A Winning Gift Read online

“Yeah, and that.” Maddie quickly stuffed the last couple of pieces of chicken into her mouth, then stuck the plate in the dishwasher. “Look, I don’t have time to stand around here all day talking to you pip-squeaks. Later.”

  She hurried out of the kitchen, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. The boys’ comments had reminded her that her birthday was only six days away, and she hadn’t found a single gift yet. That was pathetic, and normally Maddie would have been all about making up for lost time.

  But she wasn’t really in the mood just then. Somehow, that kind of family tradition seemed like a lot less fun when the rest of the family was mad at her. Making a mental note to search more in a day or two, when things cooled off, she headed upstairs.

  When she got there, she paused outside the door to the bedroom she shared with Tillie. The sound of a plaintive love song drifted out from behind it.

  Steeling herself, Maddie pushed the door open. Tillie was sitting at her desk doing homework. She frowned when she saw Maddie.

  “What do you want?” she demanded. “Let me guess—you came to steal my cashmere sweater to wipe the horse poo off your boots.”

  Maddie smiled weakly. “I’m not staying. I just need this.” Stepping over a few piles of clothes and other stuff on her side of the room, which looked like a before picture to Tillie’s tidy “after” half, she grabbed her laptop off her desk.

  Soon she was perched on the window seat at the far end of the upstairs hallway. She checked her e-mail, then logged on to the Pony Post. As the logo of galloping Chincoteague ponies appeared on the screen, Maddie sighed, wishing she could be with the real thing right then. Even if everyone else seemed to be mad at her, Cloudy never held a grudge and was always ready for a hug.

  But there was no way she could fit in a trip to the barn today even if her parents would have allowed it. Which they wouldn’t, given the circumstances. What with how dramatic Tillie was acting about all this, Maddie considered herself lucky they’d still allowed her to go to soccer practice instead of just chaining her in the basement or something.

  There were several new posts since the last time she’d logged on that morning. Maddie scanned them, her mood lifting slightly as she read.

  [BROOKE] Hi all! Happy Monday! Anyone here?

  [HALEY] I’m here! Hi B. Did u ride today?

  [BROOKE] Not yet. I just got home from school a little while ago. I was thinking about skipping riding today b/c it’s soooo cold out! But I think I’ll have some hot cocoa and then at least hop on bareback for a few min. What about u?

  [HALEY] Nope. Wings has the day off today. We don’t usually ride on Mondays. But tomorrow if it doesn’t snow too hard, we’ll be back to work.

  [BROOKE] Snow? Brr! And I thought it was cold here!!!

  [HALEY] LOL, it’ll prolly just be flurries. If it’s not too windy I’ll ride anyway. B/c guess what? I decided I want to be ready to enter a real recognized event in the spring.

  [BROOKE] Rly? Cool! I’m sure you’ll be ready by spring. U have been learning a lot lately, right? Esp. in that clinic u did last month.

  [HALEY] Def! That’s what gave me the idea. I’ve been thinking about it ever since then. But after our great rides this weekend, I decided for sure. I even know which event I want to enter. It’s the first one of the spring around here, and it’s at the same farm where I did the clinic.

  [BROOKE] That’s good. U and Wings will already know yr way around. Oops! Mom just got home and has a car full of groceries to unload, so gtg—will check in later if I can. . . .

  [NINA] Hi all! Anyone still on?

  [NINA] Guess not. Oh well! But, Haley, that’s fab news! A recog. event is a big deal, right? I know you and W will do great tho, b/c you’re just that awesome!!

  [NINA] Also, I’m posting some pix from my trail ride today. Don’t be jealous, B, but it was pretty hot here, so we kept it short. We also kept it short b/c my friend Jordan’s bro came with us again. He’s becoming a pretty good trail rider!

  [BROOKE] Hey, Nina. Sorry I missed u earlier! Great photos! Is that Brett? He’s just as cute as u said, lol!

  [BROOKE] Oh, almost forgot—I didn’t ride this afternoon after all. Boo! My little brother saw some dumb old cowboy movie last week, and now he thinks he’s the Lone Ranger or something. He’s been bugging me to go for a ride on Foxy, and today my mom made me let him. Of course, my little sis hates being left out, so she wanted a turn too. Foxy was an angel—I think she was confused by those little monsters bouncing around up there, lol! She was good as gold. But by the time the twins finally got bored and went inside, it was getting too dark to ride. Oh well. There’s always tomorrow. . . .

