Stable Hearts (8 page)

Lisa’s eyes widened when she realized what Stevie was thinking. She had loved Pepper, and his death had been very hard on her.

“Not that old,” Carole said, putting a comforting hand on Lisa’s arm. “I think he’s in his early twenties, but ponies live a long time, longer than horses, usually.”

“Good,” Lisa said. “We can’t lose Dime.”

“Of course not!” Carole said quickly. Up until that point she’d only worried about Dime being in pain from some unknown injury. She’d never thought of Dime’s dying.

“Of course not,” Stevie echoed. “He doesn’t look that bad. But he’ll have to shape up soon, or I don’t know what Max will do with him. He hasn’t been able to be used in lessons all week.” The girls sighed. Dime’s behavior hadn’t improved at all. He’d even nipped Red.

“Penny’s been a little out of sorts, too,” Carole said. “I hope whatever Dime has isn’t contagious.”

Someone knocked on Lisa’s bedroom door. It was Lisa’s mother. “Look, dear!” she said, coming into the room. “I saw this at the store this evening, so I bought it for you to wear to your dance! Isn’t it cute?” Mrs. Atwood worked part-time at a fashion shop in the Willow Creek Mall. She held up a fluffy angora tunic sweater with hearts embroidered down the sleeves. It was hot pink—very hot.

Lisa blinked. “Gee—I, uh—thanks, Mom!” she stammered. Lisa’s mother enjoyed shopping much more than Lisa did, so it wasn’t unusual for her to buy Lisa clothes on the spur of the moment. However,
she usually bought preppy, conservative, little-girl things. This tunic was wild.

“Geez,” Stevie said when Mrs. Atwood had gone. “You’ll outshine Veronica! I think this is the same color as those breeches she was trying to impress Simon with.”

“Maybe she’ll loan me the breeches,” Lisa said. “Then I can be the same color from head to toe.” Her friends stared at her until they realized that she was joking.

“The same very bright color!” Carole said, starting to laugh.

Lisa pulled her sweatshirt off and tried the sweater on in front of her mirror. It reached nearly to her knees, but the sleeves and shoulders fit her well. It
was
very bright, but she kind of liked it.

“You’ll attract attention,” Stevie remarked. “People will think you’re on fire.”

Lisa stuck out her tongue, then went back to the mirror. “Should I really wear this? My mother might be disappointed if I don’t—and I kind of like it—but I never wear stuff like this.”

“Of course you’ll wear it,” Carole said firmly. “It’s cool. Wear your black leggings instead of your blue jeans, put your black turtleneck on under
the sweater, and tie your hair back with a black bow. That’ll tone the color down a little, and you’ll look fabulous.”

Lisa smiled. “Good idea! I think I will wear it. I was going to wear my red sweater again, and my turtleneck with the hearts. What are you going to wear, Carole?”

Carole shrugged. “I haven’t got anything with hearts on it. I thought I’d just wear the navy sweater Aunt Jessie sent me for Christmas.”

“Why don’t you wear my red one instead?”

Carole smiled. “That’d be great! Thank you. How about you, Stevie? What are you going to wear?”

Stevie scowled. “It’s hardly going to matter. The person I most want to see me isn’t going to be there.”

Carole and Lisa looked at each other. Lisa changed back into her sweatshirt, neatly folded her new sweater, and sat down on the floor beside Stevie. Carole sat down on Stevie’s other side.

“Haven’t you and Phil gotten this worked out yet?” Lisa asked. She felt a little bad; she’d been avoiding the subject with Stevie, even though she knew her friend was upset. Lisa just wasn’t sure she sympathized with her on this one—at least,
not entirely. And it was hard to hear someone complain about her boyfriend when she didn’t have one.

“We haven’t worked anything out at all,” Stevie said. “I’ve talked to him every night this week, but we never get anywhere except into another fight. We keep having one of those did-not did-too conversations, like I used to have with my brothers, only these are more like ‘Mine!’ ‘No, mine!’ We’re not getting anywhere.”

“I remember having an argument like that when I was really little,” Carole said. “I was staying with my cousin, and we kept fighting over this funny windup toy. It got so bad that my mother finally went out and bought a duplicate so that we could each play with our own.”

