A/N: I changed the order of a couple things... Sorry... Let me know if anything is strange, it may be something I missed.

* After I turned ten at the end of the summer, Christie had to move away to college and I had begged her to take me with her. She was going to a place close to where we lived in Saratoga Springs about twenty minutes away from the barn because she didn't want to live in the dorms, but couldn't stand living with our grandparents any longer. I was beginning to understand why; Vati seemed to be hard on Christie like he wanted her to do something different than going to the barn all the time and he didn't like the college she chose to go to, which was the closest to home. Grannie was never really around and she was in and out of a hospital because Vati told me she was sick. The servants and Laura seemed to always keep me away from her and she only seemed to notice me sometimes.

Christie tended to have a lot of arguments with Vati and so she couldn't wait to move out. She decided to lease a two-bedroom apartment with a friend from high school, named Sabrina. They ended up having so much trouble finding an apartment for only two that they widened their search and found two spots in a house with three other people.

It was the first time I met Sabrina, although I had heard Christie talk about her before.

"Hi, I'm Wren." I greeted the round-faced blond girl, who had extremely long whitish blond hair and sorta reminded me of an alien. It was the end of August and I had already started fifth grade at age ten, but it was their first week of college.

"Hi, Wren. I've heard a lot about you." She told me in a quiet voice as she leaned close to me and I looked into her big round, pale green eyes.

"Good or bad?" I asked with uncertainty, looking to Christie, who laughed.

"Come on. I have to move in all my stuff." Christie sighed as she went to her white BMW that had been parked on the front circle in the sea of black BMW SUV's. The butlers had helped her pack up half her bedroom into two black SUV's and my nanny had helped me and Christie to pack a few things in Christie's small trunk of her car. Sabrina had already moved her stuff in, but still hadn't met the other 'housemates'.

"Are you nervous to meet the boys?" Christie asked after Sabrina and I had climbed into her car and the other drivers had started down the long drive towards the gate.

"Not really." Sabrina shook her head with a little shrug.

"You're living with boys? Ew, they'll be dirty!" I commented.

"They seemed organized over email." Sabrina stated, distantly.

We got to the old College-town house and there were a few crushed red cups on the sidewalk in the front and some trash that probably got blown into the bushes from the curb. I thought the place looked cool. There were big windows on the second level that led out to a big balcony that held a few dirty chairs that I wouldn't want to sit in. The front door was framed by an archway and had a few concrete steps up to it.

We got out of the cars that were parallel-parked on the street and Christie and the servants started un-packing her stuff. I was given an armful of books and things and led through the door into the dark red hallway. As we made our way up the stairs behind Sabrina, a few low manly voices greeted our grandparents who had come in a separate car that Vati had driven. The narrow stairs creaked as we got to the second floor and Sabrina started leading us up to the third. I peeked into the bright rooms that flanked me and saw double beds and dark desks. I noticed there was another room behind the staircase that led up to the third floor and guessed it was the bathroom. I sighed as I pushed on past the cool floor, with the balcony and the big windows up to a more cramped floor. At the top, there were two more rooms, and one was Christie's. She got an okay-sized room, but it had a bit of a slanted ceiling on one side and was way smaller than what we were used to.

"Cool!" I approved. "I wish I had this room." I told her, looking out her normal sized window onto the street at the parked cars.

"It's okay." Christie said, a little less than enthusiastic as Laura put down the box she had carried upstairs and a few of the butlers and drivers carried a few long pieces of Christie's bed up into the small room.

"The house has character." Sabrina told her. When the servants were putting together Christie's bed in the room, Sabrina showed Christie her room. It was one at the back of the house and was larger than Christie's because it didn't have a slanted ceiling. She had everything set up, including a small cheap-looking desk, a mismatched bookshelf, an old dresser, and a white double bed. Her bed-set was different shades of orange and she had a shaggy white carpet and a few weird posters that were of random things like a bicycle and a dog.

"This is your room?" Grannie asked, peeking into Christie's room, looking troubled.

"Why don't you switch with one of the others and take one of the larger rooms on the second floor?" Vati suggested, taking out his wallet like he was going to pay them. Christie put her hand up right away.

"No, stop! Do you want them to hate me in the first five minutes?!" Christie hissed.

