This time May looked at Corey. Something very odd was going on. Corey’s face was pale. Her eyes were filled with tears. Had they scared her? They hadn’t meant to.
“Uh, Corey,” May began. “We didn’t mean—”
But Corey spun around quickly. She ran away, down the hill and into the stable.
May turned to Jasmine. “What did we do?”
Jasmine shook her head. “We were just telling her about the mad scientist. What’s wrong with that?”
“Beats me.” May shrugged.
Jasmine took a sip of her juice. She thought back over the morning. “Didn’t Corey say something about having another surprise for us?”
May nodded.
“I wonder what it was,” Jasmine went on.
“I don’t know.” May stood up, looking over at the field of horses and the wide blue sky. “But I hope we have the chance to find out,” she said.
12 The New Neighbor
May and Jasmine weren’t happy. By the time Horse Wise was over for the day, they felt miserable about what had happened with Corey.
When Max asked them where Corey had gone, they didn’t know what to say. And when Jackie asked them why Corey had run off crying, they just shook their heads. They didn’t know the answer.
On the way home from Pine Hollow the two girls just stared out the window of the Grovers’ car. Neither one spoke until they reached their neighborhood.
May saw it first. It was a sign outside the new neighbor’s house.
“Look!” she cried, poking Jasmine.
Mrs. Grover stopped the car in front of Jasmine’s house so she could get out. But Jasmine didn’t move. Instead she stared at the sign. So did May.
The sign read GRACE TAKAMURA, DOCTOR OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
“Takamura?” May whispered. ‘Isn’t that like …?”
“Corey Takamura,” Jasmine said.
Mrs. Grover turned around to face the girls. “Have you met her already?” she asked. “I heard that Doc Tock—that’s what everyone calls Dr. Takamura—has a daughter just your age. She has a pony, too. Isn’t that great?”
Jasmine got out of the car without answering. May got out, too.
“I’m going to Jasmine’s,” May said. Before her mother could say no, the girls ran inside together. They were out of breath by the time they got to Jasmine’s room. They dropped down on the floor.
“How many Takamura families could live in our town?” May asked.
“Who just moved into a new house,” Jasmine added.
“Who live near enough to help you with a doll’s head and me with a leg wrap,” said May.
It was a silly question. They both knew the answer. “Just one,” Jasmine said.
Finally May said the words out loud. “Corey Takamura is our new neighbor.”
“She lives in between us,” said Jasmine. “That’s what she wanted to tell us, but we didn’t let her.”
“Veterinarians keep animals when they’re sick,” May went on.
“In big cages,” added Jasmine.
“And sometimes sick animals make weird sounds,” said May.
“Even scary sounds,” said Jasmine.
“And veterinarians need operating tables,” said May. “And big machines.”
Jasmine gazed sadly at May. “I can’t believe we were so dumb,” she said. “We made a great new friend and now—”
“She hates us,” May finished. “Our new neighbor, Corey Takamura, hates our guts. What are we going to do?”
13 Samurai
By the time May left, Jasmine still felt terrible. Corey had done something nice for each of them. All they’d done in return was hurt her feelings. How could she ever look Corey in the face again?
Jasmine stared out her window. There was the Duttons’ yard, only now it wasn’t the Duttons’. It was Dr. Takamura’s—Doc Tock, May’s mother had said.
Jasmine knew about Doc Tock. Judy Barker was the vet in Willow Creek who looked after horses. Doc Tock took care of other animals. Jasmine had just never known her name was Takamura—or that she was moving next door.
Now that Jasmine knew the truth, the Takamuras’ yard looked just like the Duttons’ yard. The white house and big red barn were the same. There were no monsters, no mad scientists. Only a very good vet and her very nice daughter. Who probably hated May and Jasmine.
Then there was something else.
The back door of Corey’s house flew open. Someone ran across the yard. It was Corey. She was going to the barn. A dog barked loudly. It was just a dog barking, not a monster.
