Driving Team (3 page)

“Veronica.” Stevie sighed. “Looks like we’re on the same team again.”

Veronica tossed her head and scowled.

When everyone was ready, Max waved his hands for their attention. “Okay, move with your partner to the outside of the ring and start walking clockwise.”

Stevie tried to smile. “Do you want to be on the left or right?”

“Oh, please,” said Veronica. She turned Danny sharply to the right and began walking behind Polly and Anna. Stevie had to hurry to catch up.

“Do you want the inside or the outside of the ring?” Stevie asked again as she pulled Belle up beside Danny.

“It doesn’t matter a bit to Danny,” sniffed Veronica as she cast a disdainful glance at Belle. “He’s a Thoroughbred. He can do anything.”

“Well, so can Belle—” Stevie sputtered, only to be cut short by the sound of Max’s voice.

“Okay, riders, go three strides at the walk, then go into an extended trot
together, at the same time
. And don’t run up on your neighbor’s rear end. I don’t want anybody kicked today.”

Stevie began to count Belle’s strides. Just before she
asked Belle for a trot, Veronica and Danny hopped out ahead, already trotting briskly. Stevie squeezed Belle with her legs, trying to catch up. They trotted, out of balance, halfway around the ring.

“Okay,” called Max. “That was pretty good. Now I’m going to count. When I say
five
, I want you all to ask for a canter. But remember, ask for it
together
.” He looked at Stevie and Veronica. “Some of you guys look like you’re riding horses on a merry-go-round. Okay. One, two …”

By the time Max reached
three
, Stevie had caught up with Veronica. “Can you give me some kind of signal when you’re going to change leads?” Stevie whispered.

“No!” snapped Veronica. “I need to concentrate on Danny. You just watch us and do what we do.”

Stevie tried to watch Danny’s and Belle’s front legs at the same time. Just before Max called out “five,” Veronica pushed Danny into a canter. Stevie did the same, trying to stay together, but Veronica had asked Danny for the wrong lead. He and Belle cantered around the ring, almost bumping into each other in the turn. Finally Stevie asked Belle to make a flying lead change just to avoid having the two horses cantering together so awkwardly.

“Okay.” Again Max aimed a sharp glance at both of them. “Everybody walk.”

Stevie and Veronica pulled both horses down into a walk. “Why can’t we work out some kind of signal for what we’re going to do?” Stevie whispered. “Max doesn’t look too happy with our performance.”

“I’m sure Max is perfectly pleased with the way Danny and I are performing.” Veronica raised one eyebrow. “You and Belle, on the other hand …” She gave Stevie a sickeningly sweet smile. “I’m sure he knows you’re doing the best you can.”

“But—” Stevie began, feeling her blood pressure rising.

“Okay, everybody,” Max called. “Some of you are doing great. Others can stand a little more practice in cooperation. Since you’re all facing the same direction, let’s all try a half turn to the right.”

Stevie pulled Belle up beside Danny, listening to Max’s instructions.

“Go into a sitting trot, then everybody circle to the right, then ride a straight line back to where you started. You and your partner should make one big half circle together.” Max looked at the riders. “Everybody ready? Then go!”

Stevie urged Belle into a trot, then applied gentle pressure to Belle’s right side with her leg. Belle responded perfectly, turning in a circle, but Danny balked midway through the turn. He stopped once; then,
instead of walking beside Belle, he lunged ahead of her. Stevie had to grab Belle’s mane while the poor horse almost stood on her toes to keep from being run over.

“Okay, okay, everybody stop!” Stevie heard Max call, his voice suddenly disgusted. She looked over her shoulder and saw him coming toward them.

“Stevie and Veronica, these are easy, elementary exercises, and not once have you been together on anything. What’s going on with you two?”

“It’s not me!” cried Veronica. “Danny and I have executed your instructions perfectly, right on time. Stevie and Belle are slow. They can’t keep up!”

