Undefined

Deep Breath, Shes just a girl

I stared at my now little made up guest house, moving things from one place to another because the room didn't look exactly right. Tyler sat in the corner where he made up a small bed of just blankets, playing his guitar. He was so excited that even at midnight he couldn't hold still. There was a small sense of pride in my brother at that moment, I don't know where it came from but I enjoyed it. When we got back to the house, Alex went back to doing whatever she had been doing before the interviews today and i was ashamed to say that I missed her. I stared at my brother for a moment, then decided to walk outside. Maybe I could clear my head, get her off my mind.

The sky was clear and bright, filled with the moon and stars. The sky actually looked like the galaxy had picked this exact place to empty its beautiful waste. The woods met the lawn and let gentle waving shadows spill over in the blue light. As a small child I was afraid of forests at night, something about my grandmothers woods on her horse farm and the creepy feeling it let you with. But here I didn't get the same feeling. Here the woods were calm and soft, you could see through them and where you were going if you traveled through them at night. I came to the edge of my lawn and the pavement.

"Hey." I heard a small whisper. I could just barely see Alex in the rocking chair on the porch. Her hair was braided back over her shoulder, she had changed into a sweatshirt and blue jeans, and brown Justin boots. Now she looked like a normal person, a normal beautiful person. I walked up the steps and stood in front of her to take her in better. The breeze wasn't too cold, but it set a perfect reason to wear a hoodie in the least.

"Tyler is playing his guitar to impress Jessie. What are you doing out here?" I asked. She looked past me at something in the trees, lost for a moment in time. Her look was slightly haunting until she met my eyes again and all was washed away in their gold tint.

"I used to live here all alone, I do this every night." She whispered. Crickets made soft sounds, quieter than in the city, the land was really that peaceful. I thought back to the sunset as we came back here in the after noon. The pink and yellow swirled so gently that it made me speechless. Alex said the evening thunderstorms from the back porch were even better.

"Well, maybe I'll sit with you at night from now on." I said quietly. She smiled which made me relax, as did many of her smiles. She seemed to me in the time before meeting her, that she were a clearly dark person, however, now that I had gotten into her personal space many a time, I could see exactly what others missed.

"I was just gonna get up and show you the rest of the property, I finished my barn chores a few minutes ago and just decided to sit for a moment. I brought two horses up." She stood up and waved me to fallow. We walked around the garage to two horses, fully tacked, standing in the yard. One was a large Dun buckskin, the other was a small black filly with white socks and a blazed face. The male raised his head with a lot of masculinity. For a moment my breath caught, but being raised around horses, I knew that the feeling was him being a stallion and their way of looking at you like you were nothing.

"Wow." I said walking up to the girl. Alex smiled, she pulled herself up onto the duns saddle and buckled her boots into the stirups. I mad a mental note of the buckles as I pulled myself up and turned her to fallow Alex's horse. She led me down a narrow path through the trees and once again my breath caught. The woods were dark and thick, anything could be hiding around the trees. My skin prickled with fear before I realized that I wasn't in danger if the horses weren't afraid. I let out a shaky breath, my past would never leave me.

"See, its so peaceful and quiet out here that the deer and other animals don't know that they should be afraid of people." As she said this, a herd of deer came running before they stopped short of us and watched curiously. I looked at them as crazy as they looked at me, paying no attention to Alex.

"That is really amazing. Does anyone try to hunt them?" I asked. She shot me a nasty look. I instantly bowed my head, ashamed.

"No, the property has a high fence around it. I've not gotten far enough out on my property to find it tho. Kick it up." She kicked her horse into a trot as the trail widened, making my horse jump for the chase. After a few minutes we came to a driveway. "That way is the road, same gate as the front of the house, nothing short of a tank can get through them." I nodded slowly.

"Perfect."

"Perfection is the disease of the nation." She picked up her reins and turned her horse to the right, I had the overwhelming feeling that I was losing her interest. She seemed to have this habit of taking offense to random things. I hung my head again, sighing before kicking the filly to get next to her and cut her off. The stallion hopped in anger. She narrowed her eyes and pulled him back gently.

"You had a perfect show string of Jersey dairy cattle, and the fastest moving horses in the whole state. Your cows won supreme world champion for years, So you know perfection." I whispered and stared right back at her. She threw her black braid over her shoulder, spinning the horse without the rein to calm him down, all leg. The look on her face told me that she didn't want me to know that, that I shouldn't know that. But her fame was everywhere, and it leaked into my life long before I had applied for this job.

