Electrically Charged

Chapter 5: Restless Nights

The house seemed to be too quiet now. Cecily paced around the kitchen eating an apple. It was Tuesday now. The horse show was this weekend. She was going to trailer over Thursday afternoon and get her horse settled. Friday was dressage day, Saturday was cross country day and Sunday was show jumping. Her ride times were in the late morning which was nice. It meant she could feed later and sleep in more while still beating the heat when she had to ride. She had been cleaning tack all weekend. She smelled like saddle soap and neatsfoot oil. She could ride her dressage test while sleeping and jump a complicated course of 15 preliminary height jumps with no problem. She knew she was ready. 

That night as she tucked herself into bed she felt the excitement of showing creep up into her brain. She knew that tonight would begin the nights of panicked excitement and stress. Her brain jumped from her dressage test to riding the cross country course to navigating a tight show jumping course. Her heart beat in her chest as images of riding flashed inside her head. She thought back to the weeks and weeks of practice and tried to assure herself that she was prepared. One particular memory kept flashing into her brain. She was practicing dressage. Why was her brain so caught up on this specific one? Then a figure stood by the side of the ring watching. Oh. That would be why. 

That was the other problem Cecily had been having. It had been five days since the repairs had been completed. Five days that she had to refocus and save memories for cold winter days and a good laugh. That's what she did every time she ran into attractive boys while she was out. For example, a month ago her waiter at a sushi restaurant was a very commendable specimen of the male gender. Cecily had allowed her brain two days to play around with whatever imaginary circumstances it fancied. By the end of the second day she had lost interest anyway. That's how it always was. She met a cute boy, her brain appreciated him for a while then accepted that it would never see him again, and then she would move on and store those memories in her brain for entertainment purposes. 

Despite all that, for some odd unexplained reason William would not get out of her brain. She was never going to see him again and her brain would not move on. She refused to become this interested in a person that she knew for three days and was never going to see again. Okay, yes he was good looking, but it's not like he was the most attractive guy she had ever met. There was nothing incredibly unique about his appearance. She had seen plenty or ripped, gorgeous, green or blue eyed, dark haired, tall boys. Hell, she had three of them going to her school. They all looked very different though, each with his own special characteristic. But none of them stuck like William was doing. And she saw those boys on a every school day basis. Something about him had peaked her interest and she didn't like it. 

Crazy, violent, dominating, bossy, strict, strange, possessive, no free time, gold diggers, stuck up, spoiled, selfish, and high and mighty. Those were all things William had heard about horse girls. Living in the country town he did horse girls were not that uncommon of a thing. Which made them big talk. All the guys laughed and joked about getting stuck with a horse girl. Everyone had their own opinions. There where a handful of guys that went after the horseback riders on purpose. The guys at his school had an agreement that horse girls were not good for relationships but if you had to pick go for cowgirls over any of the English riders. Especially the hunter jumper girls. William had never really understood what was so bad about horse girls. All he had ever heard was what the other guys had told him. Yeah, the list of qualities that was said to go with horse girls wasn't exactly great. But William was sure that someone had purposely left out everything good just to keep their argument simple. 

To ride an animal that big and ask it to respond to squeezes and pressure and to perform tasks that it would never had done by itself. That required a specific type of person. William had seen a ton of T.V. shows with cowboys and rodeo girls. He admired them for their ability to get a horse going so fast and to turn it so quickly, or to keep a cow from rejoining its herd, but there was something about English riding. Western had a fast, hard and fun kind of attitude while English had a soft, quiet, joyful feel to it. Something about the quietness of it and the elegance called to him. The riders never seemed to move and yet the horses moved forward under them, they galloped toward jumps and sprung, they danced to music. That was incredible to William. 

Thursday arrived and William sat on the couch watching some random live concert. He had been up since early this morning. He was having a hard time getting his brain to relax. A certain fiery girl was stuck in his brain and he couldn't shake her. It had been a while since he had thought this much about a girl. His last girlfriend had broke it off two months before school ended. He had a girlfriend every once in a while. He received a decent amount of female attention during school and occasionally appreciated it. Most the time the girls didn't take it seriously enough and just wanted the title and a fling. He wanted something meaningful. It didn't have to be long, but he wanted the girl to actually care and really like him. And not just like him because he was attractive, but because she liked who he was and what he stood for. 

Cecily loaded tack, grooming supplies, buckets, hay, salt and a range of other necessary items into her truck and trailer. Her and her dad were going down to the show stables in two hours and she needed to make sure everything fit and was accounted for. She ran down her checklist and searched through her trailer doing a final check. Steel watched her from the pasture fence. He obviously knew they were going somewhere and had been watching her organize his stuff. Cecily sighed and grabbed a carrot before walking to the fence to feed it to him. The big horse watched her with his liquid brown eyes and he blew deep breaths into her hand. Cecily gave a crooked smile and patted his cheek. 

"You ready to strut your stuff bud?" she asked the horse. He blinked at her. "First training level competition. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I trust you though. I know you will try hard for me. Thank you for being such an amazing horse and partner."

Cecily pulled away from the fence line and found her way inside for lunch. A quick sandwich and she was gathering her show clothes and helmet before throwing on her jodhpurs and boots. She carried her last remaining gear out to the truck. Her dad was waiting for her. She loaded the stuff into the truck and grabbed Steel's halter. She unlatched the pasture gate and led him out before turning him toward the trailer. It was a ten minute drive so she wasn't going to put on shipping boots for it. Steel went in easily and she closed up the doors and opened the windows so he could get air. Her dad leaned over from the drivers seat as she got in. He squeezed her leg.

"Ready to go to the...."

Williams dad walked into the T.V. lounge. 

"Hey William," he said. "We have another job." William raised an eyebrow. "It's at a...."

"Horse show."

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Just a quick note because it wanted to make sure no one in offended. In the part that William is talking about 'horse girls' and the different disciplines please don't take it personally. I am a horse person myself and don't approve of some of the things people say about horseback riders. I added it to this story because I thought it would help build relationships and characters as well as make a point. All those terrible things that William's friends say are going to be disproved don't worry. 

Also, as far as disciplines go. I have nothing against any type of riding unless it is hurting the horse. I used to be a Western rider until I switched to three day eventing which is English. I think all types of riding is commendable in its own way and though I don't find the allure to some of the disciplines I have nothing against them. 

Just wanted to make it clear that I am absolutely not picking on horse people or any disciplines of any kind. Just helping to character build and make a point.