[PF] Loading Day!!! [EXTRA 1] by iiyell on DeviantArt (original) (raw)
Extra 1/6 for the show Plastic Fantastic '24 - Vesta and Babylon's Dressage
Wordcount: 2610 words
Featuring horses:
Featuring humans:
-Jack Farran (Handling Catching Fire)
-Megara (Handling Hell's Delight)
-Vesta Silvestre (Handling Babylon)
-Eloise Farran (By the car)
-Charity Farran (By the car)
-Rickey Silvestre (mentioned in story)
First || Next
It was time! Finally! West Winds was taking part in their first international show since the opening of their riding school, and in Greece nonetheless, they had been preparing for it for months, getting all the parents together to book the planes, prepare transportation for their horses, hotels, accommodations…
The price tag started to get high very quickly, as one would expect. Just moving the horses to the other side of the ocean was a stunt not everybody was able to assume so the group turned out to be relatively small at the end.
Jack, Eloise and their two daughters were going as an excuse to take a vacation all together as a family, with their horses, and take the chance to visit Eloise’s extended family in France.
Megara, who wanted to take the chance to enter a few competitions across the European continent and do some rounds of horse shopping.
And finally. Vesta, on her first ever international show, first time traveling solo, first time being out of the country… The young girl had managed to get on pretty good terms with the Farran girls, especially Charity. They didn't have anything in common, and Vesta would have put in doubt the exact terminology to refer to their friendship but the red-hair had moved heaven and earth to get to her after Vesta had arrived to West Winds. She had been so… Overwhelmingly welcoming, always cheerful, hopeful, excited, happy to be there… Vesta found her so, so insufferable. At first.
But then, as her father started to spend less and less time, less and less energy on her in favor of his new student, Vesta started to simply spend a lot more time at the barn.
The Farrans quickly learned her name, saying good morning to her every day, can you help with this or that, do you want to come ride with us… Charity seemed to feel pity for her, a little bit. Always alone, not really making an effort to invite herself to situations, but the girl kept asking till Vesta started to say yes.
It was Charity who convinced Vesta to get on social media, invited her to the weekend barbeques on the property, invited her to the pool, before Vesta could realize, they were talking constantly, messaging… all of it.
Charity was such a chatter, and so insecure, she wasn't sure what discipline she wanted to focus on yet, she didn't have her own horse yet…. Well, technically, her family had a lot of them, but none of them was hers… She rode what she could, but constantly switching between horses was starting to dig at her confidence.
They talked a lot about it, Vesta started to talk about Babylon a lot, and her training, and took pride in the work she had put on that mare. It made her confident to have someone to talk with about that.
And just like that she also started to take more risks, she started doing more shows, tagging along with the team even when she wasn't competing. West Winds gifted Vesta her independence, and that all came crashing down when the idea of the trip to Greece was presented to her father, on a fairly cool morning at the stables, preparing for the first lesson of the day.
“You are not going.” Rickey was adamant about it. “You're just not! No way!”
“But it's, the team-” Vesta didn't really have any arguments, besides she wanted to go, very badly.
“I don't give a damn about the team, or what stupid birds they've put in your head! What are you gonna do in Greece?!!?! Do you think I'm stupid, trying to play me to bleed every penny out of me. You’re just like your mother.” He raised his voice, walking towards his daughter till Vesta was almost cornered between Babylon’s stable and Rickey’s angry grin. “Even if we could afford to ship you and that stupid donkey to fucking Europe, it would be a waste. Why do you keep trying, so much effort, you ain't that good of a rider, Vesta.” He continued, his hand raising to softly hold his daughter's cheek.
She flinched away from the touch, which seemed to sour his expression even further, closing his hand in a fist and using it to hold himself while leaning forward, almost hovering over the teen girl, his shoulders squared and tense and his eyes locked on her in a threatening way. She kept her eyes glanced away from him.
