There was a heavy moment of silence. It was broken by a burst of laughter from Oliver and John. Then the rest of the crew joined in.
“It’s certainly worth a try!” Oliver agreed. He was the first to touch the horseshoe. After Oliver touched it, everybody else there, including the cameramen, lined up to do the same.
Stevie and Carole arrived as the chief electrician was touching the horseshoe. They waved wildly at Lisa and both started talking at once.
“Are you wearing lipstick?” Stevie asked.
“Why’s everyone touching the horseshoe?” Carole asked.
“Yes I am, and I thought everybody was going to come to blows about the lights, so I wanted to try to change the mood,” answered Lisa.
“Well, everybody’s laughing now,” Carole said. “So you must be some sort of genius.”
“Oh, she is,” Skye chimed in, fresh from the good-luck horseshoe himself. “Why didn’t you tell me she could spell everything? She showed the rest of us up in a spelling bee!” He gave Lisa a little hug around her shoulders.
“We want to hear it all,” Stevie said seriously.
“You will. I promise,” Lisa said.
“How long until you can leave so we can go to the mall?” Stevie asked. “We’re going to go to TD’s first.”
Lisa looked at her watch again. It was three-thirty. She wanted to go to the ice-cream parlor and the mall with her friends, but the crew was going to reshoot everything they had done in the morning. It would take at least a couple of hours. She’d been looking forward to an impromptu Saddle Club meeting, but she wasn’t going to have it today.
“I can’t,” she said. “The goof they made is going to keep me here until dark. Can we do it tomorrow?”
“No, because I’ve already made a deal with Dad to meet us at the mall at six,” Carole said. “I can’t reach him to change that, so we have to go now.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lisa said. She felt awful about it. She’d been looking forward to spending time with her friends, planning the colonel’s party.
“Look, what you’re doing now is once in a lifetime, and never for most people. Don’t worry. We can get lots done by ourselves,” Carole reassured her.
“Talk to you later, okay?” Stevie said.
“Deal,” Lisa said.
“Places!” Oliver announced. It was time to get back to work.
Stevie and Carole headed for the stable, where they were going to muck out stalls. Lisa returned to her place on the movie set.
“WHERE DO WE go first when we get to the mall?” Carole asked Stevie after they had settled into a booth at TD’s and placed their orders.
Stevie’s mind was on something else. She was thinking about Lisa and the movie set. Stevie and Carole had taken a few minutes from mucking out stables to watch the filming. “Wasn’t Lisa just wonderful?” Stevie asked. “I mean, the way she did just what the director told her to do and Pepper looked so great. It was fabulous, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was,” Carole agreed. “Although I didn’t like the fact that Pepper had been working such long hours. He’s not young anymore, you know.” It was just like Carole to think about the long hours that Pepper was working and not think about the long hours that Lisa and Skye were working.
“He was just walking back and forth coming out the door of the stable,” Stevie reminded her.
“But all those times Skye mounted him. That can be quite difficult on a horse.”
“To say nothing of how difficult that can be on Skye,” Stevie said pointedly.
“I guess so,” Carole admitted, “but a horse doesn’t get paid a lot of money, and he can’t complain when something bothers him.”
“Maybe,” Stevie agreed. “Except that it seems to me that over the years horses have developed pretty good ways of complaining when they think they’ve worked enough. Like when they race for the stable the minute they decide their ride is over?”
Carole smiled. It was true. Horses did usually move faster going back to the barn than away from it.
“And, uh, speaking of going places, where are we going at the mall?” Carole asked, bringing the conversation back to the main topic of the afternoon.
“I saw in this week’s paper that there’s a sale at Marie’s,” Stevie told her.
“Marie’s is a dress shop,” Carole said. “Is that what you propose to buy for my father for his birthday? Because if you do, I think he and some of his Marine Corps buddies may have a few things to say about it.”
“No, no,” Stevie said. “I was just thinking that, as long as we’re out there—you know. We might look for something for us, like to wear to the party.”
