Jasmine nodded. “We’re studying the Arabian Peninsula in class. I thought everyone would like to see a real Arabian horse. Mom let me use these scraps to make a costume for him.”
Jasmine’s mother had a big loom that she used to make fabrics from natural fibers. She even made clothes for their family from them. Sometimes Jasmine helped her. She liked to make her own clothes, especially if she could put lace and ribbons on her outfit. Pretty dresses were very important to Jasmine.
Pretty clothes didn’t matter at all to May. She didn’t care how she looked as long as her clothes were right for riding. Today she was wearing jeans.
May looked at the model horse. As usual Jasmine had done a wonderful job. It looked as if an Arabian king could mount this horse and ride it across the desert.
The bus arrived. The three girls and Wil climbed into it. May and Jasmine sat together. Corey sat behind them. Wil sat across the aisle from Jasmine next to his best friend, Mark Engstrom.
Jasmine was still talking about her model horse.
“I named him Barq after the Arabian horse at Pine Hollow,” she went on. “I even put a streak on his face to look like the real Barq. Did you know that barq means ‘lightning’ in Arabian?”
Corey hadn’t known that. She had begun riding at Pine Hollow when she and her mother moved to Willow Creek. And there were still some things she didn’t know about Pine Hollow and the horses there.
“I knew that,” May said, sounding a little impatient. She was trying to tell Jasmine about the scavenger hunt. But she couldn’t get in a word.
“I pretended Barq was a real horse while I was making his costume,” Jasmine bubbled on. “He loved it. As soon as I put part of his outfit on, he wanted to prance about and show it off. I finally got him to stand still by telling him he could have some carrots. After that he behaved.”
Across the aisle Wil McNally snorted. “Of course he did, he’s plastic!” he said loudly. Mark Engstrom stood up to look at the model horse Jasmine was holding. Then he snorted with laughter, too. All over the bus, kids looked around to see what was going on.
Jasmine turned so that her back was to Wil. She jutted out her jaw and kept talking as if Wil weren’t even there.
But that didn’t keep Wil and Mark from saying things. When the bus stopped to pick up Josh Heffernon, Wil and Mark pointed to the horse in Jasmine’s hand.
“Jasmine’s a great horsewoman, Josh,” Mark said. “She got that wild steed to stand still while she made the costume.”
Josh laughed. Jasmine hunched her shoulders.
Wil, Mark, and Josh told Erik Schneider about the horse when he got on the bus. Erik tried to grab the horse from Jasmine. She pulled it away from him and tucked it in her jacket.
“Be careful,” Erik said. “He might kick you!”
Wil, Mark, Josh, and Erik all thought that was very funny. They laughed loudly and slapped their knees.
May couldn’t believe that Jasmine didn’t say anything to them. She must be waiting to get revenge until we get off the bus, May thought.
The bus came to a stop in front of Willow Creek Elementary School. The door opened. Wil, Mark, Josh, and Erik all stood up to be the first off the bus. May couldn’t help herself. As each boy passed her, she stuck out her tongue at him.
That made them laugh, too. But it made May feel better.
At least until she looked over at Jasmine. Her friend had tears in her eyes.
How could those boys tease Jasmine like that? May thought angrily. Wil McNally isn’t going to get away with this.
The three girls climbed off the bus and went into the school building. Just before they each headed for their separate classrooms, Corey took Jasmine’s arm.
“You did a really nice job on Barq’s outfit,” she said. “I wish I could sew the way you do.”
“Me too,” chimed in May.
Jasmine smiled at them. “Thanks, you guys.”
The bell rang, and the girls ran to their classrooms.
Whoops, thought May. I never did get a chance to tell Jasmine about the scavenger hunt.
The news would have to wait until later that day.
3 A Very Bad Day
Jasmine clutched her model horse. She kept her eyes on the floor straight ahead of her, and she walked very fast to her classroom. She didn’t want to see anybody. She especially didn’t want to see the boys from the bus. But Wil and Mark were in her class. She’d be stuck with them all day long.
Ms. Elder was about to close the classroom door. Jasmine made a dash and got there just as the second bell rang. She went straight to her desk and shoved her books inside. She wanted to put Barq there, too, but there wasn’t room. Instead she put the model on her desk.
First she heard the sound of a horse’s whinny. Then she heard a snort of laughter. She didn’t have to look. She knew who had made the noises. Wil had whinnied. Mark Engstrom had snorted. Then a couple of other boys snorted, too.
Jasmine didn’t look at them. She stared straight ahead.
“Why, Jasmine, look at what you’ve got!” Ms. Elder said. “That’s beautiful. Did you make the costume yourself?”
Jasmine nodded. She usually liked it when her teacher complimented her. She didn’t like it today. She put the horse on the floor by her feet. She hoped everybody would forget about it. Today was not her lucky day, though.
“That’s an Arabian horse, isn’t it, Jasmine?” Ms. Elder asked.
“Yes,” Jasmine mumbled.
“Well, then, it fits right in with something I want to talk about today,” the teacher said. “Why don’t you bring it up here and show it to the class. What makes Arabian horses different from other breeds?”
Jasmine knew the answer. Arabians were known for their beauty. They were also known for their endurance. That was what gave them strength to go for long rides in the desert without water or food. They were very valuable horses.
Jasmine knew all this, but she didn’t want to say it. She stayed at her desk, while Wil answered the teacher’s question.
“Arabians are very different from other breeds,” he began. “Even the plastic ones stand still while you put tassels on their costumes!”
Mark thought that was very funny. So did a couple of other boys. Pretty soon all the boys were laughing.
Ms. Elder told them to be quiet. They stopped laughing, but they didn’t stop looking at Jasmine. She could feel her face turning red. She didn’t say anything about what wonderful horses Arabians were. She didn’t say anything at all.
At lunchtime things got worse. Erik came up to her and pretended to be a rearing horse.
“You couldn’t sew a costume on me, that’s for sure!” he said.
Then Josh called out, “What’s for lunch, Jasmine? Oats?”
“Clip-clop, clip-clop,” chimed in Wil McNally.
“What dorks,” May said. She put her arm around Jasmine’s shoulder.
“They don’t know anything about horses or ponies,” added Corey.
That made Jasmine feel a little better. She smiled at her friends. “Why are the most obnoxious boys in my class?”
Corey and May didn’t know the answer.
“It’s not fair, is it?” Corey asked.
“No, it’s not,” Jasmine agreed.
When the bell rang Jasmine took a deep breath.
“Wish me luck for the rest of the day,” she said.
Her friends wished her luck.
Buy May’s Riding Lesson Now!
About the Author
Bonnie Bryant is the author of over one hundred forty books about horses, including the Saddle Club series and its spinoffs, the Pony Tails series and the Pine Hollow series. Bryant did not know very much about horses before writing the first Saddle Club book in 1986, so she found herself learning right along with the characters she created. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, Bonnie Bryant Hiller. Bryant was born and raised in New York City, where she still lives today.
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nbsp; All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1995 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-4976-5337-5
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
1 Saying Good-bye
2 May and Jasmine
3 May Gets Suspicious
4 The Moving Van
5 Jasmine Hears Something
6 Jasmine Gets Some Help
7 Macaroni Needs a Hand
8 The Night Visitor
9 The New Girl
10 A New Teammate
11 Trouble
12 The New Neighbor
13 Samurai
14 Practice
15 The Picnic
16 Runaway
17 Mounted Games
18 Best Friends
May’s Pony Grooming Tips
Preview: May’s Riding Lesson
About the Author
Copyright Page
Pony Tails 01- Pony Crazy Page 6