Cedar Hills Equestrian Academy

Chapter 6

I considered my first ‘First Day Back from Break but Before School Actually Starts Trail Ride’ a success. It was nice to spend some time getting to know Sam and Jackie, as well as Emma. Plus I got a tour of campus from three returning students, which was invaluable for my sense of direction in this strange and new environment. As embarrassing as it was to admit, I also spent hours on my own wandering around the school grounds, trying to get a good idea of where things were located. Let’s just say that I wasn’t very good with directions.

It turned out on the first official day of school that all my efforts were not in vain. I had English with Emma, Sam, and Jackie, Spanish with Sam, Math, Biomed, and Equitation with Emma, and History all by myself, meaning I had to navigate there on my own. I can proudly say that I only got lost once, on my way to History. I ended up in the right spot, just on the wrong floor. I had a feeling my History teacher didn’t appreciate me interrupting him a couple minutes after the bell had wrung, having finally found the right classroom. I didn’t understand the disapproving sigh or the drawn-out glare I received from the teacher, it was the first day of classes and I was barely late at all.

 Aside from Mr. Pent, who taught my history class, my teachers all seemed pretty good, if not a little bit intimidating. I had homework in some classes already, even though it was only the first day. Thankfully, I finished the review worksheet from Algebra II Trig quickly when I got back to my room. Algebra was actually my favorite class, aside from Equitation, obviously. I had always been a math person, as uncommon as that was. Equations just made sense to me and new concepts always seemed to click in my mind.

Emma, who sat a row behind me, did not feel similarly about the subject. She said it was too confusing and there were too many things to remember, but she agreed with me on our teacher. Mrs. Closs was awesome, I knew already that her class would be a lot of fun, not just because of my fondness for the subject or Emma poking me in the back with her pencil whenever the teacher wasn’t looking. Mrs. Closs was overall vaguely pear shaped, with a slightly redder-than-average face and white-blonde hair, I was prepared for her to have an uncertain, squeaky voice that would drive me up the walls. That being said, when the first words that came out of her mouth were “Welcome to math class, I’m sure you’re all going to love it here. And you better, because if you don’t, you and I are going to butt heads and I am going to crush you like a grape.” coated in heavy sarcasm and followed by an obviously fake chipper tone of “Any questions?” I was pleasantly surprised.

Over the course of the period, she made many more sarcastic jokes, several  of which at a boy named Riker’s expense. Whenever this happened, Riker would fire another remark right back at her and they’d both smile, their feelings obviously unhurt. I could tell this class was going to be very entertaining.

“Hey Ais,” Called Emma as she paraded through the door, her backpack slung half-heartedly over one shoulder, “how has your first day been so far?”

I smiled and put down my math. “All in all, it was pretty good! Mr. Pent seems to have it out for me already , when all I did was show up a couple minutes late to his class on the first day  of school. Anyways, what about you?”

Emma plopped down her things and practically dived onto her bed. A muffled groan escaped from her motionless body. She turned her head to look at me and blew a strand of hair out of her mouth before speaking. “All I really did today was listen to my teachers explain their expectations for the year, and I’m already exhausted! French was fun though, we had these little French pastry thingies, they were so good!”

“What? No fair!” I exclaimed, sitting upright. “In Spanish all we got was homework!” Emma laughed and stuck out her tongue.

“I guess you should have just signed up for French instead! Sucks to be you in Spanish class.” She teased me. I rolled my eyes at her, trying to keep an irritated face. Emma only laughed again, “Le français est clairement la meilleure langue. J'imagine que vous auriez dû prendre cette place. ‘’

I sighed, Emma was fluent in French so that class must have been super easy for her. “I’m going to ignore that comment which was probably French flag-waving. Want to go on a hack later?” I asked, changing the subject.

“I still need to do my math, but it looked pretty easy and I’ll be done soon.” She said, grabbing her binder out of her backpack hurriedly. I smiled softly at her eagerness to get away from school and go for a relaxing trail ride before turning my attention to the Spanish at hand.

Once we were both finished with our remaining work, we put on our breeches and riding boots. I decided on my scuffed up paddock boots and hand-me-down half-chaps this time, on a hack with Emma I didn’t feel as much pressure to dress myself in my best gear. Over the past week of getting to know my roommate and the campus, I became very close with her.  I learned that she wasn’t the stereotypical rich horse girl, who looked down her nose at the other riders who couldn’t afford the nicest, most expensive tack. Even though the most expensive tack was what Emma had, she wasn’t rude or boastful about it.

In one of our conversations in the week before school started, I had learned that her mother was a top model and her father was a famous movie director. Both of her parents made enough on their own to support at least ten families, explaining her extensive array of fancy riding clothes as well as her high-end tack. I felt a wave of sympathy for Emma, despite her more-than-desirable economic situation. Her parents were always away, leaving Emma and her twin brothers at home alone with their nanny. As the result of a late night chat with her a few days ago, I knew that Emma would rather have her parents be poor and not have as many highly expensive things than have them never be home and send her fabulous presents with an emotionally detached card, embellished with her name spelled wrong on the envelope.

“Hey,” Called Emma, jolting me out of my thoughts. “Are you ready to go yet?”

I nodded, standing up and brushing my hair over one hair with my hand. “Yeah.  Let’s get this show on the road!”

Emma turned to look at me, a faintly bemused expression on her face, “You did not just say that, did you?” I smiled sheepishly and nodded at her. “Oh my god!” She exclaimed, laughing at my cheesy grin. Before long I caved and joined in, her laughter was infectious.

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Hey everyone!! This chapter took a little longer and was a little bit shorter than normal, sorry about that :/ For my summer homework I had to read a book, write two essays, take three tests, and do like 30 worksheets. Yeah. It was super intense and I'm not even done yet. Also, it was my birthday! I had so much fun and my grandmother and sister both flew in and were here so I had to spend time with them because I only get to see them a little bit a year and there was my party and I just needed some me time. The French in this chapter was brought to you by... Google Translate! wohoo. Also, the picture to the left is Aisling.

This story has been blowing up lately so thank you guys so much!! I have over 600  reads and that's so crazy!! For a while I was in the 500s of both Teen Fiction and Humor and it's come to my attention that if you search the tag "equestrian" CHEA is number 3!!!!!!!!! I just wanted to say thank you for reading this story and I really hope you like it!

As always, please, please vote and comment!!!! xxxx