I Dare You [ Cedar Ridge Equestrian Academy ]

Chapter 4: Trips

Tahlia and Other Girl have already gotten changed into what I would describe as smart casual. Or something. I don't know about clothes, man.
"So I should probably get dressed. I doubt I'll fit in any better in drool-stained jeans and a crappy shirt."
I spun around to the dresser I had shoved all my clothes into, and began to pick through all my stuff to find something suitable in this mess. Tahlia appeared beside me.
"Y'know that would be a lot easier if you just unpacked properly. Also, I would help but I don't think we're well acquainted enough for me to give you fashion advice." She had a point. But no! I was raised living on crumpled clothes!
I fished out a white collared shirt and decided that was smart casual enough. I left the top two buttons undone and rolled the sleeves up to make it somewhat less smart and more casual. I figured I should change my jeans to something less green stained, like a darker pair of jeans. My brightly coloured converse would have to stay, I didn't have time to change them. Tahlia stood by the door with Other Girl. I am seriously concerned I haven't gotten a name from her yet. I started towards the door and Other Girl opened it. A yellow post-it not drifted to the floor, with a note scrawled in unruly handwriting. My dad's handwriting. I picked it up and read it aloud, "Heard you were having fun, I have a drive home so call tonight and talk. -Dad." My dad always hates goodbyes, he always felt it was easier to just write a goodbye and disappear, I was pretty used to it by now, I can't say it bothered me.

Tahlia and I walked together towards the hall, with girls streaming from all directions into the double doors. Other Girl walked behind us. I was glad that I had someone who knew where the hell she was going to take me places, I mean there were signposts and stuff as well as a map in my paperwork sleeve, but I'm chronically lazy and couldn't be bothered to even get it out. I turn around to Other Girl and walk backward while talking.
"Sooo, you haven't told me your name." I didn't mean to sound so condescending. Whoops. She narrowed her eyes at me.
" Kirsten." Wow. What a revelation. I could tell we weren't going to get along super well.
"Do you have a horse here?"
"No. I ride the school horses." Kirsten seemed entirely disinterested. I was about to give some snark about her lack of enthusiasm until I was suddenly on the ground flat on my ass. Long Blonde from this morning turned around from her group of equally long blonde friends and laughed loudly at my situation. Nice, bitch.
"Aww. New girl is already worshipping my feet!"
"Nah man, I just tripped." I replied as casually as possible. Seriously!? Who was this chick!? Tahlia extended a hand and hauled me to my feet.
"Oh, so it's Trips now?"
"A nickname? What are you, seven?"
"Ooh, touchy! Nicknames suit you, Trips." I wasn't even going to bother. Trips isn't that bad. She mustn't be all that smart if she thought that angered me. Which it kind of did. Shit. Tahlia was stifling a grin.
"An official welcome to Cedar Ridge would be incomplete without an interaction from Holly."
"She seems real nice." I droned sarcastically.
"Oh yeah, everyone just loooooves her." Tahlia replied equally sarcastically. We shuffled through the doors and into the hall. It was about half full, with mostly kids but some parents taking seats at plastic tables set up in groups of 6. A raised stage held a row of seats, obviously for the teachers. Tahlia grabbed my arm and quickly dragged me to a table with three other girls including Hunter Green. That left room for one more. She plonked me into a seat next to her and goofily grinned at the other three, who returned the gesture. For such a fancy school, the dining sets were awfully plastic. The hall grew in volume as more and more girls piled in.
"Hey guys, this is Georgie! She's the new girl who got a scholarship!" Tahlia had to yell over the noise. Hunter Green spoke up first.
"I'm Casey, I saw you with your horse in the parking lot!"
"Yeah! You own the bay don't you?"
"Yup. That would be Monty." I was better with horse names than human names, Monty would be no problem to remember as long as I remember Casey was his owner.
A pretty-faced girl with glasses spoke up next. She had mousey brown hair that was tastefully waved.
"Hey! I'm Zoe. I just love your hair!" She reached over the table and touched my insane shoulder-length curls.
"The color is awesome, is that natural?"
"Nope, dyed it myself. Was meant to be more red and less... purple." I laughed. I bought red, but it turned out almost maroon. That's what you get for a home job, I guess.
The last girl was marginally quieter than the others, but only marginally. She had red hair and freckles absolutely everywhere. Dusted across her nose and cheeks, up her arms and I assume all over her back.
"I'm Shawna." She seemed nice enough, definitely not as bubbling bright as Zoe or conversationally active like Tahlia. Casey seemed as horse crazy as me.
"Do you guys all own your own horses?" I asked. Shawna nodded and Zoe shook her head.
"I like to ride the school horses, preferably the craziest ones they have!" She seemed like just that sort of person. I grinned widely at her. I may not get along with my other roommate, but Zoe and I were going to get along swimmingly.
"What's you're horse like, Shawna?" I was curious. That seemed to light a spark in her.
"A bit of a mental case, she spends half the warmup having hissy fits, but she's got some jump to her. She's a freak of nature, you direct her to a jump and she's over it. I got her over 4ft once, and she's 13.3hh. Crazy." My jaw should've hit the desk.
"She sounds awesome! What's her name?"
"Willow."
"Hey, tell us about you though Georgie! Who's your horse and how did you get this scholarship?" interjected Casey.
I was about to start my epic adventure story on how I got here and slayed dragons and shit, but Mrs Walter loudly began into the microphone on the centre stage.
"Alright girls, welcome to Cedar Ridge Equestrian Academy. Lets get down to business."