“I know it's a hard truth, kid, but you aren't going to make it. We can't afford to make it” His voice dropped, low and with a slight rumble in the back of his throat, that made it sound almost as if he was amused by the situation. “...you might as well stop trying, I've been very… generous, really, keeping Babylon for you all these years even knowing that nothing could come out of it. You should be thankful, I'm saving you the heartbreak of failing later on. But all this, showing, pretending like this… No, it has been enough.” He continued, ruthlessly spitting the words at the girl in front of him.
Vesta ended up looking at the floor between them, her eyes open like plates, her heart rushing in her heart.
She didn't respond in time, so Rickey released the pressure, taking his eyes away from her, and starting to walk away.
“I- I I am going. Though.” She started, squaring herself as her father gave her his back. “I'm going to talk to them I want to go they, they say it's not a problem and they invited me-”
Rickey let out a sharp, condescending laugh.
“It- Vesta, there's a difference between inviting you sometimes for dinner because you're friends with their daughter, and shipping you and your mare to Greece just because you want to go” His tone was almost mocking. “Come on, you're going to be late for your lesson.”
They were at each other's throats ever since, arguing every night, yelling. She talked to Charity, the girl’s family was down to take her along for their family vacations, if Rickey was cool with it.
It wasn’t about money for them, it had never been about money. It was, for Rickey, though.
He wouldn’t accept any pity from these people, trying to act like they were better than him. Wouldn’t allow them to have anything above his head, take his own daughter on vacations as if he couldn’t afford to take her to places himself, they might as well spit in his face.
The arguments lasted for weeks, at home, in the car… Never at the barn, where someone could hear them yell at each other in the most nasty way.
It was something Vesta had grown accustomed to, every time they had a disagreement, he would make a mountain out of it, act like she was the sole reason for all their struggles. They would yell, throw things at each other, he would end up chasing her and she would lock herself in the bathroom. And they would yell through the door, he would kick it and she would cry in fear, then he would get tired and ignore her till dinner.
Rickey wouldn’t say a word, not ever once in her 16 years of age she had heard him say the word sorry, but she believed his way of apologizing was through making her dinner. He was a great cook, and always made something special for her after a fight.
This time though, it seemed like the argument finally started to grind Rickey down after a few days, and ended up giving her an ultimatum.
“I am done paying for your delusions, Vesta, if you want to go, then go, but I won’t pay for it” He spitted out mid fight, pounced over the kitchen table while Vesta was tensed up ready to run on the opposite side. “I don’t fucking care but if you go with them don’t expect to come back home”
The way he spoke made the girl freeze in place for a second, she had heard a good amount of ultimatums and she didn’t believe a word of it. He couldn’t just kick her out, it was…. a challenge, surely. She squinted at him, giving half a step back.
“I’ll find a way to pay for it” She mumbled, truly, she thought she could, maybe if she won some shows overseas then she could come back and her father would feel different about her. It was… A matter of time. Right? “You don’t have to pay anything, Babylon will pay for herself and I I’ll figure out I just, I want to go. Please”
“I don’t care” Rickey remarked, tilting his head to make his words feel stronger. “I don’t give a fuck Vesta, do whatever the fuck you want like you always do but you do it on your own I’m done with you, God”
After that, he left the kitchen and went out, Vesta didn’t know where exactly. It didn’t make her feel exactly good about this whole thing, and that night texting with Charity, the girls got it all out. Charity told her dad, and Jack talked with Rickey in the morning.
“So I heard your kid is coming with us huh” Jack started, when he found Rickey getting the feed ready for his horse. Jack noticed he was only preparing food for Imperious, and not Babylon which struck him as weird but maybe Vesta was coming later. “Just wanted to have a chat about it to make sure it’s cool with you.” No response, almost as if Rickey was ignoring him, he leaned in the wooden beam on the door of the feedroom. “Is it the first time Vesta is like having vacations away? She mentioned you had some doubts about it. How do you wanna do it, I mean, we have a groupchat with the parents. All of us post updates there to keep everybody updated, not only this trip but like every trip we do with the barn… Hell you could even tag along if it’ll make you feel better-”
Rickey turned around and finally interrupted him. “I, no offense, but I don’t want to go with all of you on vacations, I have work to do” He dismissed the shorter man with a hand gesture. “But I agreed with Vesta that she was allowed, she's excited I guess… you, you know, if- Well, you know, we came to an agreement in which she has to find her own way to pay for the trip, I guess she’ll be approaching you about it later today. Trying to get some odd jobs mucking stables and such.” The man rolled his eyes, walking past Jack towards Imperious’ stable.
