Free English Horse by Bonnie Bryant Page B

“People take this stuff seriously. It’s not fair if one person has an advantage. You shouldn’t have made her look.”
    “It’s all right, Lisa,” Tessa put in quickly. “I didn’t see that much. And I promise to block what I saw out of my mind before the race.” She crossed her heart and smiled tentatively.
    Lisa could tell the other girl felt a little uncomfortable, so she decided to let it drop. “I know you will, Tessa,” she said.
    “I’m sorry, Lisa,” Mrs. Atwood said, looking upset. “I didn’t realize it was such a problem to let Tessa look over the plans.” She grabbed the map and quickly rolled it up.“It’s just that there’s so much to do, and I really don’t understand a lot of the details of this sort of thing, and—”
    “It’s all right, Mom,” Lisa said, feeling a little guilty. She grabbed the pitcher from the counter and poured herself some orange juice. “It’s no big deal, really. Nobody ever needs to know.”
    “Well …” Mrs. Atwood still looked uncertain.
    “Really, Mrs. Atwood,” Tessa said graciously. “You couldn’t possibly have known. It will be all right.”
    “…  AND T ESSA TRIED to explain that, but Mom just bulldozed ahead and showed her anyway. Can you believe it?” Lisa said.
    She was in the student locker room at Pine Hollow with Tessa, Stevie, and Carole. She and Tessa had just finished telling the others about what had happened at the breakfast table.
    Carole smiled. “It sounds like your mom was just being her usual self,” she said, tossing her sneakers into her cubbyhole and reaching for her riding boots. “But I’m sure she didn’t mean any harm by it.”
    “Of course not,” Tessa agreed. “And there’s no harm done.” She grinned and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I didn’t want to say it in front of your mum, Lisa, but I didn’t see much of anything on that map, anyhow. As soon as she opened it up, I crossed my eyes so that I wouldn’t be able to. Like this, see?” She crossed her eyes and made a silly face.
    Her friends burst out laughing. “Do you do that when you have tea with the queen?” Stevie joked.
    Before Tessa could respond, Veronica entered. She gave them all a sour look. “Is this what you do at your little club meetings?” she asked snippily. “Sit around and make faces at each other?”
    Stevie gritted her teeth. She was really getting tired of having to roll over and take Veronica’s obnoxious comments all the time. She wouldn’t have been able to stand it at all if her riding privileges hadn’t been on the line. “Come on, guys,” she said to her friends. “Let’s get out of here. We should get to work.” The four friends had planned to do some more practicing for the point-to-point.
    Veronica snorted. “Oh, but why bother?” She smirked nastily at Tessa. “I thought you and Topside had the junior hurdle all sewn up. Or did you finally realize that we Americans know how to ride, too?”
    “That’s enough!” Tessa cried.
    Carole knew they couldn’t let Tessa get into a shouting match with Veronica and opened her mouth to say something, but Lisa was clearly thinking the same thing. “Tessa,” Lisa began, placing a soothing hand on her arm.
    But Tessa shook it off. She was still glaring at Veronica with her fists clenched at her sides. “I’ve had just about enough of your little comments!” she said. “I’ve tried to be polite, but—”
    “Tessa!” Stevie broke in desperately. “Come on. Don’t stoop to her level.”
    “That’s right,” Carole agreed. “We don’t have time. We’re supposed to be practicing now, remember?”
    Their comments obviously surprised Tessa enough to silence her. She turned and gave them a perplexed look. “But she’s done nothing but insult me since I got here,” she protested. “I can’t let her get away with that, can I?”
    “Oh, please,” Veronica said. She gave a loud yawn. “I’m bored by this conversation. Now I understand why