Read an Excerpt

May Takes the Lead

Pony Tails, Book Five

OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

A Good Cleaning

"I think I need sunglasses!" May Grover said to her pony, Macaroni. "Your golden yellow coat is so sparkly clean, the shine is blinding me!"

Macaroni looked over his shoulder and blinked his eyes slowly. That made May giggle. Maybe his coat was gleaming too brightly for him, too! Then Macaroni turned his attention back to the pile of fresh hay in front of him. He took a bite and munched happily.

May hugged her pony. "I can't let you roll around in the muddy paddock when I'm done with this cleaning," she told him. "I'm going to cover you with a blanket and keep you in the stall. I won't even give you a chance to be naughty!"

Macaroni gave a little snort.

"Now, now, behave yourself," May teased. Macaroni went back to munching.

May always had fun when she was with Macaroni, even when it seemed to be work. May was working especially hard today to groom Macaroni. She and her best friends, Jasmine James and Corey Takamura, were going to be in a riding demonstration soon. Their Pony Club was helping to raise money for the local County Animal Rescue League, which everybody called CARL because of its initials. It was important for Macaroni to look his very best. People would be paying money to watch him perform.

May, Jasmine, and Corey all lived next door to one another. They had a lot in common. They all had ponies that they kept in their backyards, they all went to the same school, and they were all in the third grade. They also belonged to the same Pony Club, called Horse Wise. Best of all, they were all completely pony crazy. That was why they called themselves the Pony Tails.

Sometimes it seemed as if ponies and horses were May's whole life. Her father was a trainer. That meant he spent most of his time teaching horses for their owners. Mr. Grover loved horses as much as May did. He had a horse named Rascal. May's mother liked to ride as well. She had a bay gelding named Dobbin.

May's two older sisters, Ellie and Dottie, were the only members of the family who didn't have horses. When they were younger, they rode the Grovers' other horse, an old gray named Hank. Now Ellie and Dottie didn't ride anymore. The only thing Ellie cared about was soccer. Dottie was too interested in boys to think about anything else. Sometimes May couldn't believe they were really her sisters!

"Now, let me get the rag and give you a rubdown," May said to Macaroni. "That's the part that really makes your coat shine."

Macaroni stood completely still. May could have sworn he was smiling. If he'd been a cat, he would have been purring! May picked up the rag and began the final touch of her grooming job. It was her favorite part, too.

The phone in the stable rang once, then stopped. May frowned at it. Usually when the phone rang once and stopped, it was May's mother saying she should come into the house because dinner was ready. It wasn't dinnertime yet.

May began rubbing Macaroni on his left shoulder and worked her way back and down, leaving behind a gleaming coat.

The phone rang once again. May looked at the clock by the phone. It still wasn't dinnertime.

"It must be a wrong number," she told Macaroni. He didn't seem to care. He stood still and waited for her to continue rubbing his coat. So she did.

In a few minutes, the phone rang a third time. This time May decided to answer it so she could tell the person who was calling that they were making a mistake. She picked up the phone.

"That's funny," she told Macaroni. "Nobody's there."

Macaroni watched her hang up the phone, waiting for her to return to her important job—making him feel good and clean. May went back to work.

She had finished his left side and was walking around to the right when she heard her sister Dottie call her name.

"May!"

"I'm out here," May answered.

"May!" Ellie called.

"In the stable!" May called back.

"May!" her sisters yelled together.

May put down the cleaning rag and walked to the door of the stable. Her sisters were standing together at the back door of the house.

"I'm grooming Macaroni!" May said.

"Well, you're supposed to be in here!" said Dottie.

"Didn't you hear the telephone?" Ellie demanded.

"Is dinner ready?" May asked. She was confused.

"Not dinner!" Dottie said.

"The basement!" said Ellie. "Did you forget the deal we made?"

May groaned. She'd forgotten completely. She and her sisters had made a pact with their parents to clean the basement. The Grovers' house had a finished basement that had been a playroom when the girls were little. On rainy days they used to ride bikes down there, make gigantic buildings from blocks, or play with dolls. Even though no one played with those things anymore, they were still there. So were dozens of cartons of old clothes, toys, and papers. Last week Mr. and Mrs. Grover had told the girls that if they cleaned it up they could use it and even have parties in it.

Ellie wanted to invite her soccer team over after practice. Dottie wanted to have a boy-girl party there. May thought it would be fun for the Pony Tails to meet there when the weather kept them out of the hayloft in the stable.

Today was the day the sisters had agreed to do the cleanup.

"I'll be right there," May promised her sisters.

She ducked back into the stable and put everything into her grooming bucket. She told Macaroni she'd finish the job soon. He didn't look happy when she locked him in his stall.

"I'll be back tomorrow," she promised the pony.

