Just like with their previous argument, Anna found that, with little time, things went back to normal.
And it seemed that although the fight pushed them further from one another during the course of their misunderstanding, they now almost ended up closer to each other than they had been before as far as conversations and small talk went—which was perfectly fine with Anna.
Elsa would talk to Anna more during Anna's shift, and Anna noticed that Elsa would ride more in Anna's presence as well. And Anna didn't know where the Pelham bit had gone, but it was no longer in the tack room. Elsa didn't use it with Legacy again. This didn't mean that Legacy no longer fought, though. Elsa's work with the Arabian mare, while improving, never exactly ended any differently than in a game of tug-of-war. It had simply become more of a matter of getting the mare to behave for longer amounts of time before putting up a fight, which, as it were, wasn't that simple at all.
No matter what she felt though, Anna knew by now that it wasn't her place to intervene. Anna was the only reason that Elsa was now working with the horse in the snaffle, so that was good enough for her. Even if the senior hadn't yet attempted to alter the way that she was riding, relying less on corrective aids was something Anna considered to be a step in the right direction.
But on this particular day, a week and a half after the argument, Elsa had Lance out on the crossties instead of Legacy.
"Giving Legacy a break?" Anna asked as she worked her way down the stalls.
Elsa shrugged, her response not quite as straightforward as Anna would have expected, "Sort of."
"Okay," Anna said, choosing not to question it, "But doesn't it get overbearing though? You know, having to work with two horses at once?"
"Well, I'm not exactly working with him yet," Elsa said.
"What do you mean?" Anna asked, confused.
"The only time he's been ridden here was when you rode him."
At the senior's words, Anna wondered if maybe there was a reason for that. She distinctly remembered Elsa saying that she wanted to watch someone else ride the horse before she did—that she needed to see the way he moved. And in a way, it made sense. But Anna had a feeling that there was more to it than just that.
"Oh," Anna said, "So are you just hacking him then?"
"Not exactly. I mean, I've got to start with him sometime, right? My parents are coming back from wherever they are now—Germany, I think?—sometime after winter break starts. So ideally I should have made some progress with him already. But it is what it is."
"All the exercise he's gotten is turnout, right?" Anna asked.
"And some work on the lunge line," Elsa added, "to make up for the fact that he can't exactly be a part of the lesson program. Hopefully he's got some manners now, but I guess we'll just have to find out."
"Well, have fun with him," Anna joked as she moved on to the next stall. And though she was already halfway down the aisle, she heard Elsa's answer loud and clear: "Fun is quite an understatement."
And an understatement it was, as Anna spent most of her time watching the senior ride. Because once she had figured out how to (for once) keep her mouth shut, watching Elsa ride had recently become a habit. And even better yet, Elsa no longer seemed to mind.
Anna could tell from the very beginning when Lance pinned his ears and walked in circles around the mounting block instead of staying put that the entire ride was certainly going to be one hectic experience. The horse was certainly in no mood to work.
It seemed that the mounting block itself was what spurred Lance's response; Anna figured that he must have picked up this habit from wherever Elsa's parents had gotten him. Anna could practically see the thoughts going through the devious horse's mind: the mounting block meant someone getting on and someone getting on meant work. And work, Anna was positively certain, was something that Lance wanted to avoid at all costs. But Elsa outsmarted the warmblood gelding by leading Lance away from the mounting block and just getting on from the ground.
This action impressed Anna, as getting on from the ground was a skill she had yet to master, and the distance from the ground to the stirrup was in no way short. But it surprised Lance, who had been standing still, probably thinking he'd been the one to outsmart Elsa and get out of working. And even before Elsa had her other foot in the stirrup, Lance just started to walk off on his own. The sight nearly made Anna laugh, but Elsa, of course, was able to adjust her position as if nothing had ever happened. And she made Lance halt, which ended up turning into the gelding attempting to sidestep every which way in order to evade staying in one place for an extended period of time.
Seeing how uncooperative Lance was being from the beginning, part of Anna wondered why Elsa's parents would have even considered the headstrong gelding to be a dressage prospect.
But that's probably because you know nothing about dressage, Anna reminded herself.
Once Elsa had gotten Lance to stay in place for just about a minute—probably as long as the gelding would allow for—she continued to walk him around the arena. And Anna could tell that Elsa was already preparing for the worst, holding the reins tightly, with a stature that looked almost…defensive.
