Carole (11 page)

Just kidding about my brothers! (Not really …)

Anyway, I think it’s a good idea to keep Marie distracted while she’s staying with you. You definitely don’t want her getting all bitter and sad again, like she was when we first met her. I mean, I know that was pretty soon after the accident and everything. But we should make sure she’s having so much fun during these two weeks that she doesn’t have time to start feeling depressed. Sounds like a job for The Saddle Club to me!

By the way, I still can’t believe how weird Max and Deborah were acting the other day. Remember? When Max was helping Deborah jump down from the fence as if she’d break her leg if she tried it by herself, and how he was blabbing about china patterns as if it wasn’t the most boring topic in the world? I know Deborah was sort of laughing at us for being worried, but I can’t help it. It’s like they’re both becoming different people just because they’re engaged now or something. I hope they get over it soon, because frankly I
can’t stand too many more conversations about china patterns!

I agree with Stevie, mostly. I think you should try to keep Marie distracted from too many sad thoughts. But if she does start to miss her parents (especially her father) while she’s staying with you, I think you need to be ready to listen and understand. I know you’ll be great at that, Carole.

Anyway, let me know how the first day with your new “sister” goes, okay? Good luck!

And by the way, Stevie, in response to what you said in your e-mail, I think you can stop worrying. Max and Deborah aren’t going to turn into totally different people just because they’re together. I mean, some of the ways they’re changing are actually
good
changes, like Deborah’s becoming interested in horses, right?

Besides, I’m pretty sure the china pattern thing is temporary. They’ll probably never mention the topic again once the engagement is over, the china is in the cupboard, and they’re happily married. You might just as well start worrying that Carole is going to stop spending time at Pine Hollow
forever just because she might not go there for a few days while Marie is settling in! Ha ha!

My math teacher is out sick today, so I have a study hall. I can’t concentrate on my English homework, which is what I should be doing, so I figured I’d write a few words in here instead.

Unfortunately I don’t have any training news to report, since I haven’t seen Starlight since the day before yesterday. I miss him already!

But what I really want to write about is something that happened a couple of periods ago, before lunch. It really wasn’t anything that major, it just made me think about things differently. But first, maybe I should explain a few other things that have been happening lately.

It started pretty much as soon as Marie’s mother dropped her off at my house yesterday. Dad and I invited the two of them in and then took them upstairs to show Marie to her room. “You’ll be staying in here, Marie,” I told her politely as I opened the guest room door and ushered her in.

“Nice,” Marie said when she took a look around.

I was happy that she liked it. I’d put a lot of effort into making it cozy and inviting. I’d tucked the flowered bedspread over some extra-fluffy pillows and brought in my favorite hooked rug from my own room to add some brightness to the wood floor. Some roses from the garden trellis were in a vase on the dresser. And to add the perfect
finishing touch, Snowball was curled up on the bed fast asleep. (I didn’t have anything to do with that part—the contrary cat probably just realized the bedspread was freshly laundered and wanted to shed black fur all over it! Ha!)

Anyway, Dad and Mrs. Dana said a few nice things about the room, too. Then Marie spoke up again. “I’m a little surprised,” she said, stepping farther into the room with a puzzled look.

“What do you mean, hon?” Mrs. Dana asked.

Marie shrugged. “Well, knowing that Carole did the decorating, I would expect to see some more horsey stuff. You know—some hay, maybe a saddle or two. Or at least a few dozen horse posters.”

Dad and Mrs. Dana laughed, but I couldn’t help feeling kind of embarrassed. I could only imagine what Marie would say when she got a good look at my room across the hall—after all, practically every inch of wall space is covered with posters and pictures of horses. Normally I wouldn’t be the least bit embarrassed about that, of course, but sometimes Marie can be so sarcastic.…

But that was just the beginning, really. Dad suggested we all go down and have a snack before Mrs. Dana had to leave to catch her plane. When we got to the kitchen, he whipped a plate of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.

“I’ve been keeping these warm for you,” he told Marie. “I baked them this afternoon from my own secret recipe.” He winked at me.

“Yum!” I exclaimed. “You haven’t made your secret-recipe cookies for ages, Dad!” I stopped to think. “In fact, I can’t remember the last time you made them.”

“Well, this is a special occasion,” Dad said.

I didn’t think too much about that at the time. But later …

Anyway, after Mrs. Dana left, Marie and I went upstairs to unpack her suitcases. As we put her clothes away in the dresser (Snowball woke up when we came in and kept trying to help by taking her socks out when our backs were turned and batting them under the bed), Marie suddenly realized that she’d forgotten to pack her portable CD player. She’s really into music, and she seemed pretty upset about it. “How am I going to make it through two weeks without any music? I can’t fall asleep without it!”

“No problem,” I reassured her. “You can use my clock radio while you’re here. I have an alarm clock I can use.”

“Really?” Marie asked gratefully. “Thanks a lot, Carole. Hey, it doesn’t just play the farm report or anything, does it?”

“Ha ha,” I said, rolling my eyes. I was just starting to remember how Marie liked to make jokes about absolutely everything!

Still, I was enjoying having her around for most of the rest of that first day. Then it was time to start our homework.

