A/N: Sorry it has taken a while to update. I had this originally typed up and almost ready to go in early July but my computer completely died. Then things just got in the way. Now I'm back at school and can only write a little bit at a time. Luckily though, the next chapter is almost done, I just need to type it up.
It was a few hours later that Shelby made her way back up the stairs to wake up Rachel. She had packed the car with what they would need, things that were not already at their lake house and were not groceries. She softly knocked on the door and waited for an answer, although she was not expecting one, before entering the dark bedroom. She made her way to the bed on the other side of the room and sat on the edge of it.
"Rachel, sweetie, wake up." She cooed softly to her sleeping daughter, rubbing up and down the girl's back. Rachel shifted a little before opening her eyes.
"Momma?" Rachel asked through her sleepy haze, slowly sitting up.
Shelby laughed a little at Rachel's confusion.
"Yes, Boo. It's time to get up. We're heading out to the lake house in a few minutes." She informed her still sleepy daughter.
She got up and shooed the dogs, who had been perfectly content snuggling on the bed with Rachel, out the door so her parents could go ahead and head out after they got the dogs in the car.
She pulled out some new sweats for Rachel to wear on the way there and handed them to the sleepy girl. Rachel slowly got out of bed and went into her bathroom to change. She emerged a few minutes later looking slightly more refreshed but also in pain.
"Boo, I laid out your medications on the kitchen island, go take them and then we'll head to the lake."
"Okay momma." Rachel replied before slumping down the stairs. She went into the kitchen and just as her mom had said, the pills were on the island next to a glass of water and a few crackers. She ate the crackers before she quickly swallowed the pills with a gulp of water and then headed out to the Range Rover after setting the glass in the sink. She climbed into the backseat so that she would have more room. Mainly because she wanted to lay down and sleep. Her head was still hurting pretty bad and she wanted to sleep most of the pain off.
A few minutes later, after making sure all of the doors to the house were locked, her mom climbed into the driver's seat. They both quickly put on their seatbelts and then Shelby pulled out of the driveway to start the drive to the lake house. Rachel could barely hear the music that was softly playing on the stereo. Normally they would play it much louder and sing along with it but, due to her head, they were playing it softly. Right now they were listening to "On Our Way" by The Royal Concept, which was Rachel's current favorite song, at least for the time being. Rachel could hear Shelby humming softly to the tune of the song. The sounds of the car and her mother humming with the music was lulling her to sleep. She was having trouble trying to stay awake, even though she was trying with all her might to stay up. Her mother happened to notice her trying to fight the sleepiness.
"Rachel, do not fight to stay awake. You need your sleep so you can heal. The medication, the Tramadol, you are on will make you drowsy, you don't need to fight it." Shelby said.
"But momma! I don't want to sleep. That is all I've been doing lately. I just want to spend time with you." Rachel complained, on the verge of tears. She was frustrated along with the exhaustion and pain. She just wanted to be near her momma. She wanted to be near the one person left who could truly make her feel safe.
"I want to spend time with you as well but I want you to get better." Shelby could tell that Rachel was tired and frustrated. "The best way to help your body heal is for you to sleep. I promise that we will spend plenty of time together while we are away. You will be with me here at the lake, then back at our house and now you are going to be attending Carmel and be in Vocal Adrenaline. We will see so much of each other that you'll beg for time to get away from me."
"But, Momma…" Rachel started only to be interrupted.
"No buts Rachel. Do not fight me on this. Sleep. I will wake you up when we get to the lake and then you will go take a nap in an actual bed there. Maybe, after that, we will watch a movie." Shelby told her daughter.
"Momma! I'm too old to be forced into taking naps! I'm not four years old anymore." She exclaimed.
"Rachel." Shelby, looking at the girl in the rearview mirror, rose her brow and changed the tone of her voice. "Do I need to put you down for your nap like I did when you were little? You know what, I think I will. At least then I will know that you actually got into your bed."
Rachel sat back into her seat, laid her head back and sighed. She didn't say anything though. She knew she had lost the battle with her mom. Plus, as much as she didn't want to sleep, she was really tired. She snuggled down in the blanket she had with her, and fell asleep.
A few hours later, she was being shaken lightly by her mom who was standing by in the open car door. She noticed that they were parked in the garage of their house.
"Rachel, Honey, wake up. You can go back to sleep after you get to your room." Her mom told her.
