So, there´s four new ones of these "actors that looks like characters" on my profile, one of them is for Tyler, another one for James, the third one for Vie, and the fourth for a man that´s a part of another story. But… go check Tyler, James and Vie out…. Hmm, I actually managed to make James and Tyler look kinda like each other.
There were three parts of competitions that Saturday, first the dressage part. There were fifteen competes, Marcie had number thirteen, her lucky- number she claimed! Half an hour after the last contestant in the dressage, the jumping started. Then there was an one and a half hour break. And then at last, there was a terrain jumping- part.
The dressage started at eleven, so I couldn´t really understand why we had had to be there at nine in the morning. But none of us complained, it was fun being here. Hugo was in the transport, with the doors on it opened. He chewed on hay, and looked to every person who walked by without scratching him as if he wanted to say "What are you doing… so rude coming walking by without giving me a treat" Marcie was nervous, she walked the program for the dressage part over and over again. Back and forth, right left, diagonal, walking, jogging, running. She did it over and over and over again, all until Mike stood up, pulled her to sit down on a plastic chair he had brought, and gave her some water.
There hadn´t been any snow falling yet, and today was a cold, but a sunny and nice day, so it worked fine sitting on the grass out on the meadow talking. Liam and Mariah had had a few blankets in their car, so Liam and Mariah had one wrapped around them both, Tyler had one, Ethan one, and I and Tyler one. Ben was with Marcie. We were talking when someone spoke in the loudspeakers around the arena, that the competition would start in half an hour.
"Come on, we´ll go get some good seats," I heard Mr. Schue´s voice behind us, Ben, Mike and Marcie´s mum Lily stood next to him. I took the blanket I and Tyler had and folded it, then I reached it to Liam, who took all of the blankets, and then ran to the car and laid them there, before running after us.
"We got some good seats, pretty close to the arena, when it still was fifteen minutes to go before the competition started. We were talking, until one of the judges came walking out on the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" he began… how original. "I wanna thank you all for coming here today. And… that was all that I needed to say, so let the competition begin." He walked back to the judge´s table and sat down. The judges were three persons, I recognized none of them. The one who just had been talking was a man, probably in his mid- forties. The second one was a woman, also in her mid- forties, and the last one was a younger man, probably in his mid – twenties. The younger man leaned forward to his microphone.
"So, I´m Luke Terry, and I´ll present the competes in this part of the competition, first out, we´ve got Sean Moraiety on Teddy." Luke leaned backwards again and Sean, a boy, perhaps around like thirteen to fourteen years old, ride out on the arena, on a black horse. He lowered his head, and touched the peak of his helmet slightly, before starting the program.
My chin dropped more and more as Sean did the program, it truly was beautiful. I had spent the last few days, trying to get a hang on what the program´s should look like, and what mistakes that were the usual ones. But Sean seemed to do it all perfectly, from the beginning, until the end, when he ride out of the arena.
And it kept on, none of the next one was as good as the first one…. Paige Wilson on Rock ´n´ roll number three... number eight another boy. Dennis Martin on Champ, the girl on the grey horse, was number ten. Kiana Hemmon on Hemmon´s Sherry Pop, they did the program well, but it was clear that the horse was a lot more talented than the girl… and then.
"Riding as number thirteen, Marcie Taylor on Hughton´s Herrey." Luke said in the loudspeaker.
Marcie did the program perfectly, it was clear that she and Sean would end up in the top in this part of the competition. There were only two competes after Marcie, and that was the end of that part. We all stood up, and walked away from the arena to find Marcie. We found her by the transport of course, she was leaning against it, Hugo was drinking water out of a bucket, while Marcie scratched his neck. When Hugo looked up a little, Marcie gave him a few bits of a carrot.
"You did awesome." Liam said. Marcie shook her head.
"Nah, Hugo did it awesome, I just screwed everything up."
"No you didn´t." Mike said. "You really did awesome." Marcie shrugged, and sat down on the ground.
"I thought about a thing." Mariah spoke. "Isn´t Hugo actually a bit too big for you?" Marcie looked up to Mariah, and nodded.
