Chapter Text
“Come on, girl. One last fence.” Lapis whispered aloud, holding the reins firmly. She gently pulled her right hand against her body, causing the horse turning to the right side, towards the last obstacle. At a reasonably fast pace, the mare approached the double oxer, the last combination of the jumping course. With great time and no penalties Lapis couldn't afford making any mistakes. From an absolute victory she shared only a few meters, a few moments.
There was complete silence in the hall and Lapis lost her breath. Her heart was beating so wildly that she felt like every present audience could feel her nervousness, see her shaking jaw and her trembling hands. The only thing that was calming Lapis down was clattering of her horse’s hooves which the damp sandy surface was absorbing.
The girl especially cared to correctly calculate how many steps were needed to reach the optimal distance from the obstacle and to overcome it without any mistake. Slowly, and quickly at the same time, they were approaching the fence, there was no escape now.
It's time. Lapis clenched her teeth, blue veins appeared on her temples, the veins of maximum concentration. She stared straight ahead, concentrating on the double oxer that was dividing her from victory. Once she was at ideal distance, she released the reins, squeezed the horse's sides and stood into stirrups. She leaned forward against the back of her horse's neck, then pressed her arms against her chest with the reins she was holding. The mare bounced off of the ground with her hind legs, and then she and Lapis were suddenly in the air, just above the obstacle.
It was all about seconds, millimeters, accuracy. For a moment, Lapis never thought that only a few moments could last that long. She felt drops of cold sweat rolling down her forehead, she felt her palms completely wet in her riding gloves as she was tightly holding the leather reins.
Lapis closed her eyes. They had been hanging above the obstacle for too long now. Now was the perfect time for landing safely and faultlessly on solid ground. Now it was all just about luck.
In the middle of an infinite, unpleasant silence, Lapis suddenly heard quiet tap of a hoof softly brushing against a wooden rail. The vibration of it moved from the hoof straight to Lapis’ foot.
‘No!’ Suddenly, an adrenaline flooded her. She felt a great wave of sweat that washed her as she started to be afraid of hearing a disappointed ooh in a short time. But it did not happen. The mare landed with her front legs, safely and almost without an impact, on the ground, and with that it was followed by her rear legs. Lapis spurred the horse for the last time and ran straight to the finish line.
Suddenly, a loud cheer could be heard from the tribune, followed by almost deafening clapping and whistling.
In a few brief moments, Lapis with her horse cantered round the whole circuit of the arena, and then she let the horse go to trot. She quickly glanced over at the scoreboard which was above the entrance to the arena. Her time was incredible and zero in the penalization box added the result even more to beauty. Her final score eventually got her first place in an overall ranking with time 41.20.
She was really happy on the inside, and a beautiful, frank smile appeared on her face. She stood into stirrups, grinning. She enjoyed the noise and celebrated the joy with all the people whose hands never stopped clapping. Lapis waved and triumphantly brandished her fist in the air as her horse kept trotting.
“We did it, Blue!” She reached out to the mare and patted her strong neck several times. “We kicked their butts!”
While the equestrian and her horse were trotting round the hall, the words were taken up by an enthusiastic commentator who actively portrayed what a pleasant performance and magnificent finale by young Lapis Lazuli with her five years old mare was shown on today's show jumping jump-off. As the audience began to rise from the seats, the commentator didn’t forget to bid the World Cup finale visitors to not miss the winner announcement and award ceremony.
<•••>
“Finally! Time to go home.” A girl with light purple mane exulted, though rather ironically, pounding deeper into her seat. Two girls, one with dark skin and the other with pale one, sitting on her right side, looked at her.
“Not quite." A woman with dark curly afro proclaimed with a monotone voice.
"Ach, come on, Garnet. This is garbage… I don't wanna sit here another half an hour." The girl rolled her eyes, sighing through her round nose. "Let's go home."
"We voted, Amethyst. Would you rather go to women's football?” Garnet chuckled to herself.
“Pff.” The pudgy girl hissed instead of a reply. “… I still don’t understand why I bent it. Me, who has absolutely no relationship with animals, then Pearl who is scared shit out of horses and you, Garnet?”
The pale-skinned girl straightened and cleared her throat softly, grasping the edges of her seat in her hands. “From a reasonable distance they don’t seem to be that… scary.” She said, but so quietly that it was more like she was talkng to herself.
“Well, then we'll leave the program for next Thursday to you, Amethyst.” Garnet leaned forward to see the girl sitting next to Pearl.
“Great.” She sighed with a relief, threw her leg over the other and crossed her arms. Garnet leaned back against her seat and brushed her eyebrows. She wondered if she should go and buy herself something to drink – her throat somehow became dry.
Pearl squeezed her hands between her knees and with interest she watched the blue-haired rider as she was joyfully trotting with her horse round the hall. She smiled as she caught a sign of her freckled cheeks shining with happiness.
She watched her for a bit. She watched every little detail, every hand wave and every blink of her eyes. She scanned each of her graceful movements, watched as each strand of her cyan hair fluttered in the wind, as her hair locks which were protruding out of her helmet were nicely lining her jaw.
