Free Wild Horse by Bonnie Bryant

really want to go there?” Stevie said in a rush. She knew she was pushing it by asking that question yet again, but she just had to. She couldn’t sit back and pretend that if Lisa went to Wentworth, everything would be all right.
    Lisa looked from Stevie to Carole, her face threatening to crumple. She was about to reply when the door swung open and Veronica walked in.
    “Lisa!” Veronica said in a gushy voice. “I heard the great news. So you’re going to be a Wentworth girl. Congratulations!”
    “Thanks,” Lisa muttered.
    “Listen,” Veronica went on, oblivious to the tense atmosphere she’d walked in on, “I was thinking it would be fun for you and my friend Ashley Briggs to get to know one another. She’s coming to visit me next weekend, so I’ll ask my mother if I can have you over for dinner.”
    Stevie looked scornfully at Veronica. It made her sick to see Veronica acting nice toward Lisa just because of Wentworth. “Why are you so friendly all of a sudden?” she demanded. “Is it because Lisa’s going to a snobby boarding school—”
    “Why should you care?” Veronica snapped.
    “Because I care about my friends.” Stevie retorted. “Unlike you, Veronica, I don’t choose my friends based on what school they go to. So don’t bother trying to be all nice to Lisa. Because she can see right through your little—”
    “Stevie!” Lisa cried. “Would you mind staying out of it?”
    Stevie turned. She stared at Lisa, mouth open, for several seconds. Without another word she grabbed her saddle, bridle, and hard hat and stormed out of the tack room.
    “Boy, with friends like that, who needs enemies?” Veronica said. “Now, Lisa—”
    “Just leave me alone! Leave me alone!” Lisa wailed. She fled the room as fast as Stevie had.
    “Well, excu-u-use me,” Veronica said.
    A few seconds later Stevie poked her head back in. “By the way, Veronica, I wouldn’t make you cochair of the dance committee if my life depended on it,” she said.
    “Good!” Veronica spat back. “Because I wouldn’t take it if
my
life depended on it!”
    The door slammed for the third time. Carole glowered at Veronica but said nothing. It was all too much to comprehend—better to concentrate on horses for an hour and figure out the human mess later. The lesson started in five minutes; at this point, they were going to be late. And any second now, Max was going to come in and give them a harsh lecture for making so much noise in the barn. It was a miracle that he hadn’t already.
    T RYING TO CHOKE back her tears, Lisa managed to get Prancer tacked up. Her fingers fumbled with the billet straps on the girth, then with the bit, but finally Prancer was ready. Lisa led her out and got on. Once she was mounted, however, she couldn’t face going to the lesson. She didn’t even care about the questions Max would ask when she failed to show up. She knew it would be no use trying to learn anything.
    Hardly thinking, she spurred Prancer toward the trail. She trotted and cantered until they were a good distance from Pine Hollow. Then she slowed Prancer to a walk and gave her a long rein. Slouched in the saddle, she let the mare loaf along, not even stopping her from grabbing bites of grass and leaves. And finally, out on thetrail where no one could hear her, Lisa let herself cry. She cried and cried, thinking back over the past twenty-four hours. Prancer turned her head around and nudged Lisa’s stirrup to ask what was wrong. That only made Lisa cry harder, realizing that she wouldn’t be able to take Prancer with her to Wentworth. Prancer wasn’t hers, and anyway her parents would never be able to afford the board. It probably cost half of their salaries.
    “I wonder who will ride you when I’m gone,” Lisa said, stroking Prancer’s chestnut neck. “If only they had scholarships for horses, too. Then you could come with me and it wouldn’t be so bad. I could tell you about the other girls, and you could tell me