Free Hobbyhorse by Bonnie Bryant

detect a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. “I’m letting The Saddle Club decide your fate, Amelia. If they think you shouldn’t be allowed to ride here, you won’t be.”
    “O UT !” S TEVIE SAID as she sat down on a tack trunk. “Out, out, out!” She cackled with glee.
    “Well …,” Carole said hesitantly, sitting down beside Stevie. They were in the tack room, where they’d gone for privacy while they discussed Amelia’s fate.
    “I wouldn’t have to deal with her for the whole week,” Lisa said, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes. “It would be so wonderful. I don’t know what Amelia would do by herself—but I guess that isn’t my problem, is it? My mom could take her shopping, or they could go to museums. Anywhere, so long as she isn’t here. It would be heaven.”
    “It would be awful for Amelia,” Stevie said with satisfaction. “A week of shopping and museums—the perfect revenge!”
    “It
would
be awful,” Lisa said. “Too awful. I don’t know. I don’t want her around, but I’m not sure that that’s reason enough to ban her. I didn’t want her here in the first place, and I think—I think I could have been nicer to her.”
    “What she did was horrid,” Carole said. “I don’t mean lying about me, although that was bad enough. Poor Patch! And remember, Max almost got killed.”
    “She didn’t know the horses would stampede,” Stevie pointed out. “She said so, and I believe her. She’s not
that
bad. She’s just a little kid, and she didn’t know what would happen.”
    “I believe her, too, but she’s the same age as the Pony Tails,” Carole said indignantly. “They’re very responsible.”
    “Yeah,” Stevie said, “but Amelia really hasn’t been around horses for very long.”
    “So you think we should let her keep riding?” Lisa asked.
    “Not at all,” Stevie said cheerfully. “All I said was that she wasn’t trying to kill Max. She was definitely trying to scare Patch, and she definitely told lies, and she probably would have climbed on Prancer and had a horrible stupid accident. Plus, I’d rather not have her around.”
    “Max is right that riding is a privilege,” Carole said. “I guess—I mean, she
should
be punished—”
    “I think that’s why she’s such a brat,” Lisa said. “She never has to take responsibility for what she does. Nobody makes her. When she ripped my books up three years ago, nobody made her say she was sorry. She broke our hobbyhorse, and my parents are acting as if nothing happened. She whines and throws a fit, and boom! she gets whatever she wants. So she keeps whining and throwing fits. I think she thinks that if she just keeps pushing for it, she’ll get to ride Prancer, too.”
    “So you think that this time she ought to be punished,” Carole said.
    “Yes,” said Lisa. “I do.”
    Carole sighed. “So do I.”
    “So we’re in agreement,” Stevie said. “She can’t ride at Pine Hollow.”
    The three girls looked at each other. “That’s right,” said Lisa. “Only …”
    “Only what?”
    Lisa made a face. “It’s hard to explain. She did do all these things she shouldn’t have, and I think she should be punished, only … Did you hear what she said to Veronica in the locker room?”
    “ ‘I’m just going to go ride Prancer right now?’ ” Stevie asked. “I heard that.”
    Lisa smiled but shook her head. “I mean when she said, ‘I’m having a miserable vacation, and it’s Lisa’s fault. If she had been nice to me, everyone else would have liked me.’ ”
    “What about it?” Stevie asked. “It’s not even true. You did warn us about what a brat she was, but it wouldn’t have taken us long to figure it out on our own. I personally don’t think I would have liked her anyway.”
    “Except that I shouldn’t have told you she was a brat,” Lisa said. She looked down at the ground. “I knew she was a brat the last time I saw her, but that was three years ago.