“You look fantastic.”
Rachael’s mother snapped a few more pictures. They said good-bye and headed outside to Fred’s convertible Beamer.
“Is this your car?”
“Sure is.” Fred opened her door, then walked around the car to get behind the wheel.
When Rachael and Fred pulled up to the dance, there was a line of other students waiting to go through the security check, which was really intended to search for and confiscate beer, wine, and other alcohol, according to Shannah. She was also convinced that later the chaperones indulged in those same confiscated items themselves.
Rachael felt as if the entire line turned to watch her and Fred’s arrival. He parked up front and came around to open her door.
Fred and Rachael made their way up to the line, where they were greeted by all of her friends: Gabe and Shannah, Adam and Maysie, Clay and Amber, Travis and Trisha. Jason was there with some girl none of them knew. Ty was there with a girl who looked like a supermodel. Rachael even spied Ben waiting in line. He was there with a woman—yes, a woman—who looked to be a professional dancer of sorts.
What is that all about?
When Rachael caught a glimpse of Travis, he looked like he was about to blow a fuse. Was he angry? It sure looked like it.
After the security check, everyone found a table. Rachael suggested she and Fred sit at a table with his friends. He seemed to really like the idea.
Rachael immediately recognized a few of the guys from the pizza restaurant. A couple of minutes later, Alex and another friend of theirs from the dance team, Caitlin, arrived together. They didn’t have dates and had chosen to come stag instead. They came over and asked if they could join their table.
“Of course,” the guys responded politely.
“Thanks,” Alex said.
Rachael introduced Alex and Caitlin. Alex seemed to be immediately taken with Fred. Rachael thought it was sweet and hoped maybe something would come of it. Soon the music began. It was a DJ rather than a live band. In Rachael’s opinion, the use of a DJ was far superior to the use of a live band because of the variety of music a DJ could offer. You could listen to rock, rap, country, and even jazz. About three songs in, Fred suggested they dance.
And man could that boy dance! He could have even started his own boy band. Wow!
Rachael and Fred danced for the next hour until she begged for a break. Fred then asked if she minded if he asked Alex and Caitlin to dance a few fast songs.
“Of course not! Have fun!” she called as she made her way over to her seat. She wasn’t alone for long.
Travis came over to say hi and sat beside her without being invited to have a seat. “You look beautiful tonight, Rachael.”
“Thanks, Travis. You look very nice as well.”
“So it seems I was wrong about Fred.”
“About what exactly?”
“About him being safe. He is anything but.”
“He’s only dancing.”
“Yes, there’s that. Would you like to dance?”
“No, my feet are killing me.”
“Nonsense. I won’t take no for an answer. This is a dance after all.” Travis led her to the dance floor in time for a slow dance. “I may not have the moves of Fred Astaire over there, but I can dance.” He laughed lightly in her ear.
Rachael and Travis danced slowly, not saying a word.
Yep, avoidance wasn’t helping the feelings disappear. What next?
Next a voice from the side interrupted their dance. It was Maysie.
“May I cut in?”
“You want to dance with Rachael too?” Travis joked.
“No, silly, with you. Ty wants to dance with Rachael.”
“Sure do,” Ty said and twirled Rachael away.
“Thanks, little sister,” Rachael heard Travis mutter. “You always had impeccable timing.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about Travis,” she said innocently.
“Sure you don’t.”
At eleven o’clock, Ben and Trisha shared their Homecoming King and Queen dance. They both received crowns once again. Fred and Rachael left early, having turned down numerous invitations for after-parties, most of Fred’s coming from girls.
“Thank you, Fred, for coming to my rescue,” she said gratefully.
“No. Thank you, Rachael, for coming to mine. I have a date with Alex next Friday,” he said with a grin.
19
A FEW WEEKS LATER, normalcy had returned to Rachael’s everyday high school existence. She began her day with chores and ended it with either homework or dance practice. On Friday nights she had football games. On Saturdays she worked with Taffy. On Sunday afternoons she started training on how to ride horses with Maysie. They had talked about starting riding lessons before but had been so busy they didn’t follow through on the idea until now.
Maysie insisted on making her start on John. He was still the slowest horse alive but also the gentlest. For that reason, he was also the easiest to train on. Rachael rode John around Maysie’s round pen Sunday after Sunday, until one weekend when she arrived, there was another horse saddled in the barn and ready to go. The horse’s nameplate on the stall said Dakota. He was a gorgeous gray gelding.
Maysie entered the barn. “He’s my mom’s. We figured it was time for you to progress from old John to a younger, faster horse.”
“How much faster?” Rachael asked, worried.
“Not too fast. Besides, you’ll still be training in the round pen. He can’t run off with you. There’s nowhere to go.”
“That’s reassuring. Let’s get started.”
Maysie rode Pretty Girl into the round pen with her. She showed Rachael how to go from a walk, to a trot, to a canter, to a lope, and then how to slow back down through the same process.
Rachael could feel she was improving with each passing Sunday. Last week she’d learned to back John up with a “soft feel” and neck rein. Today she was loping—in perfect time with her horse! After an hour on horseback, Maysie decided it was time to show her some groundwork.
