For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [38]
'It takes me forever to plait up. Do you want to stay over? We'll have to get up pretty early.'
Even now, as the first few rays of morning sun stretched through the window and into Shelby's eyes, making her blink, she still couldn't believe that in a week she'd be sleeping over at Hayley's place and going with the Crooks to the horse show. She pulled the sheet over her head and let out a sigh. She hoped that everybody's disappointment with Calvin Protheroe meant nobody would listen to what he had to say where Shelby was concerned.
He was wrong about her. Brat was lame because the fencing was inadequate. If Shelby had a float then Brat wouldn't have got loose on the trail. She wasn't irresponsible. She was every bit as caring and conscientious as the other girls. She probably spent more time with Blue than Hayley had with any of her horses. It was just that Hayley had more gear and more money.
It seemed to Shelby that Mr Protheroe, Mrs Hockings and all the other adults at Pony Club believed that the more your parents spent, the better horse person you were – both on the ground and in the saddle. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't true.
Shelby stretched her leg down towards the end of the lounge with her toe and felt something heavy there – her Christmas stocking. She threw back the sheet and sat up. From his place on the floor, too close to the television, Blake looked up at her, grinning. She had to smile because his face was smeared with chocolate.
Her parents had a rule about Christmas morning. The children were allowed to open their Christmas stocking, and they could feel the presents under the tree, but they weren't allowed to unwrap them. Shelby knew the Christmas stocking rule was designed to give her parents at least another half an hour of sleep.
She drew the stocking towards her and dug her hand inside. There was a packet of colouring pencils, some hair ties, a small stuffed toy horse and lots of sweets. Blake crawled forward and raked his hands through her bounty, seeing if there was anything worthy of trade.
'I'll give you my Fruit Tingles for your Fantales,' he suggested.
It wasn't a fair exchange. Last year she would have said no, but this year she didn't care so much about what was in the stocking. She knew that there would be plenty to eat that day and the next, and that a few chocolates weren't going to make much difference.
'OK,' she said. Blake's hand shot out, making the swap and stowing the Fantales out of reach before Shelby could change her mind. Connor, seeing that she had gone soft, quickly joined in.
'My jubes for your Maltesers,' he said.
Shelby shrugged. 'OK.'
'Unreal!' Connor said, grabbing the chocolates and retreating back onto the floor.
The trading continued peacefully between the three until Shelby had no chocolate left at all. Then Connor started on Blake. When Blake wouldn't trade, Connor made a grab for his stocking and Blake started to cry. Shelby tried to distract them.
'I think it might be time to wake up Mum and Dad.'
'Yay!' said Connor, jumping to his feet.
Shelby's family had another ritual on Christmas morning. The three children crowded round the kitchen cupboard and Shelby handed out a saucepan and a wooden spoon to each of the boys.
'Ready?' she asked.
The boys nodded.
'Let's go!' She lifted her own saucepan and hit the bottom with the wooden spoon. 'Wake up everybody, it's Christmas time!' she shouted. The two boys needed little encouragement to join in, and their pots and spoons soon rang out like cymbals. They started first in their parents' bedroom. Blake jumped up and down on the end of their bed with his saucepan over his head.
'All right, we're getting up, you can go and wake your Aunt Jenny now,' said their father.
The three children looked at each other and Connor screwed his nose up. Aunt