The Summer Of My Life

Chapter 3

"Hey, hey Ele. Hey. Wake up."

"AAACHHOOOOOO!" I sat up in a hurry, looking around befuddled. Registering Fran and Kiki laughing beside me, I rubbed my eyes and squished my nose together. Why was I feeling the need to sneeze that hard...
Just then, I saw the tiny feather in Fran's hand. Narrowing my eyes at it, I grabbed it before it could have done more harm and swung my legs out of the bed.

"Morning." I went over to the window and threw the feather outside, looking through it.
"Seriously, guys, how late is it?"
"Half past four." I just looked at Kiki with wide eyes. Checking my phone, it was indeed four thirty. "You've got to be kidding me." They laughed again, shaking their head. "Nope. Come on, we're going somewhere."

We left the house through the door in my room, locking it after us. We then procceded to get off the grounds, soon finding ourselves in the forest. It was still dark, the sun hadn't risen yet. Coming out of the forest, Fran started to go faster. Letting out a loud scream of joy, she started to run with her arms stretched out to her sides. Kiki did too, laughing loudly.

Following them, I grinned, stlowly starting to scream as well. It gave you an incredible feeling, to scream everything out of your lungs with no care that someone could maybe hear you. We ran over the mowed field, going faster and faster down. In the little valley in between two hills, we stopped, walking up the next hill breathing out into the cold air, little puffs coming from our mouths. As we reached the top of it, Kiki nudged me to the side, Fran pointing upwards.

"Come on, you go first." I grinned, climbing the ladder to the raised hide, crawling into the little hut on top. We squished together onto the bench on top, looking out. And a minute later, I understood why they brought me here.

The sun rose with radiant colours, hitting us face first. Warmth swept over the hills, illuminating everything with a glow. Deer came out for the first rays of sun, walking through corn fields, wild rabbits jumping through the brushwood.

It was magnificent.

We left the raised hide half an hour later in quiet devotion, walking back to the stud. We came just in right time for breakfast, Therry interrogating us about the day before and our tractor ride. Fran and Kiki were happy to retell, I was more interested in the freshly baked and warm rolls on the table. Only a pat on my back made me look up, until Therry asked where I learned to drive and Kiki started to explain and even went as far to google me and my family. My attention returned to my marmalade smeared roll by then.

By the end, she did make me chuckle, exclaiming that she didn't know that they had real celebrity on the estate. I shook my head at that, but did get the sidekick on most of the repeaters that acted like Hollywood themselves.

"If that's the case, we're going to deploy you more often to drive something somewhere." She laughed, making me grin. "Gladly."
"Oh, guys, you know that your first riding lesson is today at 9 o'clock, right?" We looked at her with wide eyes. "Oh, well, now you know. You know where to find the board with who gets which horse?" Kiki and Fran nodded, making her pat the table once and get up. "See you then." Therry left us and we left the table, taking our plates with us and putting them into the washing machine.

We were lying on our beds a few moments later, me squished to Fran since mine was farer away. "How much do you know about horses?" Kiki asked, making me look over to her. "I know where the front and where the back is." I answered calmly, chuckling a little.
"Oh." Fran laughed, making me grin too. "Nah, I do know a little."

Half an hour later, we were dressed in riding trousers and boots, standing in front of the board.

"Oh, you've got Molly." Kiki announced, making me look at her. "She's – okay. You have to like it slow." And that was pretty much what summed Molly up. She was twice the width of Fran's horse, docile and a tad bit hoggish, but we got along well. Well, as long as we weren't in the riding hall. Fran and Kiki helped me with saddling, kind of swooping me off my feet as they took care of it immediately after I had asked them to tell me where Molly's saddle was, and I was more or less left looking around irritated as they rushed around me and made my horse ready for riding. Not saying that it wasn't nice of them, and it did me some good as I noticed later, but I was capable of saddling my horse, the whole procedure just a bit rusted as I hadn't done that in a long time.

