The Broken

~Chapter One~

Eight years earlier...

        "Hey, Mom!" I call as I walk into the small kitchen.

        "Hey, Ellie! How was school?" she asks, writing something down on a piece of paper.

        "Great! Where's Dad?" I ask.

        "He's driving home from work right now."

        "I'm going down to the track with Katy. I'll have Nathan call you."

        I run down the hallway and shut my bedroom door behind me. Dropping my bookbag down on my bed, I change into jeans and a t-shirt and rush out the front door. As soon as I'm outside, I grab my blue bike and ride down the long, gravel driveway. Katy's house is at the end of the lane. When I get there, she's already on her bike.

        "I'll race you to the track!" I say.

        We race as fast as we can down to the gates where the police man, Nathan, is sitting in a plastic chair.

        "Who won?" I ask, as Katy and I stop our bikes.

        "It was a tie," Nathan says, taking the old phone off of it's hook and dialing my mom's number. I hear her voice say hello.

        "Katy and Ellie are here," he says into the phone.

        "Thanks!" I hear her say.

        Nathan motions for us to go ahead in the gates. We bike inside of the gates along the chain link fence and put our bikes on the bike rack. We run into the tack room near the entrance of the back of the track where all of the extra supplies are stored. We each grab a pitchfork and wheelbarrow and rush over to the first empty stall we see.

        I do this everyday to earn money so that I can buy a horse and be able to pay for races and other needs when I grow up. I earn minimum wage per hour and clean every stall that's empty at the time. My friends give me their money that they make when they help me do this. I only have three friends who will do it with me though.

        One is Katy. She's my best friend for life and is more like a sister than a friend. The second one is her best guy friend, Aiden. Then the third would be my best guy friend, Logan. We're like... the quadruple musketeers.

        Katy and I finish the stall and move on to the next.

One hour later...

        I sweep a plastic cup into the high-tech dustpan and stare at the field. Some jockeys are breezing their horses on the track, but otherwise, the crowd on the track is small. I sit down on the metal bleacher seat and sigh. It would take a lot to get me on that field.

        "Hey there," Nathan says, putting his hands into his pockets.

        "Hey. Sorry, I'm almost done, just one more row to go. It's at the top," I say, reaching for the broom with one hand and pointing to the top row with the other.

        "I can have someone finish that. Katy's mom called, so she had to get home. I thought I'd tell you," he says, sitting next to me.

        I sit back down and stare out at the field.

        "You really like to watch don't ya?" he asks, following my gaze.