Blue Spring's Riding Academy---Starting New

New Team, One Chance

Wednesday went by slow. The four of us were too worried about getting our results to really do anything. The four of us have just stayed in the dorm, going over our schedules, which happen to be the same for all of us except for our electives. Payton and I had chosen swimming and advanced equestrian studies. Olivia chose music 101 and fashion, and Jonah chose advanced choir and advanced equestrian studies. Last night, we had gone into the little town close to campus to get our books for our electives. We had also gone out for dinner at a little cosy diner and had gone over some of the things we were going to work on with riding and school. I ended up making a time table for us all, giving everyone the perfect amount of freetime and study sessions.

Thursday morning came, and I awoke to Olivia bursting into my room with Jonah right behind her. "Wake up sis!" Jonah yelled, getting smacked by Olivia afterwards. "Hush Jonah. Don't yell so early in the morning. Do you want to wake the whole dorm?" Olivia said. "Shut up you idiots and tell me why you decided to burst into my dorm this early in the morning." I demanded, yawning and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "The email came out a few minutes ago. ALong with two boxes. They're addressed to you and Payton and I've got a pretty good idea what they might be. There's no way you two didn't make the YENT team. Your tryouts were perfect, Dave and Mary would be mental not to put you on YENT." Olivia said. I gasped and jumped out of bed, quickly walking into my closet and pulling on a pair of sweatpants, t-shirt and jacket, grabbed a pair of socks and ran to the living space to see Payton holding a box and one with my name on it. "I think we should read the email first. There's two of these. One addressed to the entire student body and one separately to us." Jonah said. "Agreed. I don't want to get my hopes up, although I think I should at least be on the intermediate team." I said. "Intermediate?!?!" Olivia shreaked. "If anything I'll be the one on the intermediate team! I didn't prepare enough. You on the other hand, are nothing short of the YENT or advanced teams. Jonah, go get your laptop and find the email." Olivia said.

Jonah walked out of the room, grabbed his laptop and walked back, logging into his email on the way back. Sitting down on the couch, we all squished together to see the screen as he clicked on an email titled "Team Placements." Watching as it loaded in, I noticed that most of the freshmen were in the intermediate teams, with a few on advanced and one in beginner.

Jonah stopped once he saw our dorm number

OLIVIA KING---ADVANCED TEAM A

JONAH WILLOWS---ADVANCED TEAM A

PAYTON DRAKE---YENT TEAM--2ND RIDER

BLAIR WILLOWS---YENT TEAM--CAPTAIN

I blinked. Slapped myself in the face, and almost fainted. I read it once, twice, three, four times. "Blair." Jonah said, looking at me with concern. "I-I did it. I-I made the Y-YENT team at Blue Springs." I said, my tone coming out faintly. "Payton. Payton we made it!" I exclaimed happily, launching myself at him and hugging him tightly, laughing slightly. "I made it as a second rider. You're the captain." Payton said, his tone matching mine. I then remembered the boxes and went into the kitchen to grab a pair of scissors to open it with. Carefully opening the box, I gasped. Pulling out a new show jacket, my last name black with emerald green lettering on the back (school colors. I don't know if I mentioned a school color before in the story but if I did, it is now changed to black and emerald green). There were 6 shirts, 3 long sleeves and 3 short, all with my last name and underneath my last name, it said YENT Captain. There was a hoodie with the exact same style as the shirts and another with the same style as the jacket. 4 pairs of crisp tan jodhpurs and 2 pairs of cotton socks were in the bottom. I hadn't noticed, but there was an envelope in the box as well. Opening it, I found a note and a key. Opening the note, I read it silently to myself.

Dear Ms. Willows,

We are delighted to have you on our YENT team and representing our school. You are the youngest captain that Blue Springs has had since Dave and I started to work here. It's been quite a long time since we've last seen you and your brother. Both of you have grown so much in your riding. Although your brother could've made the YENT, we felt as though he should be put onto the advanced team until the second term. We plan to re-evaluate Ms. King and Mr. Willows then. Hopefully by that time, they will have improved and will be able to join you and Mr. Drake on the YENT. Your practices will be held every morning and evening, but you have the liberty to schedule more practices if you see fit.