Legacy

Chapter One-2-1

AFTER SAYING A QUICK hello to Harley and grabbing a bagel on her way out of the dining hall, Lucy pulled her jacket closer as she walked down to the barn. She didn't want to bother Harley for a ride, and couldn't bring her bike because it was still the end of January, and snow was still lingering on the ground. Lucy didn't mind the walk, though. It was all of fifteen minutes—only a little longer than it was going to take her to walk to her new math class on a daily basis, so she was going to have to get used to walking longer distances eventually.

Lucy made her way up the long driveway, stopping at the font pasture to say hello to Dee, who had stuck her head over the fence when she had seen Lucy arrive.

"Hey, girl. Did you miss me?" Lucy asked, laughing as the chestnut mare tried to take the rest of her bagel from her hand, "That's not for you, sorry. I'm sure you've had plenty to eat all day."

Turning away from the field, Lucy walked the rest of the way past the house, and around to the barn, where the horses inside greeted her with familiar whinnies. But Lucy didn't want to waste any more time—she had one destination, and she wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

As it turned out, though, Lucy didn't even need to go all the way to the office before she found Elise, who was in the middle of the aisle, no doubt fixing up the lesson board for tomorrow's schedule. Before Lucy had even made it within earshot of the senior, Elise had turned at the sound of footsteps, and Lucy could have sworn that the blonde's face lit up the slightest bit when she saw that it was Lucy.

"Hey," Elise said with a smile.

"Hi," Lucy replied, giving a small wave. But then a tiny spark of uncertainty settled like nerves in her stomach as she realized with dread that she didn't know what else to say. She hadn't seen the senior in almost a month...hadn't talked to Elise in almost a month.

Please, please, please don't let me revert back to being an awkward person who lacks communication skills, Lucy thought while she willed her mind to cooperate.

"So what brings you down here? Don't you still work on Thursdays and Sundays?" Elise asked, turning back to the board.

Lucy only shrugged, although the blonde couldn't necessarily see it, "Yeah, but I thought I'd stop by to see the horses. And...to see you. You know, since it's been a month and all..."

Really, Lucy? Now you just sound attached—

"It has been a while, hasn't it," Elise mused aloud, cutting off Lucy's train of thought. Elise still had her back turned to Lucy when she continued to speak, her voice sounding somewhat distant, "You'd be surprised. A lot has changed."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

Elise shrugged, "Well, not a lot has really changed. But to me it's a big deal, I guess."

"Well..." Lucy started tentatively, "What is it?"

"My parents...sold Lance."

"Wait, already?" Lucy was confused, "Why?"

"When they came back from Germany and saw that I'd done virtually nothing with him, and that I hadn't made any progress with him, they decided that he was too much for me to handle. And they wanted to sell him while he was still worth at least what they'd paid for him—before he would be 'of less value'," when Elise spoke the last phrase, she sounded more disgusted than upset.

"Oh," Lucy said, "I'm sorry."

"I guess in the long run it might be beneficial. Now I can focus all of my time on Legacy. And we'll be able to go farther in a shorter amount of time..." Elise trailed off.

"Well, that's a great thing, isn't it?" Lucy said, always one to look on the bright side.

"Yes...and no," Elise answered.

Once again, Lucy was confused, "I really don't see how that's a bad thing. You just said yourself that it's beneficial."

"It's good for Legacy. She'll be able to learn a lot more now that I'm solely focused on her but..." Elise trailed off once more looking to the marker in her hand instead of at Lucy, "You know what, never mind. It's nothing."

Oh, no. You don't get to just start telling me something and then keep it from me. I may not have seen you for a month but that doesn't mean that you get to go back to closing yourself off.

"It's not nothing," Lucy said, her tone serious, "Clearly it's bothering you. And I'm here to listen. You can tell me."

Anything.

Elise sighed, bringing her blue eyes to meet Lucy's once more, "I don't want to lose her."

At Elise's sudden confession, Lucy was slightly shocked. She needed a moment to let everything sink in—to realize what exactly Elise was talking about, but then she understood, and simply said, "Oh."

"If I spend all of my time with Legacy, and put all of my effort into training her...she'll be sold in a matter of months. And I don't really know why, but she means a lot to me. Even though we don't exactly get along. She's the only training project I've worked with longer than a semester, and I honestly feel like once we get past the problem at the canter, we could be a fairly good team. She's a wonderful horse, with so much potential, and I want to be able to continue to train her. I want to be the one to continue to show her. I just...I really, really don't want to lose her," Elise finished, her voice no more than a whisper, a small tear in the corner of one eye threatening to fall.

Wow, Lucy thought, she really does care about that horse.

"Well," Lucy said eventually (as she really wasn't sure what to say to that at all), "Have you ever thought about asking you parents to...you know...keep her?"

Elise shrugged, "I've given it some thought. But I don't think I ever could. They'd only say no."

"But how would you know unless you try?" Lucy asked, but as soon as the question was out of her mouth, she had the urge to face-palm.

