“Really?” Jasmine said again. She could hardly believe her ears. “Then you don’t think I’m annoying?”
Carole looked surprised. “Annoying?” she repeated. “Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“I, um, heard you talking to your friends,” Jasmine blurted out, blushing at the memory. “You said we weren’t making any progress, and it was annoying.”
“I did?” Carole furrowed her brow. Then suddenly she laughed. “Oh, I know what you must have overheard. I did tell my friends we weren’t making progress, but I also explained to them that it was because that other girl—Erin—kept asking for help.” She shrugged. “I guess it’s no fun being Simon’s little sister.”
“I guess,” Jasmine said. Obviously Carole didn’t know the real reason Erin had been interrupting them, and Jasmine didn’t feel like explaining it.
“And you’re such a good rider that I knew we could be a great team if we only had more time to work together,” Carole went on. “The fact that we didn’t was what was annoying.”
“Oh.” Jasmine was a little embarrassed. But she was also very happy that she’d been wrong. Carole Hanson thought she was a good rider! That was the best news Jasmine had heard all week. Suddenly she wasn’t quite as scared of the jump course Red was setting up.
If Jasmine thought she was happy then, it was nothing compared to what she felt a half hour later. That was when she trotted forward to let Max pin a bright blue ribbon onto Outlaw’s bridle.
10 Jasmine’s Special Dinner
“I still can’t believe I won,” Jasmine said for the fifteenth time, gazing happily at the blue ribbon in her hands. She was sitting in the backseat of her parents’ car. Mr. Grover had offered to put Outlaw in the van so Jasmine could ride with her parents.
“We’re very proud of you,” Mr. James said. “You worked hard and it showed.”
“Thanks,” Jasmine said. “I’m glad Corey won second place, too. And I’m sure May will do better next time if she gets a decent partner.”
“You all did wonderfully,” Mrs. James assured her.
“So now I guess we have even more to celebrate tonight, right?” Jasmine said, thinking hungrily of her mother’s famous vegetable lasagna.
“Tonight?” Mrs. James said quickly, glancing at her husband. “Oh my. It’s Saturday already, isn’t it?”
Jasmine leaned forward, suddenly feeling less happy. “You didn’t forget, did you?” she asked. “We were going to have my favorite dinner tonight.”
“I’m so sorry, Jasmine,” Mrs. James said, turning to look at her. “I’ve had a lot on my mind this week, but … well, that’s no excuse. We should have remembered our plans with you. Of course we’ll still have a celebration dinner. Is it all right if I make bean burritos instead of lasagna? That’s your second-favorite dinner, right?”
“Sure, that’s okay,” Jasmine muttered, sinking back against the seat. She couldn’t believe her parents had forgotten, especially after her mother had made such a big deal about it the week before. It wasn’t like them at all. They never forgot things like this. In fact, they lived for it. Maybe Jasmine’s special day wasn’t so special to them after all.
“Don’t worry, pumpkin,” Mr. James said, glancing in the rearview mirror. “It’ll be fun, even without the lasagna.”
“Okay,” Jasmine said. But she wasn’t sure she believed it.
As soon as they got home Jasmine went out to the barn to take care of Outlaw. For a little while she felt better as she remembered their great performance. She gave him an extralong grooming and a handful of carrots to reward him. Then, reluctantly, she went back inside.
The burritos were almost ready. Jasmine looked around, but she saw no sign of a gift. She should have known. Not only had her mother forgotten the dinner, she’d also forgotten to buy Jasmine the model pony. Jasmine did her best to hide her disappointment from her parents as they ate, but it wasn’t easy. She picked at her burrito, her appetite gone. As soon as possible, she excused herself and went to look for her friends.
She found May and Corey with the rabbit family again.
“What’s wrong?” May asked as soon as she saw Jasmine. “You don’t look like a happy blue-ribbon winner to me.”
“I don’t feel like one,” Jasmine said, dropping to the ground next to her friends. “My parents are acting weird, and I don’t know why.” She told them everything.
When she was finished, Corey shrugged. “It sounds like it just slipped their minds.”
“That’s exactly the point,” Jasmine said. “That doesn’t happen with my parents. They remember everything, especially when it has to do with me.”
“Mine don’t, that’s for sure,” Corey said. “I guess it’s hard since they’re divorced and they don’t both see me all the time. Sometimes it’s hard for them to keep track of everything I’m doing, especially with all the other distractions they have with work and stuff.”
“Well, my parents just have two big distractions,” May announced. “Ellie and Dottie.”
“But my parents are different,” Jasmine said. “Especially my mom. She always works at home, so she’s always been right there whenever I needed her.” Suddenly she remembered what her mother had said the other day and frowned. “I wonder if that’s the problem,” she said softly.
“What?” May asked.
“The other day Mom was telling me how proud she is that I’m getting more independent,” Jasmine explained. She bit her lip. “Maybe she’s tired of always having to take care of me. Maybe she wants me to be totally grown up so I won’t bother her all the time when she’s trying to work.”
“I doubt that,” Corey said firmly. She gestured at the rabbit family. “Even though this mother rabbit has lots of children, she still likes taking care of them all, right?”
