Hay Fever (2 page)

“Thank goodness she’s leaving for her European vacation tomorrow,” Lisa whispered.

“Europe’s not far enough. She should go to Abu Dhabi,” Stevie whispered back.

Veronica was an insensitive, spoiled girl whose purpose
in life seemed to be making other people feel uncomfortable. Lisa, Carole, Stevie, and practically everyone else at Pine Hollow had long since given up on trying to be friends with her.

Deborah looked embarrassed at Veronica’s remark. “No, I actually don’t know how to ride. I’m hoping I’ll learn quickly, though.” She seemed to make a big effort to smile.

Meanwhile Max looked as if he was trying very hard to keep himself from exploding at Veronica. “All right, enough chatter,” he barked. “Shorten your stirrups to jumping length, form a line, and start trotting over these cavalletti.”

“But we haven’t cantered yet or done any warm-up exercises on the flat,” Lisa said, mystified. In all of her lessons at Pine Hollow, she had always been taught to warm up her horse thoroughly before jumping.

Max, who had turned to give Deborah an encouraging smile, flashed Lisa a dark look. “Well, what
have
you been doing for the past half hour?” he asked.

“Class only started ten minutes ago!” Lisa replied. Normally she wouldn’t talk back to Max, but this was ridiculous!

Max looked down at his watch. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “So it did.” By this point the entire class—including the woman—was staring at Max, trying to figure out what strange disease had invaded his brain. He gave a sheepish
grin. “Scratch that. Instead, pick up a sitting trot and prepare to canter.”

The class looked at one another. No one moved. Even though he had finally given them some normal instructions, everyone seemed to be waiting for some signal that Max was really himself again. As if he knew what his students were thinking, Max spun on his heel and snapped, “What’s everyone staring at? Don’t the words ‘sitting trot’ mean anything to anyone? If not, I’d be happy to—ah—ah—AHCHOO!” With a resounding sneeze, Max cut himself short.

The Saddle Club and the others in the lesson picked up their reins and headed out to the rail. Obviously, whatever was wrong with Max was beyond their control—they would just have to get through the lesson and hope he didn’t set up a six-foot fence for them to trot over!

“I
F
I
HAD
to go around one more time, I was going to quit riding and take up needlepoint—I’m sure it would be more interesting!” Stevie announced as she joined Lisa and Carole in the locker room after untacking. For the past half hour, Max had kept them trotting over the same ten poles while he demonstrated lengthening and shortening of stride to Deborah Hale.

“No kidding,” Lisa agreed. “Max was on another planet.”

“He certainly was acting strange,” Carole said. “I know it was kind of funny—all his sneezing and being confused and everything—but do you think maybe something could be really wrong with him?”

“Gosh, I never even thought of that,” Lisa admitted. “I’ll bet it’s probably just allergies, though—you know, hay fever or something.”

Stevie’s eyes opened wide. “Do you think so? What if he had pneumonia? Or bronchitis? Or mono?” she asked.

Lisa chose her words carefully. She knew that sickness was a very sensitive subject to Stevie these days since her brother Alex had been dangerously ill only a short time ago. Still, it was foolish to think a few sneezes meant that Max was really sick. “Look, if he were really sick, he wouldn’t be up and about—not to mention teaching a lesson.”

“That’s true,” Stevie said. She thought for a minute. “You know, I don’t think Max has ever missed a day of teaching.”

“We sure take him for granted, don’t we?” Carole said. “Imagine if something ever did happen to him.”

Stevie paused with one boot in the boot jack. Lisa looked up from combing her hair. Something happen to Max? Impossible—even to think about. Before they could freak each other out anymore, Carole took command of the situation. “All right, we’re getting silly. I
think this calls for a Saddle Club calm-down meeting at TD’s. Okay?”

Lisa smiled in relief. “Sounds good,” she said.

Stevie, however, looked less than pleased. “Maybe we should try somewhere else for a change,” she muttered.

Lisa and Carole stared at her. Was Stevie starting to get weird now, too? The Saddle Club
always
went to TD’s. Other than Pine Hollow, the local ice-cream shop was their main hangout.

