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and call Simon, but because Stevie and Lisa were acting normal toward each other again. Usually Stevie’s and Lisa’s opposing personalities complemented each other. Even though Lisa got straight As and Stevie barely got by, both girls were smart. Both were funny, too, though their senses of humor were very different. But on the rare occasions that the girls clashed, they clashed hard. Then it fell to Carole to act as the peacemaker between them. When her best friends argued, it was upsetting. She often thought how much simpler itwould be if they could just bare their teeth at one another the way horses did. Then everything would be out in the open. There would be no hidden tensions that surfaced all of a sudden.
    “What do you think, Carole?” Lisa asked.
    Carole focused on Lisa’s expectant face. “Huh? What do I think about what?”
    “Have you been spacing out again, Carole?” Stevie teased. “Thinking about Starlight’s smooth canter again?”
    Carole grinned. “Actually, this was one of the few times I was thinking about people and not horses. What did I miss?”
    “Stevie has come up with a brilliant idea,” Lisa announced.
    “For the bake sale? For Horse Wise?” asked Carole.
    “Nope. For us,” said Lisa. “So we don’t break our resolutions.”
    “What?” asked Carole nervously, afraid that the idea was going to be something that would create more aggravation among the three of them.
    Lisa and Stevie twittered for a moment. Then Stevie burst out, “Simon Atherton!”
    “Simon Atherton?” said Carole, not comprehending.
    “Yes, Simon Atherton,” said Lisa. “Whichever one of us breaks our resolution first has to call up Simon and ask him out on a date!”
    “A date?” Carole asked. “You mean a real date?”
    “Yup, a real date, like going to the movies together,” said Stevie.
    Lisa and Stevie watched to see how Carole would react. Slowly Carole began to grin. First she grinned a little, then a lot. “I can tell you one thing: I sure as heck am not going to be the one to lose!”
    “That’s exactly what I said!” Lisa agreed.
    “Imagine what Phil would say if I lost!” Stevie wailed. “Imagine if I had to tell him that I was going out for an evening with someone else, and that the someone else was Simon Atherton!”
    Lisa and Carole shrieked with delight. Phil Marsten was Stevie’s boyfriend. The two had been going out for a while, but it wasn’t so serious that if Stevie really wanted to (or in this case,
had
to) go to the movies with another boy she couldn’t. Phil would probably be annoyed, but Stevie would make him put up with it. And, as Stevie always said, just because she was going out with Phil didn’t mean she couldn’t be interested in other boys. Of course, usually when she said that, she didn’t have Simon Atherton in mind.
    “So, problem solved,” Lisa declared.
    “Problem solved,” Stevie agreed.
    Carole took one last sip of her lemonade. She peeled the lid off the cup and looked at the ice in the bottom. She sighed. Right about now she would really have enjoyed a big chocolate chip cone. Instead she slurped up some of the sugary water. “You guys?” she said. “I have a suggestion.”
    Lisa and Stevie looked up readily.
    “Lisa,” Carole continued, “maybe you can embroider every day from here until eternity, and Stevie, maybe you’ll never be mean to Veronica again, but personally, I need to put a time limit on my resolution, because there’s no way I’m giving up junk food for life.”
    “Hear! Hear!” Stevie said at once.
    “Of course there should be a time limit!” Lisa said. “Without a doubt!”
    “Oh, good,” said Carole, relieved that she had at least partially expressed her opinion. “How about three months?”
    “Three months? How about two?” Stevie said.
    “Forget two. One month is plenty,” Lisa jumped in.
    “One month, then?” Carole asked. There was a pause as the three girls looked at one another. Carolehad the funny