Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
1 Time to Go
2 Corey’s Other Home
3 Samurai Goes for a Ride
4 Where is Samurai?
5 Comforting Corey
6 Corey’s Bad Day
7 May and Jasmine Get to Work
8 Hunting for Samurai
9 Corey Comes Home
10 The Pony Tails Meeting
11 The Samurai Hunt
12 Reunion
13 Corey’s Other Home
Corey’s Tips on Keeping Your Pony Safe
About the Author
Also by Bonnie Bryant
Copyright
1. PONY CRAZY
2. MAY’S RIDING LESSON
3. COREY’S PONY IS MISSING
4. JASMINE’S CHRISTMAS RIDE
5. MAY TAKES THE LEAD
6. COREY IN THE SADDLE
7. JASMINE TROTS AHEAD
8. MAY RIDES A NEW PONY
9. COREY AND THE SPOOKY PONY
10. JASMINE HELPS A FOAL
RHCP DIGITAL
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First published Bantam, 1996
This ebook published 2016
Copyright © Bonnie Bryant Hiller, 1995
Illustrations copyright © Kim Harley, 1996
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–448–19790–3
All correspondence to:
RHCP DIGITAL
Penguin Random House Children’s
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
“Where are my riding boots?” Corey Takamura called to her mother.
“In your wardrobe,” Dr Takamura answered. “Or at least that’s where they ought to be.”
Corey put down her jodhpurs and went to look in her wardrobe. She moved a small pile of dirty clothes. There were her boots. She sighed and pulled out the washing. She carried the clothes to the hamper in her bathroom. Then she took her boots and put them in her suitcase. She was almost ready, but she was sure she’d forgotten one more thing.
Usually Corey was very sensible and logical and could have found her boots without help from her mother. Today was different. Today she was packing to go to her father’s for the weekend.
Corey’s parents had been divorced for only a short while. She spent half her time with her mother, a veterinarian whose nickname was Doc Tock.
Corey’s father lived in a flat closer to town. He was a teacher at the secondary school next to Corey’s junior school.
Corey and her parents were still deciding which days she would spend with which parent. Sometimes, like when her mother had been busy with moving arrangements, Corey spent a whole week at a time with her father. Other times, like when her father went on a trip to Mexico with his Spanish class, she spent a whole week with her mother. Usually, though, she liked to spend weekends at her mother’s house. That way, she could be with her pony, Samurai, all day Saturday and Sunday. But this weekend she was going to her father’s. Her mother had to go to a veterinarians’ conference. She was going to give a speech.
Corey was excited for her mother, but it was confusing for her. Since she would be with her father for the weekend, she’d be going to Horse Wise, her Pony Club meeting, from his flat, and she needed her riding clothes.
“My hat! That’s what I forgot!” she said out loud, though there was nobody to hear her. Her mother was busy in her own room with her own packing.
Corey found her riding hat in her wardrobe. That went into her suitcase, too. She started to close the suitcase. Then she remembered something else – elastic hair-bands. She was growing her hair and it was almost long enough for a ponytail. Just in case it grew enough over the weekend, she wanted to be sure to have the elastic hair-bands. In a minute they were in her suitcase, too. She snapped it shut. There was one more thing she had to do. She had to say good-bye to Samurai.
“Weekends are much more fun when Corey is here,” May Grover said to Jasmine James. May and Jasmine were Corey’s neighbours. They lived on either side of Corey’s house. Corey had only lived there a short while, but already the girls were best friends. They were very different, but they had some very important things in common.
First, they were the same age, so they were all in the same year at school. They were in different classes, but they went to the same school. More important, they were each pony crazy, and each had her own pony. That was why they called themselves the Pony Tails. It was like a club for best friends who loved ponies.
May always said exactly what was on her mind. Sometimes that got her into trouble. She could be stubborn, too. But she knew a lot about ponies. Her pony had a sweet yellow coat that matched his sweet disposition. May had named him Macaroni because he was the colour of macaroni and cheese. May thought he was the sweetest pony in the whole world.
Jasmine’s pony was named Outlaw. He could be frisky and naughty. Sometimes he nipped and bucked. Jasmine called him Outlaw because his whole face was white. It looked like the handkerchief outlaws pulled up on their faces when they robbed a stagecoach. Sometimes she thought he was almost naughty enough to do something like that, too! Jasmine loved Outlaw more than anything – maybe because he was so different from her.
Corey’s pony was named Samurai after the crescent-shaped blaze on his face. It looked like a samurai sword. Samurai was a young pony and less well trained than Outlaw and Macaroni. He was very smart, but he had a lot to learn. It had taken him a long time to adjust to his new home when Corey and her mother had moved. Now both he and Corey felt at home in their new place.
“Come on, May,” Jasmine said. May was still upset about Corey’s going away for the weekend. “Corey goes to her father’s every week.” The two girls were in Outlaw’s stable, giving him some fresh hay.
“But this time she’s going for the whole weekend,” May pointed out. “We were going to practise the riding exercises together after school tomorrow.”
“It’s just for a few days,” Jasmine told her friend. “Corey will be back on Sunday. Maybe we’ll have time to practise then. Besides, we’ll see her at school tomorrow and at Pony Club on Saturday.”
“I know,” said May. “Sometimes it just seems strange. I mean she’s our best friend, but we don’t know anything about her other life.”
Jasmine nodded. It was true. The girls only saw Corey at her mother’s house or at school. They had never been to her father’s flat. They didn’t even know where it was.
“I bet it’s a nice flat,” Jasmine said. She was trying to comfort her friend. “And Corey probably has a great bedroom. I can see it now. It’s got pink flowered wallpaper and matching curtains.”
May knew Jasmine was describing her own dream bedroom.
“No, plain coloured walls so she can cover them with horse posters,” May said.
This time Jasmine knew May was describing her own bedroom.
“Maybe she even has a pink bedspread,” said Jasmine.
May rolled her eyes. “Don’t you like anything besides pink, Jasmine? I hope Corey’s room is blue with a big bookshelf for all her horse books.”
“And a big table for all her model horses,” said Jasmine.
“Wait a minute! You’re the one with all the model horses,” May reminded her friend.
“And you’re the one with all the books about horses,” Jasmine said.
May laughed. “I guess we’re both thinking about what we’d like, not what Corey likes.”
Jasmine smiled. “Let’s go and see Samurai,” she said. “We both know for sure that she likes Samurai, don’t we?”
“Definitely.”
May closed Outlaw’s stable door, and Jasmine snapped the lock shut tight. They turned out the stable light and walked over to Corey’s house. The Pony Tails often visited each other’s ponies.
Samurai was in his stable. So was Corey.
“We thought you’d be gone,” May said.
“Almost,” said Corey. “Dad’ll be here in a minute. I just wanted to say good-bye to Samurai first.”
“We’re going to miss you,” May blurted out.
“I wish I could be here to practise with you two on Sunday, but it’s impossible,” said Corey.
“Is your dad’s flat nice?” May asked.
“Of course it is,” said Corey. “I have my own bedroom there. Dad’s been decorating it just for me.”
It was another thing they didn’t know about Corey! May and Jasmine exchanged looks.