Starting Gate (6 page)

Grinning with delight, Skye, Stevie, and Lisa began to clap softly.

“You’re really terrific, Carole,” Skye said. “I didn’t think I’d ever see Mabel behaving this nicely.”

“Well, I don’t think she’s a perfect horse yet,” said Carole, aware of the still-contrary gleam in Mabel’s eyes. “But at least we know she’s smart enough to make some progress.”

For the next hour, they all worked hard with Mabel, cajoling her with bits of apple and lumps of sugar. By seven-fifteen, she allowed Skye to clip a lead line on her halter for the first time since filming had begun.

“Ta-da!” crowed Skye, excited by his success as Mabel allowed him to lead her from her stall. “It’s Mabel the Wonder Horse!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” laughed Carole. “Even the greenest foals permit lead lines on their halters at six months old. At this rate, I figure Mabel’s only five or six years behind schedule!”

As they worked with her, Mabel became even more gentle. With lots of praise and little bits of apple, they taught her to accept Skye’s leading her and brushing her long, luxurious tail. Skye had just begun to touch one of her sensitive ears when a harsh voice rang out in the stable.

“What do you think you’re doing to that animal?”

They all jumped. Mabel flinched, ready to rear at a moment’s notice. Skye turned around. George Gamble
stood there, his mouth pulled down in an ugly frown.

“Uh, hi, George.” Skye tried his best to calm Mabel and talk to George at the same time. He gave him a friendly smile. “The girls and I were just trying to get in a little extra work with Mabel. You know, gentle her a little bit.”

“Oh, really?” George looked at Lisa, Carole, and Stevie and frowned even harder. “Are these girls professional trainers?”

“No—” Skye began.

“Are they accustomed to working with valuable equine actors?”

“Well, no.” Again Skye tried to explain.

“Then they really don’t have any business being on this set at all, do they?” George’s face grew red. “And they certainly don’t have any business being in a production stable at seven-thirty in the morning.”

“They are my guests, George,” Skye said reasonably. “They are here at my invitation.”

“And they are leaving at
my
invitation!” said George, tapping his riding crop against the side of his boot.

“I think you’re being unfair, George,” protested Skye. “These girls are expert horsewomen. Far better riders than I am.”

“It wouldn’t take much to be a better rider than you, Ransom.” George’s upper lip curled in a snarl.
“And let me remind you that as long as I’m in charge of the horses in this production, what I say goes, as far as this stable is concerned! And they go.” He glared at the girls.

For an instant, Skye’s fists clenched in anger; then he turned away from George and smiled at the girls.

“I’m sorry you had to see the ugly side of filmmaking,” he apologized loudly. “Let’s go back to my trailer. The atmosphere is a lot friendlier there!”

With that, Skye handed Mabel’s lead rope to George and led the girls back to his trailer.

“Wow,” Lisa whispered as soon as they were out of George’s earshot. “What’s with that guy? He acts like he hates everybody!”

“Oh, I think mostly he just hates me,” Skye said, shaking his head. “But apparently he can drum up a good case against my friends as well.”

“Don’t worry about it, Skye.” Stevie gave him a reassuring smile. “He’s just a jealous jerk.”

“Yeah,” agreed Carole. “I can tell by the way Mabel responded that you’re a much better horseman than he is, any day.”

When they reached Skye’s trailer, they found Jess there waiting for them.

“Hey, buddy, I’ve got some good news for you!” he said cheerily.

“What is it?” asked Skye. “I could stand some good news right now.”

Jess held up his clipboard. “This is today’s shooting schedule. Guess who’s name isn’t on it until late this afternoon?”

“Mine?” Skye guessed, a grin spreading across his face.

“You got it, buddy. You’re a free man until about four o’clock.”

“Oh, Skye!” cried Lisa. “That’s terrific. Why don’t you come to the Pony Club rally with us?”

“That would be great,” agreed Stevie. “You can cheer us on in our games!”

Skye sat down on the steps of his trailer, frowning. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but I don’t know. Sometimes my appearance can be … I don’t know … distracting.”