A few minutes later, Corey came back out of the barn. This time, she was leading a pony who was all tacked up. Corey was wearing her riding clothes and riding hat.
She held her pony’s reins. She patted the pony on the neck. Samurai was named for the crescent-shaped blaze on his face. It looked like a Samurai sword. Then she leaned forward and hugged the pony. Corey buried her face in her pony’s mane and held it there for a long time.
Jasmine stood back in the shadows of her room. She had seen Corey’s shoulders shaking. Corey wasn’t just hugging her pony. She was crying, and she was crying hard. It was all their fault.
14 Practice
In a way, everything seemed normal to May. She was in Macaroni’s stall, checking his leg. Her father was in the schooling ring behind the stable, working with Vanilla.
In another way, nothing was normal. May felt sick in her stomach about the terrible mistake she and Jasmine had made. How could they have hurt Corey’s feelings like that? Now Corey would never be their friend again. She’d never be on their Pony Club team either.
May ran her hand down Macaroni’s leg. It wasn’t swollen anymore. And Macaroni didn’t pull it away when she rubbed it. The leg was all healed. She could ride him now. Her mother had even said she and Jasmine could go on a picnic tomorrow. Everything would be perfect—if only they hadn’t ruined their chances of being Corey Takamura’s friend.
May decided to groom Macaroni. Her father always said that grooming a horse was as good for the groomer as it was for the horse. It always felt good to do something for someone else, especially when it was for her pony.
She took down her grooming bucket and set to work. Macaroni knew what was coming. He nuzzled May’s neck. She hugged him back.
First she wanted to clean Macaroni’s hooves. She took out the hoofpick and looked at it. That reminded her of how Corey used a hoofpick to fix Jasmine’s doll.
“Grrrrrr,” she told Macaroni. Macaroni twitched his ears.
She cleaned his hooves. Then she began to work with the currycomb, a brush used for cleaning horses’ coats.
Macaroni stood still because he liked the attention. He even closed his eyes. May worked hard. Just as her father said, it felt good to work so hard on her pony.
Outside, May heard her father talking to Vanilla. He said things like “Good boy” or “Nice!” or “Pay attention now.” That was the way her father talked to horses. Then his voice changed. May could tell he was talking to a person now.
“Hi there,” he said to someone. “Nice pony you’ve got there.”
“Thanks,” someone said back to him.
“What’s his name?” Mr. Grover asked.
“Samurai” was the answer.
May’s stomach flip-flopped. It was Corey. May moved to the other side of Macaroni—away from the door—so Corey couldn’t see her. She still wasn’t ready to face her new neighbor.
“If you sit into the saddle, the horse will stop faster,” said her father.
“Like this, you mean?” Corey asked.
“Exactly. Try it from a faster gait, like a canter,” he suggested.
May heard hoofbeats. They were fast at first. Then they stopped.
“Much better,” said Mr. Grover.
“Thanks,” Corey answered.
“You’re the new neighbor, right?” Mr. Grover asked.
“Yes, sir,” Corey replied.
“Well, you’re a very good rider
. If you ever want to go out into the fields behind this barn, it’s all right with me. Just don’t go into any field if this horse is in it. Vanilla’s a wild one.”
“Thank you,” said Corey. May thought her voice sounded a little happier. “Today I think I’ll stick to the ring, though.”
“Okay,” said Mr. Grover.
Corey and Mr. Grover didn’t talk any more. They just worked, and so did May. She combed and brushed Macaroni’s coat until it gleamed.
When she was finished, she stood on her tiptoes and looked out the dingy window of Macaroni’s stall.
In the small ring behind Corey’s house, Corey and Samurai were working hard together. Then May realized what they were doing—working on fast starts and stops. Stevie had said that was important in mounted games. Corey must be practicing for mounted games!
Relief washed over May. If Corey was getting ready for the games, it meant that she was thinking about the good part of the Horse Wise meeting, not only the bad part. Maybe, just maybe, she and Jasmine could find a way to make up with Corey.