“Hey, P.” Pearl heard from her left side, but ignored it. She was still staring at the horse and its rider.
Her palms started sweating, her cheeks were slowly becoming hot as she was gazing at young Ms. Lazuli who was just passing the tribune sector where Pearl and her two friends were sitting. As the horse passed them, a light breeze of sweet spring perfume flooded them. Pearl lost her breath. She froze.
“Pearl!” Amethyst yelled. Poor confused Pearl turned to her, her hands started to tremble.
“What's wrong?” She bit her pale lip.
Amethyst rolled her dark eyes. “You mean what's wrong with you.” She furrowed her eyebrows and leaned forward, elbows on her knees.
“Nothing… n-Nothing’s wrong…” She swallowed nervously, flushed.
“Dude, you're blushing! And you’re telling me that nothing’s wrong?" She pointed at Pearl's cheeks, but Pearl was currently trying her best to avoid Amethyst's eyes. The slim girl glanced back towards the riding hall – at Lapis. She didn’t want to, but at the same time she longed for their eyes to meet, yet she was certain that it was for ninety-nine and nine tenths percent impossible.
Amethyst sighed again and looked at the same direction where Pearl was looking, perhaps to find out why she was acting that way – then realized. “… Oooh.” She raised her brows in astonishment, apparently understanding the reason of Pearl’s behavior. “I didn’t know you were into blueberries.”
Pearl’s eyes widened in surprise. She turned to her friend as quickly as physically possible, unable to stop the redness from spreading. “Amethyst!” She hissed through her teeth.
“I caught you, P! Admit it!” She said triumphantly, folding her hands behind her head.
“Pff! And what should I admit?” She tried to hide her red cheeks, biting her thin lip again.
“Come on, P.” Her friend put her hand onto Pearl’s shoulder, giving it gentle squeeze. “You’re red like a radish. Say you like her.”
“What-no!” She barked in defense.
“You won’t admit or you don’t like her?” She raised her eyebrows teasingly.
“Hey, you two.” Garnet said abruptly. “Enough.”
<•••>
Lapis and her horse headed to the warm-up arena while the audience’s clapping slowly began vanishing. They walked through a short corridor, then entered the training arena where coaches and riders with their horses were. There were also waiting two members of Lapis' family, aunt Agate and Lapis' younger sister Pearl whom Lapis and the rest of her family's been calling Deedee.
Lapis smiled to herself, seeing their beaming faces. Gazing at her sister, she squeezed the pommel of her saddle, then pulled both of her feet out of stirrups and dismounted her horse. Her younger sister ran straight to her while Lapis was offering her arms to her.
“You did it!“ Deedee smiled widely and hugged her. Eventually aunt Agate approached them and joined the group hug.
“Congratulations, sweetheart. You did it!” She squeezed her niece tightly so they almost couldn’t breathe. “Your mother would be so proud of you.”
Lapis' smile then almost all disappeared after mentioning her mom. “… Yeah.” She whispered, half-strangled by her aunt’s squeeze, but she didn’t care about that at the moment. Suddenly, she froze.
She remembered her. She remembered the last day she saw her mother, her tearful face, though she was warmly smiling. She recalled the words she said to them – to her daughters. She remembered the number of her hospital door's room, when she and Deedee brought her mother a great bunch of beautiful flowers along with pictures of them and their mother's favorite horses from their stable, she remembered how her younger sister used to sing to her when they were sitting next to her bed. It was almost six years ago, but still it was really hard for Lapis to deal with the fact that she, her sister and nobody else, will never see her again. ‘… Ever.’
Hot salty tears started welling up in her ocean-blue eyes, but fortunately, no one noticed them so far. She knew that she should be happy – she just won the World Cup! She shouldn’t by crying about her mother right now.
“–Lapis?” Deedee gently raised sister’s chin with her slender fingers. She knew that something was wrong, she always knew. She recognized the look on Lapis' face.
She softly dried Lapis' cheeks as a few tears rolled down. “What is it?”
Lapis sniffed quietly, taking her sister’s hand that was cupping her cheek and held it there. “I wish mom was here.” She admitted, looking into her eyes.
“Oh, Lapis…” Deedee sighed, giving Lapis a tiny, empathic smile, then stroked her cheek with her thumb. “She is…”
“Yeah, I bet she’s somewhere near us and watching you.” Aunt Agate added, hugging her niece tightly again.
Lapis smiled. She was really glad that these two were here with her at that moment. She wiped her eyes and stepped back. She fixed her riding jacket and cleared her throat, looking at her younger, though a bit taller sister. Suddenly, Lapis noticed a different shade of blue on Deedee's hair, and also her roots showed tiny marks of her natural hair color. “You should redye it again.” Lapis grinned faintly.
Deedee shifted her long fringe a little upper, looking at its color so she could consider Lapis' judgment. A beautiful turquoise eye flashed from under her fringe. She always had her eyes hidden deep under her bangs, they were almost impossible seeing, however, if someone sees them, it's probably their lucky day.
“True.” She whispered with a smile. “It's not like it used to be.”
