Together we fly

Chapter III

I could hardly breathe as I woke up Saturday. Oh god. It was really happening. I was really flying to Blue Mountain. "Charlie?" said Mom, "Huh?" I said a bit nervous. "Get dressed Charlotte we have to go in an hour." she yelled from downstairs. I got up and hummed. I got dressed in a baggy jeans and my favourite high-end sweater. Since I was flying with a plane (though it was just an hour) I wanted to be comfortable. I quickly put my hair into a comfortable braid, and did my make up. I applied a bit concealer. Just so my eyebags wouldn't look as dark. It was bad enough that I didn't get any sleep- the Blue Mountain Academy did not have to know. I put some lipgloss and Mascara on as well, just for good measure. We arrived at the airport and boarded our plane. I was sick nervous during the whole plane trip. "Charlie. They either take you. In which case you've reached your goal. Or they don't. Either way your life doesn't stop." Mom tried to calm me down. "Charlotte." Mom began, it was rare she called me Charlotte instead of Charlie. "You're a Great equestrian, and even if they reject you, your still a great equestrian." she patted me on the shoulder. I nodded and smiled, though still nervous. "Right." I whispered. "How are we getting to school though?" I asked Mom, trying to calm myself down. Mom showed me an email on her phone. It was between Mom and the Headmistress Mrs. August

Dear Miss Asmus.
It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to our exclusive Blue Mountain Shuttle Service tailored specifically for our esteemed student body.
Recognising the paramount importance of seamless transitions, we have meticulously curated this service to ensure your arrival at our prestigious institution is nothing short of seamless and luxurious.

We are more than happy to provide you and your daughter with our private shuttle service and we sent a shuttle to the Banff Airport at your designated arrival. Our shuttle service is marked with the official School Logo.
Best wishes, Headmistress Mrs. August

