Horse Play (12 page)

“Oh, I already solved that,” Stevie said. “Comanche and I have worked out a surprise for you.”

“What is it?” Carole asked. She was more than a little suspicious.

“You’ll see,” Stevie said mysteriously. The stalk of hay was clenched in her teeth. She grabbed it with the tips of her right fingers and thumb and tapped at it with her pinkie as if it were a cigar and she were flicking off the ash. The motion was strangely familiar to Carole.

When Stevie’s eyebrows began bobbing up and down suggestively, Carole recognized her Groucho Marx imitation. “Am I going to like this?” she asked.

“You bet your life!” Stevie said. And that was all she would say.

“But—what about me?” Lisa asked. “You each solved one another’s problems. Who’s going to solve mine?”

“What’s your problem?” Stevie asked her.

“My mother and father can’t come this afternoon. My mother’s gone and gotten a job as a model at the shopping mall. She’s not going to be home at all any more! Probably ever!”

Stevie looked at Lisa carefully before she spoke. “Sounds to me like your mother’s solved your problem for you. Weren’t you just complaining that she was always hanging around and doing things that didn’t need to be done?”

“Well, yeah,” Lisa said. “But this one
needs
to be done.
Your
parents are going to be at the show, aren’t they?”

“Mom, yes, Dad, no, and two out of three brothers, yes,” Stevie said, checking off her family members on her fingers.

Lisa looked to Carole.

“Sure, Dad will be here—along with one of my old instructors from the stables on the base.”

“See?” Lisa said. “I’m practically being abandoned!”

Stevie and Carole looked at one another. “You want to go first?” Carole asked Stevie.

“Lisa, I’ve got two working parents, too,” Stevie began. “Sometimes they’re around, sometimes I’m on my own. Sometimes it’s good; sometimes it’s a pain. But they are almost never in my hair the way your mother has been. She probably tagged around after you because she didn’t have enough to do. It doesn’t seem so wonderful now, but you’ll get used to it. It’ll be more good than bad and when you’ve got something really important—”

“Like our show today?” Lisa challenged.

“Yes, like our show today,” Stevie repeated. “Then you’ll learn that if you give both parents some warning, usually one can be there.”

“But neither of them can be here today!” Lisa pouted.

“Because you didn’t tell them in time, did you?” Carole said sensibly.

“Why do you always have to be right?” Lisa asked Carole, only half teasing.

“Because I’m your friend,” Carole answered. “And besides that, here’s the good news. My old instructor, Major Madison, is bringing a video camera. Your parents will get to see the show after all.”

“It’s not quite the same, is it?” Lisa asked Stevie.

“True, but it’s better than nothing. Right?”

“Okay,” Lisa conceded. “I guess the pluses will outweigh the minuses.”

“Well, that settles it,” Stevie said matter-of-factly. “Carole solved my problem, I solved hers, and we both solved Lisa’s. Everything’s solved—club meeting is over!”

“Not everything is solved,” Carole reminded her friends. “We still have to do a great job in our drill demo, don’t we?”

“With a team like this, how can we miss?” Lisa asked.

“Just what
are
you going to do?” Carole asked, turning to Stevie.

Stevie only smiled. Carole thought she could practically see feathers at the edges of Stevie’s mouth. She knew she and Lisa were just going to have to wait.

C
AROLE LOVED THE
preparations for the show. She had been grooming Diablo until his coat shone like glass. His mane and tail were brushed smooth, all the tangles gone. She’d even polished his hooves. His saddle and bridle gleamed with the rich, deep sheen of fine leather. She and her friends were dressed in identical outfits: fawn-colored jodhpurs and shirts with double rows of brass buttons. They looked really sharp, and a little bit military, which fit in with the drill work they were doing. She felt a little chill of excitement as she led Diablo to the outdoor ring.

Only the indoor ring at the stable had spectator seats, so that’s where the show was going to be. The girls had to do their warm-ups outside.

Carole brushed the good-luck horseshoe and then mounted Diablo. Lisa was already riding Pepper and practicing spirals.

“This is so easy when there’s only me,” Lisa said.

“It’s all in pacing,” Carole reminded her.

Stevie appeared with Comanche. Without ceremony, she touched the horseshoe and bounded up onto her horse.

“Did you see?” she asked excitedly. She pointed wildly toward the area of the stable that opened onto the outdoor ring.

Carole and Lisa brought their horses over to the entrance. They leaned forward and peered down the dim hallway.

It was hard to see, but it wasn’t too hard to see Veronica diAngelo. She was just returning from her private lesson on the trail with Red. She’d dismounted from Barq and she was positively hobbling as she led her horse to his stall.

“She can barely walk!” Stevie giggled. “Your dad’s a genius!”

“Yeah, he is,” Carole acknowledged. “But I may be even more of a genius than he is. What size are your jodhpur boots, Stevie?” she asked.

“Oh, I’ve got these giant feet. Chad says my shoes are violin cases. I wear an eight and a half. Couldn’t you just see—Hey, you
are
a genius. I’ll make the switch after the show tonight. She’ll be swimming in them on Monday!”

“Two minutes, girls!” Max called out to them.

Carole felt a knot form in her stomach and she thought she could almost hear her blood rushing through her veins. Two minutes to showtime. Two minutes would
show the results of all their hard work. Two minutes to success—or humiliation?

“One minute!”

“Come on, Carole. You’re the leader. You go first,” Stevie said. “If you’re not scared, we won’t be.”

Scared? Of course I’m scared
, Carole thought.
But I can’t show it. We can do this. We’ve been practicing for weeks. We’ve done everything we can to make it good and to make it interesting. And besides, whatever we forget, our horses will remember. After all, they’ve done it as much as we have
. Carole smiled to herself.
Maybe we should just let them do it by themselves
!

