Pony Tails 05- May Takes the Lead

by Bonnie Bryant

  People started clapping when they saw how well everybody played the game. May didn’t want to show people too much, though. She wanted to be sure they knew they would see even better riding at the CARL show.

  “Let’s take our show on the road!” she said. It was time to ride on to the shopping center. May led the parade through town and over to where it seemed most of the people were spending money on this sunny Saturday morning.

  Cheers greeted them when they arrived in front of the supermarket. Another sight that greeted them was Dottie and Ellie at a card table, selling tickets as fast as they could make change.

  May marched the parade all around the parking lot of the shopping center. A policeman was directing traffic and keeping cars away from the riders.

  May spotted an empty part of the parking lot. “May we go over there, sir?” she asked the policeman.

  “Sure,” he said. He held traffic so that the line of riders could go to the open space.

  At the town green May had only worked up an appetite for Follow the Leader. She was going to put on another show here!

  As soon as May began the game, people came over to watch. May did everything she’d done before. People clapped. She looked behind her to be sure everybody was following. The riders all looked behind, too. People laughed. May clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. All the other riders did the same. So did the audience. May stood up, sat down, leaned back, leaned forward. All the riders followed her and everybody in the audience did, too! It was the biggest game of Follow the Leader that had ever been, and May was in the lead.

  She held up her hand to signal a stop. Behind her all the riders came to an orderly halt. May took off her hat and bowed to the audience. So did all the other riders. She just had one more thing she wanted to lead everybody to do.

  “My next move is to go over to that table there and buy tickets for the drill team demonstration to raise money for CARL. Will you all follow me and do the same thing there, too?”

  Then her audience laughed.

  “You don’t have to go first on that one,” a man in the audience said. “This time I’ll be the leader.”

  And he was. He went right over to the table and bought tickets for the show. Almost everybody else followed him.

  They were selling a ton of tickets! May’s pony parade was a bigger success than anyone could have imagined.

  May beamed with pride. Behind her, fifteen other riders beamed with pride, too.

  Then it was time to go home. May led the way.

  10 Back to the Basement

  “May, you were great!”

  “Wonderful!”

  “I never had so much fun on my pony!”

  “Wow, did you see all those people buying tickets?”

  “Nice job, May.”

  The compliments still rang in May’s ears. It was a wonderful feeling to have done something hard and done it right. At first she’d been a little mad about having to take charge. But being in the lead had been fun—especially since the whole thing had worked out so well.

  She was still feeling a glow of happiness when she unloaded Macaroni from the van and took him into his stall.

  “I never could have done it without you,” she said. “And now you deserve the biggest, best grooming in the whole wide world.”

  Macaroni looked at her. He was waiting for his grooming.

  May hated to disappoint him. “I’m sorry, good boy,” she said. “But I have to be in the basement to help Ellie and Dottie in exactly five minutes. They’ll be so mad at me if I don’t show up.”

  Macaroni blinked his huge brown eyes. For the first time in a week, May didn’t feel furious at her sisters. After all, they’d been a big help to her today.

  “But they still deserve revenge, Macaroni,” she told her pony. “They’re making me clean the basement so Dottie can have her stupid party first. Just wait till tonight when Dottie’s friends come over. I’ll show them. …”

  The back door to her house slammed. A second later Jasmine and Corey dashed into the stable. May was surprised that they’d finished grooming their ponies so quickly. She was even more surprised that they’d come from her house instead of from across the lawn.

  “Wasn’t that parade wonderful?” Jasmine asked.

  “Dottie said they sold over a hundred tickets. Wait till Mom hears that!” said Corey.

  Jasmine patted Macaroni. “Good boy,” she said. “You deserve a nice grooming.”

  “I know he does, but I’ve got to get back to cleaning the basement,” said May.

  “You can’t walk out on Macaroni now!” Corey said. “He did such a great job.”

  “I know, but—” May began.

  “Come on, May. That’s not fair to him,” said Jasmine.

  May tried again. “But I promised my sisters—”

  “Give me a break,” Corey said. “All week you’ve been talking about getting revenge on them; now you’re worried about breaking a promise?”

  May shook her head. “That’s not it.…” She didn’t finish. She didn’t know how to tell her friends the real reason she wanted to go inside and help Dottie and Ellie. The other Pony Tails didn’t have sisters. They wouldn’t understand that it was part of her plan to get back at Dottie that night.

  “Come on, May. We’ll help you groom Macaroni,” Jasmine offered.

  “Okay.” May gave in finally. “But if the phone rings …”

  “Don’t worry. We’re the Pony Tails. We can groom a pony in … two shakes of a pony’s tail!” said Corey.

  Eagerly Corey and Jasmine pitched in to help. May had never seen them so enthusiastic.

  “Shampoo!” said Jasmine.

  “Cream rinse!” said Corey.

  May was helpless to stop Jasmine and Corey from doing the best grooming any pony had ever seen. It was also the clumsiest grooming May had ever seen.

  First, Jasmine put the rinse on before Corey used the shampoo.

  “Okay, we’ll start from the beginning,” said Corey. They washed off the rinse and put the shampoo on.

