Jessie's ride

Chapter 1

Jessie

My old black mustang was driving down a long lonely road again. Taking me away from everything I ever knew. That is how it always seemed. Being a military brat I had seen a lot of new places. You think I would be used to it by now? I was moving on again. This time was a little different. My parents decided after their divorce that they wanted to start separate lives in different states. Both were tired of dealing with the rebel in me so it was decided that I should go live with my mother’s brother. Lucky me. Here I just turned 16 and no place to call home. My mother thought living with her brother would do me some good. Why she thought that I did not know. So off to a small town in California I go. So here I was driving to a place I had never been to live with someone I had never met. Life is a pain sometimes.

It was not like I had much in the way of a life to leave behind. We moved around a lot. I did not keep much in the way of possessions. At each new school no one had wanted to get to know the tiny long haired dirty blonde boy. At 5’ 1” and thin as a rail I did not rank high in any noticeable way. Puberty did little for my look. What’s a guy to do? It was hard for many to tell my age from my look. Most said I looked twelve. A twelve year old girl that is. Because of this no one took me seriously. To compensate I rebelled at everything. That meant I got in a lot of fights. Well I should say I lost a lot of fights. One of these days I think I should learn to fight. That way maybe I would not loose so often.

The move was easy if annoying. I never did have much in the way of stuff. My bags did not even fill half the trunk. Being a rebel had its perks. Uncle Frank’s house was a pretty large four-bedroom place. I could tell He did not decorate it much. When I asked he just shrugged and said he spent most of his time at his store. I guess it did not mater much. As long as I had a place to park my mustang I was good. Rebel to the end! This was a good place as any I guess.

My uncle’s store was on the edge of town. It was a western outfitter that he called the Trails End. Uncle Frank had some horses and gave riding lessons for urban cowboys. Watching him doing that for the first few days gave me an idea. To fit in here I would learn how to ride and take care of the horses. I chose to ride the biggest and fastest horse around. Compensating for my size again. It took me a month and a lot of tries to get it right. Big Nasty as I called him really did not like me riding him. I think it hurt his pride. Every time I even got close to him he would try to step on me. If I was in front he would try to bite me. This just made me want to ride him all the more. I would dance out of the way and whack him across the nose or hind end. It became a game between us. I really had to jump to get up on him. The first few times I got on his back He was furious and tried to buck me off. He never could. I would cling to him and laugh. When he would tire himself out I would slip down and walk away for a wile. This is how it went for a week or so. I was stubborn as big nasty. I was the first one to ever get up on him. The fact I always did this bareback just made it more fun for me. When he finally let me ride him it was glorious. We became good friends after that.

Through all this my uncle did not even try to stop me just watched. I guess I liked my uncle because he never talked down to me even though most thought that a kid as small as me should only ride ponies. When I asked him to teach me any tricks he just smiled and did. He even had a saddle made for me. Across the back of the saddle was the words “Little Rebel”. When he showed it to me I grinned and thanked him. I asked him where he got it? He said that a girl who did leather work for him now and then made it. Her name was Josie.

The next day he introduced me to Josie. She was a cute redhead with a soft southern voice and easy manner. It was love at first sight. I had never met someone like her before. It took me off guard how much I was attracted to her. This was my first big crush. I did not even mind that she was 5 inches taller than me (Much). Being short is such a pain. I found her very easy to talk to and we began to hang out. We became best friends real fast. It was fascinating to feel the warm feelings I got just being around her. I loved to hear her southern ascent. It drove me wild. We talked on the phone a lot. I did that just to hear her talk. I was hooked and loving it.

I leaned how to take care of the horses and Josie taught me to work leather like she did. We would hang out at the store when not in school doing leather work or riding. I was becoming a real good rider. I even took over teaching people to ride when my uncle was busy. I was embarrassed sometimes. With my smallness and waist length hair they thought I was a twelve year old girl. I tried to take in good humor but it was frustrating. I was a boy Dang it! We went on like this for months.

Josie and I worked real well together. I was in heaven. We spent all of our time together. When not in school or at the store, she helped me work on my mustang. I was surprised to find out how much she knew about cars. It took a wile but we finally got it fixed up. I painted it black with silver pin striping. She said it looked so cool and named it Black Rose. It sounded cool so I kept the name. A vanity plate with that name made the car complete. When she got her learners permit I taught her to drive. I even let her take her driving test in my mustang. I had never let anyone drive my car before. I don’t know why I let her. I was on pins and needles the whole time. She passed the test. Of course I noticed that the skirt she wore to the test was very short and the guy who gave the test was looking at her legs wile walking to the car. Well we had a great celebration that day.

We grew so very close. I even let her give me a makeover. I was a mess and she changed all that. She bought me new cloths in a western style that showed off my slender build. I was not sure it suited me but humored her. She even got me to wash and trim my hair. I was surprised that it made my hair look even longer. She wanted to dye my dirty blonde hair strawberry blonde But I would not do it. That would be too much. We argued a bit then she let it go when I got mad.

I was shy most of the time witch made people think I was standoffish. I was good one on one just not in groups. Josie could tell this right off. She did not push me to hang out with other people. I think of myself as an outsider and she seemed to except that easily. I met a few of her friends over the next few months. She did not ask me to hang out with them often. She knew I did not like crowds. I mostly hung out at the store when not with her. She could see I was insecure about myself.

For the summer we both wanted to get away. When we were sitting in the store chatting about ideas for the summer Uncle Frank suggested that we go out to Heartwood, my aunt’s horse ranch in Montana. I could learn to train horses there not just ride them. This sounded real good to us so we agreed. The way he talked about the place it seemed he was the one who wanted to go. He could not leave the store though. Summer was the big money time for this store. We talked about it a lot. The ranch seemed to be a good place to get away. I could also get to know Josie better during this trip. As soon as we got out of school for the summer we left for the ranch.