Read Stevie for Free Online

teammate for the competition,” she said, “and then we can get started.”
    “Today?” I asked.
    Dinah grinned. “No time like the present!”
    I grinned back. I hadn’t seen Dinah for a long time, but if I had ever forgotten why we were such good friends (I hadn’t), I remembered now. We think the same way. Neither of us likes to sit around and wait for the fun to start. We like to get out there and start it ourselves! I guess you could chalk that up to our natural exuberance.
    We stopped at Dinah’s house long enough to drop off my stuff and change clothes. Then we headed to the Sugar Hut. I’d like to take a moment right here to give you an idea about what the Sugar Hut is like and how I felt when I first saw it.
WHAT IS THE SUGAR HUT?
Let me spell it out …
    S is for small—the Sugar Hut really is little more than a hut
    U is for the unfinished, rough-hewn logs that form the walls
    G is for the gorgeous drifts of snow that nestle around the tiny building
    A is for the aroma of sweet-smelling wood-smoke from the fireplace
    R is for the red-painted front door
    H is for the humble look of the central stone chimney
    U is for unbelievable—I still couldn’t believe I was really there!
    T is for terrific—which is how I felt when I realized I was in for a whole lot of fun! And educational learning.
    We actually didn’t spend much time at the Sugar Hut that day. We had other things to do. The first order of business was for me to meet Betsy Hale, the third member of our team. She has dark brown curly hair and a really cool smile that makes deep dimples in her round cheeks. I liked her right away. She was that kind of person.
    “Are we ready to start?” Dinah asked her after Betsy and I had met.
    “Mr. Daviet has been sending out teams on snowshoes,” Betsy said.
    They explained that we were all supposed to go out on snowshoes when we first put in the spiles. It sounded like slow going to me, especially since I’d never used snowshoes before. As it turned out, Betsy agreed. When I glanced at her, she had a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
    “Everybody but us has to go out on snowshoes,” she said. “See, I explained to Mr. Daviet about this friend you had visiting, and I told him all about the fact that she was somewhat lame …”
    I caught on right away. I slung one arm over Dinah’s shoulders and pretended to have suddenly developed a limp in my right leg. “What’s the matter with me?” I asked Betsy.
    Betsy giggled. “That’s what Mr. Daviet asked. I had to think fast. The first thing that came into my head was that you’d thrown a shoe, but I knew he wouldn’t fall for that. I just told him you were recovering from surgery. It seemed to sort of cover everything.”
    The point of all this, as it turned out, was that we didn’t have to use snowshoes after all. We got to use a horse-drawn sleigh!
    NOTE OF EXPLANATION: Why this wasn’t really cheating
    It would be easy to look at our behavior and think we were just lying to get ahead of everyone else. But if you think about it, that isn’t really true. You see, we were getting a later start than most of the other teams because of the time my plane got in. Also, everyone on the other teams lived in Vermont. They all knew their way around the woods (on snowshoes or otherwise) and how to work the sap-collecting equipment. I, however, was a visitor from the South, with much less experience with snow andnone whatsoever with maple syrup (except on my pancakes). So we were really just evening things out.
    Betsy explained that her sister, Jodi, would be there any minute with the sleigh. Jodi worked at Sugarbush Stables. Dinah told me that Jodi was a really great rider.
    “She’s not all that great,” Betsy interrupted.
    “Well, she’s better than we are,” Dinah said, “and she gets to spend all her time at the stable—”
    “Except for the time she
says
she’s at the stable, when she’s really with a boyfriend,” Betsy finished for