ME AND MY DADDI - Season 5 Episode 6

The first week flew by. Riley kept busy with the horses and the children who wanted to learn how to ride. She enjoyed the fact the majority had never seen a real horse in their lives. Every day, she felt stronger that she was making a difference in their lives.

She looked forward to the next day. Something she never thought would happen.

The only thing getting her down was the fact she hardly got to see Noah. She caught only glimpses of him as he walked by. It saddened her that he’d never stopped to talk to her, but she also understood because he was always with someone and busy. It felt like that time in the office when they’d shared that special moment hadn’t happened.

Another thing were the girls in her cabin. They were awful to her and liked to put her down. A few times, she’d gone back to the building to find they’d hidden her blanket and pillow or something else she needed.

It was frustrating to have to live with their malice and disrespect. She had tried on more than one occasion to connect with them, but it never happened, and Riley knew it never would. Although they all came from privileged lives, they were from two different worlds, and neither would be able to fit into the others.

Before she’d go to Noah, she needed to give it more time, but she was afraid that if she did, he’d have to send her home. Leaving the kids she was helping was something she’d hate to do. She finally felt like she was a part of something and doing something useful.

“Hey, Riley,” Tucker, one of the younger campers, call out.

“What’s up?”

“Can you show us how you jump the horse again?”

Riley looked around at the excited faces that were lined up on the fence. “Sure.”

Cory, one of the stable hands, handed her a helmet and the reins to one of the better jumpers they had. He booted her up into the saddle and then stood back.

Riley rode around the ring a few times before she started jumping. The kids who gathered around on the other side of the fence cheered.

A few of them even wanted to try, so she and Cory set up low jumps to let the kids get a feel of what it was like. Riley tried to spend as much time as she could in the stables because it was calm there, and the stable manager, Stanley, and the stable hands, were kind to her.

There was one girl, in particular, she had bonded with right away. Her name was Siena, and she was the sweetest little thing. Sienna reminded Riley a lot like herself at the age of twelve.

The two had a lot in common. The girl lived with only her mother because her father had passed on. Losing a parent was something Riley knew about. Sienna was really smart, but girls in the Mexican culture in that area were taught from birth what their place would be. A wife and mother. So reading and learning were frowned upon in her neighborhood. Sienna had ended up hiding that part of herself from others to fit in, much like Riley did with her way of looking at the world.

The only difference was Siena came from the inner city and Riley from wealth. Riley had to learn early on to pretend she was something she wasn’t, and it made for a sad childhood. When she’d graduated from high school, she’d been relieved to be able to stay home, but that quickly got boring. She lived every day for the time her father got home, so she had someone to talk to with. It irritated her dad more than naught, but she couldn’t help it. He was the only stability she had, and she held on tight to it.