One very hot and sunny day, Kate was at the fairgrounds. She was getting ready to show a lamb, a steer, and a pig for a competition called Round Robin. First she had to show a lamb. This was very simple for her considering that the lamb was hers and had spent a great deal of time with her. Also Kate had been showing lambs and steers for around 10 years and grew up on a farm, riding horses and working with the animals. As she showed her lamb she did nearly perfect and felt pretty good about what she had done.

Next Kate got the opportunity to show a pig. Since she had very little experience with pigs she was nervous. She went into the pen with her hopes high and butterflies in her stomach, She picked the pig she was going to show. The pig worked pretty well with her and she was happy and pleased with herself.
Then Kate walked over to where she was going to show the steer and sat down next to Mitch who put his arm around her and told her that she was doing a great job! As she was waiting to go into the ring to show the steer, she started to think about her day and how she got the opportunity to even be showing in the Round Robin Competition.


14 hours earlier

It was 4 a.m. and Kate was just waking up. The dang boys were ring the doorbell. They were an hour early. So Kate got out of bed hurry and brushed her hair and teeth then went and let them in. “You look tired Kate, why are you up so early?” Isaac asked sarcastically
“Hmmm I wonder why?” Kate said. “Maybe cause I have five dorks ringing the doorbell every 10 seconds at 4 in the morning, and you guys didn’t leave till like midnight last night. Just get in so I can go get ready.” The boys came in and attacked the kitchen, all but Mitch.
“Sorry sweetie, would you like me to leave?” Mitch asked, while giving her a hug and then he kissed her good morning.
“NO!! Just make the rest of the guys behave, so I can go get ready!” Kate said and smiled. “I’ll go make breakfast for you guys, what do you want to eat?”
“Okay I can do that. Make whatever sounds good to you.” Mitch said, grabbing her hand and as they walked to the kitchen. “You always make everything taste so good!”
“Well thanks! I think you are just being much to sweet!” Kate giggled, as she began making eggs and blueberry pancakes.
“Dude, are you sucking up to Kate again?” Isaac blurted out.
“No. You are just jealous!” Mitch replied
“Ya. You are jealous Isaac, we all know that you like her!” Dan remarked.
“So do you!” Isaac argued
“Whatever, No I don’t.” Dan said laughing.
Kate just rolled her eyes and laughed. This was a normal occurrence for her when she was with these guys. She had known them most of her life so she learned to ignore them. She really didn’t care what the others thought her heart was set on Mitch and that was not going to change.
“Okay guys I think it’s enough of that, Kate is a red as a tomato and she is my girl!” Mitch announced putting his arms around her.
“We know.” Isaac pouted
“I think it’s cute guys.” Heidi said as she walked down the stairs. Heidi was Kate’s Cousin. Heidi had just turned 13 while Kate was 16. Kate lived with her aunt and uncle since she was 5 years old after her parents had gotten divorced and it just worked better this way.
“Well good morning sleepy head!” Kate teased, “Are you hungry?”
“Ya! Blueberry pancakes are my favorite!” answered Heidi, “Why do all the boys have to wrestle when they are here?”
“I don’t know. They have most of their lives I don’t think it’s going to change.” Kate replied laughing and looking over to see the boys wrestling in the living room.
“Are you done with our food yet?” whined Kyle.
“Ya you are taking forever!” complained Chris.
“Just finishing. You guys are so impatient!!!” Kate answered. “Don’t make a mess please!”
The boys then came over and everybody ate and talked. As Kate finished eating, the doorbell rang and Kate went and let in Ben, Joni, and Amy. Kate then headed upstairs to go get ready for the day, while the guys watched TV and Heidi did the dishes. About a half an hour later Kate came down stairs ready to go and so did her Aunt Linda and Uncle Boyd
“Is everyone ready?” Asked Boyd.
“Ya!” they all answered, as the doorbell rang. There was everyone else Maddie, Kelsey, Caitlyn, and Preston.
“Kate, You take Mitch, Dan, Isaac, and Kyle and head down to the fair grounds and we will take everyone else and meet you down there.” Boyd directed her.
“Okay. Let’s go guys.” Kate said, as Mitch grabbed her hand and headed towards the door.
Today was the big day! The 4-H club had been working so hard for the last 6 months; everyone was at the farm at least 2 hours a day everyday. Some days Kate had been at the farm for upwards of 6 hours. She had put her heart into her lambs and steer. She was determined to win or at least to place in the top 15 out of the 700 lambs and the 300 steers.
Everyone got into the cars and headed to the Salt Lake County Fair grounds. As soon as they got to the fair, they immediately got to work. They only had 3 hours to be ready for the first group’s competition at 8:30. The club had to wash all the lambs for like the 5th time that week, then they had to blow dry them and shear each lamb to perfection. Around 9:00 Mitch found Kate working on shearing a lamb.
“Hey Kate, it’s almost my turn to go into the ring will you come down there with me?” asked Mitch.
“Ya, sweetie!” answered Kate, she put down her shears and told Dan to finish the lamb up for her. “Are you nervous?”
