Chapter 1
Melanie Atwood, Jess Cooper and Ashley Taylor were just coming in from a short hack when Max called them into the lounge.
They, the Saddle Club, Simon and Desi, Veronica and all the other riders that were there that day gathered in the lounge. Standing there with Max and his mother was a boy of about 14 years old and a young girl of about Jess, Melanie, and Ashley's age. The boy had brown hair and brown eyes and the girl had blond hair and blue eyes.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said Max, "I've called you all here to make an introduction," he motioned to the boy and the girl and they stepped forward, "This is Josh and Jamie Connors, My mother Mrs. Reg is their godmother.
Jamie will be starting riding lessons here today, so please try to make her feel as welcome as possible."
As he said this, Max gave Veronica a pointed look. Then he dismissed everybody
Jamie was decked out in fuchsia Jodhpurs or riding pants, a white top and black riding boots.
Josh was dressed in a blue t-shirt and jeans with a hooded denim jacket. But he one thing that they both had in common was the black and silver armbands that they wore on their right wrists.
Melanie, Jess and Ashley walked up and introduced themselves to Jamie.
"Would you like to meet the horses?" Melanie asked
Jamie turned and looked questioningly at her brother.
Josh nodded encouragingly and motioned for her to go ahead. That's when the girls realized that Jamie, a very nice girl, was also very shy.
After Jamie walked away with her new found friends, The Saddle club girls found themselves talking to Josh.
"Your sister seems sweet but shy." Commented Stevie as they began to walk out toward the barn.
"You're very right." Said Josh, "She loves riding and has wanted to come here for a while, but sadly her shyness was holding her back, so my parents thought it might go better for her if I came with her, since besides them, I'm the only person she's not shy around. I hope this place will help her to come out of her shell a little bit."
"Well don't worry," said Lisa, "We'll do whatever we can to help her."
"I think patch would be a good horse for her." said Carole
"But wait," said Lisa, "My sister is assigned to Patch."
"Oh yeah, I forgot." Said Carole glumly, then she seemed to think of something, "Hey what about Diamond?"
"That's perfect!" said Lisa, "Diamond is wonderfully gentle. And it's very hard to spook her!"
"Yeah," said Stevie, "Let's find the others!"
Josh and the Saddle club were very pleased when Jamie and Diamond immediately hit it off. Diamond was a remarkable creature who seemed to know just how to connect with a shy girl like Jamie.
Soon Jamie was in the Saddle and trotting around the dressage ring.
"Hey Josh," said Lisa, "This evening we're all going to open mic night at JB's why don't you and Jamie come with us?"
"I'll have to ask Jamie first, but I think a can convince to stop by for a little while." Smiled Josh
"Great!" said Stevie
Later that evening Josh and Jamie walked into JB's. they found the Saddle Club already there. Josh noticed that this time Lisa and Carole had boys sitting next to them.
Stevie saw them and motioned them over.
"Hi guys," She said, "I'm glad you could come."
She turned to the two boys.
This is Rafael, Lisa's boyfriend she said indicating the boy with the shoulder-length black hair. And this is Liam Carole's boyfriend she said introducing the second boy who had closely cropped hair.
The boys exchanged greetings with Josh and Jamie and the group made room for them at the big round table.
"My boyfriend Phil isn't here yet," said Stevie scowling at her watch, "And he's late!"
"He's still got time." said Lisa trying to soothe her friend's temper.
"Yeah," added Carole, "The open mic night doesn't officially start for another ten minutes."
They fell into a casual conversation that even Jamie was beginning to join in on when the jangle of the bell over the doorway signaled the arrival of someone else. the group looked up and saw a group of teenage boys walk in wearing jackets with a wildcat on it baring its teeth.
"It's the Cougars," said Carole, "They're the basketball team at Willow Creek Middle School."
Josh and Jamie nodded in understanding
"They come here because the team captain's girlfriend likes to participate," said Lisa, "They never participate themselves."
"Yeah," said Stevie, "The closest they came was last month when they had a singing contest and the prize was six tickets to Thunder Mountain coaster park."
"Yeah," scoffed Lisa, "If you call intimidating the judges and trying to rig the contest so their captain's girlfriend won and they got the tickets."
"Well fortunately for the rest of us, their coach is a good man and when he found out what they were up to, he threatened to cut them all from the team and hold new tryouts." Said Stevie, "after than the contest got real fair, real quick!"
Just then the bell jangled again and Stevie looked up and smiled to see Phil coming through the door. her smile disappeared when she saw who had come with him. it was two of his friends from Cross County Pony Club. Greg Jensen and Aiden Brooks.
"Oh no!" groaned Stevie, "Why did he have to bring those two along!"
"I take it his friends have a less than ideal reputation!" said Josh
"Humph!" snorted Stevie, "That's putting it mildly! Those to are the two biggest jokesters in the county!"
"Yeah," said Carole, "The problem is their jokes aren't funny and they always cause trouble!"
"Maybe they'll behave themselves tonight and not cause any trouble." Said Lisa
Her friends looked at her incredulously.
"Yeah," said Lisa nodding, "Even I stopped believing myself halfway through that!"
Phil came over to sit with Stevie.
"What are those two doing here?" she hissed at Phil
"Oh give them a chance, Stevie," said Phil, "They're really fun guys."
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Two hours later…
The whole group of friends, as will as most of the other people that had been at the open mic night, were all sitting in Juvenile holding down at the Willow Creek Police Station. The boys were in one cell and the girls were in the other. Stevie hadn't stopped glaring through the bars at Phil since they got there.
Phil leaned over toward Josh.
"Um, do you think Stevie's mad at me?"
Josh rolled his eyes.
"Now why in the world would she be mad at you?" he said sarcastically, "After all you didn't do anything, you just brought those two idiots with you, They pulled a bunch of stupid tricks, provoked a brawl with the Cougars that ruined open mic night, leveled half of JB's dining room and got us arrested and thrown in here!"
"Yeah," snapped Rafael who was sitting on the bench on the other side of Phil, "And of course your friends those two, fun guys, beat it out the back door before the cops got there and I'm sure aren't about to admit to anyone that they started the whole thing!"
Phil had been slumping down further and further with each word.
"Stevie's gonna kill me!"
To Be Continued…Please Review