Carole dug into her sundae, which had just arrived. “I was thinking more of getting some plates or something.”
“Plates?” Stevie asked. She was so surprised she couldn’t even pick up her spoon. “What do we want with plates?”
“Well, for, like to eat off of,” Carole explained.
“Don’t you already have some of those in your house? I mean, seems to me the last time I ate there, we definitely used plates. I think they had flowers on them. Did they all break?”
“Of course not,” said Carole. “But don’t you think we should use paper plates for the party?”
“Okay, then, we’ll use paper plates,” Stevie agreed. “Then we won’t have so much to clean up. Good thinking.”
“But what are we going to put on them?” Carole asked. “If we’re giving a party, we have to have food and things to drink, don’t we?”
“Every good party does,” Stevie agreed. “The trouble is, I don’t have any idea what to get—or how much. Do you know how many people are coming?”
Carole shook her head. “We sent out the invitations a while ago, and some people have called or told me in person that they were coming, but I don’t remember who or how many.”
“Some party-giving team we are,” Stevie said, almost groaning. “We need to organize.”
“We sure do. The problem is that we’ve always been able to rely on Lisa to do the organizing, but she’s busy with Skye and the movie.”
Stevie put her chin in her cupped hands and her elbows on the table. It was a way she had of thinking. There was no doubt about it: Lisa, the straight-A student, was the organizer of the group. She could always figure out what needed to be done. Stevie was the one who then usually figured out how to get it done. Without Lisa, she felt a little lost.
“Darn that movie,” Stevie said. “It’s ruining the party.”
“Nah,” Carole said. “It’s just making it harder. Besides, it’s a wonderful thing for Lisa. Even though we miss her for this, what she’s doing is important.”
“I know, I know,” said Stevie. “I just wish—”
“Yeah, me too,” Carole agreed.
“All right, then, but what is, is. So, let’s get started on our own. Let’s make a list.”
That seemed like a very good idea until both girls realized that neither of them had either paper or pencil to make it with. Fortunately, the waitress loaned them an order pad and a dull pencil. It was a start.
Their first stop at the mall was Marie’s, where, as Stevie predicted, there was a sale going on. They didn’t have enough money to buy anything, even on sale, but that didn’t stop them from trying on clothes.
“Isn’t this pink top just beautiful?” Carole asked, holding it up to herself in front of a mirror.
“Very pretty,” Stevie agreed. “And I bet it would go well with your green skirt. You could wear that to the party. Your dad would love it!”
“Oh, the party,” Carole said, recalling their actual mission at the mall. “I think we’d better get going, don’t you?”
Reluctantly, the girls left Marie’s and moved on to another store. Their next stop was a joke shop. Stevie was in seventh heaven. The place was filled with things that made strange sounds and/or jumped out of containers at unexpected moments. There was even a battery-operated “human” hand th
at sort of wiggled.
“Oh, gross!” Carole said.
“Your dad would love it!” Stevie said.
“That’s what I meant,” said Carole. “Anyway, we’re not here to buy a present for Dad. The party is his present. We’re supposed to be buying things for the party, and I don’t think a wiggling rubber ‘hand’ is exactly what we need to make the party a success.”
“Yeah,” Stevie agreed reluctantly. “Let’s try another place, okay?”
Over the next hour and a half, the girls felt as though they went into every single store in the whole mall. They paused only briefly in the shoe shops and the earring stalls, but they closely scrutinized everything for sale in the sporting goods shops—especially the riding equipment—and in the men’s clothing store. Nothing seemed at all right for Colonel Hanson’s party.
As Carole and Stevie walked through the mall, they window-shopped, draped scarves on themselves, practiced swinging golf clubs, admired shoes, and ate fudge samples. They saw some friends from Pine Hollow and chatted about the excitement of the movie-making at the stable. The one thing they didn’t do was purchase anything for Colonel Hanson’s party.
Every few minutes Stevie went fishing in her purse and pulled out the now-tattered piece of paper with their “list.” It didn’t help much. All it said was “party supplies” and “plates.”
