Beginner's Luck Read online

  'OK.' Shelby smiled at her friend.

  After school Shelby went with Erin and her mother to the stables where Erin and the Crooks kept their horses. Erin talked the whole way there.

  'Mum said we can have pizzas delivered. I haven't decided whether I want proper pizzas from the Italian place yet. What do you reckon?'

  'Umm,' started Shelby.

  'And I'm getting a giant ice-cream cake. I wanted chocolate at first but vanilla will look better. Mum hasn't told me what she's bought me yet. I hope I get heaps of presents. What are you going to get me?' she asked, poking her head around the edge of the passenger seat.

  'What do you want?' asked Shelby.

  'Oh, just a million dollars. Maybe a Porsche. Just kidding, I don't really like Porsches anyway. Only old blokes drive them. I want a Fiesta – in red, or maybe pink. Do you like them?'

  Shelby didn't pay much attention to cars. 'Would it pull a float?' she asked.

  Erin tilted her head to the side. 'I don't know. Maybe.'

  'No, it wouldn't!' said Erin's mum. 'It's one of those little zippy things.'

  At the stables Shelby helped Erin clean out her stable and then bring her horse, Bandit, in from the day paddocks for his dinner.

  Bandit was a slightly built plain bay with no socks or facial markings. Shelby thought he lacked personality, and that he wasn't quite handsome enough to get away with it.

  While Erin was making up his dinner, Shelby gave Bandit a brush and picked out his hooves. Lindsey came past the yard leading a big thoroughbred that Shelby hadn't seen before.

  'Who's that?' Shelby asked.

  Lindsey stopped and patted the horse on the neck. 'This is Jezebel. She's just visiting Diablo for a few weeks,' Lindsey tactfully explained.

  Lindsey's mum owned the stables and the riding school, and Diablo was her Hanoverian stallion. Sometimes owners of broodmares paid Lindsey's mother to let their mares have foals by Diablo.

  'I'm glad you came past,' Erin called out from the tack room. 'I wanted to give you this.' She handed Lindsey one of the envelopes. 'It's for my birthday party on Saturday. You have to come! If you don't, I won't speak to you again,' Erin insisted. 'Or I might, but I would be cold and distant.'

  Lindsey smiled. 'I'd better come along then. I couldn't risk a cold Erin!'

  The girls laughed.

  'You don't need to get me a present or anything. Only if you really love me,' Erin grinned. 'No, really, you don't have to.' She paused. 'But I hope that you do.'

  Shelby winked at Lindsey. They both knew Erin would be devastated if they didn't get her anything at all.

  When Shelby arrived home later that afternoon, her mother was sitting at the dining table reading the paper. She had a pen in her hand, circling ads in the employment section.

  'Did you find anything?' Shelby threw her backpack on the floor.

  Her mother pushed the paper away with her hand. 'I've found great jobs that I'm not trained for, and jobs that I can do but don't pay well enough. I've been out of the market for a long time. The best thing would be to do a course part-time and move into it slowly, but then we have your little friend.' She tilted her head toward the back sliding door. 'He ate your father's jacaranda, you know. "Down to a bloody nub,"' she said, mimicking her husband's voice.

  Out the back Shelby's father was bending over his vegie patch with a trowel in his hand. Blue was standing behind him and, as Shelby watched, the pony reached forward and untied the strap of Dad's gardening apron with his teeth. The apron swung away from Dad's belly, hitting him in the face. He stood up straight and pivoted. 'Out of it, you cheeky mongrel!'

  Blue pricked his ears and backed away – straight into a shrub.

  'Get off my camellia!'

  Shelby's dad looked towards the house. 'Is that girl home yet? Tell her to get out here, will you? This animal is ricocheting around my garden like a bloody pinball!'

  Shelby stood in the doorway and Blue turned to face her. The camellia swayed.

  'Hello, my boy.'

  'Come here, you,' Dad said.

  Blue took a step towards him.

  'Not you, brute.'

  Shelby laughed. She thought they looked like a clown act at a circus.

