Starting Gate (10 page)

“I know.” Skye’s face reddened with helpless anger. “But what can I do about it? How am I going to get through this film?”

“I don’t know,” said Lisa, giving a big sigh. “But I promise, we’ll come up with something!”

Just then a whistle blew. The director was ready to start filming again.

“Here we go again,” Skye said dejectedly, walking back to his mark by Mabel’s stall. “Wish me luck.”

Carole and Lisa gave him a thumbs-up, then returned to their seats beside Stevie.

“What happened to you?” Lisa asked as she sat down, noticing an impish grin on Stevie’s face. “Skye really needed to talk.”

“Oh, I figured you guys could cheer him up,” Stevie replied mysteriously. “I worked my magic in other ways.”

“Huh?” Carole frowned and started to ask Stevie what she meant, but another thunderous
Quiet
! from Shev made them all sit still and pay attention to the filming, which was about to begin.

“Okay, everybody,” the director called. “Scene fifty-six. Take seven. Action!”

Skye moved forward, just as he had on the previous
six takes. “Hi, girl,” he said. “Are you ready to show them what you can do?”

Mabel looked at him adoringly, her big eyes calm, her ears pricked and happy. Everyone on the set held their breath as Skye clipped the lead on her halter and led her out of the stall. Obedient as any horse at Pine Hollow, she didn’t balk as the camera followed them to the paddock, and she stood absolutely still while Skye tacked her up. The Saddle Club kept their fingers crossed as he adjusted the saddle on her back and secured the stirrup leathers.

“Cut!” the director crowed. Everyone held their breath. Then, when he said, “And print!” everyone clapped with relief. Take seven was a success!

The director turned to the crew and smiled. “Nice work, everybody. And thanks especially to you, George. You really knew when to let that horse have a break.”

George grinned at Shev as the crew moved on to shoot the next scene. The Saddle Club hurried over to Skye.

“Skye,” said Lisa, “that was great!”

“Let’s go back to my trailer,” said Skye. “We can talk.”

They all followed him to his trailer without saying a word. After they’d flopped down on his comfortable couch, Skye shut the door and turned to face them.

“Okay, Stevie,” said Skye. “You stayed on the set
during the break. Tell me: What on earth did George Gamble do to calm that horse down?”

“Yes, Stevie,” agreed Carole. “That’s a good question. What did he do?”

“Who said George did anything?” Stevie looked at them with a sly smile. “The last I saw of George, he was heading for the caterer’s trailer.”

Lisa, Carole, and Skye stared at Stevie. “So what happened?”

“Well, I just went up to Mabel and had a little talk with her.”

“A little talk made Mabel see the light of day?” Lisa looked doubtful.

“Well, maybe the little piece of apple I gave her,” Stevie admitted.

“A little piece of apple?” Carole frowned.

“Well, maybe it was the little piece of tranquilizer I put inside the little piece of apple,” Stevie confessed. “That might have had something to do with it.”

“Tranquilizer?” Carole’s brown eyes grew wide. “Stevie Lake, where did you get a horse tranquilizer?”

“Remember those pills Veronica gave me for Danny? Well, I put them in my backpack way back in Virginia. I found them again when I pulled out my water bottle at the Pony Club competition this afternoon.” Stevie grinned. “I thought that if ever there was a time for some unauthorized drugging of a racehorse, this was it!”

“Oh, Stevie, I love you!” Skye rushed across the room and gave Stevie a gigantic hug. “Even if everybody on the set thinks I’m a jerk and George is a genius, I don’t care. Thanks to you, I’m a much better actor, and I’m one scene closer to finishing this move!”

“Great!” Stevie returned Skye’s hug, then she dug in her backpack on the floor. “Why don’t you take the rest of the pills? If things get really bad again, you can give Mabel a little piece of one to calm her down. You’ll have far more use for them with her than Veronica ever will with Danny.”

“Could I?” Skye looked at the small bottle of green pills in his hand as if they were solid gold. “These will be great for the rest of our one-on-one scenes, but I don’t know that they’ll help for the big race scene. I can’t ride her if she’s drugged. She’ll lose to the slowest of the other horses!”

