Fic: 'Save a Horse, Ride a Jockey' (Pushing Daisies, Olive, gen, 1/1) Title: Save a Horse, Ride a Jockey Fandom: Pushing Daisies Characters: Olive Word Count: 440 Rating: G Spoilers: N/A Challenge: Leap for Prompts (12/29): Pushing Daisies, Olive Disclaimer: No one mentioned belongs to me. Summary: Four loves in Olive Snook's life.
Save a Horse, Ride a Jockey
Olive Snook had fallen in love four times in her life. The first object of her affection was a boy named Declan Deems, who sat in front of her in the fourth grade. A pen had rolled off her desk and landed next to his sneaker. Rather than ignore it like any other fourth grade boy might, Declan Deems took notice of the pen, picked it up, and handed it back to her. Olive Snook was instantly smitten by his shy smile and sandy hair, and nursed her very first crush for several months before she dared to kiss him on the cheek at the Valentine's Day party. Ricky Regan saw this and instantly erupted in a juvenile rhyme, one which caused Declan Deems to blush furiously, red flying over his cheeks and forehead, up into his sandy hair. It was a relationship that never went anywhere, but Olive's heart was warmed periodically by the innocent sweetness of it all.
The next time her heart was claimed, she was twelve years old on a field trip to a local farm. A farmhand had risen over the horizon to greet the junior high students, sitting atop a gorgeous stallion. The farmhand was handsome himself, if the lovesick sighs of Olive's classmates were anything to go by, but Olive's vision was filled with enormous brown eyes and a thick black mane of hair. Eventually, her love of horses manifested itself in to equal parts admiration for the animal and an adoration of healthy competition. And eventually, she grew to be dissatisfied with that particular area of her life, but she never forgot the wise, serene stare of that regal animal and the way it had made her feel.
Olive had fallen head over heels for Clay Selby the moment she laid eyes on him. He was not the smartest man, nor the handsomest, and not exactly the kindest, but she was swept up by the passion of their relationship. They moved from intense love to intense anger and back like the rising and falling tide, either one or the other, but always with equal ferocity. It was because of him that she moved, and it was because of her that he left.
Left alone in a new city, with no hobbies and no boyfriend, Olive had sought out comfort food and instead found a piemaker. He had the same nervous sweetness as Declan, the same passion as Clay. His interests favored more towards the making of pies, but Olive loved him for quietly going about his business, working towards the happiness of others. And for the fourth time, Olive was in love.