Lisa (21 page)

“And now,” Stevie said.

“Now?” Dorothy looked confused. So did Mrs. Reg.

Stevie glanced at her watch. “Well, maybe around ten o’clock when the chairs will be set up and the food will have arrived. You do like apple slices and sugar lumps, don’t you?”

“What are you talking about?” Mrs. Reg asked.

I grinned, liking Stevie’s new idea a lot. A whole lot. “Can’t you tell?” I told Mrs. Reg, doing my best to keep from bursting into excited laughter. “We’re planning a wedding!”

It took some explaining, but once Mrs. Reg remembered that it was April Fools’ Day, she suddenly seemed a lot more willing to believe us. Dorothy was another matter. She didn’t seem to understand that we were serious about having her wedding right then and there. When Nigel arrived, we had to explain the whole thing again to him.

And when Judge Gavin arrived, suddenly the whole
thing fell into place. You see, the one thing missing from Stevie’s new scheme was someone to perform the ceremony. But the judge was perfectly qualified—and perfectly willing to preside at an impromptu wedding.

Finally, Dorothy and Nigel were convinced that it could actually work. And that’s how we ended up having a real, honest-to-goodness, no-April-fooling wedding at Pine Hollow yesterday!

It was wonderful. Stevie, Carole, and I got to be the last-minute bridesmaids. Max was the spur-of-the-moment best man. And best of all, we were all on horseback. Nigel rode Comanche. Dorothy was aboard Pepper, who came out of retirement for the occasion. Even Judge Gavin was in the saddle, on Delilah. One of the best things of all was that Geronimo, the new stallion, came to the corner of his paddock to see what was going on. So it was almost as if he and Delilah were also getting married!

And in the end, thanks to Stevie’s attention to detail, we all threw oats at the happy couple—instead of the more traditional rice. It was the perfect ending to a perfect wedding.

I guess Dorothy and Nigel thought it was pretty perfect, too. Because they left a note for us with Max. He gave it to us when we went over there this morning for a quick trail ride. I begged my friends to let me keep it and paste it in here, and they agreed. Here it is …

Dear brilliant and creative Saddle Club girls
,

Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you for our marvelous wedding! It wasn’t exactly the way we expected to tie the knot, but that made it even more magical. Just when we were sure that all hope was lost, you three came along and solved all our problems. And you made it all so much fun! I don’t know how we’ll ever manage to thank you properly, but you’ve really made a difference in our new life together. We’ll never forget our magical wedding day—or the quick-thinking girls who made it all possible!

Lots of love,
Nigel and Dorothy (Mr. and Mrs.)

by E. J. Smith, special to The Willow Creek Gazette

Some people dream of a wedding on a tropical island, others of tying the knot on a mountain-top or in a field of wildflowers or … on horseback? That last option is just what a visiting couple got at Pine Hollow Stables, a local riding establishment.

It seems that Dorothy DeSoto, a well-known trainer, and Nigel Hawthorne, a member of the British Equestrian Team, were in the area participating in the Washington Horse Show. The couple had planned their nuptials for next week at Ms. DeSoto’s New York stable, but professional obligations required them to reschedule in a hurry. That’s when
several local girls, students at Pine Hollow, stepped in to help.

Ms. Stephanie Lake, who attends Fenton Hall, was by all accounts the mastermind of the last-minute wedding plans. She was ably assisted by her friends Lisa Atwood and Carole Hanson, both students at Willow Creek Middle School. The trio provided flowers, music, food, and even guests for the wedding. They also provided horses on which both bride and groom trotted down the aisle (with permission from stable owner Maximillian Regnery III). The only thing the enterprising friends were missing was someone to perform the ceremony, and that’s when well-known local judge Martin Gavin, who enjoys riding at Pine Hollow, stepped in and graciously volunteered to do the honors. Once the judge was on board, the entire wedding went off without a hitch … but
with
a hitching post for the equine attendees.

This reporter was unable to determine exactly how three young girls were able to make such extensive arrangements in such a short time. When asked, all Ms. Lake would say is “Love makes anything possible.”