Stevie gave her a despairing look. “That’s the situation we already have!” she said. “We’ve got two dances! What we need is only one!” She paused, then raised an eyebrow. “Maybe we could get Phil’s school closed by the county board of health. That might work.”

Lisa laughed, but she could tell that Stevie was just barely joking. If she got much more worked up, she might do something stupid. Lisa wouldn’t put it past Stevie to empty her brother Michael’s
ant farm into Phil’s school cafeteria, then call the county inspectors about an infestation.

“I know you’re upset,” she said gently, “but I think Phil has a point, too. He’s spent a lot of time organizing this dance, and he’s probably worked very hard. Of course he wants to show it off to you. You’re the person whose opinion matters most to him!”

“My opinion is that he should come to
my
dance,” Stevie retorted. “I understand what you’re saying, Lisa, but I should be more important to him than any crummy dance, whether he’s worked on the committee or not. If he really, truly cared about me, he would skip his dance. What’s the point of Valentine’s Day anyway, if you can’t spend it with the person you care about?”

“Maybe you can do both dances,” Carole suggested. “Spend half the night at Pine Hollow, and half the night at his school.”

“We’d spend half the night in the car, going back and forth between dances,” Stevie said impatiently. “Besides, I wouldn’t get to hang around you guys very much. This isn’t just about our dances anymore. This is an argument about a
principle. Phil should come to Pine Hollow because it’s important to me.”

Carole and Lisa sighed. Carole didn’t know what else to say. When Stevie went downstairs to get more sodas, Carole turned to Lisa. “You know, I bet Phil’s sitting at home right now, thinking, ‘Stevie should go to my school dance because it’s important to me. If she truly cared about me, she would skip her dance.’ ”

Lisa chewed a piece of the ice left in her glass. “I know. You and I can both see that Phil’s side of the story is just as good as—in fact, it’s probably identical to—Stevie’s, but Stevie can’t see it at all. I’m not sure we can convince her, either.”

Carole nodded. “Stevie really wants to get her own way on this. I don’t think we can do anything, except hang around to console her when she breaks up with Phil.”

Lisa shook her head. “Seems like a stupid reason to lose a boyfriend.”

“I’ve got it!” Stevie threw open Lisa’s door so hard that one of the open cans of sodas she was carrying spilled. The girls spent several minutes mopping Lisa’s carpet with some bathroom towels.

“Sorry,” Stevie said. “At least it was diet lemon-lime. No stickys, no stains. But I’ve come up with a really excellent plan!” She settled herself on the floor and took a long sip of one of the remaining sodas. “Tomorrow, after Horse Wise has finished helping Mrs. Reg decorate the hay bam, I’m going to invite Phil to come see it. When he sees how wonderfully, perfectly romantic it’s going to be—how much nicer than that smelly, linoleum-covered cafeteria—I know he’ll want to come to our dance.”

Lisa wasn’t convinced this scheme would work, but it was a lot less destructive than having Phil’s school condemned. She gladly offered Stevie her phone to call Phil right away.

Stevie called and hung up grinning. “He said he was happy to come,” she reported. “His mom’s taking him into town anyway so that he can put the finishing touches on his cafeteria. He’s coming at noon.” She laughed. “Carole, Lisa, I feel so much better! This is going to be a great Valentine’s Day after all!”

“W
HAT A BEAUTIFUL
morning,” Carole said. She paused to sniff the springlike air before helping Lisa push the two heavy doors of Pine Hollow’s
hay barn open. At the end of summer, the hay bam was filled top to bottom and edge to edge with bales of hay for the Pine Hollow horses. By February, however, the supply of hay was always getting low enough that the main floor of the old-fashioned barn was completely clear. Now Horse Wise was setting up for the evening’s festivities. Adam, Polly, and a few of the other Pony Clubbers climbed into the loft and threw some hay bales down. The rest of the kids stacked them at the sides of the barn to make seats and tables for the dance.

“Just angle those bales a little more to the left, Betsy,” Stevie directed. “We want to create a cozy atmosphere.”

“Who died and made you director of operations?” Betsy asked. She pushed her bales flat against the wall.

“It’s a much cozier atmosphere,” Stevie said cheerily, adjusting Betsy’s bales for her. Betsy walked away without saying anything.

