Summer Rider

by Bonnie Bryant

  “I’ll give you the worst news first,” Barry said, sitting down behind his desk. “The camp—or, rather, the land it’s on—is about to be sold to a development group. They’re planning to knock down the camp and build a community of luxury recreational time-shares.”

  Even Stevie was speechless. This was a million times worse than the most outrageous of her theories had been.

  Barry nodded at the horrified looks on the girls’ faces. “Believe me, I know exactly how you feel,” he said softly. “I’ve been working here for ten years, you know. This place is my second home.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, the owners aren’t quite as attached to it.”

  “The owners?” Lisa repeated. Somehow, none of them had ever thought about who owned Moose Hill. It hadn’t really seemed important—until now. “Who are they?”

  “A pair of brothers, Joe and Fred Winter,” Barry said. “They’re getting on in years now, and they’re starting to think about retiring. The camp hasn’t made much of a profit lately, so it made sense for them to sell it. The trouble is, the first buyer to turn up was these developers.” He sighed again. “They offered the Winters enough money to let them retire in style.”

  Stevie was trying to figure out what all this meant, but her brain seemed to be working in slow motion. “Couldn’t they find any buyers who wanted to keep it as a camp?” she asked.

  Barry shook his head. “Not for the kind of money the developers are offering. As I said, Moose Hill hasn’t been a big moneymaker lately.”

  “But how is that possible!” Carole cried. Her knuckles were hurting again, but she hardly noticed. “It’s such a wonderful place! How could it not make money?”

  For the first time, Barry smiled. “I’m glad you feel that way,” he said, and the girls could tell he really meant it. “Actually, there’s no reason it couldn’t turn a nice profit, but the brothers are really only interested in a quick fix. It’s not their only investment, and I guess they’ve been more involved with some of their other businesses. They forgot that this one also needed some attention. For instance, until this year they hadn’t raised prices since before I got here. And the staff was getting so big there for a while that the payroll was eating up what money did come in.”

  “And you had to build the new stable when the barn burned down,” Carole said, remembering the fire that had destroyed the old-fashioned barn that had been there on The Saddle Club’s first visit to Moose Hill.

  “Keeping horses here year-round for a summer-only business must be kind of expensive, too,” Lisa put in.

  Barry nodded. “Right on both counts,” he said. “But keeping the horses year-round is one thing I wouldn’t want to change. If we just rented horses while camp is in session, we wouldn’t be able to guarantee their quality.” He shook his head. “Still, we had to sell some of them this winter. That was tough.”

  “Like Basil, right?” Carole said, remembering the horse she had ridden during her first stay at camp.

  Barry nodded. “Once the brothers realized we were signing up a lot of kids who were bringing their own horses this year, they decided to sell off some of our own animals.”

  Carole and Lisa nodded sympathetically, but Stevie was thinking about something else. “You said keeping horses year-round is one thing you wouldn’t change,” she said. “Does that mean there are other things you think could be changed—you know, to make this place more profitable?”

  “Sure,” Barry said. “I have lots of ideas. For instance, I think when the brothers raised the prices this year, they went a little too far.”

  “Definitely,” Carole murmured ruefully. The sky-high boarding fees had been the reason she hadn’t enrolled Starlight for the first two weeks.

  “There are lots of things we could be doing,” Barry said. “I even talked to my brother about my ideas—he’s an accountant. He thinks this could be a moneymaking business.” He grimaced. “Unfortunately, the brothers haven’t let me implement any of the changes I suggested, even though profits have been sagging more and more every year.”

  Carole shook her head in amazement. She knew as well as anyone that any venture involving horses was bound to be expensive. Still, she found it hard to believe that the camp they all loved was such a financial failure.