Lance didn't need any encouragement to get moving. Anna hadn't even seen the senior's leg move at all when Lance burst into an erratic trot. Forget collected—the gelding had a mind of his own. He ignored any pressure that Elsa put on the reins (of course, it didn't help that it was constant pressure), and acted against it by jerking his head up and flying onward twice more around the arena before finally coming back down to the walk.
The second time Elsa asked Lance for a change of gait, he completely skipped the trot, diving forward into the canter. Anna remembered from the time that she had ridden Lance that his collected canter had actually been comfortable. But when Lance got faster—then Anna had had to really put her riding skills to the test. The faster Lance got, the more she'd had to fight for every muscle in her body to stay in one place, attempting to avoid what had inevitably happened: falling off.
But unlike Anna's experience with the crazy gelding, there was no doubt about the fact that Elsa really was an excellent rider as far as hanging on for the unexpected. Because what Anna hadn't seen coming was for Lance—seemingly the king of taking off—to finally give into the tugging on the reins. But naturally, being the king of mischief, he decided to do so in the most disrespectful way.
Instead of transitioning from the canter to the trot, Lance decided to skid to a complete stop, ducking to the side of the arena as if he were refusing a jump. And Elsa, who had most certainly not been expecting that, was thrown forward slightly onto the gelding's neck. Once Elsa had fixed her position, she use her leg to urge the horse onward again. Even though the intention had been for the horse to stop, he couldn't get away with stopping short. But, being stubborn as usual, Lance remained firmly planted in place. So after a larger kick that earned no response, Elsa tapped Lance with the riding crop that she was carrying. But instead of moving forward, Lance kicked out with one of his back legs, and then promptly walked backwards. His chain of responses was the complete opposite of what he'd been asked to do.
Anna knew, as she was sure Elsa herself knew, that Lance couldn't be allowed to get away with his behavior. But one more tap from the crop—harder this time—was enough to get Lance moving forward again.
Anna had to assume that he was used to getting away with his bad behavior, and that he wasn't used to getting reprimanded for it. But the most basic foundation of training was respect; if the horse had no respect for the rider, progress would be minimal and very difficult to achieve.
Continuing along with his disrespectful nature though, Lance skidded to a stop in the next corner of the arena. This time, Anna knew that Elsa had prepared for it by the way she seemed to brace her body slightly before they'd even gotten close to the corner. And because Elsa hadn't been unseated in any way, she was able to attempt to correct the problem immediately, again with the crop. But this time the gelding's reaction was immediate. Lance shot off like a bullet, going right from a walk to a canter than was nearly on the verge of a gallop. But not before giving another one of his signature large bucks, sending Elsa forward once more with enough force to cause the senior to lose not just one but both of her stirrups. Which she now had to manage without as Lance barreled onward once more.
But as much of a fiasco as it seemed (what with Lance's head pointed to the sky, the stirrup irons flapping wildly by his sides, and the continuous increase of speed), Anna was really in awe of how Elsa was able to stay on. While the stirrups jolted about aimlessly, Elsa's legs remained firm and unmoving. She leaned as far back in the saddle as she could, having to work both against Lance to get him to slow down but also with Lance so that she wouldn't end up on the ground. What Anna didn't agree with was how much Elsa was holding Lance's head. Anna was positive that if the senior had worked the horse on a looser rein from the beginning, Lance wouldn't have been as awful. But nothing changed the fact that Anna was impressed by how well Elsa had stuck it out. Not once did the senior seem as if she was going to lose her balance. And when she finally succeeded in getting the gelding back down to a springy trot that seemed as if it would turn into another canter at any given moment, she didn't even bother trying to get her stirrups back.
Instead, she focused on circling Lance to get him back under control. What Anna thought was even smarter was the fact that, instead of sitting the trot—as this was part of the cue to canter—Elsa returned to posting. And as Anna watched the senior rise with the rhythm of Lance's gradually slowing trot, legs never once slipping back, heels immaculately positioned downward, upper body firm and maintaining control, she couldn't help but find herself drawn to the sight.
But, soon enough, Elsa was able to bring Lance down to the walk as the circle grew tighter and tighter, only leaving room for Lance to slow down.
"Well, I think we've had enough fun for one day," Elsa said, her words filling the empty arena. And with that, she took the reins in one hand and swung down from the tall horse, who only balked and pinned his ears when Elsa tried to lead him forward. Giving a firmer tug on the reins, Elsa said, "You're ten times worse than Legacy. Come on."
But no amount of coaxing could get the gelding to walk out of the arena.
