July 21st 2021

Chapter 202
Our Friends in Growth

Lucas was compelled to drop in at the ranch after talking with Maya earlier that afternoon. He was at the hospital today, and when he saw her message to call her, he did so as soon as he could. There, she told him about what had happened with Cade Foster. She was on her long break between the freshmen and juniors now, and clearly, she had needed it, to get herself re-centered before that final period. She'd been so worked up by the situation, and while she'd done well enough in keeping it down while she dealt with it, now that she was on her own, she needed to let the pressure down slow. She needed him, his voice, as good as a long distance hug.

"What happened with his father? The principal?" Lucas had asked her.

Cade had still felt too dizzy to get up, or maybe he just wasn't ready to face them. Either way, they'd ended up coming down to the nurse's office. There hadn't been any parent teacher nights with the freshmen's families as of yet, so this was the first she got to see or know of Cade's family. Honestly, she hadn't known what to expect, and she did her best not to let any ideas get into her head before she actually met the man who walked in with the principal. Whatever she might have assumed, she couldn't say for sure, so she couldn't lead with that.

She'd gone out to meet them as soon as she'd seen them coming up the hall through the windows. Maybe she was imagining things, but they'd had looks about them like the sentence had come down and it was looking very bad. They couldn't expel him for this, no way. Never mind that it made no sense, no. She wouldn't allow it. Someone had to speak for Cade, to make them see reason. She could do that, couldn't she? Preferably without losing her job in the process?

Sternly but politely, she had spoken on behalf of her student. She'd pointed out that Cade admitted to throwing the first punch, and despite the fact that he had been provoked, he knew that what he'd done was wrong, and he would accept the consequences. However, with regards to the senior boy, as adept as he surely was in pointing fingers and casting himself as the victim, acting in self-defence against Cade's attack, Maya would refuse to see anyone but that other boy as the one deserving of harsher punishment. Already they were looking at a freshman versus a senior, but more than that, Cade was – with all due respect – a shrimp, and that senior was a colossal shark. Even after Cade had made that first move, the other boy would have needed very little effort to remove himself from the confrontation and put an end to it, but that wasn't what he'd done.

"That wasn't self-defence, that was brutal. He enjoyed it. Meanwhile, Cade can't even stand up right now."

Both Cade and the senior were suspended, the former for a week, the latter for a month.

"Were they going to expel him?" Lucas asked Maya.

"The principal said they were still figuring that part out, but… yeah, I'm pretty sure they were. At least now, he's got a chance."

Lucas hadn't been able to stop thinking about the call all afternoon, so when he left the hospital, as eager as he was to get home to his wife, he made the turn to head toward Sullivan Stables instead. At this time of the day, Juliet and the rest of the staff would be playing host to both the Hunter and Davis twins for their regular afternoon chores.

It had only been a few weeks since the incident, not yet a month. There was no time frame on when Juliet would loosen things up and allow Nellie and Bobby to start riding again, and she wasn't showing any sign of getting close to it, but… Maybe Lucas had started to think about their situation, after hearing Maya's tale regarding Cade Foster, and he'd started to look toward the future, those two kids' futures. Most of his time at the ranch these days was equal parts doing his own tasks, helping Dr. Alvarez, and working on the preparations for the big competition in the spring. And whenever he thought of it, maybe he pictured Nellie Hunter as one of the riders competing, because she was really one of the best they had in her age group, and it just went without saying.

But if she wasn't allowed to ride… If Bobby Davis, another of their top young riders, wasn't allowed to ride… Sure, by then, they could be allowed back but what if they missed registration? What if the lost practice hurt their chances? It wasn't just 'any other competition,' this was a big one, and it could mean a lot for the two of them in the long run. And Lucas was of a sound belief that they didn't deserve to have that chance taken away from them. So, he was going to have to do some advocating of his own. If Juliet said no, well, maybe he'd have to see how far his power went as the heir to Sullivan Stables.

He didn't have to work hard at all. He presented his argument to Juliet, along with a proposal for how they might implement this… loosening of punishment, and she agreed. He could see in her face that she'd just been waiting for a sign, something to tell her that this was when the rules were going to change. She left him with the privilege of telling the kids.

"Where are they today?" Lucas asked.

"Mm?" Juliet looked back at him. "Oh, the archive, helping Carson," she replied. This made Lucas smile, and she pointed at him like she knew exactly what he was thinking. It wasn't much of a punishment, was it? If anything, it'd be a treat, a learning experience.

