Free Horse Feathers by Bonnie Bryant

along with several other students, were taking turns practicing their skills on Clara. Red was again acting as the longeur, as well as calling out tips to the riders. Max stood at the fence, watching, pleased to see the progress his students were making.
    “Hey, Stevie, you’re just in time,” said Lisa as Stevie rushed up to them. “Max said we could practice our vaulting today.”
    Stevie bent over and rested her hands on her knees, waving her arm as she tried to catch her breath from her quick dash to the stable. “Can’t stay … have to hurry home … no time …”
    Lisa and Carole exchanged looks.
    “Where’s the fire?” joked Carole.
    Stevie shook her head. She gulped for breath. “Goslings …”
    “Lings?”
asked Lisa, surprised. “As in more than one?”
    This time Stevie nodded. “Four,” she managed to say, holding up four fingers to emphasize the point.
    “The eggs hatched last night?” asked Carole, incredulous.
    Lisa smiled guiltily. She’d been so excited about getting to their vaulting practice that she’d completely forgotten to mention the eggs. “I was on the phone with Stevie lastnight when they started hatching,” she told Carole. “Only Stevie—being Stevie—instead of telling me what was going on, led me to believe that she’d just had a heart attack, or worse, and then she hung up on me.”
    “To be fair,” interrupted Stevie as she straightened up, slowly regaining her breath, “that was definitely a ‘they’re hatching’ type of gasp, and I didn’t hang up on you, I dropped the phone.”
    “So when the phone crashed to the floor,” continued Lisa dramatically, “I thought I should run over to make sure that one of my best friends hadn’t accidentally suffered a concussion executing a nosedive out of her desk chair. But instead of finding her unconscious on the floor, I found her hovering over the incubator like an anxious parent-to-be.”
    “I wasn’t hovering,” Stevie replied indignantly. “I was being
aware
.”
    “Well, that was the most aware I’ve ever seen you,” Lisa teased.
    “What about the rest of the eggs?” Carole asked.
    “I don’t know. I’ve got to get home and see if more have hatched.” She explained to Carole that she’d been numbering the goslings in the order they were born. “It’ll have to do until I can come up with proper names for them,” she added.
    “How are you ever going to keep them straight once they’ve all hatched?” Carole asked curiously.
    “No problem—or not so far, anyway,” said Stevie. “Number One is very bossy and loud. And Number Four’s quack has a different pitch. Two has this flutter thing that he does with his wings, and Three has more colors in his feathers than any of the others.”
    “See, she already sounds like a mom,” said Lisa.
    “Well, seeing as I missed the big event,” said Carole, “you’ll have to tell me all about it. I think it’s so exciting that you’re a mom!”
    “It is, and I have to get back. But I didn’t come to tell you about the goslings. Well, I did, but there’s something else. You’re absolutely not going to believe this,” said Stevie, pausing for effect. “Veronica got out of class early today because she had an appointment with her
vaulting
coach.”
    “Vaulting coach?” echoed Lisa and Carole, incredulous.
    “We’ve gotta do something!” said Stevie. “And I’ll figure out what as soon as I get home and take care of the eggs. Goslings. Goslings and eggs. Gotta go!”
    Stevie dashed off before the news had even finished sinking in.
    “Stevie, wait!” shouted Carole.
    But Stevie had disappeared through the door and Carole realized she was probably halfway down the driveway already, headed home to her waiting goslings.
    Carole turned to Lisa, her expression serious. “Well, that’s it then. You’ve just got to win for us.”
    Lisa sighed and watched as one of the students struggled with the Stand. The two riders after that didn’t