say the first one dressed won a prize,” Stevie objected. “I said the last one—besides, you’ve got the alarm clock, Elsa. Of course you’re the first one ready.” She grinned, remembering how, during their first trip to Moose Hill, she and the rest of had all disliked Elsa. Now the other girl was a good friend.

  “I’ve got the alarm clock, and I’m naturally efficient and organized,” Elsa retorted with a friendly grin.

  Carole was pu
lling her hair into a ponytail. “No one ever called Stevie efficient,” she said.

  “I don’t know about that,” Stevie began to argue, but stopped when she saw how fast the others were dressing. She pulled on her socks. “Where’re my tennis shoes? I can’t find them.”

  “Didn’t you wear them yesterday?” Lisa asked. “They should be under your bunk.”

  A loud, clear bell rang across the camp. “Breakfast!” cried one of the other girls. Elsa and the others left the cabin. “Looks like you’re the rotten egg, Stevie!” one of them called back over her shoulder.

  Stevie laughed. “I guess I should have known better than to issue that kind of challenge before I found all my clothes.”

  Carole and Lisa helped Stevie look under the bunks. Lisa looked under Stevie’s sleeping bag, too, and Carole checked behind the door.

  “I didn’t wear them yesterday. I had my cowboy boots on all day,” Stevie said. “After all, we were unloading the horses and putting them in the stable.”

  Lisa nodded. It was important to wear sturdy shoes around horses, in case they stepped on your feet.

  “Just put your boots on now,” Carole suggested.

  “But I really wanted my tennis shoes for breakfast,” Stevie said. She rummaged through her duffel bag. “Here they are! In the outside pocket. I don’t remember putting them there.”

  Lisa sat down on her bunk to wait for Stevie. “After all that happened last week, I still can hardly believe we’re here,” she said. “I’m excited about everything Prancer and I can learn this week—with your help, of course,” she added thoughtfully. “One of the things I learned last week is how much like sisters the three of us are—and how lucky I am to have two such good friends.”

  “Just tell us if we get out of hand,” Carole said softly. “We want the good parts of being sisters, but not the bad parts.”

  Lisa nodded. She was glad she wasn’t feeling jealous of Carole anymore. She was even gladder that Carole understood. “I feel so lucky,” she repeated.

  Stevie tied her right shoe in a double knot and reached for her left. “I feel even luckier,” she said, thrusting her foot into the shoe. “Without you two I’d—Ayahhhh!” She yanked her foot back out. “Ayahh! Jelly! That creep put jelly in my shoe!” She waved her foot in the air. Purple glop dripped from her toes. “I’ll kill him!”