Team Play by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

warm, especially to her.
    Stevie grunted in response.
    “All your plans coming along smoothly?” Veronica asked.
    Stevie grunted again.
    “I know you’re going to be a wonderful Fair chairman,” Veronica continued. “That’s why I nominated you. We really needed somebody we could count on.” With those words, Veronica ducked back into her own stall.
    Stevie didn’t grunt that time. She was too surprised.
Veronica
had nominated her? The thought had never crossed her mind. She didn’t think that Veronica wouldhave been willing to say that she could do anything, much less run a whole fair by herself. What had made Veronica do it?
    Stevie slid Topside’s bridle on and slipped the bit into his mouth.
    “What does she want?” Stevie quietly asked the horse.
    Topside didn’t answer.
    “I mean, Veronica never does anything without a reason,” Stevie elaborated. She buckled the bridle and laid the reins flat on Topside’s neck. “As far as I know, the only thing I’ve got that Veronica wants is four Italian boys and there’s no way—”
    Then Stevie started to get a very bad feeling. It began in her toes as a mild tingling and quickly spread upwards to her stomach, which churned with a sickening lurch.
    “Oh, no,” she told Topside, who seemed unaffected by her tone of voice.
    She hoisted his saddle and the saddle pad, placed it so it overlapped his withers, and slid it back until it was properly positioned.
    “I smell a rat and her name is Veronica,” Stevie muttered.
    She reached under the horse, grasped the girth that dangled on the ground from the other side of the saddle, and brought it up to Topside’s left side for buckling. She yanked it tight and pushed the metal prongs through thebuckle holes. Then she tugged, tightening the girth and making the saddle snug and safe.
    Topside regarded her carefully. He wasn’t used to having her pull the girth so tight so quickly.
    “Sorry, fella,” she said, patting his neck in apology. “See, I just got to thinking about something—”
    “You need some help?” Carole asked, peering at her friend. Stevie was obviously almost finished tacking up Topside, but class was about to start.
    “You bet I do,” Stevie said, giving the girth a final tug. “And I’ll tell you about it later!”
    Carole was puzzled, but there was no time to ask Stevie what she meant. The P.A. announced that class was about to begin.
    Stevie slid Topside’s door open. “Ready?”
    Before Carole could answer, Stevie had headed for the indoor ring. There was a determination in her friend’s step that Carole recognized as a sign that something serious was going on. Because of Max’s strict rules about talking in class, there was no way she’d learn what it was until class was over. Carole entered the ring herself just in time to hear Max say, “Riders up!”
    F ROM THE LOOK on Stevie’s face, Lisa knew that something was on her friend’s mind, and it wasn’t going to be anything about new leaves. The excited look of the old, mischievous Stevie was there in full force.
    “So what is it?” Lisa asked.
    “Come sit down,” Stevie invited her, patting the bench next to her in the tack room. Stevie had managed to whisper a message about a Saddle Club meeting in the tack room after class. Now it was about to start. “We have a lot to talk about,” Stevie said. “Everybody take a piece of tack and some saddle soap.”
    At Pine Hollow, the riders were allowed to hang around as much as they wanted, as long as they were doing something useful. Cleaning tack qualified as something useful. It also meant they could be together and talk while they were working.
    “I’ve figured it out,” Stevie began.
    Lisa saw the twinkle in her friend’s eyes. She could hardly wait to hear what was coming.
    “The mess I’m in is all Veronica’s fault,” Stevie continued. “See, I didn’t actually volunteer to head the Hospital Festival.”
    “You didn’t?” Carole asked. Stevie shook her