  Maddie smiled as she read over her friends’ adventures. It was cool to know that she had friends all over the country doing interesting stuff with their ponies at the same time she was having fun with hers.

  She only wished she had some riding stories of her own to report that day. But her friends would just have to settle for updates on her news from yesterday. She’d filled them in the night before about the nail polish thing and also about Bridget’s breakup.

  She opened a new text box and started to type.

  [MADDIE] Hi guys! Great pix, Nina! Brooke, where are the pix from Foxy’s pony ride? Lol! If your little sibs ride again, better let us see! Anyway, bummer that u didn’t get to ride, but actually, I think it would be kinda cool if any of my siblings showed any interest whatsoever in ponies or riding. Well, except maybe Tillie—at least not right now . . . Needless to say she’s still furious about the Pink Twinkle incident. My parents aren’t exactly thrilled with me, either. I just hope they all get over it before Sunday, or my b’day party is gonna be pretty grim!!! Speaking of grimness, Bridget moped around school all day—at least, whenever I saw her, she looked pretty mopey. I wish I knew how to help her feel better, you know? I mean, it doesn’t seem worth it to get so worked up over some boy anyway, but what do I know? Lol! I guess all I can do is be a friend and be here for her.

  She sent the post and then signed off. Noticing that her laptop battery was low, she glanced at her bedroom door at the opposite end of the hall.

  “Better not plug it in in there,” she muttered. “I don’t want Tillie to decide to throw it out the window to get back at me.”

  Okay, so Tillie wouldn’t really do that. Probably. Even so, Maddie wasn’t in the mood to face her sister again until she absolutely had to, so she headed back downstairs. The boys were in the den playing their favorite car-racing video game.

  “Where’s Dad?” Maddie asked.

  Ryan didn’t even glance up from the screen. But Tyler looked her way briefly.

  “Basement,” he muttered. Then he bent over his joystick again.

  Maddie glanced at the door to her parents’ home office, which was located only steps from the den. She was tempted to go in and plug in her laptop without asking. She was sure her dad would say yes anyway.

  But she didn’t quite dare, especially right now, when she was already in the doghouse. The home office was her parents’ domain even more than their bedroom. All four kids were strictly prohibited from going in there without permission, since her parents kept lots of important documents in there, along with the computer her mother used when she worked from home.

  So Maddie headed down the hall past the kitchen and stuck her head through the basement door. “Dad?” she called down the stairs. “Can I plug my computer in in the office?”

  “Sure, go ahead.” His voice floated back up. “But don’t touch anything else.”

  “I know. I won’t.”

  She hurried back to the office and slipped inside. It was cool and dim in there, with blinds covering the windows and everything neat and tidy.

  Well, almost everything. As Maddie set her laptop on the desk by the charger, she noticed that one of the drawers was slightly ajar.

  “Better close it or Dad will think I was snooping,” she muttered.

  She reached for the drawer, then hesitated. What i
f her parents had gotten smart and started hiding birthday gifts in here? None of the kids dared poke around in the office—it was the perfect hiding place!

  I’m not snooping, she told herself as she bent a little closer to the drawer. I’m not going to open it any further. Can I help it if I accidentally happen to see what’s in there?

  There were no boxes or wrapping paper in the drawer, though. In fact, it was almost empty. The only thing Maddie saw in there was a piece of paper with a bunch of printing on it and the official US Air Force seal at the top.

  “Work stuff,” she murmured. “Boring.”

  She was about to shut the drawer when a surprising word caught her eye: “London.” Was her mother taking a business trip overseas? That hadn’t happened in a while, and Maddie couldn’t help being curious.

  Bending closer again, she scanned the page—and let out a gasp. The paper said that the Air Force had officially approved six plane tickets to London in January.

  Six tickets. London. January. Maddie stared at the words, stunned. Had her mother been transferred again? Could the family really be moving to England—in just a little more than two months?