Anna only sighed, shaking her head, not exactly sure how Elsa was going to get anywhere with a horse that awful.
Especially if she keeps holding him back, Anna thought.
If Elsa had let the horse get the energy out of his system in the beginning instead of holding him back every time he got faster, maybe then he would have been more willing to listen. And while Elsa probably knew that, Anna also knew that the senior was in no way willing to give up that much control.
Anna sighed. She needed to stop thinking about things like this. Because even though she believed it could work…
It's not my place to intervene.
So turning her attention away from the standoff between the blonde and the stubborn horse, Anna continued sweeping. And all went well for the first few seconds of the simple task but, of course, being her clumsy self, she didn't see that there was a water bottle sitting abandoned on the edge of the railing. And she didn't realize, with all of the layers of clothing that she was wearing, that her elbow had come into contact with it until she heard a small scrape from the bottom of the plastic against the wood of the ledge.
And she turned just in time to watch the water bottle fall down.
Down.
Down.
Until it landed with a small crunch in the arena below.
And that small noise was enough to send Lance reeling.
Anna visibly cringed when she watched Lance's eyes grow wide, his two front legs prancing as if he were threatening to lift them entirely off the ground. He snorted angrily and threw his head upwards, nearly causing the reins to slip out of Elsa's hands.
"Whoa, Lance," Elsa said, her tone firm.
It took Lance a few seconds—most likely to decide whether or not he wanted to bolt—before he settled for lunging forward at a springy walk, in a direction that was most certainly away from the life-threatening water bottle.
But at least it was in a direction that just so happened to lead out of the arena.
And once Elsa had managed to get Lance back on the crossties, Anna, mentally berating herself for her stupidity and clumsiness, rushed back downstairs to remove the water bottle from the arena.
"Sorry about that," Anna said, after she had thrown out the water bottle and gone to find the senior.
"Don't apologize," Elsa said, "If it weren't for you, I don't think I'd have even gotten him out of the arena."
Anna laughed, "Lance really is something."
"Something crazy."
"And stubborn," Anna added.
Elsa rolled her eyes, "Insane."
And then somehow, it turned into a battle to see who could exhaust all the possibilities of adjectives to describe Lance first.
"Wild," Anna shot back.
"Uncontrollable."
"Headstrong."
"Adamant."
"Difficult."
"Arrogant."
"Unreasonable."
"Obstinate."
Anna stuck out her tongue, "Using big words is not fair."
"That's a very flattering look for you," Elsa laughed.
Oh, that laugh…It was making it very difficult for Anna to keep up her feigned annoyance, and for once, she didn't know what else to say.
"But if you can't think of anything else then…it looks like I win," Elsa said very matter-of-factly as she fastened the last buckles of Lance's blanket.
"I can so think of something else," Anna narrowed her eyes.
"All right, then. Let's see you try," Elsa challenged.
Anna desperately tried to picture the dictionary, or pull some scholarly word from the far recesses of her mind. But…nothing was coming to her. And before she could open her mouth to accept defeat, she felt something warm against her neck, which caused her heart rate to momentarily soar in shock.
Upon careful consideration of the situation, Anna found that it definitely wasn't Elsa, who was by Lance's stall getting the gelding's lead rope.
But of course, my brain would definitely jump to that idea, wouldn't it, Anna thought in embarrassment.
Once she got over her hyperactive thoughts, she realized that what she had felt—and what she was still feeling—was Lance's head, resting slightly on her shoulder.
Anna hadn't realized how close she had gotten in proximity to the large horse. And while she was slightly confused by Lance's sudden display of affection, she didn't dare move, for fear of startling him.
The moment lasted for barely five seconds longer, but it was long enough for Elsa to have turned around and caught the sight—meeting Anna's confused 'I don't know how this happened' look with slightly widened eyes. And it was only when Lance had once again picked his head up that Anna spoke again, her voice soft, "Misunderstood."
"What?"
"My word," Anna clarified, "He's…misunderstood."
Elsa thought about it for a minute, before slowly nodding, all thoughts of competition set aside, "Yeah," she said, eyes meeting Anna's own, "some things are. And…it takes someone special to see through all of that."
And as Anna held the gaze of the senior, her heart seemed to soar once more ever so slightly. Because something told Anna that Elsa's words held meaning for more than just the horse standing next to her.
