"Connor. . . Cccoooonnnnnnnnnnooooorrrrrrr."

"Go away!" I swatted my hand at Casey's voice and heard her laugh,

"Up and atem your two days of no school are up! Meaning I'm no longer alone in most of my classes!!" I laughed and opened my eyes finally. Casey stood on my ladder dressed in a flannel and jeans,

"Best part, it snowed on the last week of school before break!" I sat up quickly, riding in snow was always fun with Wind,

"Really?" She nodded and jumped off my ladder so I could get down. Climbing quickly I ran to the window and saw a beautiful layer of snow coating campus. I smiled and ran into my closet getting dressed quickly similar to Casey in a blue flannel and worn jeans. Pulling on my cozy winter boots I stood up and brushed my hair not bothering to put it up I pulled on a beanie and vest.

Standing hands on my hips I smiled at Casey,

"I'm ready for school!" Casey laughed and grabbed her bag as I grabbed mine. We made our way down the stairs arms linked and laughing. Each of us grabbing a muffin off the counter we ran outside into the snow laughing.

I stopped in the middle of the court yard and looked up into the sky opening my mouth for the snowflakes to fall into. I heard Casey snicker and felt two arms encircle me from behind. I squealed as they lifted me up and swung me around. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Adam swinging Casey around. When the world finally stopped spinning my spinner and me fell to the ground.  I gasped as the cold seeped into my pants and jumped laughing. I turned back to my spinner and saw Nick lying on the ground laughing. Offering him my hand he took it and as he started to get up I let go and he fell back on his butt. Snickering I adjusted my backpack and  walked over to where Casey had ran off from Adam linking arms again we waved our hands at them and continued on towards school.

Soon after we left the boys Wills voice danced around in my head, 

"Nick was being a jerk about you being hurt" the smile dropped from my face and I frowned. I shook my head and took a deep breath, the smile resumed on my face and I looked at Casey,

"Race ya," I took off running through the snow Casey yelling and laughing behind me as she started running. By the time we made it to the school our cheeks were red and we were breathless. Linking arms again we made our way to math. As we walked into class I felt people's eyes on me but I didn't question it I was the girl that got in a fight with Sonia then I heard a hoot and holler,

"Connor you finally decided to come to class now did you!" I rolled my eyes at Ben and we made our way over to the back row where he was. I sat down next to him and Casey on my other side. Noticing we had a few minutes till the bell rang I started talking with her about what I'd missed in my classes luckily not much just mainly studying for finals on the next three days. 

It was a minute till the bell rang when Adam and Will walked in. Adam looked like he wanted to punch someone and Will looked no better. Oh boy. This wasn't going to be good. Adam made a bee line for the seat next to Casey and sat down heavily Casey grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Me and her were going to be having a talk that's for sure.

Will took the seat next to Ben and sat down just as heavily. What the heck was going on with the Boys today?

"Alright class . . ." I tried to pay attention to Mr. White but my thoughts kept distracting me. Why the heck did guys have to be so complicated. Take a deep breath I spent the rest of school trying to focus.

By the time Cross Country practice came around I was exhausted. Show jumping had been canceled due to our instructor being sick and wanting to give us the day off so I ran back the dorm and quickly changed in to riding pants, a dark red long sleeve work out shirt and a grey fleece for Cross country.

Grabbing my helmet and I ran to the stable when I got there no one was there yet so I quickly tacked Wind up and brought him to the arena when I got there I was surprised to find Josie with the beginner show jumping team still,

Josie looked over when she saw me and called me over,

"Perfect just the person I needed to see," I gave a confused look,

"Would you mind mounting up? I need a favor," I nodded and vaulted onto Wind earning a couple oohs from the younger team. I kicked Wind into a walk over to Josie, and she held his reins for a second so she could talk to me,

"I'm helping them go over the course but I can't really show them right now since my horse is stuck on stall rest due to losing a shoe and we can't get a new shoe till the snow melts. So can you go over the combinations for me? It's be a huge help!" I nodded,

"Sure seems simple enough" and the highest jump was  maybe 2" not even. Kicking Wind into a canter when Josie let go of his reins she explained to the team I was gonna show them how to do it. I loped Wind around a bit to warm him up and directed him to the course. Counting the strides in my head we came up to the first jump and made it over easily same as the next eight jumps. Pulling Wind to a halt next to Josie the team applauded me and Josie smiled,

"And this my munchkins," I snickered at Josies name for the younger kids, "is why Connors captain of the Advanced Cross country team" I gasped,

"B-b-but I thought you chose someone else," Josie smiled 

"Now why would I do that?" I gasped at her, 

"Why me?" Josie smiled softer,

"Your a leader, a great rider and I've never seen someone love horses or riding as much as you do," I smiled shyly,

"Thank you Josie, I won't let you down, I promise" Josie laughed 

"Good cuz I plan on winning," I laughed and waved bye to Josie and her young team.

