Horses In My Heart

Orientation

I sat down in one of the folding chairs with Tess beside me as Catherine Bluefront walked onto the stage to begin orientation. Everyone appaulded politely and a couple of the boys whooped excitedly.

Mrs. Bluefront tapped the microphone "testing 1,2,3" she said and then cleared her throat and began talking to us about what the school was all about blah, blah, blah but finally she got to the part where we were to find out what dorm we we in and I leaned forward excitedly.

"In Dorm 1 whose dorm colour is burgundy; The Warmbloods are Aleyc, Alexa, Mary, Dalton, Helana..." she went on but neither I nor Del was in the Warmbloods.

"And Dorm 2 whose dorm colour is Peach; The Thoroughbreds are Xavier, Caleb, Arianna, Julia, Ashley, Cheyenne, Brittany, Danny, Del, Jake, Courtney, Tess, Ethan, Hailey and Gabriel."

"Yes!" I whispered happily, I was with Tess and Del! I grinned at Tess who grinned back. I spotted a familiar head a couple rows in front of me "Del!" I hissed "Del!"

Del turned around and spotted me. She grinned from ear to ear, "we're together" she mouthed.

"I know!" I mouth back excitedly. The rest of orientation was all about how we would have normal classes half the day and for the rest of the day we would be practicing our chosen riding discipline with a professional trainer and two other riders who were at the same level as us, plus we would study barn management and equine studies.

"Your mentor will take you to your dorm house and you will see your schedule and room mates posted there as well as what room you are in" said Mrs. Bluefront. "As you will be up early tomorrow for the introduction games, I suggest that you actually get a good nights sleep" Mrs. Bluefront said nicley.

Tess and I stood up and I ran over to where Del was and hugged her "I'm so glad we're in the same dorm! And guess what, our colour is actually the colour of Teagan's saddle pad!"

"That's awesome" Del said as Tess walked over.

"Del this is my mentor Tess" I siad introducing my best friend and my mentor.

"Hi Tess!" said Del.

"Nice to meet you Del" said Tess and smiled politely. Another girl walked over and stood next to Del. "I'm Hailey, Del's mentor. I'm a grade 12 as well" said Hailey smiling friendily.

"Let's head over to the dorm house shall we?" said Tess and we started walking over to a small two story house with a sign in front that said Thoroughbreds. I smiled thinking about how ironic it was that Teagan was a Thoroughbred and I was in a dorm called the Thoroughbreds AND that my parents owned a Thoroughbred racing farm.

When we got inside the dorm Del and I both raced over to the giant bulletin board where we assumed the room postings were. I traced my finger down the list looking for my name, and there it was, Room 7 with Arianna, Courtney and Del! Del and I saw our names and jumped up and down screaming excitedly. "How the heck are we not only in the same dorm, but the same room?!" I yelled happily.

"I have no idea" said Del. "I wonder who Courtney is though" she said thoughtfully.

We both ran up to Room 7 after saying good bye to Tess and Hailey who firmly told us that they would wake us up for braiding and grooming for the games at 6:45 am. We had nodded, promising to make sure that we set an alarm.

When we got to room 7 I put the card key that Tess had given me into the lock and pushed the door open. Someone must have brought our suitcases up because they were at the foot of our beds. Courtney wasn't here yet so we took advantage of that and picked our beds first. I chose the one closest to the window, which had a great view of horses grazing in the pastures. I sat down on my bed and started to unpack and fold my clothes neatly into the dresser across from my bed. There were 3 of everything in this room, three beds, three dressers and three closets, but unfortuantly only 1 bathroom. When I finshed putting my casual clothes away, I hung my show jacket, show shirt and dresses in my closest, putting my shoes on the bottom with my crop and helmet. Next I directed the space around my bed with pictures of Tragan and I from when she was only a yearling to our last show in the summer.

Suddenly the door opened and a tall red haired girl with green eyes came into the room towing a large suitcase. "Hi" she said breathelessly and shut the door behind her. I smiled back "Hi, I'm Arrie" I said.

"Courtney" she responded and brought her suitcase over to the last bed. "Tou must be Del then" she siad and smiled. "It's nice to meet you" she added.

"You too" Del said and smiled welcomingly. Del had unpacked too and everything was neat and orderly with one big poster of a foal that looked suspiciously like Crayola, with the words 'Chase your dreams' scrawled at the bottom.

"Nice poster" Courtney said sincerely to Del.

"It's the story of my life" Del stated and smiled thoughtfully.