But that would benefit them, wouldn't it? Carson would be unable to help himself, he would start sharing stories about the ranch, from way back when. And because those kids were very well placed to be receptive to these stories, they would come out on the other side having learned things about the place. More than anything they would have gained a lot more respect for it, which would go a long way toward preventing any other incidents like the one that had gotten them in trouble in the first place.

As he approached the former dance studio, Lucas spotted two figures up on the balcony, both sitting on the chairs there but also leaning forward with their arms folded over the rail and their chins rested on top as they took in the view of the ranch from that vantage point. The untrained eye wouldn't have known for sure which of the two sets of twins these would be, but Lucas knew at once. Gracie and Ethan. They must have come out here while their respective siblings were inside, assisting Carson. They didn't look as though they'd spotted him, either one, even if they should have by now. Whatever they were doing, and talking about, they were off in their own little world, and he didn't factor in it. Lucas may have snuck a picture of the two of them up there, on the off chance that it would be important in the future, and he carried on, leaving them undisturbed as he smiled to himself and headed into the archive building.

What the task may have started out being, he guessed, was to clean the glass panels of the display cases. What it had turned into, by the way Nellie and Bobby presently stood with a rag in one hand and a spray bottle in the other as they listened to Carson, was a brief history of the very first horses who'd lived at Sullivan Stables, back when the young John Carson had helped look after them. They were rivetted. Here, Lucas heard Bobby Davis reveal how it was his dream to raise horses when he grew up, and Nellie looked like she momentarily forgot that she hated the boy's guts – her words – as she gave a nod of approval. That sounded like a great plan to her. In doing so, she saw her brother-in-law standing not too far away and she smiled and waved at him.

"Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt, please, continue," Lucas smirked over at Carson, who laughed before excusing himself when he spotted a visitor with inquisitive eyes. Nellie and Bobby seemed to remember what they were supposed to do, so before they could get cleaning again, Lucas directed them to follow him into the back office. "Have a seat," he indicated the chairs as he closed the door behind them.

"What's going on?" Nellie asked, suddenly nervous. Bobby Davis might have had the same idea she did.

"Are we being kicked out?" he asked. They'd been afraid of something like this happening eventually, like Juliet would take back her leniency.

"No, no, not at all," Lucas promised them both as he sat on the edge of the desk facing them. It gave him the image of a teacher addressing his students and he tried not to laugh to himself, thinking of what Maya would say if she saw him. "I did talk to Juliet about you two," he told them, and Nellie and Bobby sat to attention. Lucas wondered if they realized how alike they actually were. They could have been great friends, and whatever it was that existed in them that made them fight and argue the way they did, hopefully, would disappear in time.

"What did you say?" Nellie asked.

"What did she say?" Bobby asked.

"I basically told her that the longer you two were kept from riding, the more it could hurt your chances at the Grand," Lucas explained. "And I told her how much of a shame that would be. So, here's what's going to happen. You will continue having to come here every afternoon, just like you've been doing the last few weeks, but you will also be allowed to resume your riding lessons." Oh, their eyes were lighting up to hear it. "That's not the end of it, alright?" he raised his hand, and they focused again.

"What do you mean?" Nellie asked.

"So, this is how it's going to work. When you're riding Hopper," he pointed to Nellie, before turning his index toward Bobby, "You have to stay nearby and watch, feet on the ground. And when you're riding Jewel, you have to stay nearby and watch the same way." He dropped his hand back down after having redirected his pointing finger to his sister-in-law. "Do we understand each other?" It was going to cut down on their time out there, but then half was better than nothing, right?

"What if I have a lesson and he can't be there?" Nellie tipped her head toward Bobby.

"Then you can't ride," Lucas shrugged. Nellie looked affronted. "You're stuck together. Deal with it, or we're back where we were before today." She huffed, sitting back in her chair, before turning to look at Bobby. She looked like she was resisting the urge to yell at him, throwing a 'this is all your fault' around.

"Fine," she finally sighed.

"I suggest making sure you both come in on the same days. Talk to your trainers and your parents, alright?"

"Okay."

"Yes, sir."

"We need you two at the Grand, you know that, right? Take the top prize for the home team," Lucas smirked. Now that, at least, they could understand. Competition was strong in both of them, clearly. Maybe, just maybe, they'd make each other better by having to sit in on the other's lessons. And maybe they would be able to snuff out the problematic parts of their rivalry in the process.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners