Mallory and the Dream Horse

  Jessi’s entry in the notebook was pretty weird. If she wanted to know about Nina, why didn’t she just call me? I could have talked to her about Blankie. I decided she must have been too busy with her ballet lessons and sitting jobs to call me, and that we’d have time for a good talk after the next BSC meeting.

  Anyway, Jessi went to the Marshalls’ house on Tuesday afternoon. Mrs. Marshall met her at the front door and kept her on the front porch for a few minutes so they could talk without Nina or Eleanor overhearing them.

  “Jessi,” Mrs. Marshall said in a hushed voice, “Nina is having some problems at preschool.”

  “What’s the matter?” Jessi asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Mrs. Marshall pushed a strand of hair off her forehead. “But I received a note from her teacher today saying he thought Nina was uneasy about something, but he wasn’t sure what.”

  “Did the teacher try to talk to Nina about it?”

  Mrs. Marshall nodded. “Yes, but she wouldn’t open up to him.”

  Jessi tilted her head. “That’s strange. Usually Nina likes to talk.”

  “I know.” Mrs. Marshall sighed. “But she won’t even tell me what’s wrong. She just mopes around the house.”

  “Well, I’ll see if I can find out anything,” Jessi said.

  “That would be a great help.” Mrs. Marshall started to lead Jessi into the house, then added in a whisper, “In the meantime, don’t be surprised if she gets a little teary-eyed about things.”

  Jessi nodded. “I understand.”

  While Mrs. Marshall got her coat from the front closet, Jessi peered around the corner into the living room. Eleanor was on the floor in front of the television, happily watching Sesame Street. But Nina wasn’t even looking at the TV. She was just sitting in her chair off to the side, clutching her huge gray blanket.

  “Hi, Nina.”

  Jessi waved, but Nina looked at her without smiling. When Eleanor noticed Jessi, though, she hopped to her feet, and waddled toward her with her arms open wide.

  “Hello, Eleanor.” Jessi scooped her up and groaned good-naturedly. “Boy, are you turning into a big girl,” she told her.

  Mrs. Marshall poked her head into the living room from the hall. “ ’Bye-bye, kids. You be good for Jessi and I’ll be back in a very short time.”

  “ ’Bye, Mommy.” Eleanor put her hand to her mouth and blew kisses at her mother. Jessi noticed that Nina barely mumbled good-bye.

  Once the front door had shut, Jessi turned to Nina. “Now it’s just the three of us,” she declared cheerfully. “What should we play?”

  Nina shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Jessi carried Eleanor into the hall, where she had left her things, and said, “My Kid-Kit has some pretty fun stuff in it today. Maybe we should take a look at it.”

  This time Nina looked up, but she still didn’t budge from her chair. Jessi carried the carton to Nina’s side and set it down next to her.

  “Here, Nina,” Jessi said as she lowered Eleanor to the floor. “Why don’t you open it up?”

  Nina slid out of her chair onto the rug, pulling her blanket into a huge ball on her lap. She opened the carton listlessly and peered inside. As she rummaged through the box, Jessi noticed that Nina never let go of the blanket at any time. She decided to ask her about Blankie — at the right moment.

  That moment came when Eleanor and Nina found a brand-new pack of crayons in the box, and Nina started coloring a paper doll. She relaxed a little. Jessi watched her for a moment, then asked in an offhand way, “Nina, did you take Blankie with you to school today?”

  Nina drew back as if she’d been pinched. Finally she mumbled, “Yes.”

  “Did you two have a good time?”

  Nina didn’t answer. She just methodically took the crayons out of their box and placed them on the rug beside the doll she was coloring. Every now and then she would adjust her blanket around her knees, as if reassuring herself that it was still there.

  Jessi decided that the old gray blanket was Nina’s problem. Maybe the kids at school were teasing her about it. But how could her teacher not notice that? Especially since Nina’s blanket was so enormous. Unless the other children teased Nina behind the teacher’s back.

  Jessi knew all too well how that could happen. When she first moved to Stoneybrook, some of the kids at school and even a few adults were mean to her, just because of the color of her skin. Jessi didn’t tell her teachers about it, because she was afraid the kids would think she was a tattletale. Maybe Nina was having the same kind of trouble.