"Well, you can't stay here!" Grannie argued, looking at the slanted ceiling like it was covered in spider webs.

"I'll be fine. I'm close to home. I can always drive home if I feel like it." Christie said, looking down at me while I found myself studying the homey little room and imagining getting to set up my bed set in there along with a dog that I planned on getting when I was old enough. "What do you think?" Christie asked me, with a smirk.

"Uh, this house needs a puppy." I joked with a mischievous smirk. Christie laughed.

"I can't imagine letting you live in such a hell hole." Vati said darkly as he looked down at me in particular. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes. They'll get stuck like that." Laura chided me.

"You guys can leave. I need to meet my roommates and the last thing I need is to worry about you two embarrassing me." Christie said sharply.

"Wouldn't want to stay here anyway." Grannie said airily as Vati took her hand and led her down the stairs.

"Come, Wren." Laura said, holding her hand out to me.

"No, not Wren. She's going to stay longer. Why don't you wait with Carlos?" Christie commanded.

"Thanks, Christie." I whispered as Laura left down the creaky stairs and had to step to the side as the butlers and drivers brought up more of Christie's stuff with a little bit of swearing and struggling on the narrow staircase. When they were out of the way and we heard the engine to Vati's sportscar roar to life, we made our way back downstairs. Two of the male housemates were standing in the kitchen with Sabrina.

My eyes stopped on one of the guys who wore baggy black pants and a well-fitted black t-shirt. He had dark hair, tan skin, and a slender, but muscular build. I couldn't get my eyes off him enough to even notice the guy next to him or the rest of the house. His sharp brown eyes startled me when I found them looking into mine and I avoided looking at him and instead studied each of the doorways near the bottom of the stairs to see that one led to the atrium where the front door was open to the street, one led to a filthy, smelly bedroom with clothes all over the floor and a computer on a desk so dirty that the keyboard had been placed haphazardly on a bunch of junk, and the last one led to a powder room that I think I would die if I had to use because it was so yucky. They obviously didn't have anybody to clean their bathroom... I frowned.

"I'm Frankie." The beautiful man said, shaking Christie's hand and then looking down at me. I was standing beside Christie, self-consciously and meeting his eyes seemed to make my mind go blank.

"This is Wren." Christie introduced me after I tried but couldn't find my voice. I shook his hand politely, but I was mad I couldn't seem to say my own name. I had never felt like that before and was a little frustrated. Christie looked surprised about it and smirked at me, which made me shoot her an annoyed look to get her to stop laughing at me.

The other boy introduced himself as "Loic" <LO-wic>. He had messy brown hair, pale skin, and a slender build. The third boy came upstairs with a laundry basket from a door that led to the basement and introduced himself as Gavin. He looked emaciated, like all he did was smoke and never eat. His shirt was way too big and so were his ripped jeans. He had a beanie on his greasy head, slumped bony shoulders, and his dirty grey socks had holes in them.

"So what? You're from one of those ultra-rich families?" Loic asked with a friendly crooked-toothed smile as his blue eyes seemed to look over our clothes. Christie wore a fancy blue summery dress that had ring that went around her neck and was made of flowy material and I had a t-shirt with some designer's logo in all different colors on it and some shiny black shorts.

"Unfortunately..." Christie groaned. "You have no idea how many times I've wished to be normal."

"You have no idea how many times I've wished I was rich." Frankie countered with his dark eyebrow raised, but no animosity in his voice which to my surprise had a funny accent. Almost like Laura's but he spoke English much better and had sort of a British accent too.

"Touché" Christie laughed her beautiful laugh and Frankie smiled a brilliant smile that if he had aimed at me, I think my heart would've stopped.

"You have no idea how big their effing house is." Sabrina laughed, sitting at one of the chairs at the island.

"Do you want something to drink, Christie?" Frankie asked smoothly.

"Sure, what do you have?" Christie asked.

"Uh, mostly alcohol apparently..." He said looking in the old-looking off-white fridge.

"Whatever you have is fine. Wren, do you want anything?" she asked, pulling out a stool for me and popping me in it. I just shook my head as Frankie handed Christie a bottle after he took the cap off of it with a bottle opener that was attached to the handle of the fridge.

