You would expect that after a week of unpacking most of the boxes would be gone, well in the Bennett house that logic didn't work. As their last house was so small, they didn't have much more than the bare minimum so that they could all fit. Now, they had furniture boxes arriving everyday along with more clothes and decorations for the kids.
Willow's decorations for her room had finally arrived and her room was as she wanted it, the stick on stars went above her bed, the fairy lights around her pin board, some fake flowers in glass circle cases which hung from her ceiling and some on her bedside table and her jewellery was sitting on her new hanger for it – apart from her family necklace, Lyra, which she rarely took off, her siblings didn't take them off very much either.
Most of the day was taken up with getting the house ready, some rooms needed repainting and the whole family were helping with that. So, once Willow had some free time, she realised how sick she had become of staying indoors, being so sporty she could never stay inside for too long without feeling trapped.
"Mama!" Willow said as she walked around the corner into the dining room, where her mum was typing away quickly on her laptop, "can I go and walk around the island? I'm going insane."
Allison looked up and smiled, "course you can, be back before seven though!"
"Thanks!" Willow said happily as she walked back up the stairs so that she could get changed, she was careful not to smudge the drying paints on her arms, Lucy had really wanted a yellow doodle in Willow's body paint and Willow had tested it on herself before she started on Lucy. There were yellow butterflies on her arms along with bumblebee's.
Willow changed into a pair of black leggings along with an oversized yellow shirt, she was really running with the yellow theme that day. Luckily, it was warm enough that she wouldn't need a jacket, but she decided to put her hair in a high ponytail so that she would stay cool.
After a wave to Lance who was laying down in the back garden, she slipped out of the back-garden gate and walked down the lane. She wasn't too sure where she was going but she didn't mind as she was just happy to get out of the house. The gravel crunched under her shoes and the birds chirped a lot.
The clean air was really nice, Willow really appreciated it as before they moved to the island over seven years ago, they lived smack bang in the middle of a big city with terrible air quality. Luckily, their dad got a job offer on the island so they could move to somewhere much better.
Along the road, there were a few houses that were around the same size as theirs, she was well aware of how lucky they were to live on this street with the huge houses. Before they even lived in England, they lived in Cuba, this was before Lucy and Olivia were even born but their parents moved them across to England along with their grandparents, who still live on the mainland in a home not too far from the ferry port to the Island.
Willow was pulled out of her reflective thoughts when she reached a fork in the road, she could either walk towards a small cluster of buildings or down towards some fields which clearly led to the woods. After a long moment of deliberation, she walked towards the buildings as she could always go and check out the woods at a later time. The shortest way over to them was a well-worn bridle path through a short field, there was no wire around the trail, so Willow just shrugged and slipped through the open gate.
For a few moments, the peace of the island washed over her, the bird chirped happily from their trees. This, however, didn't last for very long. "Watch out!" Someone shouted, Willow turned, visibly confused, toward the shout.
Instead of the person who shouted coming into her view, it was instead a grey horse that was charging towards her at full speed and bucking out their hind legs every few strides. If Willow was at her old yard, she wouldn't be afraid of the horse, she knew all of them wouldn't hurt her. But she didn't know this horse. There was a lead rope that dangled from the head collar, it was clear that the girl who shouted a warning to her had lost her grip.
What Willow was planning was very risky. The horse could pull her off of her feet or kick her, but it was at serious risk of getting injured if it headed onto the roads instead of the trails which were all around the island and were much safer – but a horse wouldn't know that.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she started with her plan. At the last second, around a stride out, Willow stepped to the side quickly and grabbed the lead rope. The girl braced her body harshly, it was likely the horse would fight her over this. To her surprise, the horse slowed their pace and veered in a circle around her, although, their ears were pinned back – the horse was likely a mare with the attitude they had.
Willow soothed the horse and slowed them to a walk, she stroked gently over their neck and the horse's ears slowly moved back to being forward. The girl who shouted out to her was running towards her, Willow continued to whisper sweet nothings to the horse as the girl finally came closer to her.
"There now, was there such a need for a fuss?" Willow muttered as the mare started sniffing her for any sign of treats that she may have had on her person.
