Maple Stream Riding Academy

Chapter Sixteen: Shopping Spree

I squealed and jumped up and down. Not only was I on the elite team, but I was the captain of the whole cross country team. It was a dream come true. I went to the cross country building to see Lynn. When I saw her, I gave her a big hug.

"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed. "Who else is on the team?"

"Quinn, Thomas, Winston, Reagan, and you as captain," she says, reading off of her list.

"Reagan made it? Yay!" I exclaim. Quinn is a sophomore. She has a pretty Asian face and long black hair. I've never really spoken to her, but she congratulated me on my round after tryouts. Thomas and Winston are brothers, I believe. The three of them are all in my cross country class. Lynn hands me two papers.

"Give one to Reagan," she says. "And go eat something. It's almost six. Tomorrow's Saturday, right? I'll bring you into town so you can buy more tack. Meet me in your barn at eight." I nod and head back to the dorm.

"Rea!" I shout when I step inside. "Reaaa!"

"What!" She shouts from the living room. "Ooh, what's that?"

"Why didn't you tell me you made elites?" I ask, getting excited.

"What? Really! Oh my gosh! Lynn wouldn't tell me what team I made," she replies, taking the paper from my hand.

"Oh my gosh, congrats guys!" Alex exclaims.

~
We eat a light dinner, make your own sandwiches. Reagan, Alex, Maggie and I go to the balcony to eat. The balcony is covered with brown leaves, but we just brush off the picnic table and have a seat. We have out little group of friends. Abby is good friends with Kaytie, Felicity, and Natalie. The other girls, Hannah, Sasha, Danielle, and El are their own 'group' of friends, and we all get along fine. The boys, on the other hand, they're the rowdy ones. Mason and Sam are best friends, but all of the boys stay up until lights out playing stupid games and watching boy shows on Netflix.

"Guys, want me to bring your dishes downstairs?" Maggie asks.

"Sure," Rea replies, handing her plate to Maggie.

"I'll go with you," Alex offers, taking my plate. Now it's just me and Rea sitting on the balcony, watching the leaves flutter about.

"Rea, before they come back, I wanna know if you want to come tack shopping with Lynn and I?" I ask. "I know you need more jumping boots and a bridle."

"Oh yeah! Definitely," she replies. "Where and when?"

"We have to be at the barn by eight tomorrow morning," I say. "We can go let the horses out at 7:30 and head to the tack store at 8."

"Yeah, let's do that," she replies. All of the sudden, Alex and Maggie walk onto the balcony with my laptop.

"What are you guys doing?" I ask.

"I stopped in our room to charge my phone and your sister called you on Skype. Say hi!" Maggie explains and turns my laptop to me.

"Callie!" I say, taking the computer. "I haven't talked to you in forever!" Maggie, Rea, Alex, and I stay up until 8:30 talking to Callie and my parents. At 7:30, it got too dark out, so we downstairs to the living room. I plopped down next to Mason on the couch, holding my laptop, and Callie and my parents got to meet him.

"Mason, isn't Cami pretty?" Callie asked, making Mason and I both blush.

~

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! my phone buzzed, and I worked quickly to turn the alarm off so I don't wake Maggie. I got dressed in skinny jeans, my old 4H sweater, and converse. I pulled my hair into a side braid and quietly walked downstairs. Rea was already eating, so I was going to get a piece of toast, but she motioned to the toaster and I saw she had already made me a piece. Making sure my keys and phone are in my pocket, I walked outside to the barn with Rea.

"Thanks," I say, finishing off the toast but keeping a little piece of it in my hand.

"Why didn't you eat that part?" Reagan asks, pointing to my hand.

"Because this," I say, feeding Raquel the last piece of the toast. She takes it greedily, a delicacy she hasn't eaten in a while. I refill her water and lead her out to the pasture. When I unclip her lead, she takes off running, Apple on her tail. They play with each other for a bit, jumping around and doing what horses do before settling on the big pile of hay in the center of the pasture. I bring my lead rope back and put it in my cubby just as Lynn pulls up in a Maple Stream Riding Academy van.

She rolls down the window and yells "Hop in!" Reagan and I both sit in the back, excited for our shopping spree. "So, Cam, you have a total of $2,160 to spend. Jessica and Sara's parents decided to give you extra money as a way to say sorry."

"Okay. I need a bridle, saddle, jumping boots, girth, reins, and saddle pad," I say. "They ruined my maroon saddle pad, so I'm definitely getting another one of those. I could also get a navy blue one for the team. Maybe even two fly bonnets, a maroon one and a navy one."

"Yeah, totally. It's all up to you. How did you like the tack I let you use?" Lynn asks.

"Oh, I absolutely loved it," I reply.

"Lucky for you, I bought all of it at this tack store," Lynn smiles and turns the van into the tack store parking lot.

~

Two hours later, I'm standing in line to purchase my cart full of items. I'm getting a new saddle, bridle, reins, and girth, the same ones that Lynn let me borrow. I'm also getting four saddle pads, one maroon, one navy blue, one black, and one hunter green. (They were having a buy one get one free saddle pad sale). I also got four fly bonnets, one black, one navy, one hunter green, and one maroon. Finally, I got two pairs of jumping boots, one pair black and one pair brown. The total is $1,960, so I get a breastplate for $100 and three long sleeve riding shirts for another $100. I got one green, one black, and one navy blue.

(A/N I actually didn't think the price would come up to be $2,060, I used prices from Dover to estimate the prices of tack in the book. :D)