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frowned into the salty breeze.
    It was cold and spitting rain, so there weren't any swimmers. The only other people on the beach were three boys with a football about fifty metres further along. She watched them punching the ball to each other, or kicking it high into the air, then scrambling and wrestling with each other to catch it.
    All her parents worried about was school. They didn't understand that she didn't care about her studies. One school was probably just as good as another. Her life was at the stables and she wasn't likely to find a place like that again.
    The truth was that she had never made friends easily. She'd always been a bit weird and shy. At school the gap between her and the other kids seemed to be stretching wider all the time. Not only that, but she wasn't smart – just somewhere in the middle. The only thing she could talk about with confidence was horses, and sometimes when she got started she could tell other people were bored.
    Now, for the first time in her life, she was part of a group of friends. She'd finally found people with whom she could talk about horses all day long. She couldn't imagine not seeing Erin and Lindsey every day.
    Shelby remembered that it was only a month or so ago that Hayley Crook – the girl with the flashiest horses, the nicest house and the most 'in' mum at Pony Club – had asked if she could hang out with Shelby. She had laughed about it, because it had seemed so bizarre.
    If Shelby's family moved, all of that would be ruined. She could go back to the stables in eighteen months, but it wouldn't be the same. Too much day-to-day stuff would have happened. There would be too many in-jokes that she wouldn't understand.
    The footy boys ran along the beach towards the steps and Shelby shuffled over so that they could pass. She didn't even look up as their legs scissored by.
    'Shelby?'
    She slipped the hood from her head and turned around.
    The boy with the football was familiar, but she couldn't place him. He had caramel-coloured skin and dark eyes.
    'It's me, Chad,' he grinned at her.
    'Chad?' Then she remembered she'd run across him on his trail bike a few times in the Gully. 'I didn't recognise you without your helmet.' She smiled back.
    'What are you doing here?' he asked.
    'My aunty lives up that hill.' She pointed. 'What about you?'
    'My brother lives down that way.' He tilted his head and tossed the football from hand to hand. 'I usually come up here and stay for a while during school holidays. I thought I'd seen you before. I mean, before the bike day. Must have been here.'
    Shelby had a vivid recollection of riding pillion on Chad's bike all those months ago when she had been lost in the Gully. They stared at each other.
    'Are you OK?' he asked, a frown crossing his brow for a second.
    She wiped a hand across her eyes, wondering if they were all red and puffy from crying.
    'Hurry up, will ya?' said one of the older boys.
    'We're going up to the shops for hot chips. Do you want to come?' Chad asked.
    Shelby blushed. 'Oh. Um, no, I better be getting back.'
    He nodded. 'Maybe tomorrow then? We're going fishing in the morning, but we usually hang out on the beach in the afternoon.'
    'Maybe.' She smiled.
    'Okies, see you tomorrow then.'
    Shelby watched as Chad ran to catch up with the others. All the other times she had seen him he had been wearing protective gear for trail bike riding. She hadn't noticed that he had quite broad shoulders and muscly legs. Perhaps he was a little taller than she remembered as well.
    Shelby wondered if she could talk her parents into giving her some money for hot chips tomorrow without it becoming a whole family outing. She would have to be careful what she said. If she told them she was meeting a boy her dad was sure to make a big deal out of it. Maybe if she told them he was a 'friend' without specifying gender she would get away with it?
    Shelby hummed as she headed back up the hill towards the house.

8 Shelby's Um Friend
    Shelby