Rural

Chapter 38: Doing the Right Thing Even if I REALLY Don't Want to

       Kitty was the very last competitor, and she looked extremely confident, like nothing was going to stop her from doing well in this competition.

       And she didn't.

       For some weird reason.

       A really weird reason.

       I mean, she finished the race quite fast. I did see her horse knock the second obstacle and if that was the only one she did, she should have came first. In fact, even if she made two she still should have came first. But apparently, she came sixth.

       There was no way that was possible.

       I didn't know if Sawyer noticed it as well. I didn't ask him before I walked over to Kitty, who looked very pissed off as she was leading her horse to the feeding area. "Hey," I said.

       "I don't want to talk to you," Kitty said as she continued walking away.

       "How many penalties did you make on the course?" I asked.

       "Why? So you could rub it in?" Kitty asked.

       "No, because you should have came in first," I said.

       Kitty stopped walking as she looked at me. She hesitated before saying, "I should have just gotten one, but they're saying my horse made a refusal, which she didn't, so I got a bunch of penalties I didn't even deserve."

       "Do you know which obstacle they're saying the refusal happened?" I asked.

       "Apparently, it was the second one," Kitty said. "The one that my horse just knocked, which should have been my only penalty."

       "What?" I asked. "No, that's impossible. I saw that one and that definitely wasn't a refusal. All your horse did was knock it over, but she still jumped over it as soon as she got to it."

       "Well, thanks for stating the obvious but that's not going to do anything," Kitty said before walking away.

       I sighed as I walked back to Sawyer and Paint, who were now with Lauri. She smiled when she saw me. "Jamie, that was amazing. Exactly what we're looking for so I would like to officially ask you to join the tour."

       I couldn't help but smile widely. "I would love to join the tour."

       Lauri smiled back. "Perfect. I'll email you with all the details later because right now, I have to go offer the second spot to Steph."

       "Wait, hold on," I said. "What about Kitty? I know she was being considered."

       "Jamie, Kitty came in sixth," Lauri said. "I've seen her in other competitions and she's extremely good, but sixth place isn't something we're looking for."

       "She only came in sixth because of the judges' error," I said. "They said she got a refusal but she didn't."

       "I'm sorry if you really want you're friend to make the team, but the judges don't make errors like that," Lauri said.

       "Whoa, friend?" I asked. "Kitty is not my friend. She's not even an acquaintance or anything. She's my enemy. Literally. We just fought yesterday because I smiled at her, and I only smiled at her because I knew she would get mad at me. Believe me, I would never lie to get Kitty on the team."

       "It's true," Sawyer said. "I don't know what this is about the judges' error, but Jamie and Kitty do not get along at all. I don't even get along with Kitty. She's my ex-girlfriend so I wouldn't lie for her either but if Jamie says there was an error, I believe him."

       "Yeah, Kitty said the refusal was for the second jump, but I saw that jump," I said. "It was just her horse hitting the jump, not an actual refusal."

       "Wait, the second jump?" Lauri said. "No, that can't be right. That's one that's still visible on the bleachers, and that's where I was sitting. She cleared all but one, the second one, but there were no refusals."

       "That's what Kitty told me, though," I said. "And there's no way she would have finished as fast as she did if there was a refusal. That really slows things down."

       "I'll have to figure out what's going on," Lauri said before walking away.

       "You know, I'm proud of you for standing up for Kitty," Sawyer said. 

       "I want things to be fair," I said. "And it definitely wouldn't be fair if she didn't get a spot on the team when she really should have came first. I still don't get how the judges could mess up that badly, though."

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 i wondered what happened oof

jk i know what happened lol

but oof two more chapters left until we get book two, which will, if you haven't guessed it, be about sawyer and jamie on tour woo.