New Girl

chapter 2

Saturday came faster than I wanted it to. Way faster. Time itself seemed to be speeding on past me.

It was 11:00 when I woke up, and 11:30 when I remembered I had to be somewhere. In 30 minutes.

And so I gracefully scrambled out of bed, falling over and stepping on many items I had set on the ground for safe keeping.

I still don't know how long I'm going to stay here. Currently I reside in a cheap hotel. A very, very cheap hotel. And dirty. The hotel is dirty. Unfortunately.

I take a five minute shower and throw an outfit on, rushing out the door. I glance at the slip of paper Mel gave me. 5221 Elmore Road.

Oh, surely that won't be hard to find. Well, Ihope not, anyways.

Okay, I lied. That was definitely hard to find. Her house was hidden on some backroad, away from everything.

Her house was big, though. To me.

A cute two-story house with a barn to the side. A large area of grass – I think it's called a paddock? Regardless, there were a few horses grazing. I saw Mel standing with one of the horses, rubbing its neck. I walked over to the fence of the paddock, leaning over the side. "Hey, Mel!" I call out.

She jumps at my voice, jerking her head towards my direction. "Oh, hi! Just hop over the fence!"

I struggle to get over the fence. My body is too out-of-shape to do it swiftly, so I laboriously pull myself over the wooden railing. After doing so, I walk over to where Mel is standing, cautious of the wild beast standing with her. Well, it's wild in my eyes.

"Hey, how are you?" Mel asks, still stroking the creature's mane.

"Fine, you?" I respond.

"I'm good!" She adds, while gazing at the horse. "This is Mabel. She's my baby. Aren't you, Maby Baby?" She coos to the horse. Mabel looks up, her white coat shining in the sunlight as she munches on the grass in her mouth. She quickly loses interest and leans back down to get more grass. "So, how long have you been riding?"

Should I back out? Should I?! Not having time to decide, I blurt out, "Six years."

"Oh, nice! I've been riding 11."

Woah, that's a long time. "How old are you right now?"

"17."

"Same."

"Nice!" A minute passes when I hesitantly extend a hand to pet Mabel. I jerk back when Mel speaks. "So, racing? Or maybe a trail ride? There's a trail nearby that I think is really pretty."

"Um, which one is easier?" I quickly continue, "I'm feeling lazy today."

"Hmm. Probably the trail ride. We don't have to go fast, and plus it's relaxing."

"Okay, cool."

"You can choose one of the horses out here, or there's two in the barn. Your choice!" She smiles.

"I. . . Okay." I need one that won't give me a hard time. . . "Which one is in the best mood today?" I word my sentence carefully.

"Uh." Mel scans the paddock. "Probably Shrimp Scampi. She's a sweetheart. Had her my entire life."

I can't help but giggle at the name. "Which. . ." I cut myself off as Mel leads me to the horse we were speaking of. Mabel follows us.

We stop in front of a short, beige horse. "She's only 14 hands, so that's where 'shrimp' came from. You know how to tack, right?"

"Y-Yeah." I don't.

She then pulls two treats from out of nowhere and lures the horses to the barn. She then hands me a saddle and gets another one out. I nearly drop the thing because I didn't know how heavy it would be!

Mel begins to tack Mabel. I try to mimic her actions. Tie her to the pole-things. . . Blanket, little cushion thing. . . Saddle. . . I'm struggling. I buckle the buckle-things. . . Slowly. I don't want to make it too tight. . .

Done! Shouldn't be too tight! Or loose, as a matter of fact!

Obviously, Mel is done tacking before I am, so we head out when I'm finished. Gate is open, she gets on Mabel and I get on Scampi. Surprisingly it wasn't that hard for me! Thank the heavens!

Now to start riding. . .

She rides ahead of me to guide, and I silently thank whoever's out there for that.

My feet are in the foot-handles. . . I guess. . . Just. . . Gently. . . Kick???

But the next thing I know, is that Shrimp Scampiis galloping, and I am in no shape to know what to do.