Stevie had just opened her mouth to say that Veronica was the one who was constantly jumping the gun and refusing to work out any signals when she saw Max’s blue eyes flash. She knew from experience that it was not the time to explain her position with regard to Veronica. Max wasn’t interested in excuses, just results. She took a deep breath.

“Sorry, Max,” she said softly. “I guess we are having some problems. We’ll just have to concentrate harder, I suppose.”

“I suppose so,” Max said thoughtfully, glancing at Veronica. “Well, let’s try it again.” He turned and walked back to the middle of the ring. “Okay, everybody, get back to your original positions!”

This time Stevie waited to see which way Veronica was going to go before she moved Belle one inch. Oh,
brother
, she thought as Veronica pulled Danny in an unnecessarily huge circle.
If this is what working with Veronica’s like, I’ve got a long two weeks ahead of me!

“S
TEVIE
,
WHAT ARE
you going to do?” Carole and Lisa peeked over the stall door, where Stevie was working a burr from Belle’s tail.

Stevie sighed. “I’m just going to hang around here until Max meets with us to explain the driving tack.” She held up the prickly burr and examined it. “I wish I were going with you guys, though.”

“We wish you were, too,” said Carole. “But maybe this won’t be as bad as you’re expecting. Veronica might actually have turned over a new leaf.”

“Right,” said Stevie. “If her behavior in the flat class was any indication, she’s turned from obnoxious all the way over to unbearable.”

“Oh, Stevie, I think she just got mad,” said Lisa.
“You did make everybody laugh at her at the Horse Wise meeting.”

“Well, she got me back. She made me look like a real jerk in front of Max.” Stevie smoothed Belle’s tail. “You guys may as well go on to the library and have some fun. I’ll just wait here and see what Miss Cashmere Sweater’s going to do.”

“We hate to leave you, but we do need to get to work,” said Carole.

“Don’t worry about it.” Stevie forced herself to smile. “At least I’ve got Belle to keep me company. She’s a lot more fun than Veronica any day. I’ll see you later.”

Carole and Lisa said good-bye, then turned and hurried to the bus stop at the end of the long Pine Hollow driveway.

“I hate to leave Stevie like this,” said Lisa as their boots sloshed through the soggy drive. “I feel like she really needs us right now.”

“I do, too,” Carole replied. “But what can we do? Max made the assignments. All we could do would be hang around and watch the disaster unfold.” She shuddered. “It might be too horrible to watch.”

“You’re right,” said Lisa. “And then we’d be too upset to get our own project done.” She sighed and ran her hand through her shoulder-length blond hair. “I guess Stevie’s going to have to get through this on her own.”

After a short ride across town, the girls got off the bus in front of the big redbrick library, where two stone lions guarded the doors.

“Do you have anything we can take notes on?” Lisa asked, stopping in front of the library door.

“No,” said Carole. “I bring more apples and carrots to Pine Hollow than I do paper and pens.”

“Then why don’t we go into that stationery store across the street and pick up some note cards? We’ll probably find a lot of information we’ll need to write down.”

They hurried across the wet street to the stationery store, where Lisa bought three packs of four-by-six index cards and two pencils. Carole bought a tiny horse bookmark and a pack of butterscotch.

“In case we get hungry,” she said as Lisa gave her a quizzical look. “My dad says it’s okay to eat candy in the library as long as you don’t throw the wrappers on the floor.”

“Whatever,” laughed Lisa as they splashed back across the street and hurried between the two big lions.

Inside, the library was a cheery, warm hive of activity. Bright lights shone overhead as people checked out books, clicked away at computers, read magazines, and researched projects at the long tables.

“Where shall we start?” whispered Carole.

“Why don’t I see what I can find on the library’s catalog while you check out the horse section?” suggested Lisa. “Do you know where it is?”

“Six-thirty-six in the Dewey decimal system,” reported Carole with a smile. “I’ve spent about a jillion hours there.”

“Then see what you can find, and I’ll meet you over there when I finish at the computer.”

