The last Penderwicks story I did was very short. Sorry, this one I plan about 15 chapters.

I don't own the rights to the Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall does.

I hated car rides. It's not that I hated the ride itself, no; it's that the people I happened to be with made it intoxicating. There was no valid reason to the fact that I was stuck in the back seat with a dog and Jane, none. I guess it was my own fault, Batty had claimed one of two middle seats and asked Rosalind to sit with her, this had happened before I had woken up and Jeffrey had claimed the front seat as he wanted to sit with his father.

"Alec, are we there yet?" I asked, as he was the one driving and should know. We were heading to a type of ranch in Road Island it was by the water and daddy rented for the summer saying "loca de novo, novumvultus." New places, new faces, and then he added in English "You can't always go to Maine, and I've invited Jeffrey and Alec so you won't be missing out on them." Him, Iantha and Ben wouldn't join them until the middle of July because Iantha had to work. Alec didn't seem to be listening as there was some type of orchestra music playing so I wadded up a piece of paper from Jane's notebook, earning an indigent "hey!" and chucked at him.

"Why did you do that Skye?" asked Alec, he didn't even turn around.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Only you would launch a ball of paper at a person while he's trying to drive," answered Alec, Jeffrey laughed so I took more paper from Jane and threw some at him too, then I asked my question again and with a glance at the directions he was holding Jeffrey told me that we only had five more minutes left. Good because I didn't think I could go much longer hearing Batty sing The Song That Never Ends or Jane babble about Sabrina Starr.

Just as I was about to give up hope and die right then and there the car stops and Jeffrey crowed "We're here!" I unbuckled in a flash and climb over Batty and Rosalind to get out of the car.

"Skye!" Rosalind protested, I ignored her though as I needed to get out of there, I flung the door open and jumped out, "whoa," I said, in front of me there was a big white farm house with red shutters, over to one side, and it seemed like it went to the back as well, was a large pasture with horses and the other side was a lawn perfect for soccer, I could also see the water behind the house. My sisters, Jeffrey and Alec joined me and the first word uttered by any of them was "horses!" this of course was Batty, people began to talk now, the shock of the house worn off a bit, Jane went on about how this was a perfect setting for her new book, the rest of us just a bunch of happy noises, when a man looking to be in his early twenties come over to us and Alec said hello.

"Hey," said the man "I'm the caretaker of Crestwood, and I'll be takin' care of the horses for you, I live just 'cross the road."

"It's nice to meat you. My name is Alec McGrath" Said Alec "It's also nice to know someone will take care of the horses as none of us have any experience in that."

"John Garley, and don't worry about the horses, I can teach the kids to ride if they want" then he nodded his head towards me, my sisters and Jeffrey, "they all yours?"

Alec smiled, "Jeffrey is mine," he put a hand on Jeffrey's shoulder, "the girls are family friends, their father, step mother and brother will be joining us in July." We introduced our selves, John seemed nice, even though he had called us kids, I was 15 after all, not really a kid anymore.

"Will you really teach us to ride?" asked Batty, I could see the surprised look on everyone's faces and I know mine looked the same; Batty rarely talks to new people.

John smiled "Of course, I'll be in the barn behind your house at 7:00 tomorrow morning, why don't you all come out about 8:00? That should give the horses enough time to eat."

"We'd love to, thank you Mr. Garley." Said Rosalind, her polite instincts kicking in,

"No problem, you can all call me John as well, Mr. makes me feel old," he laughd "for what it's worth, welcome to Crestwood."

...***...

The house was just as magnificent- ugh I sounded like Jane- on the inside as it was on the outside, all wood floors and tall ceilings, there was two bedrooms downstairs, Alec took the smaller of the two and went to unpack, leaving the larger for daddy and Iantha. I was about to go upstairs to pick my room when Rosalind said "hound draws for order" I groaned and Jeffrey poked me,

"Come on Skye, maybe you'll get lucky,"

"Fat chance" I said

The usual preparations began and then Batty let go of hound's collar, he picked Batty first, typical, then Jeffrey, Jane and…oh my…Skye. "He didn't pick me last!" I exploded; this was going to be a good vacation.

When the rooms were picked, Batty's turned out to be a light yellow and had bunk beds in it "Ben and I can share." She said, Jeffrey's was a blue color and to his great joy, has a piano in it, Jane found a room, much like her room at Arundel was, on the third floor, I found a room that was a lighter blue then Jeffrey's, more like a sky blue, that made me considerably happy, blue sky blue eyes, I thought. Rosalind's room although she was picked last is very nice, the walls were light green and the floor, all planks, was painted brown.

After I unpacked I headed to Jeffrey's room and, as I figured he would be, was seated at the piano. I grabbed him arm and pulled him off the bench, "hey!" protested Jeffrey "come on," I said "I want to check out the water."

We went down a few steps to find a beach; I took my shoes off and ran to the water, Jeffrey came right behind me. I went in up to my knees the water felt great, and then I felt a splash on my back, I spun around and saw Jeffrey grinning at me, "Oh you're going down Tifton," I said, and then proceed to push him into the water, Jeffrey came up still grinning "we're playing this game then?" he said "alright" and grabbed my hand and pulled me under. When we came up I heard Hound barking and people laughing,

"You've been here less than half an hour and you're already drenched." Said Rosalind, who, as well as Jane and Batty had thought to put swimsuits on, when they come over and I grabbed Batty and Jeffrey grabbed Rosalind and Jane and a splash/dunk war broke out for the rest of the afternoon.

After we had all dried up Alec sat us at the kitchen table for dinner. "So, children and otherwise," said Alec looking at Hound, "how was your first day at Crestwood?"

"It was amazing," I said and everyone agreed with lots of greats and wonderfuls and a fantastic on Batty's part.

"Good," said Alec and smiled "Now, let's eat."

…..***…..

Like it? Love it? Review it!

~Sunny