She drew a circle into the brown earth for the third time, after all, it had to be perfect. The stick barely dug into the dry surface, a lot of force had to be used to do it. Leaning back, she squinted and scrutinized it closely. It looked alright, which caused her to proceed by scratching vertical lines into the circle, all the way around. The most important thing was saved for the end: placing a neat eight at the centre.

For a moment, she just knelt there, looking at her picture thoughtfully. Then, she smiled wanly and blew across it. Grains of dust were hurled into every direction. "Happy birthday, Tessie."

"Claire McLeod!"

She got up from the ground quickly when she heard the reprimanding voice, trying to cleanse her knees of the brown stains, and turned around to face her new teacher.

"Why were you kneeling in the dirt like that?"

"I was…um…nothing."

The young woman shook her head, not knowing what to make of that student. She could never get through to the girl, it was as if she were always on guard and lost in dreams. "You should really change out of your uniform before running around outside."

"Yes, Ms. Graham" Claire answered obediently, swallowing down a sassy response.

The teacher looked her over with genuine concern. "Are you alright, dear?"

The girl nodded, putting on a fake smile. She was no one's "dear", and least of all that woman's. Time to leave before Ms. Graham would involve her in some boring conversation about a book she didn't want to read…

"Wait, Claire, I came out here to tell you that your visitor's here!"

She spun around with excitement. "Really?! Where are they?"

Ms. Graham smiled. "At the bus stop, near the front entrance. But it's not 'they', it's just-"

Claire didn't hear the last part, she had already run off to greet her father and Meg, racing through the garden, into the main hall and out the other side, oblivious to the strange looks she received. The fact that they were finally here was incredible. She had doubted that they would actually come this time, all promises to visit her at school had been delayed so far because they were too busy on Drover's, always too busy, but not this time. Up to that point, she hadn't allowed herself to look forward to their visit, simply because she didn't want to be disappointed, but all attempts to restrain her joy at the prospect of actually seeing her father had been thrown aside now.

"Claire!" Meg waved at her from a distance and hurried towards her, but the girl was quicker, flying into her arms.

Meg was touched, it wasn't like Claire to be so overjoyed and overt about her feelings. She hugged the girl, kissing the side of her head. "It's great to see you! We miss you terribly on Drover's!"

"Clai-aire!" a little girl squealed, and before Claire knew what was going on, her leg had been enveloped in a firm grip.

"Hey, Jodes!" She laughed, tousling the toddler's blond curls, before looking at Meg again. "Where's Dad?"

The young woman's expression grew serious; she was searching for the right words without letting go of Claire's shoulders. This split second of hesitation was enough for the girl to know it all. Her smile faded and was replaced by an expression of anger. "But he said he'd come!"

"I know, but there's an epidemic among this season's lambs. Several have died and we don't know what it is yet, so the vet-"

"Exactly, the vet! The vet's supposed to figure that out! Connor could've talked to the vet!"

"Claire, you know what a mess it can be, the lambs need to be isolated and…" Meg broke off the sentence and shrugged helplessly. It was obvious that the girl didn't care about the explanation, no matter how good it was. She was disappointed, her father had promised to visit her and had broken this promise once more. "Look, your dad's really sorry, he's been looking forward to this day for weeks. He really wanted to see you."

"If he'd wanted to, he would've come!" she yelled furiously, shrugging Meg's hands off her shoulders.

"It's not that simple, honey, I'm sorry, but-"

"Why didn't you talk to the vet?"

Ouch. Claire sure knew how to lash back. Meg was battling her own anger at Jack, she was sick of being his advocate, of fixing things between him and the rest of the world. But, once more, she took his side. "I offered, but your father has to be there in case things get worse and decisions need to be made."

"No, he doesn't! It's just an excuse again!"

Jodi started crying, irritated by the fighting and Meg picked her up, rubbing her back. "Shh…it's alright, sweetheart."