  Barry went on. “Finally, last year, the Winters went through a phase where they thought they were going to fix this place up and make it work. I had hoped that meant they would listen to my ideas. But they didn’t—they just fired half the staff, then threw up a few new cabins and built some tennis courts and expected that to do the trick. I guess I was hoping it would, too. I even convinced them to run this monthlong session this year, figuring it might make a difference in the profits.” He rubbed his temples again. “But when the Winters saw the numbers coming in, they decided it wasn’t worth it to them anymore. All they wanted to do after that was unload the whole place, and none of my great financial ideas could change their minds.”

  “Maybe you should try talking to them again,” Stevie urged. “You know, explain what a gold mine Moose Hill really is …”

  “Sorry, Stevie,” Barry said quietly. “It’s a little late for that. The deal is almost final.”

  “Almost?” Stevie repeated.

  Barry shrugged. “All but the final papers. Fred Winter told me they’re hoping to finalize everything in the next couple of weeks. And as you saw, the new owners are eager to begin construction right away.” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe this place will be gone by the end of the summer.”

  Carole thought she saw tears in his eyes, though he managed to keep them under control. She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to do the same. It didn’t seem possible that Moose Hill could be closing. They had never really talked about it, but Carole had always assumed that The Saddle Club would continue to come here every summer until they went away to college—maybe even after that. Now those happy plans were ruined. It seemed so unfair.

  Stevie was too upset even to think about crying. She knew what her mystery was all about now, and she didn’t like it one bit. The men in the black car had obviously been with the developers who were buying the camp. One of them had been the mysterious figure she and Carole had seen in the woods, too. And Barry’s recent moodiness now made perfect sense.

  Lisa was upset, too, but she felt as though she could hardly take in this new information. Her mind was already so filled with the things she had to do before the end of camp this year that she was afraid her head would explode if she started thinking about next year.

  Barry stood up. “You girls had better get going,” he said. “I’m afraid I’ve made you late for your classes. Just tell your instructors you were with me.”

  Stevie had almost forgotten that they were supposed to be in class. How could they even think about learning at a time like this?

  Barry started to show them out of the office, then stopped them. “Listen, I’d really appreciate it if you could keep this information to yourselves,” he said. “I haven’t even broken the news to everybody on the staff yet, and I’d hate to ruin the campers’ good time.”

  The Saddle Club nodded numbly. As Stevie hurried out of the rec hall with her friends, she was still having trouble thinking clearly about anything. One thought had seemingly taken over and was echoing through her mind: Could this really be the end of Moose Hill Riding Camp?

  THE GIRLS MANAGED to keep Barry’s secret until halfway through dinner that evening. It was easy at first—the news was so bad that for a while they hadn’t even felt like discussing it with each other. But by dinnertime the shock had worn off and it seemed almost impossible not to talk about it. Still, they kept quiet, since Phil and Todd were sitting with them.

  Once again, the boys were discussing their plans to ride away with all the ribbons at the horse show. “Okay, so if you win the blue in dressage and I win the red, who’s going to take third place?” Todd asked Phil, giving Stevie a mischievous look out of the corner of his eye.

  P
hil shrugged and shoveled a huge bite of lasagna into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed quickly. “They’ll probably just decide to retire the other ribbons, since we’ll be so clearly superior to everyone else,” he replied. “And I do mean everyone.”

  Stevie knew that the boys were just joking around again, but she definitely wasn’t in the mood tonight. “For your information, that’s not all they’ll be retiring around here soon,” she snapped. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized what she had done. “Oops.”

  “Oops?” Phil said. He put down his fork and gave her a sharp look. “What do you mean, ‘oops’? Spill it, Stevie.”

  Stevie gave Carole and Lisa a panicky glance. But Carole just shrugged. “You might as well tell them,” she said. “We’ll go crazy if we try to keep it to ourselves. We can trust them.”

  Stevie nodded, relieved. She had been dying to tell Phil the news all through the meal. After a glance around to make sure nobody else was close enough to hear, she told the two boys the whole story.

  Phil and Todd were as horrified as the girls had been when they had heard the news. “We can’t just sit back and let this happen!” Phil declared, waving his arms and almost knocking over his water glass.

