There was a small space in the stable where Corey planned to keep Alexander. Sam was Corey’s responsibility, so Doc Tock rarely came out there. Corey was hoping that Alexander’s noises wouldn’t be noticed among all the other animal sounds around the house.
Corey put fresh straw and water in the little coop next to Sam’s stall. She ran inside the house to get fresh milk for Alexander. She filled his bottle and clipped it to the side of the coop, and then she was ready.
Sam watched carefully as Corey let Alexander out of the cage. She led Alexander over to the coop.
The goat sniffed every inch of the space. Then he pranced around it. In another two minutes, he was happily tugging at his bottle.
“He likes his new home!” Corey exclaimed. Then she knew she had one more important thing to do.
Corey turned to face Sam. It had been four whole days since she’d seen him. And she’d been so busy with Alexander, she hadn’t even let herself think about her pony.
Sam had water and hay. His feed bucket had been filled that morning. Her friends had done a good job of taking care of him. It was just like they always did, Corey thought.
Sam sniffed Corey’s shirt pockets, hoping to find a carrot or an apple. But she’d been so busy with Alexander, she hadn’t even thought to bring her pony a present!
Suddenly tears spilled down Corey’s cheeks. Sam reached his soft nose forward and nuzzled Corey’s cheek. Corey reached up and hugged him, pressing her face against his.
“Oh, Sam, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I was mad at you on Saturday, but it was my fault, too! I was too nervous to ride well.”
The pony blinked at her. “Don’t worry,” Corey told him. “It won’t happen again. I’ve decided to take a break from riding.”
Sam gently nudged her with his nose. He was asking Corey to pet him.
Corey patted Sam’s neck and rubbed his face where he liked it best. He stepped closer to her, enjoying the attention.
Corey knew her pony was glad that she was home. And now that she wasn’t mad anymore, she was happy to be here with him.
Even if she wouldn’t be riding him for a long, long time.
9 The Truth Comes Out
Corey spent the next few days taking care of Alexander. She also made sure to spend extra time with Sam. After ignoring him for four days, she had a lot to make up to her pony.
She brought Sam an apple after school on Friday. “Here you go, boy.” She patted his nose, then watched him gobble up the crunchy treat.
Corey knew the extra attention was helping her pony. But she also knew that Sam needed a rider. Ponies—especially young, frisky ponies like Sam—needed exercise.
“Maybe we can ask May and Jasmine to ride you this weekend,” she said.
Thinking about her friends made Corey sigh. Six days had passed since the show at Pine Hollow. And during that time, the Pony Tails hadn’t talked about ponies or riding at all. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
One part of Corey was relieved. She didn’t want to talk about the show or her performance. But another part was worried. Jasmine and May were her best friends. The three of them were the Pony Tails.
If Corey wasn’t riding with them, or talking about ponies with them, what would happen to their friendship?
Just then Sam snorted loudly.
“Bleeaaa!” Alexander chimed in.
Corey laughed. Her pony was saying that he wanted another apple. And Alexander seemed to be telling her to give it to him.
She gave Sam a big hug instead. “I’ll be back tomorrow with another treat for you,” she said. Then she stood up and said good-bye to her pony and the baby goat. She felt a little sad leaving them. But she knew they would keep each other company.
The next morning Corey grabbed a carton of milk and hurried to the stable. She had gotten up extra early, to take care of her pets and to do something else: figure out what to do about Alexander. This afternoon she was supposed to go back to her father’s. How was she going to take the goat with her?
“Whnnnhhhhh!” Sam greeted her when she opened the door.
“Good morning, Sam,” she said. Then she listened for Alexander’s bleat from his coop. But it didn’t come. Sam whinnied again.
Silence.
Corey hurried to Alexander’s coop. She peered in. She couldn’t see anything. She turned on the light and looked again. She still couldn’t see anything.
Then she did see something. It was the door to the coop. It was wide open. The coop was empty. Alexander was gone!
