Star Rider (10 page)

She took a long drink of her soda, hoping she had managed to close the subject and hoping Stevie would shift to something else. No such luck, though.

“Lisa, you’re trying not to tell me something,” Stevie persisted. “What happened?”

“It was nothing,” Lisa said. “Really.”

Stevie was one of Lisa’s best friends, and Lisa loved her an awful lot, but there were times when Stevie just couldn’t take a hint. This was one of those times.

“I know! You tried to steal the scene and Skye’s jealous!” Stevie teased.

“Stevie, please!” Lisa said, now almost irritated.

Carole tugged at Stevie’s sleeve. That didn’t work, either. Stevie was about to come up with something else when Skye spoke up.

“It was a terrible day on the set, Stevie,” he said. “And it wasn’t just because of the rain. Lisa is trying to be nice. She did everything right. I did everything wrong. We were filming an easy scene and I couldn’t get it. I had trouble with Pepper, but that wasn’t all. I had trouble with everything. Oliver is furious with me. We have to
hold over the filming until tomorrow, and I’m going to hear an awful lot about how much that is going to cost. Even worse, I’m not at all sure I’m going to do the scene any better tomorrow than I did today. I was not meant to be a horseback rider. Period.”

Suddenly Stevie was all seriousness. She could tease Lisa, but she’d never tease Skye. “Everybody has days like that,” she said, trying to reassure him.

“Not me,” he insisted. “I wanted to blame the horse, but it wasn’t really his fault. I was the one who couldn’t control him. I was the one who couldn’t perform, either as a rider or as an actor. I know Oliver was upset.”

“Oh, come on, Skye,” Lisa said. “You’re being hard on yourself. You just had a bad day. Tomorrow will be another day and it will be better.”

“When tomorrow comes, I’ll have to get back on Pepper and I’ll have to pretend I’m not frightened. That’s going to call for more acting skill than I have.”

Lisa felt bad for Skye. She and her friends loved horses and weren’t afraid of them. She hated to think how much fun she would miss if she were afraid of them and didn’t ride. But in Skye’s case, being afraid wasn’t just cutting him out of a lot of fun on horseback, it was interfering with what he did best—and that was acting.

Stevie had another idea, though. “Sure you’ve got acting skills that you can rely on, Skye, but you’ve got
something even more important than that. You’ve got The Saddle Club to rely on.”

“Hear, hear,” Carole added. Skye smiled. “And now that we’ve taken care of that problem, let’s get on to the bigger one—Dad’s birthday party. After all, it
is
tomorrow night.”

“We’ve got hats and nuts,” Lisa said, trying to be optimistic. “What else do we need?”

“If you want my opinion, the best birthday parties are the classics,” Skye said. “I mean, when I think ‘birthday party,’ I think of games like treasure hunts and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”

“Oh, come on,” Lisa said.

“No, really. Or else how about the kind of party where they have a magician?”

“Dad loves magic shows,” Carole said. “A magician would be just about perfect. And, to tell you the truth, I kind of like the idea of a sort of child’s birthday party for the child in my father.”

“Not a bad idea,” Stevie confirmed. “Sometimes it seems that the child in your father is about eighty-five percent of him!”

“Stevie!” Lisa said. “That’s not nice!”

“Yes, it is,” Carole said. “And it’s true. It’s one of the things that makes Dad so wonderful. The other fifteen percent—the grown-up part—is lovable, too.”

“And how about the half of him that sometimes drives you crazy?” Stevie asked.

Carole and Lisa exchanged looks. “No wonder she comes to us for help with her math homework,” Carole said. Stevie had the good grace to smile.

The glass window separating the girls and Skye from the driver lowered slowly.

“We’re coming into Willow Creek, Mr. Ransom. Where to first?” the driver asked politely.

“Once more around the park, James,” Skye said. “We’ve got some planning to do.”

“Very good, sir,” the driver said. He winked at the four conspirators and made the window rise noiselessly.

“I think I’m beginning to get the idea of how this is going to work,” Skye said. “Lisa, let’s make a list.”

