Horse Capades by Bonnie Bryant Page B

thought I’d give you what you wanted. That way, maybe you could forget about practical jokes for a while and I could get my movie made.”
    Phil looked surprised. “You mean you did all this to get our attention?”
    Stevie grinned. “I have to admit, I was inspired by A.J.’s phone call the other day. I decided it was time to go Hollywood myself. Luckily, Mr. French agreed to help me out.”
    Mr. French came over and dropped his beret, mustache, scarf, and sunglasses into the duffel bag at Stevie’s feet. “Glad I could help,” he said. “I always thought I should be in the movies. If you need anotheractor for your film, Stevie, you know where to find me!” He threw Stevie and her friends a mock salute and hurried off.
    “So we were right,” Carole said after the man had gone. “You never intended to give up practical jokes at all.”
    “Wrong,” Stevie said, fiddling with the buttons on the camcorder. “I meant every word. But desperate times call for desperate measures. I figured I had to break my vow just this once—if only to prove to you that I really meant it. You guys wouldn’t listen to me long enough to let me convince you any other way.”
    Lisa thought about that for a second. She realized Stevie was right. Lisa, Carole, and Phil hadn’t really given her a chance to explain before. Lisa and Carole had been too busy worrying about Prancer, and all three of them had been too ready to jump to their own conclusions about Stevie.
    “Sorry,” Lisa said. “I guess we shouldn’t have been so quick to doubt you. Can you forgive us?”
    “Well, I don’t know,” Stevie said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “It all depends.”
    “On what?” Phil asked.
    Stevie grinned. “On whether you’re all going to buckle down and help me make this movie. I really doneed to get a good grade on it, you know. Will you help me?”
    “Of course we will,” Carole, Lisa, and Phil said in one voice.
    And that’s exactly what they proceeded to do.

“H OW DID IT GO last night?” Carole asked as soon as Stevie walked into the stable on Friday.
    Stevie shrugged. She looked tired. “Not bad,” she said. “Not good, but not bad.”
    “What happened?” Lisa asked, looking up from Prancer’s mane. She was in the process of untangling a knot. Carole was helping out by rubbing the mare down with a soft cloth.
    “My mom made me stop editing and go to bed around midnight,” Stevie said, rubbing her eyes. “That means I didn’t get as much done as I should have.”
    Thanks to Stevie’s prank, Carole, Lisa, and Phil hadput in a hard afternoon’s work the day before, and Stevie had filmed plenty of footage. Lisa had even come up with a way to end the standoff over Stevie’s silly costumes, which she and Carole were still reluctant to wear, practical joke or no practical joke. Stevie had compromised and agreed to let her friends wear their fanciest riding clothes for the early scenes—
if
Lisa could borrow some real ball gowns for the dressage ball scene from the charity resale shop where her mother volunteered. With one brief phone call, it was all settled. Half an hour later, a very confused Mrs. Atwood dropped off three fancy gowns in the girls’ sizes. Best of all, Stevie’s was a pearly white one with puffy sleeves, which could easily double as a wedding gown in the final scene. After trying on the filmy yellow gown Mrs. Atwood had brought, Carole was even willing to wear Stevie’s fancy hard hat as part of her costume. It took all of Stevie’s powers of persuasion, but finally Lisa was convinced as well. After all, the stepsisters
were
supposed to be tacky and obnoxious. And that was fine with the actors—within reason.
    The matter of riding in a long dress was a little tricky, but Stevie managed to make Max’s single sidesaddle work three times as hard by moving it fromhorse to horse and filming each girl separately, one at a time. It all took a long time and was a lot of work, but Stevie was sure