Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or features of Higher Ground, except the following: Emma Morgan, the Rivergliders, Alex, Andrew, James, Leonie, Kristen, Alexis, Fred, Belle, Billy, the stables, or any other horses in that stable. Don't SUE!
Scott and Shelby walked back together. He dropped her off at her dorm with a last kiss. It would be at least a couple of days since they next see each other assuming that Alex didn't kill him on the buddy hike-back. Then, on tiptoes, Shelby opened the door to the dorm. For all she knew, no one was awake. As she slipped into her pyjamas, Daisy turned to her and sat up in her bed.
"Had fun?" she asked gently, mocking her ever so slightly. She knew something special had happened. Scott never walked Shelby back all the way to the dorm since it was quite a detour for him to make and then in the snow on top of it.
"Yeah," Shelby answered simply. She didn't know if she ought to tell Daisy just now.
"So? What happened? He never walks you back to the dorm... or at least not the whole way," she let out a short laugh.
"Yeah, well..." she hesitated, and then got up and sat on Daisy's bed. "Dais, I'm so happy!"
"Wow! Coming from a deeply dysfunctional teen such as yourself, that's... uh... amazing. What has sparked this happiness?" she asked sarcastically.
"Scott," she said. Daisy nodded encouragingly. "You'll never believe this, but we're... he asked me to-"here she got interrupted by Daisy.
"Let me guess. He asked you to marry him?" she asked sarcastically. Shelby nodded. "What?" Daisy yelled. "No way! I was being sarcastic. I didn't think that was actually the answer!"
"It is!" Shelby squealed excitedly. She hugged Daisy. Daisy got up, took her hand and led her into the bathroom so that no one would hear her. She could see Jess and Jules starting to stir. Only Emma still slept soundly. Daisy had discovered through many methods that she could basically sleep through anything. They entered the bathroom and Daisy turned to her. She looked happy and had a genuine smile on her face.
"Tell me everything. Don't leave anything out." Shelby proceeded to tell her everything that had just happened. When she finished they both had the biggest grins on their faces. "I can't believe it!" Daisy said after about a minute, completely stunned. "I didn't know love like that existed outside of the Cinderella castle."
"I know," was all Shelby could say, even now, she was whispering, she couldn't make herself talk louder. "I keep getting scared that I'm gonna wake up and it's all going to have been a dream."
"This is as real as it gets hunny. I can't believe you're engaged. This is the weirdest thing ever. He must really love you. You guys haven't even had sex yet-together." They both let out short laughs.
"I know. It's so weird, yet so perfect. I couldn't imagine it any better." As she said this, a smile spread across her face. "I'm going to bed. I heard somewhere that when you sleep you store things and will remember them forever. I don't ever want to forget any detail of this evening."
"I understand," Daisy said, getting up as well.
"Thank you, and don't tell anyone. I want to be the bringer of good news for once."
"Fine by me." They both got up and left the bathroom. As Shelby fell asleep, images of her and Scott floated through her mind. When she first saw him come to Horizon. When they had their first talk about his step-mom in his dorm. When she told him about her step-dad. When she left. When she came back to the comfort of Scott after having taken care of her step-dad for so long. The times they spent on the docks together. When he came back to her saying for the first time that he loved her. And the moment he took the next step and asked her to be his forever. She was almost scared it was so perfect. On that thought, she went to sleep.
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Since Scott had his buddy hike-back with Alex to do, he and Shelby had to announce their news to Peter and Sophie before Sophie, Scott, Alex left for the joyous occasion. Scott ran over to the girls' dorm before Alex got up and went to get Shelby. They had arranged to meet at daybreak outside the dorm.
"You ready for this?" Scott asked, seeing his girl friend-or rather, his fiancée-looking rather sick.
"Ya. We'd have to get it out at some point. Daybreak works for me," she added sarcastically with a little smile for Scott.
"Sophie, Scott and I have big news to tell you and Peter," Shelby said, breaking the ice.
"Why are you up, Shelby? You do know Scott has a buddy hike-back with Alex, right? And Peter's doing last-minute work before he takes us up there," She was in the middle of checking her backpack for everything.
"No. You don't understand. This is huge," Shelby continued, with Scott nodding fervently beside her.
"Oh no! You're not pregnant, are you? When did it happen? Why didn't you use protection? How many times do I have to tell you kids? Peter's gonna flip," she said.
"You mean like what you're doing now?" Scott asked, mockingly, which got him a nudge from Shelby and a warning look from Sophie.
"I'm not pregnant. We just have news!" Shelby said, exasperated.
