Electrically Charged

Chapter 6: Sunlight to Stars

The stables were a buzz. People and horses swarmed everywhere. Cecily pulled up her stall assignment on her phone and had found the correct barn before pulling to a stop. She swung out of the truck and opened the side door of the horse trailer. Steel stuck his elegant head out and pricked his ears at the new surrounding. Her dad let down the ramp and the back bar and Steel backed out quickly. He swung his head around taking in his new surroundings. He was always very hyper about new show environments. Since he was the only horse at Cecily's house he became very excited with other horse company. She let out a light laugh at his excitement before leading him around the nearby barns letting him get acclimated. She finally led him into his stall and hung his water buckets and salt. He stuck his head over the door nickering at the horses around him.

It was late in the afternoon and Cecily had planned on riding around the warm up arena just to get the horse used to the settings. Luckily the ranch where the competition was being held at was the same as the one Cecily rode at for her weekend Pony Club meets. Everything had been painted and flyers and banners hung to the fences now. Boxes of flowers stood by the warm up ring waiting to be stuffed under jumps. A couple other riders were in the ring when Cecily got down there. She asked for a forward walk. Steel slugged on at his usual slow pace and she gave him a stronger squeeze. He snorted and moved forward into his bigger walk. Cecily worked him through his paces asking for bend and forward movement. Their dressage test wasn't super hard, but it was going to require him to be forward and supple. 45 minutes later Cecily walked Steel along the side of the arena letting him cool down. The sun had began to set and the clouds became a light pink and tangerine color. A soft wind was blowing and Cecily closed her eyes and breathed deep. 

The feeling of eternal calm accompanied both her and Steel as they walked back to the barns. The sun slowly sunk lower below the hills. A few stars had poked out and Cecily gazed up at them and let out a laugh. She was excited for the next three days. She refused to let nerves get the better of her. She trusted her horse and knew he would perform to his best for her. She couldn't help but reach down and stroke his neck. He gave a content sigh which just added to the calm joy that encircled both of them. Cecily hoped off in front of their stall and untacked him. She strolled around the show grounds for a bit and then decided to walk her cross country course. 

The course wasn't incredibly hard, but it wasn't going to be easy. There were definitely a scattering of complicated and tough jumps. She was going to have to ride well, but she could still have fun doing it. By the time she had reached her 22nd jump and walked through the finish flags the sun was merely a dull glow and stars had now claimed their domain in the sky. She gazed at them for a while. She wondered who else was looking at them right now. It was a weird concept to her. She was staring at the starry sky and fifteen miles from here some little girl was probably staring up at them wishing for a good book, a camping trip or maybe, just maybe, a pony. Cecily smiled at the idea. She used to be that little girl. Silently she asked the stars to listen to the little girl's dreams. They would change her life. 

William listened to the night come alive around him. Horses were neighing to be fed, but every once in a while everything would go quiet except for the crickets. He gazed up at the stars and their brightness. Stars always contained so much beauty and they gave him soft joy in their light. He watched as the moon began to rise over the hills. The smell of grass drifted toward him on the breeze. The stables they were at were huge. There was a huge green field covering the majority of the property. There were huge, scary looking wood jumps scattered around the field. Flags had been attached to them and William wondered what kind of person in their right mind would subject themselves to something that dangerous. To get a horse to jump even one of those jumps would be a feat to William.  

He turned back to his dad who was wiring in an electric generator for the barn area. The thing finally turned on and made a horrible rumbling noise but provided good light. Henry stood and dusted off his hands looking over his handiwork. William looked around in the new light and saw all the heads of curious horses poking out over the stall doors. The sight of so many horses with pricked ears and bright eyes made William smile. But he always had around horses. Not being able to help himself he strolled down the aisle and patted each horse and admiring it. Towards the end of the stable William was drawn to a beautiful dapple grey horse poking his head over the stall. The horse looked so much like Steel it was unnerving. The horse blinked at him and nudged his hand obviously looking for food. William stroked the horses nose before turning to walk on. In that precise moment he ran right into a person carrying a mound of hay they could barely see over. 

As the dust cleared, they both stared at each other. No way. 

"What the hell are you doing here?" Cecily asked annoyed. The boy had literally walked right into her and sent all her horse's hay everywhere. She scooped the flakes back together as best she could before dumping them over Steel's door. 

"Uh," William was having a hard time focusing. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and she had her riding clothes on but instead of the tall leather boots she had short ankle ones on that were unzipped. She looked messy, with hay sticking out of her hay and stuck to her shirt, but it made her cute. "My dad is working."

Cecily looked up at him mouth slightly agape, "Are you serious?" 

William nodded. Cecily just stared at him. No freaking way. This could not be happening. Of all the things he could be doing this weekend. Of all the things. She did not need this extra distraction. Here she had finally convinced herself to forget him. She had rationalized that they would never see each other again. And here he was in the darkening twilight with his hair a mess and hay and horse hair covering his lower shirt and pants. And those blue, blue eyes. She couldn't take this. She almost reached out and touched him, but she refused to let her body move on its own accord. 

"So," he said trying to break the awkward silence. "You are competing?" Really William. That was brilliant he thought to himself. Just brilliant. 

She gave him a 'duh' look and slowly nodded. Then she yawned. Something in his chest shifted. He ignored the feeling. 

"You need to go home and get to bed," he told her. "You have to ride tomorrow."

She nodded, "Yeah dressage. Joy." The sarcasm in her joy was quite obvious. 

"Well good luck," he told her sincerely meaning it. 

She shot him a tired smile that caused his chest to move again. 

"Thank you," she replied. "Thanks for setting up the generator. If not for that I would be feeding in the dark. Not that that the light helped me much from dropping my hay..." she paused and gave him a pointed look.

He shot her a guilty smile before waving goodbye and heading back to his dad. His dad said nothing but smiled softly more to himself than to William. Of all the people he shouldn't have been surprised. If any sport involved doing crazy things on a 1,200 pound animal that girl would be all over it in seconds. He got the feeling that she wouldn't put her horse in danger though. She would let him have fun and jump but she would never push him too far or too hard. Her head was firmly screwed into place, there were just a few things that hadn't been installed properly or maybe at all. He was going to be at the show all day tomorrow helping with electrician duties and anything else they needed. That meant and early morning tomorrow. Like 4:30 am kind of early. He groaned and winced at the bruises that still patterned his side.