Blue Ribbon Summer Read Online Free Page B

Brooke was disappointed to find that it wasn’t very detailed. There were only a few photos, including one of a teenage girl jumping a bigbay horse in a tidy riding ring and a couple of distant shots of barns and paddocks. Still, at least the site included an address, and when Brooke located the camp on a mapping site, she recognized the general area right away. It was a beautiful, unspoiled part of the peninsula near Pocomoke Sound. Brooke’s family had visited several of the parks and small towns nearby, and there was lots of wildlife around and some great spots for hiking and camping.
    Brooke put down the computer and headed out to the barn. The sun was sinking toward the western horizon, but it was still hot. Foxy was dozing under the oak tree across the fence from the draft horses. But the pony pricked her ears and wandered over when Brooke ducked under the fence.
    â€œGuess what, baby girl?” Brooke whispered, sliding her arms around the mare’s neck and breathing in her familiar scent. “We’re going to camp! And we’re going to learn a lot, and make new friends, and have lots of fun. . . .”

    â€œAre you sure you don’t want any dessert, sweetie?” Brooke’s mother asked as she set bowls of ice cream in front of the twins.
    Brooke shook her head. It was the big day, and she’d had a whole herd of butterflies in her stomach since the moment she’d woken up that morning. It had been all she could do to choke down a few bites of her tuna sandwich at lunch, and she’d done little more than push the food around on her plate during the family’s early dinner.
    Her stepfather hurried into the kitchen. “Trailer’s hitched up,” he announced, wiping his hands on a dish towel hanging on the back of a chair. “Ready to roll?”
    â€œAlmost.” Brooke glanced at her watch, which she’d actually remembered to put on for once. Adam should have showed up by now, but there was no sign of him. “Um, but I should probably put my stuff in the car first.”
    â€œYou haven’t done that yet?” Brooke’s mother sounded alarmed. “Go, do it! We need to be back here at a reasonable hour—I’m supposed to lead the church group meeting tonight, remember?”
    Brooke wasn’t sure how she was supposed to forget. Her mother had only mentioned it about fifty times. “Okay, okay. I put my saddle and barn stuff in earlier, so the rest will only take me a minute.”
    She hurried out into the living room, where she’d piled her suitcase, duffel, and sleeping bag beside the door. She grabbed her pillow off the top of the pile and stepped outside, squinting in the late-afternoon sunlight. A small stock trailer was parked in the driveway, hitched to one of the big diesel pickups from the used car lot. The trailer wasn’t fancy, but Brooke knew she was lucky they had one at all. The only reason her parents had bought it was that it doubled as a way for her stepfather to haul car parts around. And it worked well enough for that as well as for Foxy.
    I just hope Foxy remembers how to load, Brooke thought, hugging her pillow to her chest. The mare hadn’t been near the trailer in over a year. Brooke had wanted to practice a couple of times before leaving for Camp Pocomoke, but her stepfather had been storing a spare engine or something in the trailer, and by the time he got around to unloading it, they’d run out of time.
    After she’d finished loading her stuff, Brooke glanced up the road, hoping Adam hadn’t forgotten today was the day. She’d texted him that morning to remind him, and he’d promised to come by to help on his way home fromthe pool. Even though he wasn’t that interested in horses, he was the one who’d helped Brooke train Foxy to load in the first place when Foxy was two. Brooke’s first few tentative attempts to teach the pony to get into the trailer