Today was one of the more exciting days for Hazel. She got to get someone new into riding. She was nervous, in a way, because it was possible that he wouldn’t even enjoy it. She understood that sometimes people didn’t have the same interests, but it was such a big part of herself that the idea that people might dislike it made her anxious. But she forced herself to push that aside and focus on getting him on the horse and making sure everything went well. She chose one of the gentler, calmer horses because it was better to start off with a horse that you could trust.
She’d waited for him to show up before getting the horse ready. She wanted him to go through the steps of grooming and putting the saddle on. It was a good idea to learn how to do if he was going to do it more often. Even if he was only going to show others how to do it. So she waited before walking him through it, getting him a loaner helmet and boots. If he wanted to do this for a while, he’d probably need to get his own, but since it was just one ride, she didn’t think it was necessary yet. She had her own helmet and riding boots.
“I hope this isn’t too much of a pain. I just thought you should have some experience with it if you’re going to be around here more. It’s not too bad, though. At least, I don’t think so.” She smiled, tilting her head back just a little to look at him. “The riding part is more fun, but this part is necessary.”
Virgil was practically buzzing with excitement. He’d never sat on a horse before, and he couldn’t wait to get on it and play cowboy. He had luckily been taught how to groom horses when he’d come to the stables with Splendid. He could brush the horses with the best of them (he assumed at least), and even remembered to pass behind the horse close by with his hand on her rump so that she wouldn’t kick him. He was practically an old hat at this kind of thing.
“Oh no,” Virgil said. “I ‘preciate you teaching me this stuff. Who knows if I’ll wanna keep doing this, but learning all I can about it is good.”
Hazel was glad that he didn’t seem too bothered with the learning part. “Yeah. It helps to know sometimes. I learned pretty much everything about taking care of the horses here. Well, and from audio books and youtube. I tried to read, but my brain made it a little difficult and I wasn’t all that focused either because…” She trailed off, a frown forming. She’d gotten here not long after arriving. Things were tense at her house because she was new and she didn’t know the ins and outs of being around other kids or really anything about her father or his wife. Her mother called often enough, begging her to come back. It was the horses that really helped her get through it more than anything else. “Well, I’d just moved here from Alaska to live with my dad, so I guess it was just a lot to focus on at once.”
She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. Things still weren’t perfect, but she was happy and her dad wasn’t mixed up in things he shouldn’t be. Outside of the whole having affairs with people thing. But she couldn’t really be mad at him about it. “I got you a mounting block for the first time and I’ll hold the reins while you get on. Once you’re on, we’ll talk posture and how to sit properly to make sure you don’t get hurt.” She gave him a quick smile. “But he’s one of the calmer horses here. For the first time, it’s probably good. If you want to do it more, we can probably find you a horse to ride more often that you’ll stick with. But you can also stick with this guy right here.”
“Alaska, huh?” Virgil asked. He suppressed a shiver, rubbing his arms. “Brr. Sounds cold. This must be a nice change, huh?” he asked. It sounded like there was more to the story than that to him, but if she wanted to get into it then that was her prerogative. He wasn’t going to push it if she didn’t want to talk about it.
Virgil finished putting on the saddle, though he wasn’t entirely sure if he had the front cinch done up tight enough. It seemed plenty tight, but he didn’t want to make it too tight, worried about making the horse uncomfortable.
There was a lot more to the story, but it wasn’t really something she shared with a lot of people. Nico knew and one of the girls on the network knew. Her dad knew, too, but he’d been the one that came to her rescue when she’d needed him, when things went from bad to worse. She was grateful to him. “It’s not too bad. I mean, if you compare it to being here, then yes, it’s probably freezing, but…” She shrugged her shoulders. “But I like it here.”
Hazel inspected everything, adjusting as she needed and making sure to tighten the front tight enough. “You did pretty well with it, actually,” she said with a smile. “It wasn’t really tight enough in the front, buuuut that happens. I don’t think you want to fall off a horse today.” She went to grab the mounting block and bring it over closer, putting it on the left side of the horse. “So are you ready?”
