The usually bright blue eyes darkened in concentration as Rhiley Parker attempted once again to get his equine partner, Charlie, to complete a complicated turning maneuver. His slightly curly auburn hair, now wet with sweat, fluttered from under his hot black riding helmet in the outdoor jumping arena of Fox Run Farm. He practiced the maneuver a few more times, Charlie finally complying and completing the turn with style. Rhiley grinned with a white smile and straight row of teeth, patting Charlie happily and slipping him a quick treat for being good. The large dapple gray Warmblood nickered in return, bobbing his head as he crunched.

            Today, Rhiley was especially elated with the good work because of a certain Mini Prix Show Jumping Competition that was quickly arriving in three weeks. Rhiley had spent hours and hours, probably half his life at FRF with horses surrounding him. At ten years old he was introduced to the world of equines at a fair and his friends all thought he was going queer on them. He ignored their taunts, finding a talent for the sport of Show Jumping.

            Swiftly dismounting and running up his stirrups, Rhiley led Charlie to the cross ties and un-tacked the big gelding. Turning to grab a dandy brush that would swipe all the grime that collected on Charlie's silver coat, Rhiley yelped and jumped nearly a foot in the air as the feeling of teeth clamped right on his butt. He spun around to face the criminal only to find a completely innocent looking face with ears pricked and a smirk on Charlie's handsome face. He tried to get angry at the bad behavior but failed miserably looking at the harmless expression in his deep chocolate eyes. I swear that horse could kill someone and I would just pat him and say 'good boy.' He just turned around again to get the brush; this time rubbing his butt where he knew there would be a bruise the next day.

***********************************

 17 year old Sierra spoke for what must have been the hundredth time that morning. "Are we there yet?" She said in a nasal voice she knew grated on her sisters' nerves, a mischievous twinkle glittered in her eye as she watched her two sisters' reaction to the comment. Jasmine was driving and just gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white, while Letta, her younger sister by a year, cringed and turned around yelling, "We are not there, and would you get over saying that! You are driving me insane!!!" Sierra laughed but stayed quiet the rest of the drive to their new home in Tennessee. Her tanned face was marred by a frown as she remembered once again the incident a couple weeks ago with her parents. They were both yelling at Jasmine, telling her to leave if she couldn't stand them so much. It was common knowledge their parents and Jasmine hated each other. Jasmine was 24 and had an apartment to herself and only came to the house to visit her sisters. Their parents were leaving on another of their big business trips for months, leaving the two younger girls behind. Jasmine couldn't stand to see them alone for another couple months with no one to be there for them. She had offered to let them stay with her while John and Lori were gone, but they refused. The whole argument escalated until it reached a point of flying lamps and ducking. Sierra shuddered at the mess that followed, the paper work and the fact that her parents really didn't seem to love them. They had handed over care of the children to Jasmine and now they were all going to live together.

The only problem was they couldn't all live in the one apartment. Using the money saved up is all three girl's bank accounts they picked up and moved. Now they were on the road to a secluded town in Tennessee where a cheap house and a new life await them.

Jasmine broke Sierra's jog through memory lane pointing out a sign that said 4 miles - Sinclare.

About fifteen minutes later they pulled up to a quaint one story house with blue gray walls and a big vegetable garden in back. They hopped out, stretching and yawning after the long care ride. After taking a look around the three grabbed one box each and made their way up the steps of a creaking wrap-around porch.

"I get first dibs on rooms!" Letta's voice rang out as she pounded up to the door. Sierra watched the excitable girl; she was very pretty, in a young girly kind of way. She had bright blonde hair and long tan legs that attracted guys like flies. She loved her younger sister but thought she could be a bit audacious sometimes, wearing things Jasmine and her would never consider. But that was her; she never did anything bad and always came home earlier than expected just so they wouldn't worry. Sierra mentally compared herself with her sisters. She was the most tan of all of them from her constant out door activities. Her favorite was horse-back riding, but she loved to swim laps in the local pool and hike. She never went to the beach; she didn't like the sand and the dirty water. And because she did so many activities she was easily the skinniest of the three with a muscular build. Her face was delicate though, not masculine in any way. Her eyes reminded her of a deer, long naturally curled black lashes surrounded them and she never wore make-up in fear of ruining her 'natural beauty'. (Getting zits in other words, lol) A mix of brown and gold in bouncy ringlets made up her shining hair. It would sometimes be wavy, almost flat, and the next look like extra long Shirley temple curls.

Of all three siblings Jasmine had the most mature beauty. High cheekbones and hazel eyes accented her wavy reddish brown hair and she was also the tallest at 5'9. Sierra and Letta were both 5'6. She fit perfectly in the world of a business suit. Organized and fairly brilliant she was the cleverest of the three and acted like the glue that held them together.

