Deer Hill Riding Academy

Chapter 5

Mum drives the ute down the long, curvy driveway lined by oak trees. Everything about this place is beautiful. So, so, beautiful.

"Keep an eye out for parks, darling." She tells me. I nod in response, still observing the academy grounds. Lucy, Mum and I are all in the car together, even though Lucy didn't have to come with us.

"There's one, Mum." Lucy says, pointing at a park with a view over the dorms. Mum parks into it, being extremely careful not to scratch our horse float.

"This place is so amazing!" I say as I hop out of the ute. Mum and Lucy head straight to the horse float to unload the horses.

"Elise, come over here to get Cherry." Mum instructs me.

As soon as Cherry backs out of the float, I grab
her lead rope. She sniffs my pockets for treats and I grab out a little bit of liquorice to give her.

I walk Cherry to the stables, where I find a tall, pale skinned, red head lady waiting for the students.

"Hello, my name is Ms. Snitten. Could you please tell me you and your horses name?" Her voice is very sweet and clear, almost to the point where it seems like Siri.

"I'm Elise Harvey, and this is Cherry On Top, but we just call her Cherry." I inform the woman.

"Alright, your stall number is 16. It should be on the left side." She tells me.

"What about my dorm number?"

"Oh right, sorry. It is-" she checks the clipboard. "-10. Here's the keys." Ms. Snitten hands me the keys and I tuck them into a pocket on my breeches.

"Have a good day, Elise!"

...

After I get Cherry settled in her stall with toys and feed, I start to move my stuff to the dorms. The walk to the dorms are simple, just a short path of about 100m.

Once I arrive, I open the door. My breath leaves my body. My dorm is painted a beautiful light grey with pale wooden cupboards, wall mouldings, and a single bed against the window that overlooked the dressage arena. The room was also divided into two by a small bathroom with identical walls to the bedrooms, and on the other side I spot the same set up, but it had already been decorated with some small flowers, pictures, and a fluffy white blanket. I assume that my roommate is obsessed with being neat, because everything is in place.

The bathroom door creaks open, and I scream.

"Relax, girl! I'm your roommate, and my name's Clara." A girl a bit taller than me with waist-length black hair and olive skin looks me up and down. I laugh awkwardly.

"Hi, I'm Elise. Elise Harvey." I tell her.

"Great, so you might've noticed that's your side. Also, a girl dropped in earlier with a present for you. I think it's on the table." She smiles, pointing her finger in the direction of the table, aka an entire kitchen.

"Oh my gosh! Is this a private kitchen?!" I stare at it. She raises an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, we have a cooking class as well as our other classes, and we need a kitchen to make the food for homework projects." Clara says. She looks at me like I live under a rock.

"Oh... right." I nod, trying to act like I had a kitchen like this at my old school.

"Anyway, can I watch while you open the present?" Clara asks, her voice bright and excited.

"Uh, sure I guess." I pull a stool out from under the table and sit on it. In front of me there is a large present wrapped with violet wrapping paper.

"Go on, open it!" Clara urges. My hands tear apart the paper, then the cardboard underneath, to find a beautiful dark brown jumping saddle with golden stitching of flowers on the skirt and knee pads of the saddle. Clara and I gasp in unison.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Clara says, her eyes wide. "That-" she points at the saddle. "-is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

"I know right." My voice sounds slightly dull, but it is just because I'm in shock. I reach for the card.

Dear Elise,

I saw this saddle in the saddlery the other day. It matched your new bridle so I decided it would be a really nice gift for you. Please take care of it.

Lots of love, —

"Who's it from?!" Clara begs me to answer. I sit there as the card falls from my hands. My mouth is wide open and my eyes are matching.

"I-it doesn't say who from..." I say, stuttering. Clara's expression drops to match mine.

"Oh my gosh, do you think you have a secret admirer?!" She says, bouncing up and down in her chair. I look at her, then back at the saddle.

"Nope. Nobody saw that bridle that I got apart from the people at the show." I tell her. Clara raises an eyebrow.

"And what's to stop them from attending the school?"

...

It's 7:00pm, and Clara and I are waiting in the cafeteria for dinner. We have bonded quite a bit, even though it's only been a couple hours. She came from a really rich family with lots of professional showjumpers that had all went to this school. In a way, I suppose you could say she was destined for success. Clara even introduced me to her horse, a beautiful 16.3hh warmblood mare with lots of titles and rosettes.

"Dinner is ready!"

Clara nudged me to get up, and we line up for the dinner, which looked like a nice, warm pumpkin soup.

Clara chattered about the other girls and guys here and all the gossip from the last few years while I nodded. Suddenly, I recognise somebody walking to table full of people.

"Clara, who's that?" I ask, pointing at him.

"Oh, that's the really popular guy, Max Windell. Literally everybody crushes on him. Why, are you interested in his looks?" She says, wiggling one eyebrow at me.

"Heck no! It's just, I think I saw him at a show. The one where I got the bridle." I say.

"You won, right? Because if so, that's definitely not him. He literally wins everything on his fancy stallion." Clara rolls her eyes, and I assume she's jealous of him.

"I guess you're right, because he was riding a gelding." I shrug.

"I know his sister though, so I can ask her if he was possibly riding a green horse or something." Clara smiles warmly at me. "In fact, there she is."

"Hey Clara!" A short girl with Max's hair colour  walks up to us.

"Hey Taya, this is Elise. She has a question about your brother." Clara pats me on the back while Taya's smile fades.

"Another fan girl?" She asks.

"Dear god, no. I was just wondering if he competed at a show a couple days ago." I say, slightly appalled at the idea that everybody likes that guy.

"Oh, well you might want to be more specific, we go to lots of shows." Taya smiled a bit.

"He got 5th place in the 1m class, I think." I say. Taya grimly looked at me.

"He was hoping nobody saw that. One of his friends dared him to ride a really badly trained horse instead of Wendigo." She tells me, frowning. My expression matches hers.

"Oh. I guess that makes sense." I say. I know how annoying it is to lose a winning streak.

"Yeah." It crosses my mind that he could've been my secret admirer, but I tell myself to forget about it. A man with that many followers wouldn't do that for somebody he hadn't even met properly before.

Hi guys, remember to vote and comment! Who do you think is Elise's 'secret admirer'? Any ideas for the rest of the book/a character you'd like added in?

-xoxo, Hannah