The Perfect Distance

Chapter Two-1

Chapter Two

"Lucy, it's all right. You did the best you could," Harley tried to console her after the tryouts were over, but nothing could keep Lucy from constantly reliving what felt like the most embarrassing thirty minutes of her life.

Lucy ran her fingers through Dee's copper mane, as the untacked horse stood silently in her stall, content with the attention.

And Lucy was content to say nothing, refusing to answer her friend.

"I'm going to wait outside. Come out when you're ready to go," Harley said finally.

Lucy sighed. She had yet to take Dee's tack back up to the tack room.

And she had no excuse for being rude to Harley—snapping at him the entire time she had untacked Dee. It wasn't his fault. He was right. It was going to be all right. And she had done the best that she could.

Mentally berating herself for both her performance and her reaction, Lucy juggled the saddle and the rest of Dee's tack and carried it upstairs.

As she was distracted, the redhead clumsily burst into the room, not looking where she was going, so it was no surprise when she (very ungracefully) walked right into a person who was walking towards the door.

And of course it was none other than the blonde rider she had seen in the arena before.

For the second time that day, she had walked into someone. That was a record, even for Lucy.

"I'm so sorry," Lucy's words were rushed, "I wasn't looking where I was going, and I was in a hurry because my friend is waiting to take me back to campus and I spent way too long untacking, and about before, with the martingale, I didn't see it and so I didn't realize that—"

"I'm around horses all the time. If I'm not getting kicked or stepped on or walked into then something would be wrong, wouldn't it?"

The words stopped Lucy's own, halting her rambling mouth abruptly; something that she didn't know that anything, or anyone, was capable of. She'd talked right over Lucy, which, in hind sight, Lucy found herself grateful for because she probably would have just continued to make a fool out of herself—but still!

And Lucy didn't know what to make of the tone the words held. Was she being sarcastic? Was she joking?

But before Lucy could dwell on it further, the blonde had already begun talking again.

"And about the martingale, I actually just had to put it back in the right place. One of the freshmen must have misplaced it during the morning tryouts. I found it where Legacy's bridle is supposed be. Lower classmen can be so irresponsible."

Yeah, Lucy thought. I'm a freshman. A very clumsy and crazy and nervous freshman, but I do my best to be responsible.

"But I need to get back downstairs. So if you don't mind..."

And Lucy realized that the entire time, she had been standing in the doorway, completely blocking the blonde rider from leaving.

"Oh."

That was all that Lucy could manage.

Stupid, stupid mouth.

Always blabbering nonstop until she needed it to work the most.

And who was this rider, anyway? Claiming that all lower classmen were irresponsible? Lucy was in no way irresponsible. In fact, she was inanely responsible; so much so that she had practically helped run the barn where she'd leased Chip!

But a quick, "Sorry," was all she said, and she moved forward into the tack room so that the blonde would have room to leave.

"I am a complete mess. And awful at making first impressions," Lucy muttered as soon as she was alone in the room, "But apparently not so bad as others."

She quickly put the saddle on its rack, and the bridle in its proper place.

She'd be lucky if she would even get to ride here at all, let alone make the team. As if her actual riding hadn't gone horribly enough, she already seemed to be making enemies.

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