"The limit of one over zero from the right is…infinity," Anna spoke aloud a week later as she attempted to complete her work at the barn and simultaneously review for her pre-calculus exam. Almost all equations had limits, meaning a specific number that the graph approached as the values got either larger or smaller. In Anna's cause, she had to memorize the standard, commonly known limits. And considering how well this little review was going...she had no hopes of doing quite as well as she would have liked. But she continued on anyway, knowing that it would benefit her in the long run to see what she rememberd, "The limit of one over zero from the left is…infinity…no, it's negative infinity—"
"Calculus?"
Anna heard the question followed by a soft laugh.
Turning to find Elsa walking out of Legacy's stall, Anna told her, "Pre-calc, actually."
"I didn't think they got into limits in pre-calc," Elsa said, placing Legacy's halter back on the stall door.
"Yeah, well, apparently the professors have this new perspective called 'hey, let's torture our students'," Anna rolled her eyes, "And so now I've got a huge exam tomorrow. It's our last one. It's worth about fifteen percent of our grade, or something crazy like that. And I barely understand limits at all. I'm trying to memorize everything that we're supposed to, but it's hard when I don't even understand the concepts behind everything."
"Well…" Elsa started. She paused for a moment and then said, "I could help you if you want."
"Really?" Anna exclaimed, "That'd be great! And here I was thinking that I was going to fail this exam!"
"Hey, I didn't promise that I'd remember everything," Elsa said.
You're the smartest person that I know. Of course you'll remember everything, Anna thought. But all she said was, "I'll take all the help I can get."
"I just need to finish up with a few things first. And you need to finish sweeping."
"Right!" Anna said, "I'll be finished soon. I just need to go upstairs, and then I'll be done."
And Anna didn't think she'd ever swept so quickly in her life.
It's a good thing you have your books today, Anna thought as she grabbed her backpack from the lounge before she headed back down stairs. She put the broom away, and went to sign out in the office.
"Would you be opposed to going up to the house to work on this? I don't think there's enough room on this desk with all of the papers I have here," Elsa said.
Opposed? Anna thought, fighting her grin, "No. Not at all."
Anna waited for Elsa to finish whatever it was she was doing at the computer, and then the two of them walked silently up to the house. When they stepped inside, Elsa said, "The kitchen would probably be the easiest place to work."
Anna only nodded, heading into the gigantic kitchen and placing her bag down on the floor next to one of the chairs.
"I guess I should ask you if you want something to eat?" Elsa said, "I'm…not really used to having anyone over."
"Well, I didn't eat anything before I came for work. But I don't want you to go through the trouble of getting anything. I'm already taking up your time."
"You're not taking up my time," Elsa said, "I offered. It's not like I'd be doing anything but paperwork. Or studying for my own exams. Just work and schoolwork on top of it. Got to keep that GPA up."
And although it was a seemingly simple statement, there was something about the senior's voice that sounded more distant and lonely than the words themselves.
"Okay," Anna said, not wanting to make Elsa upset, "What do you have?"
Elsa shot a confused look at the redhead, "What, my GPA?"
"No, no, not at all!" Anna said, her tone rushed. Elsa really must have gone somewhere else when she'd said those words, and now Anna had to make up for accidentally spurring the touchy topic as a point of conversation, even if it had all transpired over a misinterpretation, "I was talking about the food. Like what you had to eat! Not that I wouldn't want to know your GPA—or wait, no, that came out wrong! I don't need to know your GPA. Most people don't want to talk about that. Not that yours isn't high or anything. I'm sure it's insanely high. Like, a 4.0—"
"Anna," Elsa interrupted the redhead's rambling, "It's fine. It's my fault—I just…" Elsa trailed off here, and Anna thought that she was just going to stop talking altogether, but was rather surprised when the senior continued, "Whenever I…think about work and grades and school, even for the tiniest moment, I get hung up on it. Really hung up on it. I can't help but think how I've worked so hard all the time—to be this…this good, obedient little girl that my parents wanted to grow up to be the perfect spitting image of what they saw me as in order to run the riding school. And sometimes I can't stand that I'm still trying to be that perfect. I work so hard to get those grades, and to make sure that every little thing runs smoothly in the barn and with the equestrian team and with the clients. And I do everything for them and do they ever stop and think about what I want?" Elsa closed her eyes, as if the words that came from her mouth physically hurt her, "It just…reminds me so much that this isn't the life that I want."
While Anna knew that the life her parents had chosen for her was a decision that Elsa had been forced into unwillingly, she was still surprised to hear such a forward admission of the senior's feelings.
In fact, it was a rarity.
