Hilton Head

Chapter 1

I stared in awe, my face glued to the window of the luxurious truck. We had arrived. Before me lay the marvelous campus of Hilton Head Equestrian Academy, the most revered riding academy in the world. The grass was a lush green and there were palm trees lining the streets in beautiful, yet orderly, rows. I saw other students walking along the pasture fences, talking to friends. As we slowly pulled along the street, the school was revealed. It was tall, made of lightly colored stone and had Doric columns on the sides with stairs leading to the entrance in the middle.
We turned left and went toward the underground parking lot. On the way, we passed the hunter jumper dorms and even got a glimpse from afar of their–our–stable. From what I could tell, it was gorgeous. It was a stunning grey and green on the outside, but I couldn't see in. We were too far away. As we slowly descended into the parking area, I could feel the excitement bubbling up in me. Adagietto and I would love it here! With the luxurious stables, sure to be amazing dorms, and beautiful school, we were bound to have a wonderful time.
The driver, Simon, parked and helped me out of the truck. He opened up Otto's trailer and assisted me in getting him out. He then got my luggage and left to go and put it in my dorm. I was in Conrad dorm.  All the dorms were named after iconic riders from the discipline of the dorm. Mine was named after Conrad Homfeld, a show jumper with impeccable equitation who was on the USET.
As Simon walked away, I brought Adagietto to the barn. He would be kept in the hunter jumper barn and I would stay in the dorm closest to it. Otto was clearly restless from the long drive. He shook his head around and tried to tell me where to go. I gave him a quick pull on his halter and carried on.
The inside of the barn was beautiful. It had dark maple colored wood stalls, and they were smart enough to have large mesh windows on each side of the stall for the horses to socialize.
The aisles were in a T shape. As you entered, there were stalls on the sides which split off into thinner rows. Then, in front of that, was the indoor arena. It was huge, standard size, and had perfectly laid sand in it. It had long mirrors on the lower side of the wall, then the letters, then windows above that. There was a lot of natural light.
I approached a white table in the front of the barn at the entrance. There was a lady sitting behind it with stall assignments.
"Last name?" she asked.
"Augustine," I replied.
"Horse's name?"
"Adagietto."
"His stall is #19. It will be the third one on the back side of the left branch."
"Thank you," I said, and I left to bring him to his stall. I admired the tall and muscular horses that had already been brought to their stalls. One, Greensleeves, was a palomino gelding that was shorter than the others. He looked to be a Halflinger. He was cute. He had a kind eye. Otto's stall was next to his; I hoped they'd be friends. I opened up Otto's spacious stall and led him in. The stall was pristine. The flax shavings didn't have a speck of dirtiness in them and the stall itself was huge. Otto would be happy here. I gave him a kiss and left the barn.
Back at the dorm, I was met by Simon. He had my suitcases set by the door and was sitting in a chair that was in the back of the truck before. He must have made at least two trips, probably three!
"Thanks, Simon," I thanked him gratefully.
"No problem," he replied.
My room was small, but larger than I had expected. It had two beds, one for me, and one for my roommate, who had yet to arrive.
"Do you need some help unpacking?" Simon asked.
"No, I'll be fine on my own. You can leave now. You have a long trip ahead of you," I told him.
"Thank you. I will see you again in a few months," he waved goodbye. Then he headed back to France.
My family was one of the biggest racing and breeding families in the country. I had been expected to join the family business, but I simply wanted to do eventing with Otto. My parents made a deal with me that if I placed first in one Preliminary show by the end of the semester, I could continue going to Hilton Head and do eventing. If not, I would be required to be a part of the family business.
The sound of the key moving in the lock from outside the door brought me out of my daze. A blonde girl with kind blue eyes and a bright smile came in and greeted me.
"Hi!," she said, "I'm Celeste, your roommate."
"Hi," I said with a friendly smile, "I'm Marin."
Celeste walked to the other side of the room and set down her things.
"I haven't picked a side yet, I just have this chair here and my other stuff is in those bags," I gestured to my suitcases by the door, "You can pick a side if you like."
"Okay. I will be over here." She picked the side by the window so I would have the side by the door.
"Okay," I said. Celeste and I started unpacking our belongings. I began with my bedding. The school provided a mattress and the box spring stand beneath it but not any sort of blankets. I opened the two suitcases that contained things for my bed. One suitcase held solely a mattress cover and the other had my comforter, two sheets and two duvet covers. My pillow was tied to the handles. I took the featherbed cover out of my suitcase and laid it on my bed. I covered it in my green floral sheet and put my pillow on top. Then I put my comforter in its current cover on the bed. I left the rest of my bedding in the suitcase and moved on to clothes. I had brought a few command hooks and thick dowels to hang up my clothes in a folding cloth shelf. It was a trick I learned when I bet my brother I could sleep in the barn for a week without going in the house at all. I stuck the hooks to the ceiling by my bed and strapped the Velcro around the dowel. The shelf was meant to be used in closets but worked just fine in our room. It had a relatively low ceiling. After I had finished emptying my clothes onto my shelf, I set up my other dowel and put hangers on it to hang up my show coat, shirt, and breeches. I wanted them to be perfect for the first show.
