"Anna, the door."

It was about the fifth time she had come in for work.

And she still kept forgetting to close that damn door behind her, every single time she left. She remembered to knock, but could she remember to close it?

No.

Sighing, she turned and let the door click shut behind her.

At least Elsa had addressed her by name—for once.

Not bothering to dwell on it, she instead focused her mind on other things, first and foremost being her job. She brought the horses in, and turned the rest of the horses out. Then she grabbed one of the wheelbarrows from the shed, hauled a pitchfork out of the supply closet, and began going down the stalls one by one. And even though she was literally ankle deep in horse crap, she didn't care. She loved spending time with the horses; the docile, easygoing horses that let her into their stalls for a few minutes always brightened her mood.

The fact that she could be so close to such an amazing animal was always something that was unfathomable to Anna. Here she was, shoulder to shoulder with a creature that could crush her if it wanted to, yet instead allowed her to share the wooden box of territory that was the only thing it could call its own.

But also by now, she knew well enough which horses would run her out of their little pieces of territory in seconds—the ones who greeted her with pinned back ears, or a threatening snap of the teeth.

And Anna worked patiently with them.

She would talk to them in a calm tone; let them examine her hands before she attempted to halter them. Usually, she would end up putting these antsy horses on the crossties, knowing that by doing so, she was most likely dodging a kick or two, or a bite on the arm. But once she was finished dealing with these horses, she could spend some extra time with the select few horses she had taken a liking to.

As she worked, she found herself actually enjoying what she was doing; it was all to be on the show team after all, and the first show was coming up in a few short weeks.

In the days leading up to those weeks, so far, her jobs were going smoothly.

Her lessons were great—a way to let out her stress; to let her focus on nothing but herself, her riding, and the horse for an entire hour, which was something that was a rarity in the midst of insane college life.

But her classes weren't too difficult, either. The resulting grades of her first exams had been on the better side, which Anna had been pleasantly surprised about.

She had had another date with Hans that went perfectly.

Or rather, with her usual amount of optimism, she'd taken to calling it a date, since he'd asked her out again—to dinner this time. So she assumed that this meant that they were together, even though she really knew nothing at all about relationships. They hadn't kissed…yet. But as of right now she was going to call it a relationship, even if it was in its very beginning stages. And she knew that this feeling was mutual.

And so things, it seemed, were going well.

Anna was assigned to Delaney again for her eighth lesson.

"But I was told to tell you to ride without her martingale," Weselton told her.

"Do you know why?" Anna asked.

"It was just noted here on the horse assignments, so I wanted to make sure you that you knew."

Okay then. Round two with crazy mare.

She quickly saddled and bridled Dee, and brought her to the arena.

Not falling for any of the chestnut's crazy antics, Anna kept a firm grip on the reins as she adjusted her stirrups, and then circled the mare so that they were far away from the other two horses in the lesson.

Dee's energetic trot, she could tell, was about to break into a canter at any moment, but Anna sat firmly, not letting the mare get away with anything.

"Now I want you all to canter once around the ring before we start jumping, but I think it would be best to go one at a time, so that Delaney doesn't chase down the other horses."

Anna gave her trainer a grateful look.

You don't even know how happy that just made me.

She knew that if trying to control Dee's canter alone was difficult, it would be ten times harder with two other horses in the arena for the crazy mare to go running after.

Olaf, riding Titan, went first, and Belle went second.

And then it was Anna's turn.

"Let's make this a little more organized than the first time," Anna whispered to the mare, whose ears flicked back in Anna's direction.

Anna sat the chestnut's bouncy trot, and Dee needed only the slightest of cues to start cantering in the corner.

Well, calling it a 'canter' would have been an understatement. Dee shot off like a bullet beneath her, and when Anna attempted to half halt the mare, she only tossed her head up high—an act, Anna knew, that the martingale would have prevented. Anna felt almost like she was riding a rodeo pony, but she followed Dee's crazy fast canter as if velcroed into the saddle; she had dealt with too many stubborn horses to let Dee get away with this.