And for once, Anna didn't know what to say; didn't know how to comfort Elsa, although she wanted to desperately.
"But never mind all of that," Elsa spoke again before Anna even had the chance, "I've already accepted it. I've decided that it's for the horses, anyway, not for my parents. What was it that you wanted to eat?"
And so there Elsa went, pushing Anna away before she even had the chance to help. But as much as it pained Anna to see Elsa's beautiful eyes clouded with pain and worry, she knew that if she tried to talk about it with the senior, they'd just go backwards again. So bottling her own emotions and thoughts of comfort, Anna answered, "I like sandwiches. And anything and everything involving chocolate."
At this, Elsa actually smiled, "I should have guessed about the chocolate. You mentioned it before. And you were the one who put it in my coffee, after all."
"You remember that?" Anna thought back to that day when she had barely known Elsa at all. There was no way that Anna had forgotten about it.
"Any coffee I've had since has yet to taste that amazing," Elsa said.
"I guess you should come in more often when I'm working then," Anna told the blonde, knowing very well that it would just be another excuse for Anna to be able to see Elsa even more.
"Maybe I will," Elsa said.
A few minutes later, Elsa set a plate down in front of Anna, and then sat down in the seat next to her. Noticing that there was only one sandwich, Anna asked, "Aren't you going to have anything?"
"Well considering the fact that I already ate dinner, I think I'm going to wait for the chocolate. Which comes after you have mastered the concept of limits," Elsa said.
"That's so not fair!" Anna exclaimed, "I'm hopeless at math!"
"You won't be if we actually get to work."
Sighing overdramatically, Anna pulled out her books, and handed Elsa the homework she'd been using as a review, "I get how to solve for limits. But I don't understand how to find them on a graph. Like…in the second example. The limit as 'x' approaches zero from the right, with the one over 'x' equation. I know from memorization that the limit is infinity."
"But you want to know how to find it on a graph," Elsa said.
"Right."
Elsa took the pencil that Anna had also taken out, flipped the piece of paper over, and began sketching the graph that Anna couldn't even remember how to draw herself.
"So when you look at the graph, what can you tell me about it?" Elsa asked.
"Uh…" Anna looked at the graph, but all she could think about was how precisely it had been drawn. Nothing mathematical stood out to her at all. There were two curves, one on the right and one on the left. And all Anna could come up with was: "It looks like the letter 'L' and its mirror image…diagonally."
Elsa laughed slightly before saying, "Okay. That wasn't exactly what I had in mind. But…if that's what you'd like to consider them, which one of these so called 'L's do you think applies to the statement of 'x' approaching zero from the right?"
Anna stared at the graph for a few more moments before guessing, "The one on the right?"
"Correct," Elsa said, "Now what you want to look at is what the line of the graph is doing as it gets closer to zero."
"It's going upwards," Anna said, "The 'y' values are getting larger."
"Indefinitely," Elsa added.
"Wait a minute…" Anna said, as realization hit her, "I think I get it. Because they're constantly getting larger, the limit is infinity."
"Exactly," Elsa said, "So what if I asked you, just by looking at the graph, what the limit is as 'x' approaches zero from the left. Forget what you had to memorize; I want you to explain how what you memorized is true."
"Okay," Anna said, "So this time I'm looking at the left part of the graph, right?"
"Right."
"And so this time as 'x' approaches zero…the line is going downwards, which means that 'y' values are getting smaller. Indefinitely. Which makes the limit negative infinity."
Elsa smiled, "See, you're getting the hang of it now."
"I guess I am," Anna said, amazed at how much more clear the concept was becoming.
"So then, what would happen if I asked you what the limit is as 'x' approaches zero?"
Anna considered the question. And then continued to think about it.
For a long time.
They had definitely gone over this in class, but Anna didn't remember a single moment of discussing it.
"I don't know," Anna said eventually, staring at the line of the graph that went up indefinitely, and the line of the graphy that went down indefinitely, "I don't know if it's infinity, or if it's negative infinity."
"And that's because it's neither," Elsa said. Picking up the pencil again, she drew over each line that bordered the y-axis, effectively making them stand out more than the rest of the graph, "If the limit as 'x' approaches zero from the right goes up to infinity, and the limit as 'x' approaches zero from the left goes down to negative infinity, then the side limits conflict. Which means that the limit as 'x' approaches zero, just zero, doesn't exist."
"Hold on. So you're telling me that the limit doesn't exist at zero? Even though we just found two of them?"
