Horse Magic Read Online Free Page A

looking exasperated. “Well, I’ll let it go this time, Stevie. But for future assignments,” she added sternly, “please try to read a little farther than the title. Although honestly, even for pure guesswork, your answers have me mystified.”
    Stevie sank down into her seat, her face flaming. The teacher surveyed the room. “Jason, could you tell us what you thought was the main theme of the story ‘The Two Birch Trees’?”
    Stevie’s gasp of surprise was drowned out by the ringing of the bell signaling the end of class. Sheepishly she flipped through her English book to the correct page and glanced down at the title of the story she was supposed to have beenreading. “Who cares about a couple of stupid trees, anyway?” she muttered, slamming the book shut. “I’ve got more important things to think about.” She grinned. One of those things was her new idea for a prank. She was sure it would work. It was so simple that it was perfect.
    A few minutes later Stevie was seated at a table in the cafeteria with Patty Featherstone, Gail Porterfield, and Betsy Cavanaugh. All of them had known Dinah before she moved, and all of them were eager to see her during her visit to Fenton Hall the next day. And, of course, all of them remembered the practical jokes and other assorted trouble that had made Dinah and Stevie famous—or rather, infamous.
    “Do you remember the time you and Dinah had Miss Fenton’s high-school yearbook picture blown up to poster size?” Patty said as she dug into her plate of sliced turkey and lima beans.
    “Yeah, and then they hung it on the front of the podium during morning assembly,” Gail put in eagerly. “Poor Miss Fenton had no idea why everyone was laughing all through her speech about the canned-food drive.”
    “That was nothing,” Betsy put in. “My favorite was the time Stevie and Dinah replaced all the ketchup in the cafeteria with three-alarm hot sauce. That was pure genius.”
    “You only say that because you brought your lunch that day,” Gail objected. “Some of us will never look at a hamburger with ketchup the same way. No, if you want to talkgenius, let’s talk about the time they started that rumor that all classes would be taught in French instead of English.”
    “Please, please,” Stevie said, waving a hand modestly. “You flatter me.” But the more she heard her friends reminisce about her past triumphs, the more excited she got about Dinah’s visit. “We did have some good times, didn’t we?” she remarked.
    “Sure,” Betsy said. “But you got in an awful lot of trouble, too. Remember when you were having a mashed-potato-shooting contest and your spoonful missed the trash can—”
    “—and hit Miss Fenton right in the ear,” Gail finished with a giggle. “That was pretty funny.”
    “Hey, I never said I had perfect aim,” Stevie said. She picked up a spoonful of lima beans and squinted at the nearest trash can. “Although I’m sure I have improved a little.…”
    With that, she let the spoonful of beans fly. Unfortunately they missed the trash can—but not Ms. Milligan’s ear. Stevie hadn’t even noticed that her English teacher was walking toward the trash can until it was too late.
    “Oops,” she said, cowering down in her seat as the teacher, glowering, headed for her.
    “S O , D AD , AS a lawyer, what do you think? Do I have a case?” Stevie said into the phone in the school office. She had just called her father at work to give him the news. Thanks to the lima bean incident, Ms. Milligan had ordered her to serve detention for an hour after school that day. “Imean, I tried to explain that I have an important errand to run after school today, but they refused to listen, even when I promised to make up the detention next week.”
    “Sorry, honey,” Mr. Lake replied. Stevie wasn’t sure, but she thought he sounded just a little bit as if he might be trying not to laugh. She didn’t think that was very sympathetic of him. He