“What do you mean ‘somewhere else’?” Carole inquired cautiously.

“Nothing,” Stevie mumbled. “It’s just that I have a feeling my brother will be there with his date.”

“So what’s the big deal?” Carole asked. She knew Stevie wasn’t too keen on socializing with her brothers, but she usually didn’t worry about running into them in public places.

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s just that—”

“Hey!” Lisa exclaimed, interrupting suddenly. She pointed at Stevie’s feet. “You
are
color coordinated today. Your pink socks match your shirt perfectly. You’re getting interested in fashion, aren’t you?” she asked.

Stevie sort of grumbled in response.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’ ” Lisa said.

“And a ‘yes’ for TD’s, too,” Carole added.

Reluctantly Stevie nodded.

T
WENTY MINUTES LATER
The Saddle Club slid into their usual booth at TD’s. The waitress’s face lit up when she saw them come in. She came right over to take their order.

“A butterscotch sundae,” Lisa decided.

“That sounds good—me too,” Carole said.

“Have I got the perfect suggestion for you,” the waitress said, looking at Stevie. “We’re having a special on ‘pinks’—bubble-gum ice cream, strawberry topping, maraschino cherries, and cinnamon sprinkles. You’ll take it, right?”

Lisa and Carole smiled. It did sound like a perfect order for Stevie—perfectly disgusting, that is, like her usual concoctions. To their surprise Stevie shook her
head. “No thank you, I’ll skip the pinks,” she said firmly. “I’ll have blueberry ice cream, yellow pineapple topping, and rainbow sprinkles, please.”

After the waitress left to place their order, Carole turned to Stevie.

“All right, what’s up? You seem a little oversensitive to the word ‘pink.’ ”

Stevie cringed. When her friends did some additional coaxing, she poured out the whole story. It had all begun when Stevie’s mother, a busy lawyer, had gone on strike at home. She had announced at dinner the week before that she was tired of being everything to everyone and was going to insist that everyone pitch in.

“That doesn’t sound so bad. I help my mom around the house sometimes,” Lisa said.

“Yes, well, you haven’t heard the whole thing,” Stevie continued. “
I
got the job of doing the laundry. My red sweatshirt was in the first load, and it was really dirty, so I decided to wash it on the hottest temperature.”

“Oh, no!” Lisa exclaimed. “Don’t tell me you had other stuff in with it!”

Stevie nodded glumly. “Yeah. My white blouse, my white socks, my white underwear, and my
brothers
’ white underwear.”

“And red and white make pink,” Carole finished for her, beginning to giggle. Lisa caught her eye, and in no time all three of them were struggling to stop laughing.

“It is pretty funny,” Stevie admitted when she’d regained her composure. “But unfortunately my brothers don’t see the humor in it. Pink is not exactly Alex, Chad, and Michael’s favorite color. They’re completely furious with me, and I think they’re starting a campaign to kick me out of the house.”

Lisa and Carole nodded sympathetically. They knew from past experience how tough the Lake brothers could be. Once, in front of Stevie’s boyfriend, they had teased her about foxhunting so mercilessly that Stevie had had to wage an all-out war against them. Luckily she could usually hold her own. This time was no different.

“I guess if they do anything too terrible, I can always blackmail them into submission,” Stevie said.

At the exact moment she made her pronouncement, Stevie’s older brother Chad swung open the door to TD’s, followed by the girl he’d been dating, a brunette named Amy. Stevie scrunched down in the booth, but Chad spotted her immediately.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my darling sister, Stevie,” he said, eyeing her coolly. “Hiding in the booth, huh? Hoping your friends will protect you?”

“Actually, Chad,” Stevie said sweetly, “I was hoping I’d run into you here. I wanted to make sure you knew they were having a special on all-pink sundaes. And I know how much you
love
pink,” she added.

Chad gave her a withering glance. “We’ll continue
this discussion at home.” He took the surprised Amy by the arm and propelled her through the door. “Come on,” The Saddle Club girls heard him say as he exited, “we’ll go somewhere less crowded.”

