Horse Power Read Free Page B

uncomfortable.”
    “Me neither,” Carole said, shaking her head. “ButI—oh, no. I just get the shivers thinking about what I did.” She shuddered.
    “Relax, honey. It’s not the end of the world. And you’ll have a chance next weekend to figure it all out. Maybe you’ll get her to lecture
you
for an hour and a half about horses, and—”
    “Yeah, I guess,” she interrupted her father. “At least I can have a lot of fun telling Stevie and Lisa about Kate. She’s
famous
, Dad. Really.”
    “ ‘Famous’ is relative, hon,” he said to her. “And the only part about it that matters is how it affects people. It doesn’t seem to me that it’s affected Kate much.”
    “Maybe,” Carole said. She recalled the quiet, almost withdrawn, girl who had followed her around the stable, listening politely. She compared her to the bright, funny, friendly girl she’d been talking with while they looked out over the water before lunch, or picnicked with their parents. Which one was
really
Kate Devine?
    Carole was quiet for the rest of the trip home. She thought about Kate. The only thing she knew for sure was that her father was wrong. Somehow, something about riding
had
affected her. Carole decided to learn more when the Devines came to visit next weekend.
    But in the meantime, she couldn’t wait to tell Stevie and Lisa about Kate—and about her embarrassing mistake.

“I DON ’ T BELIEVE this,” Stevie said, grimacing at her mother. They were sitting at the dinner table Saturday night. The Lakes always had a family dinner on Saturdays. It was the one night of the week when everybody was expected to be there. Sometimes the dinners were fun—like when they were planning family outings, or when Mr. and Mrs. Lake would talk about their own childhoods. At other times, like this one, the family dinners were gruesome.
    Stevie’s brother Chad had just delivered a bombshell. He had just announced that he intended to take up horseback riding—at Pine Hollow. Worse, he was going to start in the beginner class of the summer-camp program on Monday, which was just two daysaway. Stevie looked to her mother for support, but Mrs. Lake was beaming at Chad.
    “Mom!” Stevie said. “You can’t let him do this!”
    “Why, dear? What’s wrong with Chad learning to ride horses?”
    “Mom, he doesn’t know the first thing about horses!”
    “Neither did you when you started,” Mrs. Lake reasoned.
    “And he’s just going to get in my hair,” Stevie continued.
    “How can he get in your hair if he’s in a different class?”
    “Yeah, bean brain,” Chad chimed in.
    “The place isn’t all that big,” Stevie said, ignoring him. “Besides, most of the beginners are like eight and nine years old. I’m sure he won’t be wanting to spend much time with them. And if I know him, he’s going to expect me to do his chores—”
    “Chores?” Chad said. “What chores?” Stevie could tell by the surprise in his voice that he had no idea how much work it was to take care of horses. She might, just might, be able to talk him out of this scheme. At least she could hope.
    “The chores
everybody
has to do, like, oh, mucking out stables, cleaning tack, and grooming the horses, which includes things like picking stones out of their hooves.” She glanced at him sideways to judge his reaction.His face told her nothing. “You’d be amazed at the junk you can find in a horses hoof,” she added mysteriously.
    “No problem,” Chad said. “And besides, when you won’t help me, I bet your friends, like Lisa, will.”
    Stevie tried another tack. “And sometimes, you have to give a horse medicine, like pouring milk of magnesia down his throat and holding his tongue at the same time.”
    “Oh, gross!” Stevie’s twin, Alex, piped up, giving her hope.
    “We are at the dinner table,” Mrs. Lake observed mildly.
    “Yeah, neat,” Chad said, ignoring his mother, his eyes wide with excitement. “Did you ever do that?”
    “No, I