3 Corey’s Nightmare
“Good night, Corey.” A little while later, Doc Tock poked her head into Corey’s room.
Corey lay on her bed reading a horse magazine. “’Night, Mom,” she mumbled without looking up.
Doc Tock came into the room and sat down on Corey’s bed. “That article looks interesting.” She pointed to the cover of the magazine, which showed a picture of a herd of wild ponies.
“I guess so.” Corey knew she wasn’t being very polite, but she didn’t want to be polite. She was still angry at her mother for making her go out to dinner with Alice in the first place.
“It must be kind of strange to have your mother going out on dates all of a sudden,” Doc Tock said softly. “I’ve been wondering if that’s part of the reason why tonight’s dinner didn’t go very well.”
Corey felt another flare of anger. “It has nothing to do with your dating, Mom. It has to do with the fact that Alice isn’t very nice. I tried my best to be friends with her. She’s the one who said ponies are dumb!”
“I’m sure Alice’s remarks hurt your feelings, Corey,” Doc Tock replied. “Maybe she—”
“Alice didn’t hurt my feelings,” Corey interrupted. “She just proved that she’s a nasty person.”
“Alice isn’t a bad person just because she doesn’t share your interests, Corey,” Doc Tock said. “She isn’t around animals all the time the way we are. Maybe she’s not used to them.”
Corey just glared at her mother. Doc Tock had heard what Alice had said. So why was she taking Alice’s side?
Finally Doc Tock stood up. “Well, thanks for coming to dinner, honey.” She leaned over to give Corey a kiss. “Sleep tight.”
“Good night,” Corey replied.
Alice wasn’t only rude to me, Corey thought as her mother left the room. She was rude to Mom, too. She was even rude to her own father! Corey had never met such an unfriendly girl.
A few minutes later, Corey tossed the magazine on the floor and turned out the light. As she settled between the sheets, she could hear the litter of puppies yipping out in the barn. The sound made her picture the round table at Sir Loyne’s all over again. She could still see Alice’s disgusted expression. How could someone hate being licked on the face by an adorable puppy? The dinner kept replaying in Corey’s mind.
She sat up to rearrange her pillow. As she lay back down, she forced herself to think about something besides the terrible meal. She remembered that she was going to her father’s apartment tomorrow to stay for the next few days. She pictured her father, with his dark hair and friendly brown eyes. Then she imagined her cheerful room at his apartment. It was decorated with pony wallpaper and lots of horse posters.
Finally Corey’s eyes closed. As she drifted off to sleep, she was still picturing her room at her father’s apartment. But now she was picturing herself packing up her things to come back to her mother’s house …
“Bye, Dad,” Corey said as she opened the car door. “Thanks for everything.”
“See you in a few days, honey,” Mr. Takamura replied.
Corey hurried up the path.
Her mother stood waiting at the back door. “Hi, honey,” she said, hugging Corey. “I’m so happy you’re back. Wait till you see what I’ve been working on in the barn.”
Excitement rippled through Corey. For the past few months, her mother had been promising to build a bigger stall for Samurai. Mom finally got around to doing it! Corey thought.
Eagerly she followed her mother out to the barn. She couldn’t wait to see Sam’s new stall. Corey’s pet goat, Alexander, loved spending time with Sam. He would enjoy the extra space, too.
But to Corey’s surprise, Doc Tock didn’t lead Corey to a new stall for Samurai. She led Corey to Samurai’s old stall.
“Here we are, Corey.” She opened the door with a proud expression.
“But …” Corey peered into the stall. Then she glanced back at her mother, puzzled. “Where’s Sam?”
Doc Tock beamed at her. “Oh, I sold Samurai, honey. He’s such a big pony, and we need the extra room for …”
Corey glanced into the stall again. “Bookshelves?” she said in disbelief.
“That’s right, honey,” her mother replied. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
Corey couldn’t believe it. Lining the walls of Sam’s stall were rows and rows of shelves. On all the shelves were hundreds of copies of Alice’s favorite book, Harriet the Spy!
