Greener Pastures - Alyssa Brugman [4]
Shelby snorted. Five thousand was a lot of money. He must be pulling her leg.
'Ten. I'll give you ten thousand dollars.'
Shelby laughed. 'You can't be serious.'
'Cash,' he added. 'Right now.'
'You don't have ten thousand in cash right now,' she said.
'Try me,' he replied, still grinning, and Shelby could see he wasn't joking at all.
2 Grass and Bread and Stuff
'Can you pass me the flour?' Shelby asked.
Erin pursed her lips and thrust the sifter towards Shelby. Flour showered Shelby's school shoes. She stamped, trying to shake it off. She had been anxious to get to school to talk to Erin about quitting the troupe and about Zeb's offer, but Erin wouldn't even look her in the eye. It was hard to make banana bread in a pair when your partner wasn't speaking to you.
Shelby snuck a peek at the front of the classroom, but their teacher was focused on another pair of students. The Food Technology teacher wore all the kitchen utensils tied to a belt around her waist, like some kind of crazy hula-skirt.
'Do you really want to start a food fight with me?' Shelby threatened, pointing an overripe banana at Erin as if it was a gun.
Erin's lip twitched.
'C'mon, Erin. I have noted that you are cranky. Can you tell me what it's about this time?'
Erin began whisking eggs vigorously.
'My Aunty Jenny says you should never bake when you're cross because you put your anger into the dough and it doesn't rise properly,' Shelby told her.
'Then I will feed my flat, cranky banana bread to you!' Erin snapped.
'You're always cranky these days, Erin,' Shelby grumbled, turning away. She leaned her hip against the bench as she folded the flour into the butter mix with a wooden spoon.
Erin thumped the egg bowl on the counter. 'How would you know? You're never even there!'
'Is that what this is about?'
'Everybody at the stables talks about you behind your back, you know. They all say, "That Shelby thinks she's so great!"'
Shelby doubted that everybody was talking about her. She simply wasn't that important. Erin was probably saying so because she didn't approve of Shelby trick riding. Shelby thought Erin might even be a bit jealous, but whether she was jealous because she wanted to be with Shelby, or do trick riding herself, or because Shelby spent so much time with Chad and Keisha these days, Shelby wasn't sure. All she was sure of was that she had some bridges to mend with her friend.
Erin turned to face Shelby. 'And Mrs Edel is really angry, because you've broken your agreement.'
Shelby's mouth dropped open. 'I go up to the stables, muck out and make up feeds every day before I go to troupe training! Do you know what time I have to get up to do that?'
All winter Shelby had ridden her bike to the stables at five o'clock each morning. It was freezing cold and dark; sometimes raining as well.
She'd scrubbed out water troughs when her hands were almost blue. She'd hauled tubs of feed around, and shifted bales of hay. She'd had her feet stepped on when they were already numb with cold, been slammed against stable walls by careless horses, been snorted on and had to go to school with horse boogers in her hair. She'd had her face lashed by whipping tails. Then she'd ridden across the Gully to training in the dark, rain and icy cold, only to be stepped on, snorted on and yelled at even more.
All the while Erin was toasty-warm in bed, or chowing down a nice, hot bowl of porridge in front of the cartoons in her yeti slippers.
'It's not like I've been lying around on my behind,' Shelby protested.
'Yes, but that's not what you said you would do. You're supposed to help lead the trail rides on weekends. Now I have to do it. For free! And Blue is supposed to be available for the beginners.'
Back when Shelby had no place to keep Blue, Mrs Edel had offered Shelby free agistment in return for Shelby working at the stables. Having Shelby and Lindsey, Mrs Edel's daughter, working on the agistment and trail riding part of the business had freed up Mrs Edel's time to concentrate on the breeding side.
'But you always came along the trails