Lyneham Academy

~Chapter 5~

The dining hall was large, with rows of long tables down the middle and smaller tables around the edge by the windows. Three chandeliers hung from the ceiling and portraits of famous alumni decorated the walls. The whole atmosphere was magical, and a hundred times better than the dining hall at Evie's previous school – a local state school where the tables were graffitied and the stools were plastic. The food was being served on the right-hand-side of the hall, buffet style. There was pizza, salad, hamburgers, and many kinds of desserts. Evie loaded her tray with as much food as possible before following Mae to a table near a window. A girl dressed in colourful clothing was already sat at the table, her blonde hair threatening to go into her food.

"MAE! How good to see you. This food seems to get better every year. And who's this with you?" The girl said loudly.

"Hey Brooke, you alright? This is Evie Cooke; she joined this year and is my new roomie – she's much better than Hazel from last year!" Mae replied, sitting down on one of the empty chairs.

"Hi," Evie said as she sat down next to Mae.

"You seem to be a rider. Watch out for Ava Thornton and her gang, they like to bully everyone who tries to take their place on the International team. If it were me, I'd take it as a compliment they see me as opposition but what do I know, I don't ride!" Brooke exclaimed. Evie noticed Abraxas and a brown-haired guy walking towards them.

"Hiya Evie. I see you found the hall okay; would you like to come with Alfredo and me to sign up for try-outs. Mae, you're welcome to come too." The two boys walked away, searching for an empty table.

"You're friends with Abraxas? Wow, girl." Brooke said.

"I guess... I mean, I've only met him once and that was just to show me to the stables. But yeah." Evie replied, slightly nervous about this Ava person Brooke mentioned earlier. She hoped Ava wouldn't ruin her time at Lyneham.

Once Mae and Evie had finished their meal, they dropped their trays at the end of the serving station and headed outside where Abraxas and Alfredo were standing. Evie noticed Abraxas subtly stub out a cigarette, she would know the motion anywhere after years of her dad doing it before he left.

"Right team, shall we be heading to the stables, sign up and hope for an afternoon slot," Abraxas stated as he started walking, Alfredo next to him. Evie and Mae followed behind, chatting to the two boys all the way there, "Hey Chapman, I hope I don't get an early slot this year!" Abraxas greeted the director who was standing outside his office. The four each grabbed a pen from the box on the wall and signed themselves up for try-outs, Evie noticed the name 'Ava Thornton' written in posh cursive writing, "can I take Flame out to one of the arenas, get her used to the surroundings again?"

"Sure Abraxas, just maybe don't jump as high as possible in case someone gets injured." Chapman answered as he retreated into his office, "you three can join him if you want, I don't mind. It might be better anyway if there were more of you riding together." Chapman closed the door to his office and the group walked to their horses' stables. They were all down the same aisle. Evie tacked up Ellie in her third-hand tack and followed Alfredo to the indoor arena Evie had passed earlier. They mounted and started walking their horses around as Mae and Abraxas arrived. Mae mounted Bear and joined Evie and Alfredo in the middle of the school as Abraxas walked his horse to the middle and went to get some jumps. Flame stood patiently, waiting for him to come back. Abraxas put up a short course with jumps around 1.15m high before vaulting onto his steed.

"Should we split up, so two of us use the jumps whilst the other two do some flatwork before swapping? Otherwise, we're all just going to be stood around not doing anything." Alfredo said.

"So, who wants to pair up? Mae and Evie and you and I? Sound good?" Abraxas decided.

"Yeah, sounds good." Evie and Mae answered.

"We can do flatwork first; Ellie needs to get used to this huge arena," Evie said, already steering Ellie to the end with no jumps.

"Good choice partner," Mae replied as she trotted Bear to the edge and urged him into a canter. Evie started by riding a few laps of their end in a walk before changing rein and going up into a trot, getting Ellie to-do collection and extension. Mae was happily cantering slightly in the middle so they could pass one another safely. Evie watched as the two boys seemed to make up a complicated course before riding it. She could tell Abraxas was a natural rider as he seemed to stay still as Flame cantered around, performing flying changes in the middle as they changed rein and easily collecting the canter after the last jump, "I told you he was good." Mae appeared at her side, also watching the two.

Once both pairs had had enough of their activity, they swapped round. Mae went first round the short course, gaps between the fences too small for Bear to put in 5 strides so he went long most of the time, however, Mae seemed used to this and stayed focused on the next fence each time. When it was Evie's turn, she turned Ellie towards the first jump and nudged her into a canter, focusing each time as she remembered what order Mae had done the fences in. Ellie cleared each jump effortlessly but almost knocked the last pole down as she underestimated the height.

"Well done girl," Evie patted Ellie's neck as she got Ellie back under control and walked.

"Me and Abraxas had better be getting back, there's movie night in McCormick so we'll leave you two here, have fun," Alfredo said as they dismounted and lead the horses out.

"We'd better leave as well, you don't want to miss the infamous movie night Evie, It'll be the most fun you'll ever have." Mae dismounted and Evie followed her lead.

"Hey. Losers. Where'd you think you're going? Are you stealing Abraxas away from me?" A voice taunted from the fence. 'That must be Ava' Evie thought as she looked towards the fence. A brown-haired girl wearing expensive riding clothes was stood there, flanked by a dark-haired girl, "if you do anything, I will hurt you, you understand?"

"Yeah Ava, we understand. Why don't you run after your precious Abraxas? He's gone back to the dorms with Alfredo." Mae said

"Shut it, Mae. You and your loser friend here are not going to be getting into the International team, so I don't see why you're even trying." Ava turned and stalked away.

"Who was that other girl?" Evie asked.

"That's Nicola Thurman. She was on the National team with me last year. Surprisingly, she's quite nice when she's not with Ava. We'd better put these beauties to bed so we can make the film." The two put the horses in their stables and headed back to McCormick Hall.