“No! No!” Corey cried in horror. “No!”
Corey tossed and turned, tangling her legs in the sheets. At last her eyes flew open. She sat bolt upright in bed.
“Oh my gosh!” she gasped. She wasn’t out in the barn looking at Samurai’s empty stall. She was in bed, having a terrible, terrible nightmare.
“Thank goodness,” she whispered.
Relieved, she lay down again. But her fingers were still trembling. Her heart was pumping hard. It was just a dream, but it had felt so real.…
It took a long time for Corey to relax again. When her eyes finally closed, it was almost midnight.
This time, as Corey drifted off to sleep, she didn’t have a nightmare. She had a dream—a sweet dream—about a big moving van parked in front of the Lees’ house.
“Where are the Lees going?” May asked in Corey’s dream.
“Oh, far, far away,” Corey answered. She smiled happily as the moving van drove past her house. “Isn’t it wonderful, May?” Corey said to her friend. “Alice and her father are moving to Mars.”
4 A Secret Friend
The next morning Corey was still lost in her dreams when an impatient voice woke her.
“Corey Takamura! This is the third time I’ve called you!”
Corey’s eyes popped open. Her mother stood in the doorway of her bedroom. There was an annoyed expression on Doc Tock’s face.
“If you don’t get up right now, you’re going to be late for school,” Doc Tock said. “And I’m sure I don’t have to remind you—there are some very hungry animals out in the barn waiting for their breakfast.”
One of Corey’s daily chores at her mother’s house was to feed Samurai and Alexander. This week Corey was also responsible for feeding the litter of puppies. They were eight weeks old and had just started eating dog food.
Corey sprang out of bed. “Sorry, Mom,” she said. “Don’t worry. I’ll get everything done.”
As Doc Tock closed the door, Corey raced around her room, getting dressed and gathering her things to take to her father’s that afternoon.
Downstairs, Corey gulped down a bowl of cereal. She had found all her books and a board game she wanted to take to her father’s apartment, but her math homework was missing.
“Maybe I left it on the dining room table,” she said to herself. That was where she’d done the homework two nights before.
As usual, there were all sorts of things piled up on the Takamuras’ dining room table: yesterday’s mail, a stack of Doc Tock’s patients’ charts, and a bunch of old magazines.
Corey dug through the mail. A few minutes later she fished her math papers out from under a pile of newspapers.
“Whew,” she said, relieved. Her teacher wouldn’t be very happy if Corey showed up at school without her math homework.
Corey scooped up the papers and shoved them into her notebook. Then she grabbed her backpack and gave her mother a quick kiss good-bye. She was still holding the notebook in her hands as she dashed out to the barn. If she hurried, she’d have just enough time to feed the animals before running to the bus stop.
“I’m coming, everybody,” Corey called out as she approached the barn. “Your breakfast will be ready in a minute.”
She was so worried about being late to feed the puppies and her pony and goat that she didn’t see another of her pets racing in her direction. As she went into the barn, Dracula jumped up to say hello. His two huge front paws landed on Corey’s chest, knocking her down. Her math notebook sailed out of her arms and landed on th
e ground with a thud. Papers flew everywhere.
“Oh no!” Corey cried. “My math homework!”
Dracula’s tail stopped wagging. His eyes looked worried as he gave Corey one of his wet, slobbery kisses.
“It’s not your fault Dracula,” she told him with a sigh. “I’m the one who wasn’t watching where she was going.”
She stood up and brushed off the seat of her jeans. She was about to chase after the math papers when a whinny came from the back of the barn. A loud, unhappy bleat followed. Samurai and Alexander were telling her that they were hungry—very hungry.
Corey glanced at the papers skittering across the yard. My math papers will have to wait, she decided. It wasn’t fair to keep the hungry animals waiting one more minute for their breakfast.
