Hobbyhorse (8 page)

Monday morning Amelia came down to the breakfast table in another new pair of jodhpurs and another tidy wool sweater. Her face was scrubbed clean, she’d polished her paddock boots, and she had tied bright ribbons at the ends of her braids.

“Why, Amelia,” said Mrs. Atwood, “you look very nice.”

“Thank you, Aunt Eleanor,” Amelia said politely. “Could you please wash my other jodhpurs for me? They got a little dirty on Saturday.” She slid into her chair and reached for the cereal.

“Of course. I must say, it’s a pleasure having someone around who takes as much care with her appearance as you do.” Lisa’s mother gave Lisa a sideways smile, and Lisa sighed. She’d been wearing the same pair of breeches for three days now, and she hadn’t cleaned her boots in more than a week. But she was wearing clean socks and a fresh shirt, her hair was clean and combed, and she’d brushed her teeth. She wasn’t dirty. Besides, no one around the stable cared what she looked like. The only person who really fussed over her appearance was Veronica diAngelo.

“Do you think I look okay, Lisa?” Amelia asked shyly.

“Sure. Pass the orange juice, will you?”

A smile had started on Amelia’s face, but it faded under the scornful tone in Lisa’s voice. Amelia pushed the orange juice carton sullenly across the table, and it spilled a little.

“Be careful!” Lisa said.

“I’m
trying.
”

Something anxious in the tone of Amelia’s voice made Lisa look at her more closely. Was it possible that Amelia was worried about how she looked? Suddenly it occurred to Lisa that Amelia was just trying to look right, to fit in. She wanted to be liked. Unfortunately, Lisa thought with a sigh,
she also wanted to get her own way a hundred and six percent of the time.

On the way to Pine Hollow, Lisa thought sadly about the broken hobbyhorse. Her parents had still not said one word about it, so neither had she. She’d avoided going into the garage, because she didn’t want to see the beautiful piece of art sitting on top of the trash.

Amelia didn’t speak to Lisa after the exchange at the breakfast table. When they got out of the car at Pine Hollow and waved good-bye to Lisa’s mother, Amelia turned to Lisa. “Can I ride Prancer today?” she asked.

“Don’t be stupid,” Lisa said crossly. “You’re not going to ride her at all this week. I’m sure Max will give you Delilah again, and you ought to be happy with her. You got along fine with her Saturday.” She didn’t understand Amelia’s obsession with riding Prancer, especially given how much fun she’d had with Delilah.

Amelia’s eyes filled with tears. “But I don’t want to ride Delilah. I want to ride Prancer.”

Lisa shrugged. “Too bad.” There were six more days until Amelia went home, and she was counting.

“Ohh!”
Amelia stamped her foot and headed into the stable. Lisa went in search of her friends.

As she headed down the aisle, she saw the Pony Tails all vigorously grooming their ponies. “Hey, guys!” she called to them.

Corey looked up from currying Samurai. A funny expression passed over her face, and she went back to her grooming without saying a word.

“Hi, Corey,” Lisa said again. “Is something wrong?”

Corey stared at a spot on Samurai’s flank. “No,” she said.

Lisa frowned.
What was that about?
As she continued down the aisle, she heard May saying, “I’m telling you, Corey, Lisa never said anything bad about Sam …”

She sighed. Amelia again, she was sure of it. She started to turn back to talk to the younger girls, but Stevie poked her head out of Starlight’s stall and called for her.

“What’s wrong?” Lisa asked. Both Carole and Stevie were standing anxiously by Carole’s horse.

“Nothing,” Stevie said. “We just wanted your opinion. Feel here.” She lifted Starlight’s lame foot and pointed to a spot on the hoof.

“That’s strange,” Lisa said, feeling carefully. “It feels hot.” She bent and felt the same spot on Starlight’s other front foot, for comparison. The gelding nuzzled her hair. “It definitely feels hot.”

“We think so, too,” Stevie said. “See, Carole, it is an abscess. That spot’ll open up, drain, and heal.”

Carole patted her beloved horse sadly. “I hope so.”

Lisa shuddered. “ ‘Open up’ sounds awful.”

Carole closed her eyes as if she were feeling Starlight’s pain.

