Stardust Tamaki(Discontinued)

Chapter Five - Practice

The next day after I finished my work, I returned to the barn.

"Good afternoon, Stardust Tamaki," I greeted, "And also, good afternoon to you both, Comet and Rocket." I then walked up to Stardust Tamaki to tell him my solution to saving the ranch.

"No need to turn into a human today, by the way. Cause I found a way to save the ranch!" I say excitedly, "I signed up for a show jumping competition! It'll be in a couple of days though and it's a couple miles away, so maybe I can ride you on the grass to get there, but we need to practice for it." Stardust Tamaki nods in a way that says "I understand" while I rub his side.

"Oh hey, Y/n. I guess I knew you would be here," a voice entering the barn chuckled.

"Where else could I possibly be at?" I asked rhetorically in a joking manner to the voice that belonged to Alan.

"I'm gonna take Rocket out for a ride, you wanna come with me?" Alan asks before mocking me in a high pitched voice, "Or keep whispering sweet nothings to your precious .~*Stardust Tamaki*~.?"

"I don't talk like thaaat," I say dragging out the "a" and laughing along, "I'll go with you, can you put up the fences? I'll groom and tack up Stardust Tamaki and Comet while you do that."

"Sure, any reason why you wanna practice jumping?" Alan asked going to go get the fences.

Well, I need to practice for my show jumping competition that's in a few days. Too bad I can't say that to him though. "I just feel like practicing that this week."

I groomed Stardust Tamaki and Rocket before tacking them up. Alan was outside the horse barn putting up the fences.

"Here's Rocket," I say to Alan who's done setting up and passing the reigns of Rocket over to him. I got onto Stardust Tamaki while Alan got onto Rocket. I squeezed my legs just enough on Stardust Tamaki's sides to have him start walking to warm up.

When he started walking, I felt relaxed doing something that I enjoyed. It made me forget about my worries, like the fact that we could loose the ranch. I looked over to Alan who seemed to also be enjoying himself very much.

I met Alan in kindergarten when he was on the swing set alone on the first day of school. I had no friends so I sat next to him on the next swing set over. I introduced myself and my love for horses. From there, our friendship blossomed. A lot of things happened during our times together. Like one time I got into a fight with a girl because she said horses are trash and Alan had to hold me back when I "did too much damage to her". I mean, there's no such thing as too much damage when you insult a horse.

I remember he would come over to the ranch on every Saturday so we could ride our horses together. Once we got into middle school though, I went to doing online school so I could help Papa more on the ranch and Alan got more schoolwork to do. Four Saturdays a week became two Saturdays a week and before I knew it, it was no Saturdays at all. Now, Alan comes to the ranch every summer for his summer job. We still text and call everyday though, thankfully. I'm glad that Alan is here with me to help me prepare for the show jumping competition, even though he doesn't know it.

"Ok, let's start jumping," Alan declares snapping me out of my thinking, "There'll be three rounds and eight fences per round, you can go first."

"Ok then," I say to Alan while positioning Stardust Tamaki.

"Ready, set, go," Alan shouts. I have Stardust Tamaki trot a bit around the area before cantering and jumping over the first fence gracefully. That would be the first of many jumps before my big competition.

~~~

"Looks like your mom's here to take you home," I stated to Alan ushering him toward the door. After practicing, we decided to go into my house to eat a snack.

"Bye Alan," I say to my best friend while starting to close the door.

"Hold on Y/n," Alan says which makes Y/n reopen the door that was only halfway shut.

"Tomorrow after work, meet me at the apple tree," he says looking into my eyes with an emotion or feeling I can't seem comprehend. I do know that he's being serious though.

"Ok then," I reply smiling to him.

"Thanks, I'll see you there then, Y/n," he says returning the smile while walking toward his mother's car.

Did he find out about the show jumping competition? I wonder what he wants to talk to me about.