Flames of Love

Disclaimer: Don't own Shake it Up.

A/N:

Chapter 26 (Walking the Horse)

"So many cute boys in our classes this year, huh Cece?" Rocky asked as she sat beside her friend. Cece was gazing off at a piece of paper on her desk. She heard Rocky's statement, but didn't think anything of it. After all, how was she supposed to answer that? There was only one she had eyes for. She detected a bit of a suspicious tone in her voice, but couldn't really figure what she'd possibly be suspicious of.

"Huh? I guess." She looked up to Rocky and smiled shyly as her friend eyed her. Was she trying to goad her into something? What was her agenda here? It was probably nothing to worry about, but regardless, Cece wanted to change the subject. "After school, I'm going to this ranch that has a bunch of horses, want to join me?" She'd been going to the ranch Gunther took her to quite often. Though she never rode Knight alone, she had become close to the animal. Every time she went, she brought it treats, such as oats, apples, and carrots. Knight was her favorite horse, and clearly, the horse liked her more than the other horses, even though he still didn't listen to anyone but Gunther.

"Sure, I like horses…do you actually ride them?"

"Sometimes. There's one horse I love, but it only listens to a specific person, so I don't ride it." Knight was such a regal horse, and perhaps transported there from Sviederbach originally. Clydesdales were not typical ranch horses. Rocky slid back in her seat and hummed thoughtfully. She glanced off to her left and curled her arm vertically on the desk, resting her head in her hand. Cece followed her gaze and lifted her eyebrows, Rocky was staring at Howard. It wasn't so surprising, as she'd been doing this ever since he managed to get through to her in her moment of rage. Rather, she was certain Rocky had a crush on him. "Rocky, you're staring again."'

"What?" Rocky quickly brought her hands down and cleared her throat. "You ever notice that Howard looks remarkably like Buddy Holly?" Cece chuckled under her breath and smiled at her friend. It was impressive that Rocky would have a true liking for any guy, given the stress and trouble she had with guys, but maybe someone that could handle her was someone of value to her.

"Remember a while back when you decided to do the whole laser tag game in the hall?" Rocky slowly nodded her head and Cece smirked, recalling how she was used almost as a human shield. "Well…I remember you using me as a shield." She slowly rose from her desk and Rocky's eyes widened. Fortunately class wasn't in session just yet.

"What-What are you doing?"

"Oh nothing…" She put her hands to her mouth and shouted out for Howard, who slowly looked over. Rocky gasped and quickly put her head to her desk, wrapping her arms over her head. "Howard, Rocky's got something she wants to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Howard slowly rose and moved over to them. "What's going on?" Cece grinned and looked over at Rocky's cold glare.

"I will deal with you later," Rocky remarked through clenched teeth. Cece laughed and moved back to her desk. Rocky straightened herself and started to mess with her hair, fluffing it a bit. "Oh nothing, Howard, I just wanted to know what projects you may be working on right now." Cece rolled her eyes and Howard shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh nothing really, just making a draft for a painting that I'm working on."

"Cool. I didn't know you liked to paint."

"Just a few things really, I have my portfolio with me! You know, for art class. You want to see?" Cece leaned forward and closed her eyes, smiling with pride as she heard Rocky agree to him. Maybe there was something there for Rocky, but it would be a long time for Rocky to actually trust a guy enough to have a relationship with them. At least, if she could be friends, that would help her out tremendously.

She peered over to Rocky's desk, where Howard had now transported a large book with a bunch of his own paintings. From the look on Rocky's face, she could tell the paintings were impressive. She moved her eyes to one of the portraits and lifted her eyebrows with surprise. One looked so realistic that she could have sworn it was a blown up image of a majestic brown horse's head with its mane rushing through the wind. "These are really good, Howard!"

"I like to paint portraits of animals and nature. I spend a lot of my time outside painting, rather than hanging with the gang." This was news, she was certain Howard spent all his time playing video games with those friends of his.

"So wait," Cece interrupted guiltily. Howard glanced over as she straightened herself up. "You don't spend all day, every day, with those nerd friends of yours?"

"School yes, some days we hang out, but not every single day. Painting, to me, is an escape." He must have a lot of patience, which was something that any man who would date Rocky would wind up needing that patience. "Sometimes we just need a little peace and quiet in our lives."

"That is very true. Carry on." Cece turned back to the paper on her desk, a poem she'd been working on. She listened joyously as Rocky and Howard discussed the painting, among other things, such as how Travis was no longer a part of the group. Now, she just had to wait patiently for the end of the day, so she could take Rocky to the ranch.

As the hours passed, Cece's anticipation had only grown. Finally, at the end of the day, Ty was able to drive the girls to the ranch. She was hoping the rancher would not mention Gunther. Although, the man wasn't always there, she usually wound up letting herself in. "Here we are," Cece opened the gate and led Rocky into the ranch. Ty was going to stick around in the car for a while, drive around, and swing back for the girls whenever they were ready to get back home.