Carole laughed. “You mean when thousands of female fans mob your car and scream for your autograph?”

Skye shrugged. “Well, yeah,” he replied, a sheepish smile on his face. “I’d love to come, but I’d hate to mess stuff up for you guys.”

“No!” Stevie cried. “That wouldn’t mess anything up for us at all. In fact, any diversion you could create would definitely be to our advantage!”

Skye frowned. “How do you figure that?”

“It’s easy,” Lisa laughed. “If all the other girls in the mounted games can’t keep their eyes off you, then our Horse Wise team is sure to win!”

Laughing, Skye shook his head. “I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I’ll be happy to do anything that’ll help your cause.”

Jess laughed along with everybody else. “You want to go over to wardrobe and see if you can find something to make you look a little less like a movie star?”

“No, no!” cried Stevie. “We want him to look like a movie star!”

“I don’t know.” Skye shook his head. “Being mobbed by hundreds of screaming girls can be pretty scary.” He looked at them. “Why don’t you guys hang out in here and I’ll go see what I can come up with.”

“Oh, okay,” said Lisa, laughing.

“If you insist,” Carole agreed.

They sat down in Skye’s trailer while Jess and Skye picked their way between the various surrounding trailers. Stevie sat at Skye’s makeup table, staring at her reflection in the brightly lit mirror.

“Maybe I should become a movie star,” she said dramatically, turning her face to one side and posing with a faraway look in her eyes. “Then thousands of screaming boys would mob me. Phil would be jealous of them all!”

“Thousands of screaming boys might be nice,” agreed Lisa. “But I’m learning that there are a lot of other things about being a movie star that aren’t so hot.”

“Like having to put up with awful people like
George,” said Carole, shuddering. “He was about the rudest man I’ve ever met.”

“I know,” said Stevie. “We’ve met some pretty strange horsepeople, but I think he’s the strangest.”

“He’s certainly the most unfriendly,” agreed Lisa.

There was a knock on Skye’s trailer door. For an instant the girls looked at each other, not knowing if they should answer it or not.

“Think we should get it?” asked Lisa. “It might be George.”

“I think we should.” Carole nodded at Stevie, who sat closest to the door. “I mean, it might be some sort of important message for Skye.”

“Okay.” Stevie hopped up and pulled the door open.

Outside, a dark-haired guy wearing thick glasses grinned at her, a pizza box on his arm.

“Large anchovy and mushroom,” he announced in a weird, squeaky voice.

“We didn’t order any pizza,” said Stevie, frowning. “It’s only eight o’clock in the morning, anyway. Nobody eats pizza now.”

“Well, that’s what this ticket says.” The young man fumbled with a slip of paper and almost dumped the pizza out on the ground. “Large anchovy and mushroom.”

Lisa and Carole came over and stood behind Stevie. “Who ordered the pizza?” asked Carole.

“Uh, I don’t know.” The delivery guy squinted at his ticket. “It’s hard to read this writing.”

Lisa frowned. “You’re not really a pizza delivery guy, are you? You’re just somebody who thought this would be a good way to meet Skye Ransom!”

The delivery guy frowned. “Skye Ransom? Who’s he?”

“Why, he’s just about the most famous movie star in the world,” Stevie said, her hands on her hips.

“And here he is, at your service!” The pizza delivery guy took off his glasses and fake teeth. Though his blond hair was covered with a dark wig, the girls could see Skye’s sparkling blue eyes and gorgeous smile.

“Skye!” Stevie cried. “It’s you!”

“Makeup did a pretty good job on short notice, didn’t they?” Skye laughed as he threw the empty pizza box on the floor. “I really had you guys fooled!”

“You think you can fool a hundred sharp-eyed Pony Clubbers?” Lisa asked.

“I think I can try,” Skye said. “Come on. Stephan’s waiting for us in the parking lot. He’s got strict orders to let us out a block from the gate so that none of the Pony Club competition will remotely suspect that they’ve got an actor masquerading as a fan!”