Lisa frowned. “What are you going to do, then?”

“I don’t know.” Skye shook his head.

“I do,” said Stevie. “Let’s just rewrite the movie. We could have George be the evil trainer who bets against his racehorse and then drugs her so she’ll lose the race!”

“Oh, Stevie!” Carole laughed and threw one of Skye’s pillows at Stevie. Lisa joined in. Suddenly they were both pummeling her unmercifully.

“Wait, guys!” Laughing, Skye held up his hand. “I
cannot allow you to treat my new best friend Stevie Lake in such an undignified manner. She saved my job, at least for today, and she’s helped The Saddle Club live up to its reputation!”

Giggling, Lisa and Carole started throwing pillows at Skye. Soon everybody was on the floor in the middle of a raucous pillow fight. They didn’t stop until they heard a sharp rap at the door.

“Five minutes, Mr. Ransom,” called a voice. “Scene forty-five.”

“Oh, wow,” Skye sighed, sitting in the middle of the floor. “Guess I’ve got to go back to work. Do you guys want to stay longer, or should Stephan drive you back to the hotel?”

“I think we’d better get back,” said Lisa. “Max and Deborah might wonder where we are.”

“Is there any chance you could come watch us tomorrow at the rally?” asked Carole. “Stevie and Lisa are supposed to compete.”

“Yeah,” said Stevie. “You could come cheer us on.”

“I’d love to,” Skye replied sadly. “But I can’t. Tomorrow we’re supposed to shoot the big race scene.” He sighed again. “Believe me, I’d much rather come and watch you ride than try to ride Mabel, but duty calls.”

“We understand,” said Lisa. “Good luck, though.”

“Yes, Skye,” Stevie said. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” he replied. “I’m sure I’ll need it!”

“S
TEVIE
? C
AROLE
? L
ISA
? Wake up. I need to talk to you!”

Stevie’s eyelids fluttered open. For a moment she didn’t know where she was—all the familiar junk that surrounded her bed at home was missing. Then she sat up and looked around the room. Carole and Lisa were sleeping on the bed beside hers, while golden California sunshine streamed through the window.

Someone was knocking on their door.

“Just a minute!” Stevie called as she jumped out of bed. Without bothering to throw a robe over her huge University of Virginia sweatshirt, she pulled the door open. Deborah stood there, Maxi grinning from her arms.

“Hi.” Stevie blinked sleepily. “What’s going on?”

“I wanted to tell you that I just heard from the shipping company and they’ve guaranteed that your horses will be at Ashford Farms before noon.”

“Really?” The thought of Belle woke Stevie up immediately. “That’s wonderful!”

“I know,” agreed Deborah with a smile. “Since you and Lisa are both scheduled to ride, you’d better get up and get ready. After all, that’s what this trip was for, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely,” said Stevie.

“Well, why don’t you wake Veronica up, too. Then you four can meet Max and me downstairs for breakfast in about twenty minutes. We can all ride to Ashford Farms in the rental car.”

“Okay,” Stevie replied. “That sounds great.”

Deborah dubiously lifted one eyebrow. “You won’t go back to sleep, will you?”

“Not now,” promised Stevie. “I’m wide awake!”

“Okay, then. Twenty minutes.”

With Maxi waving chubby fingers in farewell, Deborah hopped on the elevator while Stevie turned to wake her friends.

“Wake up, guys,” Stevie called, pulling the blanket off Carole and Lisa. “Our horses are arriving sometime between now and noon. We’ve got to get ready to ride!”

Carole and Lisa sat up and rubbed their eyes. “They’re actually bringing our horses?” asked Lisa. “How do you know?”

“Deborah just told me,” said Stevie, hurrying into the bathroom to brush her teeth. “We’re supposed to meet her and Max in twenty minutes for breakfast and then go over to Ashford Farms.”

“Cool.” Lisa sprang out of bed. “I’m so excited!”

“I’m excited, too,” Carole said. “Or at least I’m excited that at least some of us will get to compete.”

“It’s really too bad about Starlight, Carole,” said Stevie through a mouthful of toothpaste. “I know you could have won that hunter-jumper class.”

