White Lies and Music Notes

Chapter Sixteen

I sat down at my normal lunch table with Melanie and Taylor. Roxanne was just coming. Melanie and I had just had Chemistry and we were still laughing about how the explosion fogged up the teachers glasses. It was so funny and we were all falling about laughing as she was struggling to see. I felt so horrible, but it was just so funny.

"Hi, Leah." Matt turned up behind me. "How is my baby today?"

I looked up at him, and smiled. "I'm fine. And how are you?"

"Fine. The boys miss you at our table, Leah."

"Well that's nice for them." I said, taking in the admiration of Taylor and Melanie.

"Won't you came back?"

"Not until your sick minded, perverted friends have finished guessing my bra size."

"Oh, they already have." He winked at me, making me want to throw up. I rolled my eyes. All my feelings from the previous night were gone. Forgotten.

"Matt, I would appreciate it if you gave me and my friends some privacy?"

"And I would appreciate if my girl gave me a kiss."

"Maybe next time." I waved him off.

"There'll be a next time?" He asked.

"I never said that."

"I know you didn't, but I did. Same again tonight?"

"You know what, Matt? No. This is only my third day here. I just need some alone time, okay?" He nodded miserably, and walked off.

"Way to go, girl!" Melanie said. "You are certainly keeping him on his toes!"

"Yeah." I mumbled as I stood up to leave the dinning hall. "I have a meeting with Mrs Sanders about some riding stuff. See you in English." I nodded at Taylor.

As I walked away I felt a presence behind me. I turned my head to see Matt.

"What do you want, now?" I sighed.

"Leah, we need to talk about last night."

"We do? What's to talk about?"

"We almost kissed." He looked at me.

"I'm glad you noticed."

"Don't be like that."

"Like what?"

"Why are you so...cut off? What did I do wrong?"

"You did nothing wrong, Matt. I just didn't want to kiss you. Is that so difficult to believe?"

He opened his mouth to say something but then shut it again.

"Yes. You just aren't used to not getting what you want. You always get what you want. Well, this time it's different." I looked at him. "This time, you have to prove to me I'm not just another one of your girls. Because I won't let you treat me like you treated them." And I walked off, leaving him standing there.

________________________________________________

"Ah, Leah." Mrs Sanders said as I entered her office. "I'm glad you decided to come after all." She smiled. "Please, take a seat."

I sat down and started fidgeting with the bottom of the checkered shirt I was wearing.

"You may be aware of the fact that we will be having a competitions against the other riding schools in Oklahoma very soon?" She asked.

"Yes. I have heard a little about that." I remembered my night with Eric. The night where everything started.

"I don't need to explain, then?"

"No." I shook my head. "I think I know everything of relevance."

"Okay. That's great then." She looked at me. "That means we can keep this quick. Okay. The first thing I want to discuss is going home at weekends..." She started rummaging in a drawer and eventually pulled out a blank sheet of paper. She wrote a heading, underlined it and then continued speaking: "would you want to take Harris with you every weekend?"

I thought about it. To be honest, I didn't even want to go home at all. "Well, I think I would like to take him home, as it would give me the chance to do things with him outside of the classes."

She nodded as she wrote this down. "Just out of curiosity, did you enjoy yesterday's lesson?" What do I say now...?

"I'll be honest, it wasn't particularly exciting. I prefer jumping and galloping, but I understand that is was necessary." She nodded. "But I would like to see more actions in future lessons."

She smiled as she said: "Are you a fan of dressage?"

"Kind of. I enjoy it when I am in a calm state of mind and I can concentrate, but when I am even slightly agitated, I will just get more and more frustrated, and Harris can feel me tensing up, which results in a terrible lesson."

"Well," she laughed. "Dressage is on the list for tomorrow, so try and be calm." I nodded.

"Okay, secondly. Are you going to try for the team when the trials come?"

"I am not 100% sure." I admitted. "I have never competed before and I don't want the huge responsibility, but then again, I have to start at some point."

"I suggest you go for it." She looked at me. "Quite a few of our students got their big break doing the competitions." She had a fair point. Why not actually?

"The last thing. I suggest you talk to your Aunt about the weekends. I think if you go home every weekend, you will fall behind, emotionally. You see, all your friends are still spending time together and often students feel excluded. Think about it."

"I will, Mrs Sanders."

"As for riding out with the lessons." She said. "We are putting up a course for freshmen to ride on at weekends if they have me, or another member of the riding staff with them." I grinned.

"That would be ace!"

"And I heard you want to re-design your room?" I nodded. "Mrs Morris and I are close friends and we have been able to persuade the Professor to let all students paint their rooms however they like. We agreed the whole school needs renovation, and having different kind of rooms would give the school a more relaxed atmosphere, what do you think?"

"I think that's absolutely the best decision ever!" I was grinning so hard my cheeks started hurting.