Half of a Whole

Chapter 1

Alexandra Brightlen is that weird girl with no friends that is usually at your school for 6 months. She doesn't make friends because she doesn't want to leave them. 

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I'm Alexandra Brightlen. I live with my cousin Madeline in...Actually I don't know where we live right now. Somewhere on the East Coast. I've never lived in the same place for more than 8 months. In 5 year's I've probably been in more states than most people have been in, in their whole lives. Madeline is an event trainer (I think). Mostly she's not home and always looking for a new stable to train and ride these huge beasts she calls horses. I've never had much interest in them until now. Madeline came home early yesterday. I immediately knew something was up because it was 6:00 p.m instead of 8:00 p.m. She got home, sat on the couch of our rental apartment, and tears filled her eyes. "I don't know what I'm going to do with Faith," she told me, "She been abused and almost in the slaughter house! I've never worked with such a scared and insane horse!" She cried. That was the first time I had become interested in these oversized beasts. Faith sounded kind of like me. Also dead. My parents crashed our car (on purpose) into a bridge. I was the only one who lived. Which I was kind of happy with because I never liked my parents. They had just never cared about me. But now I had Madeline who did. "Tell me more about Faith, please," I said in a calm voice, "Just a little bit."
Madeline took a few deep breaths and began.
"She was neglected and abused then sent to a slaughterhouse in Mexico with an injury. Raymond saw potential and swiped her up for $580.00. He asked me to start retraining her, because I was the 'most skilled' he had said. I immediately went to check her out because I wanted to get a taste of this mare. I wasn't even in the barn before I heard her. That's when I knew she would need all my patients and time." Madeline took another deep breath. "I never thought that Faith would be this bad. I was immediately scared to death. I told one of the grooms that I wasn't feeling OK and left. Once I was in the car I let the tears out. I had never been frightened this much by horse. But, I will show up tomorrow at Hollow Wood and try to start with Faith."
See, that was Madeline for you. She never, ever gave up on a horse.
"Can I come with you to Hollow Wood tomorrow? I just want to watch you start with her. I mean, only if you want to," I questioned hoping she would agree.
"Um, are you sure Alex? She pretty torn up and quite the scary sight, but only if you think you can handle it."
Yes! Now I'll be meeting Faith! I just had a feeling about her. Some kind of, connection.

"Thank you! I'll see you in the morning!" I called as I sprinted up the winding stair well to my room.
As soon as I was up in my cozy, teal colored, room, I opened my laptop and quickly logged on. Once my home screen came up I immediately clicked Google and typed in, horses. So many things came up!

By midnight I had read everything on the first page. I felt so much smarter about horses! But, I was so tired. I changed into my pink and black pj's and hoped into bed. In all of 8 seconds I was fast asleep dreaming of horses.