Raven tried hard to ignore her sister’s antics as she read the morning paper. It wasn’t working.
"Olive, we’ve known for seven months we were moving. I can’t believe you haven’t finished packing by now. "
“It’s just a couple little things I had to wait on.” Olivia insisted. “Besides, we don’t really have to leave until nine.”
“It’s already 9:30.” Raven rolled her eyes.
“Oops. I’m ready now anyway, lets goooo.”
Raven stood up. The two girls headed out to their respective vehicles and started driving.
Just a few minutes later Raven’s cell phone started ringing.
“Sis, can we turn around? There’s something I forgot…”
Several hours(and stops) later the girls pulled into the driveway of their new home.
“Oh my gosh it’s gorgeous!” Olivia cried as she stepped out of the van.
“Yep,” Raven said simply, not bothering to look around.
“Aren’t you even a little bit curious?”
“Not as much as him,” Raven answered jerking her head toward the trailer she’d been pulling. Olivia didn’t argue, jogging back to her van to grab a lead rope. Raven opened the back door to let her sister in. Olivia walked slowly to the back, talking softly to the nervous gelding. Of the many stops they’d made on the way here this was the result of the only planned one. Tricky Tourist, or Puck, was a three year old chesntut gelding who had recently switched to Steeplechasing. He had been inconsistent in his two chases so far, but they hoped he could do well in the future. Olivia clipped the lead to his halter, letting him smell her and take his time about coming out.
“Where are the others?” She asked her sister, all business now that the animals were involved.
“I don’t know, probably inside somewhere. Let’s walk around and let Puck stretch his legs while we look. We’re bound to run into Elijah or Sarah eventually.” Elijah was Black Cat Thoroughbred’s trainer, if three horses warrented their own trainer, and Sarah was their one and only groom. Raven finally looked around at her new home. Her eyes drew immediately to the creek running through the property, the one it took its name from. The property was just like every other horse farm, all hills and white fences. They were lucky enough to be backed by a gorgeous woods, and had a number of trees growing along the creek.
Sure enough, shortly after the trio started walking they ran into Elijah. “This the new one?” He asked, smiling and running his hands over Puck carefully. “He seems to have traveled well. Come on, let’s get him settled so you can meet the other two. We’ll have to keep him inside today, if it’s warmer tomorrow we can let him out.”
In a few moments Puck was munching contentedly on hay in his new stall, and Raven and Olivia were walking down the barn aisle with Elijah. “This is Fred,” he explained, pointing at Over the Hill, an unraced four year old gelding.
“Fred,” Raven said flatly.
“Yup.”
“um… Why?” inquired Olivia.
“I like Fred.” said Elijah. they kept walking until they came upon Sarah in the crossties with Evelyn’s Girl.
“Eve,” he said.
“Better than Fred,” the girls agreed.
It was late, the sisters had driven all day to get here. There would be plenty of time to become better acquainted with the horses tomorrow. They went to bed, dreaming of a wonderful future with their horses.