“Okay, line up!” Max ordered them.

“Yes, sir!” Carole said in her best Marine Corps daughter’s voice. “Saddle Club, let’s go give this audience a show!”

Lisa brought her horse right behind Carole’s. Stevie followed close on her trail. They walked to the entrance of the indoor ring. The girls could see that there were about fifty people to watch them, though they were no doubt more interested in Dorothy DeSoto.

Mrs. Reg stood in front of the girls, waiting to give them their signal to enter the ring. The girls and Mrs. Reg listened carefully for their cue.

Max stood in the middle of the ring. He explained to the audience that three of his students had been working on a special demonstration, which they wanted to perform for Dorothy DeSoto. That sounded a lot better than
explaining about Stevie’s dumb mistake, the girls thought.

“And now I’d like you to welcome Carole Hanson, Stephanie Lake, and Lisa Atwood—The Saddle Club Drill Team!”

“Hey! We’ve got a name!” Stevie exclaimed.

“And I like the sound of it,” Carole added.

“I can see it in lights,” Lisa joked.

They didn’t have any more time to think about fame and glory, though. Just then, Mrs. Reg pushed the button on the sound system and the very familiar music of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” began. Mrs. Reg moved aside to let the girls pass. “Smile!” she said and then waved the girls into the ring.

L
ISA COULDN
’
T BELIEVE
the feeling she had as she entered the ring. She had a great big smile on her face, just like Mrs. Reg had told her, but everything was a blank. She could barely remember who she was, much less where she was, and even less what she was supposed to do.

Carole, directly in front of her, headed off to the left as she reached the center of the ring. Then, as if on signal, everything came back to Lisa. She knew just what she was supposed to do. Now, she only hoped she could do it.

Their first exercise was the cloverleaf. Each girl followed
a three-circle pattern that made them cross in the center at practically the same time. The trick was to not have it be
exactly
the same time. That was a collision course.

The horses trotted, almost in time to the music. That was the idea. The music, which seemed to the audience like a pleasant accompaniment, actually was very important to the riders and the horses. Lisa finished her first circle. Carole crossed first, then Lisa, then Stevie. And they didn’t even come near colliding.

The audience clapped. Lisa could hardly believe it. But just because they managed one circle didn’t mean they could do all three that the exercise called for. Pepper was picking up speed. Lisa shortened her reins. Pepper shortened his stride, but it was too late. She was going to get to the intersection first. Lisa knew it would look silly if she reined her horse to a stop. Besides, Diablo seemed to be going slower. Lisa bit her lip in concentration, crossed her fingers that Carole would see what she was doing, and rode through the intersection. Carole winked at her. She’d done the right thing!

After the third circle, the girls took their positions for their next exercise. As the audience applauded, Lisa prayed that it would go well. It was spirals and it was very hard.

The Saddle Club Drill Team rode their horses to the edge of the ring, equally spaced from one another. They would circle the ring four times, making each circle
smaller than the last. If they were very careful, the horses would stay the same distance from one another and the only time they would come close would be at the center of the ring.

Lisa crossed her fingers and rammed her hard hat down on her head. She was determined. If this exercise wasn’t done perfectly, it just looked silly.

Carole nodded. The music started and the horses began their trot. The music was a waltz, played on a calliope. They were supposed to remind the audience of a merry-go-round. Up and down, up and down, Lisa posted with the smooth motion of Pepper’s trot. She didn’t want to be too obvious about looking around at her friends, but Carole was in her line of sight and Carole was posting at almost exactly the same tempo as she was. It was working!

While each circle got smaller, the horses miraculously remained the same distance apart from one another. Lisa knew that the audience was seeing something that looked like a simple exercise because they were doing it right. In fact, because of a horse’s naturally competitive spirit—catch up with the one in front of you—it was about as hard an exercise as there could be.

Exactly as the music ended, the three horses were just about head to tail in their smallest circle in the center of the ring. All three girls were so proud of their job that they couldn’t stop grinning.

Carole started to say something to Lisa and Stevie, but she couldn’t be heard over the applause.

“Everything else is duck soup,” Carole whispered when the clapping stopped. “Pinwheel time!”

Normally in a drill exercise, ranks of horses would form lines, the left half facing front, the right half facing to the rear, and move in a counterclockwise motion. The horses in the center would just about turn in place while the ones on the end would canter to keep up. With only three riders, that was impossible, but they’d adjusted the maneuver to suit their small numbers.

Carole was the pivot, Lisa was to be next to her, Stevie on the end. Somewhere along the line, though, Comanche and Pepper seemed to have picked a fight with one another. Comanche didn’t want to let Pepper into the formation.

“Come on!” Carole hissed, urging Lisa to bring Pepper up next to Diablo, but Comanche was already by Diablo’s side and didn’t want to let Pepper in.

Comanche kicked.

Pepper snorted.

Carole groaned.

This was not Lisa’s idea of duck soup.

“Comanche!” Stevie said. Lisa could see her gripping her horse tightly with her calves, trying to show Comanche who was in charge. Lisa tried the same thing with Pepper. Pepper turned around and gave her a look that seemed to tell her to mind her own business.

“This
is
my business,” Lisa hissed at her horse and gripped tighter. Obediently, Pepper tried to move up in between Diablo and Comanche.

Comanche bucked.

Pepper darted backwards.

The unexpected motion made Lisa slip. She was near losing her balance and shifted her weight quickly. The audience went “Oh!”

Lisa righted heself. The audience sighed, “Ah.”

Lisa looked over to Max, hoping he would give them some help. Max was watching carefully, but there was no sign at all that he was going to come to their aid. Lisa could feel herself getting angry at him. After all, they were
his
students.
He
should help them!