A Jump Over the Water

I turned around slowly and started walking back towards my house. It felt like my heart had just smashed into a million tiny pieces. This was ridiculous, nothing had even happened with us two, god, I’d only known him a little over two weeks. How close we had become though, in so little time, he meant a lot to me. He was already like a brother to me, someone I trusted. He understood me.

I pushed open my garden gate and swiped a tear from my face. ‘don’t you dare start crying over a boy’ I mumbled to myself, I did not want to go down that route again, I was not reopening that box of memories. As the gate swung shut behind me, I promised myself that I had to push all of the crap out of my head right that moment. Today was really important and one boy was not going to ruin that for me…

Once Biscuit was loaded into the trailer, my mom climbed into the drivers seat and I climbed into the passenger seat of my truck. My mom was driving so I could go over my dressage test for the final time. Ten minutes into the drive, I flicked the radio on and was shocked to hear an advert for Allstar Weekend, still being tuned into radio Disney.
‘Hey I’m Cameron and I’m from the band-’ that was all I needed to hear before switching it back to silence. I could see my mom throwing me glances out the corner of her eye but I continued to keep my gaze steady and straight in front, focusing on the road instead. She knew not to ask me about it, if I needed to talk to anyone about it, I’d go to her and that’s how it had always been.

After another ten minutes, we pulled into the car park at the riding school. I climbed into the trailer to get changed into my show clothes whilst my mom unloaded Biscuit and started to work on taking Biscuits travel bandages off. Within twenty minutes, Biscuit was gleaming and I had got changed and was just stepping out of the trailer when I heard a sharp intake of breath. I looked up to see the Allstar Weekend boys minus Cameron. I raised my eyebrow at them and gave them a questioning look.

‘we’re here!’ Michael exclaimed.

‘I can see that Michael, but the question in my head right now is why?’ I laughed at them.

‘We wanted to come see you in action in hope that you may come to one of our concerts one day’ Zach said excitedly.

I laughed and gave them all a hug. ‘you already know what it is’ I blurted out and started giggling. The boys all stared at me with their mouth wide open, then all in perfect timing with each other, burst into hysterics.

‘as if you just done a better impression of Michael then even he can do! High five me gurl!’ Nathan laughed. I slapped my hand to his and laughed. Maybe today wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

I swung myself carefully up into my saddle and nudged Biscuits sides ever so slightly. We had been in the warm up arena for twenty minutes and I was finally feeling completely in the zone. The overhead speaker called my name and I pushed Biscuit into a trot into the arena. Here goes nothing…

As I finished my third piaffe, I knew I’d done my very best. Biscuit responded with clean, sharp movements and executed everything I asked her to do perfectly. I took my hat off and owed my head to signal to the judges I had now finished. I hadn’t realised quite how quiet it had been in there until the crowd erupted into cheers. I smiled and gave Biscuit a big sloppy pat as I trotted out of the arena. Competitors from all over the country had come to this show today to compete and it was really nice to see how other people rode over here and how they cared for their horses. I swung out my saddle and almost as soon as my feet hit the floor, I was engulfed in a huge hug from my mom. I laughed and hugged her back.
‘darling, that was incredible! The best I’ve ever saw you ride that test! Well done!’ she exclaimed. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, I was really happy with that performance. Just then I looked up to see Cameron standing stroking Biscuit with the brunette girl standing next to him. I tensed up and my mom immediately let go to look at my face. I looked at her and nodded, she knew the signal and walked away.

I walked to where Cameron and the girl were standing and gently reached out to grab Biscuits reigns. I looked up and caught Cameron’s eye, he looked pained, I could see it in his face.

‘oh my gosh! That ride was amazing! Like so goood!’ the girl standing next to him stated. I tore my eyes from Cameron’s face to look at her, she looked familiar but I couldn’t place her at all. She reached out to shake my hand and I gingerly gave her mine in return and gave her a small smile.

‘thank you!’ I said simply. I looked back to Cameron’s face to see his sad face had been replaced with a smug smile. ‘What?’ I asked him.

‘Chaice, meet my younger sister Anna. Anna meet my good friend, Chaice’. he said smiling.

My mouth dropped open. Oh. My God. All today had been over nothing, it wasn’t a girlfriend or anything, it was his younger sister! He had mentioned her a couple of times and how she’d been on holiday the last couple of weeks with a friend and her family. Of course, when I’d seen them this morning, I just assumed the worst. I realised now why she looked so familiar too, she looked so much like Cameron, they had the same eyes and the same mouth. I smiled and gave her another small wave. Just at that moment, Biscuit nudged my arm with her mouth.

‘I’l be back soon guys, I just got to go sort Biscuit out and cool her off. It was nice meeting you though Anna!’ I smiled as I clicked my tongue to Biscuit and headed over to the trailer. I really could not stop smiling now, could this day get any better?

Turns out it could, I came first place for my dressage test and second for my jumping. I had just finished doing the lap of honour on Biscuit in the arena when a group of people huddled around my trailer caught my eye. Once I’d collected my rosette, I rode out of the arena and straight over to where my mom was standing by my truck. I dismounted just in time to see Bridget and Nessa run at me and give me huge hugs. I laughed and they took Biscuit with my mom to cool her down for me and bandage her up ready for the journey home. Standing at the other side of my truck was the four Allstar Weekend boys and four other boys of whom I had never seen before. They looked slightly younger so I just assumed they were fans. I creeped over to them and launched myself onto Nathans back. Expecting him to scream, I was shocked when he stood stock still and just grabbed my legs and started spinning in circles. I was the one screaming instead, and laughing hysterically. When he finally put me down, I had to grab onto the closest person which turned out to be a boy with light brown hair.

‘uhm hey there, My names Zack’ he said smiling.

I waved at him and the other three boys, they all seemed nice.

‘Chaice, we kinda grew up with these four boys, haven’t seen them in forever though. You just met Zack, the other three are Jake, Nick and Trevor’ Zach smiled at me pointing each one out. I smiled at them and introduced myself. They all smiled and congratulated me on my ride. They were so sweet! I liked them already.

Just then, I saw Cameron glance at me from the corner of my eye. I turned to look at him and laughed.

‘Boy, YOU BETTER RUN!’ I screamed at him whilst running towards him laughing.

He turned around and sprinted in the direction of the arena across the grass. Thinking quickly, I decided to sprint across the car park, it would be quicker. I started running when suddenly two beams of light made me pause. I turned around and shielded my eyes just in time to see the front grill of a Horse lorry.

The next thing I knew, the air was peirced by the screeching or the tyres trying to stop on the gravel footpath. That was when it hit me, it felt like the wind had been knocked out of me completely, my head smacked into the concrete floor with a sickening crunch that made me feel sick. My body lurched forward and smacked itself into the floor with an almighty bang.

‘CHAICCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!’ I heard someone faintly scream.

The floor beneath me was spinning and everything was getting darker. Something trickled down my face and then, everything went black…