Carole by Bonnie Bryant Page B

been taken over by aliens. Why has having Marie around made everything seem so totally different?
    Things have only gotten weirder since I wrote all that stuff earlier today. I spent the rest of the school day stewing about what happened with the phone call and the rest of it. So by the time Marie and I got to Pine Hollow this afternoon, I wasn’t exactly in the greatest mood.
    And my friends? They didn’t even notice! Stevie was all excited and proud of herself because she managed to talk Max into letting us use the hayloft for Marie’s big birthday sleepover. And Lisa just grinned away as if that was the greatest news ever in the history of the world. It didn’t help that Stevie reported that Max said he’d been looking for something special to do for Marie himself. I mean, I know we all said we wanted Marie to have a nice time and everything, but you’d think she was Queen of Sheba the way everyone is carrying on over her!
    Anyway, after they all finished making a fuss, we finally left on the trail ride we’d planned. But not before Marie cracked a few jokes about how messy the tack room was, which didn’t exactly make me feel sisterly.
    I was trying my best to be a good hostess, so as we started across the fields to the woods, when Marie mentioned thatshe was a little rusty because she hadn’t been riding much lately, I offered to give her a few pointers. “From back here I’ll be able to see what you’re doing wrong,” I said helpfully, since I was riding behind her. “For instance, right now your heels should be down more, and your arms look a little stiff.”
    Marie adjusted her position. “Better?”
    “A little,” I said. “But now you’re leaning back too much, and your legs are too far forward. You look like you’re sitting in a chair.”
    “Oops.” Marie adjusted again.
    “Okay, that’s better,” I said, glad that she was improving, at least a little. “Now let’s work on the way you’re holding the reins. Don’t curl your wrists, and keep your thumbs pointing up and your elbows in.…” I kept on advising her like that as we rode down the trail, trying to be as helpful as possible.
    A few minutes later we heard the sound of hoofbeats on the trail ahead. It was Simon Atherton. As usual, he looked as if he might fall out of the saddle at any moment. His elbows were sticking out at a crazy angle, his toes were practically pointing straight up, and—well, like I said,
as usual
. Anyway, it turned out he was riding alone because Veronica diAngelo had ditched him. Big surprise there. He’s had a huge crush on her for ages and she just hates it. I don’t know if that’s got more to do with the fact that Simon’s kind of nerdy or that his family doesn’t belong to the Willow Creek Country Club and drive a car that’s more expensive than my house.
    Ugh. I keep getting off the subject here. I can’t even seem to
think
straight since Marie has been here! The point is, forsome reason Marie suddenly decided to ride back to Pine Hollow with Simon rather than continuing the trail ride with us. Don’t ask me what
that
was all about. She said something about wanting to be there when Dad came to pick us up, so maybe that was it.
    My friends and I rode on. “It’s unusual for your father to pick you up on a weekday, isn’t it?” Stevie asked me.
    She wasn’t the only one who’d noticed
that
, believe me. “Yeah, well, a lot of unusual things have been going on around here lately,” I said, feeling kind of grumpy.
    Stevie and Lisa changed the subject after that. But by the time we headed back toward the stable, I was starting to feel kind of bad about how Marie had left. I was really trying to be helpful when I corrected all those things about the way she was riding, but I realized it might have come across as, well, maybe a little mean. More like criticism than helpful advice. For some reason, though, I just hadn’t been able to stop myself.
    I mean, even if Marie has been sort of