February Story Contest

Lightning Chapter one: Planning

by Spellcheck & Midnight

age 12

 

I almost smiled when we pulled into the driveway of Redwood Riding Academy. Almost. I had been waiting to get back into riding lessons for forever. But that didn’t change the fact that I was still mad because we had to move again, what with Dad’s stupid job and all, and this time I had been there longer than before and had made more friends. I should have known better than to think that Dad had been right about hopefully staying there. I didn’t even know why we moved to this tiny town in California.

   The car jerked to a stop. Mom was a terrible driver; it got scary sometimes.

   Finally, I thought to myself; we had been driving for hours.

   “Okay, honey, we’re here. I have to go back to the house to unpack, so have fun!” she had to shout the last words because I had already nearly shut the car door.

   I waved as she left, and turned around. As soon as Mom had left, a tall man with black hair and brown eyes walked over.

   “Hello, you must be Avery, am I right?” he asked with a slight Australian accent.

   I nodded. “Yes, I am, and you are…?”

   He smiled. “I’m Zachariah Newbold; I’m the manager of Redwood Riding Academy. You can call me Zach.”

   “Okay.” I would have said more, but he started talking.

   “Please, come with me; you’re right in time for lessons.”

   I followed him into the big, classic red barn. Why do they even paint barns red? I wondered. Wouldn’t it be just as good to paint it blue or purple? I shrugged, deciding to forget it.

   We walked through the big, red doors which were ajar.

   There were at least twenty horses in the barn, maybe even thirty. “Are all these horses owned by the stables?” I asked; I remembered reading about them boarding horses for people too.

   He laughed. “It seems like a lot, doesn’t it? But yes, they all are; well, all but one, at least.”

   Huh, that’s a lot of horses for one riding stables, especially in such a small town. “Why so many?”

   He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, you’ll have to ask the owner about that; but one reason is that this is practically the only riding stables here, or anywhere near here, so we get a lot of people.”

   I nodded. I had a lot more questions, but he was talking before I could say anything more.

   “Well, we have to hurry; lessons start in twenty minutes.”

I followed him down the rows of stalls, looking at all the horses.

   There was a pretty, white one with a black mane and tail, apparently its name was Topsy-Turvy; I didn’t have guess why they named it that.

   The next one was a dark, chocolate brown; its name was Hershey.

   One was a brown and white paint horse named S’more, and one on the next stall was a brown appaloosa named Cookie.

   The next one was a palomino foal named Sunshine.

   “This is the one you’re going to ride,” Zach said, pointing to a dappled gray gelding, only about twelve hands.

   I looked at the nameplate. “Bob?” I asked disbelievingly; that was what the nameplate said. Who names their horse Bob? I wondered. 

   He laughed again. “My daughter named him when she was two; Bob’s four now; one of the best behaved horses I’ve ever seen.”

   I shook my head. This place seemed really cool already.

   He walked a few feet over to where a door was, and opened it.

   “You can borrow a set of my tack if you don’t have any.”

   I nodded. “Thanks, I don’t.”

   “Okay, but you can saddle up a horse, right?”

   I nodded again. “I took riding lessons for two years back when I was eight.”

   He pulled out a saddle and bridle along with a saddle pad and halter and lead rope. He brought them over to Bob’s stall and walked in; I followed.

   I took the halter and lead rope from him and put them on Bob, tying him to the wall, but leaving him some slack. I brushed Bob quickly and efficiently, combed his mane and tail, and cleaned out his hooves. 

   I put the saddle pad on gently, making sure that none of his hairs were standing up, followed by the saddle and bridle.  

   I led Bob out of his stall and Zach told me to stay there for a moment. He came back with a big, sixteen-hand, blood bay stallion. “Follow me,” he said, leading the stallion out of the barn.

   He walked around the barn where a big, round pen was, it had to be at least seventy-five feet in diameter. There were about twenty kids all lined up inside the pen. I swung up onto Bob and trotted over to it, and walked in.

   Zach trotted in a few seconds later. “Okay, guys, we have a new student, so we’re just going to work on jumping poles right now.” 