"Miss Wren, your tatuś wants you home by dinner. It's time to go." Laura said referring to Vati in Polish. I didn't want to go at all and felt that awful feeling like I was being ripped away from something I was doing, even though I hadn't contributed to any bit of the conversation. I had just been leaning against the counter next to Christie listening to them talk and paying particularly close attention to Frankie. He had a smooth voice and a strange accent that I would never forget.

"Zgoda." (Okay) I answered in Polish like Laura had been teaching me.

"Dobrze się bawiłeś?" (Did you have fun) she asked me.

"Nie, będę tęsknić za Christie" (No, I will miss Christie) I answered.

"Is that Russian?" I heard Loic ask in a hushed voice.

"No, sounds like Polish?" Frankie answered in surprise as the door shut behind me and Laura led me to the car.

"Ja też" (Me too) Laura told me.

*

I was daydreaming about Frankie while I stood in the center of the round pen lunging Wolf with a long whip. Sadie had joined me, but she was uncomfortable with how fast Wolf went cantering around the ring and he didn't seem to trust Sadie the same as he trusted me, so she left to stand outside it and Gretchen arrived and stood with her.

Christie hadn't been going to the barn much since she started her classes, so Abigail was helping Gretchen and me work with Captain and Wolf. Christie had decided to geld Captain because she didn't think he would make a good stallion and Coach had moved Bandit into his own paddock while Captain and Wolf seemed to get along pretty well in a paddock together.

I grew to realize that I had really gotten myself into something. Wolf proved to be the most difficult horse to train even with Abigail's help. Most of the other riders at the barn didn't envy my situation with the horse from hell.

When the horses turned two, we had begun to ride them a little bit. Gretchen and I would stand in the paddock with them and eventually I was able to lay on Wolf's back. While Captain was easier to trust and he would stand still eating his hay while we laid on him, Wolf would bolt or buck. I lunged him for hours with one of Aragorn's saddles on him and surcingle that was a device that got him used to having pressure from a bit in his mouth. He didn't like it and would freak out so I just had to keep circling him and circling him in the round pen until he got used to it. I had more success sitting on his back and riding him around the paddock than putting his saddle and bridle on him while Captain and Bandit were both able to be ridden lightly with a saddle and a bridle.

"Wren, that horse is wasted on you." Mia, one of Christie's friends said to me one day after I had spent an hour trying to get Wolf to tolerate me in the saddle and I had only just gotten him okay with it when the hay truck made a loud noise and Wolf threw me off.

"Do you want to try?!" I roared, feeling frustration rise in me as I met her scowl

"You don't even know what you're doing." She sneered.

"That's why I have people helping me. Why don't you mind your own business?" I growled, walking by her with Aragorn's saddle and bridle to bring them back to the tack room.

There were a few people in there and I huffed as I put my tack back.

"What's the matter, my little birdie?" James asked coolly, making me look up. He had been sitting and flirting with one of the male instructors who was cleaning his dressage tack in the center on one of the benches.

"Mia says I'm not good enough to have Wolf." I frowned, feeling like an utter failure.

"Mia's just jealous because she wants your horse." He told me waving an unconcerned hand and smiling like I was being silly.

"Why doesn't she just buy one?" I growled in exasperation.

"Because her father cut her off." James explained pursing his lips. "Because she refused to go to college."

"Cut off?" I asked in confusion, making James share a laugh with the instructor.

"No moola." James told me, rubbing his thumb and two fingers together.

"How does she pay rent?" I asked.

"Who knows. She probably has a sad job and lives in a sad apartment. I'd be jealous of you, too. You don't have to worry about any of that and your sister just buys you whatever you want." James laughed.

"I don't have a puppy." I pointed out.

"Don't worry. You will." James told me shaking his head with smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

*

It was a few weeks before the annual end-of-Fall show at Starstruck Equestrian Center when Addison's trailer pulled up to the barn with a new horse in it. We all couldn't help leaning to get a better view as Addison and her parents got out of their Escalade to watch as Addison's equestrian nanny, Meghan, dropped the ramp of the pale gold trailer. I bumped into Hayden as she stopped to gaze at the beautiful shimmering champagne-colored horse that Addison led out of the trailer. She had shocking blue eyes, a sparkling beige mane and tail and a bright white blaze on her face.

