"Right, now circle." I hear my instructor say. I'm currently at my horse-back riding lesson. Every day my dad, Infinity, drives me to the Jones' ranch. I take Pepsi's reins and pull him in a circle. My instructor, Kennyth, watches and through the corner of my eye, I see him move Pepsi's sister, Coke, to a stop. "Alright, now take him center." Oh no. What did I do? "Okay!" I call to him from across the large ring.
I take Pepsi into the center of the outdoor arena and wait for Kennyth to tell me what to do next. I see him lead Coke towards me. It must've only taken about 30 seconds for him to reach me, but it felt like ages. My heart is pounding as I wait to be scolded. Kennyth rarely gets mad, but when he does it's scary.
"So, Pro, you've been doing great with the things that I've been throwing at you." One, yes that's my name-well, my real name is Prodigy. If you couldn't tell, weird names run in my family. Two, oh here it comes. "And," Kennyth continues, "I think you can do more."
Wait, what? "Really?" I'm stunned. I thought he was going to yell at me.
"Yes, I've already talked about it to your parents, too," Kennyth confirms. He then chuckles to himself before continuing, "In fact, your whole family was there. Very complicated, may I say."
"Yeah, that's my family for you," I joke. It's true, though. My family is very complicated.
"So go ahead and spur him." I nod my head to show I heard his instruction. I take the metal wheels on the back of my boots and press them into Pepsi's side. Instead of spinning, however, Pepsi takes off at full speed across the arena.
"Whoa. Whoa, Pepsi!" I pull my horse back, finally getting him to a walk. I lead him back to the center of the arena with my head down. "I messed that up," I mumble to Kennyth.
"Stop that righ' now, Prodigy Parr. The first time I tried a spin, I fell off." Even though I wasn't looking at him, I saw him walk over on Coke. He lifts my head and forces me to look into his eyes. "Nothing's always going to work the first time, okay? But you have to keep going, or you'll never get anywhere."
He backs up with Coke to give me room to try again. "This time, spur 'is shoulder. It's not allowed in shows, but it'll work for now." I nod and spur Pepsi's shoulder. Pepsi spins with his back legs pivoting while his front legs move in a circle a few times. I grin as I cling to the saddle, afraid of falling off.
Once Pepsi stops spinning, I shake out my hair and fix it. "That was great!"
"I'm glad you think so. There'll be a lot more to come. Hop off 'n' untack him, I see your dad's car coming up the drive."
I slide off of Pepsi and lead him back to the barn. I take off his tack and put it on the proper racks. I quickly brush off Pepsi and take him back to his stall. Once Pepsi has water and food in his stall, I walk out to where my dad and Kennyth were talking. Their hushed tones lead me to assume that if I were to walk out there, they'd stop talking. I'm feeling rebellious, so I decide to stay behind the door of the barn.
"... don't... would ... interested ... show ... April" Well it's September now, so that's in five, six, seven months. Ooh! I'm excited!
" ... surprise" Wait! No! I was too busy figuring out how long until September that I missed what Dad was saying!
"... keep ... low ... secret. PRO, YOU DONE YET?" I jump when Kennyth yells for me, but walk out like nothing happened. "Ready, Dad?" My dad just nods and I hug Kennyth. "Bye, Kennyth. Thanks for today."
"Bye, sweetheart." He hugs me back and I climb in the driver's seat of my dad's Toyota Tundra. I got my license in June, right after my birthday. I don't drive out here, because Dad's scared for me to drive in the tight city of Chicago. I'm fine once I "warm up" though, so starting at the ranch is fine with him, for the most part. I chat with Dad on the way home, but he doesn't mention any show.