“Don’t let Betsy bug you,” Meg whispered to Stevie and Lisa. “Adam hasn’t asked her to the dance yet, and she’s a little upset.”

Stevie patted Meg’s arm conspiratorially. “When we got here I saw something red fall out
of Adam’s pocket. He picked it back up, but it looked like a heart. Like an invitation. Tell Betsy not to worry.”

Meg brightened. “Thanks.”

Stevie waved her hand. “Don’t mention it.” To Lisa she added, “Love is in the air today. Love is everywhere today.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lisa said. Since the moment Stevie had talked to Phil the night before, she’d been awash with romance. Lisa was afraid she and Carole would drown in Stevie’s sentiment before the night was over.

When the hay bales were set up to Stevie’s satisfaction, the younger kids swept the loose hay from the floor. The Saddle Club brought out the string of lights and showed everyone how to hang the paper lanterns over the bare bulbs. Max brought in his CD player and speakers, and Lisa helped him set the automatic changer he’d borrowed so that the first hour’s worth of music would play continuously.

“Make the first song ‘Just As Long As We’re Together,’ ” Stevie said, coming over from where she was telling Simon and Polly exactly how to hang the lights. “It’s our song—Phil’s and mine.”

This was news to Lisa, but she put the song on
first anyway. At
least one member of The Saddle Club is going to have a perfect evening
, she thought.

“Here, Veronica,” said Stevie, “why don’t you blow up these balloons? You’ve got plenty of hot air.”

Veronica took the balloons from Stevie without comment. “Simon? Oh, Simon? Could you help me with these balloons?” Simon came down from the ladder and walked across the room to her. Lisa couldn’t help noticing how cool his walk was. Simon had been such a geek. How could anyone change so much in such a short time?

“Sure,” he said to Veronica.

“Oh, thanks. It takes such strong lungs to blow up balloons.”

“Oh, barf,” Lisa whispered to Stevie.

“You are coming to the dance tonight, aren’t you?” Veronica continued.

“Of course,” Simon said. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

“I didn’t think so,” Veronica said sweetly.

Lisa smiled to herself. So Simon hadn’t asked Veronica! Maybe she and Carole wouldn’t be the only people their age without dates for the dance.

Carole was hanging white and pink twisted streamers near the door when she saw Mr. Stowe pull up outside. She waved to him. He came to
the door and looked inside, rubbing his hands together happily. “This looks great,” he said. “Don’t worry, I brought my surprise. But I’m not telling you yet—it might get back to Elizabeth. You kids let me know when you’re all the way done.”

“Okay,” Carole said, amused by his interest. Not too many old men would be so interested in a young persons’ dance.

T
HEY HAD JUST
finished when Phil’s mother pulled up and Phil hopped out of the car. Stevie rushed out to greet him.

“We’ll go check on Dime,” Carole said, pulling Lisa along with her.

“Thanks,” Stevie called back gratefully. She wanted this special moment alone with Phil—this special moment when he told her how important she was to him.

“Look,” she said as they walked into the barn holding hands, “isn’t this romantic?” She showed him the lights and the balloons and the streamers. She told him which song would play first on the stereo. She pointed out the hay bales artfully arranged in the corners.

Phil seemed interested in everything. “It really
looks super,” he said. “You guys have done a great job. I wish we’d thought of the paper lanterns.”

They stood in the middle of the floor, holding hands and smiling at one another.

“It’ll be perfectly romantic,” said Stevie.

Phil looked at her expectantly. “Now are you going to tell me?” he asked.

Stevie frowned. “Tell you what?”

“That you’re coming to my dance. That’s why you wanted me here this afternoon, isn’t it? Because I wouldn’t be able to see the barn otherwise. Thanks, Stevie. It’s a great surprise.”

Stevie couldn’t believe her ears. “The surprise is what a jerk you are!” she said. “This was supposed to make you want to come to my dance!”

Phil’s expression changed to fury. “Well, I don’t!” he said. “I want to go to my dance!”

“Then go!” Stevie shouted. “I’m not going with you! I hope you have a great time dancing with all the other girls!”

“Fine!” Phil turned on his heel and went back to his mother’s car. He slammed the door.

“Fine!” Stevie shouted after him, but she’d never felt worse in her life.