I’m sure we can all raise a wedding toast to that—and to the newly married couple.

Thornbury Hall

London, England

Dear Lisa
,

I’m so glad you liked my character sketches! I was kind of nervous about what you’d say, since obviously they’re based on you and your friends. I really wasn’t sure whether I had captured the characters completely, if they sounded like real people your age. But your letter made me feel much better about that!

It sounds like you’ve been keeping busy lately, what with all that excitement during your winter break. I never realized you had such a busy life! It seems like all I did when I was your age was go to school and play a little baseball.

Luckily, my life is much more exciting these days. Actually, I have some pretty big news to share. I got a job!

I know, I know. You thought I already had a job. Well, I did. But the closer it came, the less I was looking forward to it. As I told you before, I really wasn’t sure it was what I wanted to do with my life, even temporarily.

That’s why I was so thrilled when this new opportunity came along. One of my professors liked the work I’ve done in his course, and he offered me a sort of work-study internship with a project he’s planning during his sabbatical in Africa. The project has to do with sociology and family structures, and it will start just after the end of the school year and run for at least a year. He wants me to be his research assistant and also help him write articles for scholarly journals as the research progresses.

The last thing I expected to be doing this summer was flying
off to another continent. I’m a little nervous about it, but mostly I’m just excited. It will be a lot of work—a lot more work than that real-estate job would have been—but it will mean that I’m using my brain and doing something important rather than just making a living. It will be a better, more interesting and useful way of earning a paycheck (even though that paycheck will be a whole lot smaller—don’t think I’m not dreading telling Mom and Dad
that
part!). Plus I’m sure I’ll still have enough free time to work on my screenplay on the side.

Speaking of which, I just finished mapping out the basic plot-line. I hope to start the actual writing soon—I’ll send you a scene or two as soon as I have something decent finished.

Love,
Peter

Dear Diary
,

Why doesn’t anyone ever listen to me?

Okay, I know that may be an exaggeration. But sometimes it seems that way, and right now is one of those times. Carole and Stevie are both asleep right now—we’re having a sleepover at Carole’s house. But I’m not sleepy yet. To be honest, I’m still kind of annoyed about something that happened today.

This morning when my friends and I got to the stable before Horse Wise, we decided to stop by and check on that mare that’s due to foal soon. She seemed kind of edgy, not friendly and sweet like she usually is, and I couldn’t help wondering if that meant something.

“It probably just means she’s in a bad mood,” Stevie said.

I wasn’t sure that was all there was to it. “Couldn’t it be a sign that the foal is coming soon?” I asked.

Carole shrugged. “Stevie could be right. Or the mare might be a little colicky. That’s common in mares who are near term. She could also be about to foal. The vet will be here later. We can mention it to her.”

“We
should
mention it to her, you mean,” I said. I thought they were being awfully quick to dismiss my idea that the foal could be coming.

“Yes, right, we
should
,” Carole agreed, which made me feel a little better—right then, at least. But I’ll get back to that in a minute. First I want to write about what happened in our Horse Wise meeting.

It was time for it to start, so we hurried to Max’s office and took our seats on the floor along with all the other members. There was a big stack of papers on Max’s desk. As soon as the meeting began, he picked them up and began handing them out. At the top of the first page, it said “Know-Down.”

“I don’t want you looking at these now,” he told us. “You have two weeks to look at them. So for now, just fold them and put them aside.”

I did as he said, and so did my friends and the other Horse Wise members.

Then Max explained what the papers were for. “A Know-Down is a little bit like a spelling bee,” he began. “You’ll get the chance to test your knowledge of
horses by answering questions. Each of you will be able to choose the difficulty of your questions, from one to four points. A four-point question might have four points to the answer, like, for instance, ‘Name the parts of a horse’s back between the shoulder and the dock.’ ”

“Withers, back, loins, croup!” Stevie called out excitedly.

She was right, though Max scolded her for interrupting. Then he went on to explain that we’ll be able to choose easier questions worth fewer points, but that if we want to win the Know-Down, we’ll have to learn a lot of information.