  'Don't forget you have to do some cleaning today. It would be nice if you could do the bathroom, and vacuum the lounge room. You'll need to pick up the boys' Lego first,' her mother reminded her.

  'Yeah, I'll do it after.' Shelby walked across the lawn and her father took one of her hands. 'Look at this,' he said, using her finger to point at a hedge along the back fence. Much of the underside had been torn away and the tattered branches lay beneath it, their leaves wilting.

  'And this,' he said, swinging her arm around. There was a tall tree now minus several limbs. 'And what I really want you to see is this. This is brilliant.'

  He led Shelby around to the back of the vegie patch. There were distinct hoof marks across the dirt and then a section completely flattened. Little green shoots lay crumpled and broken. Blue had rolled in Dad's vegie patch.

  'All the way over, he went; wriggling and rubbing his neck like a kid making a snow angel. It was as though he'd set himself a personal challenge – how many plants can I destroy in one movement? You know what I call him? Tsunami. He's a bloody natural disaster!'

  Shelby put her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.

  'You can laugh if you want to, but understand this. The damage your horse has done in one short week will take six months to recover, at least. You've got to find a place for him, or I'll put him out on the street. I'm serious, Shelby.'

  Shelby looked at her father's face – his hazel eyes shiny and wide – and she could see that he was indeed serious.

  6 Speeches

  Shelby meant to do the vacuuming on Tuesday. She did do the dishes – well, most of them. She'd done the glasses and plates, but the pots and pans had food encrusted around the edges so she left them to soak for a little while, and when she came back someone had finished them off.

  She almost cleaned the bathroom on Wednesday. She put rubber gloves on, but then she remembered she was supposed to hand in a Maths assignment on Thursday, and by the time she'd finished it was ten o'clock, and she was supposed to be in bed by half past nine.

  On Thursday night Shelby took the vacuum cleaner out of the hall cupboard. She'd just finished picking up the Lego from the floor, and then Erin rang. Shelby remembered that she had to buy her a birthday present, and she asked her mum if she could run down to the little strip of shops on the corner. Her mother wouldn't let her go alone at that time of night and so they went together.

  Shelby had thirty-five dollars, and she needed to keep twenty aside for her entry fee to the Matchstick Town Challenge. She found a cute make-up kit with four types of glitter lip-gloss that she knew Erin would love, but it was twenty-five dollars. Her mum lent her the extra ten.

  When she walked in the front door, she could hear the boys raking through the Lego. They'd tipped it all out on the floor again.

  On Friday when she came home from school the house was spotless except for Shelby's room. Her mum and dad had invited some friends over for dinner.

  Shelby's mum asked if she could clean her room before they arrived. She didn't say anything about the rest of the house and Shelby didn't either. It had to be a quick clean so she shoved as much as she could in her wardrobe and under the bed, and arranged the rest into neat piles.

  When the friends came, Shelby made up the plates of nibbles and then she went into the boys' room to keep them occupied as much as she could. They played Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Uno, and then Shelby painted their faces. They both wanted to be Spiderman, but Shelby ran out of red so she painted Blake with orange instead.

  They went out into the lounge room to show the grown-ups. Her mum's friend said, 'Marie, your children are so beautifully behaved!' Shelby's mum smiled, but she didn't answer.

  On Saturday morning Shelby fed Blue a biscuit of hay, and then she stayed i
n her bedroom until ten. She was dying to ask if she was still allowed to go to Erin's party, but she was afraid that the answer would be no. There would be a speech, maybe even two. Shelby could hear them in her head already. At five past ten she took a deep breath and proceeded out into the dining room.

  'Do you think I should let you go?' her mother asked.

  Shelby shook her head. 'But I'd really like to go. Erin would be sad if I didn't.'

  'This is not about Erin's happiness.' Shelby's mother didn't burst out shouting like Dad sometimes did when he was cross. Shelby's mother saved all her grumpiness up and then spoke quietly.

  If Shelby had to make a choice she would pick Dad's shouting, because it was over sooner, and besides, her mum always had a logical argument. Sometimes when her Dad started yelling he didn't make any sense, and then they would both giggle. One time he shouted, 'Don't you yell at me, or you'll go over my knee!', and then he paused for a second and added, 'And that rhymes!' A moment later his chin started to wiggle, he pursed his lips, and soon they were both hooting with laughter.

