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answered. I took Nickers out, slipped on the hackamore, and swung up.
    â€œWhere are you going?” Lizzy asked. Her hair was in pigtails, and I don’t think I’d ever seen it look worse. It still looked better than my hair, though.
    â€œSummer’s party. Thanks for helping out, you guys.”

    It didn’t take long to reach Spidells’ Stable-Mart. Nickers trotted up the long gravel drive past the sterile white barn. From inside came a thud, thud . Probably Spidell’s Sophisticated Scarlet Lady, Summer’s million-dollar horse. Scar, my pet name for the exotic American Saddle Horse, wins every horse show Summer enters. But Summer and Scar will never be friends the way Nickers and I are.
    I rode closer to the house, hoping Kaylee was watching for me.
    Summer Spidell stepped outside, without letting go of the doorknob. “What do you want, Winifred?” she shouted. Her blonde hair looked like she’d just gotten out of the beauty salon. Her yellow dress matched her hair. “Well? You’re leaving hoofprints on the lawn!”
    â€œOops. Wouldn’t want to leave hoofprints at a stable.”
    â€œGo!” She pointed toward my end of town, in case I’d forgotten which side of the tracks I lived on. “We’re trying to have a party here.”
    â€œI know,” I said. “I heard the bulletin on CNN.”
    She looked like she almost believed me.
    â€œSummer!” Mrs. Spidell shouted. She stepped out of the house, carrying a cake the size of Tennessee. She smiled at me, then lowered her voice to Summer. “We’re cutting the cake, sweetheart.”
    â€œNot yet, Mother!” Summer shot back.
    â€œWinnie?” Hawk eased outside, as Summer and her mother disappeared into the house. Hawk’s long black hair caught the sinking sun and threw it back in sparkles. She was wearing a fringed skirt that might have been Native American. Hawk and I love her Native American heritage, although neither of her parents is into it.
    â€œAre you coming in?” Hawk asked.
    I shook my head. “I just came by to talk to Kaylee.”
    â€œVictoria!” Summer called. She and her friends use Hawk’s real name, Victoria Hawkins.
    â€œI will send Kaylee out,” Hawk said. She smiled, and I could see why her mother believed Hawk could make it as a model.
    â€œWinnie!” Kaylee dashed out of the house, stumbling on the step. She ran up to Nickers. “I thought you’d never get here! My parents are picking me up in an hour, so that’s all the time we have.”
    â€œHop on behind me,” I said, riding Nickers close to the step so she could climb aboard. “Let’s get out of here.”
    It took three tries, but she made it.
    â€œHang on!” I said, urging Nickers to cut through the Spidells’ yard.
    The door slammed open behind us, and Summer Spidell let out a cry. Then she yelled after us, “Winifred! You come back here right now! Bring Kaylee back this minute!”
    We could hear Summer hollering the whole time as we crossed the Spidell lawn and galloped out of town. It was the most fun I’d had all day.
    On the ride over, Kaylee filled me in. “My parents and I were the first customers at Happy Trails.” She had to shout over the wind. “There were only five horses in the barn, and Leonard told us we could pick from those. I told him I wanted to ride the buckskin, and that’s when he brought out the wrong horse.”
    When Kaylee had insisted she wanted to see the other cream-colored horse, Leonard said that these five were the only horses they had at Happy Trails.
    â€œI knew he was lying,” Kaylee continued. “And when more customers drove up, he was caught in his lie. It was a family of four. And voila! Just like that, Leonard disappeared and came back with two more horses, so he could take money from all seven of us! But he still didn’t bring out