Show Judge by Bonnie Bryant

couldn’t get over the betrayal. It made her both angry and heart-broken.Lisa was the last person on the planet she would ever have suspected of snooping.
    Max signaled Carole that he was ready to start. “You begin by using a moist, not wet, sponge, to take off the surface dirt,” he said, wiping at the seat of a saddle. “When the tack is clean but still damp, rub glycerin saddle soap into it. If you work up a lather you’re using too much, which can dull the shine and eventually crack the leather.”
    Carole’s eye happened on Stevie, who was sitting at the back with Corey, well away from Lisa and Jasmine. Again, she felt a twinge of annoyance and disappointment. Stevie seemed totally preoccupied these days with her parents’ upcoming anniversary. Carole couldn’t help feeling that Corey was getting the short end of the stick. From what she had observed, Stevie was neglecting good record keeping—Corey’s equipment box was complete chaos, and Carole was fairly certain they hadn’t yet gotten around to setting a date to have Samurai’s shoes checked before the show.
    “Carole. Carole?” Max looked at her expectantly. “May I have the cloth, please?”
    With a guilty smile, she handed it to him. She should have been paying better attention.
    “You don’t rinse the soap off,” Max continued. “Instead,use a soft cloth to buff the leather to raise the shine.”
    Carole noticed May was riveted on everything Max said and did. Veronica, on the other hand, was sitting in a corner at the back of the room, reading a book.
Well that’s no great surprise. At least Veronica makes no attempt to conceal her real nature
, she thought.
    Max was winding up the demonstration. “To make the leather even more supple, you can use a nonoily leather dressing, but never, never use neat’s-foot oil. It will only make things dark and greasy.”
    L ISA STIRRED RESTLESSLY in her seat. For the first time in a long time she was actually wishing she was any place but Pine Hollow. That terrible scene with Carole kept replaying over and over in her head, making it impossible for her to focus on what Max was saying. Why would Carole assume she had been trying to cheat? Didn’t she know her better than that? After all the things they’d been through, Carole should at least have given her the benefit of the doubt.
    Jasmine interrupted her thoughts. “That was really useful, wasn’t it, Lisa? I’m going to make sure Outlaw’s tack is sparkling on the day of the show. He’s going to be the best-turned-out pony in the arena!”
    Lisa smiled on the outside, but on the inside she wasgrimacing. Unless Jasmine could learn to master the art of braiding, poor Outlaw was going to be one of the frumpiest contestants in the ring that day. Lisa hadn’t had a chance to talk to Stevie about swapping Pony Partner favors yet. She had intended to talk to her at the sleepover, but now she wasn’t sure she even wanted to have one. Carole had already told Stevie that she wasn’t going to be able to make it, which, of course, had come as no surprise to Lisa.
    “Okay,” Max said. “Time to get your horses and ponies ready for the mounted portion of today’s lesson, and don’t be late.”
    Lisa hurried to Prancer’s stall, where she tacked up as quickly as she could. She wanted a few extra minutes to look over Jasmine’s work on Outlaw before class started.
    When she saw her Pony Partner, she was delighted. “Good job, Jasmine. Outlaw looks very nice. Let’s take the horses outside.”
    As they came out of the stable, Lisa blinked at the bright sunshine. Although it was a lovely spring day, she couldn’t really enjoy it because she was so depressed by Carole’s accusation. At least the horses seemed to like it. They snorted and sucked in large gulps of fresh air. Outlaw took a playful nip at a piece of straw that went dancing by.
    Suddenly Carole’s voice broke the calm. “Jasmine!” she said sternly. “You never, ever let your horse eat