"Rewards hard earned are never easily kept"
Savannah Bell has earned a coveted position at Silver Hawk Ridge, a prestigious equestrian academy. Upon arrival, she discovers it is not the end of her trials. It's hard enough being a teenage girl...
"I swear to God I cannot LOOK at another derivative without strangling someone" I groaned, shutting my textbook and spinning my chair around to face Avery. Practice had gone long, and I was scrambling to finish my homework so I could actually go to bed at a reasonable time. I had a presentation in Human A & P on muscular tissue that was worth about 50% of my quarter grade, so everything had to be very concise and professional. Then Friday followed, which meant horse show day. Tomorrow's practice would be spent grooming and making sure we had all of our stuff...which is why TODAY'S practice ran so long. "Remind me why on EARTH I signed up for this?"
"Because you, my dear friend, are a glutton for academic punishment, whereas I was smart and chose to give myself some fun in my day" she said, the last part being swallowed out by a yawn. I drifted my eyes over to my clock. Good lord it was 10pm! I still had to wade through Equine Sciences. I mean I already know the better chunk of the material being taught, but it is so, so time consuming. Eventually, I had to stand up and stretch my back. I forgot just how many terms were involved in show and judging. Finally, I finished my flat class procedure and rolled into bed. Avery eventually followed suit and shut the light off. We were exhausted...and it was only September! I caught a glimpse of the clock just before I drifted off.
It was 12:30
~~~~~~~~
Rolling out of the bed the next morning hit me like a a brick wall. I would have given anything be able to just wear some sweats and wander into class like normal, but there was that damn presentation. After Izzy was out of the shower, I hauled myself into the bathroom. I got to work on my hair, running a flat iron and anti frizz solutions through until it was bone straight without a single strand out of place. As for makeup and my contacts, I had no motivation for either. On went my black frames, and I could only hope any exhaustion wasn't especially visible.
After trading places with Avery, I stood lazily in front of my closet, trying to stay awake long enough to pick clothes out. Eventually, I settled on a black and white striped t-shirt with a black skater skirt and light wash denim jacket. After throwing my white Converse, I curled up on my desk chair to wait for Avery.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Eventually she wandered out in a pair of sweats and a school t shirt. If only I had that option. We hefted our backpacks over our shoulders and shoved off to breakfast. I read over my presentation notes while I picked at a veggie omelet. Meanwhile all my friends were throwing back espresso shots and studying for their classes. All of us going to competition had to get our work for Friday. Horses and AP life were dicey sometimes.
After trudging to AP calc, I promptly laid my head on the table and shut my eyes. I got almost no sleep thinking about my presentation and the show. Eventually the bell rang and I picked my head up, ready to begin.
"Hey hey cutie -"
"One more thing like that and your favorite organ that you like to use for decision making will be permanently removed from your body. Understood Gavin?" The end of the day was not going to come soon enough.
~~~~~~
As predicted the rest of the day did not in fact come soon enough. My presentation went pretty well, but right at the end I stumbled and experienced the humiliation of the whole class snickering at me. They all understood, but I was different, so it wasn't like I was going to be treated the same way. Hopefully show day would be better.
I rushed to the barn to start Rega's grooming early. Her being large and a light color meant extra time had to be put in for grooming. I had only bothered slinging on a pair of old black breeches and a school hoodie since another odd September cold snip had set in the breezy evening. I ran into Kennedy in the middle of my tired fog.
"Watch it Bells! One of these days your stumbling is going to more than just annoy me!"
"Dear God Kennedy just drop it. I don't have it in me", I shot back tiredly. It was odd that both of us would run into each other so aimlessly. Normally we (or at least me) took pretty good care at making the effort to avoid any confrontation. "What are you doing anyway?"
"If you MUST know, I can't find Apollo. He's not supposed to be turned out right now". Now that she's mentioned it, I couldn't find Rega in any of the front paddocks. At that point Mr. Watts wandered through at just the right time.
"Hey you two! I thought you'd have your horses by now."
"That's just the thing. I can't find Apollo anywhere in here!" Kennedy lamented, her demeanor changing from what she had shown me. There's not much of a surprise in that, but she's not that disorganized either.
"I would think you two would have remembered your own paddock instructions. Ray", he asked, seeing our good old stable hand rounding the corner. "Didn't these girls have their same turnout routines?"
"They did, but I was told by that they were supposed to turn out into a different spot today" he said, scratching his head in confusion. "Didn't you ladies remember?"
"No, but in the future, only change their turnout if we give verbal, in person notification about the change" I said. I didn't want to make judgements for Kennedy, but this is the one thing she would agree on. "Now, that aside, where are our horses?"
"Field 1". Kennedy's face dropped and immediately twisted into an annoyed and dismayed grimace as she stalked away with a groan.
"Whoa what the hell is so bad about field 1?" I asked, snagging Rega's halter and lead. Kennedy stalked to Apollo's stall and yanked his halter and lead rope off its hook. As much as I assumed her to be a snob, Kennedy was usually pretty practical with her horses (expensively practical anyway).
"Field 1, is the most bloody uncouth, muddiest, most GOD FORSAKEN turnout spot on this property" Aw crap. Of course this happens the day before a show. We sprinted to the back paddock and found our horses caked in mud and brambles, waiting at the gait. I groaned. This would take forever in a day to clean. We walked back sullenly.
"I can't BELIEVE you would let this happen! Just because you're new doesn't mean you get the run of things!"
"ME?! How do I know you're not the one who gave him those instructions? Seems like the thing you would do to someone before a show" I shot back incredulously. Just then Daniel ambled by with Nova.
"Whoa, what -"
"Don't ask" Kennedy and I ground out. We went our separate ways.
After what seemed like hours of currying out dirt and bathing, I finally found myself mindlessly plodding through the actual show grooming, not just mud repair. Having finished the last braid in Rega's mane (to which my hands were now doused in conditioner struggling to sew the braids), I moved on to putting her slinky on over her head. Once her sheet and boots were on, I gave her a goodnight pat and slipped out. I needed my bed