“Well,” Carole pointed out, “that could have been a lot worse.”

“Yeah,” Stevie muttered. “Try
living
with him—and the other two.”

Lisa thought for a minute. “Have you tried bleaching the underwear? That should turn it white again,” she suggested.

“That’s what my mom told me,” Stevie replied. “But then I remembered that I stole the bleach last month and took it to Pine Hollow to treat the new pony’s thrush.”

“Can’t you buy some more?” Lisa asked logically.

Stevie looked at her in surprise. “Are you suggesting that I spend my hard-earned money on my
brothers
?” she asked.

Carole and Lisa looked at one another. When it came to her brothers, Stevie could be completely irrational.

While they talked, the waitress had appeared from behind the counter with a trayful of sundaes. She set the first two down in front of Carole and Lisa. Then she gingerly picked up the blueberry-pineapple dish, examined it briefly, wrinkled up her nose, and pushed it
toward Stevie with distaste. “Waste of good ice cream, if you ask me,” she muttered.

“Speaking of ice cream,” Stevie piped up, “I’d better have something else to go with this. How ’bout a nice, normal brownie sundae?”

“On top of what you’ve got?” the waitress demanded.

“Naturally. This is the appetizer. That’s the main course,” Stevie replied. Shaking her head, the waitress went to place the order.

“I figured I’d better eat up,” Stevie explained. “I just remembered it’s Chad’s night to cook, and I don’t want to face it on an empty stomach.”

“Good idea,” Carole agreed.

After a few minutes of silent spooning, the girls set about the business at hand: figuring out Max’s strange behavior at the lesson.

“Maybe he’s got Alzheimer’s,” Stevie suggested. “I think my great-uncle had it, and he could never remember anything.”

“Alzheimer’s? Please, Stevie, Max is way too young to get that,” Lisa admonished.

“Well, I didn’t know,” Stevie said defensively. “And, anyway, Max isn’t exactly a spring chicken. I think I heard Mrs. Reg say that he’s almost thirty.”

“Thirty?” Carole repeated. “Wow, that’s practically ancient.”

“Yeah, and he’s still single,” Lisa pointed out.

“I wonder if he’s ever had a girlfriend,” Stevie mused. She grinned as she remembered the time not too long ago when the three of them had jumped to conclusions about Max’s love life. They’d overheard him talking on the phone, and thought he had a girlfriend—when in fact he’d been talking about a new mare for Pine Hollow!

Before she could remind her friends of the last time they’d gotten involved in Max’s love life, Lisa clapped her hands together. “Stevie, that’s probably it!” she said.

“What’s it?”

“Maybe Deborah Hale is Max’s new girlfriend! That would explain his acting weird and forgetting stuff. He might have been nervous around her,” Lisa said.

Stevie and Carole thought over Lisa’s explanation. “I just can’t believe that Max would be interested in someone like her,” Carole finally said. “She doesn’t ride, for one.”

“So? I like Bob Harris, and he doesn’t ride. He plays soccer,” Lisa replied. Bob Harris was a school friend of Stevie’s whom Lisa had really hit it off with at Carole’s birthday party.

“That’s true, but I don’t think she’s his type in other ways, too. She seemed nice but too sensitive,” Stevie said. “I’d guess Max would like a woman with a strong personality like his. And I’m beginning to think that he was simply nervous about having a reporter around while he tried to teach a lesson. She’s probably the type who’s
always taking mental notes on everything. That can get to you after a while—not knowing if what you say will end up in tomorrow’s front page.” Stevie gave Lisa a significant glance. Once Lisa had tried writing a column for the local newspaper. The only problem had been that it had unknowingly turned her into a snoop and a tattle-tale on her friends.

“Okay, okay,” Lisa conceded. “I see what you mean.”

After a minute Carole said thoughtfully, “Still, it does seem kind of sad that Max is thirty and he doesn’t even have a girlfriend, let alone a wife. He’s probably lonely.”

“Yeah, and if he doesn’t get married soon, there might never be an heir to take over Pine Hollow. And then what would our kids do for a riding instructor?” Stevie asked.