Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [39]
Shelby went on alone, 'Beneath our radiant Southern Cross we toil with hearts and hands, to make this Commonwealth of ours renowned of all the lands ...'
'What's that?' asked Hayley.
'The second verse,' Shelby answered, smiling. She had learned it for the choir at primary school. They had sung both verses of the anthem, then 'Home Among the Gum Trees', and they'd finished with the old crowd-pleaser, 'Old Macdonald had a dog and Bingo was his name-o'.
'I didn't even know it had a second verse!' said Erin. 'I can't believe you know it!'
'You're making it up,' Lindsey protested.
'For those who've come across the sea we've boundless plains to share . . .' She stopped in the middle of the trail.
Keisha sat on her beautiful white horse further along the trail, waiting.
The four girls stared at her. With the sun dappling through the leaves making a golden light on her skin, and her long dark hair around her shoulders, she looked like something from a movie. She looked like Arwen from Lord of the Rings.
'I've been looking for you, Shelby,' Keisha said. 'Dad said you can come back. He said you can try out for the troupe, if you still want to.'
24 Traitor-Potato
At first Erin and Hayley didn't say anything. Lindsey's face went purple, like a volcano about to erupt. She turned her horse around and rode away. The mare was not keen to leave the other horses, and Lindsey gave her a sharp dig in the ribs with her heels. 'Get up!'
Shelby noticed Keisha's eyes narrow as she realised that Shelby hadn't told her friends about her visit the day before.
Shelby opened her mouth and then shut it again.
Hayley shook her head and then rode off after Lindsey – on Shelby's horse. Shelby looked after her, wondering if she should mention that, but decided against it.
Erin frowned. 'What's she talking about? You don't even know her. You weren't even there.'
Shelby watched her friend's face as she pieced the information together in her mind. Erin put her hand to her mouth and said, 'Oh my God, Shelby! Traitor-potato.'
Then she turned Bandit around and trotted after the others.
'Do you want to come over now?' Keisha asked.
'I better not.' Shelby listened to the muffled footfalls of her friends' horses trotting along the trail. Although she couldn't hear their words, she could hear the tone of their voices as they talked about her. 'I have to work this afternoon.' She thought about how horrible the afternoon was likely to be. 'Maybe I could come over tomorrow,' she suggested in a small voice. 'But I may not be able to. I might not be allowed, or something.'
Keisha nodded. 'I'm sorry I made trouble for you.'
'Now we're even,' Shelby confessed.
'The police? I thought that might have been you.' Keisha smiled, but without any humour in it. 'Is that one yours too?' she asked, eyeing Scooter.
'This one's just a loaner.'
'Nice colour,' Keisha said.
'Can I ask something?'
'You can ask.'
Shelby tilted her head to the side, peeking at Keisha from under the brim of her helmet. 'You don't go to school, do you?'
Keisha shrugged. 'I'm mostly home-schooled. There is a school for all us circus kids. I get to go when we're not travelling. I do a lot via correspondence. Is that what you were going to ask? I was sure you were just going to come out and ask me whether we stole that stallion.'
'I was. I will. It's just that you're kind of a straight-talker. Almost . . . rude. I wondered if you've spent much time with other kids – had to get along with people, when they could, umm, leave, if you were annoying them.'
Keisha stared at her. The white horse nodded its head, chewing on the bit.
'Did you steal Diablo?' Shelby asked.
'No.'
'Then what happened?'
Keisha's horse shifted on its feet and she patted it – murmuring for it to wait. Then she looked up at Shelby again. 'We have a full circuit of bookings through the winter. We go down south to Wagga and then west to Mildura up to Broken Hill and then Bourke, Brewarina, Narrabri, back to the coast. We stay in Coffs Harbour for two weeks.