Horsing Around (4 page)

“Yeah, but I’m rich,” George told her. “I’m going to earn more money than Kadeem. You’ll see.”

“Can you take a break from raking for a few hours on Saturday?” Katie asked George hopefully.

“To do what?” George asked.

“To come to Becky’s horse show,” Jeremy explained. “A whole bunch of us are going.”

“
You’re
going to Becky’s horse show?” George asked Jeremy. He sounded surprised.

Jeremy groaned. “Don’t ask.”

“Please, George,” Katie pleaded. “It’ll be fun. We’re trying to get a huge crowd.”

“I’ll come if Kadeem comes,” George told her.

Now
that
was weird. Usually George stayed as far away from Kadeem as possible.

“Because I’m not going to give up an afternoon of raking lawns if he’s not,” George continued.

Oh. Now it made sense.

“I’ll convince Kadeem to come,” Jeremy said. “He owes me a favor. I helped him study spelling words last weekend.”

“Then I’ll be there, too,” George assured him. “And I’ll ask Kevin. He has karate in the morning, but maybe he can come after.”

“Great!” Katie exclaimed. She smiled at Jeremy. “See? Everyone wants to help you.”

Everyone except Suzanne, anyway.

“Why would I want to go to blechy Becky’s horse show?” Suzanne asked Katie.

Katie sighed. Asking Suzanne to go to the horse show to help Jeremy wouldn’t do any good. Suzanne didn’t like Jeremy very much, either.

But there was something that Suzanne
did
like—showing off.

“It’s the perfect place to wear your new cowboy boots,” Katie told her. “And that cool black leather cowboy hat you have.”

“What about my pink sparkly bandana?” Suzanne added. “It’s really pretty.”

“Yeah, it is,” Katie agreed.

“I don’t know,” Suzanne said. “I really don’t feel like spending a whole afternoon watching Becky.”

“Everyone’s going to be there,” Katie reminded her. “If something happens, you’ll be the last to know.”

That did it. If there was one thing Suzanne really hated, it was not being the very first person to know something.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Suzanne said. “It could be a lot of fun.
Especially if Becky messes up.
”

“There you guys are!” Becky shouted as the kids arrived at the horse show on Saturday afternoon. “You’re late. You missed the first event.”

“We were waiting for Kevin to get out of karate class,” Jessica explained.

“And I had a lawn to rake this morning,” Kadeem said. He smiled triumphantly at George.

George smiled back. “So did I,” he told Kadeem. “And I have one tomorrow, too.”

“Likewise,” Kadeem assured him.

“My arms are really tired,” George said, “because of all the leaves I raked.”

“Not as tired as mine,” Kadeem told him. “And my back hurts, too.”

“Yeah, well, my feet—” George began.

“I got second place in my first event,” Becky interrupted the boys in a loud voice. She moved closer to Jeremy and smiled. “Isn’t this the prettiest ribbon?” she asked him. “I got it for Showmanship.”

Jeremy blushed and turned away.

“I think it’s great,” Katie complimented her. She moved in between Jeremy and Becky for a closer look.

Jeremy gave Katie a grateful smile.

“Did you have to jump over fences to win that?” Mandy asked her.

Becky shook her head. “Showmanship is when you lead the pony by the reins. You don’t ride him.”

Suzanne rolled her eyes. “So you didn’t even ride and you got a ribbon?” she asked. “That seems pretty easy.”

“It’s not,” Becky assured her. “I had to groom Brownie. Do you know how long it takes to braid the hair on a horse’s mane?”

“I’ll bet she’s going to tell us,” Suzanne whispered to Katie.

Katie poked Suzanne to make her be quiet.

“It took me two hours!” Becky exclaimed.

“See?” Suzanne whispered.

“And that was the easy part,” Becky continued. “I worked for weeks to teach Brownie to stand still while the judges graded him on his appearance. And I had to train him to follow a pattern so he could walk in between all these cones they have set up.”

“Was he able to do that?” Kevin asked.

Becky nodded. “He did really well.”

“Did Brownie get a ribbon, too?” Katie asked her.