Stevie looked at Carole’s watch. They had only ten minutes until they were supposed to meet Carole’s father in the parking lot of the mall for their ride home. “I know!” she said. “We can get plates at the party-supply section of the variety store.” She grabbed Carole’s hand, said “Follow me,” and dragged her through the door.
The two of them went right past penny candy, stockings, hair rollers, bows, even barrettes, and made their way right through stationery, not even pausing to look at ballpoint pens or five-millimeter mechanical pencils.
“Here they are!” Stevie declared. There, in front of the two of them, was a positively amazing array of paper plates for birthday parties. For a moment it seemed that they might actually be able to purchase something on their shopping list. However, closer inspection revealed that the selection at this shop was strictly limited to Saturday-morning cartoon characters.
“This doesn’t look quite right to me,” Carole said.
“But didn’t I hear your father talking the other day about how much he loved Michelangelo?” Stevie asked, hoping desperately that they’d be able to buy at least something for the party.
“A different Michelangelo,” replied Carole. “The one dad likes was the sculptor and painter—not a turtle.”
“Oh,” Stevie said. “Well, I don’t think there’s a line of paper plates with the Sistine Chapel on it, so let’s forget it. It’s time to meet your dad now, anyway.”
Carole looked at her watch and agreed. “We didn’t get much done, did we?”
“Not much,” Stevie said. “But we did have fun. Anyway, we can come again. Maybe Lisa can come with us next time.”
“I hope so,” Carole said, opening the door that led to the parking lot. “It may be that Hollywood needs Lisa, but it’s clear that we need her more!”
Colonel Hanson honked to get the girls’ attention. They ran over to the car and climbed into the backseat.
“Ah, making me feel like a chauffeur,” he teased. “Well, then, where to, mademoiselles?”
“Home, Jeeves,” Stevie commanded.
The colonel turned the car around and headed back toward Willow Creek. “So tell me,” he said, speaking over his shoulder to his passengers in the back. “What did you two accomplish at the mall this afternoon?”
“Nothing,” they answered in a single voice, more than a little aware of how true that was.
SKYE AND LISA perched on a paddock fence, watching Samson trot happily in circles. They chatted easily while Oliver and the rest of the crew considered whether there was enough light left to do any more filming for the day.
“As a matter of fact, I was right here when you called the other day,” Lisa said. “I was working with Stevie and Carole on Samson’s training. He’s supposed to be getting used to a bit now. He doesn’t like it much, but he’s a good sport about it.”
“You three have an awful lot of fun together, don’t you?” Skye asked suddenly.
“Of course,” Lisa answered, surprised by the question. “We do everything together—at least everything our parents will let us. Sometimes it’s trouble, but it’s just about always fun. What kinds of things do you do with your friends?”
“Not much,” Skye said. He seemed embarrassed to be admitting it. “For one thing, I don’t have many friends. I’m working on movies most of the time, which means I’m not in regular school. The other kids I work with have the same kind of schedule I do, and that means there isn’t much time for fun.”
“But what about weekends and vacations and things?” Lisa asked.
“Sure, I have time off, but the fact is that it’s very hard for me to go out and do the ‘normal’ stuff that you and Carole and Stevie do. Wherever I go, people are bugging me. They don’t mean it in any bad way. Most of them feel as if they know me because they saw me in one movie or another, but they don’t know me, they just know the character I played.”
“Does it make you angry?” Lisa asked, realizing for the first time that the life of a star might not be one hundred percent wonderful.
“Not anymore. It just makes it hard. Sometimes I wish I could just be me and do the things I want when I want to, not because my agent or my producer says I have to.”
“But the things you have to do are so exciting, and the things I get to do are so boring!” Lisa said.
“I think boring can be fun,” Skye said. “For instance, after we wrap here for the night, I’m supposed to go back to the motel with my chaperone. We’ll order dinner in. I’ll study my lines and go to bed. That’s all.”
“Want to do something more boring?” Lisa asked.
