Horse Fever
Authors: Bonnie Bryant
MEET
T
HE
S
ADDLE
C
LUB
Horse lover
CAROLE …
Practical joker
STEVIE …
Straight-A
LISA …
#1 HORSE CRAZY
#2 HORSE SHY
#3 HORSE SENSE
#4 HORSE POWER
#5 TRAIL MATES
#6 DUDE RANCH
#7 HORSE PLAY
#8 HORSE SHOW
#9 HOOF BEAT
#10 RIDING CAMP
#11 HORSE WISE
#12 RODEO RIDER
#13 STARLIGHT CHRISTMAS
#14 SEA HORSE
#15 TEAM PLAY
#16 HORSE GAMES
#17 HORSENAPPED
#18 PACK TRIP
#19 STAR RIDER
#20 SNOW RIDE
#21 RACEHORSE
#22 FOX HUNT
#23 HORSE TROUBLE
#24 GHOST RIDER
#25 SHOW HORSE
#26 BEACH RIDE
#27 BRIDLE PATH
#28 STABLE MANNERS
#29 RANCH HANDS
#30 AUTUMN TRAIL
#31 HAYRIDE
#32 CHOCOLATE HORSE
#33 HIGH HORSE
#34 HAY FEVER
#35 HORSE TALE
#36 RIDING LESSON
#37 STAGE COACH
#38 HORSE TRADE
#39 PUREBRED
#40 GIFT HORSE
#41 STABLE WITCH
#42 SADDLEBAGS
#43 PHOTO FINISH
#44 HORSESHOE
#45 STABLE GROOM
#46 FLYING HORSE
#47 HORSE MAGIC
#48 MYSTERY RIDE
#49 STABLE FAREWELL
#50 YANKEE SWAP
#51 PLEASURE HORSE
#52 RIDING CLASS
#53 HORSE-SITTERS
#54 GOLD MEDAL RIDER
#55 GOLD MEDAL HORSE
#56 CUTTING HORSE
#57 TIGHT REIN
#58 WILD HORSES
#59 PHANTOM HORSE
#60 HOBBYHORSE
#61 BROKEN HORSE
#62 HORSE BLUES
#63 STABLE HEARTS
#64 HORSE CAPADES
#65 SILVER STIRRUPS
#66 SADDLE SORE
#67 SUMMER HORSE
#68 SUMMER RIDER
#69 ENDURANCE RIDE
#70 HORSE RACE
#71 HORSE TALK
#72 HOLIDAY HORSE
#73 HORSE GUEST
#74 HORSE WHISPERS
#75 PAINTED HORSE
#76 HORSE CARE
#77 ROCKING HORSE
#78 HORSEFLIES
#79 ENGLISH HORSE
#80 ENGLISH RIDER
#81 WAGON TRAIL
#82 QUARTER HORSE
#83 HORSE THIEF
#84 SCHOOLING HORSE
#85 HORSE FEVER
THE SADDLE CLUB SUPER EDITIONS
#1 A SUMMER WITHOUT HORSES
#2 THE SECRET OF THE STALLION
#3 WESTERN STAR
#4 DREAM HORSE
#5 BEFORE THEY RODE HORSES
#6 NIGHTMARE
#7 CHRISTMAS TREASURE
Lisa and Stevie each knew what the other was thinking. They ought to have gone to Pine Hollow. Stevie spoke first. “Uh, I better hang up. My mom will be home soon, and I’ll be in big trouble if she thinks I watched TV all day.”
“I have to go, too,” Lisa said. “But, hey,” she added, remembering her new role as Stevie’s coach, “I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early!”
After putting the phone down, Lisa stared up at her picture of The Saddle Club and their horses. Horse-crazy? she thought. They sure weren’t acting it. Willing to help each other out in any situation? While Carole was helping out, the two of them were sitting at home. “But we always help out!” Lisa wailed. “Why can’t someone else help out for a while?” The picture didn’t answer. It just stared back at her accusingly. How long would she and Stevie go, it seemed to ask, breaking both rules of The Saddle Club?
