Greener Pastures - Alyssa Brugman [7]
'What?' Shelby protested. 'This is so unfair!'
'Yeah, Shelby, take a chill pill,' Connor teased.
His mother slipped her apron over her head. 'Where is your homework, young man?'
Connor climbed down from the stool and rummaged through his school bag.
'Are you seriously not going to tell me?' Shelby asked.
'Go!' her mum said.
Shelby stomped to the lounge room and switched on the computer.
'I said your room.'
'I'm doing research!' Shelby huffed. She logged on to Messenger and her favourite horse forum, reading through the day's posts.
She was thinking up a long rant about how unreasonable her parents were. They would tell her she was 'being a teenager', or 'being moody', and when she tried to tell them she was just being they would give each other a look as if to say, There she goes again. It was so annoying that it then made her angry, which is what they accused her of being in the first place.
She was about to start typing, but was interrupted by a message from Erin.
If I ever have a brown horse I would call it Cinnamon. Cinnamon is our friend.
It is?
If anyone asks I'm writing an essay. That was from Chad.
Is cinnamon UR friend? Shelby asked.
Cinnamon and I go way back, Chad typed.
I'm here now so stop talking about me, Lindsey wrote.
Soon Shelby was engrossed in three conversations. She didn't notice when her dad came home, or when her mother called her to set the table.
'Shel,' her father said, tapping her on the shoulder.
BRB, she typed, and minimised the window.
The family sat down at the table.
'So can I know the big secret now?' she asked, using the tongs to serve herself a cob of corn.
'We're going to London! Yay!' Blake cheered.
Shelby dropped the tongs. She looked to her parents' faces for confirmation. 'Really? You've decided for sure then?'
'It's just too good an opportunity to pass up,' her father answered.
'So that means we're moving?'
Shelby's Aunty Jenny was about to take off on a round-the-world trip. She had asked Shelby's family to meet her in London during the Christmas holidays. The trouble was, to afford the fare, her parents planned to move into Aunty Jenny's house and rent out their house. Her great-aunt lived two hours up the coast. Shelby would have to change schools and find a new agistment place for Blue. She would still be able to see her friends sometimes, but it wouldn't be the same as spending time with them every day.
She had been waiting for her parents to make a decision for so long that she had assumed they'd decided not to go. She'd almost forgotten about it altogether.
'But I don't want to live at Aunty Jenny's.' Shelby could feel a lump forming in her throat. She tried to swallow it away.
'You're going to love travel,' her mother assured Shelby. 'Once you start it will be hard to stop.'
'I'm not going. I'll move in with Erin, or the Crooks. Maybe the Edels would have me.'
Her parents traded that 'there she goes again' look. Tears of frustration prickled in her eyes, but she blinked them back.
Shelby's father stood up and rummaged through his briefcase. He spread out a stack of brochures on the table as if they were a deck of cards.
'Last week I went to the travel agent and asked her to research treks on horseback in Europe. We thought you could go on one, or we can do it together as a family after Christmas.'
He selected one and unfolded it. 'See, this one here is driving sheep through the mountains in France. You can camp, or stay in this little village. In Ireland we can spend a week in this beautiful old farmhouse and each day you go on different rides.' He picked out another, pressing down the crease with the heel of his hand. 'See the picture? You can ride across the moor up to a castle.'
'You made this decision a week ago?'
'A moor, Shelby! Haven't you always wanted to ride across a moor?' her father asked.
'I don't even know what a moor is,' Shelby said. The tears had started leaking now.
'It's like a big paddock,' her mother explained.
Shelby