Read Online Blue Ribbon Summer by Catherine Hapka - Free Book Online

added.
    â€œYeah,” Paige said. “Why’d you ride off like that?”
    Before Brooke could answer, Robin rushed out, her expression pinched and anxious. “Brooke!” she exclaimed. “Thank goodness! What were you thinking, riding off alone like that?”
    Brooke was taken aback. “I ride alone all the time at home,” she said. As Robin’s frown deepened, Brooke quickly added, “But I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was against the rules.”
    Robin glanced at the other girls. “All right, she’s obviously alive. Now get back to your tack cleaning—it’s almost time for lunch.”
    As the trio wandered off, whispering to one another, Brooke slid down from Foxy’s back. “I’m really sorry,” shetold Robin. “I didn’t mean to make you worry. We just rode down to the water.”
    â€œThe water?” Robin said. “That’s several miles away.”
    Brooke nodded, thinking back on the ride. “We ran into an old woman on the shore,” she said. “She seemed kind of, um, cranky.”
    â€œAn old woman? What did she look like?”
    Brooke described the woman as best she could. “There was a girl with her too. Maybe fifteen or sixteen? She called the woman Miss Alice.”
    â€œOh.” Robin’s expression cleared. “Yes, that would be Alice Foster. She lives in an old house overlooking the water—her family has owned the property for generations. But she lives alone, so I have no idea who the girl could have been.”
    Just then one of the adult boarders emerged from the barn. She flashed a quick, distracted smile in Brooke’s direction, then started babbling at Robin about a stone in her horse’s shoe.
    â€œBe right there,” Robin told the woman. “Brooke, put Foxy in the pasture and get washed up for lunch.”
    Brooke nodded, giving a tug on Foxy’s lead as the barn owner hurried away. “Come on, girl,” she said. “The fun’s over.”
    Foxy nickered, and Brooke smiled and rubbed her nose. Despite how their adventure had turned out, she couldn’t quite be sorry she’d had it.

CHAPTER
6
    MONDAY AFTERNOON PASSED QUICKLY FOR Brooke. After lunch, the younger campers went swimming and then had a horsemanship lesson. Unlike in the riding lesson, Brooke had no trouble keeping up, thanks to her lifelong habit of reading everything she could about horses. Robin complimented her several times on her knowledge, and the other girls seemed impressed too.
    That evening, after feeding the horses and having their own dinner, the whole group gathered in the living room to watch some horse videos, and by the time they’d finished, everyone was yawning. Brooke fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit her pillow, feeling only theslightest pangs of homesickness and thinking that maybe camp wouldn’t be so bad after all.
    But the next morning after breakfast, she was dismayed to discover that the younger campers were scheduled to spend the morning playing tennis.
    â€œIt’ll be awesome!” exclaimed Abby, the counselor. She was a college student with short straw-colored hair, a snub nose sprinkled with freckles, and an enthusiastic attitude about everything. “Come on, gang, let’s hit the courts!”
    The girls piled into Robin’s old minivan and Abby drove them a few miles down the road to the same estate where they’d gone swimming the day before. Brooke glanced longingly at the pool as they passed it.
    â€œI wish we were going swimming again instead,” she murmured.
    She was talking to herself more than to the others, but Paige heard her. “Don’t you like tennis?” she asked.
    Brooke shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve never really played before except a couple of times, goofing off at the park.”
    She thought back a few summers to the day she and Adam had taught themselves to play using