The email was followed with the signature of the headmistress and the logo of the school. A blue horse jumping over a mountain. "Ah alright." I sighed. "I knew the School was fancy- but not that fancy." I giggled. "Well you certainly should've informed yourself better." Mom teased me. I chuckled. "Miss Alpin is part of an old aristocratic family, who used to live in Germany. And she's the founder of the Alpin security insurance. A insurance used by most sportspeople. Even the Olympic Games use this insurance." Mom lectured me, though half jokingly. "Wow." I exhaled. "And she's the headmistress of the school?" I asked shaking my head in disbelief. "No- There's a difference between Elizabeth Alpin, the founder of the school and the owner of Alpin security Insurances, and Mrs. August the current head mistress." Mom explained. I sighed, Mom was truly a detective when it came to finding out infos about schools. She even found out that my old school was burned down at some point. We arrived at the Banff airport. Infront of the Airport stood the shuttle, a luxurious car. Similar to a limousine. "Welcome." said the driver, a forty-something old man. It took around 45 minutes in which I probably bothered the driver by asking so many questions about the Academy. "How often do we get to ride tournaments?" I asked. "That depends, in the first time you're not likely to ride tournaments at all but later, you can request a tournament schedule." said the driver and sighed. I smiled. It was finally happening I was at Blue Mountain. I was at Blue Mountain- well atleast I would be in 45 Minutes. "How many horses does Blue Mountain currently have?" I asked again. "Man I don't know. I'm just a driver. But I'd guess like 80 maybe more- maybe less." he shrugged. "Shhh... you'll see Charlie. They're gonna show you the stable and everything else, so don't worry." said Mom. "I know Mama, I'm just so- nervous." I sighed, Mom patted my shoulder again. "Don't be." Mom smiled. We arrived to the School, God it was even bigger than the pictures I've seen. It was a huge white castle- like building. Our car passed the gates with the Blue Mountain Logo on it. "Holy-" I exhaled. This is only the dormitory building, I knew that from viewing the school on Google maps. There were two of those giant buildings on Campus. A dormitory building, for the staff that lived on Campus and the students of course. And an educational building which featured all the classrooms. It truly was a luxury to be accepted into this school. We drove onto a parking lot near of the dormitory house, which was opposite to the education building. They looked exactly the same despite the different signs reading- dormitories, and educational building. "Wow." I got out of the car and let my eyes wander over the parking lot. I could see a lot of the shuttles with all kinds of people exiting them. But a few expensive cars and even transporters with a beautiful bay pony exiting. Wow. "You can bring the luggage in the main hall in the dormitory house." our driver said. "Thank you so much." said Mom. I nodded with her before we went inside the dorm building. It looked even bigger from the inside than outside. It had a dark wood floor. There were various doors in the hallway. 'Kitchen, staff only' one of the silver signs said, another one said 'Band room' and the last two ones said Cafeteria Grade 8-10 and Cafeteria grade 11-12. Then there was the main hall, which was fairly small with two huge stairs leading up to the first floor. The main hall was practically crowded with luggage. I put my huge purple suitcase which was covered in stickers from different European and American locations. "What are we supposed to do next?" I asked Mom. She shrugged and I got nervous again, before a red headed woman with an equally red haired family of a girl my age and a father and two baby boys, all having the same red hair- despite the girl who had more strawberry blonde hair. 'Wow I didn't know the Weaslie's are going to Blue Mountain' I thought I sarcastically. "I think you have to go to the secretary." said the Mother of the red haired family, she had a strong European accent, though I didn't know if it was German or Italian. "You can follow us- It's Nora's first time too." the mother said. Mom nodded to them before shaking the woman's hand. The woman introduced herself as Christina. We walked over to the secretary building. "Name?" The old, slightly grumpy secretary said. "Norah Wilhelms- I mean the Wilhelms Family." the secretary typed on her keyboard. "Okay. Nora is in room 06, and you are in guest house 8." she said nonchalantly. "Next." she yelled. "Name?"she asked me and my Mom. "Charlotte Asmus." my Mom said. "Dorm room Number 13, and Guest house 8 aswell." The secretary said. Before yelling next. We went back to grab our luggage. Before going upstairs to my dorm room for the Week. It was a plain but luxurious dorm room. With white sheets, a luxurious bunk bed and one normal- twin sized bed. Three medium sized closets a big desk with three chairs, and a Marmor bathroom, the only thing that was different from other elite boarding schools were the pictures of famous riders who most likely- went to blue Mountain. And the doorknobs, small golden doorknobs who were shaped like rearing horses. "Not bad." I said. I put my luggage on the bottom bunk. The single bed seemed to be taken already. Then I followed Mom to the guest houses. We had to walk quite a while to the guest houses since they were behind the stables. It took a 200 metre brick road, with well kept roses as decor to reach the stables. The guest houses were modern and airy with a great view and  3 seperated apartments each with a bedroom, bathroom and a small kitchen. "It's not bad, is it." I asked Mom. Not sure what she was thinking about the guest house. "Oh gosh Charlotte, don't worry. I love it." she laughed out loud, and I knew she was sincere. Two hours later when most people were settled at around 6pm we met near the dorm buildings. Where a stage was built up the head mistress climbed upon it. Mrs August- a small grey haired woman climbed upon it. "Hello everyone- welcome to the annual Blue Mountain life auditions. We are very happy to meet each and every one of our esteemed students. I hope everyone found they're dorm rooms well." she spoke into a microphone. "We first start with a tour around our academy." She smiled. "Follow me please." the board of students, including their parents followed