Chapter 3

So the park was pretty cool but we walked and walked until my feet hurt. I didn't ask Cole about it again. I didn't think it really mattered. Wasn't everyone a little strange in some way or another? I knew I was strange.

When it was finally time to go I was relieved and happily got on the bus and sat by Laura again on the way back. Catherine rode with her mom again, which I had a glimpse of as we were leaving. She was short, shorter than Catherine, and a not huge but big bulging round woman with a long wavy pony tail that reached her butt. Catherine wasn't fat herself but she did have thick arms and legs more of an athletic build, but the hair definitely matched.

The next day, Saturday, my dad made a great big breakfast. A Saturday tradition all my favorites, hash browns, sausage, biscuits and bacon. Saturdays were my favorite days of the week just because of that reason.

In the next month's things continued to go great. I hung out with my two best friends at school and maybe I was crazy but I think even Shane was starting to notice me.

One day I'd gotten my mess of hair straightened and I looked like a completely different person. It was knotless, flawless, and shiny (for a while). I looked almost beautiful. And he (Shane) even complimented me on it!

It happened in Language Arts. The class was almost done and I was struggling to get an assignment done before the bell when I heard my name.

"Anna!" a half whisper. I sucked in an annoyed breath, I didn't want to be bothered with right now, and thinking it was Cole (we were sort of friends now) I turned to give him a dirty look and stopped. It was Shane who sat a table a little ways behind me.

"I like your hair like that," he smiled, "It looks nice." I melted and instead of being polite and saying thanks I simply nodded and looked away. NODDED AND LOOKED AWAY. How dumb was I? When I turned back around I realized my mistake and just about banged my head on the table. When the guy of your dreams gives a compliment you don't act like that!

I griped about that the rest of the day. About what I should've done but now it was too late. Stupid!

That weekend I invited Catherine to my house to hang out for the first time. I was eager to show her my horse and my house. When my dog, Shadow, barked I jumped and ran for the door. My dad, who'd been in the living room watching a movie at the time, got up so he could meet her mother. That was part of the agreement of her being able to come over was her meeting my dad. I understood that since my dad was the same way.

I stumbled down the stairs and opened the door to let them in. Catherine and her mom stood there smiling. I backed up and gestured for them to come in.

"Hello," her mom smiled big, "You must be Anna. I've heard all about you," we shook hands, "I'm Vivienne."

"Yes, I'm Anna, It's a pleasure to meet you," I said trying to be as polite as possible.

"The pleasure is mine," she glanced past me up the stairs, "Is this your dad?"

I nodded and led them up the stairs. My dad stood there smiling and dressed even though on Saturdays he usually hung out in nothing but shorts. He held out his hand and Vivienne shook it.

"I'm Roy."

"Vivienne," if possible she smiled bigger.

"So where is our horse? I'm dying to see her," Catherine said and I led her outside. I showed her the barn, our goat, our chickens, and my horse leaned her head over her stall door nickering at us.

"This is Rain," I told her as she petted her face.

"She's cute," she glanced back at me, "Does she jump?"

"Jump?"

"Yeah, like fences. You know English riding right?"

"I've never done it. She's a Western horse."

"We could teach her," she petted her some more, "I know how."

"You do?"

She nodded, "I've been jumping for three years now. If you want, next week you can come and watch on of my riding lessons."

"Really?" I was always flattered to be invited to anything, "That would be so cool."

"Do you have a whip? I'll need one to teach her."

I did have a whip. It wasn't for hitting the horse, just to coax them to go faster in the right direction. But what was she planning to do with it? Nonetheless, I grabbed it from the corner where we put the hay, but asked, "How are you going to do this?"

She opened her stall and grabbed the halter that hung on a hook, "Do you have a log or something we could use?"

I shook my head, "No, but we do have this weird piece of old wooden fence that is attached to the corner of the barn."

"Perfect," she was leading her out of the stall through the back door that let out into our five acre pasture.

We went around the corner of the barn and she let Rain go in the direction of the corner of our fence. If we cornered her, her only way out would be the fence I could tell. I should've said no. What if she hurt herself since she'd never jumped before?

"Are you sure about this?" I asked as she took the whip from me.

"Yeah it'll be cool watch and stand over there," she pointed and I went because I was a person who always did what I was told and swallowed their feelings to avoid conflict. Maybe she was right and I was just paranoid. She said she knew how.

She cracked the whip and Rain started to run my way but I blocked her. She turned and Catherine cracked the whip again to get her to go toward the fence. She did and with one final crack she jumped it, clearing it fine.

"See?" she smiled, "Nothing to it."

I nodded and we caught her and repeated the process once, twice, a third time before she finally hit the fence breaking the top board. I looked at Catherine worried.

"Once more then we'll give her a break," she said and handed me the whip and went to go catch her again. This time though Rain didn't want to come. I didn't blame her. I was a little annoyed by Catherine's know-it-all attitude and I noticed she hadn't even asked permission to do this with my horse. But I let it slide. She only said one more jump then we could go do something else.

She brought her back, Rain's ears flattened which meant she was angry. I told Catherine this and she just said, "No horse dares to bite me. I'll teach them a lesson if they do."

We turned her loose in the corner once more and Catherine cracked the whip. Rain ran in my direction, snorting and shaking her head. I shooed her back with my arms. I did not like this. She went to the fence but didn't jump it instead she turned around and headed for Catherine who cracked the whip loud when she approached.

"Watch out!" I told her but it was too late. Rain turned away but bucked, her back feet kicking out and knocked the whip right from Catherine's hand. She yelled and I ran toward her letting Rain escape who bolted to the other end of the pasture.

"Ah!" she held her hand. I looked at it, the tip of her pinky already turning reddish purple. "Ow," she whined crying now.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," I blurted out not knowing what to do. Even though it was her own fault I was still sorry, "Are you okay?"

"No," she sniffed, "It really hurts."

"How bad is it? Can you move it?"

She tried but it only made her cry more, "Oh it hurts," she whined again.

I didn't want us to have to call her mom, tell her that her daughter's first time over at my house she gets a broken finger, but we had no choice. We went back to the house, Catherine in tears, and me freaking out. My dad got her some ice and we called her mom.

Twenty minutes later Vivienne came back and I automatically apologized over and over. I felt it was my fault since it was my horse that'd done it. Vivienne was nice about it though, "Oh it's okay honey, accidents happen all the time."

My dad apologized too then they left to go to the hospital. After they were gone I got the scolding of a lifetime but I deserved it. I'd let this happen when I should've told her no. Why couldn't I ever be assertive?

"That horse doesn't jump. She can learn to jump if we had her trained, but not from the hands of two thirteen-year-olds," he said angrily.

I nodded, "It won't happen again."