"Thank you so, so, so much!" The girl said, which drew Willow's attention away from the horse and over to her, again, it was somebody she recognised.
Willow smiled at her gently when she managed to put a name to a face, "it's nothing, you're Jade, right?"
A look of confusion passed over Jade's face before it smoothed over in recognition, "yeah, you're Willow, aren't you? I swear we have a study period together."
"Yeah we do," Willow confirmed before she turned her attention back to the grey horse, "who is this?"
"Oh!" Jade moved to take the lead rope from Willow's extended hand, but the horse's ears pinned back almost as soon as she touched it, so Jade let Willow keep a hold of it, "She's Bumblebee, or Bumble or Bee for short."
Ah, a mare. Not very surprising with that attitude.
"If that's her normal name I can't even imagine what her show-name is." Willow laughed as she petted Bumble's neck gently and the mare leant into her touch a little.
Jade was surprised at how calm Bumble was around Willow, so she let her know that, "she's amazingly calm around you; usually no one can get close enough to touch her, never mind ride her. Anyways, I should probably get her back to the yard."
"There's a yard here?" Willow asked as she urged Bumble into a leisurely walk and walked beside Jade. The mare was much calmer walking back towards the yard than she had been going away from it.
"Yep! It's called Brightfields, do you ride?" Jade asked, the two of them were not very close so it didn't surprise Willow that she didn't know about where Jade rode or that the yard had even existed. Jade was a lot more academic than Willow; Jade took things like maths and sciences while Willow was taking sport course.
Willow moved her thoughts away from college and refocused on the question, "yeah, I've ridden for years, but I need a new place to ride though."
"Why don't you come to Brightfields! There's tons of people from college there too so you'll already know a bunch of us." Jade seemed excited to get somebody else enrolled into the yard, it was very clear that she had a soft spot for the place, "once we've, well you've, put Bumble away, I'll show you around and you can see if you want to stick around!"
While Jade led her into the yard, Willow thought about what her answer would be for a moment, "yeah sure, I kind of need some more friends."
"Don't you have a whole friendship group with your siblings?" Jade joked as she led Willow into the main part of the yard, some of the horses pocked their heads out at Bumble, the mare didn't like that and pinned her ears back.
Willow soothed the mare before she spoke, "they drive me mental; I don't want to hang out with them that much."
Jade laughed and opened the stable door for Willow to lead Bumble inside of the stable, Jade had tried to lead Bumble inside herself, but the mare started to throw a fit – so she just let Willow lead the mare instead. Once they were inside of the stable and Willow had slipped the headcollar off, she kissed Bumble on the nose gently, "bye Bee."
The girl slipped out of the stable and latched the door behind her. When she turned back to Jade to hand the headcollar back to her, Jade took a hold of her arm gently and looked at the yellow paintings on her.
"You drew a Bumblebee and met Bumble today, almost like fate." Jade smiled at her kindly with a hint of amusement in her eyes, "come and meet Becky and Zoe! Zoe's here for the summer from America."
The pair of girls weaved through the lively yard, Jade informed her on the horses, where things were located, what the horses were like, who owned them and what the people were like.
In a short time, Willow had a general idea of the yard, everyone had to do general chores, even if they were housing their own horse there, and those who rode the stables horses would take care of the horses between themselves, not everyone helped out with the horses and the yard but if you did, you could get discounted lessons from the instructors there. Bumble was technically owned by the lady who owned the yard, but she was also meant to be a yard horse, but nobody could really get on her. For now, the mare was just there to socialise with the other horses, even though she clearly didn't like any of them.
Jade paused in explaining the yard when she saw two girls stood together by the fence, "there's Becky and Zoe. Guys!"
The two girls turned towards Jade's shout with smiles on their faces, "hi."
Willow smiled as Jade introduced her instead, "this is Willow! Becky, we go to college with her, remember?"
Becky's face lit up in recognition, she was very clearly a person who displayed their emotions, "I knew I recognised her from somewhere! Hi! Your skin tone is lovely."