"Wow, Addison, she's beautiful." I breathed with my mouth dropped open. She looked surprised at my statement and her mom shot me a smile at the compliment as Addison's eyes looked over the expression on each of our four faces and some of the others' behind us as if she was making sure we were all impressed or envious.

"Her name is Athena." Addison explained proudly.

"Wow! Addison, she's like the perfect horse!" Chelsea cheered as she dropped hay in the aisle to pay homage to a smiling Addison. Camille, James, and Cerry appeared from the riders' lounge to gawk at Addison's new horse and Hayden regained her composure when Sadie went striding by us at an angry pace towards the wash stalls with Windsor's tack in her arms and her eyes forward. I followed the others while my eyes were still stuck to Addison's mare. I almost asked if she wanted to ride with us, but I figured she'd want to settle in before getting right to work.

"God, she is so arrogant. Look at that look on her smug face!" Sadie spat when we had all gotten our horses and met at the tacking bays. I looked over at Sadie in surprise from where I stood buckling the throat-latch to Aragorn's black bridle. Sadie wore an awful wrathful expression with a wrinkle on either side of her nose, her eyebrows pressed down tensely, and her lips stretched into a frown.

"Sometimes I feel like she buys things just for attention." Hayden commented as she dropped the crossties and started pulling Cherokee's bridle on.

"Who cares?" Gretchen asked in a subdued voice, sharing a disconcerted look with me.

"She just gets whatever she wants and then she puts it in everyone's faces!" Sadie growled, making me feel like she pointed her comment at me too. I frowned as I led Aragorn towards the doors out to the 'Dublin' ring that was beyond the 'Black Country' Covered arena. Gretchen led Cobra out behind me and she must've seen the slight guilt in my expression.

"She's just jealous. It's not really a big deal." She said in a low voice when the others were out of range. I smiled slightly, but still felt sort of guilty as I looked out beyond the arenas to the paddocks where Wolf and Captain were eating their lunch.

"She can find a different arena to ride in." I heard Sadie sneer as she stepped out the door behind us with Hayden in her wake.

*

I couldn't seem to stop staring at Addison's 15-hand champagne mare as she trotted smoothly around the arena for our last lesson before getting ready to start packing for the Starstruck show. I was comfortable on Aragorn and Abigail assured me I'd be one of the top riders competing at my level, but I couldn't help wishing he was a little peppier and I was a little envious of Addison's 12-year-old jumper who was the largest of the four horses we were on with much longer strides and a lean athletic frame. Not to mention her shimmering gold color and shockingly blue eyes. I preferred Wolf's color and Aragorn was a beautiful silvery grey that would be even more beautiful after I gave him a bath and show-sheened him for the show.

Sadie was still in sort of a foul mood when we untacked and worked on washing our horses off. I had clipped Aragorn's hair short to give him a cleaner silhouette and his fan-like mane stood tall, accentuating his round, beefy neck. His sweet face turned back to watch me while I scrubbed the mud from his long blue-grey tail and combed it out.

"I sort of wish I could take Captain to the show." Gretchen laughed as she pulled a comb through Cobra's sparse black mane and I watched him shake his head. The white star spot and white snip stood out intensely from his pitch-black face which had been scrubbed along with the rest of his midnight black body.

"He'd probably spook at all the people there." Hayden pointed out.

"You're right." Gretchen sighed as Cobra squealed his annoyance at having his tangled mane pulled. "Sorry, dude. You're a damn mess!" Gretchen told him, patting him in sympathy.

There was laughing from the other end of the wash stalls where Addison was gathered with Cerry, Chelsea, and Meghan. They each worked on cleaning their horses and were messing around letting Meghan's heavy chestnut stand loose in the aisle. The curious horse had picked through each of their pockets before reaching his big head over to Athena. She was having none of it and was eyeing him in annoyance with her ears cocked to the sides at his bold approach.

"He's not going to hurt you." Meghan laughed, giving him a peppermint as he reached around to her.

"Lyric's like a big dog." Chelsea giggled, from where she stood next to a dappled Connemara Pony owned by the barn, named Balamutka.

"A dog that should be on a leash." Sadie growled under her breath.

"All geldings are like big dogs." Cerry insisted from beside her lease, a bay Quarter horse Connemara cross.