Pearl’s voice was one of the prettiest voices that Lapis has ever heard in her life. She sang the most beautiful songs with the sweetest voice that could someone hardly just imagine. Once she used to sing in a choir in local church near their house, but one day everything changed. After the loss of their mother, Deedee’s voice broke. She stopped singing, she stopped dancing, she stopped smiling and laughing, and since that day her voice is nothing more than a whisper. Hearing Deedee sing is very rare. Sometimes Lapis hears her crooning something to herself, however, that doesn't happen very often.
The older sister smirked, but then she could suddenly hear quick downy steps. A loud, raspy voice came from behind her back and a strong hand gripped her shoulder. Lapis turned around.
“Lapis! I knew you could do it! You both were awesome!” A middle-aged man with long gray hair cheered, returning from the coach stand.
“Greg!" Lapis chuckled, hugging him. “We wouldn’t do that without your help.”
“Oh, come on.” His cheeks flushed at the compliment. “Talent is in rider, not in coach.”
All of a sudden, a young mare leaned her head over the man’s shoulder and loudly snorted right into his ear, as if she wanted to remark something. Greg jumped into the air in a surprise and glanced over at her as both sisters and aunt started to laugh.
“And in a horse, of course.” He added, rubbing his nape. “Here, I brought a blanket, Blue should have it.“ He said and tossed the winner's blanket over the Hanover horse’s back, zipping the velcro. He then stood next to Blue, waving towards himself with a wide grin. “Come on now, Lapis. Don’t miss the winner’s round.” He said to the young rider and offered her his joined hands, imitating a stirrup. Lapis accepted the offer and mounted the horse again.
“Thanks, coach.” She said and saluted with her riding helmet. She asked her horse to walk and headed back into the arena.
“I'll see you later!” Greg waved, soon after joined by aunt and young Pearl. Lapis looked back and gave them all a grateful smile.
Accompanied by clinking of horseshoes against the ground, Lapis and her horse walked through the dark corridor again. Lapis took a deep breath and stopped right in front of the entrance to the arena. She glanced over to see her family for the last time, but her aunt and younger sister were already gone. ‘Hmm… they probably headed to the stand already.’ She thought.
It didn’t take long and once again there sounded a loud clapping and cheering as Lapis' name was mentioned on the radio. Lapis felt faint, pleasant tingling in her stomach, and though she knew that there was nothing to be afraid of, nervousness washed her. Yet she was happy. It was her first big race that she won.
“Hya.” She squeezed both of her horse’s sides and asked her to gallop, then they ran straight into the arena. Lapis was immensely enjoying the applause echoing from all sides. She stood up into stirrups and joyfully waved her fist in the air. She had never seen so many people in the arena, so many fans, so many people who enjoyed the victory with her.
There were organizers, managers and several other people standing in the middle of the arena and waiting for Lapis' and other competitors' arrival, holding colorful sashes, flowers and medals to hand over. Lapis and her horse walked directly to them and stopped in front of them in a reasonable distance. There were five more names mentioned on the radio, five riders who got first five places right after Lapis. All six riders, after arriving to the arena, congratulated each other and then stood next to each other in one row.
First they headed to the young blue-eyed rider, shaking her hand, and pinning a beautiful, blue-gold medal on her horse's blanket. They didn’t forget to devote Lapis a bunch of flowers that perfectly complemented the medallion on the left side of her Hanover horse.
The managers congratulated the other riders and invited them to follow the winner in the winner's round along the arena.
Lapis enjoyed the whole ceremony, she was almost weeping. She stroked and patted her horse’s neck, praising her and hugging her. This was the most beautiful thing that happened to her in her life. This was actually the first time she wanted time to stop, although she was longing for having a cold shower and a great, peaceful sleep after all day long.
<•••>
Darkness covered the whole city. People disappeared into the night after the end of today's show jumping finale. Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst headed to Pearl's old pickup to get themselves home. Pearl sat onto the driver's seat and safely delivered all of them to their houses. In the car, they chatted about what happened today, saying that today's big day was over and looking forward to the next together Thursday.
Pearl laid onto her sofa, since she didn't have a bed in her apartment, slowly pulling the blanket up to her chin. She sighed deeply. She stared at the ceiling, illuminated by street lights. She was thinking about everything that happened today. There were thousands of thoughts in her head. She thought of every word she heard, every car that honked, recalling how many red lights at all the crossroads she counted, how often she had to fix her right sock that was slipped off of her leg every so often, how many times Amethyst said the word dude or how often Garnet rubbed her eyebrows. She wondered if she will ever see the charming smile of the young girl who won the show jumping World Cup today.
Everything was silent. Except for the fly that was hitting the plastic window in effort to get outside and a buzzing street lamp, there was nothing to hear. Yet Pearl heard voices. She heard her thoughts which silenced everything else around her. Today, there were more of them, more than usually. Her mind was full of one only thing – full of one person. She tried not to think about her, trying so intensely that every new thought multiplied, and those thoughts were growing and growing. She saw blue color, lots of freckles, lots of honey sweet smiles, lots of…
“Damnit!” She cursed and hid under the blanket. She shook her head several times, but it didn’t help. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. 'Why is this happening? It wasn’t even anything big… I will never see her again, so why am I making any wishful thinking?'