Once Jasmine had closed the door behind them the work began. Box after box came in and hours went by before everything was set in its new place. They hadn't brought that many possessions other than clothes and essentials. Spent and hot they flopped on their futon in the newly declared living room and rested.

"You know we're going to have to go into town to get supplies and stuff." Sierra pointed out, looking over at Jasmine tiredly.

"Especially food, I'm hungry." Letta added, putting on her puppy dog sad face.

"Well then let's go drive around and look for some stuff, shall we?" Jasmine said with fake cheeriness, jumping off the futon and looking at them with wide exited eyes. All three burst out in laughter at her 'ready-to-run' pose and got up. Joking and smiling they piled in the car and headed for Main Street.

We could have been worse off. Sierra thought to herself as she looked through the window at the beautiful green hills rolling by. Big white pastures with gorgeous horses flitted past and she felt a pang of home-sickness. She was hoping that maybe after a while she might be able to get back to her riding, swimming, and biking. Within minutes they parked in front of Albertson's and headed off on a shopping binge.

*********************************** ~ Late morning the same day~

Rhiley walked past the twenty stalls on one side of FRF's huge aisle that was the focal point of the whole venue. Two long rows of stalls with forty spaces in each one. In the center of the left row was the large office of Maureen Tatum, the owner and manager of the whole facility. She waved happily to Rhiley as he walked by. He wondered how she could always be happy when there was so much work to be done every day. He shrugged, maybe that was just the kind of person she was. She was helping him out and giving him work so he could keep Charlie and they had struck up a friendship. She was getting slightly older in her years so he always felt like he needed to constantly help her in any way. He was a little worried about her putting so much stress on herself to be truthful, but he would never say anything her. She would just brush it off and say it was just nonsense.

Walking out of the barn he hopped in his Royal Blue Dodge Ran pick-up only to jump out of his seat at the resulting throbbing from his behind. He gingerly sat down and started the car, driving out of the parking lot and down a fairly rural road.  FRF was secluded, being miles from any other building, but the whole town of Sinclare, Tennessee wasn't really like that. It wasn't a metropolis or anything but it did have malls and more than one bank and postal office in the 'city' part of town. He liked where he was, not out in nowhere land, but not surrounded by concrete based trees either. It took him only about ten minutes to get from the stable to his driveway leading to a large two story, ranch style home. He parked and walked to the door, opening it to an apparently empty house. His parents were out of town and would be back the next day, which made the house his own along with the family dog since he had no brothers or sisters.

Max came bounding around the corner leading to the kitchen, tail wagging madly while his claws scrambled on the hard wood floor. He ran up to Rhiley, doing his whole body wag and ran to get his favorite bone and placed it in front of the boy hoping to play. Picking up the bone he threw it across the room, the dog chasing after it with immense enthusiasm. Rhiley just shook his head at the mutt, talk about easily amused.

Rhiley went upstairs to his room peeling off his sweaty shirt only to be followed by the dog, tail wagging and bone in his mouth. He threw the shirt on the floor and rubbed his tanned chest looking around the room for a clean shirt. Digging through his closet and on the floor he searched through piles of clothing trying to find some clean clothes. Hmmm, I might just have to do laundry if I want anything that hasn't been worn for a week already. He was an avid fan of not doing laundry and not being organized. He liked it better that way. Having his parent's gone left the 'it doesn't need cleaning unless it changes colors' theory unchecked. Deciding on a t-shirt that looked like it had only been worn once or twice and some jeans he went to take a shower and went downstairs for a snack. Looking in the fridge he realized he should probably get some food before his parent's came home and realized the only edible thing in the house was some relish and carrot sticks. Both of which Rhiley hated. Closing the refrigerator he turned and was met with Max's pleading brown eyes and a short whimper.

"I know mister, I'm hungry too. How about I go and get us some grub, huh? Does that sound like a good idea?" The dog wagged happily at Rhiley's tone of voice and trotted out of the room to promptly curl up on the floor in front of the couch and nap.

"If only I could master sleeping any time of day, that would be nice." Rhiley mumbled as he grabbed the keys he had set down and drove off to the grocery store.

Author note: This is the first time I have ever written anything in the form of a story that was not for school in my life. I know it's probably badly written plot and description wise but please give me some slack. All you have to do in the review is say it was good, okay, or bad. That's all, just to let me know if I should keep going with it. I promise, if you want to me to do this story, then it will get better and with longer chapters and such. I just need to know if I should really try with this one.

~ Rose Richonne