  Despite the serious topic, Stevie couldn’t help smiling. It was times like this that reminded her why she liked Phil so much. “I agree,” she said. “We have to find a way to save Moose Hill.”

  “But how?” Carole asked.

  “We’ll think of something,” Stevie and Phil said in one voice.

  Todd was shaking his head. “I don’t know, guys,” he said. “This whole situation sounds like some serious stuff to me. What can a bunch of kids possibly do to change it?”

  “I hate to say it, but I think Todd’s right,” Carole said. “I’m not saying we should just give up, but I don’t know if we should expect any miracles, either.”

  Stevie frowned. “It sounds to me like you are just giving up,” she told Carole. She turned to Lisa. “What do you think? You’re keeping pretty quiet.”

  Lisa looked up from her plate. She had only been half listening to the conversation. “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Todd has a point. This is big business—and real money—we’re talking about. It would be nice if we could find a way to help, but I can’t imagine how. Your usual moneymaking schemes won’t do it this time, Stevie.”

  Stevie didn’t respond for a moment, and Carole gave her a surprised look. Then she saw that Stevie was glancing back and forth between Todd and Lisa with a satisfied expression on her face. Carole rolled her eyes. Even at a time like this, Stevie was obviously thrilled that Lisa had sided with Todd—even though it meant she was siding against Stevie.

  Lisa was completely oblivious to Stevie’s reaction. After offering her opinion, she had immediately returned to her previous activity—playing with her food and feeling guilty. That was because she had already broken her vow to jog every day. In all the excitement over Barry’s news, she had simply forgotten that she’d planned to go jogging during her free time after lunch. How else was she going to lose weight if she didn’t exercise? And there wasn’t any other time to do it today—her evening was already planned down to the minute. After dinner she had to spend an hour working with Major on lead changes. Then she was supposed to spend another hour helping Betty and some of the other campers muck out the paddocks. And she was determined to finish Jane Eyre that night, even if she had to stay up all night to do it.

  It took an effort not to groan out loud when she thought about all the work that lay ahead of her. Jogging was definitely not an option. Still, Lisa couldn’t help feeling bad. Not only was she letting herself down by not sticking to her vow, but in a weird way she felt as though she were letting Piper down, too. Piper always made time for the things she needed to do. Lisa couldn’t remember how many times her cabin mate had spent her free time working with her horse, or had skipped lunch or dinner to jog or take care of other important things.

  That last thought gave Lisa an idea. Since it obviously wasn’t going to be easy to fit a daily jog into her already crowded schedule, maybe she could compromise a little on her vow. If she couldn’t exercise to stay in shape, she would go on a diet instead—just until the show was over and she had won her blue ribbon in show jumping.

  She smiled, feeling satisfied with her solution. But she wiped the smile off her face before her friends could notice it. She didn’t feel like sharing her decision with them. For one thing, they hadn’t even known about her jogging vow, so they might not understand how important it was. Besides, Lisa couldn’t help remembering all the times her friends had laughed about the girls at Pine Hollow who were constantly on diets. Lisa knew there was nothing wrong with dieting. After all, lots of people—including her own mother—were on diets most of the time. But she decided it would be easier to keep the whole plan a secret for now.

  Since she was already compromising by substituting one vow for another, Lisa decided she wouldn’t let herself compromise at all on her new diet. Luckily, she had been so lost in thought that she had only eaten a few bites of her lasagna. She pushed the rest of it aside and scrutinized the other food on her plate, deciding what she would eat.

  Meanwhile, the rest of the group was still discussing Barry’s news. Stevie and Phil had convinced the others that they had to make a serious effort to save the camp. “Otherwise, no matter what happens at the horse show, we’ll all be losers,” Stevie said dramatically.

  Carole started her second helping of lasagna. “All right, then,” she said. “We need to come up with a plan.”

  “Right,” Phil said. “But I think we need some more information first. Like how much money those brothers are getting from the developers, and exactly when they’re expecting the deal to be final …”

  Stevie was already nodding. She glanced across the crowded mess hall at Barry, who was sitting with Betty at a table in the corner of the room. “I was thinking the exact same thing.”

