I rode home at an ambling pace. Part of me wanted to gallop as fast as I could but the part if me that wanted to go slow won. I got home in about a half hour. Tyler's truck was still there. 'Good. He's still here.' I thought. I put Cobalt away and slipped the tack where it belonged. Our competition was this weekend and we needed to train. Tyler, Jordan, Jasmine, Sarah and I had made it to the next round. I called everyone else on my way home and told them to meet me in the arena fully tacked. I jogged inside and bumped right into Tyler. "Sorry. Come on," I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the barn. Everyone was getting tacked up and all eyes snapped to my hardened, tear stained face.
"What's wrong?" They all said together.
"My father was K.I.A. but that doesn't matter now because I can't change it. Now hurry up. The competition is in 3 days." I said flatly.
"Oh my god!!!! I'm so sorry!" Sarah hugged me with everyone filing in behind her.
"Like I said, it doesn't matter because I can't change it. Now lets get going." I answered.
They nodded and tacked up. We led the horses to the dressage arena under the cherry blossom trees. I vaulted into the saddle and trotted to the X.
I bowed to the invisible judges and started a collected trot to G. Turning toward Q, I pulled Dancer into extended canter. I side stepped to L and collected cantered to where I started. I bowed to the judges. When I bowed, Dancer slipped into a bow too. I trotted out of the arena and Marie trotted in. I watched as she tried to side step Carmel. He listened but hesitated.
When all of us had practiced the test twice, we led our tired horses to the wash room. We untacked and Tyler collected all of our saddles. I collected the bridles and the saddle pads. I walked to the tack room. I slipped each bridle on the correct hooks and set each saddle pad on the rack. Tyler sat our saddles over our saddle pads and I picked up all of the grooming boxes. I turned and was caught by Tyler's arms. He lifted my chin and all of the tack boxes clambered to the floor and hot tears rolled silently down my face. He used his thumb and wiped away my tears. I wrapped my arms tightly around his torso and buried my face into his shirt. He held my head to his chest and rubbed my back with his free hand. My head snapped up when I heard someone whisper. Jordan looked at me. "I-I-I'm sorry. I came to see what the loud bang was. Everyone followed me so when we saw you, I whispered to them that we should go. I'm really sorry." She stuttered nervously.
"It's okay." I mumbled, but it came out muffled because only my eyes where peeking out over his arm.
They walked back to the washroom where their horses were. I heard a truck pull in and I wipe my tears away. I jogged to the front of the barn where a girl with light brown waist long hair and green eyes was stepping out of a black 4- wheeler.
"Hi. I'm Clara. welcome to Cherrywood. Can I help you?" I asked.
She nodded and said rather shyly, "I'm looking to board my horse here. My name is Scarlet Silentdawn. My horses name is Supernova. He's a Friesian stallion."
"Cool. Unload him and we will get him settled. How old are you?" I answered.
"I'm 15." she led out a frisky stallion that was 16.4 hh.
I led her to the side of the barn where the stallions where kept. She unclipped the blue lead from the blue halter. It looked amazing against his jet black coat. I helped her carry her black jumping saddle, black English saddle, brown western saddle, and white bridle to the tack room. I showed her where to put her grooming box and called Jordan.
"This is my best friend Jordan and my little sister Marie." I said. "They are gonna show you around."
"O-o-ok." She said, her voice small.
I walked to the wash room where a sparkly clean Dancer stood. Sarah smirked at me and I couldn't figure out why until a pair of arms snaked around my waist and a voice sounded in my ear. "Your welcome." It said. I could almost hear the smirk playing on his lips when I turned, catching him off guard and kissed him. The world slipped away and I pulled out.
He looked at me and smiled and I led Dancer to her stall with Tyler's hand in my free one.
Picture on side is Supernova. :)