Tomorrow was the day of May and Jasmine’s picnic. Together they would find a way to apologize to Corey.
15 The Picnic
“I’ve got an idea,” May said as she unwrapped her peanut butter and honey sandwich.
Jasmine looked at her friend. “You do?”
The two girls were sitting on a big rock in the woods. Their ponies were hitched to a tree in the shade. In the distance they could see the fields and the paddocks behind their houses. Rascal and Hank were in the small paddock at the back of the Grovers’ stable. Vanilla was in the field.
Jasmine took a bite of her sandwich. “So what’s your idea?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
When May had ideas, sometimes they were wonderful. Like when May had a surprise birthday party for Jasmine. But sometimes May’s ideas weren’t so great. Jasmine remembered the time May had decided to build a tree house in a tree that wasn’t strong enough to hold it. They’d both plunged out of the tree and hit the ground hard.
“We need to help Corey with something,” said May. “She helped us and now it’s our turn to help her.”
Jasmine nodded. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
“Let’s paint the stable,” May said.
“What?” Jasmine thought she’d heard wrong. This was May’s idea?
“The Duttons’—I mean, the Takamuras’—stable needs to be painted.”
“We can’t paint a stable,” Jasmine reminded her friend. “We don’t know how.”
“You dip brushes in paint. Then you slap the brushes on the stable,” May said. “What’s so hard about that?”
Jasmine had heard some pretty strange ideas from May since they’d been friends. But this was the strangest.
“May, the stable is two stories high,” she said. “It’s a whole barn! We can’t paint that by ourselves.”
May shrugged. “Okay, then, we’ll just paint the door.”
“What does that have to do with Corey?” Jasmine asked.
“Nothing,” May admitted. “It was just an idea.”
Jasmine didn’t think it was a very good one.
“Could we buy her a new saddle?” May asked.
“She’s got one. It’s a nice one, too,” said Jasmine. “Besides, we don’t have enough money to buy her a saddle.”
“Bad idea, huh?” May asked.
“Bad idea,” Jasmine agreed.
“Then I guess we’re just going to have to start digging,” May said.
“Digging?” Jasmine echoed.
“A tunnel under Corey’s lawn so we can get back and forth to each other’s houses without crossing their lawn,” May explained.
“May!” Jasmine cried. “What kind of idea is that?”
“I’m just kidding,” May said glumly.
The two girls sat in silence for a few minutes. A few feet away Outlaw nickered softly and Macaroni shuffled his feet. Jasmine watched the two ponies. Sometimes it seemed as if the two ponies liked being together as much as May and Jasmine did.
A moment later Jasmine had an idea. “Maybe what we really need to do is apologize,” she said softly. “Isn’t that what real friends do?”
May looked at her and nodded. “But how?”
Jasmine shook her head. Neither of them knew the answer to that question.
Suddenly May stood up. “Look,” she said. “Isn’t that Corey?”
Jasmine shaded her eyes. Corey was riding Samurai in the ring behind her stable.
At first they rode in circles, walking, then trotting, and then cantering. Jasmine and May watched. They didn’t say anything because they were both thinking the same thing. They were wishing Corey could be with them.
Corey worked some more on the starts and stops May’s father had helped her with the day before. But her riding ring was too small for her to get going fast. She looked around, then walked Samurai out of the ring. They headed for the paddock where Dobbin and Rascal were turned out.
“May, look,” said Jasmine. “Corey’s going to ride in your paddock.”
“That’s okay. Dad told her she could,” May answered.
They watched for a few more minutes. Corey was a good rider and Samurai was a good pony. It was fun to see them work together.
Then Jasmine squinted. “What’s she doing now?”
“She’s going into the field,” said May.
At first, that seemed fine. Then May remembered about Vanilla. There was a hill halfway across the field, and Vanilla was on the other side of the hill. Corey couldn’t see Vanilla, but May and Jasmine could.
