Horse Dreams by Dandi Daley Mackall Page A

“Well?”
    But I didn’t hear the question. “Um . . . you see . . .” I am about to give up and admit I’ve been daydreaming—again. Then I see Colt Stevens. He sits in the desk in front of me. Behind our teacher’s back, Colt is using sign language to spell out  r-e-p-o-r-t .
    â€œRight,” I say, getting my brain back. Colt and I both learned how to sign so we could talk with my little brother. But we’ve discovered that sometimes sign language can come in handy at school too.
    Like now. “My report?” I give our teacher my best smile. Colt’s older sister says my smile is the best thing about me. That and my eyes. I have big brown eyes, the only thing big about me. I’m the smallest kid in fourth grade.
    Miss Hernandez looks surprised that I know what she’s talking about. “Yes. Your report.”
    â€œI’m going to do my science report on horses,” I tell her. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. But I know it will have something to do with horses. Everything I do has something to do with horses.
    A wave of laughter splashes around our classroom.
    Miss Hernandez sighs. She’s tall and skinny like a racehorse. The best thing about her is her long, black hair that she wears in a ponytail almost every day. “Your science report is about horses?” she asks. “You do remember that the report is on an experiment you choose to do? What will you try to prove scientifically ?”
    I shrug and hope she’ll move on to somebody else.
    She doesn’t. “Ellie?” Our teacher is nice. She says this in a friendly voice. But it still makes my stomach churn.
    I bite my bottom lip for three seconds. Then it comes to me. “My experiment will discover the best way for me to get a horse.”
    A bunch of kids laugh, including Colt.
    â€œThat doesn’t sound very scientific,” Miss Hernandez says. She crinkles her nose like she’s afraid she might be hurting my feelings.
    â€œIt is , Miss Hernandez,” I tell her. “I’m going to report on three ways to get a horse. I’ll try all three ways and see which works best.”
    Her thin lips twist. She’s either about to sneeze or about to laugh. “And what exactly are the three ways you plan to try to get this horse?”
    â€œBegging, crying, and praying.”
    Miss Hernandez turns around, with her back to the class. Her shoulders are shaking. When she faces me again, I’m pretty sure she’s trying not to laugh. “Let’s talk after school, Ellie. Who wants to go next?”
    Ashley Harper raises her hand. She reads her plan right off her paper: “I’m going to do an experiment on how to make a horse’s coat shiny. I think molasses added to a horse’s breakfast will do it.”
    Ashley has long, curly blonde hair and blue eyes. Colt says Ashley will probably be a movie star when she grows up. Her dad—not Ashley—loves horses almost as much as I do. He’s the 4-H horsemanship leader. He keeps about a dozen show horses as a hobby. Every Saturday we meet at the Harpers’ stable for horsemanship practice, and he lets me ride one of his horses. Ashley can ride any horse she wants from her dad’s stable. They’re all hers, really. And she still skips half our practices.
    Miss Hernandez talks to Ashley about her plan. Ashley has it all worked out. She’ll give molasses to some of her horses and not to others. She’ll keep track of everything in a notebook that she shows our teacher.
    I try to listen to other people’s ideas. Colt plans to experiment with kites and keys and lightning. Miss Hernandez wants to make sure he does it safely, but I can tell she’s crazy about the idea. But it sounds like cheating to me because Ben Franklin did it first.
    It’s hard to stay tuned in to our class. My brain keeps wanting to change the channel. Seth is talking