Imagine

13. Sport

The rest of the day was as uneventful as expected, so was the entire week. A lot of people were still high from the short break so there had been any loud disagreements since no one was getting on the other's nerves.

'Hah', I chuckled to myself, 'one week was all it takes for them to remember the holiday is really over and then they become unnecessarily irritable'.

'Or not...', my subconscious replied. I frowned as I thought about what that was about, 'Oh, right!'. The next week was sports week so academic stuffs were going to be very low-key, most likely with only two and half hours for it in the morning and the rest of the day for practice. I better find me another novel for the week so I don't die of boredom.

As you might have rightly guessed, I am not a sports person. I'm sure I don't mind the excessive release of sweat since I love cooking and that makes me sweat. It's mostly the fact that I have to interact with so many people at the same time, be focused on the "team" a lot and still have to endure the different kinds of sweaty stinks emanating from their bodies. Now if I had to represent my team/house in some quiz competition, I could successfully handle that.

There were four different houses in my school represented by four different colours: red, blue, green and yellow; and named after four different random but probably significant people, I don't really care about the history of my school's sports team. Each house is expected to select representatives for the different categories of sport activities: 100m track race, 200m track race, relay race, javelins, high jumps, long jumps, football (soccer) matches, handball, volleyball and a few others. It wasn't exactly totally boring because I actually found some interesting enough to watch and even participated in some in my junior years but this year, I wasn't in the least bit interested unless it was related to reading.

'What are you interested in then?', my subconscious made an appearance again.

'You sure are chatty today. What's up with that?'

What kind of sport might actually pique my interest at this particular moment though? I wondered and almost immediately, an image popped into my head. I grinned and decided to lose myself in the beauty of my mind.

I was standing on a large field that had some free patches and muddy areas, and a lot of surrounding tress. I looked around, admired the very wide stretch of land and moved in the direction of the movement I had noticed. As I got closer and found the source of the movement, I got so excited I didn't realize I started sprinting and skipping forward like a kid.

I got to the front of a building filled with horses of different colours and heights in their individual stalls. The building was made if bricks with wooden doors. I noticed most of them had their heads hanging out the door looking around and some appeared to be observing me just like I was, them. I moved from my position to get a look at the others that weren't even slightly peeking and I just kept walking, smiling with fingers of both hands crossed in front of me and occasionally saying a quiet hi to the ones that were blatantly staring or probably sleeping, I couldn't tell for sure since I've read that horses can sleep with their eyes open. I didn't know exactly what I was looking for but I kept walking anyway until I got to a particular one. She was beautiful, I have no idea why I thought the word "she" but I'll go with it. She was what some might call midnight black. I moved closer and tentatively raised my hand to touch her face. It felt like hours but I'm sure it was only a few seconds before I felt the smooth surface between her eyes. I smiled and moved closer, catching a glimpse of her stall to see that it had been freshly cleaned with new beddings in place, a neat bucket of water and remains of hay and grains supplements. I opened the stall to let her out and see exactly what she looked like.

She was almost the same height as me with long neck, soft silky mane, smooth fur, large black eyes and large ears, staring like she could see right through me. I ran my hand down her back and she nuzzled me in the neck, stomping her hooves as if to say, 'hop on, let's go for a run'. I grinned at the thought and in an instant I was in a proper horse riding gear, I kinda liked the boots I saw on my feet. She was also saddled up ready for me. I mounted with as much strength and confidence I could muster for someone who has never seen an actual horse ever and balanced myself.

We trotted around the field for a while with an irregular increase and decrease in her pace. 'I wonder how long you've been caged up in my head, little Belle', I thought as I slightly puller ob her reins, giving her neck a short pat before returning my attention to the path ahead. We carried on like that and I wondered what it would be like to be a jockey, racing other horses and riders, people cheering in the viewing stands silently hoping they don't lose a lot of money for whatever bets they might have placed.

'Now that's a sport that could pique my interest' I smiled to myself.

After we'd done enough cantering, we returned to the stable and I ushered her back into her stall, slightly scratching her neck. 'Thanks for the ride, Belle. Still don't know where that name came from'. I backed away from her stall after feeding her some apples and giving her some water, then I moved to another stall housing a chestnut coloured one and just as I was about to approach it, I heard a banging noise that spooked me as well as the horses.

'Reality calls', subconscious said.

'Ugh, I was just starting to have fun'.

Reluctantly, I opened my eyes to find another pair right in front of me. I blinked, shifted back a little and raised my brows at Saira.

"Where went you?"

"Why?", I shot back almost defensively. She rolled her eyes, "Cause you were smiling in your pretend-sleep".

"I wasn't pretending to sleep, I was just... Y'know", I shrugged.

"What was it this time? You looked genuinely happy"

"Horses", I replied with a finality that said I wouldn't elaborate any further.

She hummed, patted my back and said, "I don't even wanna know"

"Why not?", I asked out of curiosity, she just stared at me like I could read her mind and then I realized what she might be thinking.

"Oh God, No!", I scrunched up my face at her. She shrugged, "Don't look at me like your mind is not capable of painting that picture".

"I didn't even once consider their sexual prowess. What kinda pervert do you take my beautiful mind for?", She grinned and patted my shoulders again, "It's not perversion, it's creativity".                  
   "Get off me silly, that's just gross coming from you", she grinned and turned away.

Suddenly she snapped her head back to me, "You keep doing that and you'll be decapitated very soon".

"Whatever, you remember next week is sports week, right?"

"How could I ever forget", I replied sarcastically. She ignored it and went on to talk about the parts she would be participating in. She loved running and she was good so I couldn't stop smiling at her excitement even though I didn't catch half of what she was saying.

'Its going to be a long week', I sighed and decided to give her my full attention.