Free Pleasure Horse by Bonnie Bryant

ears,” another boy added.
    “Excuse me?
You don’t have your instruments?
” Angie said, her voice as icy cold as the air blowing in the door.For one awful minute she stared at them, enraged. Then she shrieked, turned on her high heels, and fled.
    Stevie would have laughed had she not been so embarrassed. Instead she stood there, speechless at her cousin’s behavior.
    “Uh, hi,” said the boy again. “We’re Voyager. I’m Ted, and this is Mike, Jeff, and Kevin.”
    “Hi!” Stevie said back, recovering herself. Angie was right about one thing: The boys were definitely good-looking. “I mean, come in—you must be frozen.”
    “Practically,” said the boy.
    “I’m Stevie, by the way.”
    “Oh, my gosh, you poor things,” Aunt Lila said, coming up behind Stevie to see what the commotion was. In a flash she had the boys inside and was handing Stevie a pile of coats to spread out on the laundry-room drying rack.
    When Stevie rejoined the group a few minutes later, all four boys were seated around the kitchen table while Stevie’s mother fed them sandwiches and Aunt Lila made hot chocolate. Before long, the boys started to lose their worried looks and relax and enjoy themselves. Stevie decided to do her part to help cheer them up by telling some awful old jokes. “Hey, everybody! What’s black and white and red all over?”
    “A newspaper!” one of the boys called.
    Stevie shook her head. “Nope. It’s a skunk with poison ivy.”
    The boys groaned. “That’s almost as bad as my knock-knock,” Ted volunteered.
    “I seriously doubt that,” Stevie challenged him.
    “All right. Knock-knock,” Ted said.
    “Who’s there?” Stevie asked.
    “Orange.”
    “Orange who?”
    “Orange you glad you’re you?”
    Everyone at the table howled. Then all of the boys started vying to tell their own stupid jokes.
    For the first time all weekend, Stevie began to think the party might not be so boring after all.
If there is a party
, she thought, looking out the window at the snow.

I T WASN ’ T LONG before the guests started trickling in. Every few minutes or so the doorbell rang, and Angie kept running to answer it. Without getting too involved, Stevie kept an eye on the proceedings. Angie, who’d been given a lecture by her parents, managed to greet the guests almost politely, but Stevie noticed her crestfallen look every time somebody who wasn’t the caterer arrived.
    First a handful of girls from the cheerleading squad came. They were wearing boots with their nice dresses and carrying their shoes in bags. “Angie!” one of themshrieked. “You must be a wreck! We didn’t even know if the party was still on.”
    “We made Val’s mom drive us over anyway,” another girl piped up.
    “That’s right. We weren’t about to miss the bash we’ve been hearing about all month,” said the third one.
    Angie smiled wanly. “Oh, good. I’m glad you could make it,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.
    Out of nowhere, Chad and Alex appeared in the hall. “Here, Angie, we’ll show these girls in. You go and relax.”
    “Relax? Are you kidding!” Angie sputtered. Then the doorbell rang again, and Stevie’s brothers whisked the cheerleaders away.
    It was the Lakes’ next-door neighbors, the Kellys. They had walked over with flashlights. “Gosh, it’s dark out there,” Mr. Kelly said.
    “It sure is. I hope you’re stocked up with candles and flashlights and kerosene in case the lights go,” Mrs. Kelly added. Stevie caught Angie’s horrified look as the couple took off their coats and disappeared into the back of the house.
    A little while later someone showed up in snowshoes. It was Angie’s English teacher, the only teacher she’dinvited. “I didn’t want to risk the drive so I came over in these,” the gray-haired man explained.
    “Thanks for coming, Mr. Scott,” Angie said, her voice lackluster.
    Mr. Scott disappeared into the house, reciting Robert Frost’s “Stopping By