“Ya, a little. I haven’t got to talk to you very much today.” Mitch said, putting his arm around Kate.
“I know. I really am sorry. It’s just been busy.” Kate replied.
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. We both were busy and you are in charge of everything.” Mitch said, smiling at Kate.
“Are you sure? I’m sorry!” Asked Kate.
“Yes I’m positive! I’ve got your attention now don’t I?” Mitch answered and kissed her.
“Okay.” Giggled Kate then kissed him back. “How about I watch you show your lamb!”
“I would love that!” Mitch smiled and winked at her.
“Okay! Then I will!” Giggled Kate. Then Mitch kissed her again and he was called into the ring. Kate wished him good luck and went and went and sat in the crowd.
Mitch did pretty well and was sent into the star class and so was the rest of the club for market. The club took 2nd to 5th and 10th to 17th. Kate took 4th and 10th, and Mitch took 5th.
Then it came to the Showmanship Competition. So Kate took her lamb to the arena and went in. Her nerves were everywhere. The sun was shining into her eyes and she felt uncomfortably hot! As she circled the ring with her lamb the judge watched everyone intently. Then had them line up in rows and went around and asked everyone questions about lambs and showmanship. After that he had them circle again and do a figure 8 one by one and line back up in rows. Then he went to the microphone and started talking about what showmanship was and what he was looking for. Then he announced that the girl next to Kate, the boy on the other side of Kate, and Kate were going to the star class (which is championship round). They were then dismissed. Mitch ran up to Kate and told her great job and gave her a big hug.
Then Mitch grabbed the Lamb and put the halter on it and then he grabbed Kate’s hand. They walked down to the pen and tied up the lamb. Then Mitch made her eat some food and drink some water. Kate couldn’t hold still she kept pacing back and forth in front of the pens.
About a half an hour later Kate was back at the show ring with her lamb ready to show. Kate was trying so hard, but she was so nervous. The judge kept moving everyone around and asking people a few questions each. Kate had been asked three questions and was really working them hard. Finally the judge went and got the microphone, and Kate suddenly got really nervous. She was in the middle of two of the best showmen at the fair, and even though she wasn’t quite sure what was going on, she kept showing. He talked for what seemed like an hour about what made a good showman, what he was looking for, and what he had seen with this showmanship group. Finally he took the ribbons and walked around the ring, and gave Grand Champion to the girl next to Kate. Then he walked right passed her to the next lamb. Kate thought, “Oh well there is always next year,” but she kept showing. To her great surprise, he came back down and handed Kate the Reserve Champion ribbon. She was the youngest in the ring and didn’t have as much experiences as most the other people did in that ring. So she shook his hand and said “Thank You.” She couldn’t help smiling, and here eyes were huge because he laughed and said she was welcome and that she deserved it. The guy next to Kate, Dan, won third. Dan was in her club, so he wasn’t to happy that Kate had actually done better then him since he had taught her a lot of the stuff that she knew. She was still very surprised that she had gotten Reserve Champion and she got to go to round robin because the top two showman from each of the classes and animals get the opportunity to show in the round robin. She got attacked with hugs by Mitch, her aunt (who was crying), her uncle, and the rest of the club! Mitch took her lamb and then he got pushed out of the way. By the time everyone left her and gave her room to breathe Mitch was back and her lamb was put into her pen.
“Wow, Sweetie! You did amazing!” Mitch said.
“Thanks!” Kate replied, Mitch then put his arms around her and gave her a kiss. Kate blushed.
“Man, now you have round robin later tonight, I don’t get to have you to myself for very long now do I?” Mitch pouting, then he winked at her
“Sorry! But you have me for now.” Kate said blushing even more.
“Lets get out of here before anyone else tries to take you away from me.” Mitch replied with a smile.
“Okay let’s go get some food. I’m hungry.” Kate answered as they walked to her car, hand in hand.



Kate’s name was then announced to show a steer. Her final competition for the day, after this she could go home and get some sleep and spend time with Mitch. She walked into the ring and picked out a pretty good steer. He had won every award that day that he could. The steer was sweet at first but then he started to fight with Kate. But she kept on showing him her very best. She had worked with so many steers. She knew that it was normal for them to fight when they got tired. The steer became very unhappy with her. The steer decided he was done with being shown so he picked up Kate and threw her with his head. Kate went flying into the air but didn’t let go of the Steers halter. As she landed on the ground all the judges ran towards her and grabbed the steer and made sure Kate was all right. She was fine just embarrassed. She knew the risk with steer and was happy she hadn’t been hurt any worse. After she had gotten back up and she took the steer and finished showing him. In the end she won 3rd place over all showmen at the fair and she was very proud of herself and what she had done at the fair that day.