Rachael and Maysie unsaddled their horses and changed them from their headstalls and reins to halters with very long lead ropes. After putting away their tack, they led their horses back out to the round pen. Maysie instructed Rachael to tie her horse outside the round pen. Maysie then led Pretty Girl into the round pen. Rachael followed and took a seat on the top rail.
“You’ll find varying opinions on the necessity of groundwork. I think it’s essential to horse training. My brother disagrees. So I’ll show you some things that have worked for me, and you can either use them or not. Your choice. First I’ll show you how to teach your horse to lead easily without pulling on the lead rope.” Maysie demonstrated this easily with Pretty Girl. “As you can see, Pretty Girl already leads very easily, so this one is quite simple for me, but when Daddy first bought her for me it wasn’t quite this easy. Now you try.”
Rachael did as Maysie had instructed. Yes, these horses both led very easily.
“Good. Next we’ll work on longing your horse in a circle. It’s important to maintain a distance about the length of your longe line—that’s this lead rope you’ve been holding—where your horse’s nose is turned toward you. You will see that Pretty Girl’s head is turned slightly toward me, and she is watching me for any changes. I can stop her.” Maysie stopped Pretty Girl.
“Walk her.” Maysie started her walking again by gently twirling the end of her rope. “Or trot her, which I do by taking the energy level up a little by twirling my rope a bit more. We’ll start with these and then progress to some more advanced groundwork next weekend.”
“Sounds and looks easy enough, but I’m afraid it won’t be as easy as it looks,” Rachael said as she led her horse into the round pen. She stood at nearly the end of the longe line.
Dakota just stared at her as if to say, “Do you have any idea what the heck you are doing?”
“Remember how I was standing?” Maysie ask
ed. “I was facing my horse. You are parallel to yours. You need to be facing Dakota.”
Rachael turned her body to face Dakota. “Okay. How is this?”
“Great. Now invite him.”
“Invite him?” Rachael asked.
“Yes. He has no idea what you want him to do. You must tell him and then ask him to do it.”
“Okay. How?”
“Which direction do you want him to go?”
“To the left, I guess.”
“Then hold your rope out to the left, with your left arm while still facing your horse. Remember to move your feet in order to move and maintain the same distance from your horse.”
Rachael lifted her left arm and extended it out to the left, while still facing Dakota. Then something strange happened. Dakota began to walk slowly to the left. Rachael moved, but not much, just sort of turning with Dakota while he circled slowly around her.
“Great!” Maysie exclaimed. “Now take him up to a trot by bringing your energy up a little, but not too much.”
“What do you mean by bringing my energy up a little—like jumping and stuff?”
“No.” Maysie was giggling. “I mean by twirling the long end of your rope. Shorten your rope a bit by walking toward Dakota two steps. Then pull the excess through and, while still holding with the left hand, place the tip of the rope in the right hand with about six inches dangling. Here, I’ll show you.”
Maysie walked out and stopped Dakota. She adjusted the length of the rope in Rachael’s left hand and passed the end through to her right hand where a short length hung. Maysie returned to her perch on the top rail of the round pen.
“Now face, or square yourself, to your horse again. Next invite the horse with your left hand again and bring up that energy level.”
Rachael did as she was instructed.
Invite with the left. Okay I am inviting.
Dakota started walking again.
Now bring up my energy level. I am twirling the rope, with my right hand to bring up that energy level.
Dakota began to trot in a circle around Rachael.
“I find the hardest part is to keep facing my horse. I want to turn toward the direction he is trotting.”
“Go ahead. See what happens when you do that,” Maysie suggested.
Rachael was nervous. It wasn’t like she had a cat on the end of this leash. It was a horse! Nervous, she did it. What happened next was truly amazing.
As Rachael turned in the same direction that the horse was traveling and kept her arm extended out to her left, the horse stopped and changed directions, turning around. Rachael instinctively brought her left hand back in front of her as the horse crossed back in front of her on the outside of the round pen, circling in the opposite direction.
“Wow! What was that?” Rachael asked.
“Beginner’s luck is what I would call it! But, technically, it’s called rolling the hind quarter and bringing the front end around to bring about a change in direction. In short, what you did was a more difficult type of groundwork and something that even some of my horse friends can’t accomplish. That was amazing, Rachael!”
“Thanks. Now the question is, can I do it again?” Rachael tried and did it again and again. Then she stopped and asked, “Isn’t it technically cheating since this horse already knows how to do all of these things?”
“No. I don’t think so. A horse can be trained to cut and part, but if the rider doesn’t have the skill to get that training out of him, then the horse never will demonstrate its training. I know a lot of riders with incredible horses who can’t make the horse perform. The horse and rider must be on the same level to be a team. I’d say you are a natural.”
“I’d say so too,” Rachael heard her mother say.
“Hey, Mom. We didn’t hear you come up.”
“Well, I have a surprise. Your aunt has said we can borrow her car and drive over to see your father. I cleared it with the principal at your school Friday, but I didn’t want to tell you until it was a done deal. I thought we would go for the entire week!”