Becky looked at Katie strangely. “No. I got the ribbon.”

“But Brownie did the work,” Katie insisted.

“No, he didn’t,” Becky insisted. “Why are you making it sound like I did nothing? I trained him. I deserve the ribbon. And I’m going to win another one, too. I have to go get ready for the next event. This time, I’m going to ride Brownie. So there, Katie.”

And with that, Becky stomped off.

“Wow, she was mad,” George remarked.

“Good one, Katie,” Suzanne complimented her.

“Yeah, you told
her
,” Jeremy agreed.

But Katie hadn’t meant to make Becky angry. She didn’t say Becky didn’t deserve
her
ribbon. She just thought Brownie deserved one, too. Katie would never hurt anyone’s feelings on purpose.

“I have to go apologize to Becky,” Katie told her friends. Becky was probably in the stables with Brownie. She ran off to find her.

 

The horse stables were a big place. Katie didn’t see Becky. And after a few minutes of trying to find her, Katie realized she was completely lost. There was nothing around her but hay and empty horse stalls. Rows of them.

Katie sat down on a bale of hay. She looked around, trying to figure out how to get back to the stands. Her friends had surely taken their seats by now.

Suddenly a cool fall breeze began to blow. Well, it wasn’t exactly a
fall
breeze. It was cold, more like something you might feel in winter.

It was also getting pretty strong.

And blowing only on the back of Katie’s neck.

Uh-oh.
That could only mean one thing.

This was no ordinary wind. This was the
magic wind
!

“No! Not now! Not here!” Katie shouted.

But there was no stopping the magic wind. The tornado whipped around wildly, blowing Katie’s bright red hair all around her face.

The magic wind was so strong that Katie was sure she was going to blow up, up, and away—just like a fall leaf. She shut her eyes tight and tried not to cry.

And then it stopped. Just like that.

The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie Kazoo.

She’d turned into someone else . . . switcheroo!

But who?

Katie blinked twice and slowly opened her eyes. She looked around. There were wooden walls to the left and right of her. If she looked over the half-door in front of her, she could see a horse in a stall across the way.

She must still be in the stables. That was a relief. At least the magic wind hadn’t blown her clear across the globe to China or anything.

Okay, so now Katie knew
where
she was. But she still didn’t know
who
she was.

Itch. Itch.
A fly landed on her back and began walking around. How annoying! Katie swished her tail back and forth, trying to swish off the fly.

Her
tail
? Wait a minute. Katie didn’t have a tail. At least, not usually.

She glanced down at her feet.

Uh-oh.
Her funky red high-top sneakers were gone. She was wearing
horseshoes
instead.
Four
horseshoes.

Which could mean only one thing. The magic wind had switcherooed Katie into a horse.

Just then, Becky came walking over to the stall. “Hi, Brownie,” she said as she petted Katie’s long face. “Are you ready for me to ride you?”

Okay, change that. Katie wasn’t a horse. She was a pony.
Becky’s
pony, Brownie. Any minute now, Becky was going to climb on Katie’s back and ride her into the ring.

Only Katie wouldn’t know what to do once she got there. She didn’t know when to turn left or turn right. She didn’t know when to walk slowly or when to gallop.

Katie felt awful. She’d already made Becky feel bad about her red ribbon. And now, if Becky tried to ride her, she would definitely lose this competition.

“Neigh!” Katie whinnied. That was horse language for, “This is sooo not good!”

“What’s the matter?” Becky asked Katie. “You sound so sad.”

I am sad
, Katie thought.
And scared. And kind of hungry, actually.

Katie walked over to a big pile of hay and began munching on the dry grass. Mmm . . . it was surprisingly good.

“You can’t have lunch now, silly,” Becky told Katie. “We have to go in the waiting area near the ring.” And with that, Becky took Katie’s reins and led her out of the stall.

Katie followed Becky as they walked down the narrow hallway between stalls. Finally they reached the waiting area. There were four other ponies with their riders standing beside them. The kids all looked so nice in their black riding helmets, jackets, and boots. The ponies looked nice, too, with their braided manes.