Small Town South Carolina

Chapter 12

"It was fine," I said. My hair had slipped out of my hoodie, and Dad saw the shorter hair with frayed ends.
"What's up with your hair?" He asked.
"Oh some girl just cut some off. No biggie." I replied casually.
"Some girl cut off your hair?!" Dad exclaimed. "What's her name?"
"I'm pretty sure her name is Maggie," I said.
"Well, we're going up to the school tomorrow and talking to the principal about this Maggie."
"No Dad, please don't! I'm already the new kid, and I don't need any attention. Just don't go to the school, okay?"
"Okay," he grimaced. "But if Maggie does any more of this stuff to you, you tell me."
"Uh huh," I said, as I pulled out my cracked iPhone and started walking up the stairs.
"Sophia?" Dad asked again.
"Yeah?" I said.
"Did that Maggie break your phone, too?"
"No, somebody different tripped me on the bus today," I replied.
"Sophia, you've had a rough day. Go put your stuff up and meet me in the car," Dad said. "I have something to show you."
"Okay..." I said with curiosity. I bounded up the stairs and dumped my stuff in my bedroom and flew down the stairs again and into the garage where my dad and the car were waiting.

~

Twenty minutes later, we pulled up in front of some horse stables. "What are we doing here? You don't own a horse stable, do you?" I asked.
"Maybe," he said with a sly smile.
"I've never ridden a horse before..." I said.
"Well, you're going to learn today," Dad said. We walked into the stables and he told me to pick a horse to ride. I looked at all the horses, big small, brown, black, all sorts of horses, although one caught my eye. She was a brown horse with a lighter brown mane, and she also had a brown spot around one of her eyes. She whinnied happily when I rubbed her nose. Dad strolled by a second later. "That's Nellie. Do you want to ride her?"
"Sure," I said. "She seems nice." We walked over to the counter where the helmets and the saddles were. Dad picked up a helmet and a saddle. He got a horse brush and let Nellie out of her stable and showed me how to brush her.
"Never go behind the horse unless you put your hand on her back. Now you go behind her and don't forget where your hand goes," Dad said to me."
"Got it," I said as inched along behind Nellie, with my hand on her back.