Free Quarter Horse by Bonnie Bryant

wonder if Stevie does remember about Tumbleweed and spurs.” Carole looked at Lisa. “She’s never mentioned it.”
    “I’m sure she does,” Lisa replied. “Stevie’s so focused on this rodeo she probably remembers every word that came out of Pete’s mouth.”
    “I guess you’re right,” agreed Carole. “Let’s ride over to the fence. I think the bull riding’s about to start.”
    They remounted Pogo and Ghost and rode over behind the big refreshment trailer to look into the adult arena. The adult rodeo clowns were jumping around in the middle of the ring, loosening up to get ready for the bulls.
    “Oh, good!” Carole stood up in her stirrups. “We can watch this until the pole bending begins. It really looks exciting!”
    The first cowboy was easing himself down on the backof a brown-and-white bull when Lisa felt someone tapping her leg. She looked down. Eileen was grinning up at her, munching on popcorn.
    “You guys are doing a pretty good job of clowning,” she said sweetly. “Mr. Cate and Ms. Nicely think you’re really funny.”
    Lisa blinked in surprise. A compliment? From little Eileen? “Thanks, Eileen,” she replied. “I’m glad you think so.”
    “Yeah,” Eileen continued. “But the funniest part was when Stevie wrestled that goat and got all dirty. She looked so mad! That’s been the best thing about the rodeo so far!”
    “Thanks, Eileen,” Carole answered sarcastically. “I know Stevie will be glad to hear how much you enjoyed that.”
    Eileen rattled her popcorn bag. “I know something else that Stevie would enjoy.”
    “What?” Lisa asked with a frown.
    “She would really enjoy knowing my secret.” Eileen tossed a piece of popcorn in her mouth and looked up at the girls with an overly sweet smile. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to know, too?”
    Lisa and Carole looked at each other and shook their heads. “No thanks, Eileen,” Lisa replied. “I don’t think we need to know anything you might want to tell us.”
    “No, really. It’s a neat thing.” Eileen’s green eyesflashed. She chewed her popcorn quickly. “I mean, it’s a really
important
thing! It could mean a lot to Stevie.”
    “Well, if it’s that important, why don’t you go tell Stevie yourself?” Carole asked.
    Eileen pulled on Lisa’s big Western stirrup. “Because she was mean to me this morning,” she whined, her lower lip stuck out. “She said she was going to rope me and tie me up and make Yankee and Doodle drag me behind the wagon.”
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake, Eileen.” Lisa shook her head in disgust. “She was only kidding.” She’d started to say something else when a deafening roar went up from the adult side of the arena. A huge buckskin bull with long, pointed horns had just tossed his rider high in the air. The cowboy was scrambling in the dirt, trying to avoid being gored as the bull came charging after him, his horns low and his eyes wild. All the adult clowns were waving their arms and running in circles, desperately trying to distract the angry animal from the fallen cowboy. Every time one of them went near, though, the bull shook his horns and bellowed even more loudly.
    “Hold on, boys, I’m coming!” a voice called. Carole and Lisa looked over at their side of the arena. San Antonio Sal had dropped the bouquet of plastic flowers she was clowning with and was running over to help.
    “Should we go, too?” Lisa asked as they watched her scramble over the fence.
    “You two stay right there!” Sal called over to them. “Don’t you come near this bull!”
    Pulling a huge red scarf from her pocket, she ran full speed toward the snorting bull. The bright, shiny fabric must have caught his eye, because he looked up from the cowboy he was trying to gore and started to run straight at Sal. While another clown helped the shaken cowboy to his feet, Sal flapped her scarf at the bull and lured him toward the barrel, where the barrel man was poking his head up and yelling