Show Judge (9 page)

There was an awkward silence. Corey was looking at the two of them curiously. “Corey,” Stevie said, “start cleaning Samurai, but don’t tack him up; we’re not going to be riding today.”

The girl hurried into the stall, obviously eager to get started.

Lisa decided to make the first gesture. “I’m sorry I haven’t called you. School stuff kept me really busy.” It wasn’t quite true, but she wasn’t ready to talk about the real reasons yet.

“I know what you mean. I haven’t had a second to myself!” Stevie responded with sincere exasperation. “In fact, I haven’t talked to Carole, either.”

One part of Lisa was relieved to hear it. Ever since she had asked Carole for help and had been refused, she had felt out of sync with her friends and had been afraid that Stevie and Carole might be talking behind her back. But another, larger, part of her was alarmed.
None
of The Saddle Club had been speaking to each other. Something had to be done immediately. “I was thinking,” she said. “We haven’t been able to get together all week, so what about a sleepover? I could ask Max if we could use the hayloft tomorrow night.”

Stevie hesitated, a slight frown clouding her face.

Lisa was surprised and a bit hurt that Stevie wasn’t
jumping at her suggestion. “Look, if you don’t want to—”

“No, no, of course I want to,” Stevie said.

Lisa was still puzzled by her initial hesitation. Was it possible Stevie didn’t want to spend time with her because they were in competition with each other? Stevie could be very competitive, but perhaps there was more to it. The important thing was to get them all together so that they could clear the air and get back to normal. “One of us should ask Carole. Have you seen her around?”

“No, but then Corey and I haven’t made any
mistakes
today.”

Lisa was taken aback by the resentment in Stevie’s voice. Perhaps Stevie and Carole were having problems of their own. “It wouldn’t be a Saddle Club meeting without her, though. Right?”

Stevie looked ashamed. “Of course not. Tell you what, we’ll call her later when we finish our lessons.”

“Great. I’ll go clear it with Max.”

“Good. Meantime, I’ve got to get to work with Corey. I’m going to teach her about braiding today. Wish us luck.”

“Believe me, I do!” said Lisa, recalling her own exasperating experience trying to teach Jasmine that particular skill. She hurried off to find Max, who, as it
turned out, was in the hayloft and didn’t mind at all if they made use of it Saturday night.

It was with a much lighter heart that Lisa returned to her work with Jasmine. She carefully checked the girl’s list. “Are you sure there’s nothing else you can think of?”

Jasmine shook her head.

“Okay, let’s go to the tack room. You’re going to get Outlaw ready for a show using only the items that you put on this list, and if you’ve forgotten something …” She shrugged, leaving the sentence unfinished.

On their way to the tack room they passed by Samurai’s stall. Lisa couldn’t resist peeking in to see how it was going. Samurai’s mane was a neatly braided work of art.

“Excellent work, Corey,” Stevie was saying.

Corey grinned at her Pony Partner. “It always looked so hard when I watched my dad do it, but you made it seem easy.”

Lisa bit her lip. In some areas Stevie was obviously a much better teacher than she was. Slightly depressed again, she followed Jasmine to the tack room and watched as the younger girl collected the items on her list. As she supervised, she mulled the braiding problem over in her head. It would really benefit Jasmine to have Stevie teach her how to braid, but it wouldn’t be
fair of Lisa to ask unless she could offer Stevie something in return. The question was, what?

“That’s everything on the list,” Jasmine announced.

Lisa eyed the pile on the ground. “Okay, then that’s all you’ve got to work with. If you’ve forgotten something, you’ll have to do without it, and so will Outlaw.”

Actually Lisa had already spotted a couple of items missing from the list. It would be interesting to see how Jasmine was going to clean her pony’s feet without a hoof pick or get him water without a bucket. This exercise would certainly help her learn some organizational skills. Which gave Lisa an idea. Stevie might be really good at teaching braiding, but she was notoriously bad at record keeping and organization, an area Lisa excelled in. Maybe she had something to offer in exchange after all! She hurried off to find Stevie and ask her.