“Yeah, falling’s not high on my bucket list,” Virgil said, glad he had Hazel there with him. Man, would it have ever been embarrassing if he’d fallen off of a horse because he didn’t know how to put on a saddle. He climbed onto the mounting block, a little embarrassed that he had to mount the horse like a child. But he managed to get onto the horse with only a little bit of clumsiness. “I like it here too, for the record. There’s a lot more opportunities out here than back home. Bet it’s the same for you.”
“I didn’t think so.” Hazel kept hold of the horse in the front as he mounted, watching the way he mounted. “Keep your ankles flexed.” Keeping one hand on the reins, she moved to position his foot properly before she responded to his comment about having more opportunities. “Yeah. It wasn’t too bad in New Orleans, but with dad, things are...well...a lot more different.” Sometimes she found herself still thinking about making sure she was careful about how much she spent. Years with her mother had taught her the art of making money last for a while. With her dad, though, she didn’t have to worry about money. “But compared to Alaska, yeah. This place has a lot more opportunities and the sun doesn’t decide it’s going to be out until well past bedtime during the summer. The latest it gets is sunset at 11:26.”
Virgil adjusted in the saddle, listing to Hazel and keeping his ankles flexed. It was different, but it really wasn’t so bad. He had always thought sitting on a horse would be more uncomfortable, but it really wasn’t so bad. The weirdest part of it was that he was actually sitting on a living, breathing animal. “I can’t imagine,” Virgil said. “I don’t think I’d ever sleep if it was still light out until after eleven. How do you ever get kids to bed? I used to kick up a big fuss if it was still sunny out when Moms was trying to usher me to bed.”
Hazel knew that it could be a little strange getting your posture right and the way you sat. So she was trying to make sure that he wasn’t in any danger of having trouble with it. Horses weren’t too difficult to work with if you knew what you had to do. “It was pretty difficult to get to sleep in the summer. Mostly you just want to be outside all the time. I don’t know how most people got anyone to sleep, but then I usually only came home to sleep.” With her mom making questionable decisions and dragging her into them, she hadn’t really wanted to be around too often unless she had to be.
“Okay, now try not to slouch. You want to squeeze with your legs to get him to move. If he doesn’t move at first, try doing it a little harder. I can also just walk you both around for a little bit so you get used to the feeling. Also try to keep your back straight and don’t lean forward or back too much. It can mess up your balance. And we already talked about the lack of interest in falling.”
No slouching. Back straight, heel’s down. Virgil listened to her, though he felt rather stiff in the saddle as he did it. Maybe it would come more naturally to him once he was sitting up there for a while. “I’ll take California anyday,” Virgil said grinning. “I like being out, but I’m also a big fan of sleeping. To think there was once upon a time when Virgil fought against taking naps. Of course, back in those days Virgil wasn’t juggling college with interning and volunteering. Taking cat naps when he could were pretty much a necessity. He squeezed his legs into the horse's ribs, and was a little delighted when the horse started moving. He found his balance quickly. “How’s this look?”
“I miss Louisiana, but California’s nice, too.” She thought about it for a second. “Try as I might, I cannot seem to find a place here that serves proper Louisiana cuisine. It’s affecting my entire life.” That last bit was a hint of over exaggeration, but she was still disappointed. “Sleeping’s pretty nice. I feel like I don’t get enough of it now. Nap time is wasted on kindergartners. It should be given to high schoolers and probably college students.”
She grinned widely as he got the horse to move. “Looks good so far. How does it feel?” There was a pause before she said, “If you want to stop, pull back on the reins. Not hard. I figured I should tell you that.”
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had proper Louisiana grub. Don’t they eat alligators down there?” He was pretty sure he’d heard of something along those lines, and frankly, the idea of eating any kind of reptile really turned him off. “Though, bet they have some great spicy food.”
Virgil was starting to adjust to the sway of the animal underneath him. It was like nothing he’d ever done before. “Feels good,” he said to Hazel, flashing her his pearly whites. “Can I make him go faster?”
Hazel arched an eyebrow. “You can eat alligators. I’ve had them before, but it’s not really a big deal.” At least she didn’t think that it was a big deal. It was like people eating deer or squid or octopus. “Just like you can choose to eat squid or octopus.”
His smile was momentarily distracting, but Hazel shook her head and stared down at the ground. “You can, but you should probably be careful about how fast you go the first time.” She looked back up. “But you just put pressure with your legs like you did to make him start. Just...be careful.” She didn’t want him to make the horse go too fast and lose control, after all.
