Saddling Up {thewattys2015}

Chapter 7

Too early in the morning, the alarm blares out a shrill call. I slap the snooze button, groan and sit up in bed.

I look in the mirror, across from my bed and grimace at my lovely bed-head. Brittnay tosses and turns in her bed, but sits up finally after realizing she has to get up. I slip on my slippers and go into the bathroom.

I yawn, rub my eyes and strip off my warm pjs. I hop into the shower after making the water steaming hot. I come out of the shower, warm and refreshed. I smile and brush my teeth, looking for any zits in the mirror. I wrap a towel around myself and exit the washroom.

Brittnay goes into the bathroom behind me and locks the door. With the privacy to get dressed, I let go of the towel and pick out clothes for today. I grab a black pencil skirt and pair it with a lavender key-hole tee. I wear a black infinity scarf and my horse charm bracelet. I slip on a pair of white KEDS.

I slather myself with lime body lotion from bath&body works. I pack my school bag and add a couple of extra pencils in there. I look at the time. 7:30. School starts at 8:00 and ends at 2:00. My test is at 3:30. I quickly grab my cell and leave the dorm, just as Brittnay exits the washroom.

When at the cafeteria, I pile my plate high with Belgian waffles, whip cream, fresh fruit and sausages. I eat it all and grab a water bottle before leaving the cafeteria for the sciences building.

The white marble floors are cold against my thin soled flats. I approach the biology 8 classroom and gulp. My first class, my first school day at the best school in the world. I walk into the classroom and spot Nicole, who was making loud noises in the corner of the classroom. The desks were arraganed in hexagon shape with the teachers desk in the middle. The smart board was behind the last row of desks. I grabbed the last spot by Nicole and got out my horse-shoe covered notebook. I had a notebook for each subject. I got out a pencil, pen and highlighter.

"Hey Nicole, Wassup?" I say cheerfully to the black haired girl. "Nothin much but dude, that charm bracelet is totally the bomb!" She says grinning widely. I grinned "Thanks! My old stable coach gave it to me when I left for Windsor."

Nicole smiled and got out her notebook, a pen,pencil and highlighter. The rung shrilly. The teacher walked in. She was in her mid 50's and wore her gray hair in a very tight bun. She had a straight grey pencil skirt on and with a black blouse. She wore orthopaedic charcoal gray flats and had a pencil stuck in her bun. Overall, She looked like a very stern, no-nonsense and easy-angered teacher. She rapped a ruler on the desk and barked out "Get in your seats! Good morning class. My name is Ms.Peterse and I am the teacher of biology here at Windsor preparatory." Yep. I was right, She is very stern.

She wore her mouth in a thin line as she passed out quizzes. "This is a biology pop-quiz to see if you even bothered to do your summer reading." Uh-oh. Windsor had sent along a list of books we had to read for some classes. I hadn't even made a dent in my book pile because I was stuck reading school books for Windsor.

I picked up a pencil and looked at the first question. 'What are the animal kingdoms?' I smiled. This was easy! Thank god I did that summer reading. I moved on to the next question. I finished the 50 question quiz with 15 minutes to spare in our 30 minute time limit.

The rest of the class speed by and I made it out of biology with a worksheet to complete for Wednesday. I had math next which turned out to be really easy! My teacher was Mr.Dûboîs. I got no homework in math.

During lunch, I sat with Brittnay, Nicole and Paige. I ate my hamburger greedily as I was starving. Brittnay ate her wilted-looking salad; She's a vegetarian. Nicole ate some spaghetti her roommate had cooked for their lunch; her roommate was a chef and she believed in home lunches and not lunches from the cafeteria. Paige ate a raisin bagel with cream cheese on it and some fries.

After lunch, I headed to the English building. I entered the English classroom and was pleasantly suprised. Instead of normal desks, they had comfy looking armchairs with a big table in front of them. There were two armchairs to a table. They were arranged in a circle. The teachers desk was in the middle. I grabbed a squashy armchair in the front and smiled when I saw Brittnay's bag in the 2 armchair. Class started and me English teacher walked in.

"Hi Class! I'm Mr.Dand and you're stuck with lil'old me for English this year!" He said brightly, writing his name on the chalkboard. The class laughed. He smiled and said "Today, I'm going to have volunteers read the first two chapters of 'The Secret Tree' Any takers for the first chapter?" No one raised there hand. Slowly, I raised my hand. "Ah! You there, Ms.Hastings!" He said, nodding at me. He continued "I'm going to play a classical melody in the background and I want you to watch as Eleanor's reading slowly melts into the song's melody."

As the song started, I started reading. Slowly but surely, I read to the melody of the song. The rest of the English class we were aloud to work on other work for other classes. In that time, I finished my biology homework.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. But as soon as that school-is-over bell rang, I felt nervous. I went up to my dorm and prepped my hairnet, choker pin, white show blouse, white show breeches, my black belt and my navy blue show coat. It was 3:00 and my test was at 3:30. I washed my face, and applied lip gloss. I put on my breeches and slipped on my tall black riding boots.

I put on my show coat and snapped on my choker pin. I put my hair in a bun and slipped it into my hairnet. I grabbed my cell and stuck it in my pocket. I left my dorm and went to the stable.

I had braided Elle's tail and mane last night. She didn't need much grooming, but I picked her hooves and curry combed her back. I put on her white crisp saddle pad and plopped on the English saddle. I tightened the girth and painted her hooves with clear hoof polish. My mind was rehearsing the dressage test as I snapped on my velvet show helmet.

I lead Elle out of the stable and into the warm up arena. I mounted, with the help of a mounting block.

3:30 came and mr.Rossi called me out of the arena. I swallowed and rode into the indoor arena. "Hello Eleanor. First off, Thank you for wearing full show-attire. I want you to do your memorized dressage test, then you'll do some jumping, then cross-country and finally, some flatwork." Mr.conner said. I nodded and looked straight ahead.

He smiled and said "whenever you're ready." Before my nerves could get the best of me, I saluted mr.rossi and did a sitting trot to "A." I paused and did a flying lead change and continued to "B" on a working walk. I did a posting trot to "P" and finally did a smooth canter to "X" and saluted mr.rossi again. Mr.Rossi nodded and scribbled some notes down on his clipboard.

"Ok. Let's go to the outdoor arena where our lovely stable hand Ms.Robyn has set up some jumps." Mr.Rossi said smiling kindly. I rode elle to the outdoor arena where we saw 5 verticals and 5 oxers. I readied myself and waited until mr.rossi gave me the ok to start.

I put pressure on Elle's sides of her tummy and urged her into a canter. We flew over the verticals, one by one, not knocking a single rail. The oxers were a challenge and we hit a rail once, but it wobbled and stayed in place. We finished the jumping course with good confidence.

The cross-country course was easy-peasy! I flew threw the course with no obligations against me. Flatwork was harder. But I think I did good. Mr.rossi looked over his notes and approached me.

"Based on your performance, I can say that you are very talented rider. If you promise to work very hard, I am offering you a seat on Windsor's Advanced team." Mr.Rossi said.