  Phil grinned at her. “Great minds think alike, right?”

  “Absolutely.” Stevie smiled back at Phil, thinking once again how cute he was when his green eyes sparkled at her that way. That reminded her that the two of them still hadn’t had much time alone together. Since they had made up after their fight, they had been so busy that they had only taken one evening stroll down to the pond—the site of their very first kiss.

  “Ahem,” Carole said loudly, bringing Stevie’s mind back to business.

  Stevie jumped up from her seat. There would be time for romance once they had saved Moose Hill. “Come on, we need to go talk to Barry. We have to find out a little more about these Winter brothers if we’re going to convince them not to sell.”

  Carole stood up, too, but Phil stayed seated. “You go ahead,” he told Stevie. “I don’t think we should let Barry know that Todd and I are involved unless we have to.”

  “Good point,” Carole said. “He might not appreciate the fact that we only managed to keep his secret for a few hours.” She glanced at Lisa and noticed that her plate was still more than half full. “Hey, are you feeling okay?” she asked, suddenly concerned. “You’ve hardly eaten a thing.”

  “Sure,” Lisa said. “I wasn’t very hungry, that’s all.”

  Carole stared in disbelief. “Not hungry!” she exclaimed. “After that workout we got in jump class today? You’re kidding.”

  The others, most of whom were on their second or third helpings, also looked surprised. Lisa gulped. She had to think of a convincing response, or her secret would be out. “Um, well …” She forced herself to laugh. “Okay, you caught me,” she said. “I had a little free time after my class this afternoon, and I went back to the cabin and pigged out on some cookies my mom packed for me.” She laughed again, and this time it felt almost natural. “They were a little stale after two and a half weeks, but they still tasted awfully good. I ended up eating the whole bag.”

  Her friends laughed, too. “Busted!” Todd exclaime
d with a grin.

  Lisa felt guilty. Obviously, her friends didn’t doubt her story at all. And why should they? Members of The Saddle Club didn’t lie to each other. Still, she told herself, it wasn’t as if this lie were hurting anybody.

  “Then if you’re finished, come on,” Stevie said. “We’ve got to catch Barry before he skips out early again.”

  “You two go ahead,” Lisa said, laying her fork and knife across the food on her plate and standing up. “You can fill me in on what he says later. I’ve got to … um …” She had been about to tell the truth: She wanted to get to the stable and get to work. She couldn’t afford to talk to Barry for even a few minutes if she wanted to finish all her tasks for the evening.

  Carole and Stevie waited expectantly. “What?” Stevie asked. “What do you have to do that’s more important than saving Moose Hill?”

  Lisa felt her face redden. Stevie had made it sound as though Lisa’s schedule couldn’t possibly be very important, and that annoyed her. What did happy-go-lucky, carefree, straight-C+ Stevie know about the kind of pressures Lisa was under?

  Her anger made it easy to make her next lie sound convincing. “Actually, I’m pretty exhausted after that tough jump class and everything else today,” she said. “I know it sounds silly, but I’ve been looking forward to a nice, cool, relaxing dip in the pond all through dinner.”

  “It doesn’t sound silly at all,” Carole said quickly, giving Stevie a dirty look. She was surprised that Lisa didn’t want to come with them to talk to Barry. But Lisa had been working awfully hard since arriving at camp, and the last thing Carole wanted was to keep her from relaxing. “Go ahead. We’ll fill you in later.”

  Stevie and Carole hurried over to Barry’s table. Barry and Betty appeared to be deep in conversation, but they both looked up when the girls approached.

  “Hi,” Betty said. “What’s up, girls?”

  Stevie bit her lip. She was dying to blurt out all sorts of questions, but Barry had said that he hadn’t told all the staff yet about the camp’s sale. What if Betty was among those who didn’t know? “Um, so, Barry,” she said, trying her best to sound casual, “Carole and I were just thinking about what you were saying this morning, about … um …”