Chapter 9

   The house was a big white house with pillars and 2 big oak doors. Lots of big windows were on top of the doors, off to the side was a huge forest like ours. Then I saw something that surprised me. There was a big red barn right next to the forest. Horses were eating grass in the pasture , there were about 10 of them.Now, I don't know my horses very well cause I am a New Yorker,  but Mom bought Rachel this horse book , and I was very bored so I read it. There were 2 Chingateage pony's , 1 Bashkier curly,1 quarter horse , 2 mustangs ,and 1Blue Roan , and 1 speckled horse, 1 cream colored draft horse, and a stallion, which they probably shouldn't have, but oh well.
   " The Bashkier curly is mine, her name is strawberry." said Emily. That surprised me, because Emily seemed like the type that always wanted to stay clean, in fact she was the type that always wanted to stay clean, but the way she looked at her horse showed me that she really loved her.
  " She's beautiful!" said Rachel, forgetting about all the problems with the seating in the car.....she was pretty mad at Emily, but I guess she didn't hate her anymore.
   " WOW!" said Mary
   " I didn't know that you liked horses!" I said
    " There's a lot of things you don't know about me."  said Emily, She said it dreamily, like she wasn't really paying attention,  she was still looking at her horse. but then she looked away.
     " Oh look, there's my dad, do you want to say hi?" asked Emily.
    " Of course dear." said Mom. So,we walked over to the barn. When we got inside, we saw a tall cowboy, about 6 ft. tall!
    " Daddy, I'm back!" said Emily in a sing song voice.
    " Darling!" said the cowboy he turned around and my mom gasped. I found myself gaping and there was a tiny bit of drool coming out of my mouth, I closed my mouth and I saw Rachel and Mary closing there mouths too. This guy was a dad of a 16 year old, but he looked about 25, and he looked like Tom Cruise!!!
    " Hello my name is Tom, what's your name? he asked putting his hand out to my mother.
    " Hello my name is Amy , this is my daughter Rachel, and Julia, and Julia's best friend Mary. Just out of curiosity, what's your last name?" she asked. He laughed heartily.
    " I get that a lot, it's Grant, not Cruise, although that would be cool." he said," so are you guys friends with my sweet daughter?"
    " Well, we helped her because someone stole her purse, and she needed a ride home and stuff....." said Rachel.
   " So you're friends!"
   " Well-" said Mary.
   " Let's go riding." he said " go pick you horse."
   " Uh ..Sir? we never rode before ... we're from New York City." said Mom.
  " What, huh ?  Oh yes it is quite easy ." he said.  I looked at Mary and shrugged , she grimaced and shrugged back  .  We walked over to the horses, I picked the cream colored draft horse , Mary chose the quarter horse, Rachel got the bay mare, and Mom chose the speckled horse . Tom chose his Mustang , 'Smoke'. I learned that my horse was a gentle calm horse who doesn't not spook easily. Her name was Butter cup, and she gave me an easy ride even though I must have been awkward on her back. We were all having a good ride except Mom, her horse 'Freckle' kept rubbing her against trees trying to get her off. Mom kept on giggling and laughing and having a great time, we all couldn't help but laugh too. Emily got up next to me on Strawberry.
      " Hey" she said.
     " Hey "
     " Um..there is no really easy way to say this. So I'm , sorry, you really are nice to take me home, and not tell my Dad that you hate me." she said. She seemed really sad.
      " I don't hate you . You just seemed really mean at first, and I owe you an apology too,  I judged you as a bully after knowing you for 5 minutes, so I am sorry." I said. " Truce?"
    " Yeah , Sure." she said.  We rode on silence. I looked around for Mary to tell her that Emily was nice, but I couldn't find her.
    " Mom, Where's Mary?"
   " Over there, she got bored." she said pointing at an empty pasture . And what she was doing with her horse took my breath away. She was galloping around the field and then jumping! The fences were very high, like 5 or 6  tall.  Mary was miking it over everytime ! " Mary's a New Yorker, There are no horses in New York City."
     " She lived in Nevada , before she moved to New York City, didn't she tell you?" asked Mom.
    " No, it must have slipped her mind, that is okay, I want to go ask her if she will teach that to me." I said  " Are you coming also Emily?"
    " Yeah, Okay" she said ... " Even though I already know how to do that." she muttered  under her breath.
     " Show off " I laughed , and we rode over to Mary.

chapter 8

  We turned around to see who screamed. We were surprised to see Emily sprawled on the ground. We ran up to her . When we got closer we could hear her crying.
    " Emily! What happened?" I asked
    " A person...came.....took my purse-!" she managed before she burst into tears again.
    " What would they want to take?" asked Mary.
   " How about we ask her some questions after we get her of the ground." I suggested.  Mary and I grabbed her by her elbows and shoulders and  got her on her feet.
    " There's a bench over there." said Mom. We walked over to the bench and set her down.
    " What would they want to take?" repeated Mary.
    " My.....My....My....Money!" she sobbed.
    " Well you didn't have a whole lot in there did you? " Asked Rachel " 'Cause that would have been really stupid!"
   " I .... Was....going... to ...go.... Buy a car.... there was $20,000 in cash in there!" she said. She  stopped crying but she was still a little bit hard to understand.
    " WHAT?" she looked like the painting  'The Scream'  when she said that.  " You should know better than to carry around cash....especially that much cash...." said Rachel.
    " This is Texas not New York....Rachel..." I said.
  " It doesn't matter... you really shouldn't do that." she said .
  "  At least I put my wallet in my pocket...." she said.
   " So then you still have the 20 grand?"
   " No they got it." she said looking like a little two year old  who lost her toy.
  " Well, that's odd...  did you see the person?"
  " Why should I tell you?" she asked
  " Because we will take you home if you do." I said
 " Wait a minute...when did I agree to this?" asked Mom
  " Just now ... tell us Emily"I said
   "Fine...I could see wispy blond -white hair, it was a girl, and she looked really familiar."
   " Wait , that's it? We're driving you home for that?" asked Rachel" That's crazy I'm not doing it!"
  " Let it go Rachel...that's all she noticed....but honestly, that wasn't a lot of information so I have one more question. Why were you on the ground?" I asked
   " This better be the last question...when I was going  after her to try to get my purse back I tripped.....can we go now?" she asked . so we walked over to the car and got in. Right as soon as we got in , Emily and Rachel started arguing about who is going to sit where ...I was about to yell SHUT UP but mom did first and we all settled down. 

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      Emily can be very annoying on car rides. She gave Mom the directions to her house, and Mom was doing pretty well for never being to this place before or not knowing the streets of Texas, but Emily kept on getting mad whenever Mom missed a turn or turned the wrong way. Finally we were there and when I saw the house my only thought was .......WOW.....