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HORSE FEVER
A Bantam Skylark Book / January 1999
Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere
.
“The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller. The Saddle Club design/logo, which consists of a riding crop and a riding hat, is a trademark of Bantam Books
.
“USPC” and “Pony Club” are registered trademarks of The United States Pony Clubs, Inc., at The Kentucky Horse Park, 4071 Iron Works Pike, Lexington, KY 40511-8462
.
All rights reserved
.
Copyright 1999 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller
.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
.
For information address: Bantam Books
.
eISBN: 978-0-307-82586-5
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada
.
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036
.
v3.1
I would like to express my special thanks
to Caitlin Macy for her
help in the writing of this book
.
D
IMLY
,
FROM FAR
away, Stevie Lake heard a noise. A loud noise. A loud, insistent, blaring noise that might have been an alarm clock. Her alarm clock. It
might
have been. She couldn’t be sure, of course. It was probably better to ignore it.
Who knows? Maybe it’ll go away
. She rolled over in bed and clamped a pillow to her head. Unfortunately the blare seemed to get louder. Then another noise was added to it. It was the sound of yelling: boys’ yelling.
“Stevie! Stevie, wake up!”
“Stevie, we’re late!”
“Stevie, get up! You overslept!”
A hand on her arm jarred Stevie out of her half sleep. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, she struggled to sit up.
What she saw was not her idea of a pleasant awakening: Her three brothers, Chad, Michael, and Alex, were standing beside her bed. “Stevie!” Alex cried, his voice desperate. “We’ve gotta hurry! We all overslept and we’re late for school!”
“You mean we—”
“The car pool left without us!” Chad interrupted.
“Mom says we’ve gotta walk!” Michael cried.
Instantly Stevie’s mood changed from mild annoyance to utter panic. She had been late to school three times already—one more and she’d have to stay after. She sprang from her bed. “I’ll meet you downstairs in two minutes!” she yelled, shooing the boys out.
“All right, but hurry!” Alex urged again.
Thank God for brothers
, Stevie thought, running to the closet. Now that she was awake she dimly remembered hitting the Snooze button—ten or eleven times.
Stevie threw open her closet doors. A gargantuan pile of dirty clothes spilled out—jeans, turtlenecks, socks, underwear, skirts, and blouses. She riffled through the mostly empty hangers in desperation. “My kingdom for some clean clothes!” she cried, charging out into the hall. If by some miracle she could find something in the dryer, she swore she would never, ever play a trick on her brothers again, never turn up her nose at broccoli—
“Watch where you’re going, Steph—!”
“Aaahhh!”
In her haste to get to the laundry room, Stevie ran smack-dab into her mother. Mrs. Lake put a settling hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “What’s your hurry, dear?”
“Oh, Mom, I’m in major trouble!” Stevie began. “I’m late for school and I can’t find anything to wear and—” In the middle of her breathless explanation, Stevie noticed something. Her mother was wearing a bathrobe. Stevie hardly ever saw her mother in a bathrobe. Mrs. Lake was always up and dressed before the rest of the family. She left for work when her children left for school. The only time she hung out in her bathrobe was on …
“Saturday!”
Stevie screamed, a horrible realization dawning on her.
“Yes, dear, I know it’s Saturday,” Mrs. Lake began, “and we’re going to make cookies—” But Stevie was already halfway down the stairs.
“You’re dead meat!” she shrieked.
Chad, Michael, and Alex ran for cover in the basement. “Barricade the door!” Chad yelled.
Stevie stopped short as the door closed in her face. “You’re just lucky I didn’t start on the way to school!” she growled. “You’re dead as it is, but if I had walked to Fenton, you’d be even deader!”
On the other side of the door, Stevie’s brothers howled with laughter. “As if you could walk to school!” came
Alex’s muffled voice. “It would take you so long the day would be over!”
Stevie’s eyes narrowed. There were some offenses that could not go unpunished. As she looked around for a suitable chair to use as a battering ram, her father appeared in the hallway. “
Pssst!
Come on!” he urged. “I got a dozen doughnuts and you can have first dibs!”