A horrible knot squeezed Corey’s stomach. It was a familiar feeling. Sam had run away once, too. He had eventually come back on his own, but it was awful while he was gone. And now Alexander had disappeared.
Corey’s mind raced. Sam had long legs. He’d been able to go so far that Corey and her friends couldn’t find him. Alexander was a tiny baby with short legs. How far could he go?
Corey stepped out of the stable.
“Alexander!” she called. There was no answer. “Alexander!” Nothing.
She looked around at the three backyards—hers, May’s and Jasmine’s. She couldn’t see any sign of him there, or in the fields beyond the girls’ houses. What she did see, though, was May. May was going from her house to the stable to look after Macaroni.
May waved at Corey. Corey waved back.
“What’s up?” May called.
Tears filled Corey’s eyes. What had she been thinking? Why had she taken the baby goat and hidden him from her friends and family? What a crazy idea! If something had happened to him, she’d never forgive herself.
Corey knew then that she couldn’t keep her secret any longer. She had to tell her friends about Alexander. She ran over to May’s yard.
“What’s the matter?” May asked.
“Alexander’s missing,” said Corey.
“Oh, that goat? Sure, I told you about that, remember?” May asked.
“No, I mean really missing,” said Corey.
May looked at Corey oddly. Her friend had been acting very strange lately. Maybe not riding Samurai was affecting her brain!
“He’s been missing since Saturday,” May said patiently. She sounded as if she were explaining it to a little child. “Somebody took him from Pine Hollow.”
“You don’t understand, May,” Corey said. “I’m the one who took him from Pine Hollow.”
“Don’t be silly,” said May. “How could you keep a …” Then the light came on. “Oh, the music …”
Corey nodded.
“And sneaking into your stable …” said May.
Corey nodded.
“And dashing home after school …” said May. She started to ask Corey why she’d taken the goat. She stopped herself when she saw her friend’s tears. Right now that wasn’t important.
“Now he’s gone,” Corey said. “He disappeared overnight.”
“Then we have to find him,” said May. “He must have run into the fields.” She didn’t want to say it, but a little goat could have a lot of fun—and get into a lot of trouble—out there.
“Let’s get Jasmine,” she said instead. “And our ponies. We can do this a lot faster if we don’t do it on foot.”
At that moment Jasmine came out of her house. As she headed toward Outlaw’s stable, she saw her two friends at May’s house. She ran over to join them.
It took only a minute to explain to Jasmine what had happened.
“Well, then why don’t we use our ponies to see if we can find Alexander in the field?” Jasmine asked.
“That’s what May said,” Corey said slowly. The two other Pony Tails watched her face carefully.
“Are you ready to ride?” May asked gently.
Corey took a deep breath. Suddenly staying out of the saddle seemed silly. Especially at a time like this. Of course you’re ready to ride, she told herself. You’re one of the Pony Tails.
She nodded at her friends.
“Then let’s tack up,” said Jasmine. “Mee
t you guys in ten minutes!”
“Make it eight!” said May.
“I’ll make it five,” Corey promised.
Then May, Jasmine, and Corey each said exactly the same thing at exactly the same time:
“The Pony Tails are back in the saddle!”
The three girls took only a second to look at one another and grin. Then they did exactly what they always did when they said the same thing at the same time. They reached up and slapped hands together.
“Jake!” they cried.
Five minutes later they met in May’s paddock.
The Pony Tails were ready to ride.
10 Looking for Alexander
As the Pony Tails left the paddock behind the Grovers’ house, Corey could feel Sam eagerly prancing. He was ready to go and alert to everything she told him. When she touched his belly with her heels, he moved forward in a walk. Just a little more pressure from her brought a trot.
Corey found herself thinking about their performance last week at Pine Hollow. Rider and pony were much more together this time!
“Let’s go, boy!” she urged Sam. “We’ve got to find Alexander!” At the mention of his friend’s name, Sam’s ears flicked back.
“Here’s how we’ll do it,” May said. “I’ll check near the woods. I don’t think Alexander could have gotten that far, but I’ll look for tracks. Jasmine, you take the right half of the field. Corey, you go to the left.”
