"Michelle sweetie slow down, you'll give yourself indigestion." Danny says seeing his youngest daughter devouring her breakfast waffles, barely taking a breath between bites.
"Sorry dad, I'm just so desperate to get to Peppermill, I think today is the day he will jump. We were so close yesterday." She says stopping to take a huge gulp of her orange juice that was before her. Not slowing down her pace though desperate to leave the house.
"Just take it easy Michelle, I know you are desperate to land the jump, but maybe you are not ready yet for jumps. Sometimes you have to go back to the basics and build back to the harder events." Danny says to her not wanting her to overdo it and be let down again after she was unable to land her jumps.
"Stephanie, get down here we need to leave in a few minutes." Danny says for the third time that morning trying to call his teenage daughter down to eat before they had to be dropped off at the summer activities the two wanted to participate in.
"She's dressing for a boy." Michelle says now finished her food and her plate empty. "Can we go without her? Peppermill is waiting for me."
Danny who had been cleaning the table moves to sit on the seat next to Michelle and faces her panic instantly on his mind after hearing what she had said. "What boy? What do you know?" He says needing the details of Stephanie's relationship, all it did was freak him out hearing about his daughters with boys he doesn't know. He dreaded any of his three girls dating, but found if he knew about it,he could intervene when they got broken hearts.
"His name is Connor, she met him a few days ago at music camp. She said she wanted to look cute for him and couldn't decide what her best outfit was. They all looked the same to me." Michelle says not knowing or caring about it much as she just wanted to go riding on Peppermill.
"Let's go dad." Stephanie says coming down the stairs finally now wearing a short red skirt that didn't cover much of her legs and a short top showing her entire stomach off. She had her hair straight down, with a headband pulling on and just a slight amount of makeup gracing her face. Danny looks her up and down and sees the skimpy lack of clothing she had ended up choosing.
"You are not going dressed like that. Put some clothes on Stephanie." He says simply and starts cleaning the table.
"I spent hours choosing this outfit I look cute. Why do I have to change?" Stephanie says getting angry that he was forcing her to change. She had spent so long getting it perfected she didn't want to change again.
"Because that is not an appropriate outfit for my fourteen year old. Go change, cover up and be quick we are late." He says whilst cleaning Michelle's plate.
"This is so unfair. DJ always got to wear what she wanted." Stephanie says while storming off up the stairs to change. A few minutes later she comes down in jeans and doing up a jacket covering her top that she hadn't changed. Michelle saw what she did and gets a death stare from Stephanie before she tattled on her.
The three of them eventually leave and Danny drives Stephanie to music camp and drops Michelle off at the riding school.
-xxxx-
"Maddison, what's wrong?" A slim, tall brunette woman dressed in jeans and a simple white t-shirt says standing in her small kitchen looking at her daughter that was sitting at the two person table.
"Can I come work with you instead, I don't feel like camp today?" She says not wanting to go to the activity camp her mom was sending her to for the day.
"It will be no fun for you Maddison. You will be sitting alone all day whilst I'm serving people. There will be no friends and no one to talk to all day. You will get bored." She moves to go and sit at the table a cup of coffee in her hands.
"Besides I thought you were looking forward to camp? You will get to see all your new friends, what happened?" She says reaching one hand out to her little girl for comfort seeing her sad face get even sadder.
"I was before, but now I just want to be with you. I don't want to go camp I want to stay with you all day. Why do you have to work?" Maddison says playing with her breakfast in the bowl in front of her. She had been unable to eat it as she didn't feel hungry that morning. It had turned into mush in her bowl so was fun to make the mush worse.
"You know why Maddison. I tell you what. You have a good day at camp and make some friends today, rather than staying with Lorna all day. And I will try and get a day off soon and we can do whatever you want. Will that be okay?" She asks seeing the sadness on her little girls face.
"Yeah okay." Maddison says whilst mustering up the best smile she could. She knew her mom wouldn't do it though, she never had the time.
"Go get ready and let's drop you off for a fun day at camp." Her mom says picking up the still almost full bowl so she could clean it before they leave.