When May looked at Vanilla, he was munching happily on the fresh green grass. His ears flicked up. He’d heard something. He lifted his head and sniffed. He smelled something. He pawed at the ground. He wasn’t happy.
Corey couldn’t see any of this. But May and Jasmine saw all of it.
“She’s in trouble,” May cried. At that instant, Vanilla lifted up his front feet and reared. He’d sensed that someone was invading his field—and he was going to stop them.
“Corey!” yelled May.
Corey didn’t hear her.
“Corey!” yelled Jasmine.
Corey didn’t hear her.
“COREYYYYYY!” the girls yelled all together. But it didn’t do any good.
“We should get your dad,” Jasmine said.
“We don’t have time,” said May. “Neither does Corey!”
May looked all around. They had to do something and do it fast.
Vanilla began galloping then, climbing swiftly to the top of the hill. In a matter of seconds, he’d reach Corey and Samurai. May and Jasmine didn’t want to think about what he’d do when that happened. They just had to get there in time!
16 Runaway
May and Jasmine jumped into their saddles. They unhitched the ropes from the tree branches and turned their ponies around.
Macaroni sprang into a trot and then a canter.
“Come on, boy!” May said. She used her hands and her legs to tell him that she was in a hurry.
Right away Macaroni understood. He took off, and May leaned forward. She clutched the reins; she clutched her pony’s mane. She had never ridden so fast in her life.
Behind her, Outlaw’s hooves pounded the ground. He was nearby and he was going almost as fast as Macaroni was.
May ducked under a branch. Macaroni swerved around a tree and jumped over a rock. May stayed in the saddle. She kept her eyes straight ahead, never moving them from the field.
Then the sound came. It was a scream—Corey’s scream.
“Faster, Macaroni! Faster!” May cried.
Somehow Macaroni went faster.
Now May could see the edge of the field. It was surrounded by a white fence. The gate was on the right. May turned Macaroni to the right. He followed her instructions perfectly. May opened the gate in record time and left it for Jasmine to close.
They were in the field. But whe
re was Corey? More important, where was Vanilla?
“Help!” Corey’s voice echoed over the hillside.
May didn’t even have to tell Macaroni to get going. He knew what his job was. He sprang into a gallop, racing toward the cry.
“I’m coming!” May yelled.
“Me too!” called Jasmine.
“Over here!” Corey yelled back.
The ponies circled the hillside as fast as they could, faster than Jasmine had ever thought Outlaw could gallop.
When they came around the side of the hill, Jasmine gasped. Samurai was nowhere in sight. But Corey was standing with her back to a big boulder. Vanilla was right in front of her and he was rearing.
“Vanilla!” yelled May. “Get back!”
Vanilla was startled and frightened. He flattened his ears against his head. The whites of his eyes showed. From watching her father train many horses, May knew this was a dangerous animal.
Samurai whinnied loudly then. He was running wildly along the other side of the hill.
“You get Samurai; I’ll help Corey,” May told Jasmine. But she didn’t know how she would ever do what she said.
“Don’t move, Corey. You’ll frighten him more,” said May.
“I can’t move,” Corey replied. “I don’t have any place to go.”
That was the truth and May knew it. Vanilla had Corey completely blocked off. The only thing to do was get Vanilla to move away.
May and Macaroni rode up behind Vanilla. “Vanilla! Here boy!” she said, hoping it would work. “Come, Vanilla!” The horse didn’t move. At least he wasn’t threatening Corey anymore. But Corey still couldn’t get out of there.
“Come on, boy! Come here!” May called.
His ears flicked toward her. May knew that meant he heard her. Then she whistled. Vanilla stood still. He turned his head to look.
She whistled again. It was working. Vanilla stepped back. Then he turned around and looked at May. She whistled a third time.
That was all it took. Vanilla whinnied loudly and reared. He’d found something new to chase. He’d decided to chase May! As soon as he moved, Corey ran to safety away from the rock. Now May was Vanilla’s target.
Pony Tails 01- Pony Crazy Page 4