Stevie (3 page)

The second requirement is also very important: All members must be willing to help each other out, no matter what. In the past, this has included standing by each other when we have problems with school or family or other things. Lisa and I are always ready to help Carole when she feels sad about her mother or is worried about some horse-related
problem. Carole and Lisa are always willing to give me advice when I get a little too competitive with my boyfriend, Phil Marsten. Carole and I were even able to help Lisa survive her first and last date with my older brother, Chad. (And if we can do that, we can do anything—ha ha! Just a little report humor!)

But the helpfulness of The Saddle Club goes beyond helping each other. We also love to help all kinds of other people whenever we can. For instance, we once helped Max Regnery get more business for his stable when we thought he might be having money troubles. We worked hard to run a festival fund-raiser for the children’s hospital. (You may remember that, Miss Fenton, since we held it at the same time as Fenton Hall’s spring fair.) We helped Skye Ransom, the famous teenage actor, learn to ride and thereby saved his film career. We pitched in to save the barn at our riding camp from a big fire. We threw a cool party for Colonel Hanson’s fortieth birthday. We even helped one of Pine Hollow’s mares, Delilah, give birth to her foal, Samson!

As you can see from the above examples, The Saddle Club is more than just a group of friends who like to ride, just as the Red Cross is more than just a gang of doctors and the Supreme Court is more than a bunch of people who wear robes. The Saddle Club could be considered a service organization of the highest order, and we take our responsibilities—to ourselves, to each other, to the community, and the world at large—very seriously indeed.

Hey, Lisa and Carole, guess what? Forget it, you’ll never guess. Remember that report I was complaining about earlier today? Well, I think I’ve really got it this time. I’m ready to write the greatest report in the history of the world! I don’t have much time—Dad just called Michael to set the table for dinner—so I’ll try to sum it up quickly. I’m going to try to really express to Miss Fenton what my life has been like lately. That might convince her that I have a good excuse for my bad grades—especially if she can see how much I learned about other stuff (like sugaring off, avalanches, horse racing, life and death, foxhunting, even elephants!). Also, instead of calling it an essay or something boring like that, I’m calling it a “multimedia presentation.” What that means is that I won’t be limiting myself to dull, dry words like in normal essays. I can do anything necessary to show her what it’s really like to be me!

I won’t say I’m not a little nervous about this. After all, my entire summer is riding on this assignment (ha ha—
riding
on it—get it?). And Miss Fenton can be kind of serious sometimes, so I’m not a hundred percent sure she’ll appreciate what I’m trying to do. But I do know I couldn’t possibly finish the boring report I started yesterday, so I guess this
is my only chance to redeem myself. (See Lisa? I was listening when you were talking today. I just hope I spelled “redeem” right!) And to be honest, I’m pretty pumped up about this whole assignment now. Finally, I’ll have my chance to explain what really prevented me from doing my homework. It might even be fun!

I already wrote the whole introduction, including some stuff about The Saddle Club that I thought you guys might want to see. So I’m attaching the file with this e-mail so you can read it.

Let me know what you think!

Who are you, and what have you done with Stevie?

Hee hee, just kidding. It’s great that you’re excited about your report. Although Miss Fenton and your teachers would probably die of shock if they found out that you were excited about
any
schoolwork.…

Seriously, though, what you wrote so far is really great. I don’t know Miss Fenton that well, but I don’t see how she could help liking it.

I hope you don’t mind me putting my two cents in, but I have one tiny suggestion about how to make it even better.
I noticed that you haven’t mentioned Topside yet, or most of the other horses at Pine Hollow, either (except Starlight, Barq, and Pepper, but even them you only mention briefly). You’re probably already planning to do that next. Maybe you could do a personality profile for some of the important horses like you did for Dinah and The Saddle Club, but you may want to consider going farther than that. Like I was saying this afternoon, I think the most important thing for your paper (especially now, with your new direction) is to make Miss Fenton understand about the horses.

I’ve been thinking as I type this, and I have a few ideas about how you could do it. For instance, how about this for a new opening line:

Topside is his name, and he’s the most talented, gorgeous, athletic horse I have ever known.…

Or maybe … 
the most wonderful, obedient, lovable horse on four hooves.

If you don’t like that approach, what about this as an opening paragraph:

Pine Hollow Stables is nestled among the rolling hills of Virginia, and it’s the most special place on earth. The owner, Max Regnery, takes good care of his horses and riders, and they love him for it. I love every horse in the stable, but most of all I love
Starlight
Topside. He’s a Thoroughbred gelding who used to belong to the famous competitive rider Dorothy DeSoto, and he’s the most talented, gorgeous, athletic horse I have ever known. His story and mine are inextricably intertwined, and it all begins at the wide double doorway of Pine Hollow’s main building.…

What do you think? The exact wording probably needs
some work, but I think something along those lines would really draw Miss Fenton in and get her excited about the report right away. Just a friendly suggestion …

I’m glad you’re psyched about your new report! It’s really well written and exciting. I just have a few comments you may want to think about.

For instance, you sort of switch your point of view around in the first paragraph. First you address “Ladies and gentlemen,” then you address Miss Fenton specifically. You might want to change that. Also, where you mention your “less-than-wonderful grades,” I think you should change the phrasing to something less slangy. Maybe your “poor grades” or “inferior grades” or “disappointing grades.”