Lisa reached into her pocketbook and pulled out her notebook and pencil.

“Now, here’s how it goes,” Skye began authoritatively. “First thing to put on the list is ‘one magician.’ ”

Lisa wrote it dutifully, but Carole was more than a little concerned.

“Where are we going to get a magician?” she asked.

“And how are we going to pay for it? I mean our budget barely allows for a pound of cashews, much less a full-fledged magician. Maybe, if I could get Dad to let me take some money out of my college account, or even out
of the money that I’m using to pay for Starlight’s boarding.… What
are
you doing?” she asked Skye when she realized that he wasn’t paying any attention at all to her talk about funding the magician.

Skye was wiggling his fingers nimbly in the air, almost as if he were trying to do some warm-up exercises with them.

“Yeah, what are you doing?” Stevie asked.

“Oh, not much,” Skye said. “I was just going to see what that is that you have stuck behind your ear.”

Then, before Stevie even had time to react, Skye reached for her head, brushed back her long hair, and pulled his hand back, revealing a quarter.

“And somebody once accused me of being a gold digger,” Skye said. “I’m really much more interested in silver. But sometimes …” He reached for the edge of Carole’s sleeve. “I like copper.” He handed her the penny he had “pulled” out of her sleeve.

Lisa’s eyes opened wide with wonder. “How did you do that?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Skye said mysteriously. “He does, however, rise to any occasion on which-his magic arts are required. Did you say something about wanting a magician for your father’s birthday party?”

“You would?” Carole said, jumping ahead.

“Why not?” Skye said. “After all, it’s something I can do—unlike riding a horse. And since we have to film tomorrow, I’ll just happen to be around. Do I get an invitation?”

“Oh, Skye!” Carole said excitedly. “Dad is just going to love it!”

She flung her arms around the surprised boy and gave him a big hug. He hugged her back.

I
T WAS HARD
for Lisa to believe that this was actually going to be her last day of filming. The whole experience had been a little surreal—like a dream that was almost too real—but now it was nearly over. Lisa found she was getting used to the crazy schedule of classes one minute, rehearsals the next, tests, and filming. She was no longer confused by the arrival and departure of students in the class, or upset by retakes, close-ups, and cameras that sometimes traveled on railroad tracks to follow a moving performer. It had somehow all become routine.

“Lisa, who was the French representative to the peace talks after World War I?” the tutor asked.

“Georges Clemenceau,” she answered promptly.

“Is this her last day?” Alicia asked. “I hope so, because
she’s showing up the rest of us.” Lisa had the feeling she was only half joking.

“Lisa applies herself to her studies,” the tutor said. “You might learn from her.”

The classroom door opened abruptly. John stuck his head in. “Lisa, Skye, you’re wanted on the set. It’s time for the reshoot of scene twenty-three.”

Lisa and Skye stood up to leave. Lisa couldn’t help noticing a look of great discomfort on Skye’s face. Scene twenty-three was the one where he had to canter up to the stable.

“You’ll be fine,” Lisa said, not thinking that anybody else would overhear her. She was wrong, though. Alicia overheard her, and she didn’t miss the opportunity to make the best of it.

“That’s right, Skye. All you have to do is apply yourself,” Alicia said, mimicking the tutor. There were a couple of snickers.

“Thanks,” Skye said good-naturedly, and then smiled. His grin, which had won the hearts of millions of moviegoers, took the sting out of Alicia’s teasing. “C’mon, let’s go,” he said to Lisa. “Let’s go break a leg.”

“Pepper’s leg?” Lisa joked.

Then all the kids in the class laughed. It was clear to
everybody that what was wrong with scene twenty-three was between Skye and Pepper.

M
AVERICK GREETED BOTH
Lisa and Skye warmly when they arrived at the paddock where the scene was to be shot. Lisa knelt down and gave the dog a big hug.

“Good, Lisa, that’s just what we want,” Oliver said. “Now let’s hear your line.”

Lisa looked up, imagining she was seeing Skye on horseback.

