Summer Rider (12 page)

For a moment she frowned, wishing it could be fewer. Camp was ending the next day, and she wasn’t going to be able to finish six more books by then. But she comforted herself with the thought that she was sticking to her diet, even though she was hungry almost all the time now. Despite how hard everything else seemed to be these days, dieting had actually turned out to be pretty easy.

Lisa hardly heard the polite applause that accompanied the rider’s exit from the ring as she thought about her diet. She had stopped eating breakfast entirely, except for the sips of juice she would take whenever her friends were looking at her. At lunch and dinner, she tried not to eat more than three bites of anything, and if something looked particularly fattening, she would skip it. For instance, that day she had eaten three carrot sticks, a single spoonful of the rich beef stew, and half a piece of unbuttered toast, but she had left the chocolate pudding untouched.

The words danced in her head as she thought about them, turning into a sort of a chant:
three carrots, spoonful of stew, half a piece of toast … three carrots, spoonful
of stew, half a piece of toast … three carrots, spoonful of stew, half a piece of toast…

Another round of applause brought Lisa back to her senses. She shook her head to clear it, feeling annoyed with herself. She had to stay alert until it was her turn to ride. This was no time to start spacing out—she couldn’t afford a mistake today.

B
Y THE TIME
Stevie’s turn came, only one more rider had made it into the jump-off. Three more had knocked down the big oxer, and the others had had other jumping or time faults. She took a deep breath and patted Belle on the neck as she waited for Betty to give the signal to start.

The first few fences were no problem. Belle seemed to understand exactly what was expected of her, and she tucked her rear hooves neatly under her as she sailed over each obstacle.

Then they approached the oxer. Belle cantered to it in perfect position, but as soon as her hooves left the ground, Stevie could feel that her horse hadn’t taken off quite as powerfully as she had on the earlier fences, even though this double fence was the largest one on the course. Her heart leaped to her throat as she waited for the telltale sound of rails clattering to the ground. Instead, she heard something even more nerveracking—the sound of the mare’s rear hooves scraping the top of the
back rail. Stevie tensed her shoulders, waiting for the rail to fall. But after a second, the gasps of relief from the crowd told her that it had stayed in the cups. Stevie let out her own sigh of relief and did her best to maintain her focus as Belle headed for the last few fences. Even though Belle had touched the rail, it had stayed up, and that was all that counted in show jumping. They were still clean.

They stayed that way for the rest of the round. Whatever had happened at the oxer, Belle had shaken it off, and she jumped strongly over the remaining obstacles. Stevie grinned and basked in the cheers that greeted her finish, then leaned down to give Belle a fond slap on the neck. They had made it into the jump-off.

W
HEN
L
ISA ENTERED
the ring, she was so nervous she could hardly stand it. Her hands were sweating, her stomach was churning, and her knees felt wobbly. Major’s ears flicked back and forth at the noise from the crowd, but he didn’t seem affected by the excited mood of the show.

As the gelding trotted to warm up, Lisa gripped the reins tightly and tried to think about everything she needed to know. She reviewed the order of the fences in her head:
white gate, post-and-rail, chicken coop, in-and-out
 … When she got to the oxer, she made a mental note to be extra careful on that one—lots of riders had been knocked out of the jump-off when they had reached it.
And she had to remember the time. Major was a good, steady jumper, but he wasn’t particularly fast. She was going to have to keep his pace up, or they’d end up with time faults. For a second, she wished she was on Prancer, the speedy ex-racehorse she rode at Pine Hollow. But those thoughts fled when she turned Major back toward the beginning of the course and saw Betty waiting for her. It was time to start.

The first half of the course went well. Major cantered briskly between fences, not the least bit flustered by any of them. Lisa had spent an hour pacing off the course the evening before, and she knew exactly how many strides her horse needed between each jump. With her guidance, Major was able to take off smartly from just the right position every time.

As they left the sixth obstacle safely behind, Lisa started to relax just a little. For a second, she couldn’t help feeling proud of the job they had done so far. And for that second, she allowed herself to think that even if they knocked down every fence from now on, she could still be satisfied with what she had accomplished—a great start in a tough event.

