Free Summer Rider by Bonnie Bryant Page B

drive us. Can we go?”
    Barry shrugged. “I don’t see why not,” he said. “Far be it from me to discourage young people from reading.”
    He still looked a little puzzled as he walked away, but Stevie just grinned. He would understand everything soon enough.
    T HE CLASS ENDED a few minutes early. Carole and Stevie headed to the rec hall to meet Lisa so that they could all walk back to the cabin together to change for dinner. They peeked into the room where Lisa’s class was being held, but she was nowhere to be seen. Carole frowned. “Where is she?” she whispered.
    Stevie shrugged. “Maybe she’s sitting in the back.”
    But when the class let out, the girls couldn’t find Lisa anywhere in the room. They stopped Helen, a girl from their cabin, to ask about her.
    “She said she had a stomachache,” Helen said. “It sounded like it might have been something she ate at lunch. She went back to the cabin to lie down.”
    Stevie and Carole exchanged concerned glances, then hurried out of the building. “Do you think Lisa’s getting sick?” Carole asked. “Maybe that’s why she’s been acting so weird lately.”
    “Maybe.” Stevie started walking a little faster, then broke into a jog.
    Lisa looked up when her friends burst into the cabin. She was sitting on her bunk with a book in her hands.“Hi,” she said, looking and sounding perfectly healthy. “What’s the matter?”
    “That’s what we want to know,” Carole said breathlessly. “We heard you were sick.”
    Lisa shrugged. “I’m fine. I just said that to get out of class.” She held up her book. “I started
Frankenstein
this morning, and I want to get through it quickly.”
    Carole frowned. It wasn’t like Lisa to skip a class. It wasn’t like her at all. “Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked. “Um, you haven’t exactly been yourself lately.”
    Stevie nodded. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” she asked. “I mean, we’re your best friends. If you’re having problems or something …”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lisa snapped. “Just because I’m trying to be responsible and work on my reading list, you automatically assume I have a problem?”
    “Well, no,” Carole began hesitantly. “But—”
    Lisa didn’t give her a chance to go on. “Look, I’m fine, okay?” she said. “I know you guys don’t understand why this stuff is so important to me, but it is. So believe me, I’m fine. Just back off, okay?”
    “Okay,” Stevie said quickly. She couldn’t believe how easy it was to make Lisa angry these days. Maybe it was because she was staying up reading—Stevie had seen the flashlight glowing under the covers late into the night. “Um, it’s almost dinnertime. Are you ready to go?”
    Lisa looked down at her book, not meeting her friends’eyes. “You guys go ahead,” she said, her voice sounding calmer but still a little strained. “I want to finish this chapter. I’ll meet you at the mess hall in a little while.”
    “Okay,” Stevie and Carole said in one voice. They quickly changed out of their riding clothes and left the cabin without another word.
    They saved a seat for Lisa all through dinner, but she never showed up.

T HE NEXT DAY after lunch, Stevie, Carole, Lisa, Phil, Todd, and a few other campers piled into Mike’s ancient, battered green station wagon for the trip into town.
    “Next stop, Main Street,” Mike sang out as he skillfully negotiated the old car down the rutted road leading to the highway.
    Stevie was crushed into the front seat between Mike and Phil. “Anybody for a singalong?” she cried. Without waiting for an answer, she launched into an enthusiastic, if slightly off-key, rendition of “Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” She was in a good mood. After dinner the night before, Lisa had apologized for being so touchy and then had agreed to come along to the rec hall to make phone calls. Working together, Stevie, Carole, and Lisa had