  “Why don’t you clean his tack while we do this?” Jasmine suggested to May.

  “I’ll get the saddle soap for you,” said Corey. She went to the tack room, but came back with oil instead of saddle soap. “Whoops,” said Corey. “I’ll take it back.” She took it back and returned with the saddle soap—ten minutes later.

  “It was sort of hidden,” Corey explained.

  May knew that wasn’t true. The saddle soap was always kept handy on the bottom shelf—the easiest thing to find in the whole tack room.

  What was the matter with her friends?

  When Jasmine went to the house for a bucket of water, May started to feel worried. There was a perfectly good hose right there in the barn.

  “Are you two okay?” May asked Corey.

  “Well, we’re a little tired from the parade and all,” Corey answered.

  May thought they were more than a little tired. And she became convinced of it when they finally finished grooming Macaroni. That’s when they let him loose in the paddock.

  “No, don’t!” May called out. But it was too late. The first thing Macaroni did when he got into the paddock was the first thing he always did when he got into the paddock. He lay down on the ground, rolled over, and wriggled happily. Every bit of the work they’d done grooming him was now ruined by muddy dirt!

  “I guess we’ll just have to start all over again,” Corey said matter-of-factly.

  May was so frustrated, she wanted to scream. “I can groom Macaroni later,” she said firmly. “Now I’ve got to get to the basement.”

  “No,” said Jasmine. “You don’t.”

  “Why not?” May asked.

  Jasmine stammered. Corey answered for her. “Because Ellie and Dottie aren’t there yet.”

  “How do you know that?” May asked.

  “We came through your house, remember?” Jasmine reminded her.

  “And why did you come through m
y house?” May asked.

  “To see if Ellie and Dottie were working yet,” said Corey.

  May was beginning to think that her friends weren’t exactly pony crazy, but just plain crazy. Jasmine started brushing at the dirt on Macaroni’s coat. May started to remind her that it could wait when Corey asked May a question.

  “Have you considered changing Macaroni’s feed during the cooler months of the year?” she asked. “I read something in Horseplay about a special blend. Want to try it now? Hey, where’s your coffee can? That’s a good way to measure grains.”

  But May couldn’t take any more. “No,” she said. “I do not want to change Macaroni’s grains for the season. And no, I do not want to give Macaroni another shampoo. And since you are probably about to ask, I don’t want to try a new hunt clip for his coat, or spend the next four hours cleaning his teeth or looking in his ears for ticks.”

  Corey and Jasmine stared at her as she continued.

  “I want to go into the basement and help my sisters before they start screaming at me. So you can stay here, shampoo, mix grains, or try a new hunt clip. I’m going inside!”

  May was so annoyed with her friends that she threw down the towel she was holding. Then she marched back toward the house.

  Without another look backward, May stormed into the kitchen, pulled open the basement door, flicked on the staircase light, and went down into the darkness. In spite of all the “help” she’d gotten from Corey and Jasmine, she was still getting to the job before her sisters. That was a relief.

  When she got to the bottom step, she reached for the next light switch and flipped it on.

  “Surprise!”

  May gasped. Standing in a big circle all around her were twenty-five of her friends and family members. Everybody had a balloon that said “Happy Birthday, May!” The place was decorated with crepe paper twists.

  “But it’s—” May began.

  Ellie and Dottie came out of the crowd and gave May hugs.

  “We know it’s not your birthday yet. Not for another couple of days, but if we’d waited until then, it wouldn’t have been a surprise, would it?” Ellie asked.

  May shook her head. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She’d never been so surprised in her whole life.

  Jasmine and Corey were standing behind her, huge grins on their faces.

  “Now it’s my turn to be surprised,” said Jasmine. “For once in her life, May Grover has nothing to say!”

  11 A Red-Letter Day

  “I never had more fun at a birthday party,” May said to Jasmine and Corey after the last guest had left.

  “So you’re not still mad at us for grooming Macaroni?” Corey asked.

  May laughed. Corey and Jasmine did too.

  “I guess not,” May told Corey. “So, you guys have been sneaking around all week, trying to fool me about the party?”

  “Yup,” said Jasmine, looking proud. “So have your sisters. Dottie pretended she was having a party tonight. Actually, Dottie’s party isn’t until next week!”

  “What about the phone call Corey got that day at her house?” she asked Jasmine.

  “It was Ellie,” Jasmine confessed. “I didn’t think you believed the part about the salesman.”

  “I didn’t,” May admitted. “But I forgot about it.” She remembered something else. “I wondered how you two knew I’d promised to clean the basement this afternoon. Now I know. And is this why you two kept saying all those nice things about my sisters?”

  “Well, sure. The whole time you were talking about revenge, they were planning a party for you,” Corey said. “We thought that was pretty nice.”

  May nodded.

  The girls giggled as they told all the tricks they’d used to fool May. Every one of them had worked, too. Now the last gift had been opened, the last piece of cake had been eaten, the last game had been played.

  The Pony Tails couldn’t agree on the most fun part of the party.

  “I liked Pin the Tail on Macaroni best,” said May. Her friends had drawn a big picture of Macaroni without his tail. Jackie had managed to pin the tail closest, though May thought she might have peeked through the blindfold.