C
OREY HAD DONE
such a good job on Samurai’s mane that Stevie decided they could move on to his tail. “We always use a French braid on a hunter’s tail,” she explained, “but there are two different ways to do it. The first one I’m going to teach you is the under braid, which is the easiest. Once you can do that, we’ll move on to the over method.”

“That makes sense,” said a voice from outside the stall.

Stevie turned, startled to see Carole. For some reason, in spite of the fact that Carole had sounded approving, Stevie felt like she had been caught doing something wrong. She resented the feeling. “Carole, I didn’t expect to see you here today.”

Lisa came hurrying down the hall. “Carole, what are you doing here?”

“I decided I needed a good old-fashioned trail ride, and I was hoping you two might want to come along.”

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t,” Stevie said. “I still have a lot of work to do with Corey.”

“Me too,” said Lisa. “Only with Jasmine, of course,” she added.

Stevie felt bad when she saw Carole’s disappointment. “Lisa did have a great idea, though. She suggested a hayloft sleepover tomorrow night. That is, if Max approves.”

“He already did,” Lisa told them happily. “So what do you think, Carole, you up for a long overdue Saddle Club meeting tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow night?” Carole said. “Well … I’ll have to check with Dad. I think there might be one of those all-night old-movie marathons on, and you know how
he loves to have me watch with him. But if not, I guess I can. I think.” She strode off down the hall.

Stevie exchanged glances with Lisa, who seemed equally surprised by Carole’s unenthusiastic response. Of course they all had to check with their parents first, but that was hardly ever a problem. They all automatically assumed they could do these things until they were told differently. This time Carole seemed to assume right off the bat that she
wouldn’t
be able to.

Lisa put her hands on her hips. “What’s up with her these days?”

Stevie shook her head. “I have no idea. It’s not like she’s the one under pressure to perform.”

“Yeah,” agreed Lisa. “She’s the ringmaster and we’re the performing ponies. Speaking of which, I’ve got to get back to Jasmine.”

Stevie spent the rest of the afternoon perfecting Corey’s tail braiding technique and reminding the girl not to get so absorbed by her work that she placed herself in a position to be kicked. From time to time she noticed Carole hanging around the locker room, which struck her as odd since she had said she was going on a trail ride. Perhaps Carole had changed her mind when she found out Stevie and Lisa couldn’t go with her. Stevie considered talking to her about it, but she needed to wrap things up and get home quickly. Her
aunt was going to be visiting them for a few days and the last thing Stevie wanted was to upset her parents by being late for dinner. She was even determined to be nice to her brothers for the entire meal!

L
ISA AND HER
Pony Partner were finishing up when Corey stopped by the stall to see if Jasmine was ready to leave. During the course of the afternoon, Jasmine had discovered several items she needed that had been missing from her list. Now, after making the additions, she and Lisa were both secure in the knowledge that come show day they would have everything they needed at their fingertips.

“Why don’t you go ahead?” Lisa said to Jasmine.

“But I haven’t put all the equipment away yet.”

“I can take care of it this time,” Lisa offered. “You did a good job on that list. You can call it a day.”

Jasmine smiled at her gratefully. “Thanks, Lisa, you’re the best.”

Lisa watched the duo hurry away, then picked up the grooming kit and a few other scattered items, returned them to their proper places, and took one final look around to make sure all was as it should be. As she headed for the locker room, she remembered she had forgotten to ask Stevie about the braiding lesson. Oh well, she could ask her tomorrow at the sleepover.

