December Story Contest

High Speed part 1
By: Captainpony274
Age: 15

Have you ever had a friend who teased you about something often? The first time it’s funny but after awhile it eats away at you and begins to hurt your feelings. You can only be nice for so long until you snap! Here’s a story about a girl who experienced exactly that, her name was Crysta, and she lived in a town called Cottonwood where she had moved to about two years ago.

Crysta stretched as she got out of bed at 5:30 am. It was Thursday, December 16th.  She pulled rain boots over her monkey Pajama bottoms and slipped on a heavy coat. It was about 40 degrees outside and in California that’s cold! She walked outside and crossed her driveway that was to the right of the house and entered the horse barn. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and threw each of the horses a flake of hay then gave the older horses their extra grain. Before going back in the house and getting ready to go to school she blew a special kiss to her horses Corky and Prayer. Crysta went back to the house and got ready before getting into her junky red truck and heading to school to take her last two finals of the semester. From eight O’clock till ten O’clock she meticulously took her Spanish final. After those long two hours where up the students all had a 30 min. brunch time.  Crysta walked over to a group of her pals and sat on the table where they all where.

“Crysta you look tired!” Her best friend Zane stated.
“I am! Yesterday I rode both Corky and Prayer then stayed up late studying.” She replied “It might help you if you weren’t weird and rode western like the rest of us instead of English like a weirdo” Jack added, Jack was Crysta’s friend but he liked to give her a hard time and held a grudge against her because she rode English.
              
“The style of riding won’t a difference smart alec!” Rhonda teased back at Jack trying to defend Crysta. Rhonda was Crysta’s first friend when she moved to Cottonwood. Rhonda and Crysta clicked partly because of Rhonda’s love and knowledge for horses. During summer Rhonda had won rodeo queen, she and her paint horse made a great pair.
              
“And you know what Jack, I’m sick of all the comments you make about how riding English isn’t as good as western. So here’s how we’re going to solve this problem. I challenge you and one of your western horses against me and my English horse in a race.” Crysta stated with a serious look in her eye.
              
“That’s fine with me, Cherry’s the fastest quarter horse around. Name the time and the place.” Jack retorted.
              
“Okay then, 4 O’clock today I’ll meet you at the flat go cart track that’s carved out of the corn field behind my house and to make sure you can’t say I cheated by having a lighter weight saddle let’s ride bareback, that is, if you’re not scared.” She jeered.
              
“I’m not scared, just hope you don’t choke on all the dirt you’ll be eating.” Jack smacked back at her. At the same moment he finished speaking the bell rang and everyone went to their next class. Crysta zoomed through her Geology final eager to get home and prepare for the race. After class while she was in the student parking lot getting in her truck to go home Crysta noticed a lot of people staring at her. Zane trotted up beside her.
              
“Are you nervous for tonight? Practically the whole school is going to see your race!” Zane blurted.
              
“Are you kidding me? Is that what everyone is talking about, it’s not suppose to be a big deal. I just want Jack to shut up.”Crysta said wondering how this would affect everything.
              
“Well that may be what it started as but now, it’s your chance to prove yourself. You win this; you’ll be the most popular girl in school. Oh and Rhonda and I wanted to know if we could get a ride with you to your house.” Zane said excited for Crysta.
              
This changed things; this little tiny race for bragging rights had suddenly became a lot bigger than intended. All Crysta wanted was for her and Jack to not have any problems with each other. She wasn’t trying to alter her school status. She wanted to have fun, but maybe having more people there watching and cheering would be more fun. At least it would make for and exciting win!
              
“Okay, hop in and we’ll go to the house.” Crysta told Zane.
              
Zane waved at Rhonda who was chatting with someone else then she walked over with a smile. The 10 minuet car ride seemed to last forever. Crysta sat quietly listening to Zane and Rhonda as they go on and on about how awesome this race would be. In her head she was thinking of other things. The dirt go cart track was an eighth of a mile so she figured they should do two laps so it isn’t over too quickly. She decided to paint a line on the ground by the bleachers as a start/finish line. She would ask Zane to do that and Rhonda to make some lemonade while she worked with Prayer getting him to work at the best of his ability.

End Part 1
Read next month to conclude with how Prayer acts while they warm up, who wins the race, and repercussions of winning such a grand event.