"Well…your problem is that you're not exactly thinking about the concept of a limit the right way. You see it as a value at a point on the graph, am I right?"
Anna couldn't even comprehend what the senior was talking about, and she didn't have a better way to say it, "I have no idea what you're talking about anymore."
Elsa paused for a moment, and then suggested, "Why don't we compare it to something you're familiar with. Let's say you're riding a horse. And you're in the arena and you're riding on the rail, bending around the turn. You want to steer as close to the rail as possible, so that you don't cut the corner. But your horse never actually touches the rail."
Anna nodded.
"So it's the same for a limit. The graph can never actually touch the number it's approaching. That would be impossible. So it just gets as close to it as it possibly can. Does it make more sense now?"
"Kind of," Anna said, "I think so."
"Are you sure?" Elsa asked.
Anna nodded, "Yes. It's not what the graph is doing at zero. It's what it's doing when it gets close to zero. And because the graph is doing two opposite things on either side of zero, it doesn't match so the limit can't exist."
"Well, if you're satisfied with that, then I think you've earned your chocolate," Elsa smiled.
"Chocolate makes learning things worth it," Anna joked. Though silently she added, well, that and you. Sitting here with me. Talking with me.
Elsa only laughed, and came back from the refrigerator with two slices of chocolate cake. And with it being cake, Anna's was gone in a matter of minutes. But she stayed until Elsa was finished, and since it was late and already dark, Elsa drove Anna back to campus.
"Thanks for your help," Anna said, before she shut the car door, "I don't quite know what I would have done otherwise."
"No problem," Elsa said, "I…enjoyed the company."
Anna smiled, "Then I guess we'll just have to do this again."
"With the math and all?" Elsa teased.
"Preferably not with the math," Anna laughed.
"We'll see," Elsa answered. But even amid the dim light of the car, from where Anna was standing outside of it she could see all of the features of Elsa's face shift slightly as the senior smiled.
And then entire walk back to her dorm room, Anna couldn't manage to keep another smile of her own from spreading across her face.
"Well someone worked late," Rapunzel said when Anna opened the door.
"Actually, Elsa was helping me with pre-calc," Anna said, "So if you need any pointers, let me know."
"I told you that you should ask her. Glad you finally took my advice," Rapunzel joked, "But as for me, I'm planning on just dealing with whatever comes tomorrow."
"Meaning you're not studying?"
"I looked over my notes. And I'll look over them again tomorrow but…yeah I'm not studying."
Anna shook her head in amazement, "You're crazy."
Because sure, maybe Anna wasn't always a perfect student. But at least she chose to make an effort even when it seemed like there was no hope.
And because you were studying you got to spend more time with Elsa, Anna reminded herself.
Just thinking about the evening she'd had with Elsa made her smile again—a ridiculous little smile that somehow escaped her roommate's attention unscathed and safe from teasing. And once more it remained plastered onto face until…
A thought struck her.
A thought so insane and crazy and uncanny, yet so perfectly accurate that Anna couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it sooner.
Elsa was the definition of a limit.
It didn't matter how hard Anna tried; how long Anna tried.
They could move three steps backward and two steps forward, or two steps backward and three steps forward…no matter what, it seemed as though she couldn't get completely through to Elsa
There was never a close enough point at which Anna could be in relation to Elsa.
There was always a distance—a distance at which Anna had to stay.
But God did she want to break that limit.
And I'm not going to stop trying, Anna vowed, I don't care how long it takes. I don't care if it's considered impossible.
I'm not going to give up.
A/n: So...it's been a little while, hasn't it?
My classes this semester are destroying any semblance of a normal updating schedule, so I apologize for that. I don't currently plan on taking any hiatus in any way, but do know that updates might be a little more spread out until the semester is over.
Moving on though…I guess that all these years of math and calculus have broken me, clearly. If all the limit stuff confused you, I'm sorry. I usually try to avoid technical things (like math) in my writing because I know it can get tedious to read when you really don't know what it means. So that's why I didn't try to explain it too much in depth. But having the analogy in there was worth it to me. Plus it was something other than horses, so I figured I'd try for something different. So if you were able to follow along, good for you! But if you're really confused and it really interests you, go look up the graph of 1/x. Or take a crash course in calc—either one should do that trick.
And also let me just explain the word hacking as it's used in the equestrian world, because I'm sure it probably sounded very strange to read: basically when you 'hack' a horse you're giving the horse a light workout.
But that's all I've got to say for now so as always, thanks for reading!