Horse Crazy Lily

Chapter One

Lily Robbins glared into the mirror she was standing in front of. She was looking at her own redheaded self, but the glare was intended for her seventeen-year-old brother, Art. He was two floors down and probably tossing his keys from one hand to the other.

"Like he has so much to do on a Saturday afternoon," Lily said to the mirror.

But he had agreed to drive her out to Suzy's birthday party.

With a sigh, she untangled her way-long-for-a-twelve-year-old legs and got to the door, where she poked her curly head out and yelled back, "Don't have a cow! I'll be right down."

"Define 'right down,'" Art yelled back.

"Two minutes."

"I'm pulling out of the driveway in exactly two minutes."

Lily scrambled to the closet and dragged out the boots she'd cleaned up for Suzy's party. They brought on a grin. What a great idea Suzy had come up with for her birthday - an afternoon of horseback riding for her and all the Girlz - Lily, Zooey, Reni, and Kresha. Lily had never been on a horse, though she'd always thought it sounded way cool. She felt like this was as much a present for her as for Suzy.

Lily glanced at her watch and then whipped her mane of curls around, looking for the gift she'd taken a half hour to wrap. She had put it right on the bed - and it should be easy to spot.

Since she'd moved into her new room up here in the attic a week ago, she hadn't had a chance to decorate - what her mother referred to as "cluttering up the place." The only things currently cluttering it were her stuffed animals. She could barely function without them, especially the giant panda, China, who she leaned against during her talking-to-God time every night - with Otto by her side, of course.

"Otto!" Lily said.

She heard him grunt from under the bed, and she dove for it.

"Tell me you don't have Suzy's present!" she said as she lifted up the dust ruffle.

Otto, her little gray mutt, blinked at her through the darkness.

"You do - you are so evil!"

Lily made a snatch for the blue-covered package and managed to get hold of the ribbon. While Otto tugged one way, she yanked the other and pulled dog and gift out into daylight. Otto's scruffy top hair stood up on end.

"I'm lee-ving -" Art called from below.

"Don't! I'm coming!" Lily cried. Grabbing onto the gift - and dangling Otto in midair in the process - she grabbed her denim jacket with her free hand and tore down both flights of stairs. Otto growled and snarled the whole way, but he didn't loosen his little jaws of steel, in spite of Lily's steady stream of "Drop it, you little demon seed! I spent my whole last week's allowance on that!"

Art, arms folded, was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

"Grab him, Art," Lily said. "Make him let go."

"You gotta be kidding," Art said. He took a step backward. "I'm not touching that dog. He'll bite my hand off."

"What in the world -" Mom said. She appeared out of the dining room, dust rag in one hand, can of furniture polish in the other. Her mouth twitched - in that way it did instead of going into a whole smile. "Otto," she said in her crisp coach's voice. "Drop it."

Otto, of course, didn't - at least not until Mom sprayed some polish into the air above her head. Otto let go of the present and, tucking his tail between his scrawny legs, disappeared up the stairs. He didn't like spray cans.

"Can we go now?" Art said.

"Have fun," Mom said. "And, Lil - don't make any plans to spend the night with anybody tonight. You know tomorrow is a big day."

Lily nodded as she ran toward Art's Subaru - nicknamed Ruby Sue. She managed to slide in before Art got it into gear.

"It's that place over in Columbus, right?" Art said.

"Uh-huh."

"Could she have picked a place farther away?"

"It's the only riding stables in South Jersey, I think," Lily said.

"Tha-at's an exaggeration." Art had picked up a new habit of dragging out his words in a bored voice. Lily thought it must be some cool thing musicians did.

"So - what do you think this Tessa chick is going to be like?" he said with a snicker. "Her mother must have really had it in for her to give her a name like Tessa. What's thaaat about?"

Lily rolled her eyes in his direction. "Her mother probably did have it in for her, or she wouldn't have been in all those foster homes. And we're not supposed to talk about all the stuff that's happened to her unless she brings it up, remember?"

"Like I'm going to forget. We heard it about a dozen times."

Lily had to agree - he was right about that. Ever since Mom and Dad had found out that the adoption agency had a child for them, they'd been holding family meetings to talk about Tessa, who was about to become their nine-year-old sister.

"She's had a rough time," Dad had explained. "She hasn't had any of the things you kids have had, including love or security or a family."

Mom was a little more direct: "You can't be doing your brother-and-sister routine while she's getting adjusted. No teasing - no kicking under the table - am I clear?"

"Have you noticed how different they are lately when they talk about her?" Art said now. "Now that they've actually met her?"

"No," Lily said. "Well - I did notice that Mom's cleaning the entire house with a toothbrush to get ready for her. You think Tessa's a neat freak?"

Art shook his head. "I saw a list of child psychologists on Dad's desk."

"Don't they send, like, mental patients to them?"

"Nah - half the kids I know are in therapy," Art said. "Whatever the chick's got going on, it's probably not that big a deal. I think Mom and Dad are freakin' a little."

The rest of the way to the stables, Lily forgot about horses and thought about Tessa. The Robbinses had known for a while that they were going to adopt a child, and Lily had been all over it - another girl to help her survive two brothers. She'd gotten excited about fixing up her old room for Tessa, but Mom had said they should just paint it white and let her decorate it how she wanted to, since she'd never had her own room before.

When Mom and Dad had come back from meeting her, Lily had gone to Mom with a list of possible sister activities they could do together. Mom had twisted her mouth a little and then said, "I know how you are, Lil - everything 950 percent - but, hon, you can't take Tessa on as your latest thing. Don't start reading child psychology books -"

"Mom, I'm so over trying to find my thing -"

"Good - then let's just let her get settled in and get to know her."