I looked over at Celeste. She had taken a break from unpacking and was on her phone, sitting on the bed.
"Hey," I turned to her, "I'm going to go get something to eat, do you want to come with?"
"Sure," she replied. "Do you have a place in mind?"
"Hmm..." I thought. There was the cafeteria obviously, but maybe we should try somewhere less busy. I heard there were some good places around that area. "Well, the cafeteria is probably really busy right now, but I heard the cafés around there are pretty good. Maybe we should just go look and see what there is," I suggested.
"Sounds good," she smiled.
We walked out of Conrad dormitory and started down the sidewalk. The nice fall weather was perfect. It wasn't as hot as in the summer and the evening weather felt wonderful. The wind whistled through the trees, making the air comfortable. It was humid but only about 75 degrees and the wind was warm and pleasant. As we walked down the sidewalk, we talked a bit.
"So, where are you from?" Celeste asked.
"Actually, I'm from France. The plane ride was really long," I laughed, and Celeste chuckled a bit too, but also looked interested.
"Wow, and I thought the four hour ride from Minnesota was bad!" She laughed again and I did too. "So, how come you came all the way here to ride?"
"Well my family owns a breeding and racing business so they don't really want me to be here, but I want to do eventing not racing so they agreed to let me stay if I can win a Preliminary show by the end of the semester," I explained.
"Wow. I came here from up in southern Minnesota so I could get a formal riding education. I live way out in the country so there is only one stable close to me and they ride mostly western. I'm doing showjumping but also dressage. I just said on the form that I do showjumping because that's what I need the most help with."
"Cool," I nodded. We came up into the circle of restaurants. I scanned them quickly. A pizza place, a sit down restaurant, a diner, a café, and the cafeteria.
"Pizza?" Celeste asked.
"Sure," we walked into the restaurant and picked a booth. After a few minutes, a waiter came over to our table and brought us some menus.
"Would you ladies like to order some drinks?" he asked politely.
"I will have pink lemonade," I replied.
"I will have..." Celeste scanned her menu, "I will have a Fanta," she decided.
"Sure thing," the waiter affirmed and left to get our drinks.
"So what's your horse's name?" I asked Celeste.
"Her name is Clair de Lune, but her paddock name is Luna. I just call her Looney though 'cause she's quirky," Celeste grinned. "She's a grey Anglo Arabian."
"Cool. Mine's a bay Anglo Arab Selle Français mix. His name is Adagietto but I just call him Otto." Celeste nodded. The waiter came back with our drinks and asked us what kind of pizza we wanted. We ordered a medium, half cheese, half pepperoni and mushrooms pizza.
By the time the pizza got there, it was nearly dark. I looked at the clock on the wall. 7:45.
"We'd better eat fast so we can get ready for school tomorrow," I said. Celeste agreed.
We stuffed our faces with pizza for about the next 20 minutes, split the bill which ended up being about three dollars each, then headed back to our dorm. By that time everyone was inside and hurrying to get their schoolbooks together and schedules in order, hoping for a good night's sleep before school the next day. We were some of the last people out.
In our dorm, we finished unpacking and got organized. I unfolded my desk, which was really no more than a small table, and set it next to my bed. I emptied my school supplies suitcase and organized my things into my desk and separated piles of books into the different classes that I needed them for, labeling the piles with sticky notes. Then I set my schedule on top. Everyone had seven in-school periods and at least one out of school class, usually a riding lesson. My schedule was fairly straightforward:
Period 1 Hon Lit     House A
Period 2 Biology      House B
Period 3 Eq Gen         House B
Period 4 Algebra 2 House B
Lunch/Study Hall
Period 5 Hon Civics House A
Period 6 Mythology House A
Period 7 Stable Mgt House A
2:30 Applied Riding at H/J Barn
Feeling confident I was ready for school, I sat down on my bed and got out my phone. The time it said was 1:57. That meant it was 8:57 here. I was positively exhausted. Even though I had been starting to change body clocks in France, it was still a huge jump so I decided to go to bed. I quickly fixed my clock and set an alarm for 7:30. It would only take me a few minutes to get ready; I had already put out my outfit for tomorrow–a cute purple floral dress that flared yellow at the ends and went to the knee–and the school was a two minute walk away from Conrad. The other hunter jumper dorm building, Kessler, was closer to the school, but we were closer to the barn.
Sighing from my tiredness, I collapsed onto the bed. I was out the moment my head hit the pillow.
Hi, author here, I hope you guys liked my first chapter! More on the way! I hope it was the right length, usually I make chapters too short. Remember to comment and vote! Thanks for reading :)
–KM