"I know you seen my office, but you need to know that the reason I started music was because I was tired of perfection being the reason that people hurt each other. The other thing that no one knows, is that I created these animals by studying in my science and Ag classes and also listening to my grandpa. I worked, WORKED for all of this! Perfection isn't real!" I smiled at her, she narrowed her eyes and then rolled them. She kicked the horse into a sprint and I fallowed, almost dislodging myself. I found her at a locked fence, off her horse and unlocking the chain that was wrapped around it.

"You must have a lot to look back on to have a barn locked up like that." I jumped down from the saddle. We walked through the gate and into the barn, up a small incline to a row of stalls. The barn was old, but re-enforced with steel so it didn't fall down.

"Sweet Pea goes in that end one...I have more than miles in my rear view mirror when I leave for the road...but to look back on? No. I left for a reason, once in a great while my family calls to congratulate me on some big award. Once June hits I stop going on the road so I can teach and watch the 4-H clubs I took over take the blue ribbons." She smiled softly while she thought about it, removing horse tack and stacking it in a small room. I smiled too. Something about how her face lit up over the things she was passionate about. It was infectious.

"So is he your breeding stallion?" I pointed at the Dun stallion reaching his head out of the stall. His black mane was so long that I thought it came to his knees. Alex handed him an alfalfa cube and rubbed his face.

"Yes and no, Spirit is worth a huge net weight, championships and all that. He happens to be my perfect animal, one I created some what illegally." She reached for scissors and snipped his mane short in few moves till he had a mohawk and throwing it in a large bag. "tailspin bracelets, sell them at the concerts, little girls love them." Other horses stuck their heads out, all mohawked but Sweet Pea. "I don't cut her mane that short, she is shown for color, my niece would kill me." I looked at her suddenly.

"Niece?" I asked, my excitement building slightly. She smiled suddenly really happy.

"Serenity...Come here." she lead me into the tack room where there were black framed pictures hanging up on the wall, a lot of them. At the top was a little girl that looked like a small native girl. She was standing with the small black and white filly in western attire. Alex pointed at her. "That's her, she and Sweet Pea are my high points. They compete in western pleasure and trail and call kinds of western contests, she refuses to do any English." I smiled at the picture, not all that much older than my niece.

"My niece, Aya, she loves horses too, but she is much too young to ride." I bowed my head a little. "She would love it here, my sister too. Kim teaches kids to ride, but at their homes in the afternoon and they don't ever pay her enough..." Alex was staring at my face, she fingered a hole in her sweatshirt for a minute.

"Well that is just too bad." She motioned for me to fallow her down the ramp to the main barn. Cows lifted their heads from eating hay, Alex petted a couple before motioning for me to fallow her into that tack room, the same pictures covered the wall with some different kids but at the top were two kids, Serenity, and a little blonde boy. In this picture the little girl was standing with a Jersey cow, large and serene, Serenity held the leather lead while the cow stood royally. "That is her and Patriot. She is only a clover bud...but man is she beautiful at everything. That's her brother, Trey and his calf, Specter." the cow in the picture with the boy was small and licking his face. I laughed out loud.

"Aya wouldn't do that." I looked at Alex and smiled. She smiled back, touching her eyes for the first time since we came out here.

"We should get back, I have emails to write and classes to prepare for tomorrow and a concert." She placed her fingers on her temples, laughing slightly. "I do too much!" I smiled down at her.

"You are too much!"

"Is that a problem?!" She hissed playfully, hands on her hips. I laughed again, she was just drop dead adorable.

"No, it's not." I whispered.

*****

Alex POV.

The house was quiet as I scrolled through Brian's f*******:. I felt like a stalker, but at the same time....I didn't care. I was about to do a nice thing that would also solve my problem of a shitty teacher. I found his sister easily, then scrolled through her bio to find her email address.

Dear Kimberlynn Davenport,

My name is Alexandria Harrely, and I have an Issue. Being on the road in the fall and winter months, I have to leave my equine students with a teacher until I return in June. My current teacher that I pay a large sum of money to do her work doesn't show up most of the time, nor teach what my students need. I previously employed your brother, Brian, who dropped a small hint that you are a equine teacher and are very good at it. I understand that you have other students, and they may also come along to tour my ranch tomorrow as well as come have lessons here. I also need the help when I am here to divide my children. Class starts at 12 o'clock sharp! Saturday and Sunday. I hope to see you there....

RavenHead Ranch

White Rose

Alexandria Harrely

Pressing send, I threw myself backwards in the chair. Tomorrow was going to be a long day!