  ♦ CHAPTER ♦

  4

  MADDIE SAT IN THE NOISY school cafeteria on Tuesday, staring into space. All around her, kids were eating and laughing and talking and goofing off, the volume of the place only slightly less than that of a jet taking off at the Air Force base. But all Maddie could focus on was that piece of paper she’d seen yesterday.

  She hadn’t said anything to her family about it, of course. How could she? If she did, they’d know she’d been snooping in the office, and that would have been a risky thing to admit even if she wasn’t already in trouble. She’d been lucky to get off with a warning and a loss of allowance on the nail polish thing; if she admitted she’d been poking around in the forbidden zone, it was likely to end with some much more serious punishment. Maybe even her birthday party getting canceled.

  Besides, if she told them and they said it was true? Well, that would be that. She wouldn’t be able to pretend it had all been her imagination.

  Even though she already knew it totally wasn’t . . .

  “Maddie! Earth to Maddie!” Bridget snapped her fingers in Maddie’s face.

  Maddie blinked and glanced up as her friend set down her tray. The scent of the cafeteria’s mystery meat wafted across the table. “Oh, sorry. Hi,” Maddie said.

  “Hi.” Bridget sighed loudly and plopped down onto the seat across from her. Since the two of them were in different grades, lunch was the only time they saw each other during the school day other than occasionally passing in the halls. “What’s up?”

  “Not much,” Maddie said automatically. Then she paused, tempted to tell Bridget what she’d discovered. After all, she was one of her best friends. Maybe she could help her figure out how to deal with this. So far Maddie hadn’t breathed a word to anyone, not even Vic and Val. The twins were in a different section from Maddie this year, so she saw even less of them than she did of Bridget. They even had lunch at a different time.

  “So I just keep thinking about him, you know?” Bridget said, poking at her lunch with her fork. “Everything reminds me of him. Every time my social studies teacher mentions medieval England, I remember how Tony used to yell ‘bring out your dead!’ all the time.” At Maddie’s mystified look, she added, “It’s a quote from some old movie he really likes.” She sighed again. “And every time I see a guy walking around with his sneakers untied, I think it’s him for a second.” She picked up a forkful of peas and stared at them. “Even this stupid lunch reminds me of him! He used to text me funny pictures of his lunch after his friends built things with it.”

  “Built things?” Maddie echoed.

  “Yeah.” Bridget smiled wanly. “Like, they’d pile up all their Salisbury steaks to make a fort and sculpt ninjas and stuff out of the mashed potatoes. He’s, like, really artistic, you know?”

  Maddie took a sip of her milk. “Yeah, you’re always saying he’s really, um, creative.” In her opinion, Tony had always sounded pretty immature, and Bridget was probably better off without him. Not that she could see that right now. “Just try not to dwell, okay? It’ll get better.”

  “Maybe.” Bridget shot her a pathetic look. “Hey, are you going to the stable today after school?”

  “I was going to, yeah,” Maddie said. “But I can hang out with you instead if you need me.”

  “I do,” Bridget said. “But actually, I was hoping I could come to the stable with you.”

  “You were?” Maddie was a little surprised. Sure, Bridget had seemed to enjoy herself the other day. But Bridget almost always enjoyed something new and different. She tended to get bored pretty easily after that.

  “Yeah.” Bridget dropped her fork and reached for her water bottle. “It’s so nice and busy and homey, you know? And nothing there reminds me of, you know, you-know-who.” She wrinkled her nose, then sighed and looked sad again.

  “Sure, no problem.” Maddie reached across the table to pat Bridget’s hand. “You can come to the barn with me anytime.”

  “Thanks.” Bridget’s lower lip quivered slightly. “I really appreciate you being here for me, Mads. It makes me feel less alone.”

  Maddie forced a smile. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best time to tell Bridget she might be leaving soon—for a whole other country.

  “So who else is around today?” Bridget asked as she and Maddie stepped into Solano Stables that afternoon. “Do you have, like, a riding lesson or something?”

  “Not today, no.” Maddie paused and took a deep breath of the hay-and-horse-scented air, instantly feeling less anxious about the whole moving-to-London thing. Or at least ready to forget about it for a while. Then she led the way down the aisle toward Cloudy’s stall. “Vic and Val won’t be here this afternoon,” she told Bridget. “They have music lessons on Tuesdays.”