  When Mum was going off Shelby never felt like laughing.

  She sighed. The speech was coming. She could feel it brewing in the air, like an electrical storm.

  'Shelby, you are asking this family to completely change the way it operates for your hobby, but you're not willing to give anything in return. You've had five whole days to show us that you can be responsible, and so far you've done half the dishes, which is less than you are supposed to do, even without Blue in the equation. I'm not willing to live in a sty. I've explained to you that I can't take on a job and manage here at the same time.'

  'I know.' Shelby hung her head.

  'And this is only week one. How is it going to be a few weeks – months – down the track?'

  'I know,' Shelby said again.

  'You can go to Erin's party, but I want you to think about what I've said.'

  Speech two came in the car on the way to the party.

  'I don't think you appreciate what a strain a job can be,' her father began.

  'I know, Dad,' she said.

  'No, you don't know. It's tiring physically and mentally. We all have to do our bit around the place. At the very least you could clean up your own mess, and you don't even do that.'

  'I'm sorry. I'll try harder.'

  'This thing with Blue is getting worse every day. I want you to talk to your horsey friends at this party and get some phone numbers.'

  'Yes, Dad,' she said.

  At Erin's place he pulled up the handbrake and frowned at her.

  'He has to go, Shelby.'

  She nodded. Aside from general worrying, Shelby hadn't thought much about what to do with Blue over the past week. She decided to put together a plan for action as soon as she got home from the party. She would read the livestock section in the newspaper and ring the saddlery to see what they had available on their notice board. Hopefully her parents would drive her around to look at some places if she found any that were suitable.

  Shelby could hear the music as soon as she opened the car door. Most of the guests were already there. Shelby could see Hayley Crook and two other girls from the stables, Monica and Kim. Lindsey sat with them. Lindsey looked different from the other girls. Her clothes were daggy and she didn't have any makeup on. Shelby glanced down at her own plain tee-shirt and three-quarter pants, and wondered if she stood out as much as Lindsey did.

  There were also a few of the kids from school. A group of boys sat together in the corner trying to look cool. Shelby thought they looked funny with their gelled-up hair and their low-slung pants.

  She placed her present on top of the pile on a table by the door and then kissed Erin on the cheek. 'Happy birthday!'

  Erin hugged her, talking in a loud voice to be heard over the music. 'Have you seen how many presents I got? Have some food. I can't believe everybody came! I was sure nobody would. I stayed up all night freaking, so I'm a bit scattered.'

  'You're always a bit scattered,' replied Shelby, smiling.

  'I know,' she moaned. 'Have you tried one of those green things?' She pointed to a plate. 'Don't. They're called dalmatoes or something. They're green and slimy and gross. Mum bought all this normal food and then those. It's just so random. Have a drink. Do you want orange or passionfruit?'

  Shelby took a plastic cup and looked around, not sure where to sit. The kids from school sat on one side of the room, and the girls from the stables on the other.

  'You know everyone here. Make them mingle!' urged Erin.

  Shelby loitered around the food table for a bit longer and then she was saved by the 'surprise'. It wasn't a clown; it was a magician. He had set up a table just outside the doorway and Erin's dad opened the garage door as if it was a stage curtain.

  Erin groaned and covered her eyes. 'This is so lame. How embarrassing!'

  Shelby didn't think it was lame at all. It might have been if he wore a cape and a silly hat, but he was wearing a blue checked shirt and dress shorts.

  All the guests pulled their chairs over so that they could watch. Shelby sat in the middle between Lindsey and a girl called Christie from her Maths class.

  The magician started off with a few tricks with handkerchiefs, cards and coins, but he also told heaps of jokes. The boys were sitting back with their arms folded at first, but then the magician made one of them – a surfer boy called Angus – come to the front and put his arm in a small guillotine. Just when the blade came down Angus started screaming, and the magician looked really frightened for a second, but then he realised that Angus was joking. Everybody laughed. Soon all the boys were wanting to have a turn up the front.

