The Raffle
Part 1
All the girls at Pine Hollow were excited. It was time for the annual Pine Hollow benefit raffle. All proceeds from the purchase of tickets went into maintaining Pine Hollow. In this year's raffle there were the usual prizes like a new grooming set donated by Mrs. Reg. along with one of her famous carrot cakes and one of her equally famous double chocolate cakes. Mr. Di Angelo had donated a new riding outfit. And the company Max bought his riding equipment from had repaid a favor they owed Max by donating a new set of tack including a brand new saddle.
But what had most of the girls excited was the newest gift on the Raffle list. Mrs. Reg had talked Pine Hollow's handsome but bashful head stable hand Red into raffling off a dinner date with himself at the Brick Hearth the fanciest restaurant in town.
When Kristy had found out about this, she went out and bought two dozen tickets, before being cut off by Mrs. Reg to give the other girls a fare chance. Lisa, Carole and Stevie all bought several tickets for the Saddle and tack and for the riding outfit and the Chocolate cake. On a dare from Stevie, Lisa bought one ticket for the dinner date with Red.
Once all the tickets were sold it was time for the Raffle. The girls all gathered around. Max stood by the table in the lounge on it were several cardboard boxes one for each of the prizes. First was the drawing for the Riding outfit. Ashley won that. Second was the drawing for the Carrot cake, Stevie won that. Next was the drawing for the Chocolate Cake, Lisa won that. Carole won the next drawing and got the new saddle much to the consternation of Veronica, and finally came the moment every girl with half a hormone in the stables had been waiting for. Mrs. Reg brought Red up to stand by the table. When he saw the goo goo eyed looks on most the girls faces, he began to wonder why he had let Mrs. Reg talk him into this. Kristy pulled out all 24 of the tickets she bought and waited. Lisa pulled her single ticket out of her pocket hesitantly almost bashfully, the whole time she was wondering how she had let Stevie get her into this mess.
Mrs. Reg stirred the box with the ticket stubs for the Dinner date raffle and finally after letting the tension build up, she drew a ticket stub.
"The number is 88715," she announced. Several groans of disappointed went up. Several tickets when into the fire place. Kristy was still frantically searching through her tickets when Carole suddenly noticed that Lisa was staring at her ticket and not moving. She walked over and looked over Lisa's shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw the ticket in Lisa's hand.
"Lisa won!" she cried, grabbing Lisa's arm and holding it up, "She's got ticket number 88715!"
"What?!" said Stevie, busting an ear to ear grin and running over to see.
"Congratulations, Lisa," said Mrs. Reg, smiling at the thirteen year old, "This time tomorrow night you and Red will be having dinner together at the Brick hearth." Red stepped forward and taking Lisa's hand lightly kissed the back of it. Lisa blushed furiously.
"Until tomorrow night, Miss Atwood." He said flashing a smile. Red was secretly relieved that Lisa won the raffle. He was little Bashful with girls, but Lisa had a way of making a person feel at ease around her.
"Maybe this 'date' won't be so bad after all." He thought to himself as he headed back to work. Nobody but Veronica noticed when Kristy flopped down on the couch in a jealous pout.
Lisa was still in a bit of a daze as she and her friends walked back to their horse's stalls. As it began to sink in that she actually had a date with a young man who was considered to be the heartthrob of Pine Hollow, she began to feel nervous.
"What am I going to wear?" she said
"Don't worry, Lise," said Stevie, "We'll Help you." That afternoon, after they were done with their riding lessons, the girls went shopping.
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Almost before it seemed possible time had passed and it was time to meet Red and Pine Hollow for their date. The girls show up to give Lisa morale support. Lisa was all decked out in a deep red dress and black dress boots with silver clasps down the side. Her hair that was usually in a pony tail or pig tails was down and styled. As a finishing touch Carole had dabbed a little perfume behind her ears.
Lisa sat down on the sofa in the lounge to wait for Red. A few minutes later Red, running late, came hurrying into the lounge, took one look at Lisa and promptly fell over the coffee table.
Lisa covered her mouth to stifle her giggles.
"What do you think Red?" said Carole
"She looks, Good," said Red trying to recover a little of his lost dignity. This was the first time in a long time a girl had that effect on him.
"Good," said Stevie, "Good?! You fell flat on your face when you saw her Red, that's better than good!"
Red was decked out in dark slacks a dark blue dress shirt and leather walking coat. He took Lisa by the hand as she stood up.
"Shall we go," he smiled, "Before I lose the rest of my dignity." The two turned and walked out the door. As they left neither one of them noticed two pairs of eyes watching them from around the corner of the building.
"Lisa's dressed to the nines," said Kristy her blue eyes turning green again, "If this date goes well he may start to like her." Veronica turned and looked at Kristy, you could almost see her proverbial horns, as sly smile came to her face.
"Who said the date has to go well."
TO BE CONTINUED… in part 2
What will come of this date?
Will Veronica and Kristy actually sabotage Lisa's Date.