Best Friends (8 page)

Lisa took out a brush and began the grooming.

She’d barely finished one side with the brush when she became aware that Veronica was standing outside the stall, watching.

Stevie would have said something smart, like telling Veronica that the activity was called grooming and that people who cared about horses did it. Lisa wasn’t as good as Stevie at saying things like that. They never sounded right coming out of her mouth.

“How was your shopping trip last night?” Lisa asked.

“A disaster,” said Veronica. She made a terrible face to emphasize the awfulness of it.

Lisa thought that maybe the mall had been especially crowded or something. She waited for clarification. It came.

“They didn’t have any decent boots,” Veronica said.

“Oh.”

“But that’s not why I’m here,” she said.

At least she was getting to the point.

“I had my father call the CI administrators today—like his secretary should have done last week. They refused to send the application. They had the gall to say we’d missed the deadline. I can apply again next year—if I apply on time. Can you believe it?”

Lisa could believe it. That’s what the rules said. A competition was entitled to establish whatever rules it wanted, and almost all competitions had some sort of deadline.

“This woman told my father—like she didn’t know whom she was speaking to—that it’s an invitational. Only so many invitations were sent out and that’s that. She said I can’t use a copy.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that, Veronica. That’s too bad.”

Lisa wasn’t in a mood to gloat, but she was tempted. She could just imagine Mr. diAngelo trying to throw his weight around.

Veronica continued. “Well, the woman there did say that it’s the application form that’s important, not the person who requested it.”

“What?”

“She told Daddy that if somebody else has a form they aren’t using, I can submit that—as long as it gets in on time.”

“Oh,” said Lisa. She had the feeling that Veronica was about to get to the point. She also had the feeling it was going to be pretty uncomfortable. She was right.

“So you have to give me your form.”

It was beginning to sink in. Veronica had seen that Lisa’s form was still blank and, therefore, something Veronica could use.

“You expect me to just give it to you?” she asked. “What makes you think I’d do that?”

“Well,” Veronica began, “the whole thing is about Pine Hollow. It’s Pine Hollow that matters and how well Max’s students represent him and the stable. The stable is far more important than any of the individual riders. Realistically, you don’t have a chance of winning anything, you know. I mean, you’re pretty good for a relatively new rider, and anybody here would say that, so I’m not just trying to butter you up, you know. But pretty good isn’t going to be good enough at the Carolina Invitational. Danny and I are going to be great. Imagine how proud we’ll all be when I bring home blue for Pine Hollow! Surely you wouldn’t want to stand in the way of that kind of success for our very own stable, would you?”

Lisa swallowed and stared at Veronica, wondering if she’d really heard her right. She went back over Veronica’s words
in her head. Yep. She’d heard it right. And Veronica wasn’t through yet.

“And besides, you can go to the show anyway. I know you want to be with your friends, and Max needs them to help transport the horses, so you’ll have all the fun of being there and watching all the good riders compete. You can’t imagine how much you’ll learn just from doing that. It won’t just be me that you watch. There will be a lot of other good riders, too. You’ll learn a lot!”

Veronica’s growing enthusiasm for Lisa’s learning curve was beginning to get on Lisa’s nerves.

“And just exactly what do you think I’ll be doing at the show?” she asked.

“Well, I’ve given that some thought,” Veronica said. “And I’d like to offer you the job of being my equipment manager for the show. You’re pretty good at keeping saddles polished and that kind of thing. Max is always telling me about that. You could do that for me at the show. I’m sure you’d enjoy that. You always seem to like doing it here, right?”

“Veronica,” Lisa said in her most controlled voice. “Go jump in a lake.”

Veronica looked puzzled, clearly not understanding why Lisa wasn’t excited about the opportunity she’d offered her.

“Is that a no?” Veronica asked.

“I think class is about to begin,” Lisa said. “You ought to see to it that Red has Danny saddled up properly.”

Veronica turned on her heels and walked off to find Red.

A
S FAR AS
Stevie was concerned, her entire day was pretty much a loss. First she’d had to go to school, and she wasn’t at all sure her science teacher believed there had been a flood in her bedroom that had destroyed her lab report. The woman obviously had a suspicious mind, because she’d asked Stevie three times if her bedroom was on the second floor of the house. She wasn’t having much more luck convincing Belle that she wanted her to change leads at the crossing point in the ring.

“Stevie!” Max said, exasperated.

“It’s not me, it’s Belle!” she said, knowing as the words came out of her mouth exactly what Max was going to say. At least she was right about that.

“There are no bad horses, just bad riders!”

“Yes sir,” she said, and returned to the corner to try again.

Finally she finished the course and was relieved when it was Carole’s turn for humiliation. She and Belle stood on the sidelines with the other riders. Unfortunately she ended up next to Veronica.

The last person she wanted to be anywhere near was
Veronica. It was the only possible way to take a bad day and make it worse. She’d heard Veronica whining in Max’s office when she’d arrived. Veronica was hard to take even when she was in a good mood. There was no telling what could happen when she was feeling cranky.

Then something nice did happen. Veronica looked at Stevie’s boots.

“Can’t keep your eyes off them, can you?” she asked.

“You bought the last pair in that size,” Veronica said accusingly.

“We wear the same size?” Stevie asked. She was a little surprised to have anything in common with Veronica.

“I could have gone to the mall last weekend,” Veronica said. “And then I’d have them.”

“Give me a break, Veronica,” Stevie said.

“But I don’t think I’d like them anyway. The heels are too high.”

