Star Rider (5 page)

Then the cameras turned to Lisa and Pepper. They were filmed walking together, standing together, even trotting together. The camera followed Lisa’s hands and then her feet. There was even a shot taken from a dog’s point of view of the whole scene.

Although the actions were incredibly repetitive, Lisa was fascinated by it all and never even looked at her watch. When Oliver announced that it was time for lunch, she was very surprised to find that it was already one o’clock.

Skye and Lisa took sandwiches and soda from the buffet table and practically wolfed them down.

“I don’t know why I’m so hungry,” Lisa said, embarrassed by how much she was eating.

“It’s because you’re working hard,” Skye said. “And
soon you’re going to have to work even harder. See, we’ve got to get back to school now.”

“Again?”

“You were there for just twenty minutes this morning, weren’t you? You’ve got to put in a lot more time to satisfy the law. And I heard Oliver say they want to redo a couple of those close-ups on you and on me.”

Lisa started laughing. Skye was a little surprised. “I don’t need to go to school to learn,” she explained. “I’ve learned more here in a couple of hours than I would have thought possible. I’ve learned that all the people here, including the children, are doing a job. I’ve also learned that the job is often tedious and hard work. If anybody ever tries to tell me that movie acting is a glamour business, I’ll set them straight, okay?”

“Deal,” Skye said, shaking her hand. “Now, let’s get to class before the tutor sends out the dogs for us.”

The afternoon session at school was interesting, too. Lisa did some more work on earthquakes, and then all four of the students there had a spelling bee. Spelling was one of Lisa’s strengths. She beat everybody else with the word “picnicking.” Jesse and Skye congratulated her. So did Alicia, the stand-in for the girl who played Gavin’s sister. Jesse and Skye sounded as if they meant it. Alicia didn’t. Lisa wasn’t sorry when John called Alicia to the set.

At three o’clock school was dismissed. According to the schedule that was posted, Lisa was supposed to be done for the day at three-thirty. That suited her well because Stevie and Carole were coming over to Pine Hollow straight from school to do their hour of stable work for Max, and then the three of them were going to the mall to buy things for Colonel Hanson’s birthday party.

When three-thirty came, however, Lisa found herself back on the set. Oliver and John told Lisa and Skye that they’d checked the first prints of the scene they’d shot in the morning, and the lighting was all wrong. They had misjudged the strength of the natural light. They had to shoot the whole scene completely over.

Everybody was grumbling about the mistake. Lisa remembered the argument Oliver had had earlier and wondered if it was connected.

“This better not happen again,” John growled, frowning at the lighting crew.

Lisa raised her hand until Oliver noticed her. “I think I know something that will help,” she said. Everyone turned to listen, wondering what this newest member of the cast could come up with. “It’s a Pine Hollow tradition,” she explained. “And it’s right here.” She pointed to the doorway where Skye was to mount Pepper. “We call it the good-luck horseshoe. All the Pine Hollow
riders touch it before we begin a ride. Nobody who has touched it has ever been seriously hurt in a riding accident. I’m pretty sure it would cover film crews, too. Want to try?”

There was a heavy moment of silence. It was broken by a burst of laughter from Oliver and John. Then the rest of the crew joined in.

“It’s certainly worth a try!” Oliver agreed. He was the first to touch the horseshoe. After Oliver touched it, everybody else there, including the cameramen, lined up to do the same.

Stevie and Carole arrived as the chief electrician was touching the horseshoe. They waved wildly at Lisa and both started talking at once.

“Are you wearing
lipstick
?” Stevie asked.

“Why’s everyone touching the horseshoe?” Carole asked.

“Yes I am, and I thought everybody was going to come to blows about the lights, so I wanted to try to change the mood,” answered Lisa.

“Well, everybody’s laughing now,” Carole said. “So you must be some sort of genius.”

“Oh, she is,” Skye chimed in, fresh from the good-luck horseshoe himself. “Why didn’t you tell me she could spell everything? She showed the rest of us up in a
spelling bee!” He gave Lisa a little hug around her shoulders.