   Everyone looked at me. I blushed with embarrassment.

   Zach set up the poles and walked over to us. “Okay, everyone, you already know how to do this, so I expect you to not have to need instructions, but if you do, you’re free to ask me. You go first, Stephanie.” 

   A girl on a dark, chocolate brown horse that I remembered was named Hershey, trotted forward. She trotted over the poles carefully, not making any mistakes, as did the next girl, and then a boy named Sterling went over them perfectly and so did the next kid, and the next, until it was finally my turn.

   I trotted over the poles just as I had seen the other kids do, and finished perfectly. I hadn’t taken riding lessons in three years; I’d stopped when I was eight because I’d gotten kicked by a horse and broken my arm, so my parents pulled me out against my will and wouldn’t let me start again until now, so I needed a little time to brush up and then I would be much better.

  

 

I didn’t go back until the next week, but I was glad when I did. I had been looking forward to it for what seemed like months.

   I jumped out of the car as soon as we pulled up. I was about to run into the barn to saddle up Bob when I heard a shrill neigh.

   I followed the sound to the side of the barn, where a horse trailer was parked, and behind it was where the neighing was coming from.

   I peeked around the side of the horse trailer to see two big, scary-looking men fighting with a black stallion. The stallion had a white mane and tail and a white star, but the rest was pure black. It had to have been at least seventeen hands tall.  

   They pulled it to the ground as it reared. He threw back his hind legs and tried to rear again; they pulled it hard, this time jerking it forward. The men were obviously having a hard time getting the stallion into the small, round pen, and were frustrated. They had almost gotten the stallion into the pen when it reared again and kicked his heels at the same time as jumping to the side, almost pulling him free, but not quite. This infuriated the men and they yanked the rope, causing the stallion to charge at them; they jumped to the side, barely managing to keep hold of the rope.

   I was furious at the people, especially the two men; they were being so cruel! If I wasn’t afraid for my life, I would have gone up to them and majorly chewed them out. But I couldn’t do that; the horse would probably kill me.

   They finally managed to get the horse in the pen and slammed the gate shut, leaving the halter and lead rope in the horse. This, I knew, was a very bad idea; the horse could get the halter or lead-rope caught on something and kill itself during the night.

   The men turned around and started heading back to the horse trailer.

   I ducked behind it and ran back to the barn.

   Once inside the barn, I went straight to Bob’s stall. I was about to get his tack out when Zach’s voice stopped me.

   “Avery, wait.”

   I turned. “What?”

   “You’re not going to ride Bob today; I’m going to have you ride Rocket.”

   “Okay, but why?”   

   “Because I noticed that you did really well with Bob and so I’m upgrading you to Rocket; she’s a bit wilder, but she’s an excellent jumper and one of the fastest horses here.”  

   I nodded. “Okay, thank you; where is she?”  

   He showed me a horse that was about fifteen hands high, and a chestnut. She was pretty, but her colors looked dull compared to the stallion I’d seen.

   I was in the middle of saddling her up when I heard a voice behind me.

   “You got Rocket?” It was a boy that looked about my age with a slight Italian accent, looking at me disbelievingly.

   I nodded cautiously. “Yeah… why?”

   He shook his head slowly. “Because I had to wait two years before I got Rocket, and here you are, getting to ride her in one day!” he laughed.

   “Thanks,” I said. “What horse do you have?”

   “I have Topsy-Turvy; He’s really wild; I’m more training him rather than riding him.” He glanced at his watch. “Sorry, I have to go saddle him up. See you ‘round.” And with that he walked away.

   I finished saddling up Rocket and led her out.

   I found that Rocket was slightly jumpy, but listened easily. I rubbed her neck and trotted her into the pen.

   From here I could barely see the stallion, but I could hear him as if he was standing not two feet away, and this was making the horses nervous.

   I trotted over to the boy I was talking to earlier; Topsy-Turvy reared and he nearly fell backwards, but stayed in the saddle long enough for his horse to come back down.

   “Wow,” I said, and he looked over at me. “You’re a really good rider.”

   He smiled. “Thanks, but that stallion is making Topsy-Turvy crazy.”