Corey grinned. Things were back to normal. May was taking charge, as usual. Suddenly she had no doubt they’d find the goat.
“We should all look for signs that he’s been around,” said Jasmine.
“Right,” Corey agreed. “Alexander isn’t very big, but he might have left a path through the grass. He might even have stopped to eat some grass, though so far all he’s had is milk. He also bleats loudly, so listen for that, too.”
May headed to the left to make a circle around the field. She never took her eyes off the ground around her. She saw a lot of things: mole holes in the ground, an old bird’s nest, a withered bunch of wildflowers, even the strap from her riding helmet, which she’d lost last spring. What she didn’t see was Alexander or any sign of him at all.
Jasmine followed May’s instructions. She went back and forth across the field, making a path like a lawn mower. Outlaw walked slowly while she looked around.
“Here, Alexander!” she called out from time to time. Then she waited and listened for a bleat in response. All she heard, though, was Corey calling him, too.
Jasmine decided to try to bleat instead. Maybe the goat would answer a sound like that.
“Blaaaaaah,” she said.
“Did you hear that?” Corey called out. “It sounded a little like Alexander, only very sick!”
“It was just me,” Jasmine called back, blushing. That was the end of that. She went back to calling, “Here, Alexander!” It didn’t work any better, but it didn’t worry Corey, either.
Corey leaned forward in the saddle. “We’ve just got to find him!” she said to Sam. Like Jasmine, she rode back and forth in the field. She looked closely at the ground. She called for the little kid. She listened for a response. Nothing.
The field stretched far back behind the girls’ houses. Corey and her friends checked every inch of the land.
As time wore on, Corey could feel her hopes fading. Maybe the Pony Tails wouldn’t find him. Alexander was so tiny—what if something terrible had happened? She forced herself to concentrate on the search. Thinking scary thoughts wouldn’t help anyone.
After forty-five minutes, the girls met back at the Grovers’ ring.
No one had found a trace of Alexander.
“What do we do next?” Jasmine asked. She and Corey looked at May.
But May shrugged. “I’m out of ideas. I thought he’d be in the field,” she mumbled.
“Me too,” said Jasmine.
Corey didn’t say anything. She was wondering if it was time to get her mother’s help. It was time to tell her the truth about Alexander anyway. Maybe Doc Tock would have an idea about where to find him.
For a few minutes the girls sat on their ponies, each lost in her thoughts. Macaroni stood still. That wasn’t surprising. He usually did. Outlaw fussed a little. That wasn’t surprising, either. He always fussed a little. Sam pulled at his reins. That wasn’t surprising, either.
“Calm down, boy,” Corey said. Sam stepped backward. Corey pulled a little on the reins to stop him. That made him step backward more. That made Corey grip him with her legs and tug more firmly on the reins. “Not again,” Corey moaned. “We’ve been doing so well today.”
“Sam!” Jasmine scolded her friend’s pony. “This is no time to misbehave!”
Suddenly Corey had an idea. “I’m not sure he’s misbehaving,” she said.
“He sure is!” May said. “He’s not doing anything you tell him.”
“Maybe he’s doing exactly what I told him to do,” Corey went on.
“What are you talking about?” May asked.
“I’m not sure,” said Corey. “But I want to try something.”
Corey relaxed her hold on the reins. She stopped gripping Sam’s belly with her legs. “Find Alexander!” she said.
Sam lifted his head and sniffed the air. His ears flicked around alertly. He looked to the left. Then he looked to the right. Then he began to move.
At first, Corey’s pony was just walking. May and Jasmine followed Corey and Sam on their ponies. Then Sam began trotting. He turned a little bit to the right. And then he turned to the left. His ears pricked up. His nostrils flared. He shook his head excitedly. And then he began to canter.
“He’s going to find him!” Jasmine cried. “He knows where Alexander is!”
Corey turned around in the saddle. She gave her friends a thumbs-up sign. Jasmine was right. Sam was following the little goat’s trail.
