White Lies and Music Notes

Chapter Five

"Wow."

I spun around. Yet another guy had approached me from behind and gave me the fright of my life.

"That was stunning, Leah." He said. What? How did he know my name?

"How did you...?" I trailed off.

"Alex told me. I'm Ashley." He put out his hand to greet me. I didn't take it. I was to much in shock. This guy had dark skin and long black hair. And, he's a GUY. Called ASHLEY. Come to think of it, it's not that strange....

"You're in stable number 72." Sheesh. They had a lot of stables. He showed me where it was and I put Harris in. There was fresh sawdust on the ground and a hay net in the corner. Harris, greedy as he was, went straight to the food.

"Okay," he said. I tried guessing his age. He was tall and strong and I guessed he must have been about 18. Same year as Alex. "So this is the tack-room." He opened a door a flicked a light-switch on. As I entered, I inhaled the soft smell of supple leather and dried hay. "Saddles go here," he pointed to the right, "bridles go here," he pointed to the left, "and the three doors here," he pointed ahead of us, "lead to the feed room, the medical room, and the hay room."

I take it the hay room is just a big room with hay in it....

After spending almost an hour with Ashley, I realised how much I enjoyed his company. He seemed to really love horses and we just clicked. I could feel a great friendship forming, even though he was probably about 3 years older than me.

"So what grade are you going into?" He asked me.

"I'm not sure what it is here. In England, I would be in year 10."

"How old are you?"

"14"

"Then you'd be in grade 9 with me."

What the hell?

"So you're 14 as well?"

"No, I'm already 15. But where I come from, everyone goes to school late, so when I moved her I just continued where I left off."

"Cool. So where do you come from?"

"Italy." He muttered. That explains his dark eyes and hair. And his handsome, tanned body. I could tell that Ashley and I were going to have a great friendship.

________________________________________________

That night, I slept like a log. Tomorrow was my first ever day at this school and just thinking about it exhausted me. I went to bed early after listening to the school rules.

DON'T LEAVE THE DORM AFTER 10pm

DON'T LEAVE THE SCHOOL GROUNDS UNLESS WITH A RESPONSIBLE ADULT.

LIGHTS OUT AT 10:30pm.

WAKE-UP AT 8am EVERY MORNING.

Blah, blah, blah. You get the point.

The only rule that vaguely interested me was that there was no riding without an adult unless you were Grade 10 or above. Sadly, I wasn't going to be here long enough to experience that.

I didn't know who was in my dorm. I guess that's kind-of confusing, but there were reasons. Two of the girls who would have been in my dorm, were traveling together and their truck broke down, so they wouldn't arrive until later in the week. And the other girl was ill.

So, I was on my own. I still didn't know who Brown-Hair-Guy was, but I was determined to find out the next day. Apparently he was in my Physics and French class. I guess that's a good thing. Ashley was only in my French class, but at least that meant I wouldn't look like a complete loner in class on Monday.

With happy thought lingering at the corners of my mind, I fell I to a deep sleep.