Countdown (on hold)

Three years, five months, six days, one hour, fifty minutes before

Walking back to my house after taking care of Carrot, I thought I saw something move in the distance. When I turned my head back to that general area, I saw nothing. Weird, I thought. It could have been Theo. When I went back to the barn, I couldn’t find him. And he was the main reason I went outside. I wanted to talk to him. I thought Theo and I were pretty close, considering I thought of him as my best friend. I told him everything, and I thought he told me everything.

 As I reached the porch, stepping onto the first step, I heard Theo start to yell. “It’s not that big a deal why I ran off earlier!” He was yelling at one of our parents, I couldn’t tell which one yet.

 Mom yelled back at him, “It is that big a deal for me to know where you ran off to! You know how you are!”

He snapped back with a quick remark, “How I am what?”

Honesty, I was worried. Theo never yelled from what I knew. And for him to be yelling at Mom? Something must have happened. I hated yelling, especially yelling when it came from my family members.

I didn’t know where to go, so I went back to the horses. We have three horses, well one is a pony, but I still count it as one of our horses because he’s almost the size of Carrot. My parents got me Carrot for my tenth birthday, and since Theo didn’t get a horse for his tenth birthday, my parents got him one for his eleventh birthday. Theo wanted to name his horse Carrot, but I wouldn’t budge with changing my horse’s name. I had my horse longer than Theo did, and I wasn’t going to change her name. I suggested Brussels, like Brussels sprouts, if he wanted to name his horse after a vegetable.  Theo starting crying about his horse not having a name, so my parents suggested Turnip, and because Theo is too spoiled by our parents and he will do anything they tell him too, he chose their name suggestion. Personally, I think Turnip is a stupid name for a horse and if I ever get another horse I’m naming him Brussels. Our pony is old and his name is Spots. Creative name from a creative five year old.

Carrot was waiting for me when I went back to her stall. Our barn came with the house, but it was rusty and old. Dad fixed it up the summer before we got Spots; Theo was five and I was two. Carrot is a good horse, she doesn’t jump and gallop away when she sees a snake or something in her way. Only when it’s a dog or cat, or another small animal, she’ll get spooked out. Turnip, on the other hand, gets spooked with anything that scurries in front of her. I almost always end up riding Turnip if it’s me and Theo ridding; Theo says he can’t handle Turnip if she goes crazy when he’s on her. Theo might the older of us, but he’s definitely the wimpiest one. I’ll try to protest, saying I should ride my own horse, but my parents didn’t want to hear it; they try to make Theo as happy as they could possibly make him.

I laid my head down on Carrot’s head, rubbing her forehead and neck while I did. She whinnied and started to nuzzle my head. I laughed at what sounds Carrot started to make when I showed her a turnip. She loves turnips, and will do anything for one. I fed it to her, and she chomped down on it as I got her saddle ready for me. Once Carrot was done eating her turnip and her saddle was already, I lifted myself onto Carrot. She followed the familiar, warn down, path leading to our favorite trail. We were just starting to trot onto the trail, when someone called me. I gently stopped Carrot, waiting for the person who called me to catch up. Carrot whinnied when another horse came up next to her.

It was Theo riding Turnip. “I saw you ride up here, thought I join you.” I nodded, mad at Theo because he took my parents’ attention on my most important birthday in my life. I didn’t care if I was being selfish, I didn’t try to draw attention to myself of Theo’s thirteenth birthday, so why should he on mine? I nodded anyway, before giving Carrot a slight kick to make her start to trot. Behind me, I heard Theo trying to get Turnip to start walking. Eventually, Turnip caught up to me and Carrot.

“Shay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take Mom and Dad’s attention away from you. Mom told me to come get you because the cake was ready.” The cake was ready? How long was I away for? “The cake isn’t exactly done yet, Mom still has to put frosting on it, but the thing itself is baked.” Theo confessed.

I rolled my eyes, “Tell Mom I’ll be in a few minutes, ’kay?” I pushed Carrot to start galloping; Theo would never try to gallop on Turnip. And I was right, Theo turned around slowly and carefully, and started to walk back to the barn. I smirked, I could always count on galloping Carrot to get Theo to leave me alone. I swear, it was like I was the older sibling sometimes with him.

My alone time with Carrot didn’t last long, within a few minutes I heard Theo running up behind us. Theo could barely ride a horse, but he could run. And running was something he used a lot. Knowing no matter how fast I would go on Carrot, Theo would eventually reach us, I stopped Carrot. Within the second of stopping Carrot, Theo was right up behind her. “Shay, I want to talk.” He said in between panting.

“Talk about what?” I asked, bringing Carrot to a slight walking pace. I glanced down at Theo. His hands were in his pants pockets, and his head was hanging down.

“I didn’t mean to make you mad today. It’s your birthday; I shouldn’t have made you mad.”

I was still annoyed at Theo; if he didn’t mean to make me mad, he shouldn’t of in the first place. “Theo, go home and tell Mom I’ll be back in a bit, okay?” I told Theo to do with my sickly sweet voice.

Theo sighed, “Fine, but if Mom’s mad at me, I’m going to have to say it was you.”

I nodded, “That’s fine, now go.” I heard Theo run the opposite way from Carrot and me. “Good,” I muttered loud enough just for Carrot to hear. She whinnied, and starting running. I laughed and let out a big whoop. My emotions changed in a matter of seconds just because Theo had left. I knew it was wrong for me to be so happy after he left, but he was annoying sometimes, and everyone needs alone time. It just happened I needed alone time on my birthday, and the alone time from my brother and parents.

*Author's Note*                                                                                                                                   I'm sorry that Countdown isn't the best. It was my Camp NaNoWriMo project for this month and I kinda fell in love with Shay and Caleb(you'll see who he is later) that I just couldn't stop writing about them. Yeah, so I know its not the best, but votes and comments are loved <3