"Nice place." Rocky looked around, impressed. Cece led her towards the horses and pulled a handful of oats from a pack she was carrying around with her. Upon reaching the fence, she put her hand to the wood and whistled.

"Knight, look what I have." The great horse lifted his head and whinnied. It made eye contact and trotted towards her. She extended her hand and let Knight eat the oats. Rocky watched in awe. Cece smoothed her free hand down the front of Knight's face and slowly looked towards the small bin to her right. Inside was a brush and the horse collar that was used when walking a horse instead of riding them. It was the one thing Knight let her do, walking with her. "Would you like to go out for a walk, Knight?"

"You walk it?"

"Yes." The horse whinnied and perked his head up as she lifted the collar from the bin. "It's the one time he listens. When I have food, or when I'm walking beside him. Riding is a different story."

"Ah."

It didn't take long to get the collar and rope on. When Cece led him out, she pet his neck and pointed over to Rocky. "This is my best friend, Rocky Blue." Knight moved his head to Rocky, sniffing her. Rocky chuckled nervously and started petting down the front of his face. Cece caught her eyeing the Appaloosa before, so it was likely Rocky would want to visit that horse later. "All right Rocky, stay by my side, Knight can get nervous around people he doesn't know."

"Got it, I'll be careful." Rocky stepped beside her. Cece led the horse down the usual path around the ranch, which was covered by trees and lakes. She often took Knight down by the lakeside so he could get a drink of water. "So, who's the typical rider?" Cece closed her eyes and breathed slowly, she needed to be careful when answering this question. She didn't want to outright lie to Rocky, but she didn't want to reveal anything about Gunther.

"He's a friend of the rancher." She hoped that would be enough of an answer for her. If not, she was going to have difficulty elaborating.

"Oh. You think he'll come around while we're here? It would be cool to see Knight in action with his rider."

"I don't know, but yeah, the two do compliment each other, really. I think they have a longstanding relationship." She'd forgotten how long it was that Gunther said he had Knight with him, but there was the fact that either Knight, or Knight's mother, came over with the Hessenheffer family. "I think the rider's had Knight since he was a colt."

"Awesome. I think Clydesdales are beautiful. Actually all the horses here looked gorgeous, especially that Appaloosa." Besides Knight, in Cece's opinion, the Arabian horse was the prettiest on the ranch. The appaloosa did come close, however.

When they made it to the lake, Knight reached down and began lapping up the water. Cece took the brush she'd grabbed from the bin and started brushing down his side while Rocky combed out his mane. He had some grass and bugs stuck in the mane, so they wanted to be sure and give him a good grooming. Gunther was always impressed when he came to groom Knight and found him already clean, that saved a lot of time and he could ride the horse a little longer.

"When he lets you groom him, that's a lot of trust. I usually like to try and make his coat nice and shiny." She never pegged herself to be a horse type of girl, but in all honesty, she loved them. Taking care of them was almost second nature to her nowadays. "Never stand directly behind a horse though, they might kick you."

"Yeah, I've heard that before." Rocky had moved towards the rear and was carefully combing through Knight's tail. Cece ran her hand down his neck and smiled, he was remaining rather calm and subdued. Knight turned to her and met her eyes, she held onto her peaceful expression, knowing it brought comfort to the animals. "He's a calm horse, it's amazing that he lets you so close when he only listens to his usual rider. I wonder about that, do you actually talk to the rider?"

"Oh, from time to time." She still wanted to avoid that subject, especially since she didn't know if Rocky would suspect anything at all. "He lets me take care of Knight, so I'm always around the horse enough." Rocky nodded and took a step back, admiring the clean hair.

"Looks good, all the stuff that was in his mane and tail are out."

"Let me see." Cece carefully inspected the mane and the tail by slowly brushing the hair with her hand. Rocky had done a decent job, so she didn't have any complaints. "Yeah, a great job. Let's continue on." She took the rope and started guiding Knight back to the pen. Rocky followed close behind. "So what do you think of the ranch? Nice isn't it?"

"Very much, and Knight's a cool horse. How come you didn't tell me you came out here?"

"I guess I never thought about it."

"Fair enough." Rocky lifted her shoulders and glanced to the other horses. Cece smiled at her and looked off to the clouds. She was always happy to have her best friend around, this experience was definitely more fun with her there as well. Hopefully it would be something that would never change, and eventually she would like to tell her about Gunther. In that case, she truly wanted to make sure that she and Rocky always had a good relationship, because she didn't want to lose her for not telling her anything. One day it would come out, and maybe then, she wouldn't feel like she was carrying around a bunch of weights.

Well a peaceful chapter, that's for sure.