  “Really? What kind of music lessons?”

  “Vic plays the saxophone, and Val—” Maddie began.

  “Hi!” Bridget blurted out suddenly, cutting her off. When Maddie turned around, her friend was staring into one of the stalls they’d just passed.

  “Hey,” a friendly voice responded. A second later Seth stepped into view, pitchfork in hand. He wiped his brow with the back of one hand. “You guys just can’t stay away from this place, huh?”

  Bridget laughed. “Look who’s talking!”

  “They pay me to be here,” Seth joked. “What’s your excuse?”

  Bridget smiled and shot a look at Maddie. “Oh, I’m sure that’s not the only reason you like it here, right?”

  Maddie gulped, suddenly nervous. Bridget was always friendly, so it was no surprise she’d stopped to say hello when she’d noticed Seth. But maybe she was getting a little too friendly. What if she said something to Seth about her ridiculous theory that Maddie liked him? “Gotta go, Seth,” she said quickly. “We were just on our way to see Cloudy.” She grabbed Bridget by the arm, trying to drag her off.

  But Bridget’s feet were planted in place. “Have you cleaned Cloudy’s stall yet?” she asked Seth. “If not, we could take her out and, you know, groom her or whatever. So she’s not in your way?”

  “Thanks,” Seth said. “Actually, I already did hers, though.”

  “Oh well.” Bridget shot Maddie another mischievous look. “Maybe next time.”

  Okay, Maddie was really getting anxious now. Bridget could be kind of unpredictable—she was almost impossible to embarrass and found it amusing to try to embarrass her friends sometimes. Normally Maddie was pretty tough to embarrass, but she definitely didn’t want Seth to get the wrong idea. Talk about awkward!

  “Hey, I just had an idea,” she blurted out. “Let’s ask Ms. Emerson if you can go for a ride!”

  “Huh?” That distracted Bridget from Seth. “But I don’t know how to ride—you know that. I’ve never even been on a horse before in my life!”

  “I know, but it’ll be
fun. We can do a pony ride.”

  Bridget looked dubious. “Okay, so that means I’ll be closer to the ground when I fall off?”

  Maddie laughed. “No. I don’t just mean you’ll be riding a pony, though you will be, since I figured we’d use Cloudy. A pony ride means I’ll lead you around so you don’t have to steer or anything. It’ll be a piece of cake!”

  “Yeah, you should do it,” Seth put in, still listening. “I went on a pony ride when I first started here, and it was cool.”

  “Really?” Bridget smiled at him uncertainly. “Well . . .”

  Maddie grabbed her arm again, and this time Bridget allowed herself to be dragged away. “Come on. Let’s go ask Ms. E.”

  They found the barn owner in the feed room supervising a grain delivery. When she heard Maddie’s idea, she looked Bridget up and down and then nodded. “That should be fine,” she said. “Cloudy isn’t on the schedule for any lessons today, so it’ll be nice for her to stretch her legs. You can borrow one of the lesson helmets from the tack room, Bridget.”

  The two girls headed back out into the aisle. “What did she mean, it would be nice for Cloudy to stretch her legs?” Bridget sounded nervous. “We’re not going to gallop or anything, right?”

  “No, she won’t get to stretch them that much.” Maddie chuckled and led the way down the aisle to the tack room. “It’s just that Solano Stables doesn’t have much room for pastures and stuff, since land is so expensive around here. So the horses here don’t get to spend a lot of time grazing and running around in big fields like they do in other places.”

  “Oh,” Bridget said. She watched as Maddie grabbed Cloudy’s saddle and bridle off their racks, along with a clean saddle pad.

  “Yeah, like where my friend Haley lives, for instance,” Maddie went on as she eyed Bridget’s head and then grabbed a helmet off the shelf of spares that Ms. Emerson kept for lesson students who didn’t have their own. Jamming it onto Bridget’s head, she nodded with satisfaction and then headed for the door, still talking. “Haley’s family’s farm has, like, acres and acres of pasture, since they have cows and stuff. So her pony, Wings, gets tons of turnout time. And then there’s Brooke—she has a pasture in her backyard. It’s not huge, but it’s all for her pony, Foxy, who lives outside twenty-four-seven, pretty much.”