Songbird

Chapter 1

    My Aunt Lily and my older sister, Kona walked Songbird and I to the stall that was reserved for us. Aunt Lily kissed me on the cheek and wished me good luck. I soaped down Songbird to cool her off, feed her some oats and some water to give her energy. Then I saw Flynn Castor.

    "Delaney!" He tipped his hat. I starred at him.

    "Flynn Castor?" I still couldn't believe he was here. "Wha-what are you doing here?" I asked trying to hide the panic in my voice. It didn't work.

    "Same reason why you're here, darling," Flynn replied and walked away with his horse. I turned to Aunt Lily.

    "I am so massively screwed," I muttered to myself.
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    "You'll do fine, Delaney. Don't let that boy get to you. You give it your best," Aunt Lily smiled at me. I hugged her.

    "Where would I be without you," I murmured. I hopped on Songbird. Aunt Lily led us to the walking ring and then went to go find her seat next to Kona. We were walked around walking ring twice and then a different man lead us to starting gate. Someone closed the gate behind us. The horses all went crazy; rearing up, stomping and scraping at the ground, breathing heavily, whinnying nonstop. Nervousness and chaos hung in the air.

    Everyone wanted to win and everyone would do anything to be first even if it was totally insane and crazy. In this sport you take chances no matter the costs or how dangerous, life-threatening, impossible or crazy it might be because in horse racing winning is everything even life or death. The announcer introduced who was in the race. Everyone was male, but me. Unlike most of the horses, mine was calm. Most horses get spooked by the sound of the closing gate. They don't expect it. So it scares the hell out of them and they get spooked. I stroked Songbird's neck and got ready cause when those gaits open there's only two words. Hold. On. I looked to my left. Flynn Castor winked at me. I almost jumped. Flynn was my rival, my best friend, and my neighbor.

    "Flynn Castor, I hope you and your horse go down," I muttered. Flynn laughed.

    "Good luck to you too, Delaney Belle Monroe," he smirked. The gates opened and I held onto the reins for dear life and urging Songbird to go faster. Flynn and his chestnut male thoroughbred, Cloud Dancer were in front of the lead. Songbird suddenly reared up. It took her a couple seconds to couple down. A bunch of time wasted. Great first start, Leela I thought sarcastically to myself. The pack was far away, but I didn't care. I was most definitely not going to over lapped or get last place. I would never hear the end of it from Flynn so I galloped Songbird as fast as she could run and soon I was second to last. We made our way past the others and soon we were passing horses and jockeys by the second. Suddenly, a jockey in all purple pushed me nearly off my horse. I almost fell off Songbird, but I somehow managed to stay on. I was literally hanging off of the saddle. Horses zipped past me and my left hand slipped. That's when I hugged my horse and held on for dear life. Somehow I managed to grab the reins with my left hand and got Songbird to speed up. I had no intention of getting last place or getting in the back again. I might not be able to get past the horses again. While we passed up horses slowly, I successfully got back into the saddle and we were now three horses from Flynn.

    "Alright girl, if we can pass up these four horses, we win and you get showered with roses and get as many carrots as you want," I muttered into Songbird's ear. Her ears perked up from the word carrots and she passed up the first two with no problem. We passed the next one with some difficulty. Before I knew it, Flynn and I were head to head. Somehow I got Songbird in front of Flynn, but not for long. As soon as we came near the finish line, Flynn and his horse got in front of me. I wasn't expecting it and because of that I had almost gotten third. Almost.

    I hated his dirty little tricks! They were cruel, cunning, quick, and dangerous. Flynn was the adventurous and risky kind. I liked to not see my life flash in front of me thank you very much. I was lucky that a horse didn't get in front of me.

    "Hasta la vista, darling!" He called as he and Cloud Dancer galloped passed the finish line...first. I galloped Songbird past it and trotted her over to her stall, disappointed. I was almost positive I was going to win this time, but nope Flynn had to ruin that chance, again! I soaped her down, gave her ice cold water, and some oats, barley, chopped up carrots, and a nice mash. While she ate, I put her blanket on her. Songbird was a purebred thoroughbred. She had bay coat with two white socks on her front feet, two dark socks on her back feet, and a thin white strip on her face. Flynn and his horse walked by Songbird's stall.

    "Hey, Leela, nice job out there today," he commented. He looked sad, disappointed, depressed, and down.

    "Go away, Flynn," I said coldly. Flynn walked his horse away.

    Flynn's horse was a tall, chestnut, male thoroughbred named Cloud Dancer. Hasta la vista was pretty much his trademark saying. He always said that to the second place person whenever he crossed the finish line first. Flynn and I had known each other since we were babies. My parents had died when Kona and I were children, so Kona and I were raised by my Aunt Lily. Flynn was my next door neighbor. He and I started training to be jockeys at ten. We learned to ride horses at two. Unlike Flynn, I had an older sister, Kona, and I had cousins. Flynn however had an older brother, Ian. Ian, was a jockey too, but a more experienced, loud mouthed one. He had mouthed off to the wrong person and had gotten fired from his job. He was looking for a new one. Flynn had said he was trying out for a new person and both of us knew that if he got the job, we would be both screwed in our races because he could beat us both in his sleep. Flynn had wavy silky, shimmery blonde hair and mischievous celestial blue eyes. I had long, somewhat curled, silky, shimmery caramel brown hair that was always in a braid, either down my back or on my side, and playful, beautiful, emerald green eyes. Kona had darker brown hair color than me, but we had the same eyes. She always had her hair in a high ponytail. She, like Ian, was a jockey, but she didn't compete in huge races.

    Later that night, I led Songbird into Aunt Lily's trailer, tied her neon blue lead rope to a steady pole, locked the door, climbed into the truck and we left. My jockey uniform top was stripped neon blue and light neon blue and that was the same for my helmet. My riding pants were white and my riding boots were milk chocolate. Flynn had neon green diamonds. His pants were the same color as me and that was the same for his riding boots. Aunt Lily pulled up to the house. Kona and I unloaded Songbird, untacked her, led her into her stall, fed her, filled her water bucket, and locked the stall. Then we happily skipped back to the house chatting happily and laughing.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

hey guys! I really want to publish this book and so...I was wondering if you guys could do me a small favor. As you read through it, if you find any grammar mistakes(capitalization, punctuation, leaving out words, other stuff) comment which page since there's only four or five pages on each. So yeah...I'll have to make it longer, no doubt. Also, if you see stuff that should be rewritten or if you have a good idea for something that should go in the store. I love advise, criticism, and thumbs up because it helps me out and makes me a better writer. I hope you enjoy the story. Also, I kinda want to change the story title. There are A TON of books with the name "Songbird" out there. So if you have an idea, comment or message me. I kinda want to give it its own unique title! Also, I will be doing Question of the Chapter (QOTC)! Please enjoy and share with others! Thanks for listening!

QOTC

What's your favorite book?

Mine are (I'm in the PJO fandom and books are my life so this might be kinda long) Percy Jackson (third book:Titan's Curse), Heroes of Olympus (third book: Mark of Athena), Harry Potter (Fifth book: Order of the Phoenix), Dreamer, The Eighty Dollar Champion(trust me guys, this is AMAZING!!!!!), The Breadwinner(also AMAZING!!!!!), The Secret Life Of Bees(TRULY AMAZING!!!), To Kill A Mockingbird(it's got really confusing wordy words, but it's really good!), Watie's Rifles(💗💗💗💗), and Marley and Me(BEST.BOOK.EVER!!!!!!).