Disclaimer: I do not own The Young Riders.


Polly stood from her desk and took the cloth to start wiping down the chalkboard. She loved wiping the board clean at the end of the day, like she was clearing a little room in her student's heads for her to fill tomorrow. She was almost through when the door opened.

Turning, Polly saw the Indian man who worked for the Pony Express standing in the doorway, closing the door behind me. Polly wanted to scream and hide beneath the desk, but she squared her shoulders the best she could and stood her ground.

"Have you decided you need some extra learning, Mr. Cross?"

"Heh, no, ma'am," Buck shook his head with a small smile, his hands in the pockets of his trousers. "I 'spect I've have plenty o' learnin."

"Then, what can I do for you?"

"I was hoping you'd have some time to talk." Buck took a step forward and Polly took a step back, bumping into the chalkboard. Buck frowned. "Are you this scared of all men or just me in particular?"

"I'm not scared of you," Polly shook her head, denying it, and Buck just raised an eyebrow. "I'm not!"

"Well, excuse me for sayin, but you're doing a great impression of a thrush in a cage then." Buck stayed on the other side of the room and leaned back against the wall. "Now, I know you don't act like this around Doc Jr and I don't think this is how you got Ike so crazy about you, so it must be me."

The silence sat heavily in the room as Buck studied her and Polly picked at the cuff of her dress' sleeve.

"There ain't many of my kind left in the Big Woods, are there?"

"No, none," Polly shook her head again. "You're the first I've met."

"Well, I promise I have no intention of cooking you into stew. We prefer a little more fat on someone we're going to cook," Buck watched her eyes widen. "That was a joke, Polly."

"Oh."

"How about I sit down over here," Buck put a hand on one of the desks in the back row, "and you sit down at your desk and we talk for a bit?"

"Reverend Williams –"

"There's at twenty feet between here and there, Polly. I don't know what stories they tell about Indians back where you're from, but we can't cover twenty feet any faster than a white man," Buck sat down, waiting for her. After a minute or so of hemming and hawing, Polly sat back down at her desk. They sat in silence until Buck spoke. "The stories you heard must be something. Tell me one."

"They said that Indians kidnapped woman and children," Polly said unsure, looking down at her hands. "That they would come in and destroy homes, kill people, scalp people."

"That's all true," Buck nodded. "A lot of Indians are angry at the way the white men are stealing their land. But the Indians aren't the only ones in the wrong. My father was a white man; he… took my mother. She was Kiowa. The white men give the Indians blankets with disease, go back on treaties, kill them in the night."

"You make it sound like they're right."

Buck shook his head. "Neither is right." Polly bit her lip and Buck leaned forward. "You have a question."

"Have you ever… have you ever done any of that?"

"I've protected myself."

"A man back home, his father was scalped. I wasn't born then. Brookfield wasn't really a town then. Everyone knows the story, though. The thought is scary."

"The only person I've ever scalped is Ike," Buck used the joke he'd used once before and Polly stared for a minute before she burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that Buck started laughing with her, much more satisfying than the first time he'd told the joke. Polly was actually smart enough to understand the joke.

"Why are you here? I mean, not here here, not 'why are you in the school house' here, but here. Why aren't you with the Indians?"

"To the Indians, I'm white. Just like, to the white man, I'm Indian. I don't belong in either place. When I was younger, my tribe forced me to leave. Some white men found me and put me in a mission. That's where I met Ike."

"And you both ride for the Pony Express now," Polly looked at him and Buck nodded. "Do you like the Pony Express?"

"I like the people I work with. The people back east can be frustrating. They don't understand what it's like out here and most don't want to learn. But I like the work mostly."

"How is Sweetwater for you? Do people… accept you?"

"Tompkins doesn't like me, but most everyone else is okay. They just see me as a rider, I think. Until there's trouble with the Indians. Then they remember I'm Indian."

"That must be hard."

Buck could see Polly's features change from when he'd walked in to now. She was calmer and less nervous, less ready to jump through the window and run. She looked at him with curiosity instead of fear and Buck kept the conversation going, answering her questions and asking his own, until she looked relaxed enough for him to bring up the reason he came.

"Summer's almost over."

"Yes," Polly nodded.

"Are you staying on to teach in the winter or are you leaving Sweetwater?"

"I'm staying. My contract goes until next summer."

"Then there's no reason for you to turn away an invitation to dinner tomorrow with us," Buck smiled at her.

"There's every reason to turn it down. Thank you for offering, but…" Polly hesitated a moment, "Thank you, but I have to decline."

"Why?"

"Lansford –"

"Last I checked, you weren't promised to Doc Jr just yet."

"Reverend Williams –"

"Is a self-important bigot."

"He can send me away," Polly argued. "If I get sent away from my first job, who do you think will hire me?"

"The town hired you, Polly, not Reverend Williams. He can't fire you."

"If you don't think Reverend Williams can sway the town to get rid of me, than you're a fool."

"Maybe," Buck shrugged. "Do you really like Doc Jr better than Ike? Or is it that Doc Jr's the smarter choice?"

"Ike is…" Polly fumbled over her response until Buck saved her from answering as he stood to leave.

"My people, they have a saying. The words don't translate, but they say that a person has two options. They can follow their head or they can follow their heart. Following your head is usually the smart decisions, but even the smartest decisions are sometimes not right. A person can make all the smart decisions and still be miserable. Your heart may lead you through hard times and sadness, but it will ultimately take you to happiness."


A/N:

THIS IS THE WORST CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. Good Lord, it's terrible. I'm so sorry. I've been trying so hard to make this dang thing work and it's just sitting in a corner stubborn as hell going, "I DON'T WANNA AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" and then it stuck it's tongue out at me and blew a raspberry. It did some other crude things as well, but I won't go into those here.

If anyone has ANY idea about how to make this chapter better, I'd love you forever and a day. Not even Ray was helping. /sob

Thanks for reading (this piece of poo) and I hope you liked it (read: didn't totally hate it).

Love, Thalia

P.S. /sigh