Timber Creek Academy

~14~

Weeks had passed by, and Leo's hoof was healed, but his leg still needed rest.  I could finally start hand walking him around the campus.

Macy, Brooke, and Carly had planned to walk Prancer, Colonel, and Fontaine around with Leo.  He had really missed his friends.

I sat through all of my classes, and I began to panic in my civics class.

"I want to let you all know that your end of unit test will be in two weeks," my teacher said.  I gulped.  Civics was no where near my best class, and I scribbled down a list of everything I'm gonna have to study.  Oh, the joys of being a student at Timber Creek Academy!

"Tests count as 50% of your grade, so review every night," she said in a clipped tone.  I tensed up, already stressing out.  If I failed this test, I won't be able to ride.  If I don't ride, I will die.

"I do have tutoring on Wednesday afternoons, and everyday in the mornings.  I highly suggest if you are struggling in this class to come," she said, and her eyes landed on me.  Hey, I had a B minus in this class, it's not that bad!  She doesn't need to give me 'the look'.

Besides, how am I going to make it to any of the tutoring sessions?  I have a horse to look after every morning, and practices after school too! I frowned, and packed my stuff up as the bell rang.

After an interesting biology class on how and why potato cores will shrink when put in a sugary solute, I was in line at the caf for a sub sandwich and chips.

I sat down with my friends and dug into my turkey, cheese, and lettuce sub.  It was the perfect lunch food.

"We're still on for tonight, right?" Carly asked as she popped a kettle chip into her mouth.

I grinned.  "Yep!"

"Great! I know Fontaine has missed Leo a lot," she said, and I replied, "So has Leo."

I glanced over to the Clique's table, and they were giggling about something, and Rachel's eyes flashed over to me.  We made eye contact, and she smirked, then whispered something to her friends.  I turned my attention back on to whatever my friends were chatting about.

***

I sat tall on Wesley's back as I cantered him around the ring.  We were just about finished with our warm up, when Mrs. Banks entered the arena, looking somewhat mischievously.  We all halted our mounts in front of her.

"Hello girls, today we are going to be working on our strength.  I want everyone to please remove their stirrups completely from their saddle," she said, and we all groaned in unison.  She laughed, and collected our stirrups as we slid the leathers off from our saddles.

Once she had a bouquet of stirrups and leathers, she instructed us to do a sitting trot along the rail.  This wasn't too hard to do without stirrups, and Wesley's smooth trot made it easy to not bounce a lot.

"Posting trot!" she called, and I silently groaned, then did my best to somewhat 'post' without any stirrups.  It was hard at first, but once I got into the rhythm of it, it wasn't so bad.

"Two point!" she called, and I was about ready to just get off and take Wesley inside.  This was torture!

I held my position, my legs shaking and burning, but didn't want to give up.  No one else seemed to have a problem with the action, and I didn't want to seem wimpy.  I worked through the pain, and finally, Mrs. Banks gave us a break.

"We will split into groups for cantering.  Sabrina, Ally, and Macy, you will go first, and then Rachel, Carly, Beth, and Brooke, you will go after. Group 1 can start going now," Mrs. Banks said.