-xxxx-
"Come on Peppermill, it's okay. It's just a small jump. Please go over it Peppermill." Michelle says riding on Peppermill, she had been trying to get him to go over the obstacles but everyday he had stopped and then walked backwards. Too afraid to jump them. Michelle had fallen off and injured herself and since then he refuses to jump them, Michelle herself was scared of doing the jumps but knew the two of them could do it again.
"Just one jump please. Go over one hurdle please." She says as they were riding closer and closer to the smallest one in the training arena. As they got to it he stopped and started to freak out again, still too scared of what would happen if he jumped it. He slowly started turning himself and walking away. Michelle looking defeated that he still won't do it.
"It's okay Michelle, just keep trying. He will do it one day I promise you." Her coach yells from the sides. Michelle rides him over towards her coach. And sits on Peppermill while talking with her coach.
"No he won't, I can't get him to do it anymore. My accident scared him and it's scared me. He won't respond to me. He stops before every hurdle." Michelle says her face looking disappointed and heartbroken that she just can't do it anymore.
"Sometimes when you have big falls like that it is hard to over come them. Just give it time, you need to feel confident about the jump and one day he will respond to it and jump for you. Don't rush him and don't rush yourself. I know you want to enter the competition at the end of the month but maybe you should wait for another one. It's still a bit too soon." Her coach says seeing that their progress was slow and that Michelle wasn't quite ready to enter Peppermill Into the riding competition.
"Yeah maybe. But I missed the last one and I really think I can do it, if I could just get him to jump." Michelle says feeling annoyed at herself suddenly over none of it working.
"Let me think on it, there has to be a way to boost your confidence up and help spark Peppermill up again. Go take him back for a break, you've both been working really hard. Maybe tomorrow will be the day you jump." Her coach says before opening the gate and letting Michelle and Peppermill leave still thinking about the solution of what they could do.
-xxxx-
"We are going to play baseball want to join in Maddison?" A small blonde boy says trying to get Maddison to move from the spot in the grass she has stayed in since her mom had dropped her off.
"No." She says not feeling like playing with him. He walks away and talks to the leader of the baseball game and comes back over to her a few minutes later.
"Maddison, I think you'd enjoy playing if you tried it. Have you ever played baseball before?" She says crouching down to look right at Maddison.
"No, I'm happy here thank you Lorna." She says without looking up. Lorna a woman in her mid twenties wearing black leggings and a long pink camp shirt and her hair up in a messy ponytail. She offers her hand out to Maddison and leaves it in front of her waiting until she was willing to take it.
"Come on just try it, if you don't like it you can come right back here by yourself. But try the game for me." She says and gets a nod from Maddison and she takes her hand and goes over to the game.
"Can we let Maddison have a turn. What you have to do is hit the ball with this bat when it is thrown. When you hit it run. Can you do that?" Lorna says standing with Maddison waiting for a response. She hands over the bat and Maddison walks to where she was told to go.
"Run, run, run." Everyone is shouting after Maddison hits the ball sending it far away, everyone on the opposing team running round to try and catch it before she has managed to run round each base. She runs and runs hearing the chants.
"Maddison where are you going, the last base is down here." Is yelled at her by Lorna as Maddison continues to run going away from the pitch they were playing on. She goes and goes right up until she finds herself hit against something solid and falls down on the ground.
-xxxx-
"Your horse is useless Michelle. And so are you. You are never going to beat me in the competition at the end of the month. You're a disgrace, you can't even do a small jump. My horse is already jumping the highest hurdles." A red haired girl that was a few years older than Michelle says whilst brushing down her own horse, next to Michelle.
"Peppermill is going to beat you and your horse in the competition just you wait and see." She says knowing they could if he would just jump again.
"You need to go back to basic training, you're still a baby. There is no way you and that thing will ever beat me." She says speaking directly to Michelle this time.
"Just you wait and see, I will get first place and you will have your head in the dirt." Michelle says not caring that she was being mean to her. Her dad wasn't around to tell her off for it.
"Come on now Charlotte, stop entertaining the help." The girls mom says walking through the barn seeing the two girls talking. "I will pay someone outside to clean Royal Prince. It's not a job for someone like us." She says pulling Charlotte out of the stall and away from Michelle.
"Don't listen to them Peppermill, you can do it if you just try. We both can. We want to beat Charlotte and Royal Prince right?" Michelle says brushing him slowly. "I'm sure we can." She says quieter to herself. She leaves him alone and starts walking out the other end of the barn, feeling sad and defeated over the day, wanting some time alone.
-xxxx-
Maddison had found herself on the ground after running right into the side of a horse. As she looked up from the ground there was a man staring right at her.
"Be careful Michelle." The man that was on the horse Maddison had hit says seeing her down on the ground.
"Sorry sir, I..i..i wasn't looking." Maddison says in a panic not wanting to get in trouble. She stands up and wipes the dirt off her jeans.
"It's okay. Go over to Coach Ryerson, I think he has something he wants you to try." The man says pointing to the man standing with a small brown horse by the gates in front of them.
She nods back in confusion and slowly makes her way towards the person she had been told to go too.
"Michelle where have you been? Never mind we need to get you started. I think you need to try your jumps on a different horse, build your own confidence up first. This is Petticoat, she is still young and is learning the jumps herself. She is gentle and I think would be a great start to getting you to jump again." He says offering her the reigns from the horse for Maddison to take.
She strokes the horse slowly but was scared to get on, she'd never ridden a horse and had the seen one this close before. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She was not Michelle whoever that was, and had no idea what was expected of her.
"Here we go." He says helping lift her up to start riding, the horse starts clomping forward obviously knowing where it needed to go. Which was a good thing as Maddison didn't know what she was doing or where she was supposed to go. She sat on the horse bouncing around all over the place. After a few seconds it was starting to really hurt her legs and butt from all the up and down bouncing she was doing.
"Michelle come on, stop messing around. If you want to be ready for the competition you need to be getting serious about it. I know this isn't Peppermill but take this seriously." Her coach yells seeing her having no control over the horse.
-xxxx-
"Why does everyone think I can't do it, I can do it. So can Peppermill. It's no fair, I hit my head months ago and no one believes in me anymore." Michelle says to herself she had walked off alone and into a further point within the woods away from riding school. She was sitting on a rock talking to herself upset that everyone keeps treating her like she was unable to do anything anymore.
"I'm not a baby, Charlotte will see. I will beat her and Peppermill can beat Royal Prince. We will be unstoppable just they wait and see." She says still feeling sad and lonely.
"Maddison, Maddison. Oh there you are." A woman says coming through the woods directly to Michelle.
"How did you get down here? We were all so worried about you, you just ran so fast none of us knew where you'd gotten to." Lorna says breathlessly as she walks up towards Michelle sitting on the rock alone.
Michelle looks at her confused she didn't know who this woman was or why she was calling her Maddison.
"Want to go join in with the crafts, you could make something for your mom." Lorna says bending to her height, placing her hand on Michelle's knee.
"I will help you, it will be fun and messy. You and mess go hand in hand." Lorna says using a joking tone with her.
"Okay." Michelle says though didn't know why, she didn't know this woman but she was friendly and inviting. She took her hand and walked off with her, she saw the camp logo on her shirt and knew it would be fun and make her feel better than she was.
-xxxx-
Michelle was sitting in a room with lots of other children and Lorna next to her all were decorating pottery figures that she was assuming they had made a few days ago. Michelle had chosen the color's she wanted and was decorating the figure that Lorna had given to her.
Maddison on the other hand was still getting to grips with how to ride and control a horse, the coach had told her to go for a ride around the grounds, thinking she just needed to bond with Petticoat before attempting the jumps.
The hours were passing by and both girls were starting to enjoy the activities they were doing. Michelle was loving having Lorna with her helping her with the painting and decorating of her figure and Maddison was still riding around on Petticoat who she was bonding with and had started a natural rhythm with her now.
