Cedar Hills Equestrian Academy

Chapter 1

Welcome to Cedar Hills Equestrian Academy! I began this story on the back of a Safeway receipt one day durring summer and now it's gained such a following, I never would have thought it would be number one on the "equestrian" tag or be featured on the Wattpad homepage!! I want to thank you for reading my story and for helping to boost it up in the ratings.

If this isn't your first time reading, you may notice that it seems a little different that you remembered it, don't worry, you're not crazy. As my writing has grown and improved, I've been going back over and modifying it, making the plot flow more smoothly, changing sentance structures, as you do.

Happy reading!
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"Aisling! Could you come down stairs a moment? Your mother and I have something we want to discuss with you."

I put down my book and sighed. This couldn't be good. "Just a second, I'm coming!" I called loudly as I got up from my bed and made my way  down to the kitchen. I was greeted by the sight of my parents sitting at the dinner table. Yeah, this was definitely not going to be good, the last time they were both sitting there it was to tell me Grandma Jo had passed.

"Please take a seat, Honey." My mom said, pulling out another chair for me. She smiled weakly and twisted her watch around her slender wrist, a nervous tick of hers. "As you know," She paused and tapped the face of her watch with a perfectly manicured nail. "Your father and I have been going through a bit of a rough patch lately and we've decided to- we've decided that we're umm- we're"

"We're getting a divorce." My father cut in, his face grim and emotionless. "We don't think that the house will be a good environment for you when that's happening."

I sucked in a breath. 'What? What do you mean? Are you kicking me out?"

My mother dropped her hand from her wrist and reached towards mine. "Oh no Ais, we aren't kicking you out! We're just saying that it might be better if you stayed somehwere else while we sort things out." She explained as she rubbed calming circles on my palm. I jerked my hand away, trying to ignore the look of hurt that flashed across her face.

A convient distraction arose when a brochure slid across the table towards me. I looked up at my dad, his arm still stretched out. He motioned towards the paper and I hesitantly picked it up, eyeing the cover. It read Cedar Hills Equestrian Academy over a picture of a fancy, Victorian looking building. Welcome to CHEA! If your child is hard working, determined, and has a passion for horses, we know the he or she will love it here!

"What is this place?" I asked suspiciously.

"It's an equestrian academy." Answered my father.

"I picked up on that part. What's an equestrian academy?"

My mom cleared her throat quietly and I nodded at her to explain. "It's a boarding school for horse-minded high-schoolers like you. It's pretty much regular school, except it has an Equitation class instead of gym."

"Oh, I guess that sounds like fun." I still wasn't quite sure what to think. I mean, that sounded pretty great but I was positive there was something else that my parents hadn't told me yet.

"Well," Said my father and I could tell he was surprised that I wasn't putting up a fight. "We're glad that you're open to it as a possibility. We've arranged for the Head Riding Instructor to give you a tour of the facality and to give you a riding evaluation on Friday."

"Friday?" I exclaimed. "That's so soon though!"