“It won’t be awful at all,” Stevie said cheerfully. “Judy’ll just make a tiny hole to let the infection out. Starlight will feel a lot better then.”

Unless it’s navicular
, Carole thought.
Maybe navicular made horses’ hooves feel hot, too.
She moaned.

“It’ll be okay,” Stevie said reassuringly. “He’s going to be fine.”

Carole laughed a little shakily. “I know, Stevie, but if it were Belle—”

“—I’d be feeling awful, and you’d be saying, ‘Stevie, she’s going to be fine,’ ” Stevie finished for her. They all laughed.

“I’m going to wait to soak his foot until you guys are riding,” Carole said. “It’ll give me something to do. Say, Lisa, where’s Amelia?”

“Who cares?” Lisa asked.

“Well,” Stevie said, “it’s probably better to keep an eye on her.”

“You’re right,” Lisa said gloomily. “She’s probably telling the Pony Tails about her wonder horse, Star. Or else she’s mooning over Prancer. Let’s go get her.”

Amelia wasn’t with the Pony Tails or in Prancer’s stall. The Saddle Club peeked into Belle’s stall, too, and Delilah’s, but didn’t find her. Quite a few of the other riders had arrived for camp, and the stable was full of busy people, but they didn’t see Amelia anywhere.

As they approached the locker room, Lisa heard Amelia
talking inside. She held up her hand to silence her friends, and the three girls crept closer to the open door.

“See, I’m just going to go get Prancer and I’m going to ride her,” she was saying. “Once Max sees how well I do with her, he’ll let me keep riding her. Don’t you think so, Veronica?”

“Um,” they could hear Veronica say. “I don’t know. I think perhaps you’re overestimating Prancer. She’s a nice-looking horse, but of course she can’t be that valuable, or Max wouldn’t let Lisa ride her. And she behaved very badly at a horse show once. Not like my Danny. Now there’s a horse.”

“Prancer’s a registered Thoroughbred,” Amelia said.

“Umm, yes, of course she is,” Veronica said. “Step aside, Amelia. I need to put on my good boots. Did you happen to notice them the other day? They’re custom-made—the very finest.”

“I’m going to get boots soon,” Amelia said. “And I’m
not
riding Delilah today.”

Lisa started to walk into the locker room. She’d heard quite enough. Amelia continued, “I’m having a miserable vacation, and it’s all Lisa’s fault.” Lisa froze. Stevie and Carole bumped into her, then stopped, too. “If Lisa had acted nice to me, then Stevie and Carole and everybody else would have liked me, and then I could have ridden Prancer
yesterday instead of Delilah,” Amelia said. “Don’t you think so, Veronica?”

“Umm … maybe.” Veronica sounded distracted, as if she wasn’t listening. “Look at this mud on my boots! I told our handyman to be sure to get the heels clean this time!”

Max walked up behind The Saddle Club just in time to hear Amelia say, “So I’m just going to go ride Prancer right now.”

“You can’t do that,” Veronica said. “You’re too little. Really, it’s a bad idea. It would be dangerous.”

“Amazing,” Stevie whispered. “Veronica, doing the right thing?”

Carole shook her head. “She’s a jerk, but she does know about horses. She knows Amelia would get hurt.”

“I’ll stop this,” Max said quietly. He started to walk into the room, but Amelia had already said, “Yes! I’m going to! I’m tired of people telling me what to do!”

“No, you can’t! I’ll tell Max!” Veronica said.

“Ahhhh!”
The Saddle Club heard a terrific crash.

“Stop that! My boots!” Veronica shouted furiously. Something else crashed. Max and The Saddle Club rushed into the locker room just as one of Veronica’s expensive boots came flying out the door.

Amelia had thrown herself into a complete tantrum. She grabbed a box of hair supplies out of Veronica’s cubby and
hurled it after Veronica’s boot. Before Max could reach her, she flung herself down on the floor, sobbing incoherently and kicking her feet like a two-year-old.

“Quiet!” Max roared. He hauled her to her feet. Amelia subsided into whimpering moans. “I said
quiet
!” She quit crying and gave Max a sulky look.

She doesn’t even look ashamed
, Lisa thought in amazement.