"Let's try some jumps now Michelle." Her coach yells trying to bring the two of them back over to the training section so they could do the hurdles. She gets closer and brings Petticoat towards the coach and starts panicking she had no idea how to do jumps and was too scared to try.
"Woah girl. Stop girl." She says at the side of the gate, once Petticoat stopped she slides herself down from her and wraps the reigns on the fence and runs away, while the coach was telling her to get back on and give it a shot.
"What time is it Lorna?" Michelle asks starting to worry about how long she had been away from the riding school.
"It's almost 2pm." She says looking at her watch, giving her a simple smile.
"I have to go." Michelle says speeding off out the hut and through the woods again.
Both girls were running and running away from where they were neither were paying any attention to what they were doing and end up hitting each other down to the ground.
"Watch where you are going." Maddison says getting herself back up from the ground.
"Sorry, I...Woah baby." Michelle says looking at the girl that was standing before her. It was like looking in a mirror.
"Am I asleep?" Maddison says moving her head round examining Michelle before her not believing what she was seeing.
"Are you real?" Michelle says just as confused as Maddison was. Neither were able to understand how they looked the same.
Michelle reaches her hand out and touches Maddison's arm making her jerk backwards slightly, Maddison does the same to Michelle getting the same reaction.
"Woah" Maddison says, "Baby" Michelle finishes.
The two stand there just stunned for a few minutes staring at each other still in a state of disbelief.
"I'm Michelle Elizabeth Tanner." Michelle eventually says offering her hand to the girl before her.
"Maddison Raylee Gourley." Maddison says shaking Michelle's hand and announcing her name to her.
"No way jose?" Michelle says in shock again at hearing her name. Finally knowing who it was that the name belonged to.
"You're Michelle, this crazy horse guy makes so much sense now." Maddison says sitting herself down on a patch of grass finally having the answers to what was going on in the horse centre.
"Who was the crazy horse guy? He kept yelling at me." Maddison asks wanting to know why he did that.
"Oh that's just Coach Ryerson, he's my teacher. Me and my horse Peppermill had an accident a few months ago and I hit my head. Now neither of us can do our jumps. Coach knows I can do it. He's nice but he does yell at me a lot." Michelle shares with her.
"He had me ride a horse called Petticoat, she was beautiful and gentle. I was scared at first I'd never ridden a horse before but it wasn't as scary after a while. But I didn't want to try jumps they are scary, there is no way I'm doing that." Maddison says pulling a face to show she was not at all ever doing that.
"Haha, it's takes lots of practise to do jumps. What about Lorna? Who is she? She's really friendly." Michelle says having spent time with her all afternoon.
"She's my camp leader. She's really nice, she is one of my moms best friends." Maddison says not saying much more, she shuffles her feet into the grass feeling unsure what to say.
"What's your family like?" Michelle asks knowing her family was important to her and wondered what Maddison's was like.
"There's only me and my mom. My mom works all the time, but she is still the best mom in the world." Maddison says picking up a strand of grass and starts twiddling it in her fingers.
"Oh, what about a dad or siblings?" Michelle was thinking maybe she had everything that Maddison didn't have and Maddison had everything she didn't have.
"Don't have any. Never had. It's been mom and I since I was born. I had a granny for a few years but she died." Maddison says still looking down away from Michelle.
"I don't have a mom, she died when I was little. But I have a dad, two older sisters, an uncle Jesse, aunt Becky and their rascals Nicky and Alex. And a Joey." Michelle says reeling off her family to Maddison.
"Wow that's a lot of people. Do you live with all of them?" Maddison says her face lit up with excitement and intrigue she finally looks over at Michelle.
"Yeah, plus Comet the dog." Michelle stands up from the rock an idea brewing in her mind.
"I've always wanted to know what it was like to have a mom." She says not furthering it, wanting to see if Maddison had similar ideas.
"I've always wanted to know what it was like to have a dad and sisters." Maddison says standing back up too. The two of them facing each other once more.
"We should switch." They both say at the exact same time.