Oscar- Hutt River
Charlotte- Wy
Hunapo- New Zealand
Logan- Australia
Samantha- Nyo America
…
Whew, first proper chapter! So yeah more characters have been introduced, and I'm also trying out some new human names for Oz and Nyo!Ame because I wasn't so fond of their old ones, and want to see if these fit better. If you all like them, I might even go and change them in some of my other stories…
...
Four years later
...
"Isn't it just thrilling?"
Oscar placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his slim chest, standing in the middle of the gates to the fair, the setting for what he hoped would be the month of his life, the moment he'd spent the last two years preparing for.
There were fairground rides as far as he could see and crowds of people milling about, and in the distance he could just make out the outdoor stadium. Children shrieked with excitement as they ran past and an announcer boomed out events and rides to look out for from a large speaker. Fast food fried noisily from stands and the smells of different farm animals attacked his nostrils, but he didn't care. He was too excited to care.
"Smells like horse shit," his sister Charlotte grumbled next to him, hands also on her hips and head tilted slightly.
"Well of course! There are horses everywhere!" Oscar huffed, "and since when did you get big enough to swear?"
"Well you do," the girl raised a bushy eyebrow.
"That's because I'm seventeen, child," Oscar ruffled Charlotte's hair, and his sister swatted his hand away.
"Yeah yeah, and I'll swear if I want!"
"Oh you will now?" Oscar smirked, regarding the girl with amusement.
"Yes! You're not my dad!"
"But I am your only family," Oscar snapped back, "and next year I'll be your legal guardian so please at least attempt to listen to what I say! I'm trying, I promise."
"I do listen," Charlie mumbled, glaring at the ground. There was a heavy silence between the pair. "You just talk so much I can't help but tune out."
"I knew it! Still, what do you think of your big brother's chances?"
"At rodeo? Oscar, you've rocked up to here in a bow tie and you're about half as wide as every other cowboy we've seen; how exactly do you expect to have a chance? You don't even have a proper hat!"
"Nice to know I'll always have my family's support," Oscar rolled his eyes and entered the fair, picking up a pair of guidebooks from a stand. "Still, the events don't start for a few days so there's plenty of time to get to know the place."
"And find me some things to do whilst you're making a tit of yourself," Charlotte joked as she followed him.
"How impolite. I was hoping you'd come along and support me from the stands or something."
Charlotte looked down, scuffing the toe of her boot in the dirt. "I don't do that anymore. You know that."
Oscar nodded. "Of course. And I'm sure Huna will keep an eye on me anyway."
"Yeah," Charlotte perked up, "you can cheer each other on!"
"Well if I don't win then I sincerely hope they do instead." Oscar walked over to a nearby pen, holding a single mare.
"You could both win though, silly, since you're in different categories. Still, should I place my bets on just them then?" Charlie joked as she climbed the fence her brother was leaning on.
"Have you always been this rude?"
"Rude? I'm an angel!"
Oscar shook his head, turning around to watch people pass by. He'd come a long way in the last few years, he was proud to say. Sure, he'd always had a wiry strength that came from years of helping his family clean their home and practice for their events but this time two years ago he'd never have dreamed he'd be about to compete in what he'd always considered a silly sport for stupid knuckleheads. His brother, Logan, had made sure he knew how to ride a horse from an early age, but actually staying on one whilst racing after calves or around barrels? No, that certainly wasn't for Oscar! He'd much prefer to travel sat in a car seat than a saddle.
But then…
Well if Logan couldn't clear his own name and win back his reputation, then Oscar would have to do it for him! And that's what he'd been training to do all this time: complete the rodeo his brother couldn't. Win the rodeo his brother couldn't.
And he could! He'd been ready for over a year now, practicing until his hands were blistered and legs ached so much they could barely move. He'd fallen and tripped and been thrown more times than he cared to remember, and just wiped his mouth and pulled himself up each time.
Except when he fell and broke his arm during the bareback bronc round at the Australian National Rodeo.
He'd been devastated at the news, that his arm was far too injured for him to finish the contest and qualify for the world championships, but at least he'd be healed by the next year! And he was.
If he was completely honest with himself, Oscar was grateful for those extra months of practice. They gave him time to gain that little extra upper-body strength, made him those few seconds faster, that tiniest but more agile.
And that was why he was now representing Australia in the under 18s category of the world championships! Second time lucky, it seemed. He'd seen off the competition in enough events to earn him the most points at national level, and thankfully he didn't even need to enter all the events…
"Are you sure this is a good idea though?" Charlie piped up as she glared at the fence she was clinging to, interrupting his train of thoughts. Oscar sighed.
"Don't let what happened last year get to you."
"What about what happened the year before that?" The siblings glared at each other for a long moment before Oscar scowled and began to walk away, Charlotte trotting along after.
"I think there's some shooting games down here," Oscar buried his nose in the guidebook, "you like those, right?"
Charlie glared at the back of his head for a few moments before replying. "Yeah, sure."
"Well there are a few rides dotted about the place," Oscar continued, "and donkey riding for kids. I'm sure you can occupy yourself for a few hours then. What do you say, Charlie?" No reply. "Charlie?" He wheeled round to find his sister had disappeared, nowhere to be seen in the unfamiliar crowd.
"Oh God no, Charlotte?" he looked around but couldn't see her, panic rising in his chest. "Charlie where are you?"
"Oy," growled Charlie from the doorway of a gift shop, "stop acting like a fanny and get over here!"