The room was quiet as she entered. Not bothering to turn on the lights, since there was still enough daylight for her to see by, she quickly scooped up her things and headed for the door. As she was about to exit, she stopped short and turned back. Carole’s cubby was open. Worse, her judging folder was sticking out where anybody could get to it! Lisa remembered the ice cream parlor and how worried her friend had been that something might happen to the folder. Without another thought, Lisa moved quickly to the locker. She was reaching out to shove the items safely back inside when Carole ripped open the changing curtain, shouting, “Got ya!”

Lisa was so startled she actually gave a small scream.

Carole stared, her face a mask of astonishment and anger. “You? You’re the one who did it?”

“Carole, you scared me half to death!” cried Lisa, annoyed by what she thought was her friend’s childish prank to frighten her.

“All this time I’ve been racking my brains trying to figure out who had gotten into my folder, but it never once occurred to me it might have been Stevie or you!” Carole’s voice was shaking and her eyes were full of tears. “I thought I knew you, but I don’t know you at all!” With that she ran out of the room, clutching her folder to her chest.

Lisa was in a state of bewilderment.
What just happened here?
Carefully she replayed the scene in her mind: reaching for Carole’s folder, then Carole jumping out from behind the curtain where she had been hiding. Had it been a trap? Did Carole believe someone had been cheating and reading her notes? And did she really believe that that someone was
her
? Lisa was almost in tears at the idea. How could Carole think that? They were supposed to be best friends! Friends trusted each other. Friends helped each other. Maybe they weren’t friends after all.

As Lisa headed for home, the tears rolled freely down her cheeks. What was happening to The Saddle Club?

S
ATURDAY ALL THE
riders gathered at Pine Hollow. They started the day with an unmounted meeting, where Max and Carole showed them how to prepare a horse for traveling in a trailer and the easiest way to load an animal, then everyone moved to the tack room for a lesson on how to clean and maintain their equipment.

Distractedly, Carole added a capful of ammonia to the water bucket to help cut grease and remove dirt from the leather. Her mind kept wandering back to the other evening when she had caught Lisa trying to sneak a peek at her judging folder. She couldn’t get over the betrayal. It made her both angry and heart-broken.
Lisa was the last person on the planet she would ever have suspected of snooping.

Max signaled Carole that he was ready to start. “You begin by using a moist, not wet, sponge, to take off the surface dirt,” he said, wiping at the seat of a saddle. “When the tack is clean but still damp, rub glycerin saddle soap into it. If you work up a lather you’re using too much, which can dull the shine and eventually crack the leather.”

Carole’s eye happened on Stevie, who was sitting at the back with Corey, well away from Lisa and Jasmine. Again, she felt a twinge of annoyance and disappointment. Stevie seemed totally preoccupied these days with her parents’ upcoming anniversary. Carole couldn’t help feeling that Corey was getting the short end of the stick. From what she had observed, Stevie was neglecting good record keeping—Corey’s equipment box was complete chaos, and Carole was fairly certain they hadn’t yet gotten around to setting a date to have Samurai’s shoes checked before the show.

“Carole. Carole?” Max looked at her expectantly. “May I have the cloth, please?”

With a guilty smile, she handed it to him. She should have been paying better attention.

“You don’t rinse the soap off,” Max continued. “Instead,
use a soft cloth to buff the leather to raise the shine.”

Carole noticed May was riveted on everything Max said and did. Veronica, on the other hand, was sitting in a corner at the back of the room, reading a book.
Well that’s no great surprise. At least Veronica makes no attempt to conceal her real nature
, she thought.

Max was winding up the demonstration. “To make the leather even more supple, you can use a nonoily leather dressing, but never, never use neat’s-foot oil. It will only make things dark and greasy.”

L
ISA STIRRED RESTLESSLY
in her seat. For the first time in a long time she was actually wishing she was any place but Pine Hollow. That terrible scene with Carole kept replaying over and over in her head, making it impossible for her to focus on what Max was saying. Why would Carole assume she had been trying to cheat? Didn’t she know her better than that? After all the things they’d been through, Carole should at least have given her the benefit of the doubt.