Stevie didn’t say anything. It was all she could do to keep from whooping with laughter. If Veronica couldn’t have something, it had to be bad. Even though she was having a rough day, the fact that Veronica envied her boots was almost enough to make up for it.

For the rest of the class, Veronica could barely keep her eyes off the boots, and Stevie felt like she was floating on air.

S
TEVIE ALWAYS SAID
that her favorite part of Christmas was opening presents, but it wasn’t really her favorite. Not that that was an easy choice. Christmas at the Lake household was always a wonderful day. Everyone woke up early and the kids got to open their stockings. When Stevie was little, she and her brothers were usually up before dawn. Now that they were older, they would stay in bed until a time their parents considered more reasonable, like seven o’clock.

This morning Michael had gotten up at six-thirty, but Stevie threatened to turn him to stone if she couldn’t get more sleep. Seven o’clock was as late as she could hold him off. It was as late as she wanted to stay in bed, anyway.

Present opening happened after breakfast, and it was
always a spirited occasion. Then the Lakes telephoned distant relatives to thank them for their presents and catch up on news. This part was sometimes fun, depending on the relative and the gift that Stevie had to thank them for. Then came lunch, a casual meal for the Lakes on Christmas. And then came Stevie’s favorite part.

It seemed to happen every Christmas. Her parents would get sort of droopy and tired and start talking about naps. Everyone would take their gifts to their rooms and play with them, try them on, or read them—depending on the present. It was a quiet time, perhaps the only quiet time of the whole year at Stevie’s house. And one time a year, she loved it.

She settled onto her bed and thought about the busy days she’d had leading up to that afternoon. Pine Hollow had had its traditional Starlight Ride on Christmas Eve, and this year had been just as much fun as ever. The snow was still on the ground from the storm the week before, and that seemed to make everything glisten. The horses always loved the Starlight Ride, and the ride at night by torchlight was a very special time for the riders. There was always a bunch of people to welcome the Starlight Riders when they emerged from the woods and paraded to the park in the center of town. Everybody sang Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs and drank cocoa. And after the Starlight Ride, Stevie
and her family had gone to the midnight service at church. It was always wonderful, especially the part when they lit candles and sang
Silent Night
. That was the one song Stevie always sang in tune.

Present opening had been good this year, too. Her parents loved the portrait of the four kids, and even Stevie thought it was a good picture of all of them. Somehow the photographer had managed to take a picture when Michael was not making faces at the camera. She wondered if professional photographers took classes on how to get kids to behave. It was probably a big trade secret, like how magicians saw people in half.

Her brothers had given her cool things. Chad had gotten her a CD and Alex had found a horse poster she really loved. Michael had made her a spoon rest. It was better than the ones she used to make, and she swore she’d keep it until she had her own apartment and needed it. He seemed pleased by that. Her parents had given her mostly clothes, and they were all nice. She was going to be well dressed for the rest of the school year.

Her brothers had liked the things she’d given them, too: a sci-fi book for Chad, a CD for Alex, and a baseball poster for Michael.

Only year or two earlier Stevie had discovered it was more important to her to give other people things they
liked than to get things she liked. Christmas had taken on a whole new luster since then, and she felt especially good about this year.

Then she looked at the gifts she’d gotten from her relatives. Her New England relatives had sent her some fancy soap. An aunt and uncle in Delaware had sent her a copy of
Misty of Chincoteague
. It was sweet of them to remember her interest in horses, but Stevie had had a copy of
Misty
since she was seven years old, and she practically had it memorized. Another miss was the sweater her grandmother had sent her. It was angora, and Stevie didn’t wear angora. It would look silly on her, and she couldn’t even bring herself to try it on. The good news was that Granny Lake lived
very
far away and would never know. The better news was that Lisa was practically born to wear angora. Stevie made a note to remind herself to ask Lisa if she’d like it.

Stevie picked up the novel her parents had given her. It was a mystery by Dick Francis, who wrote about horses. She opened to the first chapter. By the end of the page, her mind was totally on horses, but not totally on the story.

The bad news of the day was that nobody, nobody at all, had given her money. She had absolutely no cash left and nothing at all to pay for the CI. There was no way she was going to be competing at that show, even if she owned the most beautiful boots in both the Carolinas. She’d hinted to her parents that
there was one tiny thing more, but when they realized what she was hinting at, they’d said no. It felt bad, but Stevie knew it was fair. They paid for Belle’s boarding and vet fees and Stevie’s classes. Horse shows were extra and were up to her. What had happened to all that baby-sitting money?

Christmas and riding boots and ice cream sundaes at TD’s.

That was it, then. She couldn’t compete at the CI. She’d explain to Max and he’d understand. She knew Max would let her come along. In fact, he’d encourage her to be there because there would always be ways she could help out the other riders, but she’d be in the stands and not in the saddle when it came time to compete.

Maybe she couldn’t show her stuff and give Belle the much-needed experience of riding in a show, but that was okay. She was pretty good at dressage, not great. In spite of how obnoxious Veronica always was, she was probably right that Stevie wasn’t going to take home any ribbons. But the member of The Saddle Club who was just about guaranteed ribbons was Carole. Carole had to go. Carole had to win, both for herself and to beat Veronica in the jumping competitions. Carole could do it, and Stevie had to see to it that she got the chance.

“S
EE
? I
TOLD
you he never said it,” Colonel Hanson said to Carole. He took a handful of popcorn from the bowl that rested on Carole’s lap.

The two of them were sitting on the sofa in the TV room having a relaxing Christmas afternoon, doing what many other people were probably doing right then: watching the videos they’d given each other for Christmas.