It started out like any other day at Pine Hollow. Lisa Carole and Stevie were leading their horses out to the riding ring, While Veronica and Kristy followed behind them. The three friends rolled their eyes. All the way from Garnet's stall to the riding ring Veronica and bemoaned to Kristy the fact that she had to tack up her own horse which was one of the many tasks that she considered below her dignity.
After they had all assembled in the riding ring Max made his big announcement. That weekend the Show Jumping regionals would be held there at Pine Hollow. When they weren't practicing their jumping or in their dressage lessons they were to help anyway they could in making sure that Pine Hollow was spotless. Max had hire three new stable hands to help out. An auburn haired girl named Jessica Tatum, a sandy haired young man named Chris parker, and a tall black haired skinny guy named Percy Whittaker.
Jessica Tatum was a studying animal husbandry at the local university she was friendly and outgoing and the Saddle club had taken a liking to her.
Chris parker was the son of Jackson Parker a famous race horse trainer, so thanks to his father there wasn't much about horses he didn't know. He was a charmer and had a wandering eye when it came to the ladies
Percy Whittaker was vet student from the same university. He seemed very knowledgeable when it came to his job. But he kept to himself most of time.
There was still Red of course, who was already over at the other side of the dressage ring building a judges booth. The rest of Pine Hollow staff made the place look as busy as a bee hive.
As the girls steered their horses toward the jumping ring the saw something surprising. A young man no more that sixteen was coming up the road on a dirt bike. His face was concealed by the helmet that he wore. But the mystery of his face wasn't what peaked the girl's interest. The dirt bike wasn't making any noise above a quiet hum. The boy pulled the bike into one of the parking places and shut it off. The girls were all eyes as he undid the chin strap of his helmet. The helmet came off revealing a handsome face and a pair of ice blue eyes framed by an unruly mop of dark hair.
Lisa's face shifted from curiosity to a dreamy eyed grin.
"At least he's not bad looking," she said
Carole nodded in agreement.
Stevie, the one member of the Saddle Club who already had a boyfriend rolled her eyes. She looked over at Veronica and Kristy. Veronica was wearing a silly grin herself for once and Kristy had that look in her eyes that said she was in full boy chasing mode.
Max looked up from scribbling something on his clipboard that he probably wouldn't be able to read later. He immediately smiled at the sight of the young man coming toward him.
"Hello, Jace," he said, "How are you."
"Just fine," replied the young man in a smooth voice that was just deep enough to be soothing.
"Everybody," said Max, "This is my godson Jason Mathis I still needed more help preparing for the weekend and since I couldn't afford to hire anymore people I called my favorite godson here, so Jace is down here for the week to help out."
Max took Jason around introduced him to the girls. He politely said hello and shook hands with them. When he got around to Veronica she shook his hand but in her absent minded state didn't let go until Kristy elbowed her in the ribs.
"Alright," said Jason, when the introductions were over, "Like Max said my name is Jason, but everyone just calls me Jace." Then Jason turned to Max
"As soon as I stash my stuff in the guest house I'll give Red a hand with that Judges booth."
"I'll show you were the guest house is." Said several voices at once, including Lisa and Carole. At almost the same time there was a traffic jam of horse flesh as the girls all tried to ride up next to him at once.
"Thank you anyway," said Jason, trying to avert disaster, "But I've been here before, so I already know where it is."
Stevie leaned down to Max.
"Right now I'm not sure how much help Jace is going to be?" she said
"I never thought Jace could cause this much craziness," said Max scratching the back of his neck, "The last time saw Jace he was all knees and elbows and his voice squeaked like a leaky balloon."
"To put it succinctly," said Stevie doing her best to sound like a scientist publishing her findings, "His voice finished changing and he grew into those knees and elbows a definite case of going from dud to stud."
Max couldn't help but mentally agree with Stevie as he watched her ride back over to her friends. Stevie was almost certainly going to pick on Carole and Lisa for mooning over Jason.
"Yep," Max nodded, "This is going to be a loooong Week."
A few minutes later Jace returned and began helping Red set up the wooden frame he had been working on. They began to talk as they worked.
"hey Jace," said Red, "Max told me that of the collection of riding trophies on display in the lounge that three of the show jumping trophies are yours."
"Yeah," said Jace, "technically I won them for Pine Hollow so I left them here for Max to show off."