The stallion kicked the door impatiently, and Rickey clicked his tongue at it as a reprimand. Imperious threw his hair up, almost in a sad attempt at rearing on the spot, and Rickey hit the bars on the door. “Back off” He barked at his horse, then opened the door to pour the food in the corner so he could eat from the floor.
“No yeah I understand” Jack continued, walking behind him. “That’s fine I can get her some chores and things to do, and hey I promise she’ll call every night, I’ll add you to the, uhm, group chat right so you can see all the photos…” He was trying so hard to extend a hand to this man, trying to be kind, understanding.
“Cool” Rickey was dry, and came out as slightly annoyed, giving Jack his back once again to go pick his saddle, he had no intention of entertaining the conversation for much longer, nor he was going to give Jack any more details than that. “Now if that was all…”
“Yeah, yeah, cool” The smaller man stuck his hands on his back pockets. The energy was just… odd, tense, weird. But he had never had a conversation with this man that was…. satisfactory. There was always an aura about him like he believed himself to be on a completely different level than all of them. Jack didn’t like him a little bit but his wife thought they should give him a chance. Some people are just hard to get to know and their kids are friends… “I’ll keep you informed about the trip then, see you later”
Rickey only raised his hand in a little goodbye gesture, but didn’t say anything else, Jack stood there for a couple seconds then let out a sigh and walked away. Guess it was… an odd way to teach a kid responsibility. But he wasn’t about to argue with another man on how to parent his kid.
After all, Jack couldn’t deny his family was incredibly privileged. Eloise’s family was extremely wealthy and they were able to raise their kids without money being a concern at all in their lives but that wasn’t the case for most people.
However, the days passed, Vesta started doing chores around the barn every now and then. The preparations of the trip were going smooth, and the big day came faster than any of them anticipated.
8 in the morning, the horses had to load up, they were the priority in terms of comfort, and they had a special flight scheduled for them hours before their own flight was planned to take off. Rickey didn’t even show up to help Vesta with Babylon, not that the mare needed any help… Truly, she was the calmest of all the horses that were being loaded in the trailer. A solid, bomb proof mare. But Rickey didn’t show up either at the airport, to say goodbye to his daughter who was going on her first trip alone for a month.
That was odd for sure.
“Maybe we should give him a call, he might have gotten the hours of the flights mixed up?” Eloise suggested, to which Jack had to make a strange face.
How could his own daughter pack and leave without him even noticing or asking where she was going? It was weird.
“Yeah, call him” He agreed. “Just to be sure”
Rickey picked the phone on the first tone, which to them indicated that he must have been waiting for any updates. Maybe he was just busy and couldn’t make it.
“What, did something happen?” He immediately asked. He didn’t seem very worried, more like annoyed.
“No, nothing, we’re just about to board the plane.” Eloise’s voice answered back.
“Oh” Rickey made a noise with his tongue. “Ok, yeah, have a good flight.” He was not very expressive with his tone, it came out kinda plain and not really getting much emotion with it.
“Thanks! Do you want to say that to Vesta she’s right here-” Eloise was starting to walk towards the girls, when Rickey hung the phone on her. “Oh, well, darling I’m sorry I got a hold of your dad but he just hung up.” She explained to Vesta, as the girls looked up at her.
“Ohh…” Vesta started “That’s alright, thank you Mrs Farran, I’ll text him he’s probably busy” She was polite, but it did sparkle a little seed of anxiety in her chest.
After all, her father hadn’t talked a word to her since their ultimatum. And it was starting to get to her. She texted Rickey just a simple “About to board, call later?” and he didn’t answer. They boarded the plane, and 14 hours later, when they landed, he still hadn’t answered. But now it was too late to regret this.