Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
1 A Growing Family
2 Keeping Busy
3 A Long, Lonely Wait
4 A Family Welcome
5 A Newborn in Trouble
6 “Surprise, Surprise!”
7 A Visit to Pine Hollow
8 Jasmine’s Rescue Mission
9 Jasmine Comes Home
10 How to be a Big Sister
Jasmine’s Tips on how a Horse Grows
About the Author
Also by Bonnie Bryant
Copyright
Don’t miss any of the titles in the PONY TAILS series:
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
I would like to give my special thanks to Helen Geraghty for her help in the writing of this book.
“Will you slow down, May?” said Corey.
“I think I’ll go faster,” May said. She urged her pony into a flat-out gallop.
“Stop!” Jasmine said.
“Watch this!” May said. Her pony jumped the ruler, and then the rubber, and then Jasmine’s diary.
Corey and Jasmine looked at each other and rolled their eyes. These model ponies were turning May into a maniac.
“It’s good to ride safely at all times,” Corey said, but then she giggled. “Even if your pony is only six inches tall.”
Corey jumped her model pony over a fuzzy bedroom slipper and up on to the window seat.
“Your turn,” Corey said to Jasmine.
But Jasmine was looking at the door. “I can hear something,” she said. Two days earlier the doctor had said that Jasmine’s mother was about to give birth. Now whenever Jasmine heard a noise, she was sure the baby was coming.
From downstairs came the sound of a door slamming.
“The baby’s coming. I’ve got to boil water,” Jasmine said. She jumped up.
“Wait a second,” said May. “Could that be the slamming of an oven door?”
From downstairs came a sweet, buttery smell.
“Could we be smelling fresh-baked biscuits?” asked Corey.
Jasmine sat back down. “It is biscuits,” she said. “Rats.”
“It could be worse,” May said with a grin. “After all, your mother’s biscuits are—”
“—the best ever,” Corey said.
They went back to playing with their model ponies. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door of Jasmine’s room. The door was open, but one of the nice things about Mrs James was that she never came into Jasmine’s room without knocking.
“Hi, Mum,” Jasmine said.
“Hi, Mrs J.,” May said. May had known Mrs James for ever. Actually, she had known Mrs James before for ever because Mrs James and her mum had been friends when they were pregnant with Jasmine and May.
“Hi, Mrs J.,” Corey said.
Mrs James walked awkwardly into the room. Normally she was thin and delicate, just like Jasmine. Now that she was pregnant, her stomach was enormous.
Mrs James put one hand in the small of her back. Her other hand held a tray.
“Are you OK, Mrs J.?” May asked.
“I’m fine,” Mrs James said. “Except sometimes I have the feeling I’m going to tip over.”
She walked to the rug where the girls were sitting and looked down at them with a worried expression.
May knew immediately why Mrs James looked worried. She was trying to work out how to put the tray down without tipping over.
May hopped up. “If there’s anything I’m good at, it’s holding trays,” she said. “Besides, I’m starving.”
With a grateful smile, Mrs James handed the tray to her. “Thanks, May,” she said. “There are oatmeal biscuits and apple juice.”
May found that holding the tray was not easy. It took both hands to keep it steady, and even then the glasses wobbled. Being very careful, she lowered the tray to the rug.
“Just the thing for ponies,” Corey said. “Oats and apples.”
“My mum knows,” said Jasmine proudly.
They picked up their model ponies and pretended to let them take a drink of the apple juice. The girls made the ponies sip and snort with pleasure.
“Do you think they’d like biscuits?” Jasmine said.
“Anyone would like your mother’s biscuits,” said May.
They let the ponies nibble the biscuits.
May couldn’t help thinking that it was a good thing model ponies didn’t actually eat or drink. She was hungry and thirsty and needed all the biscuits and juice she could get.
The three girls leaned against the foot of Jasmine’s bed.
“Yummm,” they all said at the same time.
They turned to each other, ready to say “Jake” and give high fives, which was what the Pony Tails always did when they said the same thing at the same time. Then they saw that each of them had a biscuit in one hand and a glass in the other, so slapping high fives wasn’t a great idea. Instead, they grinned and just said “Jake.”
The Pony Tails weren’t a club, just best friends. Jasmine James, Corey Takamura and May Grover rode their ponies together, had lessons at Pine Hollow Stables together and belonged to the same Pony Club. They were even next-door neighbours.
“You don’t know how lucky you are,” said May.
“Urmf,” said Jasmine, her mouth full of biscuit.
“You’re getting a younger sister – or brother.” May took a sip of her apple juice. “Older is awful. I can’t tell you how awful it is.”
“I wonder if I’ll be like Dottie and Ellie,” Jasmine said. Dottie and Ellie were May’s older sisters.
“You’ll never be like them,” May said. “They’re so silly they don’t even like horses.”
The three of them shook their heads. May’s father was a horse trainer, and the Grovers always had a stableful of horses, so Dottie and Ellie could have ridden as much as they wanted. But did they want to? No, they didn’t. Instead, they sat around and talked about boys and football. It didn’t make sense to May and her friends.
“You’re lucky your family is growing,” Corey said.
Corey’s parents were divorced. Sometimes the new house where Corey and her mum lived felt empty without her father. It helped that Corey got to see her father a lot. It also helped to have the world’s nuttiest pets, like Bluebeard the parrot and Dracula the dog. Still, she wished she had a baby brother or sister.
“I’ve got this baby thing all planned,” Jasmine said. “First I’m going to put pictures of ponies around the baby’s cot.”
“Good thinking,” May said.
“And then I’ll tell pony stories,” said Jasmine.