Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume

olden days, when she was a girl, she went on lots of them."
     
        "Oh."
     
        The first thing I found out was hay isn't soft like I thought it would be. It is kind of sharp and it makes some people sneeze. Sam Sweeney started sneezing as soon as he sat down.
     
        Our hayride began at nine. By then it was dark. Libby's wagon went first and ours followed. Denise brought along her guitar and we started singing right away. She played her Ann Boleyn song first to get us into the mood. After a while she said she would tell us a ghost story. I don't like ghost stories, so I decided not to listen. I can do that if I really concentrate, but it isn't easy. I have to think of other things the whole time the person is talking. I do it in school sometimes if the lesson gets boring. But it's harder to do on a hayride than in school.
     
        We turned off the main road onto an old bumpy one. There were no street lights and it was very dark. There wasn't any moon in the sky and I was glad. Especially that there wasn't a full moon. Because werewolves only come out when the moon is full. Not that there's really any such thing as werewolves-I know there isn't-but still it was better that there was no moon.
     
        Mouse leaned close and whispered, "This is Old Sleepy Hollow Road . . . the one where Ichabod Crane saw the Headless Horseman."
     
        "It is?" I asked.
     
        "Yes. And see up there . . . that's the little church with the graveyard behind it. That's where the Horseman comes from."
     
        Denise finished her story. It was very quiet, except for Sam's sneezes. There were a lot of giggles. I think everybody was a little bit scared.
     
        I pretended we weren't on Old Sleepy Hollow Road. I wished I was home in my bed with the covers over my ear. I don't know why I ever came on this hayride in the first place. As we got closer to the church I heard the noise. It couldn't possibly be him, could it? There isn't any such thing as the Headless Horseman. I know that!
     
        The next time I heard the noise there was a flash in the sky. Oh no! It was thundering. We were going to have a storm! And here I am, out in the open, I thought. Out in a dumb old hay wagon! The lightning will probably scare the horses and they'll run wild- right into the woods-where the Headless Horseman will be waiting!
     
        My heart started beating like mad and I was full of sweat. I couldn't stand it anymore. The only thing to do was bury myself under the hay. Then I'd be safe. Safe from the lightning and the horses running wild and the terrible dark woods and the Horseman.
     
         "Sheila, what are you doing?" Mouse asked. "Sheila . . . come out of there. Are you crazy or something?" She tried to dig me out of the hay, but I wouldn't let her. Why should I come out? Let Mouse and the others get struck by lightning. Let them fall out of the wagon when the horses run wild. Let them get lost in the woods with the Headless Horseman!
     
        "Denise. . ." I heard Mouse call. "Denise, help me. Sheila's under the hay and she won't come out."
     
        I kicked my legs at her. They weren't going to get me out. Oh no! I was staying buried until I was home where it was safe.
     
        But Denise is much bigger than me, and stronger too. "Sheila Tubman," she said, pulling me out, "what do you think you're doing?"
     
        "It's going to rain," I told her. "I'm just getting ready for it. I don't want to get wet like the rest of you. So just leave me alone. I like it under the hay."
     
        "You're really funny," Mouse said.
     
        "No I'm not," I told her. "I'm interesting, that's all."
     
        "You can say that again," Mouse laughed.
     
        "Anyway," Denise said, "I don't think it's going to rain. The storm seems to have passed." She pointed to the sky. "You see . . . the moon's out over there."
     
        I looked up and saw that she was right. There was a big, full moon! I kept my eyes