Stone Valley Equestrian Center: #1

Chapter 5: Immature Guys and Bran Mash

"Are you alright?" the words echoed through my head.

I looked up at the spinning sky, hot sun blazing in the arena. Pushing myself up with my elbows, I managed to sit up and see Alex standing there with a pair of shades on and an outstretched arm. I took the offered hand and allowed him to pull me up. In his other hands were the reins of Calypso.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I brushed off my pants.

"Good. I was watching you for a little bit and you looked really good. I came in just in time to grab Calypso, though," he smiled.

"Thank you, Alex," I responded, slightly creeped out that he was watching me.

I brushed the sand off of my boots, adjusted my helmet, and took Calypso's reins. Alex gave me a leg-up and I just walked around to cool down. It was only noon, and shit had already gone down. I'd had an entire jumping lesson, fell off of my project horse at a 2' vertical, and was pulled to my feet by a guy who had apparently been watching me. I shrugged it off and led Calypso into the barn after cooling down. A groom offered to take care of him, so I gave Calypso a few carrots and took off towards my room.

"Hey! How was Calypso?" Harper asked me without glancing at me, deeply engrossed in her Netflix.

"He was really good, until I fell off and Alex, who had supposedly been watching me, helped me up," I explained.

"Yikes. You seem okay, though. Want to shower really quickly and then grab some lunch? I was thinking that we could come back here after lunch and relax for a little bit before our first classes. I have a class at 4 and one at 6, both of which we don't have together."

"Sounds good," I called over my shoulder as I grabbed my towel and went to take a shower.

I was really nervous for my first class. It was Equine Science at 3:00 and the teacher was Mr. Leon. The syllabus for class had been electronically sent to us before the year began instructed us to bring our laptop, headphones, notebook, and writing supplies for the class. We also had a textbook, but it was online. Being the paranoid person I was, I had already previewed the book, just in case. Equine Science seemed pretty interesting, to be honest.

After my shower, I threw my hair into a ponytail and put on a pair of casual jeans and a Stone Valley t-shirt. I paired my 'outfit' with black converse and with that, Harper and I were on our way to lunch. When we arrived, we got our food and took a seat at a table with some other people, including Grace, Maisie, Amber, and Alex.

"How was the lesson this morning?" Amber asked through forkfuls of lasagna.

"It was pretty good," Alex responded.

"Okay, so what classes is everyone showing in this season?" Grace inquired.

"I'm doing 3'6"," I said.

"Same here," Alex nodded.

"Amber and I are doing 3'3"," Maisie added.

"3'," Harper answered, kind of quietly.

"Cool. I'm doing 4', so wish me luck!" Grace giggled.

Grace must have been a really good rider, because I didn't hear of anyone else going into the 4' division.

Before long, some of us started to leave.

"I need to go back to the barn really quickly. I left my phone in my tack trunk," Harper grinned sheepishly.

"When did you go to the barn?" I asked her.

"Just this morning to check on the horses," she told me as she went off to the barn.