Big Girl Boots

Two

I rolled my eyes and pushed the stool I sat on further under the desk, producing an obnoxious scraping noise. "You're such a perfectionist."

It was in this class that I'd first gotten to see how creative Coda was. Her drawings weren't always perfect but they were a hell of a lot better than anything I could do. What really got me was the way she could just pull something out of her head and put it on paper. I was the type that needed a picture to look at, and even then my work was usually subpar. She'd spent the last several days sketching out the massive shaggy head of a highlander bull she'd seen on the way to our last rodeo, and it was already looking amazing.

"There's no point in drawing something you won't like in the end," she said firmly, pulling the decent sized canvas out of her drawer.

I shrugged, carelessly removing my half-assed still life of a coiled rope. Just like pretty much every other class, art wasn't my thing, either.

The loud group of freshmen girls that seemed to think they owned the world stormed in a minute later and I fought hard to keep myself from telling them to shut the hell up. There was one girl in particular that I couldn't stand, and that was mainly because her voice carried and echoed through the art room with such force that I wanted to dig my eardrums out.

"Don't let them get to you," Coda said quietly, her big blue eyes staring at my clenched jaw with a knowing air.

"Trying not to," I ground out. We both knew that the last thing I needed was to get in trouble. According to mama Callie and definitely my mother, I was still walking on thin ice after avoiding royalty tryouts and breaking Brayden Walker's nose with a monkey wrench. Coda, Kellan and I had all agreed that we should lay low for a while.

Spreading the rolled up paper on my desk, I yanked out my rope to position on a corner. "Drawing is hard."

"Why don't you give the still life a break for a while?" Coda suggested, carefully tracing the graceful curve of her bull's left horn.

"And do what?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Sketch something."

That being said, I pulled out my phone and began scrolling aimlessly through my Pinterest feed, which was loaded heavily with Western décor ideas, examples of senior pictures with horses, boots I couldn't afford to buy, and some fun rodeo pictures.

"How about you try drawing a rodeo scene? You said you can do it if you have a picture to go off of."

I nodded, giving the idea some thought and then tapping the icon for my rodeo board. Anything and everything even remotely rodeo related got linked to this board so I had a pretty good selection to choose from. Coda momentarily put down her pencil to look over my shoulder.

"How about that one?" She stopped my scrolling by tapping on the photo that caught her eye.

Eyebrows lifted, I glanced up at my best friend. "This one?"

She giggled a little and shrugged. "Why not?"

I brought the phone up for a closer look. The picture was obviously taken from behind the chutes during one of the more 'masculine events'. It featured the back ends of six different guys in Wrangler jeans, all sitting on top of a fence. The light caught on their spurs and it was neat to see all the different kinds of boots these cowboys wore, resting on a lower rail of the wooden fence. "It's a cool picture."

"Yeah. Why don't you try your hand at sketching it?"

I shot Coda a half skeptical, half amused look and glanced back down to my phone. "Maybe I will."

By the time the final bell rang, I'd gotten a rough outline of each toned backside and was feeling kind of proud of my work.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Coda giggled, slinging her backpack a little higher on her shoulder as we exploded out the glass front doors, ready to get the hell out of there.

I shrugged, sending her a crooked grin. "Yeah, kinda. And I never would've pictured you as the kind of girl who admires the Wrangler butts."

Pink tinted her otherwise pale cheeks, but for the most part, she stayed pretty calm. "Well, yeah. I mean, if they're right there, you might as well do some looking."

I burst into laughter, only sobering up to harass her some more. "Then why in the hell are you dating Wyatt? He has absolutely no ass."

Now, her face turned a flaming red that went all the way up to the roots of her hair and touched her neck in splotches. "We aren't dating."

"Oh, really?" I quirked an eyebrow. "Because from what Wyatt says, you told him you'd give him a chance."

If it was even possible, she blushed harder. "Yeah, I did."

"So how does that mean not dating?" I exclaimed, slapping her arm a few times.

"Technically he hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend," she defended lamely, making me laugh more.

"Alright, Coda bear. Whatever you say."

We rolled up to the house at three-thirty and went out to catch our horses after making a dozen cookies disappear.

"So, are we hauling horses to Caldwell, or are we using your parent's?" Coda questioned, all traces of humor from earlier gone as she tightened her cinch.

"We're hauling. Technically these were all my dad's at one point. He trains colts."

"Oh, really?"

I nodded, feeling pride for my father swell.

"Wow. He didn't train Winston, though." She patted her horse's blue tinted shoulder affectionately.

"Nope," I popped the P, dropping my stirrup in preparation to mount up. "That was all Kellan. He was one of his first, actually."

She nodded, staring at the animal with a kind of reverence. "I love him."

"Well, that horse seems to love you, too," I grinned, swinging into the saddle with practiced ease. "What do you say we take a pleasure ride instead of roping tonight?"

Coda's big eyes lit up and she hopped on Winston's back with just a touch less grace than me. "I'm game! But what about the rodeo next week?"

I waved a hand, brushing off her concerns. "The competition leaves a lot to be desired so we should be fine. Besides, we still have a couple days to practice. Might as well do some fun riding before the weather gets crappy."