   I raised my eyebrows. “Or so I’ve noticed.”

   Topsy-Turvy started bucking and the boy slipped off him to gain better control.

   I hadn’t noticed until now that Rocket was being strangely calm. “Is Rocket usually this calm?” I asked him.

   He shook his head. “No, she’s actually really calm right now. But be careful, she likes to trick people into thinking she’s calm and then taking them my surprise when she wants something.”

   “Smart horse,” I commented.

   He nodded absentmindedly. “You know, I don’t think you ever told me your name, what is it?”  

   “Avery,” I answered. “And you are…?”

   “I’m Aaron,” he answered, getting back on Topsy-Turvy.

   “How old are you?”

   “Ten, why?”

   He just shook his head. “No reason really, but I’m ten too.”

   I was about to say something, but Zach cut me off by saying, “Okay, everyone, we’re going to cut lessons short today; we have to get that stallion over there taken care of before someone gets hurt, okay?”

   Everyone groaned, and I got back in line.

   “Don’t worry; we’ll catch up tomorrow.”

   We all nodded silently. But I spoke up, “What are you going to do with the horse?” I asked; this really bothered me. The horse was so beautiful, smart, and had great potential. It deserved to be taken care of, and put in a good home.

   Zach sighed sadly. “The horse is going to have to be put down. It’s just too wild and unruly, and could hurt someone very badly, very easily.”

   I gasped. They can’t do that! I thought. I have to help it.

   I composed my face and managed a forced nod.

   I spent the rest of the riding lesson conspiring ways how to get the horse out of there before they could put it down.

   The riding lesson was about over when the stallion, which had been quiet before, neighed loudly.

   Rocket reared and charged towards it at a flat-out gallop, jumping the fence. I had never jumped so high before, but I managed to keep my seat.

   She charged towards the stallion ruthlessly, not slowing a bit; she wouldn’t even respond when I pulled back on the bridle; I didn’t want to pull to hard, incase I accidentally hurt her.

   Finally, deciding that I probably was less likely to survive if I let rocket get into the pen, I pulled my feet out of the stirrups and jumped off. It was a hard fall to the ground, but I hit the ground rolling the way I had learned on survival shows when you get rim-rocked,  to avoid hurting myself too badly, and managed to get back up.

   I looked up to see that Aaron and Zach were galloping towards me.

   Aaron told Zach to go get Rocket while he made sure I was okay.

   He stopped and got off Topsy-Turvy, but still holding onto his bridle. “You okay?” He asked.

   I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

   “Come on, let’s go back.”

   “Aaron, can you do me a huge favor?” I asked once we started walking.

   “Umm… that depends… what is it?”   

   “It’s about that stallion; I want to help it, but I don’t know how.”

   He thought. “I’ve been thinking the same thing; we can’t just let them kill that horse because it’s wild; I mean, what did it ever do wrong besides what it was taught?”

   I smiled. “Thanks for understanding; I don’t think anyone else does.”

   “Same here. But if we’re going to put this much effort into saving him, we should give him a name.”

   I nodded thoughtfully. “You know, his white mane and tail against his black body do kind of look like lightning.”

   He smiled. “Lightning! That’s a perfect name!” 

   I smiled, but that smile soon vanished. “We still need a plan though.”

   He thought for a moment, then said, “I have an idea, I brilliant one!”

   “What is it?”

   “I’ll tell you later, or someone might hear, but meet me here at midnight, okay?”

   “I’m not sure I’ll be able to; I live five miles down the road.”

   He thought for a moment. “I’ll come get you; I live just down there.” He pointed to a big house about a quarter mile down.

   “Wait, though,” I said as he started to turn away. “I refuse to agree to this until I know exactly what your plan is.”

   He looked around to make sure nobody was in earshot. “My plan is to steal Lightning at midnight and take him to my house; my parents never go into the barn except under certain circumstances.”

   I thought for a moment to make sure it was foolproof. “Okay, sounds good.”

   This was probably a stupid idea, not to mention that we could easily get in huge trouble if we got caught, but that wasn’t going to stop me if I had a chance to save Lightning.