“We want to hear it all,” Stevie said seriously.

“You will. I promise,” Lisa said.

“How long until you can leave so we can go to the mall?” Stevie asked. “We’re going to go to TD’s first.”

Lisa looked at her watch again. It was three-thirty. She wanted to go to the ice-cream parlor and the mall with her friends, but the crew was going to reshoot everything they had done in the morning. It would take at least a couple of hours. She’d been looking forward to an impromptu Saddle Club meeting, but she wasn’t going to have it today.

“I can’t,” she said. “The goof they made is going to keep me here until dark. Can we do it tomorrow?”

“No, because I’ve already made a deal with Dad to meet us at the mall at six,” Carole said. “I can’t reach him to change that, so we have to go now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lisa said. She felt awful about it. She’d been looking forward to spending time with her friends, planning the colonel’s party.

“Look, what you’re doing now is once in a lifetime, and never for most people. Don’t worry. We can get lots done by ourselves,” Carole reassured her.

“Talk to you later, okay?” Stevie said.

“Deal,” Lisa said.

“Places!” Oliver announced. It was time to get back to work.

Stevie and Carole headed for the stable, where they were going to muck out stalls. Lisa returned to her place on the movie set.

“W
HERE DO WE
go first when we get to the mall?” Carole asked Stevie after they had settled into a booth at TD’s and placed their orders.

Stevie’s mind was on something else. She was thinking about Lisa and the movie set. Stevie and Carole had taken a few minutes from mucking out stables to watch the filming. “Wasn’t Lisa just wonderful?” Stevie asked. “I mean, the way she did just what the director told her to do and Pepper looked so great. It was fabulous, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was,” Carole agreed. “Although I didn’t like the fact that Pepper had been working such long hours. He’s not young anymore, you know.” It was just like Carole to think about the long hours that Pepper was working
and not think about the long hours that Lisa and Skye were working.

“He was just walking back and forth coming out the door of the stable,” Stevie reminded her.

“But all those times Skye mounted him. That can be quite difficult on a horse.”

“To say nothing of how difficult that can be on Skye,” Stevie said pointedly.

“I guess so,” Carole admitted, “but a horse doesn’t get paid a lot of money, and he can’t complain when something bothers him.”

“Maybe,” Stevie agreed. “Except that it seems to me that over the years horses have developed pretty good ways of complaining when they think they’ve worked enough. Like when they race for the stable the minute they decide their ride is over?”

Carole smiled. It was true. Horses did usually move faster going back to the barn than away from it.

“And, uh, speaking of going places, where are we going at the mall?” Carole asked, bringing the conversation back to the main topic of the afternoon.

“I saw in this week’s paper that there’s a sale at Marie’s,” Stevie told her.

“Marie’s is a dress shop,” Carole said. “Is that what you propose to buy for my father for his birthday? Because if
you do, I think he and some of his Marine Corps buddies may have a few things to say about it.”

“No, no,” Stevie said. “I was just thinking that, as long as we’re out there—you know. We might look for something for us, like to wear to the party.”

Carole dug into her sundae, which had just arrived. “I was thinking more of getting some plates or something.”

“Plates?” Stevie asked. She was so surprised she couldn’t even pick up her spoon. “What do we want with plates?”

“Well, for, like to eat off of,” Carole explained.

“Don’t you already have some of those in your house? I mean, seems to me the last time I ate there, we definitely used plates. I think they had flowers on them. Did they all break?”

“Of course not,” said Carole. “But don’t you think we should use paper plates for the party?”

“Okay, then, we’ll use paper plates,” Stevie agreed. “Then we won’t have so much to clean up. Good thinking.”

“But what are we going to put on them?” Carole asked. “If we’re giving a party, we have to have food and things to drink, don’t we?”

“Every good party does,” Stevie agreed. “The trouble
is, I don’t have any idea what to get—or how much. Do you know how many people are coming?”