  Shelby thought it would be easy see through the illusion but, trick after trick, she couldn't figure it out. At the end of the show everyone was laughing and having a good time, and Shelby was sad that it was over. She offered to help him pack the car.

  'That was cool! How do you do it?'

  He grinned. 'Magic!'

  'No, really,' she pressed. 'You make it look so easy.'

  'Practice,' he replied. 'No, not practice, experimentation. People say that if you fail you should try again, but I don't think that's true. You can do the same wrong thing over and over, and you're going to fail every time, but if you're smart, you learn from your mistakes, so the next time you try you do something a little bit different and then you might succeed. Comprenda?'

  Shelby nodded. 'Like when you ask a horse to do something and it doesn't do it, then you might not be asking it the right way.'

  The magician shrugged. 'I don't know about that. Cards and handkerchiefs don't have free will.'

  'Doves and bunnies do,' replied Shelby with a grin.

  'That's why I don't use them!' he said, slamming the back door. He climbed into his car and waved as he drove away.

  While everyone had cake, Erin opened her presents. Shelby was pleased to see that hers was just as good as all the others and Erin was happy. After the magic show everyone seemed to get along better. All of the girls got up to dance, and some of the boys did too.

  Shelby sat with Lindsey for a while.

  'You got the day off,' Shelby said.

  'Yes, Mum will be leading the trails today. Can you imagine it?'

  Lindsey's job was to clean stables and feed horses when their owners weren't there. She led the trail rides on weekends, and also handled the foals so they would get used to people. Whenever Shelby saw Lindsey she was busy, but Shelby thought it looked like fun work. She wished she could do that instead of vacuuming and washing the dishes.

  An Avril Lavigne song started playing and Shelby stood up. 'I love this song! Want to dance?'

  Lindsey shrugged. 'OK.'

  'Don't you like Avril?'

  'I don't know who she is,' Lindsey laughed.

  Shelby grinned back at her, but she thought it was weird that Lindsey hadn't heard of Avril Lavigne. It was brave too. When Erin talked about a song or a singer that Shelby hadn't heard she would
just pretend she had heard of them, otherwise Erin would make a big deal about it and make Shelby feel stupid and embarrassed. 'Omigod! I can't believe you don't know! Everybody knows that, Shel. Where have you been?'

  Shelby didn't think Lindsey would get embarrassed about it. She didn't seem to care about fashion. Shelby would have imagined that the other girls would be mean about it, and talk about Lindsey behind her back, but they didn't. Hayley, in particular, was very respectful to Lindsey. They weren't best friends, but they had known each other for most of their lives, and they behaved like cousins.

  At about four o'clock the parents started arriving to take their kids home. Shelby was one of the last people there and helped Erin and her parents clear away. Erin's mum offered to drop her home when they were finished.

  'Thank you,' said Shelby, relieved that she wouldn't have to sit through another speech.

  As they turned into her street Shelby gasped. Blue was on the front lawn tied to a stake by a long rope.

  7 Bromeliads

  Shelby ran into the garage, grabbed a bucket and filled it with water. She shuffled towards Blue with the water slopping over the sides and saturating the legs of her pants.

  'My poor baby. You must be thirsty. They are so mean.'

  Blue sniffed at the water for a moment and then resumed munching on the lawn.

  Shelby left the bucket and marched into the house. Angry tears were forming in her eyes. The front door hit the wall with a thud.

  Her father was sitting on the floor of the lounge room with Connor and Blake. Her mother peeked around the kitchen wall.

  'Hi, honey, how was it?' she asked.

  Shelby hands were bunched into fists at her sides. She erupted. 'How long has he been there? There's no shade. He had no water! I can't believe you would be so cruel!'

  'Keep your shirt on,' replied her father. 'He had water earlier. We took it away because he kept tipping the bucket up.'

  Her tears spilled over, and she wiped them away. 'Your rope probably just about strangled him. You don't know anything about horses! What if he caught his leg, or poked his eye on that stick? What if he pulled it too hard and it came out? He could get hit by a truck or anything!'