“You have any suggestions?”
“Well, I could show you around Willow Creek. Now that’s boring!”
“Let’s do it!” Skye said. Lisa couldn’t believe how excited he seemed by the prospect.
A few minutes later, Oliver told everybody they could go. Lisa went back to the makeup trailer to have her makeup taken off. Skye said he’d meet her in front of the stable. It took almost half an hour before Skye showed up. He apologized and explained that he’d had to get permission from three different people to take a little walk around Willow Creek with her. However, they had all agreed, and that was the important part.
Skye offered Lisa his arm and they were off.
“Any tour of Willow Creek begins with the center of all activity here,” said Lisa. “It’s a place known as TD’s. That stands for Tastee Delight, and that is where I am going to buy you an ice-cream sundae.”
They walked together toward the shopping center where TD’s was located.
“I meant to ask you where Stevie and Carole were going this afternoon. You seemed disappointed not to be able to go with them.”
“I hoped nobody noticed,” Lisa said. “I was disappointed, but it seemed like such a silly thing. See, they were going to the mall to buy things for Colonel Hanson’s surprise birthday party.”
Skye’s eyes lit up. “Oh, that sounds great! I bet Carole’s dad is going to love it.”
“I’m sure he is, even if we don’t come up with something clever and wonderful to do at the party.” Then Lisa had an idea. “Don’t you go to a lot of parties in Hollywood where people are forever doing clever things that get written up in magazines? Do you have any suggestions for us?”
“Hmmm,” Skye said thoughtfully. “Well, there was one party where somebody had their swimming pool filled with champagne.…”
“But then you couldn’t swim!” Lisa said, quite horrified. She loved to swim.
“Exactly,” Skye said. “I hated the party, but it did get written up in a magazine. Then there was another par
ty I got invited to where the host flew everybody on a couple of jets to his mountaintop hideaway in the Rockies.…”
“I think that’s a little beyond our budget,” Lisa said woefully.
“It wasn’t any fun anyway,” Skye said. “Most of the people there were more concerned with the fact that they had been invited to this exclusive party than with the idea of having fun. It was awful. Besides, the studio made me go with my co-star as a date, and she was a real pain.”
“Is all this your way of telling me that these fancy Hollywood parties aren’t any fun?” Lisa said, now disillusioned.
“Not really. Sometimes they are fun. But to tell you the truth, when I think of fun birthday parties, I think of the ones I used to go to before I became an actor. I think of games and balloons and, best of all, magicians. Now, in my opinion, a good magician makes a birthday party.”
“Maybe, but do you think that’s right for a man who is turning forty? Besides, a magician is a little out of our budget, too. All we can really do is get some good snacks, cook a few things, make a tasty punch, and put up some decorations. Believe me, Colonel Hanson is a terrific man. If we could afford it, we’d fly him and all his friends to a mountaintop hideway in the Rockies.”
Skye laughed and then smiled at Lisa. It was a smile Lisa had seen a dozen times on the screen and one that made most teenage girls—including Lisa Atwood—positively melt and swoon. In person, however, it didn’t have the knee-melting quality that millions of girls adored. It was the warm and genuine smile of a warm and genuine friend. Lisa smiled back.
“This,” she gestured grandly at the motley collection of shops in front of her, “is Willow Creek’s shopping center. As you can see, we have two shoe stores, a supermarket, a liquor store, one jewelry shop—we used to have something they called a health spa, but it got sick and went out of business—and, most important, TD’s. Come, be my guest!”
“I’d be charmed,” Skye said. He followed her into the ice-cream shop.
It was after six o’clock, and only a few patrons were in TD’s. Lisa took Skye over to The Saddle Club’s favorite booth, the one in the far corner. One of Lisa’s friends from school, Eloise Marshall, was at the counter, buying a quart of ice cream to take out. She came over to the table and said hello to Lisa and Skye. Lisa introduced her to Skye, though it was obvious that Eloise knew who Skye was.
Star Rider Page 4