Dream Horse (Scrapped)

Chapter One:

Story of the past five minutes of my life: My mom wants to move to a ranch, I got my last report card (which wasn’t very good, seeing that I got three C’s, two D’s, and two F’s), and Dad lost his job.

“Honey, that’s horrible!” Mom complained to me, resting her right hand on my left shoulder. She then turned to Dad (with my report card in her left hand), saying, “And why in the world would Dave fire you? You were his best employee.”

“No idea, honey.” Dad shook his head, “All he said was that it cost too much money to keep the amount of employees he had, and he had to let go of the people who didn’t do the best work. And honestly, I thought I was one of his best, too.”

“But I thought you were his favorite…” Mom trailed off.

“Me too, but… Things just don’t always work out as we want them too. And Dave and I are still friends.” He turned to me, “Now. Let’s see that report card. Your mom told me a little about it, but I want to see it for myself. Can’t be that bad…”

“Uhh…” Without thinking, I grabbed my report card out of my mom’s hand and raced up the stairs and into my bedroom. I slammed the door shut behind me and slid down it until my but hit the floor. I closed my eyes and slapped my forehead, because I knew darn well that I would get in big trouble if I didn’t go back down the stairs and say I was kidding. In a few seconds it would be too late, and I would have to be grounded and move to that ranch my mom was talking about.

Why in the world would someone want to name a house after a salad dressing? It’s just plain crazy to me, which is why I laughed at my mom when she mentioned it. Just one day in Myakka, and all of a sudden, she wants to pack up everything and leave. She must be kidding!

“Holly, get down here, please! Your father and I would like to talk to you about something.” My mom yelled up the stairs.

I thought, It must be too late; I’m probably in trouble now. I took in a deep breath and slowly got up. I turned the suddenly cold doorknob and wobbled down the all too familiar steps. My parents came into view, their faces stern with thoughts and decisions. I slid my hand down the wooden stairway railing, preparing to face being grounded, and losing internet for a whole day. You’re probably thinking, one day isn’t too bad, but if you think about it hard enough, I’m talking about twenty four whole hours! And to top it off, tomorrow’s Saturday, too! But if you break it down even more, it’s around five o’clock in the afternoon, so I’m going to be having about one, two, three…

“Holly,” My dad said, snapping me back to life, “Can I have your report card now? And I hope you were “kidding” when you ran up the stairs and slammed the door.” He used his fingers to make quotation marks around “kidding”.

“What? Huh? Oh, right. And, yeah, I was just kidding.” I added a fake laugh for emphases, and then mumbled, “I guess.”

“Well then.” Dad wiped his sweaty palms onto his khaki pants, “Let’s see it then.”

“See what?” I stalled, even though I knew that he wanted my report card.

“Your report card, I want to see your report card.” He explained impatiently, sticking out his palm, “Come on, I don’t have all night here.”

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