"Yeah, I guess he is. When… we… we were gonna… we searched for a horse for me… or pony more likely, and then, we had been outside town and looked at one. And then we spotted Hugo in a pasture next to the road, and he was just… like so skinny, I could seriously see all of his ribs, and so dirty, and he didn´t even have any grass to eat, and no water either, and I forced mum to stop the car, and then I got out, and walked over to the pasture, and held out a carrot. Hugo came really slowly over to me, and then I saw he had half- healed wounds on his back and sides, so… I just told my mum, that we needed to save him. And… so we did."
"How long has it been since you found him?" Liam asked.
"Almost two years, he was very scared in the beginning, but… as you can see… now he´s the sweetest boy in the world… are you Hugo, are you boy? Yes you are."
"Well, I guess we should go back to our seats." Mr. Schue said after a while. "It´s only five minutes until the show jumping starts. We all stood up, wished Marcie good luck and walked over to the arena again.
And then it went on again, Marcie did really well in this part as well. And then there was a two hour- break before the last part, the terrain jumping. On the break, we all sat on the blankets the twins´ had brought, and ate whatever we had brought to eat. Laughing, talking, joking, when my phone began to ring. "Hidden number" read over the screen, and I knew exactly what was coming.
"Lex?"
"… Really… horses?" I heard the voice, I recognized immediately. I felt all the blood disappearing from my face. I looked around and spotted the boy in the crowds, but it was clear that he wasn´t alone this time. A woman stood by his side, also she with a hood pulled over her head and sunglasses.
"I´ve told you to stop calling me." I said. "And I want you do it now!" I hung up and put the phone back in my pocket. I looked back to the others, and acted like nothing had just happened. When it called again, I pulled it up and without looking on the screen I pressed the yes- button, and putt it to my ear, and then I almost shouted.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING."
"Lex…" Gosh, Carole´s voice. "It´s me… are you okay?"
"Oh… ehrm… sorry Carole, I thought it was someone else."
"It´s okay… hey we were thinking about going bowling today, but if you wanna come we can do it tomorrow instead."
"Ehrm… no… you just go today." The others were standing up, so I figured out we were going to stand by the start line to the terrain jumping, after one of the judges had talked again, Sean Moraiety started as number one… and so it kept on yet again. Marcie started as number thirteen, and soon she had disappeared around the corner.
"Come on," I heard Mike. "We´ll go to the finish line and wait." We all turned around and walked about a hundred meters to the finishing line, and then we waited, Sean Moraiety was the first one two be visible, his parents started cheering, and a boy, about maybe three or four years old, which I guessed was Sean´s little brother started jumping up and down and clapping his hands.
"Go Sean, go Sean, go Sean." He shouted over and over again next to me, from what the mum said to him, I heard that his name was Gordon. When he looked around, I smiled at him, which got him talking to me.
"That´s my brother." Gordon said, then he looked back to Sean, who was just crossing the finish line, we cheered a bit as well. Sean got off Teddy, and turned to Gordon.
"Yaaaay" Gordon shouted.
"Yaaaay." Sean shouted back, and laughed, before walking out of sight, and then we waited, Paige Wilson on Rock ´N´ Roll was the next one to cross the finish line… and so it went on, all the way ´til we spotted Marcie, as number fourteen to cross the line.
"Come on Hugo." She almost shouted. "Come on boy, come on…. Good boy, whoa." That last was when she had crossed the line.
"And now?" Connor asked.
"And now we wait," Mike answered. "Then we go back to the arena, and then, they crown the three ones who got the highest points, first in dressage, then in show jumping, and then in terrain, and then they say in the loudspeakers which has got the highest points totally, all the winners get ribbons, and in the totally- part it´s up to tenth place."
We walked back to the arena, and waited… and waited…. And waited…. And waited, finally, all the fifteen competes ride out on the arena, where the judges already stood, they all had microphones around their heads and papers in their hands.