  “You just say that because you put the tail on his nose!” Corey teased.

  May laughed. “It showed me what he would look like with a beard.”

  “My favorite part was making a mural,” said Jasmine. Mrs. Grover had covered one wall with huge sheets of paper and let everybody draw pictures.

  “Of course that was your favorite,” said Corey. “You’re very good at art.”

  “So are you,” said Jasmine. “I really loved the elephant you drew.”

  “It was supposed to be a pony!” said Corey.

  May smiled happily, listening to her friends. They’d had as good a time as she had. It had been a wonderful party for everyone.

  Everybody agreed that the basement room in the Grovers’ house was a great place to have parties. They all said they wanted to come to the next one—even her sisters.

  That had been the biggest surprise of all. While May and her mother had cut the cake, Dottie and Ellie had made a sort of speech about May.

  “Even though she’s our sister, we still think she’s pretty special, and that’s why we wanted you to come to this party for her,” Ellie had said.

  “But we didn’t know how special she was until we saw her in action this morning. That pony parade was great!” said Dottie.

  “Great enough to get you to try riding again?” May teased.

  “Maybe not that great,” Ellie said. “But you can bet Dottie and I will be at the drill demonstration.”

  “Along with a zillion other people,” Dottie said. “We sold more than one hundred tickets just this morning. And it was all because of our sister—oh, and some of the rest of you who followed her lead!”

  Inside and outside, May was glowing with pride. Her sisters could be a pain, that was sure, but they cared enough to throw a birthday party for her. They cared enough to help with the pony parade, and they cared enough to tell everyone about something she’d done. Her friends had been right all along. She was lucky to have them.

  “I think it’s time for me to go home,” Jasmine said, suddenly standing up. Just then, the phone rang. May answered it. It was a call from Jasmine’s mother, telling her to come home for dinner.

  “How does she do that?” Corey asked May. “How does she always know when it’s time to go home?”

  “Beats me.” May shrugged.

  “I just know,” Jasmine explained.

  “Well, then it must be time for me to go, too,” Corey said. May hugged both of her best friends and thanked them for being sneaky and awful.

  After the door closed behind them, she realized that it was time to thank her sisters for being sneaky and awful, too.

  12 Sisters

  May carried her birthday presents back up to her room and piled them on her bed. She’d gotten three horse and pony books, four posters of ponies, a pair of riding gloves from Ellie, a new bridle from her parents, a lead rope from Jasmine, and a halter from Corey. Everybody knew she loved ponies! There were other gifts as well. The pile on her bed made May remember how much her friends and her sisters cared about her.

  Her sisters. May felt a twinge. There was something she had to do. She’d seen Ellie downstairs and thanked her and hugged her for the gloves and the party. Now she had to thank Dottie. That might be harder.

  She pulled the storage box out from under her bed. She unfolded the sweatshirt. There was Dottie’s diary. May was relieved she’d never opened it, but she was ashamed that she’d even thought of reading it.

  May sat on the edge of her bed, looking at the diary. What could she do now? She could leave it in the box under her bed. She could put it back in the carton in the basement. She could put it somewhere in Dottie’s room. She could even throw it away. Dottie would never know.

  But May would. May would know and she wouldn’t feel right about it
. She knew then what she had to do. She had to return it to Dottie. She had to tell.

  She rewrapped the book in her sweatshirt. Dottie’s room was across the hall from hers. The door was closed. May knocked.

  “Come in,” said Dottie.

  May went in.

  “Dottie, that was the best birthday party anybody ever had,” she said.

  Dottie smiled proudly. “I know, you already told me and Ellie that about a million times. I just feel bad that I was so busy with all the plans I never got around to getting you a present.”

  “I don’t need any more presents,” May said. “Actually I don’t deserve any more presents.”

  “What’s the matter, May?” Dottie asked. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

  May unwrapped the diary. “I—”

  “Oh, you found that,” said Dottie. “I’ve been looking for it for months! Where was it?”

  “It was in the basement,” May said. She wanted to blurt it all out at once, but she was so upset that it started coming out in little pieces. “I found it when we were cleaning up. I never knew you had a diary. I’ve always thought diaries were really great, but I never had one, and I—”

  “Would you like one?” Dottie asked.

  “Me?” May asked.

  “Is there someone else here?” Dottie teased.

  May was flustered. “But I didn’t …” She handed the diary to Dottie. Dottie took it and rubbed her hand gently over the smooth leather cover.

  “It’s a beauty, isn’t it?” she asked. May agreed that it certainly was beautiful. “Uncle Jared gave it to me for Christmas two years ago. I always thought it was too beautiful to ruin with my messy handwriting. Isn’t that silly?”

  The words sank in. “You mean you never wrote in it?” May said.

  “No, didn’t you know?” Dottie asked.

  “I didn’t look,” May stammered. “It’s locked.”

  “Oh, the key’s right here,” said Dottie. She held the book up and squeezed it from side to side to flex the pages. A little key dropped out onto the floor. Dottie picked it up, stuck it in the lock, and turned it. The lock snapped open.