The Second Life of Magnolia Mae Read Online Free PDF Page A

weekend. That boy is going to the dance with me.”
    “Hmm, he didn’t seem to know anything about that when I talked to him.” She watched as Sarah’s face turned red with anger.
    “He’ll know soon enough.”
    “I’m sure you won’t have a problem trying to make him go with you.” She pushed through the cheerleaders to head to class.
    Sarah stomped off in the other direction, huffing at the underclassman who got in her way.
    Magnolia wanted to feel proud for standing up to her, but she didn’t. She only felt dread for pre-calculus. After walking into the classroom, she tossed her bag onto the floor next to her seat then plopped down. She pulled out her book and papers. This was going to be a long day. She’d never felt like she belonged here. It was not that she hated school; she just didn’t have any friends. Nobody ever sat with her at lunch. Bash had been the only one who’d ever been nice to her here, and he’d graduated, leaving her to fend for herself in this jungle. A collective moan escaped from her classmates, jerking from her thoughts. That was when she saw two dreaded words in large black letters scrawled across the whiteboard: POP QUIZ. The day had just gotten worse.
     

     
    The horses whinnied loudly when the door to the stables opened. The smell of hay, horse sweat, and manure bombarded her nostrils. The long stable had fifteen stalls on each side of the indoor arena. The lights were not turned on, causing the stables to appear dreary. The place was suddenly illuminated, chasing the shadows away.
    Magnolia saw Bash at the far end of the stables, his arm muscles flexing in and out as he maneuvered the full wheelbarrow. She grabbed the handles of another wheelbarrow with a pitchfork inside. She maneuvered it to the door of the first stall. “Hi, Sweeting.” She crooned to the horse and stepped into the stall. It was not the most pleasant job in the world, but she preferred to be around animals more than people, especially those her age. Here she didn’t feel out of place. When Bash’s uncle said that he was looking for some extra help at the stables, she’d jumped at the chance. Soon the manure and wet straw was gone from that stall. Bash would lay down fresh bedding. Quietly, she cleaned out stall after stall, the horses nudging her when she entered. She stopped to rub each velvet nose before beginning. It was perfect, safe. The warm breath of the horse next to her tickled her neck as he nuzzled her.
    “I think you have a new friend.” Bash’s voice was not nearly as gruff lately as it had been. It was more soothing, still with a deep tone, but he no longer sounded angry all the time. “He never lets me get that close to him.”
    “Maybe he doesn’t like the way you smell.” She flung a pile of manure into the almost-full wheelbarrow.
    “I smell a lot better than what you’re cleaning out of there.”
    “I smell sweet.” She tried in vain to hide her lopsided grin. She whispered something to the horse then moved her hand quickly in an attempt to keep Bash from seeing what she was doing.
    “You have a pocketful of sugar cubes,” he accused as he helped her out of the stall.
    “There is no proof to what you say.” She dodged under his arm and went to dump the filth outside.
    The fresh air was a nice change, and she wanted to breathe deeply the fresh clean scent of autumn a bit longer, but the cold sent her back inside. She knew that once the stalls were mucked out and the feed buckets filled, the smell would be one of clean straw and oats. Another forty minutes passed, and she set aside the dirty wheelbarrow. After washing her hands, she retrieved the wheelbarrow for the oats and filled it. As she filled each stall’s bucket with the horse’s dinner, Bash brought them all fresh water.
    “Your uncle said he’d like to have all the stalls scrubbed out before snow comes.”
    “Yup, start on that tomorrow. We can let the horses out to pasture to run in the morning and scrub