The girl giggled lightly and thought that she would get along well with Becky, "my parents are Puerto Rican and Cuban, so that's where it comes from"
"Anyways! I'm Zoe!" Zoe introduced herself properly and launched back into a conversation, "we saw you leading Bumblebee into the yard, she's even more mental than Raven."
"Raven is the jet black one, right?" Willow asked, just to make sure. Jade had informed her about Raven, how he was uncontrollable and untrained as no progress could be made with his training. In response to Willow's question, Zoe hummed in the affirmative, Jade had told her about the special bond which Zoe and Raven had formed.
All of the girls gossiped for a few more long minutes about who was good and nice in the yard, who was better to generally avoid, for example Mia, who Willow already knew from college, where was best to hang out, where the Wi-Fi signal was best, etc. Just as Willow had traded her phone number with the three other girls, so they could stay in touch, the owner of the yard, Sam, walked around the corner into the centre of the yard.
Before Sam could escape them, Becky and Jade grabbed a hold of Willow's arms and tugged her towards Sam. The owner's eyebrows slowly rose when she saw that the girls were basically keeping Willow captive, she noted that the girls were friends, but she had never seen Willow around the yard before.
"Sam, this is Willow. She's the one who brought Bumble back when she spooked out of my hands earlier and I've never seen her so calm!" Jade jumped in and explained before Sam could get a word in edge ways.
A look of pure surprise passed over Sam's face, "really? Bee isn't calm around anyone these days."
Willow chose that then was a good time to chip in, "well, she did charge at me like a lunatic if that sounds more like normal behaviour?" Becky and Jade finally let go of her arms then, one of the butterflies on her arm had been smudged a little.
Sam laughed in good nature, "yes that is definitely more like her, are you thinking about riding here?"
The other two girls headed back over to a rather amused Zoe and let Sam and Willow speak, "yeah, I live too far away from my old yard to make the trip now, and this place is just down the road from my house."
"Awesome, if you just fill in some paperwork, you can get started right away." Sam smiled and gestured towards her office, Willow nodded and the two of them walked inside. The office was quite small and rather cluttered, but it was quite quaint and sweet.
Sam rifled through a cabinet for a few moments before she pulled out a few pieces of paper, "if you're over sixteen you can skip getting your parents to sign and just sign yourself."
"That's good." Willow hummed as she started filling out the form, "I turned seventeen in January, so."
While Willow was filling out the emergency contact, Sam spoke, "if you get along with Bumble, I'd love to see you work with her. Do you have any experience with more difficult horses?"
"Yeah, I've broken in some very naughty horses, I've been thrown more times than I can count." Willow laughed gently as she remembered the young gelding, Harvey, that she broke in for one of the people at her old yard.
"That's good, I'd like to start with basics like grooming, stable mucking and maybe lunging a bit later – I just don't want to risk you getting hurt if we rush." Sam explained as Willow handed back the completely filled out form and the woman checked it over, "you'll get the discounted lessons for helping out with her, as she is supposed to be a yard ridden horse. Although, I suppose the girls will have already filled you in on all of that kind of stuff."
To finish, Sam said that Willow would be added to the chore board, for both yard chores and exclusively Bumble's too, along with a lesson to asses Willow's riding level.
As soon as Willow walked out of the office, with the summer sun that blinded her slightly, the girls ran back up to her and pulled her over to where two horses were tied up. They chatted for a few more minutes and agreed to meet at eight the next morning, so they could get a full day in at the yard together, eight was fairly early in the morning but it would prevent Willow from sleeping her summer away.
The girls were walking towards the entrance of the stable, as both Zoe was heading home for that day, when a smug voice drew Willow back from the other girls, "well, if it isn't Bennett sibling number, what is it? Number ten?"
Willow turned around with her sass already turned up to the almost maximum, she saw that it was a sharply smirking Pin, damn this boy was always so sharp, "hello Peter, been brooding in any dark corners recently?"
Pin put a hand over his heart in a mocking manner, "do you always aim to hurt, Bennett?"
There was barely contained laughter behind their eyes but neither of them wanted to be the one that would first crack, so they pushed back their amusement. Zoe, Jade and Becky were watching in both confusion and barely concealed giggles.
