Carry On (Book 1)

Chapter 11:

Ariel's POV:

So it turns out Jack must've been pretty popular in our grade.

By end of the week, Friday morning, my email inbox was filled with emails from other riders in our grade, asking for help with their horses before tryouts tomorrow morning.

It seemed that not even Olivia could keep them away.

On one hand, I was grateful, on the other hand, I was nervous, wondering if I could help everyone by the end of the day. Some wanted me to watch them riding, others wanted me to ride their horses for them and work out some issues, and some even wanted me to teach them how to join up with their horse, or the school horse they had been assigned.

It was overwhelming, to be honest, and on top of school work and my own work with Storm, I felt like I was already falling behind.

Luckily for me, as if by ESP or some other mind connection, my last class of the day had been excused.

" I'm sure most of you are worried about tryouts for various teams and such " my new fav teacher Mr. Fredricton told our class. " So as long as you all promise to have those three worksheets completed for Monday, I'll let you all go early today "

Obviously, we had all promised, I had already had the sheets done for today, lucky me!

After racing back to my dorm room and changing, I made my way out to the barn, my mother's journal in hand along with a list I had made of all the riders and their horses that needed help.

" Ariel! "

I looked up from the cobblestone pathway and saw Jack waving at me. Bullet looked like a different horse as he stood calmly next to him.

I smiled as I waved back, detouring from the oath and crossing the driveway to reach the side entrance to the barn. " Hey Jack " I replied. " Your teacher let you out early too? "

He nodded. " Yep, thank god too, because I have so much stuff to work on before the tryout tomorrow "

I followed him into the barn. " Bullets not giving you any more trouble I hope? "

He shook his head. " Not at all, thanks to you " he played with the red lead rope in his hands. " Look, I need to apologize...for the other day, I was a real jerk "

We stopped just outside Storms stall and I helped him clip the crossties to Bullets halter. "Don't worry about it. I didn't know what you had gone through, so it's okay "

He bit his lip, in that cute way boys always do when they get nervous or confused, and ran a hand through his hair. " Still, it wasn't nice "

I giggled. " I said it's fine Jack, trust me "

He smiled and nodded. " That's good to hear "

I felt a soft breath on the back of my neck and turned to see Storm poking his head over his stall door. I rubbed his face as he nudged me.

" Sorry boy, can't go trail riding today...too many people to help "

" I may be partially to blame for that " Jack spoke up.

I turned back to him. " Oh, I know " I teased. " I so blame you for my newfound popularity "

He chuckled. " Hey, I'm just the messenger! " he replied playfully. " I just let people know what amazing work you can do with horses...and people... "

I playfully punched his arm. " Horses yes, but people are a whole other story! "

We both laughed.