Running Free, Without Me

Preparing The Riders

"Wake up. Wake up, Lance." I was softy saying while shacking him awake.

"No. Not yet." His sleepy voice was cute but he's sleeping past time and I have things to do today that he needs to be a part of.

"WAKE UP LANCE!!! NOW!" He jumped straight up.

Then he screamed when he saw me. "What the hell are you doing in my room? No, wait, how the hell did you get into my room and house?"

"Ow, my ear. But I think you have forgotten that I have a key to both houses like you do." I smiled at him. "Now hurry up, it's six-thirty A.M. and you were supposed to be up at SIX!"

"Why so early?" He was complaining. This will not end well.

"Get dressed come to my house food is ready and we have till eight," I say while walking out the door.

"AHHHHHHH! Curse this working crap!" All I could do was laugh.

I headed back to my house. I went to my office to see I had one missing call. I looked at the number to see that it was the state capital office's number, so I called back.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. "Come on pick up your phone."

Ring. Rin- "Hello you have reached the capital office how may I help you?"

"You know who it is so cut the act, Nie."

There was laughing on the other end of the phone. "Of course K, So we called to see if it was true that you wanted to get permission to get a mobile doctor to check up on all the riders."

"Yes it is, I want them to all have a physical before they actually start training." I smiled at the thought of the training.

"Even the trainers?" Nie was a close friend she knew I wanted the whole package.

"Yes. And to make it fair I'll get one myself." She laughed said that she would do her best to get me one and let me know the results. Now it was time for work. I was just about to sit down when someone threw my door open without a heads up.

"Did you eat?" I looked up to see Lance standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. 

"No. Did you?"

"NO! Because I saw two plates and I figured that you didn't eat and I'm not eating if you don't eat." He slammed both hands on my desk I looked up to see his stern face but I ended up laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You, and I don't feel like eating anything, I'll eat later." I got up and placed my hands on his but with enough force, I can tell he's trying not to wince.

"You are so stubborn."

"And you like it." I placed a soft kiss on his lips and ran out of my office with a surprised Lance still standing in front of the desk. 

FUN FACT: Okay I should probably explain this before you get confused the actual Kitchen is on the main floor and the second floor, but when the word kitchen is used on the main floor it isn't the actual kitchen we have a large room that is put together like a gathering place, we call the main floor kitchen the snack room. There are long tables on the north and south sides that we put food on. Then there are tables in the middle for people to sit and eat.

So I headed to the snack room and started to put food on my plate so Lance wouldn't fuss anymore. To see Lyla sitting at the bar with her head down. I walked over and sat down beside her. She looked up at me, she's been crying, her eyes are so red. But she looked right back down, embarrassed. 

"What's wrong?" she shook her head. "I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

"Would you fire me if I couldn't make it to work all the time?" She was looking at her hands which were shaking.

"Normally there is a policy. But, I'm flexible, if something has happened that's fine take all the time you need, but if you're skipping because you don't feel like coming and working then there will be an issue. Sweetheart, what happened? Is there something I can do to help you?"

She looked at me. "I have till the end of this month, so two weeks, to make a payment on a house I inherited. But I don't have the money and even with the money I'm making right now, it's not enough. So I was going to talk to some family, pay it off and sell it because the house is way above my budget." she sighed. "I really don't want to sell it but no one in my family makes enough money to keep it."

"Okay, listen I don't want to be rude or too personal but... could I ask some questions about this house." she nodded. "Okay, how far away is it from here?"

"It's a fifteen-minute drive." she smiled.

"So not far from here. Okay. Is the house as big as mine, like, what is the size?"

"It's like half the size."

"So we're talking about 250 million on a payment." she nodded. "How much do you own to pay it off?"

"180 million." 

Holy shit. So she's way behind. Okay. This is fine. "Look, I was going to call you about something anyway. I want you to be a performer."

"What?"

"I want you to be one of my rides. You would be making ten times the amount you are right now." 

"Really?!?!" I nodded. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She started to leave but I still needed some info.

"Hay. Wait." she turned around to look at me so I continued and said, "I need to know who you are paying for the house." 

She left after she told me who she was under. I felt bad for this poor girl. Lance walked in right when I was leaving.

"Leaving so soon?" I nodded. "Why?" 

"I need to make a payment for my rider so she doesn't have to worry too much."