I was focused on hosing Aragorn off, but I saw Sadie glaring over at them from beside Windsor. My group was relatively subdued. I had my mind far away as I put Aragorn's stable blanket on to stop him from rolling in his stall and getting shavings all stuck to his clean, but still damp coat. I was glad I didn't have to braid his mane since it was too short and it didn't take me very long to braid and wrap the upper part of his tail to keep it clean. Sadie was fuming when she saw Addison's young nanny, Meghan, braiding Athena's long mane for her. Even I was a little jealous of the fact that Addison's nanny was a horseback rider who her parents had hired to hang out with her at the barn and drive her places. She was way more like a friend than Laura was to me. Laura didn't know anything about horses and was petrified of Wolf. She rarely came to the barn other than to pick me up with Carlos and take me to a language class or piano lesson.

*

I was upset to hear that Christie couldn't make it to the show and I realized sadly, it would be the first show I did without her. Abigail drove Gretchen and me along with a few other older riders that she coached and she had hooked up one of the two silver 6-horse trailers that toted Aragorn, Cobra, and Windsor among others. Addison's three-horse trailer took Athena, Lyric, and Cerry's lease while Coach took Hayden along with Cherokee and a bunch of lesson horses in the Senas' six-horse trailer.

We arrived at the downhill slope that was the awful precarious driveway into the upstate New York Equestrian Center. I always felt my nerves as the truck bounced over the rocky dirt drive, but I think it had less to do with riding and more to do with the trailer unhooking and rolling into a ditch with my horses in it...

"Are you nervous?" Gretchen asked, where she was stuffed between two teenage girls in the middle of the back seat. She must've seen me glance back at the trailer a tenth time as we made our way slowly down the slope.

"No, not really." I answered from the passenger seat that was up high in Abi's black Ram.

"That's good because we're here!" Abigail cheered as the truck leveled out and she found a place to park on the fields that were packed with trailers pressing through the crushed grass into the mud. I took a moment looking down from the seat at the other riders all in their Stable colors and looked down at my white Silver Willow Stables blazer. My eyebrow twitched in annoyance at the ketchup stain Laura hadn't been able to get out and I surveyed my stark white breeches that were so new and white they clashed with my older white blazer. I watched Addison, Chelsea, and Cerry jump down out of Meghan's red truck and noticed that it seemed even they didn't have Christie's uncanny ability to keep her clothes spotless. Cerry had a grass stain on her white breeches and Meghan must've leaned against a horse and gotten a dirt smear on the pocket of her blazer. Meghan was just young enough to compete in the show at seventeen years old and she was the oldest Silver Willow rider competing. Most were around twelve and thirteen. My friends and me were still just ten so we were among the youngest there.

It was the sleek matching black and red trailers that piqued my interest when they pulled up in a caravan and parked neatly side by side. I stood by Aragorn when I saw a bunch of teenagers in black breeches, shining black tall boots, and tailored red and black blazers start unloading the three six-horse trailers. They brought horse after horse in matching red coolers with a fancy black crest with a large V in the center.

"Valinor Stables." One of the older girls that had rode with us said in a dark tone with her eyes narrowed.

"Aw, crap. We're gonna lose..." One of the other girls complained, as she pulled an Arabian Christie called 'Shanti' along with her.

"Don't talk like that!" Abigail crooned, "We're just as good as them! Don't let them psych you out." She told us as she came back from the sign-in tent with our numbers and started pinning one to my back.

Before I knew it, I was on Aragorn, standing between two tall grey dappled white anglo-arabians. I was jolted back to reality when one of them was called and they entered the ring gingerly. I had been staring in admiration at their navy-blue saddle pads that had crystal embellishments. I realized they were both from Starstruck stables when I read the silver script. I looked down at my Silver Willow Stables dirty white saddle pad that had a silver line around the edge, but had cheap black script that was too small and definitely not custom. It could've been damn Monotype Corsiva, I frowned to myself. We definitely need to change our colors, I decided resolutely and maybe we could have a crest made or use a symbol.

"Number 6!" One of the judges broke my trance. I looked up in surprise, realizing that they had repeated my number about a hundred times while I wasn't paying attention.

"That's you!" The blond teenager on the anglo-arabian next to me insisted, sounding irritated.