“Okay.”

Carole walked to the corner of the library that held all the animal books, while Lisa found a free computer terminal. She sat down and opened her note cards, then started searching the library’s catalog by typing in the word
chariot
in the subject field. She punched Enter, and a few seconds later all the titles concerning chariots flashed on the screen. Lisa wrote them all down, then typed in the word
stagecoach
. An instant later the computer listed seven books about stagecoaches. In just a little while, Lisa had a pile of index cards filled with books about driving.

Research doesn’t take long at all when you’ve got a computer doing the legwork
, she thought.
Wish they’d assign us our own computers in school, just like they give us math and English books
.

When she’d researched all the driving topics she could remember, she hurried over to find Carole. At
first she didn’t see her, but then she turned a corner in the stacks, and there sat her friend with a pile of eighteen books in front of her.

“Gosh,” said Lisa, “looks like you’re finding a lot. I got a bunch of titles from the computer, too.”

Carole frowned at the books she’d gathered. “I bet there are still more. Let’s go ask the librarian.”

Lisa followed Carole over to the return desk, where a pretty blond woman in a bright blue sweater was putting books on a cart. She smiled as both girls approached the counter.

“Hi, girls,” she said sweetly. “I’m Mrs. Davidson. Can I help you find something today?”

“Yes. We need all the books you’ve got on driving,” Carole said.

“Driving?” Mrs. Davidson blinked. “Aren’t you a little young to be studying for your licenses?”

“Oh, no,” Lisa laughed. “Not car driving. We mean horse driving. Like carriages and wagons and things like that.”

“Oh.” Mrs. Davidson chuckled. “I see. You mean team driving. Let me see. I believe I shelved a book on team driving just the other day.”

She stuck a pencil behind one ear and bustled out from behind the counter. “If I remember, it’s right over here.” She walked quickly to an area of the stacks Carole had never been in before, reached up to the top
shelf, and pulled down a thick red book titled
Customs and Carriages
.

“Great,” said Carole, thumbing through the book. “Are there any more?”

“Give me a few minutes,” said Mrs. Davidson, “and I’ll see what I can find.”

Carole and Lisa moved the books Carole had gathered to a table while Mrs. Davidson fluttered from shelf to shelf, adding volumes to their collection.

“Okay,” Mrs. Davidson said a few minutes later, when the tabletop was covered with books. “I think that’s it.”

“Gosh,” said Lisa, counting quickly. “That’s forty-three books on driving.”

“Is that enough?” asked Mrs. Davidson.

“I think so,” laughed Carole. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Davidson. We could never have found that many books by ourselves.”

“My pleasure,” Mrs. Davidson said cheerily as she went back to the return desk. “I never mind helping young readers with a project.”

“Wow.” Lisa eyed the huge selection of books. “Where should we start?”

Carole frowned. “Why don’t we go through these and reshelve the ones that won’t be much help—you know, the ones that are too babyish or too technical?”

“Good idea,” said Lisa. “I’ll sift through the ones at this end of the table. You take the ones down there.”

Carole sat down and opened the first book. The title was perfect—
Driving Through History
—but she realized after she’d thumbed through the first few pages that it was a fictional story about a pair of guys in a magical car that travels through time. Carole checked to make sure the guys hadn’t driven near any ancient chariots, then rose to her feet. “This one looks interesting, but it’s not going to help us with our report. I think I’ll reshelve it.”

“Okay,” said Lisa. “I’ll stay here and go through these.”

Carole found the empty spot where the book belonged. It was on a shelf just above the floor. She got down on her hands and knees to shove the book into the right slot and found herself peeping through to the other side of the stack. Standing on a stool in the next aisle were a pair of small red sneakers, which were under a small pair of blue jeans, which were apparently attached to a little kid. It seemed to Carole as if the child was trying to hide in the dingiest corner of the library. Quietly she reshelved the book and leaned forward to peek around the stack.