“Well, maybe.” Carole stretched her arms high above her head. “I did appreciate you guys being there for me, even when I didn’t ride. I’ll be happy to do the same for you today.” She laughed. “You can just call me your equipment manager.”

“That would be great,” said Lisa. “If only we had some equipment for you to manage. Too bad it’s still on the truck.”

Everyone dressed quickly, with minutes to spare. “Let’s hurry down to the dining room,” said Carole. “For some reason, I’m starved!”

“Wait.” Stevie frowned. “First we’ve got to wake Veronica.”

They walked to the door that connected their
rooms and knocked loudly. They heard nothing, then the door jerked open.

“Yes?” Veronica was dressed in a frilly pink nightgown and had a white satin eye mask pushed up on her forehead.

“Hi, Veronica.” For a moment Stevie could only blink at Veronica’s weird sleeping attire. “Are you feeling better?”

Veronica looked at them strangely. “Why, yes. I feel fine.”

“We’re so sorry the sweetbreads didn’t agree with you,” Lisa said sympathetically.

“The sweetbreads?” Veronica frowned. “Why, it wasn’t the sweetbreads at all. The doctor said I contracted a case of a rare stomach flu that only affects people with delicate constitutions.”

“Well, would you like to bring your delicate constitution down to the dining room and have breakfast with the rest of us?” Stevie asked. “Our horses are supposed to arrive before noon, and we’re all going over to Ashford Farms to wait for them.”

Veronica gave a haughty snort. “What would be the point in that? I’m not scheduled to ride Danny in anything. I’d just be stuck there watching you guys and a bunch of other amateurs who have nothing to teach me.” She removed the mask from her forehead and shook her dark hair. “I’m going to get a cab and
go shopping. I can’t imagine wasting a perfectly good trip to Los Angeles without stopping at least once on Rodeo Drive. I’ll see you people at dinner tonight.”

With a toss of her head, Veronica closed her door.

Stevie, Carole, and Lisa just looked at each other.

“Well,” said Lisa. “Guess the stomach flu didn’t improve her delicate constitution very much.”

“Oh, look on the bright side,” Stevie said with a grin. “We’ve never had an easier time getting rid of Veronica diAngelo, and we didn’t have to do a thing!”

They hurried down to the hotel café, where Max, Deborah, and Maxi were waiting for them. This time, Stevie ordered scrambled eggs and bacon instead of her new yogurt-and-jam concoction.

“You don’t have the stomach flu, too, do you?” Lisa asked, glancing at Stevie’s normal-looking plate.

“Oh, no.” Stevie chomped her bacon happily as she buttered a piece of toast for Maxi to gnaw. “I’m just too excited about seeing Belle to invent any new breakfasts today.”

“That’s a relief.” Carole laughed. “We get worried when you start to eat like a regular person.”

They finished breakfast quickly, then they all piled into the rental car and drove to Ashford Farms. Cars and horse trailers were parked alongside the long driveway, and inside the showgrounds it looked as if every Pony Club member in the world was waiting to
ride. People had already crowded into the arena, and outside even more were milling around the different exhibits and rides and refreshment stands.

“Everybody, look and see if we can find the In-Transit van with our horses!” Stevie cried, bolting upright in the backseat.

“Good idea,” said Carole. They all searched for the big red van as Max parked the car, but nobody spotted it.

“Don’t worry yet,” said Deborah, hoisting Maxi on one hip as they began to walk back toward the arena. “They aren’t due until noon. And I made them promise to page us from the ring announcer’s stand when they got here.”

“Do you think they know what
page
means?” asked Stevie.

Deborah shrugged. “Let’s hope.”

“Why don’t we just concentrate on having fun until they come,” suggested Max. “It’ll keep us all from getting nervous.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” said Carole. She looked over at the pony ride, which had just stopped to let new passengers on. “May I take Maxi on that pony ride?”

“Sure,” laughed Deborah, who was having trouble holding the squirming Maxi. “In fact, I think that’s exactly what she wants to do.”

Carole scooped up Maxi and carried her over to
the pony ride. She placed her on a fat little pinto pony and held on to her while the pony walked slowly around the ring. Maxi squealed in delight, and Max filmed her with his video camera.