Through the Fame and Glory

DIFFICULTY

Saturday morning proved to be a difficult one.

Two weeks ago, Four Dak was claimed by Austin, and the colt was giving trainer Toby Mays a difficult time. The colt was acting up in the gates as they tried to work with him on them, but he finally gave in and went in.

From then, the work went smoothly.

Harper stood by her dad, watching the colt stride through the seven in the morning California weather.

It was bright and sunny, but that wasn't how Harper was feeling due to the day before in school.

Not many students yet knew she had a horse of her own who was racing.

Until she got to art class.

She decided to draw her colt for the new project that was going on in class. One student at her table, who was one of her bullies, glanced over at her, rolling his eyes.

"So you're drawing an abused horse?" He had asked.

"He's not abused," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders, not picking her glance up from the paper. "Why would I abuse my own horse?"

"So not only do you have abusive horse owners for parents, but you have your own abused horse now? Intriguing."

The teacher was walking by at the time and stood right beside him.

"That's enough Gunner," she told him, not knowing what was going on. "Get started on your work and let Harper focus on hers."

Gunner nodded his head and the teacher walked away.

...

Later that day, Harper encountered more shit from fellow students, getting names thrown around at her, and then low and behold, Gunner showed up while she was walking towards the door to go find her mom and dads truck with whoever of the two picking her up so she could go home.

"Gonna go abuse that horse some more?" He sneered. "I bet you are. Poor horse."

"Like I said in class, he's not abused," she said. "I don't fucking understand why you and many more other students keep doing this shit to me. What have I fucking done to you and them to make you guys do this?"

"You have parents who abuse horses. You are getting in on it now. We just want to put a stop to the horses getting abused because we feel bad for them."

"Even if they were abused, why go after me? Why do you think going after me will put an end to us racing horses? Cause the racing stable gets passed down to me? That's some funny shit, Gunner. You're nothing but a two faced jock. Nobody gives a fuck that you're the school quarterback. You're always acting nice to everyone and then going behind their backs and talking shit on them. Now can you kindly fuck off?"

With that he pushed her up against the wall. "You don't talk to me like that. Because guess what? I don't do that kind of shit. I worked my ass off to become the quarterback while being just a sophomore when that's unheard of at this school. Juniors and seniors are the only ones who get that position. I keep working my ass off to be the best person I can be so I can retain my position, cause at least I want to go to college, play football there, and then make it into the big leagues in the NFL."

Harper just rolled her eyes at him, but that only made him press her deeper against the wall. Where were the teachers or the principal?

"And you don't roll your eyes at me. And by putting an end to it? Yes, I do say that because the stable gets passed down to you. I've seen the cuts on your wrists. Shit, I can see them now with your sleeves riding up a bit. Everyone has. And everyone is going to keep doing this to where you end up being weak and killing yourself which in turn puts an end to the horse abuse because it doesn't end up getting passed down to you. You're worthless, Harper. A worthless piece of shit who likes to abuse horses."

With that, he let go of her and walked towards and out the doors of the school. Harper pulled the sleeves of her jacket down again and made her way to the restroom across the hallway where she was at.

She went inside of a stall when she found nobody else in there and locked it, proceeding to sit down on the toilet seat. She didn't have to use the restroom. She just needed somewhere private to let the tears flow. And silent ones did end up coming out. Her phone buzzed, and she looked at it, seeing a text from her dad.

"You okay? I'm waiting for you outside. You haven't come out yet."

She dried her tears with the sleeve of her jacket and proceeded to text him back.

"Yeah. Be out in a few. My art teacher wanted me to stop by after school to talk to me about our current project and then I stopped by the restroom."

She locked her phone, having upset herself more that she had to lie to her dad so he wouldn't know what actually happened, and sat it in her lap as more silent tears rolled through.

"This shit sucks," she whispered to herself. "Why is this happening?"

After another minute or so of letting silent tears flow, she dried them with the sleeve of her jacket again and flushed the toilet, acting like she had used the restroom in case someone else came in but was quiet enough to where she wouldn't hear them enter.

At the sink, she rolled her sleeves up, seeing the scars left behind from a few days prior. She winced as the warm water ran over them, and even more so at the sting from the hand soap to wash her hands when it ran down her arms a bit. She rinsed the soap off and quickly dried her hands and arms off and rolled her sleeves down, washed her face off a bit to where it didn't look like she had been crying, and then left and exited the school.

She found her dad and got in the truck.

"How was school?" He asked her.

"It was good," she said with a fake smile. "My art teacher wanted to talk about the horse I was drawing on the project we have."

"Who are you drawing?"

"Dak," she said. As she said his shortened name, a real smile then lined her face.

No matter what, she wasn't letting the difficulties of school get in her way of her and her colt.