“Beautiful dog!” she said. She was supposed to sound sincere. It wasn’t hard. Maverick
was
a beautiful dog. He was also licking her ear and it tickled. She laughed.

“Nice job,” Oliver said, “except cut out the giggle, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” Lisa said obediently. That meant she was done with her part of the rehearsal. John showed her where to wait in the stable while Skye readied himself for the scene. One of the production assistants walked out of the stable with Pepper. Lisa gave him a reassuring pat. It was her way of telling Pepper to be good to Skye. She thought she ought to give Skye a reassuring pat, too, so he’d be good to Pepper!

She held Pepper’s bridle while Skye mounted him. While she did that, she rubbed Pepper’s cheek. It was a pat that horses just loved. She thought maybe he smiled
at her. That was a good sign. She just wished Skye could smile, too. He looked very uncomfortable. She wanted to help him in any way she could. She wished she could be with him in the woods when he began the canter toward the stable. That would help. Still, there was something …

“Okay, Skye, let’s begin,” Oliver said.

“Wait a sec, Skye,” Lisa interrupted, suddenly remembering something. “You forgot the good-luck horseshoe.”

Skye looked at her doubtfully. “I think this is going to take more than a horseshoe.” Still, he reached over and brushed the worn iron shoe that was nailed to the stable door. Then a stable hand took the horse’s bridle and led Skye outside. Since Lisa’s instructions were to wait inside until they were ready for her in about ten minutes, she couldn’t see what was going on. Considering the last look she’d seen on Skye’s face, maybe that was for the better.

Lisa didn’t mind waiting in the stable. She was always happy in the Pine Hollow stables. She saw that Veronica diAngelo’s horse, Garnet, needed some fresh water. She took the mare’s bucket and filled it at the tap. Garnet drank deeply and seemed to thank Lisa with her eyes. Garnet didn’t get much attention from Veronica. Lisa wished she owned a horse like Garnet—
her
horse would get all the attention it could possibly want.

Patch, a pinto gelding, was the first horse Lisa had ever ridden at Pine Hollow. Although she didn’t ride him much now, she always felt a special warmth toward him. He needed some hay. She took a flake of hay from a nearby bale and put it into his feeder. He munched contentedly.

Lisa walked along the aisle until she came to Starlight’s stall. As long as she was checking on special horses, she certainly ought to include Carole’s own Starlight. But Lisa didn’t see him there. She walked right up to the door of the stall and stood on tiptoe to see if he’d decided to lie down and rest, but there was no sign of him.

That was odd. Very few people except Carole would ever ride him, and she hadn’t seen Carole that morning. Would Carole come into the stable and take Starlight out without even saying hello to her? Besides, Carole was supposed to be at home, setting up the birthday party for tonight.

Confused, Lisa decided to investigate further. She walked around to the other side of the aisle to Topside’s stall. He was missing, too. Next, she checked the tack room. As she was beginning to suspect, Starlight’s and Topside’s tacks were both missing. The only thing it could mean was that Stevie and Carole had gone riding without her.

Lisa felt an odd twinge. As much as she was enjoying being part of the movie and working with Skye Ransom—the dream of only about one hundred million girls around the world—she once again felt that she was missing something, and that something was her friends. There she was, standing in a stable, surrounded by horses she couldn’t ride, waiting to be told when she should come outside and say “Beautiful dog!” while her friends were having a wonderful ride in the fields and woods around Pine Hollow.

Then she reminded herself that the movie-making would be over soon enough. Tonight there was Colonel Hanson’s birthday party, and tomorrow she could go for a ride with Stevie and Carole. She had a lot to look forward to while she waited for her cue.

P
EOPLE OFTEN TOLD
Skye Ransom that he was a perfectionist. He always thought it was a compliment, although some people didn’t say it in a way that sounded like a compliment. What they meant, he suspected, was that he always tried too hard, made too much of too many little problems. Good enough should be good enough. But good enough wasn’t enough for Skye. Best was what he insisted upon, always.