Driving Team Read Online Free

just wait here and see what Miss Cashmere Sweater’s going to do.”
    “We hate to leave you, but we do need to get to work,” said Carole.
    “Don’t worry about it.” Stevie forced herself to smile. “At least I’ve got Belle to keep me company. She’s a lot more fun than Veronica any day. I’ll see you later.”
    Carole and Lisa said good-bye, then turned and hurried to the bus stop at the end of the long Pine Hollow driveway.
    “I hate to leave Stevie like this,” said Lisa as their boots sloshed through the soggy drive. “I feel like she really needs us right now.”
    “I do, too,” Carole replied. “But what can we do? Max made the assignments. All we could do would be hang around and watch the disaster unfold.” She shuddered. “It might be too horrible to watch.”
    “You’re right,” said Lisa. “And then we’d be too upset to get our own project done.” She sighed and ran her hand through her shoulder-length blond hair. “I guess Stevie’s going to have to get through this on her own.”
    After a short ride across town, the girls got off the bus in front of the big redbrick library, where two stone lions guarded the doors.
    “Do you have anything we can take notes on?” Lisa asked, stopping in front of the library door.
    “No,” said Carole. “I bring more apples and carrots to Pine Hollow than I do paper and pens.”
    “Then why don’t we go into that stationery store across the street and pick up some note cards? We’ll probably find a lot of information we’ll need to write down.”
    They hurried across the wet street to the stationery store, where Lisa bought three packs of four-by-six index cards and two pencils. Carole bought a tiny horse bookmark and a pack of butterscotch.
    “In case we get hungry,” she said as Lisa gave her a quizzical look. “My dad says it’s okay to eat candy in the library as long as you don’t throw the wrappers on the floor.”
    “Whatever,” laughed Lisa as they splashed back across the street and hurried between the two big lions.
    Inside, the library was a cheery, warm hive of activity. Bright lights shone overhead as people checked out books, clicked away at computers, read magazines, and researched projects at the long tables.
    “Where shall we start?” whispered Carole.
    “Why don’t I see what I can find on the library’s catalog while you check out the horse section?” suggested Lisa. “Do you know where it is?”
    “Six-thirty-six in the Dewey decimal system,” reported Carole with a smile. “I’ve spent about a jillion hours there.”
    “Then see what you can find, and I’ll meet you over there when I finish at the computer.”
    “Okay.”
    Carole walked to the corner of the library that held all the animal books, while Lisa found a free computer terminal. She sat down and opened her note cards, then started searching the library’s catalog by typing in the word
chariot
in the subject field. She punched Enter, and a few seconds later all the titles concerning chariots flashed on the screen. Lisa wrote them all down, then typed in the word
stagecoach
. An instant later the computer listed seven books about stagecoaches. In just a little while, Lisa had a pile of index cards filled with books about driving.
    Research doesn’t take long at all when you’ve got a computer doing the legwork
, she thought.
Wish they’d assign us our own computers in school, just like they give us math and English books
.
    When she’d researched all the driving topics she could remember, she hurried over to find Carole. Atfirst she didn’t see her, but then she turned a corner in the stacks, and there sat her friend with a pile of eighteen books in front of her.
    “Gosh,” said Lisa, “looks like you’re finding a lot. I got a bunch of titles from the computer, too.”
    Carole frowned at the books she’d gathered. “I bet there are still more. Let’s go ask the librarian.”
    Lisa followed Carole over to the return desk, where a