Summer Rider by Bonnie Bryant Page A

chose to live here.”
    Stevie smiled. If most of the townspeople were against the deal with the developers, their job would be even easier than she had hoped. “In that case,” she said. “Would you be willing to help us out? We’re asking peopleto sponsor us for a certain amount for each fence we clear during the show. The money we raise will help the camp director outbid the developers and buy the camp.”
    “What a great idea!” The woman laughed, startling the baby, who stared at Stevie with wide blue eyes. “How many fences are there?”
    “Eighteen total,” Stevie said, “plus six more if there’s a jump-off in the show-jumping event.”
    “You’re doing show jumping?” The woman looked impressed. “We never did that in my day.”
    Stevie nodded. “It’s a new event,” she said. “If you’re interested in coming to watch, the show is next Friday.” She gave the woman information about the schedule and ticket prices.
    “I’ll be there,” the woman promised. “And you can put me and my husband down for two dollars a fence.”
    Stevie took down the woman’s name, address, and phone number, then said good-bye and moved on to the next house. She couldn’t help whistling a little as she walked. Things were definitely looking up for Moose Hill.
    N OT EVERYBODY WAS as eager to help as the red-haired woman, but Carole and Lisa were also finding that most of the people they spoke to were on their side. Almost everyone they asked agreed to pledge at least a little bit of money, and soon they had signed up more than ten sponsors.
    During the lulls when nobody was walking by, Carolekept herself busy by thinking about Lisa. She was acting more like her normal self today, but Carole wasn’t convinced it was going to last.
    She decided she had to try to talk to Lisa again, even if it meant making her angry. “Lisa,” she began tentatively when no townspeople were in sight. “I kind of wanted to talk to you about yesterday.”
    “I understand,” Lisa said immediately. “I was really rotten to you guys, and I’m sorry about that.” She shrugged and smiled, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I guess I stayed up too late reading the night before or something.”
    “That’s not exactly what I meant,” Carole replied. She didn’t think Lisa’s moodiness resulted only from sleep deprivation. There was just too much odd behavior to excuse that way. “You already apologized for that yesterday. But I’m still kind of surprised you decided to skip class.”
    “I know,” Lisa said. “But it was a one-time thing, really. I knew we were going to be talking about bandaging, and since Max has drilled everything there is to know about the topic into us over and over again, I thought I’d give myself a break and do some reading.”
    “Oh.” Carole thought about that for a second. It sounded reasonable, but she wasn’t completely reassured. “Well, what about missing dinner like you did last night? It wasn’t the first time you skipped a meal in the past couple of weeks.”
    “I guess that’s true,” Lisa said, leaning against a tree next to the sidewalk. She shrugged again. “It’s just that I get so hungry after all that riding. Sometimes I can’t wait for mealtime.” She laughed. “Believe me, whoever gets the money from those snack machines in the rec hall must love me. And once I’ve pigged out on that stuff, the last thing I want to do is go to the mess hall and look at more food.”
    “All that junk food can’t be good for you,” Carole said, concerned.
    “It’s not all bad,” Lisa said, straightening up as an elderly couple approached. “Besides, eating that stuff for a couple of weeks won’t kill me.”
    The girls stepped forward to talk to the elderly couple. Once they had signed them up for fifty cents per fence, they relaxed again.
    “I hope you don’t think Stevie and I have been nagging you lately,” Carole said. “I mean, about your reading and the extra