Horse Power (6 page)

“A
RE YOU SURE
you know what you’re doing?” Lisa asked.

“Absolutely,” Stevie responded with total confidence. “I’ve done this lots.” She combed some styling mousse into Lisa’s damp hair. Then she separated a small section, held it straight up, and rolled it onto a curler. “See, the first thing you have to do is to give the hair some body—curl, I mean—then you can style it anyway you want.”

Lisa’s eyes met Stevie’s in the mirror. They were filled with doubt.

“Trust me,” Stevie said reassuringly.

“Those are the very words the executioner said to Marie Antoinette,” Carole teased. She was watching the entire procedure from a safe distance away, on her
bed. It was Friday night and The Saddle Club girls were enjoying their sleepover at Carole’s house. Carole was observing her friend’s makeover, but her mind kept jumping to Kate Devine’s much-anticipated visit the next day.

“Some help
you
are,” Stevie complained. “Here Lisa is, nervous as a cat about her new look, and you try to tell her I’m an executioner? Thanks.”

“Well, let’s face it,” Carole said. “Marie Antoinette’s new hairdo was permanent—”

“Yuck, what a thought!” Lisa squirmed in her seat.

“I’m just joking,” Carole said.

“Yeah? Well, if you were sitting where I am, you wouldn’t think it was so funny.”

“No, I guess not! I’m sorry. I was actually thinking about Kate.”

“Well, that’s okay,” Stevie said. “I’ve been thinking about her, too. Do you think she’d let me try a new style on
her
hair?”

Carole grinned, imagining Stevie doing Kate’s hair “I don’t know. You could ask her. Oh, guess what—the original
King Kong
is on TV tonight. I asked Dad if we could watch it and he said okay.”

“It’s only from eight to ten,” Stevie said. “How come you had to ask his permission?”

“It wasn’t getting his permission to watch it,” Carole explained. “It was getting his okay to watch it without him. See, it’s one of his favorite movies.”

“Your dad’s a pretty neat guy,” Stevie said. “And I’m
sure he knows better than to try to join in on our pajama party. That’s much better than at
my
house where we’d be fighting off three boys.” As she finished speaking, she fastened the final curler with a clip, folded her hands neatly in front of her, and bowed politely, waiting for applause.

Carole clapped. Lisa was about to and then thought better of it. “I think I’ll wait until I see the final result,” she teased.

“If it’s really weird, will you show it to your mother?” Stevie asked, turning a blow-dryer on and aiming it at the curlers.

“If it’s really weird, I’ll wash it out,” Lisa said.

“Ah, Lisa the A student,” Stevie joked. “Always has a solution to every problem. Is that why you wouldn’t let me do the frosting?”

“Well, that’s one of the reasons,” Lisa said evasively.

“You have no faith in me,” Stevie said in mock hurt.

“That’s one way to put it,” Lisa joked. Then she glanced at her watch. “Come on, hurry up, it’s almost eight o’clock. Time for
King Kong
. ‘ ’Twas
beauty
killed the beast,’ ” she quoted, her voice suddenly deep and ominous.

“Boy, I love that movie,” Carole said.

“Me, too,” Stevie agreed. “Do we have time to make popcorn?”

“There’s always time for popcorn,” Carole assured her, heading for the kitchen. “You go and turn on the TV. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“O
H
,
THAT POOR
monster,” Carole wailed two hours later, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Can you imagine? Why couldn’t they just leave him alone? How can people be so cruel to animals? Weren’t there any animal-rights people around?” she demanded.

“It really is awful what people can do sometimes, isn’t it?” Lisa joined in while she and Carole tidied up the kitchen, putting their bowls and glasses in the dishwasher.

“You guys!” Stevie chimed in from the den, where she was replacing the pillows and picking up stray pieces of popcorn. “It’s only a movie!”

“I know it’s only a movie,” Carole said, calming down. “But it reminds me how people sometimes just use animals without remembering that they have minds and feelings, too.”

