Saddle Seat

Chapter 9

"That was NOT okay Sadie!" Marcus yelled before climbing out of the car. I just smiled, taking the keys from the ignition.

"You forgot something." I called, tossing the keys to him. He just stormed away. I walked into the stable, and immediately walked to Kate's stall, opening the door and leading her to some crossties. She was already shining, so I went and grabbed everything I needed, saddle, bridle, and whatever else the list On my locker door told me. I changed back into my breeches and shirt before going back to Kate. I put on both of the pads, but I couldn't figure out the saddle or the strappy-on thing that you connect to the saddle and that goes under the horse's belly. Kay walked over, looking a small amount concerned.

"Anything I can help with?" He asked, taking the saddle and strap thing, and slinging it onto the horse so gracefully and quickly I didn't even have time to answer.

"Nope, I'm great thanks!" I replied as he fastened everything into place. I bent down, attempting to wrap the polo around poor Kate's legs, but to no avail. Kay bent down, laughing a little.

"Here, it goes this way, and you don't start all the way up there." He demonstrated, wrapping both a front and back leg perfectly. "Now you try, and I'll help." I bent down, and tried wrapping, but it was so loose it fell down Kate's leg. Kay bent down, his hands on mine, as he guided me on wrapping. We did both legs, and once finished, we high-fived.

"Kaaaaaaayyyy! Oh kaaaaayyy! Kay, where are you?" A familiar high pitched squeal came from all sides.

"And here comes the she-devil herself." He sighed, patting Kate's neck before walking bravely out into the hall. "I'm right here Elsa, let's not make the entire stable go deaf." Elsa. I tightened Kate's girth, and got ready to bridle before she stepped in front of me, arm in arm with a seemingly reluctant Kay.

"Oh, hi again! Glad to see you've finally met my boyfriend! Now that you know him, stay away from him! Got it?" I snorted, bridling Kate and walking out before mounting up. She followed, dragging Kay like an untrained puppy. He was clearly miserable.

"That's nice, how about you leave him alone and maybe he would be happy? Unless you like all your boyfriends to be so sick of you that they're depressed when they're around you. Me? Personally, I enjoy it better when we're both happy." I walked Kate forward, and immediately started at a trot. Working on posting, I switched diagonals and posted. I circled and posted. I went down the centre and posted. I posted and posted and posted until my legs were sore and Kate was sweating a little.

After a few walk laps, we went straight to canter. Kate rocked back and forth, and I worked on my two-point, shaky at first, but becoming more solid with every stride Kate moved. I took her over a small vertical line, not knowing what made the line good or not. Then, I patted Kate, and went to cool down.

When I went back to my locker room, Kay was sitting on top of the mini fridge.

"Hi there..." I entered, putting all of my things away and slipping my Sperry's on.

"Hey, just wanted to say thanks, you didn't have to do that and probably shouldn't have." He added the last part with a nervous chuckle.

"It's no problem, I hate seeing people being treated like they're worthless and it's easy to stand up to her, I punched her at school and I'm not afraid to punch her here." I stated easily, taking out some of my homeschooling books.

"No way! You punched Elsa at school?! I wish I was there to see that!" He laughed, and shot me a smile. "You're pretty cool for a girl. You don't seem like, all pink flowers and teddy bears. You're more 'let's go skateboarding down a steep hill' kind of a person." I laughed, throwing a pillow at him.

"Well, thank you I think. Now get out! I have school to do!" He looked at me questionably.

"Don't you still go to our school?" He asked, and I chuckled.

"No, my aunt withdrew me after Elsa and her minions tripped me, I got my food all over her, and she started a food fight." I answered. "Speaking of school, why aren't you at school?"

"Eh, we skip every Wednesday. The school doesn't really care."

"Oh. That's cool."

"Yeah, pretty cool."