English Horse

“Did I hear right?” Veronica demanded. “Is that obnoxious royal pain actually coming here for a visit?”

“If you’re referring to Tessa,” Lisa replied coolly, “then the answer is yes. And I’m sure she’s just dying to see you, too.”

“Like I care what she thinks,” Veronica snapped huffily. She whirled around and stormed back to Danny’s stall.

“Uh-oh,” Carole whispered. “It looks like you were right, Lisa. Veronica is holding a major grudge against Tessa. I guess she’s mad that Tessa didn’t recognize her superior breeding and introduce her to the queen.”

Stevie rubbed her hands together. “Uh-huh,” she agreed. “This could be trouble. We’ll have to figure out the best way to handle it so that—”

“Stop right there, Stevie,” Lisa interrupted. “In case you’ve already forgotten, we can’t ‘handle’ anything right now. At least not the way you’re thinking.”

Carole nodded emphatically. “Lisa’s right,” she said. “Max is really mad this time. And the worst part is, Veronica knows it. If we do anything to her …”

I would like to express my special thanks
to Catherine Hapka for her help
in the writing of this book
.

“S
HE
’
LL BE SORRY
,” Stevie Lake muttered, tossing the water balloon she was holding from hand to hand.

Stevie’s two best friends, Carole Hanson and Lisa Atwood, exchanged glances in the dusty, mottled sunlight pouring through the high windows of the hayloft at Pine Hollow Stables. They didn’t have to ask whom Stevie was talking about. They knew. The “she” in question was Veronica diAngelo, a fellow rider at Pine Hollow and a middle-school classmate of Stevie’s.

“I’m still not sure this is a good idea.” Lisa gingerly shifted her own water balloon from one hand to the other and peeked over the side of the loft at the empty stable aisle below. “What if Max finds out? You know how he hates horseplay in the stable.”

Carole giggled. “From us humans, at least. For some reason he doesn’t seem to mind it as much from the horses.”

Lisa laughed, too. But she was still worried. Veronica diAngelo was an incurable snob who thought her family’s wealth made her better than everyone else, and Lisa didn’t like her any more than Stevie did. But she was afraid that Stevie’s water balloon scheme might get them in trouble with Max Regnery, the owner of Pine Hollow and the girls’ riding instructor.

Stevie shrugged. “Don’t worry about Max,” she said breezily. “I overheard him on the phone while I was filling the balloons, and it sounded like he was busy lining up some new boarders or something. He’ll probably be stuck in the office for hours filling out paperwork and boring stuff like that.” She glanced down at the bucket beside her. Normally the bright blue plastic flat-back bucket could be found hanging in the stall of Stevie’s horse, Belle, filled with fresh drinking water. However, at the moment it was filled with water balloons. “And that should give us plenty of time to teach Veronica why she shouldn’t mess with me,” she added with grim satisfaction.

Carole rolled her eyes. “Come on, Stevie.” She wiped a trickle of sweat off her forehead. It was only June, but the afternoons in Willow Creek, Virginia, were already hot and muggy. “If anyone but Veronica had played that prank on you, you would’ve loved it.”

Lisa winced as Stevie glared at Carole. She knew that Carole was right. But she also knew that Stevie’s famous sense of humor sometimes deserted her when it came to Veronica.

Stevie and Veronica both attended a private school called Fenton Hall, which was located across town from Carole and Lisa’s public school. On the last day of classes a week earlier, Fenton Hall had held its annual awards ceremony. This year the presenter had been Ms. Haines, a retiring English teacher who was rumored to be half senile. Veronica had arranged for the elderly teacher to present Stevie with a very special award—for best dressed boy. Ms. Haines had proudly called Stevie up onto the stage of the packed auditorium to accept her “trophy,” which consisted of a hideous plaid necktie displayed in an elaborate gold frame.

“I still can’t believe Veronica convinced Ms. Haines that that stupid award was for real,” Stevie muttered under her breath.

Lisa noticed that Stevie was squeezing her water balloon rather tightly. In fact, the balloon was in danger of bursting and soaking them all. Lisa moved a few inches away. “Um,” she said tentatively, “are you sure this water balloon thing is really the best way to get back at Veronica?”