“But she won’t always take care of them,” Jasmine pointed out sadly, watching the baby rabbits. “Someday they’ll all be grown up and then they’ll have to take care of themselves.” Just then she heard someone calling her name. “That sounds like my dad,” she said, getting up. The three girls went outside and saw Mr. James standing on his back porch.
“There you are, pumpkin,” he called when he saw Jasmine. “Could you come inside? Your mother and I want to talk to you about something important.”
“I’d better go,” Jasmine muttered to her friends. “They probably want to yell at me or something.”
“Oh, come on,” May said. “I’m sure it’s nothing like that.”
Jasmine started walking away, dragging her feet. “Do you guys want to go riding tomorrow?” she asked.
“I can’t,” Corey said. “I’ll be with my dad. He’s taking me to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington for the day.”
“We’re going to visit my talkative Aunt Lucy tomorrow,” May said. “We’ll probably be there all day.”
“Rats,” Jasmine said sadly. “That means if they do yell at me, I won’t even be able to tell you about it until Monday.”
A few minutes later Jasmine was sitting in the living room with her mother and father. She stared at the floor, afraid of what her parents would say to her. Her mother spoke first.
“We want to apologize again for forgetting your special dinner, Jasmine,” she said. “But that’s not the only thing we need to talk to you about.” She paused and glanced at her husband.
“That’s right, pumpkin,” he said, sitting down on the couch beside Jasmine and putting his arm around her. “We have some pretty big news. I hope you’ll be as excited about it as we are.”
Jasmine looked from one parent to the other. She had no idea what they were talking about. At least they didn’t seem to be mad at her. “What is it?” she asked. “What’s the big news?”
Her mother took a deep breath and smiled. “You’re going to be a big sister, Jasmine.”
“What?” For a second Jasmine didn’t understand what her mother meant. Then, suddenly, she did. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. “You mean
—you’re going to have a baby?”
Mrs. James nodded. “That’s right,” she said. “We just found out for sure this morning. That’s where we were before your show.”
“Wow,” Jasmine said. “I’m going to be a big sister!” Just a few minutes ago she had been talking to her friends about brothers and sisters. And now it turned out she was going to have one herself. It didn’t seem real.
“What do you think, pumpkin?” Mr. James asked. “Don’t be afraid to tell us. We know this kind of news takes some getting used to.”
Jasmine nodded. “That’s for sure.” Then she grinned. She still had lots of questions for her parents. Right now, though, all she could think about was one thing: Soon there would be a new baby in the house!
11 Jasmine’s Big News
On Monday morning Corey and May both arrived at the bus stop a little early. They were eager to find out how Jasmine’s talk with her parents had gone. Besides that, they hadn’t had a chance to talk over the details of Saturday’s competition.
“Can you believe how mad Erin looked when Simon fell off in the middle of their turn?” Corey said, swinging her book bag.
May giggled. “I know. I can’t believe someone could fall off Patch so often,” she said. “He’s the easiest horse in the whole stable to ride.”
“It’s too bad you got stuck with snobby old Veronica,” Corey said. “Still, it was fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yup,” May agreed. “Even though I think I had more fun ruining Erin’s revenge than I did riding.” She stopped to think. “Well, maybe the same amount of fun. I just did better at revenge than I did at riding.”
Just then Jasmine arrived. “Hi, Jasmine,” Corey said. “Did everything turn out okay with your parents?”
Jasmine nodded. “They didn’t want to yell at me at all. They just wanted to tell me something.”
She was about to go on, but May was still thinking about Erin. “It’s Erin’s own fault, you know,” she interrupted.
“What do you mean?” Corey asked.
“She should have known better than to mess with one of us,” May said. “She knows we always stick together.”
“Listen, guys,” Jasmine put in. “My parents told me something kind of interesting on Saturday night.”
“Okay,” May said. “But first, you have to tell us what you did with your blue ribbon. Did you hang it in your room or in the barn?”
“Actually, I haven’t hung it up yet,” Jasmine said. “After my parents’ news, I sort of forgot about it—”
“Forgot about it?” Corey shrieked. “Are you kidding? How could you forget about a blue ribbon? I hung up my red one as soon as I got home. The only problem is that now I have to win another one, so I’ll have one to hang in my room at Dad’s apartment, too.”
“That’s a good idea,” May agreed.
Suddenly Jasmine dropped her books on the ground and screamed at the top of her lungs. May and Corey fell silent and turned to look at her in surprise. Jasmine didn’t scream very often—especially for no apparent reason.
“What is it, Jasmine?” Corey asked.
Jasmine put her hands on her hips. “Do I have your attention now?” she asked. “Good. Because I’ve been trying to tell you something for the last five minutes.”
“Oh,” May said. “Sorry. What is it?”
“It’s my parents’ big news,” Jasmine said. She took a deep breath. “They’re going to have a baby.”
Corey and May gasped. “A baby!” they exclaimed in one voice.
Jasmine nodded and smiled. “My mom’s pregnant. That’s why she’s been distracted lately.”
“Wow,” Corey said. “Is that why they forgot your special dinner?”