She headed over to Samurai’s stall. “Good morning, Alexander.” The black-and-white goat trotted over, and she patted him on the head. “I’m sorry I’m so late.” She turned to say hello to Samurai. After last night’s nightmare, she couldn’t help feeling relieved to see that Sam was still there, inside his stall.
Samurai blinked his big brown eyes at Corey, as if to say “What took you so long?”
Corey apologized to him, too. “I had a bad dream last night,” she explained. “That’s why I overslept this morning.”
Corey moved quickly. She poured out fresh grain and water for Samurai. Then she dumped pellets into Alexander’s bowl. After getting their breakfast ready, she hurried over to feed the litter of puppies. They yelped and scratched at their pen as Corey unlatched the gate. They were just as hungry as the goat and pony.
When Corey was finished feeding the puppies, she went back to Sam and Alexander to say good-bye. She wanted to let them know that May and Jasmine would be taking care of them while she was at her father’s for the next few days.
On her way out of the barn, Corey glanced at the clock on the stable wall. She was very late.
“I’m definitely going to miss the bus today,” she mumbled. By the time she finished running around picking up her math papers, the bus would be long gone.
But when she reached the entrance of the stable, she gasped. “Oh my gosh …”
Her notebook was sitting right where she had dropped it. But it wasn’t the disorganized mess that Corey had left behind. Instead, the cover of the spiral-bound notebook was closed, and all Corey’s math papers were neatly tucked inside.
Corey glanced around. Her mother was busy with a patient, so she hadn’t been the one to help Corey. Then who …?
Dracula rubbed his nose against Corey’s leg.
“It wasn’t you, was it, Dracula?” Corey asked.
Just then she spotted her two best friends racing across Jasmine’s back-yard. They were headed for the bus stop, too.
“That’s who,” Corey said out loud. A big smile spread across her face. “Wait up!” she cried, running after her friends.
May and Jasmine turned around. They stopped when they saw Corey racing toward them.
“You two are the best,” Corey declared.
“Of course we’re the best!” May said, grinning.
“No, I mean it, May.” Corey shook her head to show that she was serious. “I can’t believe you did that for me.”
Jasmine gave Corey a puzzled look. “Did what?”
“Picked up my papers, silly!” Corey said. “If you guys hadn’t straightened up my notebook, I’d still be back at the barn, doing it myself.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Corey,” said May. “We didn’t pick up your papers.”
Corey grinned. “It certainly wasn’t Dracula!”
May and Jasmine exchanged looks.
“That’s okay. You guys don’t have to admit it,” Corey went on. “I just want you to know that I really appreciate it.”
As the girls joined the group of kids standing at the bus stop, Corey glanced across the street at the tall brick house with green shutters.
May saw Corey looking at Alice’s house. “So how was it?” she asked.
“It was awful!” Corey told her friends about how rude Alice had been. When she got to the part about Alice saying that ponies were dumb and so was riding them, Jasmine gasped.
“I can’t believe she said that!”
“She’s the one who’s dumb, Corey,” May agreed. “I wouldn’t want to spend time with her, either.”
“I’m never going out to dinner with her again,” Corey said solemnly. “As far as I’m concerned, Alice Lee is the most horrible, terrible—”
“Shhh!” Jasmine gripped Corey’s arm. “Here she comes,” she whispered.
Corey snapped her mouth closed. As she glanced across the street again, she saw Alice and Kyle Lee walking down their driveway toward their car. For a second Alice’s eyes met Corey’s. Then the other girl looked away as she and her father climbed into their car.
“I hope Alice couldn’t tell we were talking about her,” Jasmine said in a worried tone.
“I don’t think she could, Jasmine,” May answered. “She was all the way across the street.”
“But it was so obvious,” Jasmine said. “We all stopped talking the second she walked out her front door.”
Just then the Jeep backed out of the driveway. Kyle waved at the Pony Tails as he drove past their bus stop, but Alice was staring downward.
“She’s probably got her nose in a book again,” Corey said.
But Jasmine shook her head. “Didn’t you see her face, Corey? Alice must have known we were talking about her.”