“Veronica, go check on Danny for a moment,” Max said. Veronica left in a flash, her eyebrows raised in disdainful astonishment. “Now, Amelia”—he put his face very close to hers—“if you
ever
want to ride here again, you will quit blubbering, wash your face, and report to my office in exactly two minutes. Now, scoot!” He gave her a little push out the door.

“As for you three …” Max straightened and suddenly looked weary. “Let’s go to my office.”

S
TEVIE
, C
AROLE
,
AND
L
ISA
slowly filed into Max’s office. Lisa felt drained. Just witnessing Amelia’s tantrum had sucked all the energy out of her. She would not be able to stand six more days of this. Max shut the door behind him, and they all looked at one another awkwardly.

“Please sit down,” Max said. “You didn’t drop that bucket, did you?” he asked Carole.

She shook her head.

“Did Amelia throw it, by any chance?” he continued. Carole looked miserable. Finally she nodded.

“I owe you an apology. It looks like I misjudged the
situation with Patch and Amelia. Will you please forgive me?” He solemnly held out his hand.

Carole shook it. To her surprise, tears came to her eyes. She felt so relieved.

Max looked around the room. “Lisa, Stevie, I should have listened to you, too. I’m very sorry.”

“It’s okay, Max,” Lisa said softly. She felt heartsick that things had gone this far. They sat in silence for a few moments, until Amelia knocked and came in.

Her eyes were still red from crying, but she had washed her face, brushed the dirt off her sweater, and retied the ribbons on her braids. “Max,” she said, as soon as she came into the room, “I’m very, very sorry for everything I did. I promise I’ll be much better, if only you let me ride again.” She smiled at him beseechingly. Her lower lip trembled.

Max didn’t smile back. “You should apologize to Stevie and Lisa and Carole,” he said. “Especially to Carole.”

Amelia turned and held her hands out to Carole. “I’m very sorry. I shouldn’t have said that about you.”

“You should apologize to Patch,” Carole said. “You scared him.”

Amelia nodded. “Okay, I will. Lisa, Stevie, I’m sorry, okay?” She turned to Max. “Now can I ride again? Please?”

“Why did you throw the bucket that spooked Patch?” Max asked.

Tears filled Amelia’s eyes, and one ran down her cheek. “I didn’t know he would act like that,” she said. “I thought he would just jump a little. I didn’t mean for all the horses to run! I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to ride Patch.”

“Patch is a good horse,” Max said firmly.

“I’m really sorry,” Amelia said.

Max drew in a heavy breath. “It’s not as easy as that,” he said. “Sometimes apologies are not enough. I misjudged The Saddle Club here, especially Carole, and I should not have, so I need to do something to make it up to them. They had earned my trust, and I should have trusted them.

“Riding is a privilege, not a right,” he continued. “Especially, riding at my barn is a privilege, and privileges, like trust, are something you earn.

“I should kick you out, Amelia. You scared Patch on purpose, and you were planning to ride a horse without my permission. Both of those are dangerous and should be enough to end your riding privileges here. But, as I said, I owe something to The Saddle Club, too.”

He sat back in his chair, and Carole thought she could detect a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. “I’m letting The Saddle Club decide your fate, Amelia. If they think you shouldn’t be allowed to ride here, you won’t be.”

“O
UT
!” S
TEVIE SAID
as she sat down on a tack trunk. “Out, out, out!” She cackled with glee.

“Well …,” Carole said hesitantly, sitting down beside Stevie. They were in the tack room, where they’d gone for privacy while they discussed Amelia’s fate.

“I wouldn’t have to deal with her for the whole week,” Lisa said, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes. “It would be so wonderful. I don’t know what Amelia would do by herself—but I guess that isn’t my problem, is it? My mom could take her shopping, or they could go to museums. Anywhere, so long as she isn’t here. It would be heaven.”

“It would be awful for Amelia,” Stevie said with satisfaction. “A week of shopping and museums—the perfect revenge!”

“It
would
be awful,” Lisa said. “Too awful. I don’t know. I don’t want her around, but I’m not sure that that’s reason enough to ban her. I didn’t want her here in the first place, and I think—I think I could have been nicer to her.”

“What she did was horrid,” Carole said. “I don’t mean lying about me, although that was bad enough. Poor Patch! And remember, Max almost got killed.”