Finding My Soulmate

Chapter 2

"Happy birthday!" Grace was greeted with this when she came downstairs.
"Morning," She replied. She took a deep breath in. Her father's cooked breakfast filled her nose. "Smells good!" She found her father in the kitchen and gave him a hug.
"Are you ready for the guests to come?" He asked, as he turned to watch the food.
"I think so. There's no trails today, right?" She answered, collecting some plates from the cupboard and bringing them over to the table.
"Nope, we cancelled them so we can be there for your birthday."

After stuffing herself with her dad cooked breakfast, she went outside. The horses had already been fed and were out in the field again, enjoying their day off. She spotted Sandy standing next to her younger sister's horse, Starlight, a pinto mare.
"Happy birthday sweetheart!" Grace turned, startled, as she saw her grandparents approaching.
"Grandma! Grandpa! Good of you to come and help out." She hugged them both.
"Of course Gracie," Her grandmother replied. "Is your mother inside?"
Grace nodded. "I'm waiting on dad to come out with the tent."
As on command, her father approached from behind the house.
"Let's get this thing set up, shall we," he smiled as he saw her grandparents.
"Let's do it!"

It was a busy morning for Grace and her family. Grace, her father and grandfather set up the tent outside, and got the table and chairs ready, whilst Gillian, her mother and grandmother were in the house fixing the food. At 3pm, the guests started arriving. The first was Alyssa and her family.
"Hey birthday girl!" Alyssa gave Grace a big hug. "I have a present for you."
Grace took the small beautiful wrapped gift. She nearly didn't want to open it, but in the end Alyssa convinced her to just rip the paper off. Underneath the paper was a small, neat box. She opened it and found a beautiful necklace with a horse on it.
"I love it!" Grace breathed. "Help me put it on."
"I have one too, look," Alyssa pointed to the two necklaces she had around her neck.
"Girls! Can you please help move this table?" Grace's mother asked, pointing at a table.
"Sure mum," Grace replied, throwing the paper in the black plastic bag her mother had hung on the fence.

One by one, the guests started arriving. Grace's big family came; first her aunt and uncle, then her other grandparents, and then family friends and school friends came too. Even some of the guests staying at Alyssa's camp had been invited to drop by, which included the boy she felt was her soulmate. Altogether they ended up being almost 40 people. Grace rushed around greeting everyone, and placed the gifts on an extra table. She'd have to open them later. Grace's mother took the food out and placed it on a table for a buffet. Her father was standing at the grill with her uncle, grilling the food whilst laughing and chatting along with her uncle.

Grace tapped on a glass with a fork a few times until it was quiet. "Thank you for coming everyone! You may start taking food, and then sitting down wherever there's space."
Voices filled the air shortly after Grace stopped speaking, as the guests headed up towards the buffet. She followed them, getting a plate and standing in queue to the grill. Alyssa's lover came up next to her.
"Happy birthday," he said, nervously.
"Thank you," Grace smiled. "You're staying at Greenland, right?"
"Yeah. I saw you talking to Alyssa earlier, so I figured you were close with her," he replied.
"Of course, what's up?" she asked, taking a few steps forward in the queue.
"Well," he began. "I think she's my soulmate. I can feel my necklace warming up whenever I'm near her, and it was so fun to get to know her on the trail ride last week. But what do I do?"
"We're going to dance after we've finished eating, so why don't you ask her to dance with you?" Grace suggested. She took some food on her place and turned to look at him. "And plus, she feels the same way," Grace smiled at him and went to sit down with her aunt.

"Gracie!" her aunt exclaimed, using her nickname from when she was younger.
"Hey Pauline," she greeted her. "How's Dory and Nemo?"
Dory was the mare they had, who had given birth to a coloured colt which they named Nemo. It had been a difficult birth, and unfortunately Nemo was extremely weak at birth, but the vet kept a close eye on him and he slowly grew stronger.
"They're good! Nemo is a little rascal, and Dory is as good as gold, as always. She's a brilliant mother for him. I can't wait to see how Nemo is when he grows up!" Pauline laughed. "How's Sandy doing?"
"She's doing great! We haven't jumped in a while, but we've been practicing some tricks which she has responded well too."

Grace helped her father move some of the tables and chairs to the side to make some space. She tapped her glass a few times as people quietened down.
"I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who are here today to celebrate my 18th birthday. Also thank you to those that have helped get ready for this big day. The floor is cleared up here, so Mark, if you would kindly start the music," Grace pointed to her uncle, who was the DJ for the day. "Then let's get this party started!"
A cheer went around as Mark turned on the music, and people started pouring out onto the dance floor. Grace noticed Alyssa and her soulmate dancing and smiled to herself. She was happy for Alyssa but she couldn't wait for her soulmate to come by.

As the night came forward and the sun started to set, the families with younger children started to go home.
"Would you like to dance, Grace?" Jacob, her cousin, held out his hand.
"Sure," She let herself be guided onto the dance floor.
"Let's pretend we're a couple," Jacob but his arms around her as a slow song came on.
Grace laughed, "Whatever you say, Jaccy."
Grace and Jacob were close when they were younger, but since Jacob and his family moved away, she hadn't seen much to him.
"Well, you need to learn how to dance for when you find your soulmate," he winked. He was 23 and his girlfriend was his soulmate. Grace was a little excited to find hers, but she knew it would take time. Her mother and father never found each other until they were in their 30s.

"Jacob! You're supposed to dance with me!" A young woman with light blonde hair huffed.
"Hey Alice," Grace recognised her cousin's girlfriend.
Jacob laughed, "Don't worry darling, I was just teaching young Grace some tricks. Let's have this dance, shall we?" He let go of Grace. Taking Alice's hand, he guided her a bit away. Grace shrugged and went to sit on the outlines.

There weren't many people left, only her grandparents, her aunt and uncle, and Alyssa who was waving goodbye to the guy.
"Hey Grace, he's just so nice!" Alyssa blushed as she sat down.
"I've barely seen you all night! First of all, what's his name? Where's he from? I want all the details!" She replied, turning the chair to face her.
"Alright, alright," Alyssa laughed. "His name is Craig and he's from California, but came here to Texas for a holiday because apparently his father is a music video director for some big bands."
"So they're here looking for places to film?" Grace asked.
"I'm not sure, I think they're just visiting different places. Apparently they're going to New York next. They're leaving in two days," Alyssa sounded disappointed.
"You should get his phone number and keep in touch!" Grace attempted to cheer her up.
Alyssa's smile brightened, "I already have, and he promised he'd keep in touch and come and visit as much as he can. I'm going to save up so I can be with him too, but you know what the money's like around here."
Grace nodded. She knew well enough that they barely had enough money to keep food on the table, never mind luxuries. Grace had just finished high school and was going to help on the farm. The money just wasn't there for her to go to college.

The song switched to an upbeat pop song, and Mark, Grace's uncle, came over.
"What are you pretty young ladies doing sitting there? Get out on the dance floor!" He slurred and showed off some pathetic attempts at dancing. Grace and Alyssa laughed, before joining him out on the dance floor.

A few songs later, everyone was tired out from all the partying, and the rest were heading home. Grace hugged Alyssa goodbye and went to help her parents tidy up. Gillian had already gone to bed, as it was approaching 11pm. Along with her dad, Grace helped to lift all the extra tables back in the large storage behind the house. It was almost 12am by the time they had put the chairs away too, as well as packing the tent down. Grace's mother was inside, washing up the dishes in the kitchen.
"I'm going to bed mum," Grace said as she entered the house and took her shoes off. "Thank you for today."
"You're welcome Sweetie, sleep well," her mother replied.