There are a few other minor grammatical issues, but if you want, I can wait and read the whole paper for you before you turn it in. Basically, like I said, it sounds great. You just might want to keep in mind that it is a paper for school, so it should probably sound a little more formal from now on. Teachers don’t like too much slang and casual language.

By the way, I don’t think you have to worry about Miss Fenton. (You know, like you were talking about earlier when
you thought your summer was doomed.) I have to admit, I was a little worried myself when I heard about your assignment. It would really stink if you couldn’t come to riding camp with us; and it would stink even more if you couldn’t ride for the entire summer. But now that you’re so enthusiastic about your report, I’m not worried at all. Didn’t you tell me once that Miss Fenton admitted she thinks you’re clever? You said she said it’s your saving grace, I think. So I’m sure she’ll like the new direction of your report—IF you really take it seriously and make it solid and substantial.

I have some ideas about how you can do that. While you’re talking about everything you did in Vermont, you could include some specific information about sugaring off. For one thing, it’s interesting; and for another thing, teachers like it when you show that you’ve learned a lot about a topic. Besides that, you told me once that Miss Fenton likes a lot of detail. (I think the way you put it was that she’s obsessed with details, especially when she wants to know why you’re late for homeroom!) So I’m sure she would love it if you included a lot about sugaring off. You could probably work in the information most easily in the form of footnotes. Teachers LOVE footnotes, and I just learned how to format them on the computer. I can show you how if you want.

By the way, another thought: Didn’t you also mention that Miss Fenton’s favorite word is “responsibility”? Maybe you should throw that in once or twice near the beginning—you know, just so she knows you remember this is all connected to homework somehow.…

Okay, so I finish dinner and come back to the computer to get back to work on my report, and what do I find waiting for me? E-mails from Carole and Lisa. You see, I e-mailed them about the new direction of my report just before dinner and sent them a copy to read. They both read it, and they both said they liked it. But they both also had an awful lot of “comments” and “ideas” and “suggestions” about how to change it.

Get this: Lisa wants me to add footnotes! I can’t believe it. I would never hurt her feelings by telling her this, but footnotes would totally defeat the whole purpose of this paper. It would turn my cool, exciting, fun idea into something dry and dull and scholarly and, well, Lisa-like. I know you’ve never even met Lisa, since she started riding at Pine Hollow after you moved away, but I’m sure I’ve told you enough about her to understand what I’m talking about. She can sometimes be a little too serious and thoughtful for her own good. Especially when it comes to stuff like schoolwork.

Then there’s Carole. (You
do
know her, so I’m sure what I’m about to say won’t surprise you one bit!) She wanted me to make the entire project about horses. Of course, it will be
partly about horses anyway. But leave it to Carole to forget that there’s anything else to life! Ninety-nine percent of the time I don’t mind at all when she goes on and on about horses. Actually, I usually think it’s sort of cute—you know, just what makes Carole be Carole. But this is one of those one-percent times when I wish she could focus on something else for a change, like what my idea is really all about. I mean, if I were writing this report for Max, it would make sense to concentrate almost totally on horses. But somehow I don’t think Miss Fenton would be interested in reading the entire personal history of every horse I’ve ever met.

Whew! I feel better now that I got that off my chest. Plus, as I was reading over my friends’ e-mails again, I realized that maybe they do have some good ideas after all. Maybe the new opening lines Carole suggested for my paper were a little silly, but she does have a point when she says I’ve hardly mentioned horses at all so far. It couldn’t hurt to stress that angle more, especially since Miss Fenton already knows how serious I am about riding. It might impress her more if she thinks a lot of my distractions were horse-related (instead of, say, TV-related or shopping-related or Awesome Jawsome-related—ha ha!) And Lisa’s idea about adding lots of detail about sugaring off is a good one, even if I would rather close my hand in the car door than put the info in footnotes. Maybe she even has a point when she reminds me to keep the homework connection in mind (though leave it to her to bring it up).

Okay, so while I still think they kind of missed the point, I have to admit that the two of them have come through for
me yet again. (Though not in quite the way they thought they were.) From now on I’m going to try to sort of mix in their good ideas as I write, working all that horse and sugaring-off and homework stuff right into the course of the story. I’ll try to make it all seem so natural that my report can be chockful of facts and information and details and it will still be more like reading an exciting book or watching a great movie than plowing through some deadly dull term paper.

You know, I just thought of something. If all those textbook writers out there would do exactly what I’m planning to do, maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation at all. Maybe I would have been so caught up in the story of the American Revolution that I would have been dying to learn everything there was to know about Paul Revere. (Though I’m not sure
anything
could make fractions seem exciting …)

By the way, I’m attaching the file of what I’ve written so far. I thought you might like to see the personality profile I wrote about you. I’ve included part of that letter you wrote inviting me to Vermont. Do you mind? Don’t worry, I explained that comment you made about the principal’s office—I even managed to work in that phrase Miss Fenton always used when she was scolding us. Remember? She always blamed most of what we did on our “natural exuberance.” (I looked it up to make sure I spelled it right.) Plus, that gave me a perfect chance to write in a suspenseful reference to what happens later on in the story, just like you always see in books and movies.

I’d better sign off and get back to work. But let me know what you think of my report. Also, could you send me any info you can think of about sugaring off that I can use? I remember a lot of stuff, but I want to make sure I get everything exactly right. And you know a lot more about it than I do. If you can think of anything else I can use, send that too—you know, like the names of the horses at your stable, facts about the weather in Vermont, stuff like that. You know how Miss Fenton feels about details, especially useless or boring ones. Thanks!