S
TEPHAN DROPPED
Skye and The Saddle Club off a short distance from the front gate of Ashford Farms, where the Pony Club games were being held. Skye still wore his pizza delivery shirt over his riding breeches, so the stares they got from the other riders were more curious than excited. When they walked into the arena, the girls immediately began searching for Max.

“Wonder where he could be?” asked Stevie, shading her eyes against the bright sunlight.

“I don’t know,” said Lisa. “He should be here with Veronica and our riding helmets.”

“Hi, girls,” said a voice behind them. “Hi, Skye.”

They turned. Max stood there, a bag of riding helmets in his hand, chuckling at Skye’s dark wig and fake teeth.

“How did you recognize him?” cried Stevie. “We thought he was a pizza guy.”

“My ESP,” Max said, laughing. “After dealing with you guys, I’m ready to expect anything. Seeing Skye Ransom dressed up like a pizza dude doesn’t surprise me in the least.” He looked around. “Where’s Veronica? You four need to hurry and get ready for these games.”

Lisa looked mystified. “We thought she was coming with you, Max. She wanted to sleep in this morning.”

“I knocked on her door and got no answer.” Max frowned. “Maybe she’s running late and is going to grab a cab over here. Carole, why don’t you go give her a call? You’ll have to use the pay phone; I forgot to charge my cell phone.”

“Okay.” Carole hurried over to a pay phone by the concession stand and dug two quarters out of her pocket. Soon the operator had connected her with their hotel, and the switchboard was ringing Veronica’s room. The phone rang several times. Just as Carole began to get really worried that something serious had happened, a muffled voice croaked, “Hello?”

“Veronica?” Carole frowned. The other girl sounded weak and breathless.

“Hnnhh,” Veronica groaned.

“Why are you at the hotel? You’re supposed to be here at the Pony Club games. We’re scheduled to compete in less than an hour.”

“I’m sick.” Veronica wheezed dramatically over the phone. “I was sick all night.”

“Sick?” Carole pressed the phone against her ear. “But you were all right at dinner last night.”

“Well, I’m sick now,” moaned Veronica.

Carole felt concerned until she remembered that Veronica had looked fine before she’d found out that her
ragoût fin
had really been the thymus gland of a calf. After that, she’d turned a weird shade of green and hadn’t said a word.

“Well, do you think you’ll be able to ride at all today?” Carole asked. If Veronica couldn’t ride, they wouldn’t have the required number of riders, and Horse Wise would have to forfeit the match.

“Ride?” Veronica groaned weakly. “No. I may never ride again.”

“But—” Carole began.

Veronica mumbled something about the water in California and her delicate constitution, then the phone went dead.

Oh, no
, Carole thought.
We’ve got to do something, and fast!
She hung up the phone and ran back to her friends. Stevie and Lisa were talking to Skye, but Max was nowhere in sight.

“So where’s Veronica?” Stevie asked, laughing at Skye’s imitation of George Gamble.

“She’s sick,” announced Carole.

“Sick?” Lisa tucked her short blond hair behind her ears. “She was her usual rotten self last night.”

“I think she’s suffering from a severe case of sweet-bread surprise,” Carole said. “Which would be funny, except she says she’s too sick to ride.”

“Oh no,” groaned Stevie. “That means we’ll have to forfeit.”

“Unless we can find a fourth rider,” said Carole.

“Who could we get?” Lisa looked around. All the other riders seemed to be with their teams, their numbers pinned to their backs. “We don’t know anybody here except Max.”

“How about Max?” suggested Stevie. “He’s a great rider.”

“Yeah, and about twenty years over the age limit,” Carole replied.

“But maybe we could get Skye to make him up like a teenager,” Stevie pressed on, her eyes bright.

They all looked at Skye. He had his hands on his hips, just listening to the conversation.

“Well, Skye?” Stevie asked. “What do you think?”

“I think that’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard,” Skye replied.

“Then you come up with a better one!” cried Stevie. “You’re not being very sympathetic.”

“That’s right, Skye,” agreed Lisa. “You’re in trouble and we’re helping you. Why can’t you help us?”

“Actually, that’s exactly what I had in mind,” he said. “But you never asked me!”