In the basement Ellie handed May a broom. "Didn't you hear the phone ring?" she asked.

"Yes, but I was grooming Macaroni and I—" May started.

"Ponies, ponies. Everything's ponies!" Dottie interrupted. "Some things are more important." She pointed to the corner of the basement May was to sweep.

"It's just that grooming—" May tried again.

"Brooming is what you're doing today. Not grooming," said Ellie.

Dottie and Ellie wouldn't listen to May. They didn't care about anything that had to do with ponies.

There's no point in trying to explain, May decided. She started sweeping five years' worth of dust and grime from the basement floor. As she worked, she thought about her friends Jasmine and Corey, who were only children and had no sisters.

"You missed a spot!" Ellie pointed out.

My friends are lucky, May decided. Really lucky.

The Trouble with Sisters

Cleaning the basement wasn't easy work. It especially wasn't easy when May's sisters kept picking on her.

"Don't forget, we're all going to be able to use this room when it's clean," Ellie said.

"We can each have a party in it, but mine will come first because I'm the oldest," said Dottie.

"Then me," Ellie said. "And then, maybe it'll be May's turn."

May knew her sisters were just teasing her. Experience had taught her the best way to respond to that was not to respond at all.

But keeping quiet was not something May did well. After a short time, she couldn't stand her sisters' remarks any longer.

"My birthday comes first," she burst out. "I should have the first party."

"Your birthday?" Dottie looked surprised. "Is it coming up?"

"It's just two weeks away," said May. "And I think I should have a party."

"Since you like ponies so much, why don't you have your birthday party in the stable?" Ellie said.

Dottie seemed to find that very funny. The two of them giggled together.

May didn't giggle at all. She stopped sweeping for a minute and looked at her sisters. "I know you think it's funny, but you guys are really missing out on something by not riding."

"Like what?" Ellie rolled her eyes. "Saddle sores?"

"No—like fun," said May.

"Like I really have time to play with ponies," said Dottie. Dottie was in high school and spent a lot of time on her homework. The rest of her time seemed to be spent on the phone with her boyfriend, Richard.

"It isn't just playing," May said. "We work hard, too. Like right now, we're working on a drill."

"A drill?" Ellie echoed. "What does a power tool have to do with ponies?"

"It's not a power tool—" May began.

"Okay, then, a hand tool. Why would you use a hand tool when a power tool is so much easier?" Dottie asked.

"Not that kind of drill," May said. "It's like—"

"I get it. She's talking about the dentist!" Ellie slapped her hand against her cheek as if she had a bad toothache.

"You know that's not what I mean," May insisted.

"May!" Dottie exclaimed. "If it's not what you mean, why don't you just tell us what you mean?"

May glared at her sisters. Both of them were smirking. They knew what she was talking about. They had both been in Pony Club. Ellie had even been on a drill team.

May tried to swallow her anger. "It's a drill team exercise," she began again. "We're doing it to raise money—"

"Why would they want to drill teeth to raise money?" Ellie interrupted.

"It's what dentists do," said Dottie. "They make lots of money doing it, too."

"I didn't know May was a dentist," said Ellie.

"Must be from looking gift horses in the mouth," Dottie cracked.

Ellie started laughing uncontrollably. Pretty soon, Dottie was laughing, too.

By now May was furious. She wanted to throw down the broom and run out of the basement. But that would have given her sisters too much satisfaction. Instead, she stomped back to the corner where she'd been cleaning. As she swept up the dust, she kept her back to Ellie and Dottie. She didn't pay attention when they started talking about drilling for oil. Or drilling Macaroni's cavities.

Then May couldn't sweep anymore. A stack of cartons was in her way. She put down her broom and looked at a carton. On the top it said DOTTIE'S ROOM/PRIVATE!!! Dottie had redecorated her room a few months ago, May remembered. Dottie must have forgotten about this carton after the room was repainted.

May lifted the carton and hauled it over to another part of the room. As she dropped the carton on the floor, the flaps flew open. May glanced over her shoulder. She didn't want Dottie to think she was snooping around her personal stuff.

But Dottie wasn't looking in May's direction. She and Ellie were still talking about drill bits and laughing very hard.

May turned back to the box. On the top of the things inside was a leather-bound book with gold lettering on the cover. It read MY DIARY.

May's eyes widened. She didn't know Dottie kept a diary. What does she write about? May wondered. It seemed like such an interesting thing to do.

May looked at her sisters again. Dottie and Ellie were practically falling on top of one another. They were laughing at some other joke they'd made about drills.

That did it for May. Her sisters didn't care one bit about her feelings. Why should she care about theirs?

Without another thought, she slipped the diary out of the carton and wrapped it in her sweatshirt. Dottie would never notice it was gone, especially if May put the whole carton in a dark corner.

