Sterling's Daughter

Three days later:

"But Mum..." Laya whined.
"Listen, I know you want to ride Tempo, but he isn't completely settled with a rider on his back," Mum explained. "Seriously, Laya, I need you to understand this."
"I stayed on Juno when she tried to buck me off," Laya said as a last resort. Okay, so that wasn't entirely true. Juno had been frightened by a bunch of birds and Laya had totally lost control as the mare had galloped for her life. But she had stayed on, if that made any difference. Mum hadn't been around to witness that. Laya watched as her mother's eyes narrowed.
"Good job," Mum said. "Now stop letting her buck, and get her going nicely for you. Once she's listening to you, and I've witnessed it, you may ride Tempo."
Laya sighed. Nothing, no matter how she tried, seemed to work with her mother.
"Fine," she grumbled.
"Now hurry up and eat your breakfast, or you'll miss the bus for the second time this week," Mum commanded.
All day, the only thing Laya could think of how was she and Juno would perfect their workout this afternoon. Juno would go along quietly without bucking, she'd listen to every command that Laya gave her, and she wouldn't try to bite every horse she passed.
All through the tedious science lecture the teacher gave the class, Laya sketched portraits of first Tempo, then Juno.
"Nice," a low voice said to one side of her. Startled, Laya quickly dumped her pencil case over her sketches to hide them. She wasn't keen on someone seeing the things she drew, even if it was just a horse. She looked up and around, and her eyes landed on Will. He was peering at her pencil case hiding the sketches.
She couldn't help but stare. Oh, so he was complimenting her now? What was the deal with him? Just when she thought his eyes weren't going to leave her pencil case, they snapped up and met hers. Laya felt the colour rise up into her cheeks so she hastily mustered up a sour look which she directed his way. He grinned back lazily.
Laya almost sprinted from the science room once the bell rang, and almost sent the teacher flying head first into the ground as she went.
"Hey, wait up!" Kirsty called, but Laya didn't stop. She needed to think. Cute guys always caused her to lose her thoughts, no matter how much she tried to hide it by being a jerk to them.
Avoiding Kirsty didn't last long, because at lunch, Laya found herself cornered by her friend.
"Okay, so what was that about in the science room?" Laya was sure there was a smile twitching at Kirsty's lips.
"What do you mean?" Laya chewed her bottom lip and focused on her lunch. Kirsty allowed herself to smirk widely.
"You were staring at Will for a long, long time," she droned.
"I was not!" Laya raised her voice, then clamped her mouth shut. She wasn't quite sure what she should say.
"Yes, you were," Kirsty grinned. "And then you barrelled out of the room in such a fluster. If he'd pulled some nasty joke on you, you'd be all for swiping off his head. But, oh no, Laya Sterling was out of there at top speed. I think you two kind of have this love hate relationship."
Laya's mouth fell open in shock.
"Are you saying...?" she began in horror. "I do NOT like Will Hamilton, Kirsty Nielson. You are full of so much crap."
Kirsty giggled gleefully.
"The way you get along with guys is by fighting with them, isn't it?" she said. "And this super cute guy comes along and says something nice to you, and whoosh! Laya sees their nice side. Wow! I betcha you never saw that one coming."
"Clearly not," Laya groaned. "Anyway, were you eavesdropping?"
"Absolutely not," Kirsty said, way too innocently. "Just leaning a little too much to the right was all."
Laya sighed heavily.
"Kirsty, let's just get one thing clear. One thing. So are you listening?" Laya leaned close to her friend as she nodded. "I do not like Will. I never have and never will. Never. Will. Are we clear?"
"If you say so," Kirsty smiled brightly. "And by the way, that was the most atrocious pun I've ever heard of."