Read Online Horse Camp by Nicole Helget - Free Book Online Page A

the silverware rings. “That does it!” he says. He gets up from the table and storms into the kitchen and out through the screen door with a slam.
    We all look at Sheryl, the only adult left. She smiles at June Bug. “Did you tell these kids about all the chicken diseases you’ve researched?”
    â€œNot all of them,” says June Bug.
    â€œThey-oh’s quite a few,” says Pauly, taking a bite of drumstick.
    â€œKids,” says Sheryl. “This chicken is perfectly healthy to eat. However, if you don’t want to eat chicken tonight, just have some mashed potatoes, corn, and salad.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out, like she’s real overwhelmed.
    â€œJeez, why’s everybody gotta get so bent out of shape?” I say.
    â€œWe’re just following the leader, the guy who had an aneurysm and walked away from the dinner table,” says Penny. “The guy who’s always having an aneurysm.”
    Sheryl stares at Penny with a sad look, but Penny just takes a big spoonful of corn, dumps it on her mashed potatoes, mixes it around, and shovels a big bite into her mouth. Sometimes she can be worse than me when it comes to disrespect.

Chapter 8
Penny Has Questions
    Dear Diary,
    Knowing right and wrong was so, so much easier when we lived together with Mom and Dad, when we worshipped together and Daddy taught us the path to heaven. The recent dinner table argument last night has gotten me thinking how topsy-turvy things are now. It’s nearly midnight, but I can’t sleep. Stretch called us all together tonight to watch the ten o’clock news even though that’s usually when we’re forced to go to bed. Right away, I knew something was up because he normally doesn’t let anyone watch TV. Sheryl and June Bug were there, too. Sheryl looked sympathetic (even though she was wearing a really inappropriate sundress) and bustled around getting glasses of water for everyone and putting boxes of Kleenex here and there as though we were getting ready for a funeral, which, it turns out, we sort of were.
    Stretch sat down and patted his knee, and Pauly climbed right up and snuggled in close to the crook of Stretch’s neck. Then the news came on, and Stretch told us to be quiet. The very first story was about Mom. Mom’s been in the newspaper lots of times but this was the first time her case was on TV. How embarrassing! I always thought that if I were on TV, I would be sitting with an orphan or poor kid from a foreign country, asking for donations to build schools and houses and wells. It turns out I’m the daughter of a criminal! An anchor lady outside the courthouse pointed back to the big, brick building where Mom’s future was being decided.
    The news story included hand-drawn pictures of a woman who looked like Mom but was way thinner. The drawing showed her sitting at a table with a lawyer guy who didn’t look very competent, in my opinion. He was pretty fat and wore tiny glasses. Mom wore a suit jacket, which looked really nice in a hand-drawn kind of way, so at least she didn’t embarrass me the way Sheryl would if she were my mother and had to go to court and be on TV in the trampy outfits she wears. If Sheryl had to go to court and someone had to draw a picture of her, they’d probably draw fig leaves to cover up all of her private parts that are always halfway sticking out of her clothes.
    As soon as I saw that drawing of Mom, it felt like a raw potato got stuck in my throat. I took a strand of my hair and put it in my mouth, just to have something to bite on. Mom makes me really mad, but she’s still my mother, even if she did embarrass me and ruin our family and almost ruin Dad’s church. Even though sometimes I have to admit that Mom did have a couple of valid points regarding Dad’s ministry, which confuses me, because Dad is the head of the household and head of our nuclear family, so he is always