And so Anna did something that sounded contradictory, but knew was right.

She softened her grip on the reins, giving Dee her head.

And she let the mare get it out of her system, bolting down the long end of the arena, before she used her leg to get her to slow down.

Only after she felt Dee's strides shorten did she once again attempt to give small half halts and bring the mare down to the trot, and then to the walk.

"Well done, Miss Summers," Weselton praised. "Now I've set up a small course. I want you to, one at a time of course, start with the outside line, followed by the diagonal fence, and then change directions across the diagonal to the single vertical set up next to the wall.

Anna mentally drew lines from the first jump all the way to the last, outlining the pattern, and then visualized it as Olaf began the course. He and Belle both had smooth rounds with only minor missteps.

And Anna knew that her problem with Dee would come in the beginning, getting the mare to slow in front of the second jump, and also towards the end, making sure that Dee listened to her cues to change directions. But Anna was determined; once she set her mind to something, she knew she could accomplish anything. And after all, she had managed to jump Dee at the tryouts without the martingale, so she shouldn't be nervous.

Anna circled Dee, making sure she had the mare's attention (or at least as much of it as she ever could) before asking for the canter. And her difficulties arose just where she had identified them earlier. After landing from the first jump, Dee hit the gas pedal.

Hard.

And who told you that you could do that? Anna thought to the insane mare.

She couldn't give Dee rein like she had previously in front of the jump because their takeoff wouldn't be set up right. So Anna was forced to pull back on the reins more than she would have liked to.

Dee tossed her head in the air before the jump, and at first Anna thought that she would refuse, but Anna urged her on with her heels, and the mare launched herself over the one foot vertical as if it were a mountain.

Anna, unprepared for a jump so large, ended up leaning on Dee's neck in order to keep herself upright, and the mare, feeling how unbalanced her rider was, threw in a small buck just for spite. But Anna stuck it out, readjusting her left foot that had come dangerously close to sliding completely out of the stirrup, and continued asking Dee to turn across the diagonal.

Luckily, the diagonal jump was only a crossrail—meaning that instead of a pole straight across like a vertical would have, the two poles formed an 'x' so that the middle of the jump was lower.

But after landing, Anna half halted Dee again, using her leg to bend the mare through the turn, only lengthening the reins once they were going straight along the long side of the arena.

And then suddenly…Dee felt like a different horse beneath her.

After their tug-of-war battle, Dee was satisfied with the release of the reins, content with the small amount of contact that Anna had on the bit.

Dee slowed her stride, and dropped her head, taking the full five strides that Anna had counted to approach the fence. She took off without hesitation, and when she landed, she didn't protest to circling back down to the trot. Anna patted the mare's neck, proud of both Dee's newfound willingness to listen, and also, of herself.

She had gained Dee's full attention—and dare she say, respect?

Anna walked Dee to the back of the line to wait for her turn to go over the course again. She was about to lean down and give Dee another pat, when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

A movement of from the second level above the arena; the back of a blonde braid disappearing into the tack room.

And suddenly it all fell into place.

Dee no longer needed that martingale because Anna may have just finally gained the respect of a certain someone else.

"Anna, please make that God awful noise stop or so help me the one and only day you get to sleep late I will blare music like there is no tomorrow."

Although Rapunzel's threat was muffled by a pillow, Anna knew that when it came to sleeping in, her roommate took it as seriously as her life.

Well, that and her inanely long hair.

"Ugh," Anna groaned, rolling over to slap the alarm clock, "Fine."

She was most certainly not a morning person.

It took her about half an hour to get out of bed and tame the hair that stuck out from all sides of her head, leaving her ten minutes to throw on whatever she deemed comfortable enough to traipse around campus in, grab a quick breakfast from the dining hall, and run to her chemistry lab.