That's just what she did.

Backyard Practice

"Good morning, Dobbin. Hello, Rascal. Good boy, Hank," May said, greeting each horse cheerfully as she entered the stable the next morning. "Hi, Macaroni. Now it's time to finish your grooming—as soon as I feed you."

May waved to her father, who was already working in the ring with one of his students, Double-O-Seven. Then she turned her attention to her daily stable chores and taking care of Macaroni. She fed her pony and mucked out his stall. Next she picked up the rag to complete the grooming she'd started the day before.

The back door of May's house slammed. May looked out. There were Jasmine and Corey walking across the lawn. She smiled and waved to her friends. "Ready to go for a ride?" she yelled.

"You bet!" Corey said eagerly. "I'll go get Samurai tacked up."

"Race you!" Jasmine cried. She dashed off to the little stable in her backyard to get her pony ready for a ride.

May hummed to herself as she put on Macaroni's tack. There was nothing she liked to do better than ride with her friends in the Pony Tails. The girls' ponies seemed to enjoy being together, too.

Jasmine's pony was named Outlaw. He was a chestnut with a white face that looked like an outlaw's mask. The mask wasn't the only thing about Jasmine's pony that made him an outlaw. He could be very naughty sometimes, too!

Corey's pony was named Samurai. She called him Sam for short. Sam had a crescent-shaped blaze on his face that looked like a Samurai sword. Most of the time, Sam was a very good pony. But sometimes he would get upset about something, and he would misbehave.

By the time May had finished tacking up Macaroni, her friends were leading their ponies toward the ring behind the Grovers' stable.

Mr. Grover was riding Double-O-Seven at one end of the ring. The girls knew they shouldn't interfere with Double-O-Seven's training, so they stayed at the other end of the ring.

They began by walking in circles to give their ponies a chance to warm up.

"Let's play Follow the Leader," Jasmine suggested when the ponies were all ready to ride.

The other Pony Tails agreed that that would be fun. Besides, it would give them a chance to practice the skills they were using at Horse Wise.

"May, you have to be the leader," Corey said.

"Please, May," Jasmine added. "You have such a great imagination. You always think of fun things to do."

"Okay," May agreed cheerfully.

First May led her friends through a snakelike path all around the ring. The riders had to concentrate to follow exactly where May went. Next May did more snakelike riding, but this time she did it at a trot. Jasmine almost got confused and lost track of the trail, but she followed the pony hoofprints in the ring.

"Now canter!" May called out behind her. She began riding in a large circle. That was easy for her friends to follow and fun, too. All three girls loved to canter on their ponies.

"Now walk again," May said. All three horses began walking.

May slipped her feet out of her stirrups. Corey and Jasmine did the same thing. Corey noticed that when she didn't use her stirrups, she had to pay more attention to her balance.

May put her feet back in the stirrups. She kept on walking Macaroni, but now she took her left hand and put it on top of her head. Corey and Jasmine did the same thing. May kept Macaroni going in circles.

"Hey," Jasmine called, "it's tricky to get Outlaw to turn when I'm holding the reins with only one hand!"

"No kidding," Corey agreed. "Sam's a little confused about what's going on. But he's paying attention to my leg signals."

"Try this!" said May. She put down her reins and held her arms out to the side. That meant the only way she could tell Macaroni which way to turn was by using her legs. She put pressure on his right side with her whole leg. He hesitated for a few seconds, but then he did it! He turned to the left.

"Good boy!" May said. She turned to look at her friends. They had figured out the same thing, and so had their ponies.

"This is good practice," Corey announced.

"You girls are learning a lot," said Mr. Grover. He was sitting on Double-O-Seven, watching them. "Good job."

"Thanks, Dad." May was practically blushing; she was so pleased by her father's praise.

At least someone in the family took her riding seriously!

A few minutes later, the girls stopped their game. They rode in circles together, changing gaits every once in a while.

"I wish everyone in my family had nice things to say about my riding," May said.

"What do you mean?" Corey asked.

May told them about the teasing she'd gotten from her sisters the day before. "You two don't know how lucky you are that you don't have older sisters," she added.

Corey and Jasmine looked at each other.

"I don't know about that," Corey said. "Remember the time Ellie let you wear her new sweater?"

"And when Dottie showed us all how to put on lipstick?" Jasmine said.

"Big deal," May said. "Most of the time they don't care about me and Macaroni at all. Right now all they can think about is the parties they're going to have in the basement. They don't even care that my birthday is coming up soon."

"Maybe they do care," Corey began. "Maybe—"

---

Excerpted from May Takes the Lead by Bonnie Bryant. Copyright © 1996 Bonnie Bryant Hiller. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---