Hay Fever Read Free

exactly Alex, Chad, and Michael’s favorite color. They’re completely furious with me, and I think they’re starting a campaign to kick me out of the house.”
    Lisa and Carole nodded sympathetically. They knew from past experience how tough the Lake brothers could be. Once, in front of Stevie’s boyfriend, they had teased her about foxhunting so mercilessly that Stevie had had to wage an all-out war against them. Luckily she could usually hold her own. This time was no different.
    “I guess if they do anything too terrible, I can always blackmail them into submission,” Stevie said.
    At the exact moment she made her pronouncement, Stevie’s older brother Chad swung open the door to TD’s, followed by the girl he’d been dating, a brunette named Amy. Stevie scrunched down in the booth, but Chad spotted her immediately.
    “Well, well, well, if it isn’t my darling sister, Stevie,” he said, eyeing her coolly. “Hiding in the booth, huh? Hoping your friends will protect you?”
    “Actually, Chad,” Stevie said sweetly, “I was hoping I’d run into you here. I wanted to make sure you knew they were having a special on all-pink sundaes. And I know how much you
love
pink,” she added.
    Chad gave her a withering glance. “We’ll continuethis discussion at home.” He took the surprised Amy by the arm and propelled her through the door. “Come on,” The Saddle Club girls heard him say as he exited, “we’ll go somewhere less crowded.”
    “Well,” Carole pointed out, “that could have been a lot worse.”
    “Yeah,” Stevie muttered. “Try
living
with him—and the other two.”
    Lisa thought for a minute. “Have you tried bleaching the underwear? That should turn it white again,” she suggested.
    “That’s what my mom told me,” Stevie replied. “But then I remembered that I stole the bleach last month and took it to Pine Hollow to treat the new pony’s thrush.”
    “Can’t you buy some more?” Lisa asked logically.
    Stevie looked at her in surprise. “Are you suggesting that I spend my hard-earned money on my
brothers
?” she asked.
    Carole and Lisa looked at one another. When it came to her brothers, Stevie could be completely irrational.
    While they talked, the waitress had appeared from behind the counter with a trayful of sundaes. She set the first two down in front of Carole and Lisa. Then she gingerly picked up the blueberry-pineapple dish, examined it briefly, wrinkled up her nose, and pushed ittoward Stevie with distaste. “Waste of good ice cream, if you ask me,” she muttered.
    “Speaking of ice cream,” Stevie piped up, “I’d better have something else to go with this. How ’bout a nice, normal brownie sundae?”
    “On top of what you’ve got?” the waitress demanded.
    “Naturally. This is the appetizer. That’s the main course,” Stevie replied. Shaking her head, the waitress went to place the order.
    “I figured I’d better eat up,” Stevie explained. “I just remembered it’s Chad’s night to cook, and I don’t want to face it on an empty stomach.”
    “Good idea,” Carole agreed.
    After a few minutes of silent spooning, the girls set about the business at hand: figuring out Max’s strange behavior at the lesson.
    “Maybe he’s got Alzheimer’s,” Stevie suggested. “I think my great-uncle had it, and he could never remember anything.”
    “Alzheimer’s? Please, Stevie, Max is way too young to get that,” Lisa admonished.
    “Well, I didn’t know,” Stevie said defensively. “And, anyway, Max isn’t exactly a spring chicken. I think I heard Mrs. Reg say that he’s almost thirty.”
    “Thirty?” Carole repeated. “Wow, that’s practically ancient.”
    “Yeah, and he’s still single,” Lisa pointed out.
    “I wonder if he’s ever had a girlfriend,” Stevie mused. She grinned as she remembered the time not too long ago when the three of them had jumped to conclusions about Max’s love life. They’d overheard him talking on the