Horse Talk by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

of ways. I wish we could infect him with laryngitis. Or lock him in a jail cell, without a phone.”
    “Even criminals get to make one phone call,” Lisa said with a weary laugh. She couldn’t believe how ugly
Horse Talk
was becoming. At the start she’d thought it was a great idea. Now she just wished it was over.
    “The worst part is that he really did get us,” Carole said. “He didn’t even do anything wrong. We’re a talk show, and he called in with questions. We had to answer them. From his point of view, it was a perfect crime.”
    “They weren’t even obvious crank questions,” Lisa said in agreement. “I mean, if he’d called up and said, ‘Is your refrigerator running?’ we could have just hung up on him. But he’s smart enough to ask actual questions about riding and horses.”
    “Strange, imaginary horses,” Carole added. “Real horses don’t shimmy their hips.”
    “I’m going to tell my parents, but I don’t know if even that will do any good,” Stevie said. “I’m sure they’ll tell him to knock it off, but—”
    “All he has to do is get a friend to call in for him,” Carole interrupted.
    “Sure,” said Stevie. “That’s what I would do.”
    “It’s what we did do,” Lisa reminded her. “We had you call in with questions because nobody else would. This whole talk show is just a disaster. We’ve got to dosomething, or Carole and I are going to be the laughingstocks of the entire school.”
    “We’ll come up with a plan,” Carole said. “We’ve got all week.” She was upset, but not as much as Lisa was. Carole didn’t worry about school as much as Lisa did. What bothered her most was that here they were, willing and ready to teach people about horses, and no one wanted to learn. Carole knew that she would listen to a radio show about horses. “Maybe we just need more publicity for
Horse Talk
, so that legitimate callers phone in.”
    “I was thinking more along the lines of posting Chad’s naked baby pictures all over Fenton Hall,” Stevie said. “Or maybe we could come up with some good reason for blackmail.”
    “Why don’t we try talking to Chad?” Lisa suggested. “Maybe if we appeal to his better side—tell him how important this is to us—he’ll knock it off.”
    “He doesn’t have a better side,” Stevie growled.
    “Yeah,” Carole said. “I mean, he might have a better side, but from what we’ve seen of Chad before, telling him how important
Horse Talk
is to us will just inspire him to bother us more. Maybe if we leave him alone, he’ll leave us alone, too.”
    “I wouldn’t count on that,” Stevie said. “Revenge is the best option. But, like you said, we’ve got all week.”
    * * *
    O N T HURSDAY MORNING at school Lisa ran into Carole in the hallway. “How’s it going so far?” she asked. Carole looked a little weary.
    “You wouldn’t believe the number of comments I’ve gotten about
Horse Talk
,” Carole said. “I guess a lot more people listened to yesterday’s show than the first one.”
    “I’ve gotten more comments, too,” Lisa said. She rolled her eyes. “Some people told me they thought the show got more interesting right at the end. I couldn’t tell if they were joking or just so ignorant about horses that they actually thought Chad’s stupid pranks were serious questions.”
    “Angela Ashbury’s in my algebra class,” Carole said. “She rides with Cross County, and she figured out that it was all a setup. I mean, the first part. She knew we had the questions scripted, and she even realized that it was Stevie calling in.”
    “Only because she knows all three of us,” Lisa said. “And she knows a lot about horses.”
    “But she thought we’d scripted the stupid questions, too,” Carole reported. “She offered to help us come up with some ideas if we ran out for this week. She said, and I quote, ‘We can’t have the school’s project sounding like an amateur production.’ ”
    “But