"Oh, right. Sorry." I mumbled, getting Aragorn moving with a quick squeeze of my heels. We trotted into the ring and circled around to trot to the far side before turning in the center of the short side and doing a carefully controlled trot straight towards where the judges sat. When we reached the center of the center line, the very middle of the ring, I pulled Aragorn to an abrupt halt and saluted the judges dramatically like Abigail had drilled into me. I hoped that his body was square with his back legs and front legs aligned with each other from the front and the side. I picked up an easy trot and was glad when I could see Aragorn had his neck rounded and his feet underneath him as I approached the judges before circling. Only a couple riders in my group, including me and Hayden, could get their horses 'on the bit' as they called it where the horse bends its neck so that its neck is arched and its chin is close to its chest. Aragorn had gotten used to being on the bit and sometimes I didn't even need to ask him. He would just feel me on his back and know what I wanted.

I was glad dressage was over and Abigail was delighted at our scores, but I was looking forward to the long cross-country jumping course. They had us walk the course and the group of us including Chelsea and Cerry walked it together. I clamored over the jump like an idiot with my eyes on the group of boys and girls from Valinor in front of us. We were short compared to them and unlike them, Abigail had accompanied us. One of the boys looked back and snickered as he saw me awkwardly straddling the jump and I wore a dour frown on my face while I heard Sadie and Addison starting to have a disagreement behind me. Gretchen was by my side as we continued to count our horses' strides approximately between each of the low jumps.

Since Sadie and Addison had stopped to have their fight, the navy-blue blazered Starstruck girls were catching up to us. I desperately wished our barn didn't look like the least professional one and wished Christie could've come. Back when she and Jensen and James and Mia were younger, our barn looked much more put together. Christie and her friends all had silver chrome-colored helmets and somehow, they kept their white horses and white blazers white. We looked like a bunch of nattering kids on all mismatched ponies with a range of cheap to expensive helmets and we didn't all have tall boots like the more well-known barns. Gretchen and Chelsea both had paddock boots with half-chaps while the rest of us had black tall boots.

"I wish Christie was here." I told Gretchen and Hayden as Abigail was able to get Sadie and Addison back on track while the Starstruck girls eyed us with smirks.

"Same." Gretchen murmured, looking back to the not-so-happy faces of our peers as we trudged along in front of them.

I was a little worried about how much of the course I remembered, but fortunately I remembered the order of the first few jumps. I used my crop to tap Aragorn into a fast canter as we started the course. We cantered up to the first jump, looking to the second in anticipation and to my relief, the order of the jumps in the course became clearer to me as I neared the second jump and Aragorn missed a step. I managed to keep us both in the correct position but the drawn-out jump was uncomfortable for both of us. The autumn breeze was cool through the trees and I could hear the leaves shake over Aragorn's heavy, steady breathing and his paced hoof-beats on the grass. The sun was warm overhead and the smell of the fresh air reminded me of riding for fun. I had to focus on keeping him rocketing forward in between the jumps and controlling him as we neared the difficult corners and higher obstacles. When the final jump was in sight, Aragorn was galloping to it and I only had him canter for two strides before he lifted us over it. We were both breathing heavily and my legs were exhausted from holding myself up off the saddle and from using my calves and heels to navigate in addition to my rein.

"That was great!" Coach told me where he stood with Hayden's mom and Addison's parents. They were all beaming at me and it was odd to not have Christie there.

"Thanks. You don't think I pushed him too hard, do you?" I asked in worry as I got down and my legs felt like they were going to collapse underneath me. Aragorn had foamy white drool on his blue-grey lips and was breathing heavily with his sides heaving as I took my reins over his head to walk him.

"He just needs to cool down. Your time is the fastest so far." Coach told me as he accompanied me to walk Aragorn back towards the trailers and I peered over to the starting line where Gretchen was waiting on Cobra with Abigail by her side.

A Starstruck girl had gone after me and they had spaced the riders so nobody would catch up and lap the rider before them unless they fell off. Since our course was a little bit shorter, there were only two on the course at a time. I knew Cerry had followed the Starstruck girl behind me and Addison was behind Gretchen.

Coach patted me on the back before making his way to Hayden who was one of the last riders and still had a bunch of older Valinor riders ahead of her.