"Fine. Come along then," she said, calming down considerably. They went off to Peter's office. The door was open. The small party walked in. Peter laughed at the array of different expressions. Sophie looked worried, Scott looked amused, and Shelby looked scared out of her wits. What if they don't approve? What if they separate us? What if... she continued thinking.
"What's up?" he asked, eyeing their joined hands reproachfully. They, however, did not let go. Shelby would have broken apart had she not had Scott's hand for comfort, and he knew this. Since Shelby was already scared enough, Scott answered in as few words as possible.
"We... um... got engaged," he said, a huge grin spreading across his face. He couldn't believe the looks on Sophie and Peter's faces.
"No way! You're kidding, right?" Peter asked, dumfounded.
"Nope, but that's exactly what Daisy said last night, when I told her," Shelby asked, her face relaxing as Scott gave her hand a squeeze.
"Oh my gosh you two!" Sophie exclaimed, tears rolling down her cheeks. She got up from her chair and hugged Shelby. As they were hugging and crying, Peter and Scott stood up. Peter looked completely bewildered.
"Uh, congratulations Scott! I can't believe this!" He walked over to Scott and gave him a hug. He was still a bit surprised.
"Thanks man!" Scott was so relieved. He had expected Peter to give him a load of mumbo-jumbo that meant nothing to him. He was at the point where no one could keep him from Shelby. Peter didn't even try to prevent it. He knew how much they truly loved each other. In fact, they were the most troublesome couple in terms of the "no inappropriate touching" rule. He smiled inwardly at this thought. Ever since Scott had come back at the morp last year, Shelby and him had been inseparable. He was surprised he had gotten them to do projects and such things apart. He also had it from Daisy that Shelby was always in her own bed at least an hour after lights out and spent the entire night there. He didn't pursue the matter of disregard for the lights out rule because he knew that if he did, he would be betraying both Scott and Shelby's trust and they would push further as a result of his butting in. It was in their nature as teens and as dysfunctional ones at that. He also knew for a fact that they weren't having sex, because for the longest time he had someone check that they remained at the docks in the very least. He had only recently lifted the "night police" as he called it.
"Alright, well, I'm ecstatic for both of you, but there still is the matter of Alex," Peter began. At that moment, Alex walked in the office.
"Hey, um... don't we have a dumb hike thing back to do?" he asked, visibly annoyed.
"Oh, how very articulate of you," Shelby answered sarcastically. She wasn't too pleased that he was taking Scott away from her. Especially after what had happened the night before. When Alex saw Sophie with red eyes, he looked inquisitively at her.
"Shelb, be nice," Sophie said warningly, "or it will be wood-chopping for you. Don't think I'm going soft on you."
"Fine, fine, no speech necessary," she put up her hands in defeat. "Can I say bye to Scott before you leave?" Sophie nodded. Shelby took his hand and led him out. On their way by him, Alex was making very rude and suggestive faces at Scott. Scott couldn't hold it in since the faces had to do with Shelby. He punched him, hard, in the arm on his way out.
"Hey, aren't you gonna do something man? He just punched me!" Alex protested, looking at Peter.
"Nope, you deserved it, I saw what you were doing. Be happy that's the punishment you get, I could make it worse if you want though." With that Peter smiled. That shut him up, he thought.
********************************************************************************
Outside, near Peter's office, Shelby had just stopped walking and spun around to face Scott.
"I love you," she said quietly.
"I love you," he said, emphasizing the word "you."
"Scott, be careful. I don't like him at all," she said, motioning to Alex who was walking out of the office. "And don't get yourself into more trouble. I'd actually like to be able to see you and be allowed to do so." Scott chuckled. If it wasn't shuns, it was grouping. If it wasn't that it was buddy hike-backs. And so on. The point being, he was always away from Shelby. On the up side, they had developed a sort of sign language due to this fact.
"Anything for you, Shelb. And I'll try to keep him in line, but I don't make promises I can't keep." With that, they kissed. They only broke apart when they heard Peter clear his throat rather loudly. He had made sure to avert his eyes during this little scene, due to the fact that they were engaged. He still had yet to get his mind around it.
"You ready, Scott?" Sophie yelled out. He looked at Shelby, gave her another kiss, this one much quicker, but still just as sweet, and jogged off to meet the others.
"See ya Cowboy," Shelby yelled out behind him.
"Oh, and Shelby," Peter called out. Oh what now? She thought to herself. "Meet me in my office at 10:30," and with that he jogged off to the awaiting car. As they pulled out and went up the mountain, Shelby stood there, trying to figure out why she should have to talk to Peter. Was she in trouble? She thought this as she left to get ready for the day, and for the stables in which she had agreed to help Emma with the chores, so long as she didn't have to muck out. Emma had laughed at this, but had accepted. Besides, she wanted to become Shelby's friend and to know her better.