Virgil frowned. “I don’t usually eat thing with tentacles either.”
He nodded at her instructions. But he was pretty sure he had this whole riding thing down. How much harder could it be to go a little faster? Besides, he wasn’t going to impress anyone just walking around. He squeezed his legs again, and the horse picked up into a trot. He hadn’t been expecting how choppy it would be, and immediately bit down on his tongue. “Ouch!”
“Do you eat anything someone might find weird?” It was a reasonable question. That’s what they were talking about after all.
Hazel covered her mouth with her hand, torn between laughing and moving to make sure that he was okay. “I told you to be careful,” she said after a moment. “Pull back on the reins a little if you want to go slower. It’s definitely good to get used to the way the horse moves and slowly start going faster. It gets easier to keep from hurting yourself that way.”
Virgil pulled a little too hard on the reins, causing the horse to shake its head, but he quickly released the pressure once the horse came to a stop. “I’m fine,” he said, hand to his mouth. He didn’t taste any blood, so he hadn’t bitten his tongue too badly, but had that ever smarted.
“Burgers and peanut butter,” Virgil said immediately. He didn’t care what anyone said. They were delicious, and he was forever glad that the Burger Fool back home had introduced him to them. “And fries dipped in ice cream.” Though, that was a little less on the strange side.
Hazel winced when she watched him pull back. “Not nearly as hard next time.” She was concerned for Virgil, but she probably would never stop being more concerned about the horses. It was difficult when she spent so much time with them. She walked over to the horse, running her hand down his neck.
Burgers and peanut butter? “It sounds terrible,” she said after a moment before adding on, “But I guess it can’t hurt to try things you’ve never tried every so often. Even if you think it’s gross.” She’d tried a lot of things and she was sure there’d be more. But nothing would be like home. “I think everyone knows about fries and ice cream, though. I don’t think a lot of people dislike that one.”
“My bad,” Virgil said, patting the horse on the neck. “Maybe that’s enough for today.” Partly because he was already starting to feel some soreness in his legs. He was pretty sure he’d just gotten on the horse, but if his legs were anything to go with, he’d been sitting there for a week already. “Though I’d totally be up for more lessons if you’re, you know, willing.”
He smiled a little. “I mean, I guess I could be convinced to eat something gross sometime. I’m already riding horses, why not try more things I’ve never done before?”
Hazel smiled at him before nodding. “Definitely up for more lessons. You didn’t start too much worse than most of our other people. So don’t feel bad.” She offered to help him get down off the horse before saying, “How are you feeling? Okay?”
She laughed at that. “Well, maybe we can both try something that we don’t think sounds good that the other person likes. Then we’ll both be taking part in the grossness. So it’ll be fair.” She didn’t mind, though. It was better than never trying anything. At least she thought so. But then she’d tried so little in the dreams, so maybe it was only adding to her need to do things.
“Feeling okay,” Virgil said. His legs felt weird. “A little wobbly, but I bet that’ll pass. Like sea legs.” Not that Virgil had ever been on a boat or had any cause to have sea legs, but he hoped it made him sound a little cooler.
He grinned. “Great! I am all about introducing new people to peanut butter burgers.”
Hazel shuddered when he mentioned sea legs. “I will never have sea legs. Boats move too much and…” She shook her head to emphasize the point that it was not good. “But it’ll get better the more you do it and the more your legs get used to it.” Unlike being on boats. It didn’t get better. It just got worse.
She pushed aside the vague feelings of nausea, trying not to let them influence her feelings on peanut butter burgers. Even if she wasn’t all that enthused by the idea in general. “It’s a lot more difficult to introduce people to my choice considering who is California is going to import gator meat? No one I know.” Except her dad might if she asked him to. Or he might let her go (with him) to Louisiana. But neither option sounded good. “So I guess I’ll have to think about something else.”
Okay then, no boat trips for Hazel. He could only assume that she probably got wicked awful seasickness. “I get that,” Virgil said. “You shoulda seen me on the Tilt-a-Whirl when I was twelve. It was not pretty.”
He grinned. “I’m sure you’ll think of something properly weird for me to try!” he said cheerfully. “Whatever it is, me and my tastebuds’ll be waiting.”