"Without Silver, that barn looks like a joke." One of the Valinor boys sneered, as his eyes floated over to me from where he stood next to a few teal and grey blazered teenage girls. I guessed he was referring to Christie by her last name, Silver, and I knew he was right about us being a joke when I saw that Cerry's horse had refused one of the jumps and Gretchen got confused when she started to go and they had her stop on the way to the second jump.

Aragorn's breathing had gone back to normal by the time we went back to the trailer and I gave him some hay and water for lunch and checked on the other horses that were there. Sadie had gone before me and she was standing with Windsor talking to one of the younger riders who rode Raven.

"How did you do?" I asked her, after pulling Aragorn's bridle off to clean his bit.

"Uh, oh, okay. You?" Sadie said with a smile.

"Coach said I did well, but only half of us have gone." I shrugged, peering back over towards the cross-country course and only seeing trailers and people in the way.

*

I was interested to check out the largest of the three separate stables on 'SEC' property. The front had a big balcony and the whole gambrel-roofed façade was made of natural knotty pine wood. We stepped onto black rubber pavers in the main entrance which had a set of stairs on either side. Both led to the large riders' lounge that had the balcony off of it over the front entrance. In the center of the barn, was a large indoor arena, similar to the 'Breyer' arena back home, except theirs was surrounded by stalls on three sides rather than a wall with mirrors across from a spectator's lounge and a large door to outside on the far side. There were a few horses being tacked on cross-ties in the aisle and only a couple stalls with horses in them hanging their heads out. Similar to some of the Silver Willow stalls on the boarder side of the barn, many of the Starstruck stalls had doors from their stalls that led to small individual paddocks called walk-outs.

We were able to find a few vending machines, the bathrooms, and the riders' lounge. Unlike the single bathrooms at home, their bathrooms looked more like those at school with stalls and sinks all side by side. Ours were all like a regular bathroom in a house with a tiled shower, a toilet, and a sink. The huge window from the riders' lounge looked out onto the skylit indoor arena and there was a hard, grey sectional that was positioned to look at the view.

We felt out-of-place as we wandered up there and it was full of riders from different barns and a lot of the older girls in our level. My three friends followed me to sit on the sectional with the few snacks and water I had bought them from the vending machines we had found. We had a few hours before the final event and we had left Abigail and Coach just to go to the bathroom, but decided to check out the barn instead of heading back right away.

"You're not allowed to eat in here." One of the Starstruck girls said, as I took a bite of my candy bar and a couple crumbs tumbled off into my knee, then the ottoman, and finally the floor. I had wide eyes as I looked up to her and saw Gretchen swallow guiltily, while she avoided eye-contact with the older girl who stood with her arms crossed as she looked down on us.

"Where do you guys eat if not in the lounge?" I piped up with my mouth half full.

"There's a café." One of the others said impatiently. It was the girl who had gone before me and she was even taller than I thought not sitting on her horse.

"Okay. Where is it?" I asked, standing up and grabbing my water.

"There's signs everywhere! Can't you read?" The blond girl sneered, making others in the room laugh. I raised an eyebrow, but the others got up silently and avoided looking them in the eyes.

"Have fun in your stupid lounge where you can't eat." I growled as the others followed me down the stairs.

"I'm glad we don't have rules about eating. What the heck!" Gretchen piped up after we had left the barn and were making our way back to the trailers.

"Yeah, what's a lounge for if you can't take a break and have a bite to eat?" Hayden agreed, with her lips pulled to the side.

*

I didn't bring home anything but a small white 5th place ribbon and I was pretty embarrassed about the fact that no Silver Willow riders placed except for a younger girl, Kate who rode Raven in one of the lower levels. Valinor and Starstruck had riders that placed in almost all the levels and one other barn called Hillcrest had a few good riders that placed, but it seemed like Valinor had almost all first-place ribbons and the Starstruck girls were close behind.

Despite Abigail telling me the judges made a couple questionable calls on my dressage and show-jumping, I still felt pretty lame on the way home like I hadn't performed my best even though I didn't really make any glaring errors. I didn't even answer Vati about how I did and I could see the stern look on his face that he used to hide his disappointment in me. Laura tried to cheer me up with ice cream, but I didn't even like ice cream.