"I couldn't find them," Red Admitted a little sheepishly
"Really," Said Jace, "Max didn't tell me moved them, they're supposed to be on the top of that bookshelf."
"I looked at those," said Red, "they were show jumping trophies alright but the name on them was A.J. Mathis."
"Oh yeah," said Jace, "That's them."
"You mean that Jason is actually your middle name," said Red
"Right," Jace nodded
"Well forgive my curiosity but what does the A stand for," asked Red. Instead of answering verbally Jace pulled out his wallet, took out his driver's license, and handed it to Red. Red's eyes widened.
"That's your first name!?" he said
Jace nodded,
"How'd you end up with this for a handle?"
"It was my grandfather's name," he said, "And don't get me wrong I loved the guy."
"Loved?" asked Red
"Yeah," said Jace, "Lost him two years ago to a drunk driver. So I keep the name in honor of him."
"I'm Sorry," said Red, "I shouldn't have asked." Jace waved off the apology
"I'm the one who first mentioned grandpa anyway, so don't worry about it." he said the boys continued their work for the next few minutes in companionable silence. They had almost all of the frame set up when suddenly the tranquility of the early afternoon was rudely interrupted by the clattering of an old green flatbed truck with a huge load of hay bouncing up the road. The truck driver turned, swung a wide arc and backed up to the stable door positioning the back end of the truck just inside the stable's open doors.
"Come on," said Red, "Will finish this in a minute. Right now we'd better help Max unload the truck." The two of them hurried over to the truck. When they got there Jace climbed up on the pile of hay bales and began to hand bale after bale down to Max and Red. Just then the Saddle club came back from there ride. They dismounted and were leading their horses past the truck and into the stable. Just as Stevie who was last in line past the truck the driver suddenly decided to turn the truck off. Now most of the time this wouldn't have been a problem, but this time the truck let out a loud backfire.
The loud bang spooked Stevie's horse. She reared violently, tore the reins from Stevie's hand and bolted for the nearest field.
"Belle," cried Stevie, "Belle stop," but the horse was still too spooked to respond to her name.
Before anybody else could react, Jace leapt from the top of the hay bales to land astride Comanche who was standing hip shod nearby waiting his stall to be cleaned out. Jace spurred Comanche to a gallop and they flew out the door. The girls raced outside just in time to see Jace and Comanche clear the fence with room to spare. A few strides later they had over taken Belle, who was already on the other side. Jace grabbed her reins and with a few soothing tones managed stop her and bring her back to the impressed Stevie Lake.
"Um Thanks," said Stevie, feeling her cheeks flush for the first time since Jace had arrived.
"No problem," said Jace flashing a boyish grin as he hoped down from Comanche, "My old pal Comanche made me look good out there."
Stevie smiled back. she watched as he returned Comanche to the other stable hand and resumed his position on top of the hay bales.
"You already have a boyfriend remember, Miss Google eyes." Said Lisa and Carole in Unison paying Stevie back other the ribbing she had been giving them for being so googly-eyed when Jace had arrived.
Meanwhile in the small back room of a ratty pool hall on the outskirts of Willow Creek, two young guys set talking in hushed tones over a small table.
"I'm telling you Pete," the first man was saying, "We are going to make a killing on the show jumping regionals at Pine Hollow this weekend."
"How, do we do that, Harry Joe?" asked Pete
"Simple," said Harry Joe, "All the heavy favorites in each division in the competition this week are riders from Pine hollow. All we have to do is pick out the top favorite lay out a heavy bets on the competition and them make sure that the Pine hollow rider doesn't win!"
"But how can we make sure Pine Hollow wins?"
"I've already taken care of that." Said Harry Joe, "Max Regnery hired three new stable hands this week; one of them actually works for me."
TO BE CONTINUED…..
Which of the Stable hands is the crook?
How is the crook planning to sabotage Pine Hollow at the Regionals?
What do you think is Jace's Mysterious first name?
Which of the Pine Hollow Ladies if any should win Jace's heart?
Please leave a review. Tell me what you think of this story so far. I haven't really made up my mind yet which girl Jason should fall for, so give me suggestions. Or just drop a line to say hello that's perfectly fine. Reviews and feedback inspire me to keep writing.
Thanks in advance. See ya