Then she remembered what was at stake and started to panic. She couldn’t slack off now, not after she had worked so hard for this moment. This was her time to shine, to show everyone that she, Lisa Atwood, was a winner. She wasn’t just Carole and Stevie’s less-accomplished
friend, but a great rider in her own right. To prove it, she had to win the blue ribbon. That meant no faults.

They didn’t have any jumping faults so far, but what about time faults? For a moment she had forgotten all about the time. Were they cantering too slowly? Was the clock running out even now? She decided to pick up the pace and urged Major to lengthen his stride.

She had been working with him on that for weeks, and he responded immediately. Unfortunately, Lisa had forgotten to take into account the pacing to the next obstacle, a plank fence. By the time she realized it, they were only a few strides away from the jump. She frantically tried to shorten Major’s stride again, but it was too late. He had to take off from too close to the fence, wasn’t able to get enough height, and brought down the top two rails with his front legs. The rails clattered to the ground, and Lisa felt her mind freeze at the sound. It was the sound of her goal slipping irrevocably out of her grasp.

She hardly remembered the rest of the course, even the oxer, which came down as well. As soon as she finished her round, she dismounted and led Major back toward the stable. She had no interest in the jump-off now that she wasn’t going to be in it. All she wanted to do was get away from there and be alone with her failure.

C
AROLE AND
S
TEVIE
tried to find Lisa during the break before the jump-off.

“She’s got to be around here someplace,” Carole said. “I’m sure she wouldn’t miss the jump-off.” Several members of the staff were in the ring, entertaining the audience with an amateur rodeo-clown show. The jump-off was scheduled to start in twenty minutes.

Stevie shrugged. “Who can find anyone in this crowd?” she said, proudly surveying the happy spectators all around them. Just then she spotted the red-haired woman she had met in town. The woman was holding her baby in one arm and had the other wrapped around a tall, thin man. Stevie smiled. The couple appeared to be reliving some romantic memories, and who could blame them? This was the perfect place for it.

That reminded her to look around for Phil. Just because they were going to compete against each other in the jump-off in a few minutes, it didn’t mean this wasn’t the perfect time for a little romantic rendezvous of their own.

S
IX COMPETITORS HAD
made it into the jump-off. This time they only had to jump six fences instead of twelve, but the time allowance had been slashed by more than half, so it was going to be a real challenge to avoid time faults.

The riders drew new numbers, and Phil went first. His horse, Teddy, raced through the course at a scorching pace, but they ended up paying for his speed with mistakes. The pair finished within the allotted time but with two fences down.

The spectators were on the edge of their seats as the other riders competed one by one. Melissa had a two-second time fault and one rail down. Stevie finished just a hair under the deadline, but she, too, brought down a fence. The next two riders couldn’t seem to decide whether to be cautious or fast. They both had time and multiple jumping faults.

At last it was Carole’s turn. She liked going last, because she knew exactly what she had to do to win. “Okay, boy,” she murmured to Starlight as they warmed up. “We’re a team, right? We know we can do this, because we’re doing it together. Just remember—slow and steady wins the race.”

Realizing that every other rider had at least one jumping fault—which counted much more heavily against them than time faults—Carole had decided to forget about the time and ride at a comfortable pace. If they could jump every obstacle cleanly, they should be able to win even with several time faults.

Starlight did his part, and the rails stayed up. It wasn’t a perfect round, because he and Carole did have several seconds’ worth of time faults. But it was good enough to win the blue ribbon. The crowd stood and applauded wildly as Barry announced the results. Stevie and Belle had come in a close second, and Melissa and her horse took third.

Carole and Stevie dismounted and hugged each other, grinning wildly. Then they waited as Barry announced
the rest of the winners, cheering loudly for their other friends. Phil had come in fourth, and Lisa ended up winning the light blue ribbon for tenth place.

“Wow, that’s pretty good, considering we weren’t even sure she should have entered,” Carole commented. “She should be proud of that.”