“It’s all there,” he said. “Study hard. Two weeks from today at our next unmounted meeting, we’ll have the Know-Down.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carole and Stevie exchanging glances. I immediately guessed what they were thinking. A little earlier, they had reported that they’d invited Phil and Cam to come to our next unmounted Horse Wise meeting, and both boys had promised to be there. I guess I haven’t written much about Carole and Cam in my diary lately, though I probably should have. They’ve been writing back and forth on e-mail pretty often, and they’ve talked on the phone a bunch of times since they met at the horse show a couple of months ago. But they haven’t seen each other again in person, and even though Carole isn’t talking much about it, I’m sure she’s excited. Probably a little nervous, too.

Especially after she found out about the Know-Down. Carole isn’t very confident around boys sometimes, and I know that when she first met Cam she was worried about which of them knew more about horses and that kind of thing. It’s probably partly Stevie’s fault—she’s so hyper-competitive with Phil that the two of them don’t exactly provide the best example for other couples to follow. Still, Carole isn’t Stevie. Knowing her, she’s just as worried that she’ll do better than Cam at the Know-Down as she is that he’ll do better than her.

Carole and Stevie whispered back and forth for a moment or two. I didn’t bother to try to hear what they were talking about, since I was sure I already knew. Unfortunately, though, Max overheard their whispers.

“Ahem,” he said, staring pointedly at Stevie. “Did you say something?”

Since Max had already yelled at Stevie just a couple of minutes earlier, I decided to jump in and save her. I had something I wanted to mention anyway. “No, it was me,” I called. “Sorry, I should have raised my hand.” I raised my hand, and when Max nodded, I continued. “We checked the mare before we came in here and she seems edgy. Doesn’t that mean she’s about to foal?”

“Maybe,” Max said. “It could also mean nothing. Judy made her daily vet check yesterday and didn’t seem concerned. She’ll be back this afternoon and will check again.”

“But I know that when a mare gets edgy, it’s a sign that she’s about to foal,” I persisted, surprised that Max, too, seemed so careless about the pregnant mare’s condition.

“It can be,” Max agreed. “There are other signs, too. Does anybody know what they are?”

Hands went up all over the room, and the group began providing various answers. Soon we’d heard a whole list of possible symptoms that different mares might or might not have just before foaling.

“So,” Max said at last, “it seems that the only way to be sure a mare is about to begin serious labor is when serious labor begins. It’s just not a simple question.”

When he said that, I felt almost as annoyed with him as I’d been with my friends earlier. Why wouldn’t anyone pay attention to what I was saying? I’d seen that mare myself—her entire personality was different than it had been before. To me, that’s a really strong indicator that she’s going to foal soon. Maybe nobody is listening to me now, but the mare will prove me right soon enough. I just hope there’s someone around to help her through foaling.

Anyway, one other thing happened right after the meeting. I was heading for the door when I heard Max call my name. He also called May Grover, one of the younger riders.

“I want you two to work together on something,” he told us. “I’m going to start a Big Sister/Little Sister learning program, and you’re my test case.”

For a moment I forgot about the mare. That sounded interesting.

“One of the things we rarely have time for here,” Max went on, pulling a small paperback off the office bookshelf, “is working with hitching horses and ponies to carts and wagons. It’s just something we don’t do much and that’s too bad because it’s fun. Lisa, I want you to take this book and learn how to do it yourself and teach May to do it. Then in ten days, after our Tuesday riding class, I’d like the two of you to do a demonstration for the rest of Horse Wise. Will you have time to work on this together? You can use Nickel and hitch him to the cart we use for pony rides sometimes. Then, if you’d like, you can take your classmates for rides.”

I took the book from him. What could I say? May is a nice kid. She’s smart, she works hard, and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. And learning about hitching a horse to a cart did sound sort of interesting, I guess. Still, I wasn’t crazy about Max’s idea—at least not the timing of it. Preparing for the Know-Down is going to be a full-time job. Plus I was already planning on spending some extra time with the pregnant mare, since nobody else seemed very concerned about her.