“Are you kidding?” Stevie frowned. “This is just the beginning. Sort of like a warning shot. I mean, you must admit,
she
started it this time. I may have played a few
tiny pranks on Veronica in the past, but that didn’t give her the right to humiliate me in front of my entire school.” Stevie loosened her grip on the water balloon and flopped down on her stomach, sending stray wisps of hay and dust flying. “This time she’s going to pay. Big time.”

Carole and Lisa looked at each other again. Both of them knew that there was no point in trying to reason with their friend when she used that tone of voice. Stevie was definitely the most headstrong of the three girls, as well as the most wacky and mischievous. Those qualities made her very interesting to be around. And whenever her strong personality got her into hot water, Carole and Lisa were always there to help her out. That was one of the reasons they had formed The Saddle Club. The group had only two rules: Members had to be horse-crazy, and they had to be willing to help each other whenever help was needed. Sometimes the second rule meant offering assistance with riding or homework or family problems. Other times it meant pitching in to wreak horrible revenge on Veronica—at least that was how Stevie felt about it.

Stevie wriggled forward a few more inches until her shoulders cleared the edge of the loft. From that vantage point, she could see into the stalls of several of the stable’s horses, including Veronica’s sleek Thoroughbred gelding, Danny. More important, she had a good view of the aisle in front of the stalls.

“We should each be able to get off at least two or three rounds before she realizes what’s happening,” she mused. She reached over and grabbed another water balloon. “Maybe more if we work really fast.”

Carole slid forward next to Stevie and peered over the edge. “We’re lucky Max switched the stall assignments around when the new horses arrived last month: Danny isn’t stabled near Rusty or Geronimo anymore,” she remarked. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do this. We all know how spooky Rusty can sometimes be about water, and Geronimo is too hyper to tolerate
anything
falling into his stall.”

“Hmmm,” Stevie replied. “By the way, did you notice how we’re only using red, white, and blue water balloons? I did that as a silent protest against the way Veronica has been bragging about giving the opening remarks at the country club on July Fourth weekend.”

Lisa hid a smile. She had the funniest feeling that Stevie was changing the subject because the idea of her water balloons upsetting the horses hadn’t even occurred to her. Naturally, though, Carole had seen the potential problem right away. That was typical of both Lisa’s friends. Stevie tended to get so caught up in her schemes and pranks that she sometimes forgot about everything else. Carole could be even more scatterbrained than Stevie, but never when it came to horses. For her, horses always came first, second, and third, making her easily the horse-craziest of the three horse-crazy girls.

“Speaking of the Fourth of July,” Lisa said, “whoever thought that anything good would come out of my parents’ finally being accepted into the Willow Creek Country Club?”

“I know,” Stevie said. “I still can’t believe it was your mother’s idea to hold a day of point-to-point races that weekend.”

Lisa grimaced. “Actually, I think it was inspired by Mrs. diAngelo. They’re cochairs of the fund-raising committee, and my mom has been a lot more excited about horses since she started chatting with Mrs. diAngelo about Veronica and Pine Hollow and Danny.” She shrugged. “But you have to admit, whoever’s idea it was, it should be a lot of fun. I’ve never even seen a point-to-point before, let alone ridden in one.”

“Neither have I,” Stevie admitted. She sat up to say more, still balancing a water balloon in each hand. “What’s the difference between a point-to-point and a steeplechase again?” She had been just as thrilled as her friends to hear about the upcoming equestrian event, which would take place on the Saturday before Independence Day. Mrs. Atwood had been steadily planning for more than a month, but lately Stevie had been so busy formulating her revenge against Veronica that she hadn’t paid much attention to the details. She knew a little bit about steeplechasing, which was a form of horse racing that included jumps. But she wasn’t clear on the difference
between that and what was happening at the country club in a couple of weeks.

“They’re really pretty similar,” said Carole, who loved sharing her knowledge about horses. “Both involve races over a course that includes jumps. A point-to-point usually takes place cross-country instead of at a racetrack, but otherwise I think it’s pretty much just the amateur version of the professional sport.”