“Maybe when you grow up, instead of owning a horse farm, you’ll be an animal-rights activist,” Lisa suggested.

“Maybe I’ll be an animal-rights activist in
addition
to owning a horse farm,” Carole countered, leading Lisa to the stairs.

“And in addition to being a vet? And a trainer?” Stevie asked, meeting them at the landing.

“I don’t think I’m ready to make up my mind,” Carole said. “I just know I want to be with horses. That’s as far as I’ve gotten. What about you guys? You going to be a beautician?” she asked Stevie with a grin.

“We’ll see about that,” Lisa said, patting the curlers to see if her hair was dry. It was. “Do your thing!” she said to Stevie.

Carole hauled the sleeping bags out of the closet and arranged them on the floor while Stevie prepared to comb out Lisa’s light brown hair. When the sleeping bags were laid out, Carole perched on the edge of her bed to watch the unveiling. Carefully, Stevie unrolled each curler, figuring Lisa’s hair would wave gently to her shoulders, but that wasn’t what happened at all. As each curler was removed, the hair bounced right back into a tight curl, as if the curler were still there.

“Is this okay?” Lisa asked dubiously.

“Oh, sure,” Stevie said, but the look on her face showed concern. When the final curler was removed, she took Lisa’s hairbrush and began smoothing out the curls. Each time she brushed through Lisa’s hair, the curls rewound into their coils.

“I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” Lisa said. “This isn’t what you had in mind, was it?”

Stevie was doing everything she could to keep a straight face, brushing more and more vigorously at the tight curls, but when it became clear that it wasn’t going to work—that Lisa’s hair was determined to stay tightly coiled—she could contain it no longer. She simply exploded into giggles.

For a second, Carole was afraid Lisa was going to be angry with Stevie, but looking at herself in the mirror, Lisa quickly joined Stevie. While she laughed, she
bounced her head up and down, watching each curl behave like a Slinky.

“It’s just not me,” she said between giggles.

“It’s certainly
different
,” Carole said, joining in the laughter. “Maybe if you sleep on it—” she suggested.

“I think I’ll wet it down first,” Lisa said. “And, the whole time I’m wetting it down, I’m going to be thankful I
didn’t
let you frost it!”

“Me, too,” Stevie said, giggles subsiding. “Want me to help you wet it?”

Lisa gave her a sidelong glance. “No thanks!” she said airily, heading for the bathroom. That got Carole and Stevie laughing again.

By the time Lisa returned, wet-headed and straight-haired, Carole and Stevie were climbing into their sleeping bags. Lisa retreated to hers, a dry towel on the pillow to protect it from the dampness of her hair. Carole turned out the light and the girls settled in for some serious talking.

“I just can’t wait to see Kate again,” Carole began.

“She must be neat,” Stevie said.

“Oh, yes, she is! And she’s
different
, somehow, too.”

“Different from whom?” Lisa asked.

“Everybody,” Carole said. “She seems so sure of herself, so confident. But it’s not off-putting, if you know what I mean.”

“I guess you have to be pretty sure of yourself if
you’re going to be in tough competitions like she has,” Lisa observed.

“I guess you do,” Carole said. “But she’s not snooty, like you might think she could be.”

“We’ll see for ourselves soon enough,” Stevie said.

“Just about twelve hours from now,” Lisa piped in.

“I can’t wait,” Carole said again.

“So we heard,” Lisa said.

“Have I been talking about her too much?” Carole asked. Lisa could hear the hurt in Carole’s voice and was ashamed of herself for her thoughtless remark.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way,” she said, trying to comfort Carole. “I was just teasing. But—”

“But what?” Carole asked.

“Sometimes you do go on a bit,” Lisa said. “But it’s okay. It’s you and that’s the way you are—like how you sometimes lecture a bit on horse care. That’s okay, too, because your friends really learn from you, you know? So now you’re excited about Kate—”

“Sure I’m excited about her arriving, but maybe I’m talking about it so much because, in a way, I’m dreading it, too.”

“You could fool me!” Stevie said. “Why are you nervous?”

