Many Mistakes, No Regrets

Chapter 18: The Power of Peer Pressure

Chapter 18: The Power of Peer Pressure

            Today is a big day. It is the first day of school for Jake and Izzy. I am finally calling her Izzy. It is also the day Trigger might be sold.

            Two weeks ago, my aunt went on my computer and found a website I visit a lot. It has a place to place ads and she put one up for Trigger. The people are coming today and I really hope they don’t fall in love with him like I did.

            Trigger is watching me as I clean his tack again. I do this a lot when I’m stressed out. Besides it should look show ready for this person. I swept out the barn and even washed the trailer.

            I sat on the fence while Trigger nuzzled me. Eventually, I’m going to have to say goodbye to him but I hoped it wouldn’t be for a long time.

            “Excuse me. Are you Rikki Bushman?” They’re here. I spun around and saw a man and a girl a year or two younger than me.

            “Yeah. Are you the people interested in Trigger?”

            “Yes. I’m Mr. Henderson and this is my daughter, Taylor. My son should be meeting us here in a few minutes. He knows more about all of this than me.”

            “Okay. Umm… Taylor would you like to come and meet Trigger.”

            “Yeah!” She climbed up on the fence and sat next to me. I handed her a carrot that Trigger had been begging me for. She took it and put it out to Trigger, who took in greedily. She giggles as his mouth searched her hand for another treat. “Do you want to help me tack him up?”

            She nodded and we both got off the fence. I grabbed Trigger’s halter and started leading him back into his stall where his lead rope was. I tied him to the wall and he stood patiently. Taylor followed me to get the saddle and she even grabbed the bridle.

            We were grooming Trigger when Taylor ran out of the stall and into a man’s arms. I continued brushing Trigger and then tacking him up. A few minutes later, Taylor, her father, and the new man, who was more of a boy, came back inside the barn. I turned to introduce myself but stopped before I said anything.

            In front of me was Chad. “Uh. Hi, I’m Rikki.” Play dumb. Maybe he won't recognize me.

            “Hi, Rikki. Nice to see you, again.” Yeah, I didn’t think that plan would work.

            “Oh, you two know each other?” I looked over at his dad and willed him not to say anything more but mind control is not my forte.

            “Yeah, a little.” I looked back at Chad and he was glaring at me. I turned away to Trigger. “So, Taylor would you like to ride him?”

            “Actually, I’ll be riding him first.” I handed Chad Trigger’s reins and watched him put the helmet he had been holding onto his head.

            He led Trigger to the mounting block and got on. He had grace; I have to give him that. He started to warm trigger up but he quickly stopped. “Rikki, can you come here? I want to ask you something.”       

            I got off the fence I had re-perched myself on and walked over to Chad. “Yeah?”

            “I actually have two questions. One, is does he jump?”

            “Yeah, he can. Mostly we just jump logs but he can do some jumping. Maybe a two foot fence.”

            “Alright. And the second one is what the hell is going on here?”