Tight Rein

Stephanie Lake had been absolutely, positively, and completely grounded for the next two weeks.  She was not allowed out of the house, except to replant the flowers.  She was not allowed to go even once to Pine Hollow.  She was not allowed to speak to the rest of The Saddle Club--she couldn't even phone them.

She was not allowed to go to camp.

Carole felt her heart twist.  This was the worst of all possible  punishments.

Carole would gladly have done KP for years if it meant Stevie could go to camp. She would have listened to her father's lecture on responsible behavior thirteen million times.

"My mother sat me down for a little talk this morning," Lisa said.  "She said she doesn't know what to do with me, but she's going to start by having me perform community service.  Her women's auxiliary has a vegetable garden, and they send all the produce to the county homeless shelter.  I've been made the chief weed-picker."

She sighed.  "I'd pick all the weeds in Willow Creek if it meant Stevie could go to camp with us."

In the pasture Delilah, a palomino mare, suddenly squealed and bucked.  She ran down to the far corner and galloped back.  It looked like pure good spirits to Carole--the mare was having fun.  Carole wished she felt like that.  She wondered if she ever would again.

"It's so totally unfair," she said to Lisa.  "When you consider how little time Stevie's gotten to spend on horseback this summer--or with Phil..." Carole's voice trailed off.  She'd never had a real boyfriend, so she didn't really know what it would feel like to be separated from one.  But she could well imagine what it would feel like not to ride.  "If I couldn't see Starlight for two whole weeks, I would just die."

"The worst part," Lisa said bitterly, "is how that brat Chad got away totally scot-free."  It was true.  In all the commotion, Stevie's parents had never noticed Chad making faces out his window, and by the time they'd gotten back inside, Stevie's riding boots had been sitting in their usual place in her bedroom closet, buried under her dirty breeches just the way she'd left them. Chad had put them back, of course, but he claimed he'd never touched them.

Carole and Lisa knew that Chad, not Stevie, was lying.  Unfortunately, Stevie's parents didn't.

"We've got to find a way to make Stevie's parents change their minds," Lisa said.  "We've just got to.  Camp won't be any fun without her."

"We need to get even with Chad, too," Carole said.  "We can't let him get away with this."

Lisa looked at Carole.  She smiled for what felt like the first time in days. "We need to out-Stevie Stevie," she said.  "What we need here is a Stevie plan."