"I would kick you while you're down, but I'm not that kind of girl." Willow clipped as she leant against the fence next to the entrance of the stable.
Pin moved forward into her space a little more as their 'argument' continued, "you kicked me when down yesterday, I think you're exactly that kind of girl."
Willow rolled her eyes and noticed that Pin had leant one arm against the fence next to her and now was only a few inches away from her, "oh don't be so dramatic, pretty boy." Willow smirked when she saw a small dusting of pink make its way across Pin's face, sadly, she had jumped down from the wall the other week before she could see it. It was kind of cute.
The boy saw her smug expression and thought that he couldn't just let that happen, he leant down slightly, as he had a good few inches over Willow, who stood at a proud 5'6 as opposed to Pin's 5'9 "are you that proud after I go a little red?"
"It's clearly rather easy to achieve," Willow could practically hear the gossiping, after all, the two of them weren't being very subtle, the gossip wouldn't come only from her friends but also the other girls from around the yard – there were never many boys at stables so everybody enjoyed the 1. Eye candy and 2. The possibility of getting a boyfriend.
This clearly was seen as a challenge to Pin, "I bet I could get you to blush like a red light, I bet something like a pet-name would be able to get you."
Willow hummed, "I'm only weak to one and I bet you won't get it." The one she was weak to was slightly less used than all of the other classic ones, she was slightly bluffing when she said that he wouldn't be able to get it.
Pin started to list off pet-names, he rattled through the classics first before he started to slow when he got to some lesser-known ones, "angel, pumpkin, sugar, petal, honey."
Willow's cheeks coloured a fair amount towards the end of his list, he was going to take the piss out of her for that. The boy looked so pleased with himself and he just now had to guess which one was correct, Willows face calmed down when Pin was listing off the incorrect names but flared up in a blush when he got the right one.
"Petal?"
Colour rushed back into her cheeks, Willow half-heartedly scowled as Pin laughed happily with his discovery – Willow knew then that it would be used against her a lot in the future, but at least she had 'pretty boy' to retaliate with. She glanced quickly over to her friends and still saw them standing there, even after they had been bickering for a good five minutes, she raised one eyebrow at them and they at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed, but it didn't stop them from still watching what was happening.
With a small sound of amusement, Willow turned back to Pin, "We've caused a bit of a scene, look."
Pin was confused for a moment before he looked over to where people were stood, with raised eyebrows from him, they all scuttered back to whatever they were doing before, apart from Zoe, Becky and Jade. "You better get back to them before they drag you away, Petal."
"Hmm, I will take your advice on that, pretty boy." Willow winked at him before she walked back over to her group of friends and shoved them over to the road, they all giggled and clearly had a whole gaggle of questions lined up for her;
"How do you know Pin?"
"I've never seen him say so many words before."
"Do you fancy him?"
"I didn't even know he knew how to flirt."
Willow laughed at them, "calm down guys, it's just a little bit of fun. Honestly, I couldn't even tell that I was doing it!"
"Liar." Becky said straight out, it caused them all to lapse back into laughter as they bid goodbye to Zoe and the other three walked back into the yard together for the rest of the day – which was only really a few hours.
How quickly the day passed around them was amazing, Willow was having so much fun with everyone at the stables. Between teasing jabs with Pin, meeting everyone at the yard, joking around with the girls, she was never not busy, and it was great to be doing something with her days again. The girl made sure to visit Bumblebee frequently, and Sam found Willow feeding treats to the mare at some point and saw that the mare was nudging her with her nose looking for more.
And before she knew it, it was high time for her to be heading back home. Willow bid goodbye to Jade, Becky and Pin, with a little wink to the last one. The walk back home was peaceful, and she made sure to go back the way that she came, the route only took her around five minutes when she wasn't just wandering aimlessly.
Using the key that she kept in the back of her phone case for now, she opened the front door and locked it behind her. Willow kicked off her shoes by the door and threw them on the already disorganised shoe rack, she would have to make sure she wore her boots to the stables next time. There was a fair amount of chatter already in the kitchen, so Willow wandered in there, Charlie was darting around the kitchen and trying to steal a little bit of food from the plates. As always, this was futile as their mother just batted his hand away with a laugh.