“Well, it’s that thing about how I kept sort of giving her that beginner lesson in horses last week—and then I learn that she’s an expert! What do you suppose she thinks of me? I made such an idiot of myself!”

“You’re not an idiot,” Lisa assured her. “And besides, the big question here is,
why
didn’t she tell you? It’s not as if she could have just expected you to know about her blue ribbons—”

“Not just blue ribbons,” Carole interrupted. “She’s got to have a roomful of silver cups!”

“But she couldn’t expect you to know about them. So
why?
”

“I don’t know why, but I do know
what
. The what is that as soon as I see her tomorrow, I have to apologize.”

“I bet she apologizes first,” Stevie said.

“What does she have to apologize for?” Carole asked. “She didn’t make a fool out of herself.”

“No, but she made you feel embarrassed, and that’s worse,” Lisa said. “If she’s as nice as you say, there’s got to be a reason. The big mystery for tomorrow is going to be finding it out.”

“Maybe,” Carole said.

Lisa could tell, though, that she still felt bad about the whole mix-up. But they couldn’t solve the mystery until Kate arrived. In the meantime, Lisa had to get Carole’s mind off it. “Time to change the subject,” she announced. “Anybody have something else to talk about?”

“I do,” Stevie said. “I want to talk about B-O-Y-S.”

“Yes?” Carole said, obviously relieved to have the focus off herself. “Anyone in particular?”

“Sort of,” Stevie said. “I was wondering what it’s like
to have a boy have a crush on you. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “I thought maybe Lisa …?”

Lisa was quiet for a moment. She hadn’t been terribly comfortable this week, being sure Chad was sort of lurking around, thinking about her. She
wanted
to talk about it, but, after all, Stevie was his sister. She took a deep breath. Lisa didn’t think she’d ever be able to talk about Chad, or any other boy, in the daylight. But, somehow, when the lights were out and they couldn’t see one another’s faces, it was easier to share.

“It’s kind of strange, to tell you the truth. I mean, it’s like—well, he must know that I know he has a crush on me, but still nothing has happened.”

“Do you want something to happen?” Carole asked.

“Oh, yes!” Lisa said. “I’ve never had a date. I can hardly wait for my first date. And he
is
kind of cute,” Lisa added, glancing at Stevie. “But I’m scared at the same time, you know what I mean? And it’s funny, knowing there are these feelings, like they’re hanging around in the air, but everybody’s pretending not to notice them.”

“I saw a movie once where this boy and girl just looked at each other and they were madly in love and they never even had to say anything to each other because they each knew exactly what was on the other’s mind. It was so romantic!” Carole said, almost breathlessly.

“Uckko!” Stevie said. “I sure don’t want any boy to
know what’s on my mind! It was awful when Will Chambers knew what I was thinking because
somebody
told him.”

“But what if it were like your minds were one?” Carole persisted.

“I don’t want any part of it if that means he’d know how badly I did on my last science test.”

“That’s not what we’re talking about at all,” Lisa said. “We’re talking about
romance
.” She sighed dreamily.

“Maybe,” Stevie said dubiously. “But somehow I can’t picture the word ‘romance’ and my brother Chad in the same room. Can you, honestly, Lisa?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lisa said. “That’s part of what’s so confusing about this whole thing. But you should realize that he’s not
my
brother and I just don’t see him the same way you do. I don’t think of him as the boy who uses the last of the soap, or borrows your hairbrush—”

“Or chews with his mouth open, or who teases me about all sorts of things. Okay, okay. So, then, how
do
you think of him?” Stevie asked.

“I guess lately I’ve been thinking of him as maybe the boy who might ask me out,” she confessed in the darkness.

There was a long silence and then Carole spoke. “First date,” she said, as if she were entranced by the mere sound of the words.

“It could be years away,” Lisa reasoned.

“And it could be next week,” Carole reminded her.

“And it could be with my
brother
!” Stevie said.

With those thoughts on their minds, the girls eventually drifted into sleep.