“Yes,” Jasmine said. “But they both promised to try their hardest to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. They said just because there will be a new baby in the family, it doesn’t mean I’m any less important to them.”
“Of course not,” May said. “I could have told you that.”
“After I got over being excited, I started to feel a little worried, though,” Jasmine admitted. “I mean, my mom was just telling me last week all that stuff about being independent. But she says that even though I’ll have to be more grown up and responsible now that I’m going to be a big sister, I’ll still be their little girl. And I can still count on her whenever I need her.” She reached for her book bag. “Oh, and I almost forgot—we went back to the mall yesterday, and they got me the model pony.”
“Really?” May exclaimed. “Do you have it with you?”
Jasmine pulled a toy pony out of her bag. It was a perfect replica of Outlaw, from the white mask to the quizzical tilt of the head. “My parents said they don’t usually like to celebrate by buying me things,” she said. She rolled her eyes. “They call it ’encouraging materialistic values.’ But they decided to make an exception this time, since we had two things to celebrate—my ribbon and the new baby.”
“You’re so lucky you’re getting a little brother or sister,” Corey said, kicking at the grass along the side of the road. “That’s one of the worst parts about having divorced parents. I know they’re never going to have any more kids.”
“You should be grateful, believe me,” May said. “Sisters aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”
Jasmine shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think it will be kind of neat to have a baby sister. I can help Mom dress her up and stuff. Or him, if it’s a boy.”
“It will be different for Jasmine than it is for you, May,” Corey pointed out. “Jasmine will be the oldest.”
“That’s true,” May said. “You’ll get to boss the baby around, and do everything first, and get new clothes and hand them down to the baby. You’re so lucky!”
Jasmine nodded slowly. She wasn’t really listening to May. Instead, she was thinking about how her whole life was changing. She was going to have to learn how to be a good older sister. That was even more complicated than being a good rider. It was exciting—but a little scary, too. She knew she was going to try to be the best big sister in the world. Maybe her new brother or sister would grow up to love riding, just like Jasmine. Maybe Jasmine would be the one to teach him or her how to ride!
The roar of the school bus interrupted her thoughts. As she climbed aboard with her friends, Jasmine glanced behind her at their little row of houses. Soon someone new would be living in one of them. That meant there were big changes ahead for all the Pony Tails—and especially for big sister Jasmine.
JASMINE’S TIPS ON HORSES’ COLORS
It took me a long time to learn the colors that people use to describe horses and ponies, because they don’t always make sense. It would be simple if we could just call a horse a blond, a brunet, or a redhead. But horses and ponies not only have lots of colors, they also have lots of patterns. That’s one of the reasons we need so many different ways to describe their coats.
First there are the solid colors. Probably the most common color for a horse is bay. A bay horse has a brown coat (light, medium, or dark, it’s all brown) and black points. Points means his legs, nose, and tail.
Another common color is chestnut. If chestnut horses were people, most of them would be called redheads, though the color ranges from a dark reddish brown to a light reddish brown. The ones that are the darkest and the least red are called liver chestnuts. That sounds like something awful a mother might make her kid eat for dinner, but my favorite pony in the whole wide world, Outlaw, is a liver chestnut, so even though it sounds funny, I love the color. The biggest distinction between a chestnut and a bay is that a chestnut is all one color.
A lot of horses are gray, too. Gray can be a solid color or dappled. And here’s the thing that I think is funny. A white horse is almost always really a gray horse. That doesn’t sound as if it makes sense, but it does. If you look closely at most horses you might want to call white, you’ll see that they usually have a lot of black hairs, generally on their noses
and legs—at their points. That’s because most “white” horses used to be another color and have gone white with age. The few real white horses are called albinos. They’re like white mice and white rabbits. They’ve got red eyes. You don’t see too many of them. I don’t have a model of one in my collection, either!
Sometimes you’ll find a pure black horse. The technical name for that color coat is—you guessed it—black!
Then there are colors that are really mixes. When a color is mixed with white, it’s called a roan. A chestnut-and-white mix is a strawberry roan. A black-and-white mix is a blue roan.
Other solid colors are palominos. That’s a golden coat (like Macaroni’s) with a silvery mane. If it’s a golden coat with black points, we call it a dun.
But horses don’t just have colors. Sometimes they have patterns, too. Horses that have splotches of black and white or brown and white are often called paints or pintos. If the splotches are black and white, it’s a piebald. If they are brown and white, it’s known as a skewbald. Then if it’s gray and has dark splotches, it’s called a dappled gray or, if they look like freckles, it’s called a fleabitten gray. (I think that’s a nastier name than liver chestnut!) And then there are breeds that have distinctive patterns. The best example of that is the Appaloosa. Appies come in lots of different patterns, but most of them are basically white or black with black, brown, or white spots on them.
There are lots of varieties of colors and patterns, and I didn’t even get to begin to talk about markings, but the thing I know for sure is that it doesn’t matter what color a pony is. What matters is what’s in his heart. Outlaw is the most wonderful, sweetest, stubbornest, naughtiest pony in the world, and I love him to pieces.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Pony Tails series
1 What’s Wrong with Macaroni?
Pony Tails 07- Jasmine Trots Ahead Page 4