She climbed out of the car slowly, with help from her mom, her grogginess and pain effecting her speed, and went into the house. She smiled a little bit at the pictures that were hung on the walls. There were many pictures from when she was growing up. Pictures of all kinds. On the boats, tubing, dance competitions, her singing, riding the horses at lessons, shows, clinics, some with the rest of the family, and some with just her and her mom. Those were her favorite of all of the pictures. You could see the love her mom had in her eyes. There were pictures of them in many places. One of her favorites was of her and Shelby curled up on the porch swing overlooking the lake at sunset one summer. They were so peaceful at that moment. You would have never known that it was close to one of the most stressful things in Rachel's life at the time. It was right before they had to leave for Pony Finals and Rachel was in tears from her nerves getting the best of her. She had to have her mom calm her down and afterward they had settled down on the swing for a while. It was then that the picture was taken by her grandma.
Her next favorite picture was from last year when she won Champion in the Junior Hunter division at the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show in the mountains of North Carolina. In the picture she was smiling huge while sitting on Wendla, with a tri-color ribbon on her bridle, surrounded by all of her parents and Holly. They were all so happy. It was a culmination of a year of chasing points and going from horse show to horse show, weeks away from home. Lots of ups and downs and tears while learning to ride a new horse. She wouldn't have made it without all of them by her side. That day has a special place in her heart.
She slowly continued down the hallway to the spacious living room and climbed up the staircase to the second story of the house with her mom following behind her. She went to her room that was at the very end of the hallway. She loved how her mom had decorated this room. It was decorated in teal blue and purple. The bedding was teal chevrons and started out dark and progressively got lighter. There were pictures that her mom had hired someone to professionally take of her and her horses. Some were of her riding, some were more modeling and some were just candid of her just loving on them and her dogs. There was even one of her sitting bareback on Wicked, with her mom standing next to the proud gelding.
Her monogram was placed above her bed over a crown decal. It was all purple since her bedroom walls were painted a light teal. There were star lights hung around the room and Shelby had put up a decal that was written in gold and said, "Defy Gravity." with a horse and rider jumping over it.
"Okay Boo, in you go." Her mom said while pulling the covers down. Rachel gave her mom a look so Shelby would know she didn't appreciate being tucked in like a child. Well, to give her that impression at least. She actually loved the fact that her mom was tucking her in. She hadn't really been tucked in, in years.
She climbed into the large bed and got it to how she liked it when she slept. She had her nest made and curled up in it to take her nap while hugging her body pillow. Her mom tucked her in lightly so it wouldn't hurt her ribs. It wasn't long until the combination of pain and exhaustion, plus pain meds, had her off in dreamland.
A few hours later she woke up to delicious smells wafting through the house. She crawled out of bed to see what was being made. When she got downstairs she saw that the French doors to the back porch were wide open, beyond them she could see her grandpa grilling burgers with Cobalt and Melchior sitting by his feet, just hoping that he would drop one. She walked out onto the porch and hugged her grandpa.
"Smells good Grandpa." She told him
"Thank you. Just so you know, the boys do get their own burgers, I've already put them to the side to cool off for them." He said.
"They're going to eventually be overweight due to you feeding them that way Dad." Shelby said, with a large smirk on her face, as she walked out of the house, after overhearing the last thing her father had said.
"Hey, I can't help it. Those eyes look so pitiful. Look at them!" He pointed to the dogs. Rachel and Shelby both looked over at the dogs and immediately knew that the dogs had David's number. They had the perfect begging faces on that made them look as if they were starving. Rachel and Shelby started laughing a little.
"Dad, you need to learn to ignore that look." Shelby told her dad. "I've learned to ignore it."
"Ha!" Rachel scoffed. "No you haven't. Just a few days ago you were giving them bacon and sausage straight from the stove."
She got a glare from her mom for ratting her out. She returned the gesture with a cheeky grin.
"No, I actively chose the give them that food without them begging, thank you very much."
Rachel rolled her eyes at her mom's retort. Her mom spoiled the dogs rotten and she knew it. She always caved when it came to the animals.
"Okay, before the food fight of the century starts, knowing you two anyway, how about we actually eat." Kate said, walking outside to join the rest of the family. She was followed out by Rachel's Aunt Lauren, Uncle Chris, and her cousins.
"Mom, why did we come here?" Rachel's cousin, Emma asked in a snotty way.
"Because Rachel got hurt, plus we needed to visit with the family anyway, now hush, you better be on your best behavior and mind your manners." Emma's mom, Lauren, whispered back to the girl.