"There you are!" Oscar was torn between running over and pulling Charlie into a hug and running over and shaking the living daylights out of the child.
"What? This place sells hats and you need a cowboy hat or you'll look silly!"
"I'm pretty sure I won't," Oscar mumbled, but his sister insisted, dragging him into the shop to look at the display of cowboy hats on pegs and shelves. It was cooler in here, at least, Oscar supposed to himself.
"I'm gonna get this one because it matches my boots," Charlie commented as she pulled off a pink kids cowgirl hat and tried it on, grinning at Oscar.
"Cute!"
"I'm not cute!" Charlie huffed, putting the hat back. Oscar watched with the mildest amusement as she tried on various different hats, frowning as she claimed they didn't 'feel right' before he just pulled the pink one off the shelf- along with a rather plain tan one for himself- and marched over to the counter.
"Hey!" cried Charlie, running after him.
"You want this one, I know you do and don't really want to spend the whole day waiting for you to accept that," he explained, paying for the two items, "because I'm dying to visit the arena!"
...
"You three boys were always so stubborn but this is a whole new level of ridiculous," Samantha shook her head despairingly as she glanced over at her cousin, hands gripping the steering wheel particularly tightly. The open window of her Jeep blew in hot air that threw her curly hair this way and that, often covering her sunglasses, and bright red lipstick framed her mouth perfectly. Next to her, Michael bristled, glaring out of the window at the wide expanses of Nevada desert. He'd heard it all before from her and he had no intention of hearing it all again. It was his holiday too!
"You were best friends! Inseparable! And now look at you. All this fighting; don't you and Matt know you're all you have left?"
"I fucking know, okay?" Michael squirmed in his seat, "and when Matt's ready to apologise then I will too. It's his fault anyway."
"Now don't you go taking that tone with me, young man, or you can damn well walk to Texas," Samantha growled, "and it's no one's fault either."
"Except it's Matthew's."
"No it's not! He just worries too much and you don't worry enough. I think he's out of order telling you what to do, but you were his responsibility and I can understand his reasoning, given what happened..."
Michael didn't reply. He pulled off his own pair of sunglasses and wiped them on his shirt, Alfred's old hat covering his gelled hair.
"Oh, and I've invited him to come along to the rodeo."
"What? Why?!" Michael wheeled round to face his cousin.
"To cheer us on," Samantha replied with a pout.
"Cheer us on? He hates rodeo now! He thinks we're a pair of idiots for continuing to participate in it. We'll just have another fight when he shows up. If he shows up."
"He will. I made him promise," Samantha broke into a grin, "then you two can make up and I'll be, like, a heroine or something."
Michael snorted. "Yeah, sure, that's what'll happen. It's more likely we'll fucking end up punching each other again because his head's gone right up his ass! Heh, maybe your boyfriend can pull it back out and be crowned king of England."
Sam laughed, despite herself. "He just doesn't want to see anyone else hurt!"
"Well he can't dictate other people's lives because he's scared! I can do whatever I shitting well want. And it's not like I'm gonna be throwing my life away in the bullriding. I ain't stupid."
Samantha groaned, briefly resting her forehead on the wheel. "We really have a long way to go…"
…
Oscar left Charlie in the petting zoo- stroking a particularly fluffy lamb at last glance- and made his way to the arena, hoping to be left in peaceful isolation. He just needed a few minutes to himself, to collect his thoughts and consider just what was about to happen over the coming month. What he was going to do and what could go wrong.
The thought almost made him want to run back to the airport.
He entered the stand and made his way to the front, leaning heavily against the bars to stare at the arena floor, a round expanse of dirt and faint hoofmarks where the roughstock events would take place. Those were the ones he was the most anxious about competing in, given that they were the most deadly, and given that…
No, he was here for a reason and couldn't let fear get ahold of him. That would just lead to distractions and grave mistakes, and he needed his wits about him for these events.
Not for the first time, Oscar wished he'd had an interest in rodeo as a boy. It would have given him far more of an edge here, and he'd have got to spend more time with Logan. The past two years were filled with so many regrets, yearnings for his brother to be by his side, to guide him and protect him and laugh with him over the little things, like he used to. If he'd have known…
"There you are!"
Oscar wheeled round to find none other than Hunapo Davies standing between the high rows of seats: fellow competitor, representative of New Zealand, old family friend… and very nearly his in-law.
"So you finally showed up, you old bastard," he laughed, "I was starting to think this was getting too much for you, keeping up with us kids!"
Hunapo snorted, striding over to pull Oscar into a hug. "It's nice to see you too, boy."
"Likewise. I'm glad you're here, if I'm honest. Gonna need all the helping hands I have to get through this."
"Nervous?" Hunapo raised an eyebrow, and Oscar nodded. "Not surprised. I've been doing this for years and it still takes all my resolve not to piss myself in these events!"
"Well that's comforting to know," Oscar sighed, "God I was glad when I heard you'd won the New Zealand Nationals."
"I'd have come out anyway, you know?" Huna tucked a finger under Oscar's chin, lifting his face up, "since you and Charlie are technically my responsibility and all. And because I care about ye."
"You do?" Oscar pulled his lips into a wiry smile.
"Of course! Plus, you know he'd want me to keep an eye on you…"
A heavy silence settled over the pair of them as they looked away, Logan's grinning face plaguing both their minds.
"So, where's Charlie?" Huna asked, looking around. "Please tell me you haven't lost her already."