“Is Michael coming too?” she asked.
“Of course. Your father is so excited. I’m busy packing and doing laundry. Would you like to finish up here and meet me back at the house in about an hour?”
“Sure. See you in an hour.”
After Rachael’s mother drove away, Maysie said, “I’m glad you’re going. It will be nice to see Colten.”
“I’m going to surprise him. I won’t call him until we get there.”
“That’s a great idea. Rachael, I have a confession to make.” Maysie sounded very serious.
“What?”
“Remember the night of the homecoming dance five weeks ago?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember when you and Travis were dancing together, and I brought Ty over to cut in?”
“Yes. And I really appreciated it. It was all part of the Operation Avoid Travis Baxter, right?”
“Yes, but that’s the problem. He got really angry with me. He’d figured out we had been avoiding him…well, you really. And he didn’t understand why. So after the dance we argued. I told him I had cut in on purpose. He’d already realized that, of course, so I admitted to him why I had cut in.”
“Oh, Maysie, you didn’t!”
“I did! And the worst part…instead of making him angry, I think it really hurt his feelings. I felt like a louse. Haven’t you noticed that, in the four weeks I’ve been giving you riding lessons, he’s been nowhere in sight?”
“Yes. But I thought he was just tired because of football or out with friends. I didn’t realize he was avoiding me. So you’re saying Operation Avoid Travis Baxter has now become Operation Avoid Rachael Harte?”
“Yep. Pretty much. I kept hoping it would pass in time, but it hasn’t.”
“I’m sorry.” Rachael sat on the ground outside the barn. “I should never have put you in the middle of a situation like that. It was inappropriate of me to ask you to keep a secret from your brother in the first place. I shouldn’t have asked you to participate in any way. It’s my fault, and I have to figure out a way to fix it. Is he home right now?”
“No. He went to Jason’s. They’re fishing until dark. He won’t be home until late.”
“Well, then I’ll fix it when I get back from Palm Beach next weekend.”
“Okay. Thanks for understanding.”
“Thanks for being such a good friend.” Rachael hugged Maysie.
They brushed their horses and put them out to pasture after feeding them. Rachael decided to put the Travis situation behind her until she got back from seeing her father and Colten.
*
When Rachael arrived home, her mother and brother were already packed. Everyone was ready to go. Rachael packed, showered, and changed. She gave her Aunt Margaret specific instructions on the care of Taffy during her absence. Taffy was now older and eating only two bottles a day, but more feed, hay, and grass. She was growing up!
Rachael left with her family. On the car ride over her mother informed both her and Michael they would have homework to do while they were away. The teachers had provided her with all of their assignments.
So this won’t be a vacation. Still, I’ll have plenty of time to do homework while Colten is in school each day.
Rachael and Michael chatted excitedly about all of the friends they were looking forward to seeing while they were there.
Then Rachael’s mother interjected, “Rachael, while we’re home, I thought we could spend our mornings scouting out a location for your Debutante Ball. We only have a few months until spring, and there won’t be many locations still available.”
“That’s okay. How about Colten’s parents’ golf resort?”
“I already called. They’re booked for the season. All of the ball rooms are being used for large business conventions and such.”
“That’s a bummer. Maybe the Garden,” Rachael suggested. “I’ve always loved them, and even i
f it is late in the spring, it will still be nice outside.”
“Great minds think alike, my dear! I was thinking the same exact thing. A garden party with tea and petite fours, scones, tea sandwiches, and punch. In the early evening of course.”
“What am I supposed to do while you two are doing all of this girly party stuff?” Michael grumped.
“Your dad has a full week planned for the two of you. Golf, tennis, beach, jet skiing—real guy stuff,” their mother advised Michael.
“Cool!” Now Michael was excited.
“So anyway, Rachael, there’s even the indoor ball room. It will be perfect for the dancing and music after dark. I was thinking a six-piece orchestra in the garden and a British band inside. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds fantastic…and expensive. How are we going to afford all of this, Mom?”
“Your aunt has been saving for this for over a year. She has more than enough.”
“Mom, we can’t let her pay for this. She has already done so much for us.”
“Yes, well, you try and stop her. She won’t be discouraged. I’ve already tried. And it doesn’t stop there. Did you know she already has a prepaid college fund for both of you?”
“She’s too much.” Rachael was awed by her aunt’s endless capacity to give. “So where are we staying?” Rachael had assumed her father was staying with friends, as they had planned, this entire time.
“At our house.” Her mother looked relieved.
“Really? I thought we hadn’t been able to afford to keep the electric and water turned on. Has that changed?”
“Yes. Your father has taken a night job in a warehouse.”
“Oh. How long has he been doing that?”
“Two months. I think at first he was afraid to say anything. He thought it might embarrass the two of you. But I believe the truth is always best.”
“Is he operating machinery or equipment and stuff like that?” Michael asked.
“Yep. A forklift.”
“That’s awesome! I can’t wait to tell Eli and the guys at school. They will think it is cool.”
Both Rachael and her mother laughed. Leave it to a group of boys to find something cool about a million-dollar-a-year-pay cut!
Redneck Debutante Page 21