"But Rachel looks fine, like her normal annoying self." Hannah, Emma's little sister, said. This was loud enough that Rachel couldn't help but to feel embarrassed. She felt like her cousins only tolerated her so they could use her for what she had, they didn't really like her or care about her wellbeing.
Shelby, who saw Rachel turn a bit red at the comment made, turned and glared at the girls for their rude and insensitive comments towards her daughter. Emma and Hannah both took a nervous step back, away from their pissed off aunt.
"Rachel, I am so sorry for what my girls are saying. I am so glad you are okay and on the mend." Lauren apologized while scooping Rachel up into a hug.
"Thank you Aunt Lauren." Rachel replied to the aunt who was still squeezing her tightly, making her ribs ache worse.
Everybody, except Lauren, could see the grimace on Rachel's face from being hugged too tightly.
"Lauren, Rachel has bruised ribs, could you soften up on your hugging there." Shelby piped up.
"Oh, I am so sorry Rachel!" Lauren quickly let go of the girl. She looked like she was going to cry for hurting the girl further.
"It's okay. It's not your fault." Rachel replied.
"I'm glad you're okay Rae." Her Uncle Chris said as he hugged her lightly.
"What exactly happened?" Lauren asked, glancing between Rachel and Shelby.
"Rachel was in a riding lesson and an idiot, who happens to be one of my Vocal Adrenaline students, came barreling up the driveway blasting music. It spooked the horse and Rachel went crashing through a jump." Shelby muttered angrily. Clearly thinking about Giselle was pissing her off.
"So while Holly took care of Giselle, I brought Rae to the hospital where she had to stay overnight for observation because of her concussion." Shelby finished.
"Woah. Yeah, I would not want to be Giselle with you and Holly after her. She must have a death wish." Lauren said. She knew her sister and her temper very well and knew the trainer enough to know to not piss her off either.
"Even the boarders who were there laid into her. They all saw what had happened and were furious." Shelby informed them.
"Your boarders got involved?" Kate asked, amazed. She hadn't thought that the boarders interacted with the Berry men, Rachel, or Shelby much.
"Yeah, a lot of them have Rachel ride and sometimes show their horses for them. They all love Rae."
The group looked at Rachel. Her grandparents looked amazed, Shelby looked proud, Lauren looked confused, and her cousins looked pissed off. She shrunk back at the attention.
"Of course, little miss perfect gets loved by everyone, including rich people who blow all their money on stupid animals that cost more than what most people would spend on a car." Emma said to Hannah, a little too loudly.
"Excuse me?" Shelby asked, her temper flaring. She had heard what Emma said.
"Nothing Aunt Shelby." Emma said, hoping Shelby would drop it at that.
"No, what did you say?" Shelby asked again, clearly getting angry. Emma sighed, knowing she couldn't get away with lying to her aunt when she had clearly gotten the gist of what had already been said.
"I said, Of course little miss perfect gets loved by everyone. Including being loved by rich people who just blow all of their money on large, stupid animals that cost more than what most people would pay for a car."
"Emma! You will respect your cousin. I am tired of you girls treating her badly just because you are jealous of her. She works hard to do the things she does. She has been dancing, singing, and riding for years. Of course she has gotten good at it because she has dedicated herself to it." Lauren ranted.
"I'm quite tired of this as well." Kate said with a disapproving tone.
"Emma and Hannah, go back to the car, we are going home." Chris angrily ordered. He was embarrassed of his daughter's attitudes towards Rachel.
"What about going out on the boats?" Hannah exclaimed. "I thought that's why we came to the lake, you know, to be on the lake?"
"That doesn't even matter, and nobody is going out on the boats anyway. Rachel is here to heal, not go out on the boat. If she can't, you can't. We came here to get peace and quiet that she wouldn't have gotten at my other house due to the possibility of my students coming by. Now, I'm too angry at the both of you to even let you get on the boats if we were even going on them." Shelby said before she turned to Rachel who was still trying to make herself small in her seat on the swing.
Both Emma and Hannah turned and left in a huff, storming through the house. Chris followed them out after bidding the family goodbye.
"I'm so sorry about this Rae. I don't know why they do this. I just want you to know that your uncle Chris and I are so proud of you. Anytime you need us, just call okay Honey?"
"Okay Aunt Lauren." Rachel replied quietly.
Lauren left to go deal with her jealous daughters.