"Hey mama." Willow greeted cheerily as she grabbed out the cutlery from the drawer and went about setting the table, it was her turn that night.
"How was your day, honey?" Allison asked as she started to put food on the side of the counter ready for when Willow would set them out on the table.
As Willow set cutlery down, she started talking excitedly, "I was walking past this stable, which I didn't even know was even there, when this horse charged at me, but I calmed her down and got her back to the stables. Made some friends with the people that I go to college with and signed up for lessons and things there."
"Sounds like you had a busy day." Charlie remarked as helped to set some of the food down onto the dining room table, "and all I did was make some more trinkets."
"Charlie!" Willow scolded in good nature, he was an artist himself but was always doubting his ablilites, "you know your trinkets are going to sell so well in your shop one day, don't you dare talk so bad about yourself."
Charlie smiled at her, he sometimes forgot that his dream was totally possible through his talents, "I'll just need my sister to paint some things on them for me."
"Of course, I'll get Olivia to do it for you."
She narrowly avoided getting smacked over the head with a kitchen towel and heard their mum laugh at their antics before she called the whole family down.
The herd of elephants approached. Isabella made it first and skidded into the seat next to Harper, closest to where the best food was. It was an upside, setting the table, as you could choose which seat you wanted to be in and watched as the others bickered around for a seat which was to their liking. Their parents always had to grab whichever two seats were remaining; they didn't mind too much as they were the ones which encouraged the habit; it brought light and fun into the house that way. If they didn't start arguing.
Once they were all seated, they helped themselves to dinner and talked about what they did for the day. Isabella and Charlie went to work, Lance went to hockey practice at the sports centre, Luis had started to map this side of the island too while Lucy and Olivia spent the day trying to teach the dogs new tricks.
Dinner ended and Isabella was on dish duty, so the rest of the family ran off and left her to it. Willow went forwards and collapsed onto her bed after she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through Instagram and added Zoe on there, just before she was about to put the phone down in favour of doing something else, she saw a recommended account for her to follow was Pin.
As his account was public, it was easy to look through all his photos before she followed him. His most recent post was made a week ago and it was of a chestnut horse eating in a paddock, she assumed that it was his. There were some other posts of him on the horse, and pieces of drawings that he had done, they were really impressive.
Willow's own page consisted of her paintings, her friends and her goofing off at college, and pictures of her at her old yard with her friends there. She had posted earlier that day, it was a photo of her in Bumble's stable, which Jade had kindly taken for her.
She thought for a moment before she pressed follow on his account and followed a few more people from the yard that she had found nice. She already followed Mia and Susie from college, if you didn't follow Mia, she'd look at you weirdly until you did. Figures that Mia had nearly five thousand followers.
The girl went for a quick shower and washed her hair and when she got back to her phone, she saw that Pin had followed her back and sent her a message. She pressed on the message to see what he had said;
PIN_HAWTHORNE_ - 21:42 – Well, you found me, petal
WILLOWBENNETT4. – 21:59 – Thought you'd be too afraid to message me, pretty boy
PIN_HAWTHORNE_ - 22:00 – Oh petal, you underestimate me.
Willow grinned as she typed out each reply, they kept messaging until they could barely keep their eyes open anymore. She fell asleep without closing the curtains.
She dreamt of Bumble and how incredible it would be to ride the mare. One day.
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[UNEDITED]
Sorry that this second draft took a little while, I didn't have that much inspiration and got distracted from writing by quite a few things. Run BTS was the main reason this was held back.
If there are any errors, please let me know as I finished this chapter at midnight, oops. Comments are also really good for motivation and I enjoy seeing that you all are enjoying this story! I am excited for the plans that I have for this book and the one that follows, you won't know what will hit you hehe
Also, Bumble is based on a very real horse! She is my favourite horse at the stables where I ride and honestly? I think we have a bond that no one else has, I taught her how to bend through her neck and helped to make it consistent. I love her so much and I wish that I could own her, but alas at least I can in this book.
Please leave some comments on this one too, it really motivates me! Check out my other series, which I am currently having some writers block on, oh dear.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Loads of love,
Angelica