her. We first got into the dorm house. "This is the area I'm sure you all saw when arriving. This is the main hallway. She opened the Band room at first. "This is our band or music room. Students can either make their own music here, since we are equipped with various instruments or they can listen to music with our speakers." Mrs. August said. Before opening the kitchen room. "This is the kitchen. Meals are prepared right here. The kitchen is NOT to be visited by students unless stated otherwise." she continued before closing the door otherwise. "We do however, offer a cooking club." she added. "Then she opened the cafeteria for the 8th to 10th grade. A cozy wooden cafeteria with a chimney and some sofas even. "This is our Cafeteria. The other cafeteria looks quite the same, but the colours are different. This is where the student body spends they're main time." she said. "Students are equipped with three meals per day." said the headmistress. Everyone looked around. The cafeteria really looked comfortable with chairs and sofas. The room had- like every room huge windows with long white curtains. "However they can buy snacks at the kiosk if they want."  Mrs. August said. Before closing letting us exit and locking the door again. "This is the main hall. We hold all our celebrations here." Mrs August explained. I could only imagine that the main hall was probably a great hang out spot.  Before heading up the stairs to the student dorm rooms. "Left are the girls rooms. Right are boys rooms." said Mrs August. Then she went up the stairs to the second floor, which I hadn't even noticed before. Before showing us the staff rooms. "Those are the staff rooms. Of course not all our staff lives on campus- but some do." she said. "Those rooms are strictly forbidden for students." she said, even stricter. Before heading downstairs again and finally leaving the dorm building. And entering the education building. It looked the same as the other building- the same hallway just with different rooms. The signs read 'secretary' and headmaster's office. Than there were long hallways with classrooms each listed with the grade, then we went upstairs and Mrs August said: "Welcome to the Blue Mountain Research centre. We offer STEM here- many of our students made it far in STEM." she smiled coldly but proudly. She unlocked one of the rooms, it was a bright white room with various posters, one showed the anatomy of a horse another one a list of poisonous plants. "This is our biology lecture hall, we also have a biochemistry room, a chemistry and physics lecture hall." Miss August nodded and showed us around each one- bright rooms with luxurious tables and desks- painted In Marmor. And for once I actually realised how luxurious the school was- the interior must've costed a fortune. "We do offer advanced courses in STEM for anyone that's interested and shows- well enough talent and encouragement for that." she emphasised that last part. I didn't think much of it until Mom whispered "God- they are exclusive here." in my ear. And I wanted to disagree with her- but I knew she was right after all. They were exclusive. To the end of each semester they had a well known Trial, to see who made enough progress to stay in the school, and if you failed that it was said you'd be thrown out of the school. They were harsh- really harsh, but I knew that if I was accepted into Blue Mountain, I would have the best chances to study agriculture, veterinary medicine, business, sports and equine courses or and that was my main goal- have a career in the equestrian world. Mrs August was rambling up and down about the great achievements the school had made in its education. I didn't care, nor did any of the other teenagers. Some were chewing some gum and some boy was smiling at his phone. "Before I bore the young one to death." Ms. August chuckled coldly, obviously knowing that we were bored- Mom liked those types of people, that could read faces and expressions. "Let's visit the stables and our riding arena- I'm sure many of you are exited to see it." said Ms. August. I liked how she was formal despite speaking really casually. We exited the buildings and looked around for a second until Ms. August introduced us to a dark haired woman with a microphone. "Good day everyone." she said stoic. "I'm Carmen Bouchard, I'm a teacher for Show jumping and Cross Country at Blue Mountain Academy." I recognised Madame Bouchards Voice from the Videos I watched about Blue Mountain. She was said to be the strictest teacher, but almost all of her favourite students made it far. Madame Bouchard stepped of the pedestal she was standing on- she was a tall thin woman- with brown- ish grey hair and a permanently resting stoic expression. "Come on everyone- we don't have the whole day." she motioned us to follow. If the houses were luxurious than the horses were living in a castle. The stables were bright, they were build out of white stone with a white brick floor, they were layered all around in dark oak wood, each horse had an individual Paddock with white fences separating the horses in between. There were white Victorian styled lamps. There were two stables each with 25 stalls, only some of the horses were standing in the stable. Mares and Stallions were separated by two doors- in between those rooms there was a tack room. It was filled with saddles each was hung up on the wall with a golden Name Tag. In the middle stood a navy sofa with a couch table.  "The stables were founded after Lady Alpines Standards of the maximisation of comfort in the modern riding world." said Miss Bouchard. We then visited the active stable, those were even more luxurious. It was a big sand  paddock with a huge house that looked like the normal stable but a little smaller, the horses weren't separated either. We went inside the house, it had the same tack room and you could look into the two huge main areas, again mares and Stallions separated. "Our Active stables have a total of 20 ponies." she said, again stoically.Then she showed us around the riding areas 3 Main Halls, and two outside arenas, one for dressage one for showjumping. "The arenas are colour coded which will be explained tomorrow." We went back throughout the stables while Miss Bouchard explained the colour code to us. "That was our official quick tour." said Miss August. "Our students will be shown the rest, in the official tour." that was right, each student was shown the school again on their first day.