A Jump Over the Water

I slowly opened my eyes as the bright sunlight tickled at my eyelashes. I glanced around me, trying to grasp at my surroundings. I was in Cameron’s arms, my head on his chest and his chin resting on my head. His eyes were closed firmly shut and his breath was coming in and out in perfection.
I pushed myself into a sitting position and just watched him, smiling to myself. As if he could feel my eyes on him, his eyelids fluttered open and when he caught me watching him, he smiled.
‘Good morning!’ he whispered, still smiling.
‘Well, good morning Mr.Quiseng. Sleep well?’ I asked back, his smile rather infectious.
‘Hm, rather well, although this person kept wriggling…’ he said simply before tickling me.
‘no…don’t..please Cameron…YOU KNOW I’M REALLY TICKLISH’ I screamed at him between my laughter.
He flipped me over so he was laying above me, his lips inches away.
‘Fancy some bacon?’ I breathed out.
‘Sure thing’ he whispered back before kissing my lips gently.
I pushed him off me and skipped out of the compartment, laughing to myself.
‘Someone is rather happy today’ Michael exclaimed, looking over at Zach and smirking.
‘Oh Mikey, why wouldn’t I be happy when I get to spend a full weekend with you?’ I exclaimed before sitting on his lap and messing with his hair.
He just grumbled at me.
‘You shouldn’t tease him so much you know!’ Zach said to me, the laughter evident in his eyes.
‘He loves it’ I simply stated whilst poking his dimples. Cameron came and sat next to me, gently pulling me into his lap instead.
The zip to Grace’s compartment started to move and as we all glanced up, a restless looking Grace appeared, clearly having had little sleep.
‘I was last to get up?’ she stated simply, looking around the tent.
‘Yup’ Zach replied, subtly winking at her. Grace’s cheeks flushed a slight pink as she hurried out of the tent. I caught Cameron’s eye and he just gave a confused shrug. I would find out what happened later.
A couple of minutes later, Nathan walked in with plates bursting at the edges full of full-english breakfasts.
‘Can this weekend get ANY better?’ I smiled to myself as I tucked into the breakfast. The sound of laughter echoed around the tent as the boys all watched me stuff my face.
Cameron and Zach claimed that they were going for a walk around the site whilst myself, Michael and Nathan stayed to eat our breakfasts, Grace still getting cleaned up.
Once we had finished, we moved outside and sat in a circle on the grass, Grace coming over to see what we were doing. As she reached us, she started walking around the circle, tapping each of our heads saying ‘duck’ every time her hand came into contact with one of us. I knew instantly what she was doing and smiled even bigger.
As her hand touched my head, she screamed ‘Goose’ and started running. I jumped up from the floor and chased her round, grabbing her before she had chance to sit down and then bursting into my own little victory dance.
As we finally calmed down, we looked over to Nathan and Michael to see them staring at us with such a look of confusion on their faces that we couldn’t help but laugh again.
‘What on earth just happened?’ Nathan asked, raising his eyebrows in our direction.
‘I can’t believe you don’t know what duck duck goose is, it is quite possibly the best game ever, and probably the simplest too.’ Grace stated, still giggling to herself.
After explaining the rules, we sat and played duck duck goose for about an hour until Cameron and Zach appeared.
Whilst Grace explained the rules to them, I stood and walked over to the paddock in which the horses were in. Bess was curled up on the floor, dozing silently whilst Jess stood over her, watching her almost. They had the closest of bonds I had ever seen with two horses that weren’t blood related. I walked over and gave Jess a mint from my pocket, stroking her noze gently.
Bess opened her eyes as I sat down next to her, carefully stroking her soft face.
‘I miss you two, you never cease to amaze me!’ I whispered softly whilst looking both of them in the eye.
Bess whinnied back at me and shook her head, I stood up and walked over to her side, gently stroking her all over before sliding one leg over her back. I wrapped my hands in her mane and breathed in her scent. Before I knew it, she threw her front legs forward and pulled herself up from the floor. I let my legs dangle gently at her side as I kept my fingers tightly wrapped in her mane. I nudged her left side with my foot and applied some pressure with my knee, making her turn left almost instantly, Jess following close behind. I smiled and tried it with the other leg, Bess instantly turning right.
This was the very first time I had ever rode a horse without a bridle or a saddle and yet, for some reason, I felt so safe, like Bess would take care of me no matter what. I nudged her forward with my heels and let my body move with hers. I eased her into a trot, turning her left and then right, simply using my legs. Feeling in total control, I eased her into a canter and aimed her in a large circle around the paddock. Jess was cantering on the outside of Bess, as if there was an invisible rope attaching them together, both of them moving in perfect synchronisation.
Smiling to myself, I let my hands untangle themselves from Bess’ mane and held them straight out either side of me. From here, I could touch Jess’ back, still cantering round in circles.
Feeling even better, I put my hands on Bess’ back again and pushed my legs up, gently making myself stand up, arms still straight out. I was now standing on Bess’ back, arms wide out and she was still cantering around, Jess still directly next to her. Neither of them bothered in the slightest. Slowly and gently, I reached out my right leg so that my right foot was now resting on Jess’ back too. I felt like I was flying, I closed my eyes and laughed. The horses still cantering around in perfect sync, not even breaking a sweat.
After another lap, I pulled my leg back onto Bess and slowly lowered myself back into a seated position, and easing Bess back to a walk. Once Bess had came to a standstill, I gave her a big sloppy pat and eased myself down from her back, giving them both some mints from my pockets.
‘Well, that was something!’ came a voice from behind me.
I turned around, shocked to see the four boys and Grace standing watching me from behind a tree, the blush overwhelming my face.
‘bloody hell Chaice, that just about blew my breath away!’ Grace exclaimed, walking over to Jess and giving her a big hug.
I looked up shyly from behind my hair toward the boys.
‘I never knew you were all watching me!’ I whispered, feeling kind of stupid now.
‘Chaice, that was amazing! It’s so weird, every single horse seems to be your best friend! You connect with them almost instantly, it’s so strange!’ Zach exclaimed, the shock standing out on his face and in his voice.
‘It’s like you’re a horse whisperer or something!’ Mikey said simply, laughing.
‘I don’t whisper to horses, I just listen to them’ I said back, smiling.