As soon as we were clear of the stable I kicked Wind into a gallop towards the trail near the Cross Country course as soon as we were on it I let Wind loose and he took off his mane billowing into my face. Smiling I let go of the reins and clutched his mane instead. I let him keep running like that till I glimpsed the sun setting and realized he'd shown down showing we'd been riding for awhile. Looking at my watch I mentally slapped myself. It was almost four which meant we had only a few minutes to get back to the stable for practice. Turning Wind around we took off and Wind seeming to know we needed to hurry ran as fast as he could. 

By the time we got there Josie had just begun practice and everybody was warming up. Wind pulled on the brakes right before we bowled into Josie who started laughing. Apparently she was talking about me,

"And well here she is guys your new team captain!" Everyone was clapping and laughing until I heard a familiar shrill voice,

"What!?! Her!?!?! You pick her to be our team captain!" Josie spun around to face Sonia who I now noticed was sporting a black eye.

"Yes I did now if you have a problem with it I can just as easily boot you down to intermediate as easily as I can boot someone else up!" Sonia shut up at that and I realized that she was back on Jake the rude gelding that fought with Wind our second day here.

"Now Connor I want you to start practice today better yet I want you to run practice" my eyes widened,

"Don't worry I'll still be helping and coaching I just want you to come up with what we're going to practice today" I nodded,

"Okay then I guess. . . How about we start with partner runs, I want you guys to team up and try to match pace with each other and go over the wider jumps so you can get to now each others speeds better or the way you ride," Sonia snorted,

"So you want me to keep pace with these slow people?"  I shot her a glare,

"No I want you to keep pace with me." Someone snickered, I looked over and saw it was Nick,

"Your in for the ride of your life Sonia," I smiled at him,

"Alright I'm going to try and pair you up the best I can, let's do Ally and Will, Lukas and Ben then first ones back can decide who's going to pair with Nick. Go only as far as the Bush jump which will give us about 3 or four wide jumps," Wind started to prance under me from standing still for so long so I turned him in a tight circle,

"Ok what are we waiting for? Ally, Will your up first" the took off keeping pretty good pace though Will was a little ahead. I nodded to Lukas and Ben to go next  then me and Sonia lined up, I smiled at her while she sneered,

"I'm not holding back so your job is to keep pace with me. Got it?" She rolled her eyes and nodded. We took off I pushed Wind and I could already hear Jake's shortness for breath I pulled Wind back for the first jump and so we were keeping better pace with Jake. We continued on like this and though I hated to admit it if there was reversing a thing of parter pace cross country we'd be quite good at it. We finally soared over the last jump and i smiled at Sonia.

"You still think you can keep up?" I kicked Wind into a Gallop and Sonia did the same with Jake we raced back streaking across the field. As the Stable came into view we raced to it the gate was open so quits was in the stable. I pulled ahead by at least three tail lengths and beat them. Smiling snarkily as Sonia and Jake came to a halt Sonia glared at me,

"You cheated!" I heard a laugh and saw Ben and Star standing near by with their partner Lukas who was also laughing,

"Sonia Wind had already gone a sprint just a little bit ago so even if she had cheated there's no way she could have won if her horse was slow," Sonia clenched her jaw and kicked Jake into a walk over to the corner. Going over to Ben I gave him a high five,

"Thank you for that," Ben shrugged,

"It was the truth," just then the last pair came bolting in. I recognized the horses first, this wasn't going to be good they were almost dead even but the grey one had pulled ahead of the brown one first. It was Dante and Dash, really not good cuz that meant it was Will and Nick.

"I won!" Will discounting a fist in the air, uh oh,

"In your dreams I pulled ahead Blondie," Nick said, I moved myself and Wind in between them first,

"You fight right now and I'll kill you both myself." They both shut up,

"Will go by Ben Nick go by Ally" the both nodded, turning to everybody I smiled,

"Good job today everybody your looking Sharp I think you and your horses definitely deserve a good rest. Go give them each a good rub down and throw on their blankets tonight it's supposed to get cold. Now get out of here!" Everyone except Sonia laughed and dismounted, leading their horses to their own barns. 

I dismounted off of Wind and made my way over to Josie who was beaming.

"That was great Connor, you handle the team well it helps a lot that you also seem to know each of their personalities, weaknesses as well as strengths," I grinned,

"Thanks" 

"Now I'm going to give you your own advice, get out of here!" Laughing I dismounted off of Wind and led him away smiling widely.