WreckItRalphFan: This story takes place just after the books series, so Winnie is 15. Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 1
"Winnie, are you okay? Winnie!" I knew who it was before I even looked up. It was her. I glanced up, realizing that I was sitting at the kitchen table with my head resting in the palms of my hands. I was right, it was Madeline Edison. She had been coming over so often lately, and she was really getting on my nerves. I gave her a very unconvincing smile and wished that she would just go away and leave me and my family alone.
"Winnie, is something wrong?" She asked in an almost a sickening sweet tone, it made me want to hurl. She was fine as far as people go, but she had started to take over the Willis household. I don't know what had made me more upset with her at that moment. The fact that she never knocked when she came over anymore, or that Dad had been going out with her, a lot.
"Nope. I'm fine." I lied. Like I would tell her what's wrong, she's half the problem.
She almost looked worried, "You sure? Do you want to talk about it? Maybe I could help?"
Yah Right. I thought, I looked down to see my math book sitting in front of me. I realized that this was the easy way out of talking to Dad's friend. "I was just thinking." I said motioning towards the open book. It was the truth though, I had been thinking but it was not about math.
A tiny voice came from behind Madeline, "Buddy and Towaco?" It was Mason. He was definitely her better half.
"No, Mason, just Buddy." I sighed, that was one of the big things that had been bothering me lately. Hawk was moving to Florida with her dad. She was taking Towaco with her. Her Dad came over yesterday to pick up the Appaloosa. Hawk had promised to either call or email me through the pet help line every day, and she told me that she would come home for holidays. It didn't make me feel any better, nothing would be the same without her. She was the best friend that I have ever had, next to Catman and Barker. It was going to be hard not seeing her every day at school.
There was the other problem. Without Towaco boarding in our barn I'm going to have to find a way to make money for Nickers' and Buddy's grain and hay for the winter. I would never make enough money answering the emails for the pet helpline, so I'm going to have to find another job. I just hope that the Spiddles will find a job for me somehow. It is definitely no secret that Summer and I don't get along. I don't get along with Richard too well either. Let's just say that if Stable-mart weren't the only place in all of Ashland Ohio that I could get a job at, it would be the last place in the world that I would want to step foot in. My heart ached for those horses every time I thought about those cramped stalls, and the way that the Spiddles and their staff treated them.
Madeline tore her gaze away from mason and glanced back at me. There was a look of concern in her eyes. I stood up so quickly that my chair almost toppled over. "Gotta go, Nickers is waiting for me. Dads in his workshop, I think he's having trouble with the Freeze-O-Wave." He had been spending countless hours lately trying to reinvent one of his previous failures.
I wheeled around and sped past them heading towards the screen door. Mason was now staring intently at a juice stain in the middle of the floor, if he hadn't slipped away into his own world I would have taken him out to see Buddy. Madeline was mumbling something, "I told Jack that he was going to have to loosen the…" But I wasn't about to stay and listen to her inventor talk any longer, I darted out the door as if the house were on fire.
At this moment I needed to be with Nickers. My relationship with God has been getting better, it's nothing special, but at least I have a relationship. But when I am around that amazing Arabian I feel like I could tell God anything. Mom used to say "In the beginning God created heaven and earth and horses." I know that this is true, especially when I am with my own amazing horse, I could tell God anything. That is what I needed right at this moment.
As I neared the barn, weaving in between the works-in-progress that continue to scatter the yard, I hear the most heavenly sound. It is the same sound that my horse got her name from, a soft nicker. "Hello to you too, Nickers!" I cooed. "You ready for a ride?" She answered with another one of those wonderful noises.
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We rode as one through the pasture until Lizzy appeared by the fence, I rode up at a full trot. "Winnie Willis! Get that Wild Thing away from me! You know that those horses scare me!" She squealed, making me cringe when she called my gorgeous Nickers "Wild Thing". "Winnie, oh! You would never guess what happened at school today. Gerry looked out the window and saw; you're never going to believe it, a Northern Spring Peeper! It was so amazing, he was sitting right there on the window pane! It has been getting cooler out in the evenings now so I would never have guessed that he would have been out! He was so cute and ….."
"Lizzy!" I said it a little louder than I should have; I felt Nickers tense up under me. I Tried again, this time lowering my voice "Lizzy, why did you come out here?"
"Oh yah, Dad wants us to go inside right now. He has to talk to us about something." I couldn't believe it. We had been out here talking, well Lizzy was talking, and Dad is inside waiting for us. However, she seemed unfazed "… I'm making my tuna casserole tonight, but I don't think that he is going to stay. We are going…"
I was getting curious and a little worried, dad never called us together just to talk to us. I slid off of Nickers, and rushed past Lizzy before she could continue talking. When I walked into the house I was shocked to see Dad in his suit. Not his astronaut work suit, but his good suit that I have only seen him wear about twice before. The same one that he had wore to mom's funeral almost three years ago.
He smiled at us showing his perfect teeth, "Winnie, Lizzy, come sit down." He motioned towards the kitchen table. I sat down anticipating what he was going to say.
I looked over to see Mason sitting at the couch. I thought that Madeline had left, and I didn't see their van in our driveway. "Dad, is Madeline here, I don't think that I saw her car?"
"Actually that is what I want to talk to you about." He sounded nervous, "Lizzy is going to watch Mason. Madeline left, actually she went to her house to get ready."
Lizzy and I both looked confused. "What is she getting ready for Dad?" Lizzy asked, but I think that we both knew deep down what was coming next.
"Well… I….I mean we….. well, Madeline and I." I don't think that I have ever seen dad so tongue tied before. "What I'm trying to say is that we have been together for a year now."
My heart sank, "Dad." I said it a little more forcefully than I should have, he looked a bit startled. My temper was getting the best of me, again. I took a deep breath before trying again, "what are you getting at?"
"I am going to take Madeline out for a date." He said it so fast and quiet that I almost didn't hear him, but I knew where this was going. He had his head in his palms now. He looked up at us combing his fingers through his hair making it stand up everywhere. "I like Madeline….. a lot"
I couldn't believe it. I jumped up so fast that my chair toppled over, tears were threatening to spill over but I didn't care. "How could you!" I screamed at him, I didn't care. For once Lizzy was speechless and she looked as if she might cry, but I knew that she was because of me. My eyes began to cloud over to the point that I couldn't see, I lowered my voice to barely a whisper. "Do you not care about mom?" my voice cracked much more than usual, it didn't help that I was chocking back salty tears.
"Winnie, I… I love her." I didn't want to hear anymore. I turned and tripped over the chair. "Winnie! Are you okay?" He sounded worried, but it only made me even madder at him.
I got up off of the floor and ran for the door, it slammed behind be but I didn't look back. I could hear Lizzy and Dad calling me but I continued going until I stumbled into the barn blurry eyed. I sobbed, "Come on Nickers, were getting out of here."
WreckItRalphFan: Thank you so much for reading this. Please review and tell me what you think. :) I promice that the next chapter will be much better. :D
