Lisa by Bonnie Bryant

Author:Bonnie Bryant [Bryant, Bonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-82593-3
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

Dear Diary,

Wow, I guess it’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote last. I’ve been so busy I’ve hardly had time to think about it, but I really want to write down what happened with Alice Jackson.

I have a little time to write today, since Mom’s off at her job at the mall and my homework is finished except for my creative writing assignment. This time it’s what Ms. Shields calls creative nonfiction. The topic is people helping people. I’ll have to figure out what to write about soon.

But back to Alice for the moment. I’m trying to think back and remember exactly how it happened. I remember that Stevie and I were super excited that Sunday when we got to the stable. We couldn’t wait to put our little plan into action, but we were careful not to give Alice any hints.

Well, I was careful, anyway. Stevie couldn’t resist entirely. “You’re going to love the trails here,” she told Alice as we set out. “They’re beautiful and fun to ride. They always seem to have surprises for us, too.”

Alice seemed a little nervous at that. I think she was afraid we would get lost. But we hurried to reassure her. Then we just rode along comfortably, chatting about this and that. Alice was really nice and friendly, which made me feel even better about what we were trying to do.

Little did I know how badly it would backfire. Don’t get me wrong—the plan worked exactly as we had wanted it to. We moved into a canter about fifty yards before the bend in the trail. Alice and Starlight were about twenty yards behind Stevie and Topside. I was bringing up the rear as planned. I came around the curve just in time to see Starlight clear the jump with no trouble at all. The only thing that didn’t come out right was Alice’s reaction.

“Wasn’t that wonderful?” Stevie called to Alice as she brought Starlight to a halt past the jump. “You did it perfectly. We knew you would. You’re a natural jumper!”

Barq jumped easily over the log and I urged him forward to join the others. “Jumps in a ring are fine, but the best ones are the natural obstacles,” I told Alice happily. “Starlight knew just what to do, didn’t he?”

Just then I started to realize that Alice hadn’t said anything at all since the jump. That was my first indication that maybe something was wrong.

“Are you all right?” I asked her.

“Of course she’s all right.” Stevie waved a hand as if to dismiss the question. “She jumped like the champion we knew she would be.”

Finally Alice spoke. “You planned this?” she asked us. “You intentionally put that log where I wouldn’t see it so Starlight would just go over it?”

“It took a while to find the right place,” Stevie said, still oblivious to Alice’s expression, which I noticed was growing stormier with every second. “But we obviously picked the perfect one, right?”

“Perfect for what?” Alice said so sharply that even Stevie looked at her in surprise.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.