  “You know, Nina, when I first moved here, some of the kids at my school weren’t very nice to me.” Jessi took one of the paper dolls out of the box and picked up a crayon. “They teased me and made me feel so bad that I cried.”

  Nina stopped coloring but didn’t look up. “Why?”

  “Because they didn’t like the way I look.”

  Nina glanced at Jessi, then reached for another crayon. “I think you look fine.”

  “Thanks,” Jessi said. “But my point is that some of the other kids didn’t think so. They were unkind to me just because I was different. But soon they got to know me, and now I have lots of friends.”

  Jessi studied Nina’s face to see if what she was saying had made any sense, but Nina just continued to color. Jessi looked at the doll she was working on and smiled. Talking about skin color as a problem probably didn’t make sense to a little girl who had just colored her doll’s face blue and the hands and legs green.

  Jessi gave Nina a quick hug and then went to the kitchen to fix some lemonade. As she filled the girls’ plastic animal cups, Jessi wondered if maybe she should tell Mrs. Marshall about Nina’s blanket problem and the teasing.

  “No,” Jessi muttered to herself. “I better wait until I’m sure.”

  Because what if it wasn’t the blanket at all? Then Jessi would have caused a lot of concern for nothing.

  I’ll talk to the BSC first, Jessi told herself. My friends will know what to do.

  The girls drank their lemonades, and after they’d finished, the front doorbell sounded. Jessie waited for Nina to say, “I’ll get it,” like most kids do, but she just continued to color her doll. Finally Jessi stood up.

  “Let’s see who it is,” she said brightly.

  Eleanor, who had been more interested in the outside of the Kid-Kit than in what was in it, hopped to her feet and shouted, “Okay!”

  “Come on, Nina.” Jessi offered her hand to Nina, who tagged along, dragging her blanket behind her.

  What greeted them on the front porch made even Nina laugh. There stood Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire, wearing red rubber clown noses and polka dot bow ties. Nicky had hung a huge white sign around his neck.

  “Stars of Tomorrow auditions,” Jessi read out loud. “Are you guys looking for more clowns?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “We’re looking for all kinds of acts for our talent show. And today is your lucky day. We’re holding door-to-door auditions.”

  Jessi laughed. “That sounds like fun. Nina, do you want to audition?”

  Nina leaned against Jessi’s leg and shook her head.

  “Oh, come on,” Jessi encouraged her. “I’ll bet there are lots of things you can do.”

  “We need every kind of performer,” Vanessa said, checking the clipboard she was carrying. “Singers, dancers, clowns, jugglers, trained dogs, elephants —”

  “Hold it a minute,” Jessi cut in. “Where are you going to get elephants?”

  Claire tugged at Jessi’s sleeve. “It’s pretend, silly.”

  Jessi smiled down at Nina. “You could pretend to be an elephant. You could drape yourself in Blankie and stick one arm out for a trunk and you’d look just like an elephant.”

  Nina considered for a second and then shook her head again. “No, thanks.”

  “Aw, come on Nina, we’re all in the show,” Nicky cried. “I’m the strong man wrestling alligators. But I also do acrobatic tricks with M
argo. Want to see?”

  Jessi checked the sky to see if any rain clouds were lingering overhead and said, “Why don’t we sit outside in the backyard and watch them perform their acts?”

  Everyone hurried around the side of the house. Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire conferred quickly to decide who should go first. From the excitement in their voices, Jessi could tell that showing off their talents to the neighborhood was certainly more fun than watching other people audition.

  Nina spread her blanket on the grass and let Jessi and Eleanor sit beside her.

  Jessi, who loves any kind of a performance (possibly because she spends a lot of time on the stage herself), clapped her hands together and announced, “Curtain going up!”

  Nicky did a drumroll with his hands against the side of a trash can while Vanessa stepped in front of the swing set and announced, “And now, Stars of Tomorrow presents — Nicholas and Margo doing the Wheelbarrow!”

  Nicky walked on his hands while Margo struggled to hold his legs off the grass. They circled the swing set several times as Nina, Eleanor, and Jessi applauded. Then Margo tripped over the garden hose and stumbled forward, shoving Nicky’s face into the ground.