So Lily had been forced to put the whole thing in the back of her mind, behind math homework and Shakespeare Club and, of course, Girlz Only Group. She'd prayed for Tessa every night, but that was about all. Until now.

What if she's in a gang or something? she thought. Is she gonna get off the plane tomorrow with a tattoo?

"So is this it?" Art said. "Double H Stables." He snickered again. "Now thaaat's original."

"Herbert Hajek, Owner," Lily read from the plank that hung under the Double H logo on the gate that Art had pulled up to. "Of course it's going to be Double H. What else would they call it?"

Art raised an eyebrow in the direction of the tiny stables tucked between two maple trees. "Don't get your hopes up, Lil," he said. "I don't think this guy raises thoroughbreds."

"Reni's mom's bringing me home," Lily said as she climbed out of Ruby Sue. Which was good, because she'd had about enough of Art making everything sound worse than it was.

She forgot about Art - and Tessa - the minute Zooey, Kresha, Suzy, and Reni burst out of the stables, all wearing jeans and boots and bandanas tied to various places.

"This is going to be the best!" Zooey said as she tugged at Lily's arm. "We each get to ride our own horse and -"

"I get the wery strong horse!" Kresha said. Lily knew she was excited because her Croatian accent was slipping in. W's replaced v's when that happened.

Reni grabbed Lily's hand - the one Zooey wasn't wringing out like a dishrag - and tugged her toward the stables. She didn't have to say anything. Best friends, Lily had discovered, could communicate without words. Reni's chocolate-brown eyes, dancing in the glow of her matching-brown face, said that for once Zooey wasn't exaggerating. It was going to be awesome.

Lily let them usher her into the stables. "Awesome" didn't even begin to describe what she saw when they finally let go of her and let her look around.

It was dim inside, but even in the half-light she could tell the wooden floors were swept clean. The sun that crept in from the open doors on the other end brought eight stalls into view, four on either side of the wide hallway, each with the top half of its door open.

I bet that's where you prop yourself up to give the horses apples and sugar cubes and stuff, Lily thought. The smell was a mixture of hay and leather and - okay, maybe the faint odor of horse poop. But nothing had ever smelled as good.

"You girlies ready to ride?" said a voice from the open doorway.

Lily could make out only a silhouette as the Girlz all ran out to him. What she found in the sunlight was a man not much taller than her own five-foot-five - tall for a seventh grader but not for a man who had shoulders that looked like a set of football pads. She decided he'd be a lot taller if he weren't quite so bow-legged.

"I'll take that as a yes," the man said as the Girlz swarmed around him. He was wearing a blue bandana, tied tightly around his head so that he slightly resembled a cue ball with bright eyes. Lily didn't have a chance to see what color they were before he planted a battered hat onto his head and pulled the brim down almost to his nose.

"This is Herbie," Zooey said, giggling like a piccolo.

Herbie nodded at Lily and then at the line of horses that waited patiently along the wide dirt path the Girlz were standing on.

"First thing, Georgie and I will get you girlies up in those saddles," he said. His voice was as clipped and snappy as any other South Jersey accent Lily had ever heard. That's funny, she thought. I expected him to talk like he was from Texas or something.

That didn't make the idea of climbing up into one of those saddles any less exciting - or any less scary.

As Herbie showed Suzy how to put one foot in the stirrup and hoist herself up so she could swing the other leg over the saddle, Reni pointed to a horse the color of a brownie with a crooked white marking on his face that was shaped just like milk pouring out of a pitcher.

"This one's Big Jake," Reni said. "He's yours." Her voice took on a hint of envy. "I think he's the biggest one of all."

Lily agreed, but she couldn't nod her head. She'd never been this close to a horse before, and she'd never known they were quite this big. She had to look up to see under his neck, which he was now tossing around like he was impatient to get this party started.

Lily stood staring at him while the rest of the Girlz swung up into their saddles. Her mouth was starting to go dry.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she thought, trying to lick her lips. This is a big animal. I don't know what to do with something like this - yikes!

"Your turn, girlie," Herbie said. He nodded at the stirrup. "Put your left foot right in there."

Lily felt a long pang of fear go through her - but she managed to stick her right foot into the stirrup. Herbie shook his head.

"Oh, sorry!" Lily said. "I always get right and left mixed up -" Actually, she never did, but right now her thoughts were like a herd of terrified ants.

When she finally fumbled her way into the saddle, her long right leg flailing the air for one endless, embarrassing moment before her foot found the other stirrup, Herbie said, "All right, girlies. We're all going to be together so I'll be watching your horses, but there are a few things you need to know."

Yeah, Lily thought. Like how to get down! She leaned over to look at the ground. The height was dizzying.

What if I fall? Lily thought. I could break a leg! Or my neck!

"That's all you need to know," Herbie said. He started off toward the one empty-saddled horse on the path and then stopped. "Oh, one more thing - if you have any trouble with your horse, just say - in a calm voice, now -'I have a situation.'" He tipped his head back to look up at them. "You girlies ready to ride?"

He was answered with an assortment of yeses and giggles. But Lily didn't join in. She wanted to shout right now -"I have a situation! I don't want to go!"

But Big Jake threw his head back and shook his stringy mane and blew air out of his nostrils. He obviously did.

No sooner had the line of horses begun to move - one steed's nose buried in the tail of the one in front of it - than Big Jake tossed his head once more. And then he took off - ahead of the others - with Lily hanging on.

She screamed for all she was worth, "I have a situation!"

(Continues.)