Hayride Read Online Free PDF

in—they’d only worry and act overprotective. She was confident that by tomorrow her ankle would be as good as new, and she wasn’t about to let anything get in the way of the best birthday party she’d ever planned.
    The hardest part, however, was going to be for Carole to convince her father that she was fine. She began walking slowly toward the driveway, forcing herself not to limp.

S TEVIE AND L ISA eagerly set about looking over the merchandise at the mall. On their way over, they had agreed that the perfect present for Carole would definitely have something to do with horses. The first store they went into was a department store. They checked out the junior clothes department.
    “How ’bout this?” Stevie said, holding up a pale pink sweatshirt. “It’s got a horse on it.”
    Lisa looked more closely. “That’s a unicorn, not a horse. And Carole might think pink is too feminine for a sweatshirt.” Stevie nodded, deferring to the clothes sense Lisa’s mother had instilled in her.
    They found a T-shirt with lots of little horse heads but decided it wasn’t nice enough for a present.
    “Let’s check out the sale rack in case there’s anything good,” Lisa suggested. Together they sifted through piles of women’s lingerie, fluorescent spandex tights, and dresses in outdated styles.
    “Oh!” Lisa gasped. She held up a baby-blue sweater and ran to look at herself in one of the mirrors. “I love it,” she called to Stevie. “I just love it.”
    Stevie looked. It was a beautiful sweater—an angora-knit pullover with three pearl buttons at the neck—not her style, but perfect for Lisa. “It looks great on you. Why don’t you get it?”
    “I shouldn’t.” Lisa sighed. It seemed too rash to go running into a store and buy the first thing that she liked—especially when they were supposed to be shopping for Carole. It was the kind of thing Stevie might do, but not logical, sensible Lisa. She put it reluctantly back on the pile.
    “At least think about it,” Stevie said. She took the sweater off the top of the pile and hid it underneath some socks and underwear. Lisa grinned. “Well, you don’t want to
give
it away, do you?” Stevie asked innocently. “C’mon, the quest for the perfect gift continues in Sweet Nothings.”
    Sweet Nothings was a candy store. It had every kind of chocolate, bonbon, jelly bean, and gummi treat you could imagine. Lisa had a feeling that the quest for theperfect gift was quickly going to turn into a quest for their stomachs.
    She was right. They each bought a small bag of gummi bears and some butter crunch. To make it a legitimate stop, they carefully checked for horse-shaped candy. At first they didn’t see anything. They were about to leave when Stevie spotted a six-inch trotting horse covered in gold foil.
    “You don’t think we should give her
that
, do you?” Lisa asked. If a T-shirt wasn’t good enough, then a piece of candy wasn’t even in the running.
    “I guess not,” Stevie said. “But I love its shape. And it’s made of imported Swiss chocolate.” She gazed at the gold horse.
    “Do you want to move on?” Lisa asked.
    Stevie deliberated a moment longer. “I’m going to buy it for myself,” she said. “I can’t resist.” She took it up to the cash register and paid for it.
    “Sometimes you just have to give in to temptation,” she told Lisa happily as they strolled on to the next store.
    “Most of the time, you mean,” said Lisa, munching a piece of butter crunch.
    Both girls had high hopes for the store next to Sweet Nothings. It was a tack shop called The Saddlery. It had horsey knickknacks and trinkets as well as saddles, bridles, and equipment.
    “If we can’t find the perfect gift here, it may not exist,” Lisa said. They began to scan the shelves methodically.
    “A horse-photograph book?” Lisa asked.
    “I think she has that one. How about a new choker?”
    “Hers matches her ratcatcher.”
    “Braided reins? I heard her