  “Hey!” Nicky bellowed. “You dented my nose.” He sat up and everyone saw that his red clown nose had been smashed flat. Everyone began to laugh. Even Nina.

  Then Vanessa took her turn. She walked to the swing set and stood at the foot of the stairs leading up to the slide.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” she cried. “I will now climb to the top of this ten-story building” — she clambered up the steps until she was standing on the little platform at the top of the slide — “and perform a death-defying slide to the sidewalk below, using no hands, with my eyes closed.”

  Nina was very impressed by this announcement. She turned to Jessi and whispered, “Wow.”

  They watched as Vanessa snapped her fingers at Nicky and ordered, “Drumroll, please.”

  Nicky beat his hands against the wooden seat of the swing as Vanessa sat down at the top of the slide. She turned to show Jessi and the Marshall kids that her eyes were shut. Then she folded her arms across her chest and began her descent.

  Unfortunately, she was wearing shorts, and her bare skin acted like a brake against the metal slide. She hardly moved at all. Vanessa had to scoot bit by bit toward the bottom of the slide. With each jerk her legs made a loud, squeaking sound.

  Jessi clutched Nina’s hand and whispered, “So much for the death-defying slide. She couldn’t go any slower if she tried.”

  Nina bobbed her head up and down. “She looks like a caterpillar,” she giggled.

  Vanessa made it gamely to the bottom of the slide and leaped up to take her bow. As the kids cheered and applauded, Jessi thought to herself, One thing for sure — Stars of Tomorrow is going to be the funniest talent show on earth!

  Now it was Claire’s turn. Vanessa raised one arm and announced, “Stars of Tomorrow proudly presents Miss Claire, the greatest juggler in the world.”

  Claire raced around the corner of the house. In one hand she held a tennis ball and in the other a Frisbee. Jessi figured Claire must have just found them in the garage. Claire tossed the ball and the Frisbee in the air and tried to catch each object in the opposite hand. Unfortunately the tennis ball bounced off her forehead and rolled into Eleanor’s lap, while the Frisbee landed on Claire’s own foot.

  “Yeow!” Claire cried, clutching her toe with her hands. “Owie-owie-owie!”

  Normally Jessi would have gotten up to make sure Claire hadn’t hurt herself, but the sight of her in her clown nose hopping up and down on one leg in a circle was so silly that Jessi couldn’t help laughing.

  Nina clapped her hands and giggled. “She’s really funny,” she said.

  “I bet if you got up there and put on a clown nose,” Jessi said, “you could be funny, too.”

  Nina’s laughter stopped instantly. “I don’t want to. I’ll just watch.”

  Jessi decided not to push Nina any further. She figured there was still a long time until the talent show. Hopefully Nina’s problems at school would be solved by then, and she would change her mind and join the fun.

  My second riding lesson, and I couldn’t believe my luck! I got to ride Pax, the beautiful white Arabian. My dream horse. And you know what? He was even more wonderful to ride than to look at.

  I arrived at the stables early so that I could talk to Lauren and flat-out ask to ride Pax that day. I also wanted a chance to chat with a few of the other kids in my group before the class started. I figured we’d have lots in common — loving horses, for one thing. But it was strange. None of them seemed to want to talk much.

  A short girl with frizzy blonde hair and braces on her teeth was the second to arrive. I marched right up to where she was saddling her mount and said, “My name’s Mallory Pike. What’s yours?”

  She looked kind of surprised that I had spoken to her. “Allison Anders,” was all she answered. Then she turned to Lauren and said, “I thought we were required to wear proper riding attire for this class.”

  I felt the tips of my ears turn bright red and my face grow hot.

  Lauren must have seen me blush because she said sharply, “Proper riding gear is boots, gloves, and a helmet, Allison. And Mallory is wearing just that.” Then her tone softened and she added, “This is a beginner’s class. There’s no sense in spending a lot of money on gear unless you plan to continue taking lessons.”

  I wanted to say, “Of course I plan to continue riding. But is it my fault my family can’t afford to buy me a fancy habit?” But I didn’t. I just took Pax’s reins and led him outside.