Scott and Shelby walked back together. He dropped her off at her dorm with a last kiss. It would be at least a couple of days since they next see each other assuming that Alex didn't kill him on the buddy hike-back. Then, on tiptoes, Shelby opened the door to the dorm. For all she knew, no one was awake. As she slipped into her pyjamas, Daisy turned to her and sat up in her bed.
"Had fun?" she asked gently, mocking her ever so slightly. She knew something special had happened. Scott never walked Shelby back all the way to the dorm since it was quite a detour for him to make and then in the snow on top of it.
"Yeah," Shelby answered simply. She didn't know if she ought to tell Daisy just now.
"So? What happened? He never walks you back to the dorm... or at least not the whole way," she let out a short laugh.
"Yeah, well..." she hesitated, and then got up and sat on Daisy's bed. "Dais, I'm so happy!"
"Wow! Coming from a deeply dysfunctional teen such as yourself, that's... uh... amazing. What has sparked this happiness?" she asked sarcastically.
"Scott," she said. Daisy nodded encouragingly. "You'll never believe this, but we're... he asked me to-"here she got interrupted by Daisy.
"Let me guess. He asked you to marry him?" she asked sarcastically. Shelby nodded. "What?" Daisy yelled. "No way! I was being sarcastic. I didn't think that was actually the answer!"
"It is!" Shelby squealed excitedly. She hugged Daisy. Daisy got up, took her hand and led her into the bathroom so that no one would hear her. She could see Jess and Jules starting to stir. Only Emma still slept soundly. Daisy had discovered through many methods that she could basically sleep through anything. They entered the bathroom and Daisy turned to her. She looked happy and had a genuine smile on her face.
"Tell me everything. Don't leave anything out." Shelby proceeded to tell her everything that had just happened. When she finished they both had the biggest grins on their faces. "I can't believe it!" Daisy said after about a minute, completely stunned. "I didn't know love like that existed outside of the Cinderella castle."
"I know," was all Shelby could say, even now, she was whispering, she couldn't make herself talk louder. "I keep getting scared that I'm gonna wake up and it's all going to have been a dream."
"This is as real as it gets hunny. I can't believe you're engaged. This is the weirdest thing ever. He must really love you. You guys haven't even had sex yet-together." They both let out short laughs.
"I know. It's so weird, yet so perfect. I couldn't imagine it any better." As she said this, a smile spread across her face. "I'm going to bed. I heard somewhere that when you sleep you store things and will remember them forever. I don't ever want to forget any detail of this evening."
"I understand," Daisy said, getting up as well.
"Thank you, and don't tell anyone. I want to be the bringer of good news for once."
"Fine by me." They both got up and left the bathroom. As Shelby fell asleep, images of her and Scott floated through her mind. When she first saw him come to Horizon. When they had their first talk about his step-mom in his dorm. When she told him about her step-dad. When she left. When she came back to the comfort of Scott after having taken care of her step-dad for so long. The times they spent on the docks together. When he came back to her saying for the first time that he loved her. And the moment he took the next step and asked her to be his forever. She was almost scared it was so perfect. On that thought, she went to sleep.
********************************************************************************
Since Scott had his buddy hike-back with Alex to do, he and Shelby had to announce their news to Peter and Sophie before Sophie, Scott, Alex left for the joyous occasion. Scott ran over to the girls' dorm before Alex got up and went to get Shelby. They had arranged to meet at daybreak outside the dorm.
"You ready for this?" Scott asked, seeing his girl friend-or rather, his fiancée-looking rather sick.
"Ya. We'd have to get it out at some point. Daybreak works for me," she added sarcastically with a little smile for Scott.
"Sophie, Scott and I have big news to tell you and Peter," Shelby said, breaking the ice.
"Why are you up, Shelby? You do know Scott has a buddy hike-back with Alex, right? And Peter's doing last-minute work before he takes us up there," She was in the middle of checking her backpack for everything.
"No. You don't understand. This is huge," Shelby continued, with Scott nodding fervently beside her.
"Oh no! You're not pregnant, are you? When did it happen? Why didn't you use protection? How many times do I have to tell you kids? Peter's gonna flip," she said.
"You mean like what you're doing now?" Scott asked, mockingly, which got him a nudge from Shelby and a warning look from Sophie.
"I'm not pregnant. We just have news!" Shelby said, exasperated.
"Fine. Come along then," she said, calming down considerably. They went off to Peter's office. The door was open. The small party walked in. Peter laughed at the array of different expressions. Sophie looked worried, Scott looked amused, and Shelby looked scared out of her wits. What if they don't approve? What if they separate us? What if... she continued thinking.