“Why do you say that, Jasmine?” May asked.
“She was crying,” Jasmine told them.
Corey felt her face flush. For a second she felt bad because she might have done something to make Alice cry. But her feeling quickly turned to anger as she remembered Alice’s words last night. “I hope she did know we were talking about her,” Corey said. She watched the Jeep continue down the street. “It serves her right for all the mean things she said to me.”
Jasmine looked surprised by Corey’s sharp tone. Before she could say anything more, the bus rounded the corner.
Corey bent down to pick up her backpack. By the time she stood up again, the black Jeep had disappeared.
5 The Secret Friend Strikes Again
Corey was at her father’s apartment for the next few days. She was so busy with schoolwork and doing things with her father that she forgot about what had happened with Alice. In fact, she didn’t think about Alice, or about Kyle, at all—until she returned to her mother’s house.
“Kyle and I heard the most wonderful concert in Washington, D.C., this weekend,” Doc Tock said at breakfast on Monday morning. “A marching band performed, and then we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant that Kyle and Alice like.”
“A seafood restaurant?” Corey bit into a blueberry muffin. “Did Alice order crab for dinner?”
Doc Tock raised her eyebrows. “Alice was staying with her mom this weekend.”
“Oh,” Corey said. She stared at the back of a box of bran cereal. She wasn’t really interested in hearing about Alice’s weekend.
Luckily, Doc Tock changed the subject. “Thanks for feeding the puppies,” she said. “You remembered to latch the gate on the pen—right?”
“Uh …” Corey hesitated. Last week while Corey was at her father’s, Doc Tock’s assistant, Jack, had been the one to feed the puppies. Twice he’d forgotten to latch the gate, and several of the puppies had found their way out into the Takamuras’ yard. Corey knew her mother was worried that if the puppies escaped again, they might wander farther away.
Corey definitely remembered opening the pen to feed the puppies. And she definitely remembered shutting the gate. She just couldn’t remember latching it.
She didn’t want to admit that to her mother. “Of course I locked the gate, Mom,” she said instead.
Doc Tock smiled at her. “I knew I could count on you, Corey,” she said. “You’re always such a big help around here.”
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br /> Her mother’s kind words immediately made Corey feel guilty about telling a lie. Doc Tock did count on Corey for help with her animal patients. Corey didn’t want to let her down. And she didn’t want anything to happen to the litter of cute puppies.
Corey left the last bit of muffin on the plate as she hurried out the back door again.
What if I didn’t latch the gate? she worried. What if the puppies did run away? They’re still so little, and so many terrible things could happen. By the time she reached the barn, Corey was sure she’d forgotten to latch the gate.
But as she approached the puppy pen, she could make out several balls of yellow fur in the straw. Quickly she counted them. “… four … five … six … Thank goodness!” She let out a relieved breath as she realized that all eight Labs were there. She reached over to secure the gate.
Suddenly her fingers froze. The latch was already fastened!
Corey was positive that she’d left the gate unlocked. That meant only one thing.
“They did it again!” Corey exclaimed. “I am so lucky to have best friends like May and Jasmine—aren’t I, little guy?” she said to one of the puppies. He waggled his tail in reply.
This wasn’t the first time this morning that May and Jasmine had come to Corey’s rescue. When she’d come out earlier to feed Sam and Alexander, both animals had already been munching contentedly on their breakfasts. And last week while Corey was at her father’s, May and Jasmine had put her bike back in the garage for her. Yesterday the two of them had even put Corey’s tennis racket on her porch so that it wouldn’t get soaked in the rain.
Corey wasn’t sure why her best friends were helping her out so much lately, but she had a hunch. May and Jasmine were probably trying to help her forget about the situation with Alice.
Corey smiled as one of the puppies playfully bit another one. Together the two yellow Labs rolled around in the straw. The puppies are so cute, Corey thought. And thanks to May and Jasmine, they were also safe and sound.
Corey's Secret Friend (Pony Tails Book 12) Page 2