“You can have my desk to yourself tonight,” I told Marie. “I have to write a two-page essay for English class, so I’ll be downstairs using the computer.”

I was still on the first paragraph of my essay when Marie came into the room.

“Uh, hi, Carole,” she said. “When you said you had a paper to write, that reminded me that I’m supposed to write
one, too. It’s for extra credit in my social studies class. Do you think I could use the computer when you’re finished?”

I bit my lip. I knew I should offer to let Marie do her work first, since she was a guest. On the other hand, Marie’s paper was only for extra credit, while mine was an assignment, so I wasn’t sure what to say.

Dad must have come into the room just in time to hear what Marie said. “Carole, why don’t you let Marie do her assignment first? She’s our guest, you know.” He had this sort of disapproving tone in his voice, like he was surprised he even had to tell me such a thing.

I felt pretty guilty then. “I was just going to say the same thing.” I saved my document and then let her use the computer while I went to help Dad with the dishes.

He said he wanted to talk to me about something. “It’s about Marie,” he said seriously. “I just wanted to make sure you know how important it is that we give her extra-special care. It hasn’t been that long since she lost her father, and it’s sure to be tough on her to have her mother so far away for such a long time.”

“I understand,” I said. “I’m being nice to Marie. And I’ve got a lot of special things planned for her, especially on her birthday.”

“That’s good, honey,” Dad said. “But it’s important to remember to be nice and consider Marie’s feelings in little ways as well as big ones. For instance, I noticed you took the last of the rice at dinner without asking Marie if she wanted more.”

I frowned. “I guess so, but she already had lots on her plate.”

“Even so, you should have asked,” Dad said.

I didn’t think that was really fair. But I promised Dad I’d be more careful, and that was that.

Until today. There were five minutes left in my English class this morning when a student I didn’t recognize came into the room and handed a piece of paper to my teacher.

Ms. Blackburn read the note. “Carole, could you come up here, please?”

Surprised, I went up to the desk. “What is it?”

“Your father is on the phone for you,” Ms. Blackburn said. “You’re excused to go to the principal’s office to take the call.”

My heart started pounding and my head started spinning. Why would Dad be calling me at school? As I walked down the hall toward the principal’s office, I tried to tell myself that this wasn’t like the last time he’d called me to the office phone. It couldn’t possibly be anything like that at all.

I tried to put the memory of that terrible day out of my mind. Still, I couldn’t help being nervous as I picked up the phone. “Hello?” I squeaked.

“Carole? Is that you?” Dad sounded as cheerful as ever.

“It’s me, Dad,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

“Listen, honey,” he said. “I thought I’d better remind you about the juice. I know you were pretty sleepy this morning, and I was afraid you’d forget.”

“The juice?” I repeated blankly. I didn’t have the foggiest
idea what he was talking about. I
was
pretty sleepy this morning. Marie kept the radio on until almost midnight last night. It was just loud enough to keep me awake, but I didn’t want to ask her to turn it down. After all, she was a guest.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Dad said. “Remember, I told you and Marie that we only had one insulated cooler bag, so I put both your juice boxes in with your lunch. You’ll need to give Marie her juice box before lunch. I know you two have different lunch periods, so I thought I’d better remind you.”

“Thanks, Dad,” I said mechanically, finally remembering the conversation he was talking about. Still, I couldn’t quite believe that was the whole reason he had dragged me out of class. “Are you sure that’s all?”

“That’s it, sweetie,” he said. “Now don’t forget, okay?”

I left the office feeling a little confused. But when my head started to clear, my confusion turned to relief, then annoyance. By now I’m on to anger.

Having Marie stay with us was supposed to be fun. And I guess in some ways it sort of is. But it’s also causing a lot more problems than I expected. Dad’s ragging on me for eating too much rice and scaring me half to death with emergency phone calls about juice. I had to stay up extra late working on my English paper after Marie finally finished hogging the computer for her extra-credit report, and then when I finally could go to bed I couldn’t sleep because her music was so loud. Plus when I went to give her that stupid juice box before her lunch period, it made me late for my next class and my teacher chewed me out in front of everyone!

It’s hard to believe Marie is already upsetting our life so
much when she hasn’t even been staying with us for twenty-four hours yet. How am I supposed to survive two whole weeks with my new “sister”????

(later)

I’m starting to think that everyone around me has been taken over by aliens. Why has having Marie around made everything seem so totally different?

Things have only gotten weirder since I wrote all that stuff earlier today. I spent the rest of the school day stewing about what happened with the phone call and the rest of it. So by the time Marie and I got to Pine Hollow this afternoon, I wasn’t exactly in the greatest mood.

And my friends? They didn’t even notice! Stevie was all excited and proud of herself because she managed to talk Max into letting us use the hayloft for Marie’s big birthday sleepover. And Lisa just grinned away as if that was the greatest news ever in the history of the world. It didn’t help that Stevie reported that Max said he’d been looking for something special to do for Marie himself. I mean, I know we all said we wanted Marie to have a nice time and everything, but you’d think she was Queen of Sheba the way everyone is carrying on over her!

Anyway, after they all finished making a fuss, we finally left on the trail ride we’d planned. But not before Marie cracked a few jokes about how messy the tack room was, which didn’t exactly make me feel sisterly.