The Best of Both Worlds
Chapter 1
It was a pleasant spring morning at Pine Hollow. The Saddle Club walked into the barn to find Max standing at a stall that had been empty the day before. in the stall was a beautiful Silver Grey Andalusian Stallion.
"Max," asked Carole, "Who is this?"
"This is Atlas," replied Max, "He's the newest addition to my list of school horses."
"Um Max," said Lisa, "Pegasus is also a Stallion, won't that cause trouble?"
"Not in this case," said Max, "I was told by the vet that Atlas and Pegasus were actually big buddies at their former home."
"Who are you going to assign to him?" asked Lisa
"I don't know yet," said Max, "He just hasn't really bonded with anyone yet."
"Well give it time," said Mrs. Reg walking up, "After all he's only been here since last night."
"Mrs. Reg is right," said Carole, "I'm sure that Atlas will pick his rider when the time is right."
Carole turned to the other members of the Saddle Club.
"Come on," she said, "We've got to get to class."
The girls headed off to their respective schools. A couple hours later, Lisa was sitting in home room trying to make sense of the assignment she had been given in Math class.
Just then, the class troublemakers Roger Neidich and Eddie Howard came half-strutting in.
They smugly made their way to their preferred seats at the table in the very back of the class room.
Just then Mr. Forbes the teacher supervising homeroom tapped on his desk to get everyone's attention.
Everyone looked up to see a very pretty athletic looking girl standing by the teacher's desk.
"Everyone," he said, "This is Evangeline Juliana Starr a new transfer to our fair school. Please, try to make her feel welcome." No sooner were these words out of his mouth, than he got a phone call and had to leave the room.
"Hello," said Evangeline, "And everyone just calls me Evie or E.J. for short. Feel free to use either one. I answer to both."
She started down the aisle toward and empty seat. Evie had light blue eyes, and shoulder length blonde hair that she was wearing in a French braid. But. What really caught Lisa's eye was that she was carrying two astronomy books.
She sat down in the empty chair and opened one of her astronomy books. She hadn't read more than two sentences when Neidich came up and leaned on the table trying to look cool.
"Hey sweet thang," he said flirtatiously, "How about…,"
"No." said the girl without even looking up from her book.
"Nobody turns me down flat!" snapped Neidich angrily
"Yeah, I think she just did." Said Lisa
"Shut up!" snapped Neidich whirling on Lisa and taking a threatening step towards her. when Neidich took the step forward he and his friend Eddie suddenly fell flat on the floor. They looked down and saw that their shoelaces had been tied together!
"When did that happen?!" said Neidich confused
Just then Mr. Forbes returned from the hallway.
"What is going on here!?" he said
"Somebody tied our shoelaces together." Said Eddie as he and Neidich tried to untie the knots.
"Alright," said Mr. Forbes looking around the room, "Knowing Neidich and Eddie, they probably had it coming, but still, I want to know who did this?!"
There was dead silence in the room nobody moved or spoke.
"Nobody saw anything," said Lisa, "As crazy as it sounds it's the truth."
"Alright," said Mr. Forbes, "You, I believe, Lisa."
Mr. Forbes turned to the rest of the homeroom.
"But whoever did that, don't do it again!" he announced sternly
Later that day after school let out, Lisa stood at the corner waiting for the light to change. She was on her way to JB's to meet Carole and Stevie, from there Mrs. Reg was going to give them a ride to Pine Hollow.
As she stepped off the corner a car came careening around the corner and headed straight for the crosswalk, and it wasn't slowing down!
Then suddenly all was quiet, complete silence. Evie was tapping Lisa on the shoulder.
"Come on," she said, "Get out of the crosswalk!"
Lisa looked around as she hurried across to the curb, and was astonished. The car and everything else around her had stopped. Even a bird above them was frozen in mid-flight.
Lisa turned and looked at Evie who smiled. Suddenly Evie's irises flashed with a white light and instantly everything was moving again, the birds were flying and everything was back to normal. The speeding car rolled to a stop.
Evie grinned,
"I took the car out of gear and disconnected the battery." She explained
It slowly began to dawn on Lisa what had happened. It was the only thing that could've happened.
"You can freeze time?!" she exclaimed
"Shhh," hissed Evie, "Keep your voice down!"
"Sorry." Said Lisa, "I got a little excited. How did you get this ability?"
Evie sighed.
"Would it be alright if we talked about this later, and not here." She whispered
"Oh yes of course." Said Lisa, "Do you like to ride?"
"Yes," said Evie, "Although I haven't ridden much since my horse died last year."
"I'm so sorry," said Lisa, "Well then you might not want to meet me out at the stables where I ride."
"No that's okay," said Evie, "Ranger wouldn't want me to turn my back on horses and riding."
"Great." Said Lisa, "Meet me at the Pine Hollow Stables later this afternoon. Here are the directions."
Lisa pressed a hand written paper into Evie's hands.
Later that afternoon Evie walked into the lounge at Pine Hollow Stables.
"Evie," said Lisa happily when she saw her, "You made it!"
"Guys," said Lisa, motioning the rest of the Saddle Club over, "This is my new friend Evie Starr, Evie, these are my friends Carole Hanson and Stevie Lake. We are the Saddle Club."
Evie smiled.
"It's nice to meet all of you." she said
"Now," said Lisa, "Evie, you promised that you would tell me how you did what you did earlier today?"
"Do what?" asked Stevie
Evie looked nervously at Lisa
"It's okay," said Lisa when she saw this, "You can trust them."
Evie visibly relaxed.
"She was wondering about this," said Evie, her irises flashed.
Suddenly Everything around them was frozen. Evie motioned them over the window. When they looked out toward the jumping ring, they saw Desi and Jellybean frozen in mid-jump!
"What is this?" asked Carole wide-eyed, "Evie what did you do?"
"She froze time." said Lisa
Evie's eye flashed again and time resumed.
"How is that you can do this?!" asked Stevie
Evie looked around to make sure that no one else was in earshot.
"My mother is from another planet." She explained, "A planet called Anterra. My father is human from earth. Me I'm half-Human and half-Anterran, so I only have a few powers. My mother visited earth years ago and fell in love with my dad. They married and had me."
"How did your mother not attract attention here on earth?" asked Carole
"What?" chuckled Evie, "Do you think my mother looks like something out of War of the Worlds?"
Evie reached into her backpack and pulled out a picture of her mother.
"Here's a picture of her."
The picture showed a very beautiful woman with a definite resemblance to Evie.
"She's beautiful." Said Carole sheepishly, "I guess I just thought…,"
"I know," laughed Evie, "you were thinking little green creatures. That just means you've been watching too many sci-fi movies."
The girls all started laughing together.
"Hey Evie," asked Lisa, "Would you like to go for a hack with us?" I'm sure Max would let you ride one of the school horses."
TO BE CONTINUED…PLEASE REVIEW