After that, we walked over to the riding hall and everyone lined up and adjusted the saddle girth. We mounted, some having difficulties as their horses would move immediately after one foot had left the earth, to which I had to grin widely. Molly had her positive aspects. She wasn't even moving a hair.

A few moments later, everyone was on her horse and the eager ones were already walking on full school. Us? Nada.

Molly decided that that day was a lazy day and let her head hang down, making me seriously reconsider mounting her as she looked like she would lie down the next minute.

"Hello, I'd like to shift from idle gear to first gear." I murmured, making Therry who was just steering into my direction laugh loudly. She patted Molly on her behind, making her slowly move forward, sticking her nose in the behind of the horse in front of me. The horse shrieked, making the repeater that sat on it turn around and hiss some not very nice words at me. I apologized with an eye roll and sat back deeper into the saddle, slowing Molly, who suddenly got active when she could run behind another horse, down.

It felt good to sit in a saddle again.

Molly carried me safely through the lesson, we didn't quite hit the effort peak, neither me nor Molly, but it was good enough for me. I landed in a group with four dwarfs, all of us claiming we had cantered before. I wasn't so sure about the dwarfs, but the four of them, Emma, Lisa, Stacey and Maya, were nice and respected me, I preferred this over four piggies or repeaters.
Over lunch, Fran and Kiki asked me out about my riding lesson, and I just told them a few sentences, whenever I was eating I got rather ineloquent. My next riding lesson would only start at 6, while Fran and Kiki had one at three, making me tag along with my camera.

Sweeping the stable lane and grooming place after they had left, I stopped at each stall, reading the name tags and looking at the horse. The music of a radio tootling in the back, I sung to it quietly while swinging around the broom.

"Storm." I looked at the black mare, smiling softly. "Storm, for a mare? Poor you." Looking at her a little longer, I saw the mischievous look in her eyes. "Although, seeing now, you might as well be a little whirlwind, aren't you?" She snorted softly, making me laugh and gently rub her forehead. She closed her eyes and sunk her head lower, sniffing at my beige trousers.
"Oh, this?" I held up a dog treat. "Nope, this is for Tartuffo. Not for a horse." And suddenly, I had a dog sitting in front of me.

"Well hello there." I looked down on the Australian shepherd as it smiled up on me, focusing on the dog treat in my hand. Patting it with my free hand, I shook my head at it, sticking the treat back into my trousers. "Sorry bud." Its ears fell down, making me laugh.
A sharp whistle rung around the corner, making the shepherd jump up and run to the corner, looking around it with a waggling tail. I took the broom again and was about to continue as Storm poked me with her nose.
"Yeah-yeah." I lifted my head, just as I heard someone shouting 'Stop!'. My hand on her forehead and her eyes closed luxurious, I turned my head around. A man was staring at me surprised, more staring at Storm surprised, his mouth open. The Australian shepherd sat next to his feet, panting.

Looking more closely, he was more a boy than a man. I gave him 21 years in maximum, he was tall and slender, had dark brown hair. Actually, he was shit good looking.

"Oh sorry." I took my hand away from Storm, as I realized that the stop was meant for me, putting both hands on the handle of the broom. I swept on, keeping my eyes on the ground to refrain from starring at him until he spoke again. "No, no. I just thought-", he scratched the back of his head, looking dodgy and a bit puzzled. He walked over again, the dog returning to my side and poking me with its snout. I smiled down on it, patting its head again, scratching it behind its ears.

"Could you like, come over again?" I looked up, raising my eyebrow at him. He was pretty handsome, but I sadly wasn't in the mood. If I had been, maybe he would get a bit more interest. I put the broom away and walked over, next to him. Storm continued to nudge me, making me smile and rub her eye again. The boy, seemingly not understanding the world anymore as Storm closed her eyes again and leaned into my touch, shook his head and turned around, walking out of the stable without a word.

The dog gave me a last glance and ran after his owner, both of them disappearing out of my sight.

Shaking my head, I released a laugh. Strange.