  “Come on, boy,” I murmured, nuzzling my head against his neck. “You’re a good horse.” I shot a dark look back in Allison’s direction. “Not a snob like some people I know.”

  I walked Pax around the stable yard as more and more of my class arrived. The students were all wearing what Allison had called “proper” riding gear. Pax, as if sensing my uneasiness, snorted through his nostrils and gave me a nudge in the side with his nose. I stumbled toward the riding ring. When I looked back at him he gave me another little nudge as if to say, “You’re as good as they are. Get in there and let them know that.”

  I chuckled and nuzzled my face in his neck again. “You’re right, Pax. I’m just being silly. All I have to do is talk to them and they’ll realize I’m a nice person. Come on.”

  As I led Pax into the ring, I summoned up my courage and said to a plump girl in front of me, “I just love horses, don’t you?”

  “Of course,” she replied. “I grew up with them. We have eight in our stables.”

  “You have your own horses?” I was impressed. Then I thought — if she has her own horses, why is she taking beginning riding lessons?

  The girl must have guessed from the look on my face what I was thinking. “My parents thought it would be a good idea for someone besides them to give me lessons,” she said quickly. “Anyway, I’m just taking classes to learn to ride English style.”

  “Me, too,” I said. “I mean, I already ride Western.”

  Okay, I’ll admit I made it sound like I was pretty good at riding Western style, when all I had done was some trail riding at camp. But I was anxious to make a friend in this class.

  “So what’s your name?” I asked, casually slipping my foot into the stirrup.

  “Megan.” She turned a little too suddenly to mount her horse, and he jerked away with a snort. He was already skittish, but she wasn’t making him any more relaxed with her sudden movements. Megan gave an impatient yank on the reins and muttered, “Settle down, you dumb horse.”

  As Megan struggled with her horse, I mounted Pax, who stood perfectly still as I swung onto his saddle. I patted his neck and whispered, “Good horse.” Somehow I felt much more confident once I was astride Pax, so I called to Megan, “My name’s Mallory. If you like, I’ll give you my number and maybe we could get together during the week.”

&
nbsp; “What?” Megan was still trying to get her horse to stand still. “Oh, sure.” She yanked on the reins once more. “Whoa, you idiot.”

  I did not like the way Megan was talking to her horse, but I figured she probably knew more about horse discipline than I did, since she had eight of her own. Eight. Can you imagine it? One for each day of the week, with one extra for holidays.

  Pax and I circled the ring and I paused several times to introduce myself to my classmates. One girl named Kyle even smiled at me. “I like that horse,” she said. “I wanted to ride him today.”

  “He’s wonderful, isn’t he?” I patted Pax on the neck proudly. “Maybe you can ride him next Saturday.” Secretly I was hoping I could ride him every week.

  After we chatted about Pax, I told Kyle my name and suggested that maybe we could get together sometime. “We’re the only Pike in the Stoneybrook phone book,” I said.

  Kyle nodded pleasantly and I continued to trot around the ring. I’d made two new friends and I was riding Pax. It was a perfect day!

  A few moments later Lauren entered the ring and started class. We reviewed our walking and trotting techniques from the week before. Pax was a dream. He seemed to know what I wanted him to do before I even knew it. As the hour went on, I found the courage to wave to several of the students. One boy — the one who had ridden Pax the week before — waved back. I decided he seemed like a nice person, so after class, as we were grooming our horses, I made sure I stood next to him.

  “Your name’s David, isn’t it?” I said as I ran the brush across Pax’s broad back. When the boy nodded yes, I continued, “Well, I don’t know if I told you last week, but my name’s Mallory Pike. I go to Stoneybrook Middle School.”

  “Oh?”

  I took that to mean he was still interested in talking. So for the next five minutes I rattled on nonstop. I told him about my family, my best friend, and the Baby-sitters Club.

  “Jessi and I have seen practically every horse movie that was ever made,” I said, carefully pulling a few tangles out of Pax’s mane. “My friends say I’m horse-crazy. Which is why I wanted to take this class.” It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t let him squeeze a word into the conversation. “So why are you taking this class?”