She got into the classroom with a minute to spare, throwing her books onto the table noisily beside Elsa's just as the professor began talking. And not even a minute had passed after the professor had finished introducing the lab to the class before Elsa was already instructing her to hold the test tube, which contained a metal that was to be melted in a liquid solution over the Bunsen burner on the lab table.

"So, uh, I read the lab in advance," Anna said, holding the solution carefully so that she wouldn't drop it. Anna hadn't planned on really talking to Elsa today, after what had happened in the office with the picture, but once again, her mouth had a mind of its own.

"Did you?" Elsa asked, but it was less of a question and more of a haphazard comment.

"Yeah. I did. I wouldn't have said so if I hadn't."

Well, even for Anna's notorious ability to speak without thinking, that had been a very…straightforward comment. What did Anna think she was doing?

"I never said you were lying," Elsa said levelly.

Oh, so this is what it comes down to. She needs to have the last word. Always in control. Like with everything else. But if you want to play that way, Elsa, then challenge accepted.

"Well now we're just being a bit presumptuous. No one ever said anything about lying at all," Anna said innocently.

Elsa narrowed her eyes, but Anna could have sworn she saw the beginnings of a smirk tugging at the blonde's lips.

"You were the one who started defending yourself, thinking I was accusing you of something."

"Oh, what's this now? You were going to accuse me of something?"

"I never said that," Elsa was definitely not going to back down, "I only mentioned that you thought that I would."

At this point, Anna wasn't even sure she could keep up with Elsa's logic. But she had finally gotten Elsa to talk to her; to hold an almost normal conversation with her—as normal as anything with Elsa could be, anyway.

"Well, I think if that you're going to accuse me of something then you'd better do it already," Anna challenged, looking right into Elsa's blue eyes.

Let's see you take orders from me for a change.

Elsa didn't look away, but she paused for a moment, before finally saying, "You're going to set our experiment on fire."

"What?"

Elsa reached over Anna's arm and turned off the burner, brushing Anna's hand with her own in the process, which caused a rather involuntary shiver to run down Anna's spine. But the redhead ignored it, too focused on the entirety of the situation to care.

"I accuse you of almost setting our experiment on fire," Elsa repeated.

Anna may not have been listening so intently the first time, but she had been listening enough to know that Elsa had not initially prefaced her sentence with the first three words that she had added to the new one.

Elsa had actually done something that Anna had told her to do.

Even if it was over something so ridiculously trivial.

"But…I didn't!" Anna said proudly in response to the senior's comment.

Elsa only gave her another disapproving look, but Anna figured that while she had the senior's attention, she may as well try something else. Elsa had let her ride Dee without a martingale…so did that mean she would be willing to give Anna more responsibility in the classroom setting as well?

Anna couldn't help the fact that her voice came out timidly. But regardless, it still retained a sense of authority. She needed to say this; desperately needed to know the answer, "And so…since I'm already holding the test tube you wouldn't mind, then, if I measured out five milliliters of the solution like the lab manual instructs?"

And Elsa looked at her.

Really looked at her.

And a million things seemed to flash in her eyes: anger, annoyance, indignation, shock, confusion.

Her mouth opened, as if to say something, but then it was pressed into a thin line without letting anything out.

And then those blue eyes just seemed to…soften.

"No," Elsa chose her words very carefully, "I wouldn't mind."

And Anna had to bite her lip to fight the smile that was threatening to grow across her face.

Never before had she been so excited to perform a step of a chemistry experiment.

Elsa had finally let her do something; given up control for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Mission accomplished.

A/n: So I know this chapter was short. Life and work and school are crazy hectic at the moment, although I mostly blame the workload that comes with my classes for my insanity. Regardless, though, I'm pretty happy with the way the chapter turned out! I promise the next one will be longer :)

Here's a horse term: crossties. Basically, they're attached to the wall, and then you attach them to either side of the horse's halter so that you can work with the horse in the aisle instead of in a stall.

And also…big things will be happening next chapter ;)

Thanks for reading!