Tight Rein Read Free

couldn’t get it. Belle would go through the grid, then Starlight, both beautifully. Barq would whack every rail.
    Lisa knew she could have gotten Prancer to lengthen her stride easily. The Thoroughbred would have sailedthrough this exercise, not staggered and stumbled like short-strided Barg.
    If I had my own horse
, Lisa thought,
this would be easier
. Lisa was not the youngest member of The Saddle Club, but today she felt as if she were. She knew her feelings weren’t Carole and Stevie’s fault. It wasn’t Carole and Stevie’s fault that they had their own horses, either, or that she didn’t. Still, she felt miserable.
    “N OTHING ’ S WORSE THAN riding wet,” Stevie declared as she unsaddled Belle. “I’m going to get even with Chad. I mean it. Right
now
.”
    “You can’t get even with him right now,” Lisa reminded her. “You guys are coming to my house from here, aren’t you?” They had planned a sleepover at Lisa’s. “You won’t have to worry about Chad there,” she told her friend.
    “Of course I remembered that we’re going to your house,” said Stevie. Suddenly she whirled around, almost dropping her saddle and causing Belle to prance on the cross-ties. “Ohmigosh! I just remembered something else! Mark’s spending the night at my house, with Chad!”
    “While you’re at Lisa’s you won’t have to worry about Mark either,” Carole said.
    Stevie shook her head. “It’s obvious that you twohave no experience with siblings,” she said. “Don’t you see? Mark and Chad will have the whole night to plan their next attack on me, and I won’t be there to stop them!” She shook her head. “We have got to do something,” she said. “We can’t let him get away with it.”

“W ELL ,” L ISA SAID , suppressing a giggle, “I definitely don’t think this is a smart idea.” She was standing up to her ankles in one of Mrs. Lake’s petunia beds. It was around ten o’clock the same night, and it was cloudy and very dark. To her left, Lisa could see a faint shimmer from the Lakes’ swimming pool, as well as several shrouded humps that she guessed were lawn furniture. Shadows lurked around the edges of the fenced yard.
    To her right, Lisa couldn’t see anything, because she was standing against the side of Stevie’s house. Straightahead she could see Carole, also trying not to laugh, and between them she could see the ladder they were holding steady while Stevie climbed it.
    “Definitely not a smart idea,” Lisa repeated.
    “Shhh!” Stevie said from above.
    They had put the ladder directly under the window of Chad’s bedroom. Stevie was certain Chad was plotting something evil, and she was determined to know what it was. No stinking older brother was going to take advantage of her!
    It was a short walk from Lisa’s house to Stevie’s. The girls had crept out as soon as it looked really dark. Lisa’s parents had been playing bridge with friends in the den, so Lisa was pretty sure they’d never even notice that The Saddle Club was gone.
    First the girls had strung toilet paper all over the bushes in front of the house. Eight rolls were all they could come up with on short notice, but they’d made the best of what they had. Stevie had brought her water pistol and sprayed all the TP, making it stick to the bushes like soggy oatmeal so that it would be seventeen times harder to remove. The rule in the Lake house, Stevie had explained, was that if your friends made the mess, you had to clean it up. Since Stevie was staying at Lisa’s, she was pretty certain that the blame for this job would rest solely on Chad’s friends—and therefore onChad. Of course, Alex might catch some of the blame, too, but that was okay.
    Stevie had even spelled WE LOVE YOU, CHAD in the middle of the lawn with pink TP. Not only would that be a false clue leading directly to Chad, but it would make Chad think that some girl actually loved him.
    While Stevie had decorated the grass, Lisa and Carole had