"So." The elder man of the judges said at first. "First I´ll bring up the dressage´s part third place, second and the winner. And on third place it Is Molly Waters on Reggie." The woman in the judges put a yellow ribbon on Reggie´s bridle, Molly smiled from ear to ear. Then the next one, the man spoke up again.
"And on second place… Marcie Taylor on Hughton´s Herrey." I and the others, cheered as much as we could when the woman put a red ribbon on Hugo´s bridle, and then it was time for the big moment.
"And the winner in the dressage part… is… Sean Moraiety on Teddy." Sean smiled, and patted Teddy´s neck when the woman put a blue ribbon on Teddy´s bridle. The woman walked back, and spoke up.
"I´ll present the winners for the show jumping part. And on third place, Sean Moraiety on Teddy." Sean smiled just as big to his third place, as to his one place, when he got a yellow ribbon from the elder man in the judges, to sit next to blue one on the bridle.
"And on second place… Dennis Martin on Champ." We cheered, when Champ and Dennis got a red ribbon, when the man catched his breath and opened his mouth, I bit my lip and held my breath in suspense.
"And the winner… of the show jumping part… is… Marcie Taylor on Hughton´s Herrey." Marcie smiled bigger than ever, when she had a blue ribbon next to the red one. Us others cheered so much we were jumping in our seats, the younger man spoke up.
"And I´ll present the winners for the terrain part. And on third place Marcie Taylor on Hughton´s Herrey." Now Marcie had one yellow, one red, and one blue ribbon on Hugo´s bridle.
"And on second place… Sean Moraiety on Teddy." We cheered for Sean again, and laughed. Now both he and Marcie had one ribbon of each color.
"And the winner in the terrain part… is… hold it…. Hold it… Paige Wilson on Rock and Roll." We cheered again, as the elder man put a blue ribbon on Rock ´N´ Roll´s bridle.
"And so," the elder man in the judges spoke up again "Now to the total points, and on this, we have ten ribbons… and on tenth place is Jacey Mac on Dragon" Jacey got a light- blue ribbon for her tenth place.
"And on ninth place, Abby Miller on Bruce." Abby got a gray Ribbon.
"And on eighth place Kia Mitchell on Lucy." Brown ribbon.
"And on seventh place Peyton Carter on Jody." Purple ribbon, but Jody threw her head so much back and forth, Luke could barely get it on the bridle.
"And on sixth place, Kiana Hemmon on Hemmon´s Sherry Pop." Kiana looked so angry, I was almost waiting for her to shout over the whole arena, guess she was used to coming in top three, oh, an she got a Green ribbon.
"And on fifth place Molly Waters on Reggie." Pink ribbon.
"And fourth place, Paige Wilson on Rock ´N´ Roll." White ribbon.
"Third place… Dennis Martin on Champ." Yellow ribbon again, now I held my breath again of the suspense, either Marcie or Sean would get the blue ribbon… who would it be?
"Second place… is… Marcie Taylor on Hughton´s Herrey." Marcie looked mostly chocked, and we almost exploded with cheering for her.
"And I guess you all have figured out who the winner is… and yes… the winner… is… Sean Moraiety on Teddy." Sean smiled from ear to ear, the top five made a lap of honor, with Sean first and Marcie right after.
"Come on." Mike said when they had ridden out of the arena, "We´ll go find Marcie." We all stood up, and hurried to the transport, where Marcie stood with her face buried in the fur of Hugo´s neck.
"It´s all right Marcie!" Ben said. "You´ll win the next time, don´t be sad."
"Sad?" she turned around towards us. "Sad? I beat Kiana Hemmon, with three places… haha, I´m so happy. And the only one who beat me, was Sean Moraiety, I could live with that, he´s really good. And really nice… no dad… no not like that, we´re just friends."
"Yeah, because you know." Liam said. "Your daughter´s in love with Ben… you know that Asian guy over there."
"Wait what?" Mike looked confused.
"No dad…. And Liam, stop that." I bit my lip not to laugh, and I noticed I wasn´t the only one, Marcie was red in the face, when she started making Hugo ready for the ride home.
So… that´s it then… bye ´til next time.