Carole shook her head. “We sent out the invitations a while ago, and some people have called or told me in person that they were coming, but I don’t remember who or how many.”

“Some party-giving team we are,” Stevie said, almost groaning. “We need to organize.”

“We sure do. The problem is that we’ve always been able to rely on Lisa to do the organizing, but she’s busy with Skye and the movie.”

Stevie put her chin in her cupped hands and her elbows on the table. It was a way she had of thinking. There was no doubt about it: Lisa, the straight-A student, was the organizer of the group. She could always figure out what needed to be done. Stevie was the one who then usually figured out how to get it done. Without Lisa, she felt a little lost.

“Darn that movie,” Stevie said. “It’s ruining the party.”

“Nah,” Carole said. “It’s just making it harder. Besides, it’s a wonderful thing for Lisa. Even though we miss her for this, what she’s doing is important.”

“I know, I know,” said Stevie. “I just wish—”

“Yeah, me too,” Carole agreed.

“All right, then, but what is, is. So, let’s get started on our own. Let’s make a list.”

That seemed like a very good idea until both girls realized that neither of them had either paper or pencil to make it with. Fortunately, the waitress loaned them an order pad and a dull pencil. It was a start.

Their first stop at the mall was Marie’s, where, as Stevie predicted, there was a sale going on. They didn’t have enough money to buy anything, even on sale, but that didn’t stop them from trying on clothes.

“Isn’t this pink top just beautiful?” Carole asked, holding it up to herself in front of a mirror.

“Very pretty,” Stevie agreed. “And I bet it would go well with your green skirt. You could wear that to the party. Your dad would love it!”

“Oh, the party,” Carole said, recalling their actual mission at the mall. “I think we’d better get going, don’t you?”

Reluctantly, the girls left Marie’s and moved on to another store. Their next stop was a joke shop. Stevie was in seventh heaven. The place was filled with things that made strange sounds and/or jumped out of containers at unexpected moments. There was even a battery-operated “human” hand that sort of wiggled.

“Oh, gross!” Carole said.

“Your dad would love it!” Stevie said.

“That’s what I meant,” said Carole. “Anyway, we’re not here to buy a present for Dad. The party
is
his present. We’re supposed to be buying things for the party,
and I don’t think a wiggling rubber ‘hand’ is exactly what we need to make the party a success.”

“Yeah,” Stevie agreed reluctantly. “Let’s try another place, okay?”

Over the next hour and a half, the girls felt as though they went into every single store in the whole mall. They paused only briefly in the shoe shops and the earring stalls, but they closely scrutinized everything for sale in the sporting goods shops—especially the riding equipment—and in the men’s clothing store. Nothing seemed at all right for Colonel Hanson’s party.

As Carole and Stevie walked through the mall, they window-shopped, draped scarves on themselves, practiced swinging golf clubs, admired shoes, and ate fudge samples. They saw some friends from Pine Hollow and chatted about the excitement of the movie-making at the stable. The one thing they didn’t do was purchase anything for Colonel Hanson’s party.

Every few minutes Stevie went fishing in her purse and pulled out the now-tattered piece of paper with their “list.” It didn’t help much. All it said was “party supplies” and “plates.”

Stevie looked at Carole’s watch. They had only ten minutes until they were supposed to meet Carole’s father in the parking lot of the mall for their ride home. “I know!” she said. “We can get plates at the party-supply
section of the variety store.” She grabbed Carole’s hand, said “Follow me,” and dragged her through the door.

The two of them went right past penny candy, stockings, hair rollers, bows, even barrettes, and made their way right through stationery, not even pausing to look at ballpoint pens or five-millimeter mechanical pencils.

“Here they are!” Stevie declared. There, in front of the two of them, was a positively amazing array of paper plates for birthday parties. For a moment it seemed that they might actually be able to purchase something on their shopping list. However, closer inspection revealed that the selection at this shop was strictly limited to Saturday-morning cartoon characters.