"Come here, boo." She said, holding out her arms for Rachel. Rachel scooted over to her mom for a hug. The dogs whined at their feet, upset by the tense mood of the family. Rachel rubbed them lightly with her feet.
"Momma, why don't Emma and Hannah like me?" She asked, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.
"Oh Boo, I think they are just jealous of all the opportunities that you get. Not only do you sing, dance, act, and ride, but you excel at them, plus you keep straight A's on top of that. You regularly ride and show multiple horses of your own and then other people ask you to ride their horses for them. You even win with those horses and you don't even ride them that often. That is a big deal honey. People have a lot of confidence in you and I think your cousins wish they had that. They want the recognition but they won't do the work to achieve it."
"Why won't they put in the work?" Rachel asked.
David scoffed lightly at the thought of Emma and Hannah actually putting work into something that wasn't shopping. "They think it'll be too hard."
Kate rolled her eyes at her husband. "Honey, I think your cousins just don't have the drive and dedication that you have. When you do something you go after it with all your heart. You've been taking lessons for all of your activities for many years. They halfheartedly attempt something for a week and then give it up. "
"What is the point of trying something if you are not going to give it your all?" She questioned.
"This is what I mean by you going after things with all your heart. When you start a new activity you give it your best. Then after a while you may say with an informed mind that, yeah, maybe that wasn't the right activity for you but, at least you gave it your best attempt. Your cousins don't do that. They try something for a week and then get frustrated because they don't get the instant gratification that they want from it." Her mother explained to her. She slowly nodded in understanding.
"I think I understand." She said just as her grandparents finished setting the table.
"Let's eat!" David called to them.
"Umm Grandpa, aren't you going to feed the boys?" Rachel questioned with a raised eyebrow that scarily resembled her mother's.
David looked at her bewildered for a second due to the scary resemblance. You could not mistake Rachel as anyone else's daughter. The resemblance was that close to Shelby.
"Yes, yes, I am. Just let me get their bowls out here." He quickly ran inside to get the dog bowls filled with dog food. Before setting them down, he added pieces of hamburger in each dog's bowl. Once sat the bowls down, Cobalt and Melchior happily dug into their dinners.
By this time, the table for the rest of the family had been set. Heaps of food were piled onto platters on the tabletop.
"Mom, did you guys make enough?" Shelby questioned Kate sarcastically while looking around the full table. "There is enough food here to feed my entire team. Possibly enough for each of them to have seconds. Hmmm maybe we should get you to cater the next barn event."
"Hush Shelby, I was excited to be able to cook for you and Rachel. It's not often that the four of us get to be together."
Rachel grinned at hearing her mother and grandmother banter with each other. She saw that her grandfather was enjoying the banter as well, a smirk was lining his face. Unfortunately for them, the other two women at the table noticed their gleeful faces.
"Wipe those smirks off your faces!" Both, Shelby and Kate ordered.
Rachel quickly got the message. She couldn't stop smiling at how they were acting so she just looked at her grandpa instead. It seemed like he was having the same issue as she was.
"Oh, David?" her grandma started.
Her grandpa looked up to see what Kate wanted, only to end up with food in his face. Rachel and Shelby looked between the two, shocked.
"Well, I can't let that go unanswered in some way." David stated. He picked up a spoon of beans and flicked it at Rachel. She sat there shocked, with beans falling from her face. Shelby lost it at the look on her daughter's face. Rachel took the opportunity of her mom being distracted to get a spoonful of cole slaw and threw it at her. That quickly put a halt to her mother's laughter. The initial look on her mom's face was great, she was pouting. Shelby turned and glared at her daughter. Who, in turn, just smiled back at her.
Shelby shook her head at Rachel.
"Not nice, little miss." She told her.
Rachel just shrugged to her mom's comment.
"I just did what Grandma and Grandpa were doing. And if you didn't approve then, you shouldn't have been laughing at me." She replied with an unimpressed look on her face.
"But the look on your face was priceless!"
Rachel just glared at her mother.
"Okay lets eat." David put an end to the stare off between his daughter and granddaughter.
It wasn't long before Rachel was stuffed. Since she was full, she was back to being sleepy.
"I'm going to bed Momma."
"Okay Boo, good night." Her mom told her before kissing her on the head.
She hugged her grandparents goodnight before heading upstairs, the dogs trailing behind her. Once she got to her room, she quickly changed into some pajamas, washed her face, brushed her teeth, and crawled into bed. It was mere minutes until she fell asleep.