Best Friends (6 page)

Lisa handed her the second boot and Stevie repeated the operation.

“Wow,” said Carole, entering the locker area just as
Stevie stood up. “Lisa told me you got new boots, but nothing she said led me to believe they were that gorgeous.”

Stevie smiled. She’d known her friends would be as pleased for her as she was for herself.

“On sale,” she reminded them. She didn’t have to remind herself, though, that on
sale
hadn’t meant they were cheap.

Stevie stood up and wiped some imaginary lint off her britches. She wanted to look as perfect as she felt. She took a couple of steps. What she felt was stiff leather.

“Don’t worry,” Carole assured her. “With that kind of quality, they’ll break in easily.”

“What’s going to break?” Veronica asked, arriving late, as usual.

“Nothing,” said Stevie, walking toward the stalls.

“Nice boots!” Veronica said.

Now, Stevie had bought those boots for herself, and having them, owning them, wearing them was a total pleasure to her. But even if she hadn’t had that pleasure, every penny she’d spent on them would have been completely worth hearing the obvious envy that came from Veronica’s mouth in those two little words.

“These old things?” Stevie asked, pirouetting around to face her admirer.

“Yes, those ‘old things,’ ” Veronica said, realizing her
mistake. “But it’s too bad they won’t be put to any useful purpose—like winning blue ribbons.”

“Don’t be so sure,” said Stevie.

“I am so sure,” said Veronica. “I fully intend to take it all at the CI. There won’t be one blue ribbon left for any of you.” The smirk on her face was clearly intended to take back the admiration she’d been unable to control a moment before.

“We’ll just see about that,” said Stevie. It was a weak retort and she knew it, but considering her own doubts about even getting to the CI, much less competing and winning, it was the best she could do.

Lisa and Carole each linked an arm with her and the three of them headed to the stalls to make sure their horses were ready for their lesson.

It was a short lesson. The students had no sooner warmed up their horses to a trot than Mrs. Reg came into the ring and waved at her son.

“Storm’s coming!” she said. “I just heard it on the radio. They’ve got a whiteout already in Cross County!”

“Uh-oh, work to be done!” said Max.

The weather didn’t seem so bad to Stevie. It was cold outside; the thermometer had said it was just below freezing. But it wasn’t snowing.

“Does that mean we’ll have snow on the ground for the Starlight Ride?” Carole asked.

“Depends on whether it stays cold for the next week,” Max said. “And at the moment, that’s not what’s on my mind. We’ve got to get busy.”

“What can we do?” Lisa asked.

In no time at all Max put all the riders to work. One group was to bring extra grain into the stable from the grain shed. Another would put blankets on all the horses.

“It’ll get cold in there. Out in the wild, horses grow shaggy coats in the winter, but we clip our horses, so we owe it to them to put their coats back on.

“The rest of you”—he looked right at The Saddle Club—“there are five horses out in the field, getting a little bit of fresh air. They’ve got to be brought in or they might get a whole lot more fresh air than they bargained for!”

“Oh, goody, a roundup!” Stevie said with childish glee. Then she remembered her new boots. She didn’t want to get them soiled or wet with snow.

“Go put your paddock boots on,” Lisa suggested.

“It’ll look dumb,” Stevie said.

“I don’t think Nickel, Barq, and Comanche are going to care if you look dumb or not,” Carole said sensibly.

Stevie handed her reins to Carole and dashed into the locker area to put on her old boots. Veronica was already there, changing into her street clothes.

“Aren’t you going to help?” Stevie asked, then realized that was a silly question. Veronica never helped.

“I have to get home,” she said. “My mother’s taking me to the tack shop at the mall.” Her eyes were on Stevie’s boots.

“Last pair,” Stevie said. “They’re completely sold out.” She felt wonderful delivering such bad news to Veronica.

“There are other tack shops,” said Veronica.

Stevie stifled her giggle. “Good luck,” she said without meaning it at all. She secured her paddock boots and hurried back to her friends, who were ready to ride.

The horses in the field seemed to sense the oncoming storm. They’d gathered in a makeshift herd.

“I swear they’re waiting for us,” Carole said, circling around behind the group.

“If they know it’s going to snow, why don’t they have the sense to come in by themselves?” Lisa asked.

“Because they know how much we like a roundup!” Stevie said. She rode to the far side of the group.

“Hee-ya!” Carole said, startling the group and getting the horses moving. Lisa and Stevie were positioned so that one of them was on each side. They began trotting systematically toward the fence, where Max was holding the gate wide open.

For a moment Nickel got an idea about heading into the
woods. Stevie convinced him of the error of his ways by chasing him down and getting him to rejoin his friends. It reminded her of the times she’d ridden out West at their friend Kate’s dude ranch. The horse she rode there, Stewball, was a natural herder. Belle seemed to have some of the instincts for it, too. It made Stevie smile, but best of all, it made Nickel behave.

In a short time all the horses and ponies were contained in the schooling ring, and getting them inside didn’t take a lot more effort after that.

The girls untacked their own horses, groomed and watered them, and gave each a tick of hay. Red brought each a blanket, which the girls secured.

“I feel like I should be reading Belle a bedtime story now,” said Stevie.

“Well, it’s dark enough outside,” Carole observed. Stevie glanced out the window. She hadn’t noticed before, but the sky had completely darkened, even though sunset was yet a while away, and snow was falling.

Stevie went to the big double door of the stable, which led to the schooling ring and the rest of the world. Lisa and Carole joined her. The flakes began to fall as they watched. As with many storms, the snow began slowly, a few flakes here and then some more. Most storms took a little while to
work up to full blast, but not this one. The few flakes part was over within a minute; then the storm became a blizzard.

“The woods have disappeared!” Lisa said, amazed at the speed with which the storm had descended.

“That’s nothing,” said Carole. “The tree in the field over there is barely visible.”

Stevie looked. It was really snowing hard. No matter how tired she was of all the snow that had already fallen this winter, the new snow descending on them so suddenly was beautiful and magical.

“It’s so pretty,” Lisa said.

“It always is when it’s coming down,” said Stevie. “But when it’s been on the ground for a week and has gotten dirty, then it’s ugly.”

Max came over to them, and they helped him close the big doors.

“Your dad called, Carole. He said you should go to Stevie’s and he’ll pick you up there.”

“Thanks,” said Carole. “Is that okay with you?” she asked Stevie.

“It always is,” Stevie told her.

“Now you all should get out of here before the snow gets any deeper,” said Mrs. Reg. “I’ve got to start shoveling now—unless one of you wants to help me?”

“I think we’d better hurry,” Stevie said. She knew Mrs.
Reg was teasing, but she also knew that if they dawdled, Mrs. Reg would find something for them to do.

They returned to the locker area to change into their street clothes. Stevie and Carole finished first and stepped outside while Lisa went to the bathroom to comb her hair. Someone had left something on the shelf in front of the bathroom mirror. It was a wallet.

Lisa picked it up and flipped it open. The three credit cards in it were sort of a giveaway, perhaps even more so than the designer label or the stamped gold initials V
diA
.

“Veronica?” she called out. But she knew that was a foolish thing to do. Veronica had fled the place at the first sign of work. She was probably well on her way to the mall by now. Lisa glanced into the money section of the wallet. She could hardly believe her eyes. Veronica had more than fifty dollars in there!

Lisa shook her head. It wasn’t any of her business why Veronica had so much money. Nor was it any of her business where Veronica had gone.

There wasn’t much question about what she was going to do. She picked up the wallet. Before she joined her friends, she went into the office and showed it to Mrs. Reg.

“I just wanted to tell you I found it, and I’ll call Veronica and let her know. I also wanted you to see how much money there is in it, so, well …” Lisa got flustered. She
didn’t like the idea that Veronica might accuse her of something, but she knew what was smart and what wasn’t.

Mrs. Reg didn’t seem to need any explanation. She took the money out, counted it carefully, jotted the amount down on a piece of paper, and handed the wallet back.

“Smart,” Mrs. Reg said. “And you’re being a good friend, too. Here, use my phone to call her.”

Lisa checked the phone list that Mrs. Reg handed her and dialed Veronica’s number. There was no answer. That seemed odd, since she knew Veronica had hurried to get home as soon as it was obvious that there was work to be done. And where was the housekeeper? Was it possible that in a moment of compassion Mrs. diAngelo had let the staff leave early just because there was a blizzard? Lisa guessed that must be the case. She left a message, explaining to Veronica that she had her wallet and she’d be home all evening if Veronica wanted to come and get it.

“You sure you don’t want help with the shoveling?” Lisa asked before she left the office.

Mrs. Reg smiled. “No, I’m fine. You hurry home. Good night.”

“Thanks. Bye,” she said, and hurried to catch up with Stevie and Carole in the quickly darkening afternoon.

“What took you so long?” Carole asked Lisa.

She told her about Veronica’s wallet.

“Boy, what I could do with that money!” Stevie said.

“Me too,” agreed Carole.

“Me three,” said Lisa. “Unfortunately it’s not our money. It’s hers.”

“Do you always have to be right?” Stevie asked.

Lisa shrugged. She knew Stevie was just teasing. Stevie would no more take Veronica’s money than she would flap her arms and fly.

Lisa pulled her scarf over her nose and shielded herself from the blast of snow with her backpack, and the three girls began their trek. Stevie and Carole waved good-bye to Lisa as she turned into her own driveway and approached the dark and silent house. Her mother was working late again.

As soon as Lisa got inside, she took Veronica’s wallet out and looked at it again. It was a really nice wallet. She checked for phone messages in case Veronica had called while she was walking home with her friends. The light was blinking, but it was someone who wanted to put aluminum siding on their house.

Lisa picked up her backpack and the wallet and went up to her room. She had plenty of homework to keep her busy until her mother got home. And there was the phone call from Veronica to look forward to.

S
TEVIE AND
C
AROLE
could hear the Lakes before they got to their house. Stevie’s brothers had wasted no time taking advantage of the snow and were totally oblivious to its nearly blinding intensity. They were heaving snowballs at one another.

“Gotcha!”

“Did not!”

“Well, this one will!”

There was a brief moment of silence, followed by a “Yeooowww!” and then a “That one missed me, too.”

“Right!”

Stevie and Carole ducked in the back door, dropped their bags off in the kitchen, and then sneaked back out
through the garage entrance, where they found a pile of snow accumulating very quickly. In a matter of minutes they’d begun a stealthy attack from the rear on the battling brothers, who were only too happy to join forces against the girls.

“It’s a good thing we keep in such good shape with our riding,” Stevie said, packing a snowball tightly. She heaved it across the lawn and had the satisfaction of watching it hit her brother Chad on the shoulder. She laughed with joy, until Alex wreaked revenge with a direct hit to her rear end.

The battle ended as suddenly as it had begun when Mrs. Lake appeared at the kitchen door and yelled, “Cocoa!” A truce was declared instantly.

“You know, the only thing better than a good snowball fight is the cocoa afterward,” Stevie told Carole, slinging her arm around her ally’s shoulder.

“Weren’t you complaining just the other day about all the snow we’ve had this winter?” Carole asked. She blew gently on her cocoa, waiting for the sweet concoction to cool down enough to drink.

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean snowball fights,” Stevie said. “I just meant I hate it when we have to ride indoors!”

Carole smiled. This was no time to explain that you can’t have one without the other. She took a sip of her cocoa
and listened to Chad talk about the fine points of lobbing snowballs until her father came to pick her up.