Free Gypsy Girl and Horse Lovin' Boys by K.D. Kinney

want to. Live this week with no regrets. That’s what I mean by authentic. We are just here for the week. It’s not the end of the world for you. These kids won’t be with you after you leave.”
    “They’re on Facebook and so am I.”
    “You can block the mean ones. Keep the ones you want on there.” She got up to get another cup of water. “When you put that much energy into their nonsense, then they have a lot of power in your life. You need to take it back because they only have as much power as you give them.”
    I rolled my eyes. “That’s easy to say. You weren’t there when The Dark One called me and Cessie whores in front of the boys.”
    “What did the boys do? Did they believe it?” Mom leaned against the counter unruffled from my hurt from the insults.
    “Well, no. They defended me.” I sat up in my chair tracing where Cessie wrote her name in crayon on the table.
    “Do you believe it?”
    “No.” I finally met her gaze.
    She shrugged. “So there’s nothing to worry about. They’re hurtful words but they’re still just words with only the weight we give them.”
    “They posted a video to humiliate me.”
    “Have you been on the internet? How many thousands of mean videos are there on there? What about all the ones of celebrities when they fall? Jennifer Lawrence comes to mind. She’s done that more than once. Does that stop people from liking her?”
    “No.”
    “See, there you go. You’re human. You fall. You’ll do dumb things and sometimes people won’t notice. Sometimes they do and let the whole world know. By tomorrow, or at least eventually, it will be forgotten. How many times have I slipped or done something embarrassing during the show? It’s so risky having a macaw and a monkey to depend on for entertainment. When that stuff happens, we shrug it off. We always have so I don’t know why you’re bent out of shape over all this. If it’s over the boys, for heaven’s sake, be yourself and let everything sort itself out. If it doesn’t, we will be gone on Monday and you can forget about all of it. You’ll never see them again.”
    I mashed the muffin bits lost in thought.
    “If I see a crumb anywhere when you leave the Caravan today, you will clean this place with a toothbrush. By the way, gypsies use to have problems like this, but their problems were much bigger than yours.”
    “We’re pretend gypsies. We shouldn’t have real gypsy problems.”
    “We aren’t as different from past gypsies as you’d like to think we are.” Mom disappeared into her room.
    I watched the time as we prepped for the show. One o’clock took forever to arrive and that show was the slowest one ever. Once it was over, Mom let me go watch Noah.
    I was still in my gypsy clothes. At least I didn’t have to wear the jingly belt. When I got to the bleachers, I found a spot right in the middle where no horses could sneak up and scare me. I played with the colored strands of my hair to preoccupy myself when I spotted Bree and Rachel coming to sit on the bleachers. I was so busy watching them that when someone slid into my side, I jumped and nearly launched off the bleachers. Josh held onto me when my foot almost slipped through the bottom step.
    I punched his arm.
    He held his finger to his mouth to silence me before rubbing his arm. He winced dramatically.
    I whispered, “I know to be quiet. You should know better than to do that.”
    “I do. I’m sorry.” He rubbed my back. “I’ve never been this close to you when you’re all gypsy. I kinda like it.”
    I didn’t move away. However, I hoped he would stop touching me before Noah’s turn. I leaned back and whispered in Josh’s ear, “So what does he have to do?”
    “Ride the horse in circles in all gears.” He smirked.
    “Seriously.”
    “I don’t know everything he has to do. This is his first time in the advanced competitions and Kelly’s too. She’s had private lessons. She probably should be competing in something even