Horse Race by Bonnie Bryant

comfortable on a bench.
    “Carole!” Josh B exclaimed from behind them. “How are you?”
    Carole fought back a groan of dismay as the older boy hurried over. Today he was wearing a clean white turtleneck and a pair of pressed black pants. “Hi, Josh,” she said weakly.
    “Hi, Josh,” chorused Stevie and Lisa.
    “Hi,” Josh greeted them shortly. Then he turned all his attention back to Carole. “I’m really glad to see you again,” he told her. “We didn’t have nearly enough time to talk yesterday. I was hoping for a chance to show you around thetrack—you know, give you a taste of what I do here and how things work.”
    “That sounds awfully interesting,” Carole said hesitantly. She didn’t want to hurt the boy’s feelings, but the last thing she needed right now was to be dragged off on some kind of grand tour of Bluegrass Park. How could she get out of it without being rude? For once, she wished she’d paid more attention when the girls at school or Pine Hollow were chattering on about how to talk to boys.
    “But we really wouldn’t want to take up so much of your time,” Stevie continued—for her, smoothly—smiling innocently at Josh. “I’m sure your job keeps you really busy, right?”
    “Well, yes,” Josh said, glancing at Stevie as if trying to remember who she was. “It does. I have a lot of responsibility here, you know. My uncle really counts on me to keep things running.”
    “That’s great,” Lisa said. “You must be really good at what you do.”
    Josh smiled and straightened the collar of his turtleneck. “Well, I don’t like to brag,” he said. “But everyone says I’m a fast learner. I already know everything about how the front office runs, and I even know a little about the betting machines. As soon as I’m old enough, I’ll probably start working at one of the windows.”
    Carole had seen the little windows where men and women sat behind the betting machines, punching in numbers and handing out tickets to the people who were gamblingon the races. But she had never paid much attention to them, and she had given even less thought to the track’s front office, whatever that was. She liked the track because horses were there. Everything else was just boring details.
    She was sure Stevie and Lisa felt exactly the same way, but at the moment both of them were nodding and smiling at Josh as if his job were more exciting than a groom’s, a jockey’s, and the United States president’s combined.
    “Wow,” Lisa said. “That’s amazing. I feel bad even taking up this much of your time when you have so much to do.”
    Stevie stood up and grabbed Carole’s arm. “Come on, Carole,” she said, dragging her to her feet. “We’d better stop bothering Josh now and let him get back to work.” She smiled at Josh again. “Maybe we’ll see you later.”
    “Um, I hope so,” Josh said, looking a little confused. “Bye, Carole.”
    The Saddle Club hurried away along the rail, leaving Josh staring after them. As soon as they were near the gap and safely out of sight, Stevie and Lisa broke into giggles. “That was fun,” Stevie declared.
    Lisa shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said with a smile. “I actually felt kind of sorry for him. He never knew what hit him.”
    Carole grinned at both of her friends. “Thanks, guys,” she said gratefully. “You really helped me out back there. I couldn’t think of a thing to say to him. If it was left to me, I’d probably be touring the snack bar or the program booth right now.”
    “You’re welcome,” Lisa answered for both of them. “But we shouldn’t count on that working more than once. We’d better stick to less Josh-infested places for our meetings.”
    Carole’s smile faded as she remembered the reason for their Saddle Club meeting. But before she could say a word, she heard a gruff voice behind them.
    “Hey, you girls!” Garvey shouted. He had just rounded a corner and seen them.
    “Oops,” Stevie