"That's right, comfort poor, little, helpless Jodi," Claire spat out, tears of anger glistening in her eyes, "pet cute little Jodi's blond hair-"

"Claire!" Meg was shocked, she had never heard her talk like this before. There had been indications of jealousy, of course, but this…! She automatically drew her daughter a little closer in her arms in a protective gesture. Jodi was bawling even louder by now.

Claire turned around and ran away across the street without another word.

"I didn't- wait!" Meg hurried after her, since she didn't know where her room was, but she was too slow, carrying the little girl. The child suddenly seemed to weigh a ton. Surprisingly, she still didn't lose sight of Claire, though, because the girl wasn't heading for the dormitories, but sped past them, towards a garden of some sort.

Meg ran after her, but trying to catch up was futile. She only wished that her daughter would stop wailing at this volume, but Jodi was confused and inconsolable. This had not gone as planned. Meg cursed Jack inwardly for leaving the difficult parts up to her once more. It should have been a happy reunion, a day filled with exchanges about what had happened on Drover's Run, and stories about Claire's new school life.

However, she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be like this today, or on any other day, for that matter. Meg's worst suspicions had already been confirmed by the sadness in Claire's voice when she had talked to her on the phone, and her paleness, the way her blouse fluttered around her shoulders, only reinforced that. Not to mention the way the girl had clung to her in that first embrace…

Meg finally reached the tree, only to find that Claire had actually climbed it – in her skirt. She could see her crouching on one of the lower branches with one hand pressed firmly against the stem, trying to sit down slowly.

"Careful, Claire…don't slip! Come down, please" she panted, still rubbing Jodi's back with the other hand. "Shh…" The little girl's crying had died down to a quiet whimpering.

"No!"

"I can't talk…to you like this."

"I don't care!"

Meg noticed a group of older girls passing by, around the age of thirteen or fourteen, maybe. They were giggling and whispering, staring at the odd pair, particularly at the girl in the tree. She threw them an indignant glare, which caused them to move on slowly. Claire didn't need to be teased by them on top of it all.

"Don't be childish, you can't stay up there forever." No answer. Meg was at a loss, it was getting increasingly difficult to talk to the girl with each year, as if some invisible barrier had been erected. She sighed. "I'm sorry your father couldn't come, really. But I thought we could still go into town, maybe get some ice cream, and then you can tell me all about school…"

"I don't care that he didn't come. I didn't wanna see him anyway."

"Don't say that, you know it's not true."

"Then why did he send me away?" she asked furiously. "Just because there's Jodi now…why do I have to stay here, why can't I go home?"

"Claire, this has nothing to do with Jodi or your dad not wanting you around anymore! If he didn't love you, why would he keep counting down the days till the winter break in his calendar? Why would he say 'I can't wait to see the look on Claire's face when she sees him', when he's buying a new horse? He talks about you all the time…Honey, the reason why he sent you here is that it's a good school, and he wants you to be able to take any job you want. But for that, you need to learn-"

"But I don't wanna learn all that, I want to breed horses! I can learn that at home!"

"If you still want that in a few years, you can do it! But there are some things everyone needs to learn first, that's what school's for."

"I hate school" Claire muttered.

Meg sighed. "I know."

A moment of silence passed between them, until the girl finally decided to give up her position in the tree; she lowered her body onto the branch so it supported her hips first, and swung her legs down, holding on to the wood only with her hands for a moment, before dropping onto the dry earth. She appeared much calmer already, although the hardened expression on her face wasn't exactly more desirable than the rage that had been there before.

"Look at you" Meg remarked with a half smile, "wearing fancy clothes, but all dusty. Well, you'll always be a country girl."

Claire responded with the same kind of half-hearted smile, but averted her gaze quickly. "Uh, well…I'm sorry…about…you know, what I said about you…and Jodi and all."

It was a very quiet, mumbled apology, but Meg accepted it nonetheless, as it was coming from Claire, who was, well – Claire. "Never mind. So how are you feeling about some ice cream?

"Ithe cream, ithe cream!" Jodi shouted cheerfully.

Claire grinned. "That would be okay, I guess."