Sam slowed down near a small pile of rocks at the edge of the field. Corey and Sam had passed these rocks before, and Corey hadn’t seen anything. She still didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything there.
“Whhhnnnnn!” said Sam.
“Bleeaaaa!” came a faint reply.
“Alexander!” Corey shouted triumphantly. She halted Sam, then quickly slipped down out of her saddle. She ran to where the sound had come from. And there was Alexander.
The kid had gotten himself stuck between two rocks. He was a little baby, but he wasn’t as little as he’d thought. He was caught tightly and couldn’t get out.
It was a hard job for a little kid, but an easy one for three Pony Tails. In just a few minutes, the girls had freed Alexander. Corey held him gently in her arms and hugged him. Jasmine and May patted him. Alexander bleated loudly.
“What does that mean?” May asked.
“It means he’s hungry,” said Corey.
“It’s the sound he always makes, isn’t it?” Jasmine asked.
“It’s because he’s always hungry,” Corey explained.
“Bleeaaaaa!” said Alexander.
Corey climbed into her saddle and May handed the kid up to her. The three girls turned their ponies around to head back to their stables.
Doc Tock was waiting for Corey when they got home. Her eyes went wide when she saw Corey on Sam. They opened wider when she saw the bundle in Corey’s arms.
“Uh, Mom, I can … explain,” Corey said doubtfully. “It’s a long story.”
“That’s the goat that got kidnapped,” Doc Tock said. “And you found him.”
“Actually, I was the one who kidnapped him,” Corey said. “Sam is the one who found him.”
First Doc Tock looked startled. Then she looked angry. But all she said was, “Let me check my patient. Then you and I will talk, Corey.”
Corey handed Alexander over to her mother. “Okay,” she said softly.
Doc Tock took Alexander to her clinic inside the house.
“Are you in trouble?” Jasmine whispered.
&n
bsp; “I think so,” Corey replied. “What I did was really stupid. Alexander could have died because of me. And one thing my mom won’t put up with is careless treatment of animals.”
May and Jasmine hugged Corey. “We’ll put Macaroni and Outlaw away and wait for you at your stable,” Jasmine said.
Corey thanked her friends for all their help, then she led Sam home.
“Good boy,” she told him. “You’re a hero. I’m so sorry for the way I treated you and Alexander.”
Corey untacked her pony and gave him some water. She made sure his stall was clean and comfortable. After she’d done everything she could for Sam, she took a deep breath.
It was time to go in and face her mother.
11 Best Friends
“Well?” Jasmine demanded when Corey entered the stable an hour later. She was carrying Alexander. “What happened?”
“Are you grounded for life?” May asked nervously. She thought that would be her punishment if she’d kidnapped a goat.
Corey hung her head. “Believe it or not …,” she began sadly. “I have to do ten hours of volunteer work at CARL!” When she looked up, her face was shining.
“Ten hours of work at CARL!” May echoed. “That’s not a punishment—it’s fun!”
“I know,” Corey agreed. She took Alexander over to his coop and placed him inside. Jasmine helped her clip a fresh bottle of milk into the holder.
The girls watched Alexander tug at the nipple. “He’s really cute!” Jasmine sighed. “No wonder you took him, Corey.”
From his stall next door, Sam watched everything like an attentive mother.
“You’re cute, too,” Corey told her pony. She went over to pat him. “My mother called my father while I was there. They talked about it and decided the work at CARL would be fair. I think Dad was so relieved he wasn’t going to have to listen to any more rock, he wanted to let me off scot-free.”
May laughed. “I’m with him!”
“But what’s going to happen to Alexander?” Jasmine asked. The goat had finished his bottle and was curled up, ready to go to sleep. “Is the person who adopted him going to get him?”
“Mom called him, too, to say that Alexander was safe.” Corey laughed. “But as soon as he heard the name Alexander, he changed his mind about adopting him. He wanted a female goat!”
Pony Tails 06- Corey in the Saddle Page 4