"What's up?" he asked, eyeing their joined hands reproachfully. They, however, did not let go. Shelby would have broken apart had she not had Scott's hand for comfort, and he knew this. Since Shelby was already scared enough, Scott answered in as few words as possible.
"We... um... got engaged," he said, a huge grin spreading across his face. He couldn't believe the looks on Sophie and Peter's faces.
"No way! You're kidding, right?" Peter asked, dumfounded.
"Nope, but that's exactly what Daisy said last night, when I told her," Shelby asked, her face relaxing as Scott gave her hand a squeeze.
"Oh my gosh you two!" Sophie exclaimed, tears rolling down her cheeks. She got up from her chair and hugged Shelby. As they were hugging and crying, Peter and Scott stood up. Peter looked completely bewildered.
"Uh, congratulations Scott! I can't believe this!" He walked over to Scott and gave him a hug. He was still a bit surprised.
"Thanks man!" Scott was so relieved. He had expected Peter to give him a load of mumbo-jumbo that meant nothing to him. He was at the point where no one could keep him from Shelby. Peter didn't even try to prevent it. He knew how much they truly loved each other. In fact, they were the most troublesome couple in terms of the "no inappropriate touching" rule. He smiled inwardly at this thought. Ever since Scott had come back at the morp last year, Shelby and him had been inseparable. He was surprised he had gotten them to do projects and such things apart. He also had it from Daisy that Shelby was always in her own bed at least an hour after lights out and spent the entire night there. He didn't pursue the matter of disregard for the lights out rule because he knew that if he did, he would be betraying both Scott and Shelby's trust and they would push further as a result of his butting in. It was in their nature as teens and as dysfunctional ones at that. He also knew for a fact that they weren't having sex, because for the longest time he had someone check that they remained at the docks in the very least. He had only recently lifted the "night police" as he called it.
"Alright, well, I'm ecstatic for both of you, but there still is the matter of Alex," Peter began. At that moment, Alex walked in the office.
"Hey, um... don't we have a dumb hike thing back to do?" he asked, visibly annoyed.
"Oh, how very articulate of you," Shelby answered sarcastically. She wasn't too pleased that he was taking Scott away from her. Especially after what had happened the night before. When Alex saw Sophie with red eyes, he looked inquisitively at her.
"Shelb, be nice," Sophie said warningly, "or it will be wood-chopping for you. Don't think I'm going soft on you."
"Fine, fine, no speech necessary," she put up her hands in defeat. "Can I say bye to Scott before you leave?" Sophie nodded. Shelby took his hand and led him out. On their way by him, Alex was making very rude and suggestive faces at Scott. Scott couldn't hold it in since the faces had to do with Shelby. He punched him, hard, in the arm on his way out.
"Hey, aren't you gonna do something man? He just punched me!" Alex protested, looking at Peter.
"Nope, you deserved it, I saw what you were doing. Be happy that's the punishment you get, I could make it worse if you want though." With that Peter smiled. That shut him up, he thought.
********************************************************************************
Outside, near Peter's office, Shelby had just stopped walking and spun around to face Scott.
"I love you," she said quietly.
"I love you," he said, emphasizing the word "you."
"Scott, be careful. I don't like him at all," she said, motioning to Alex who was walking out of the office. "And don't get yourself into more trouble. I'd actually like to be able to see you and be allowed to do so." Scott chuckled. If it wasn't shuns, it was grouping. If it wasn't that it was buddy hike-backs. And so on. The point being, he was always away from Shelby. On the up side, they had developed a sort of sign language due to this fact.
"Anything for you, Shelb. And I'll try to keep him in line, but I don't make promises I can't keep." With that, they kissed. They only broke apart when they heard Peter clear his throat rather loudly. He had made sure to avert his eyes during this little scene, due to the fact that they were engaged. He still had yet to get his mind around it.
"You ready, Scott?" Sophie yelled out. He looked at Shelby, gave her another kiss, this one much quicker, but still just as sweet, and jogged off to meet the others.
"See ya Cowboy," Shelby yelled out behind him.
"Oh, and Shelby," Peter called out. Oh what now? She thought to herself. "Meet me in my office at 10:30," and with that he jogged off to the awaiting car. As they pulled out and went up the mountain, Shelby stood there, trying to figure out why she should have to talk to Peter. Was she in trouble? She thought this as she left to get ready for the day, and for the stables in which she had agreed to help Emma with the chores, so long as she didn't have to muck out. Emma had laughed at this, but had accepted. Besides, she wanted to become Shelby's friend and to know her better.