God, could you be any more cliché?

Elise only shook her head, and the words she spoke next were ones laden with bitterness and resent, "They've taken every single horse I've ever worked with away from me—what would make this time any different?"

Lucy really had no answer for the senior, but before she could come up with even a decent response, Elise said, "But for the time being, I have to do what I have to do. My parents are here for a week and a half before they're heading out again to God knows where, and if they don't see that I have at least a decent plan for Legacy's training while they're here, they'll ship her off as quickly as they sold Lance. So..." Elise trailed off again. But she continued to look Lucy in the eye when she spoke again, although her words came out slightly unsure, "I'm kind of glad you came down here, because...I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh," Lucy said, slightly surprised, "Okay, what is it?"

"I was wondering if you'd be willing to...help me with Legacy."

"You—you want me to help train her?" Lucy asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Elise said, "I was hoping that you'd be able to start by helping me with my...uh...problem, I guess. Because it's certainly not helping anything."

Pulling on the reins. Having too much control, Lucy thought, an easily identified problem...but also one that's not as easily fixed.

"I...yeah...I think I can do that," Lucy stammered, still amazed that the senior had come to her of all people for help, "When do you want to start?"

"I'd prefer it to be after my parents left. Not that I don't want them to think I'm getting help because, really, I couldn't care less if they knew. Actually, I'll probably tell them before they leave, and that way they can see that I have a better plan with Legacy than I had with Lance. But I just...don't like to ride when they're around. It's inevitable, I guess, because they want to see my current progress with Legacy before they leave again. But I can't stand them being around when I'm working on training," Elise explained.

"How come?" Lucy said, and then added quickly, "If you don't mind me asking."

Lucy was pleased when the senior didn't hesitate to answer her question, "It just makes me uncomfortable. They're constantly critiquing, scrutinizing, waiting for me to mess up. I know it seems ridiculous—that's how all horse shows work, with judging and whatnot but...It's different. It's like...I'm still that perfect little girl who longs for their approval. There's the constant need to live up to their standards—their standards that have suddenly become my standards. And I'm not so sure that I want them to be my standards anymore."

Lucy only nodded her head, "That's understandable. And believe me, I couldn't agree more. Seeing horses as profit and profit alone isn't the way I'd approach the business. Even if it is a somewhat common opinion."

Elise shrugged, "Well, until the business is completely mine, there's nothing I can do about it."

"But there is," Lucy argued.

"How?" Elise asked.

"If you can convince your parents to let you keep Legacy, that's a step in the right direction. If you can show them how much she means to you—if you can convince them that she's worth more than just money...it'll be a start."

While Lucy was dead set in her opinion, Elise looked away, unable to meet the redhead's determined gaze, "Or I'll try to do that, and then they'll sell her in the blink of an eye because they don't want me to think that way."

Lucy sighed. That was a fair point—as much as Lucy hated to admit it to herself. And although the senior had looked away, Lucy could see that the single tear that had appeared in Elise's eye before had once again returned. But this time, it fell. And as it slid half way down the senior's face, Lucy knew that it betrayed everything that defined Elise's life. Showing emotion—emotion that went far beyond actions and words.

And without really thinking, Lucy reached out with her left hand, and brushed the tear gently way from Elise's face. The senior flinched slightly at the contact, but Lucy didn't retract her hand until Elise had relaxed. And when she did, Lucy said, "Elise, look at me."

It took a moment, but the senior's gaze once again shifted to Lucy's own, and Lucy continued with a surge of confidence, "I know how it feels to care about something. And I know how it feels when it seems as though that one thing that you care about is going to be ripped away from you at any given second. And I am not going to let your parents take Legacy away from you. We're going to train that horse—make the two of you the best team out there. And I don't care how long it takes. We're not going to give up until Legacy is rightfully yours. Got it?"

Because I care about you. So much.

The nod that Elise gave her was one that was barely visible. She just looked so upset, and deflated...and Lucy didn't like that. At all. And so, again without really thinking, Lucy reached over to Elise, and wrapped her arms around the senior in a hug. And if Lucy had thought that Elise had only flinched at her touched before, well now Elise had gone completely rigid.

"What are you doing?" Elise asked, but the words seemed to come out almost absentmindedly, as Lucy could see—no feel—that most of the senior's effort was focused on trying to relax.

"Giving you a hug, what do you think I'm doing?" Lucy replied, "You know, it's supposed to make people feel better? Relieve stress?"...show someone how much you care about them..."Or my personal favorite—make up for the crazy insanity of life. Is it working?"

"Believe me," Elise was laughing now, the tension completely gone from her body, "It's working wonders."

When Lucy went to the lesson board the following night and saw that she had been assigned to Dee, she couldn't have been more pleased. Lucy took her time grooming the chestnut mare, spending as much quality time with the horse as she could. She really had missed Dee a lot more than she had let on yesterday, and even slipped the mare a carrot before tacking up.