Stevie nodded in agreement. But Lisa didn’t come forward to claim her prize, and Barry called her name again. There was still no sign of her.

“Lisa? Are you here? I guess not,” the camp director said. “Stevie, will you see that she gets this?”

“Sure.” Stevie took the ribbon and glanced at Carole. “Where do you think she is?” she whispered.

Carole shrugged. “She could be inside with Major.” But she wasn’t convinced, and she knew Stevie wasn’t, either.

Soon the awards ceremony was finished. The show was over. As the happy spectators began drifting back to their cars, the jump-off competitors led their tired horses into the stable for a well-deserved rest. Carole and Stevie made sure that Starlight and Belle were comfortable, then gave their tack a quick cleaning. Lisa hadn’t turned up by the time they had finished, so they searched the stable for her. She was nowhere to be found, so they hurried back to their cabin. It was empty.

“Where could she be?” Stevie said. “Do you think we just missed her in the crowd?” A lot of people had left, but there were quite a few stragglers talking to the campers
about the show and buying the last of the cookies and lemonade. Even though Carole and Stevie had loved every second of the show, it was a relief to get away from the meadow to the relative peace of the cabin area.

“It’s possible,” Carole said. “But I doubt it. I don’t remember seeing her around the show grounds after her last round. Do you think she could be down at the pond?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

The girls left their cabin and made their way carefully down the narrow, twisting path from the cabins to the pond. When they were almost there, they heard voices.

“That sounds like Barry,” Carole said quietly. “What’s he doing down here?”

“Let’s find out,” Stevie whispered back. The two girls stayed silent, trying to hear what Barry was saying.

“We’ve had one heck of a great time here over the years, haven’t we?” he said, his voice sounding happy and sad at the same time.

“That’s for sure.” The girls recognized Betty’s voice. “I can’t believe it’s all about to end. But at least we went out with a bang. Can you believe how many people turned out for the show?”

“I know, it’s unbelievable, isn’t it?” Barry replied. “I’m glad we did the show jumping—that was a great idea.”

“Thanks,” Betty said. “So was your idea for this month-long session.”

The girls heard Barry sigh. “Yeah, this summer was
pretty great overall, despite a few sour notes here and there.”

“You mean like bulldozers lurking in the woods?” Betty asked.

Barry chuckled. “Actually, I was thinking about some other things. Like our poor little friend, Miss Sullivan.”

Carole almost gasped out loud. Barry was talking about Piper!

“That whole situation is really sad,” Betty said. “It sounds like they got her to the hospital just in time. I only hope they can help her.”

Carole and Stevie exchanged wide-eyed glances, waiting for the adults to go on. But Barry changed the subject, talking about a horse with a swollen ankle and a couple of other minor problems that had cropped up during the month. When the girls were sure they weren’t going to hear anything else of importance, they turned and quietly crept back toward the cabins.

“How about that?” Stevie said. “Piper’s in the hospital. I wonder what’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know,” Carole replied. “And I don’t think we should mention this to Lisa until we find out. It would only worry her more.” She didn’t say so, but she was thinking about Betty’s last words:
I only hope they can help her.
That didn’t sound good.

“Agreed,” Stevie replied. She clambered up the last few feet of the path, emerging in front of their cabin just
in time to see Lisa jogging toward them, wearing shorts and sneakers. Her face was red with exertion, and her T-shirt was wet with sweat.

“There you are!” Carole cried. “Where have you been?”

Lisa seemed startled to see them. “Oh, uh, I just went for a quick run,” she said breathlessly. “Is the show over?”

“I thought you hated jogging,” Stevie said.

Lisa shrugged. “I used to,” she said quickly. “But my ballet teacher is always bugging me to stay in shape, so I figured I’d give it a try.”

Carole frowned. Lisa’s ballet teacher had been trying to get her to jog for years, and Lisa had always laughed it off before. Why would she suddenly decide to start jogging now—especially in the middle of a horse show? This was getting stranger all the time. And the longer Lisa’s odd behavior continued, the harder it was for Carole to believe it would go away on its own.