Post by Quill on Jan 2, 2008 16:15:59 GMT -5
Chapter One
Introductions
Introductions
“Make a wish, Brooke!” Amanda Cristonsun told her daughter as the newly-fourteen year-old blew out the fourteen candles on her birthday cake. Brooke Cristonsun always knew what she wanted for her birthday, and had been making the same exact wish for years now. A horse of her very own; that was the one thing in the world she wanted. But every year, it never came true. But she kept on wishing; no matter how much pain it caused her when there was no horse waiting for her in a stall at the barn, or grazing in their backyard.
Her green eyes flicked so that they met grey. They eyes of her best friend, Claire Presscott locked with hers. Despite her seeing the slight pain muddled with happiness in Brooke’s eyes, her own remained holding mischief and laughter. A confused look came over the birthday girl and she let her eyes move to lock with a pair of shock blue.
Jason Williams and Brooke had known each other for a couple of years now and they could practically read each others’ mind. But there was something in his eyes this afternoon that she just couldn’t read. It was a look that his eyes had never possessed. A mixture between happiness and…could that be a bit of superiority? What did he know that she didn’t?
Brooke smiled for pictures and ate her fill of the delicious home-made birthday cake. They must have gone through so many different versions of the ‘Happy Birthday Song’ that they could have made a whole album of that singular song. The presents were all fantastic, and she truly loved them all. But once again she was disappointed to see that no horse was waiting for her. She sighed slightly as she; Claire and Jason brought all her gifts to her room and piled them on her bed. Her hopes were set high this year, since she thought that her parents had been hinting that she was going to get a horse.
First, she got a completely new grooming kit, complete with a braid brush and bands and hoof shine. But she was not allowed to use said kit, her parents refused to tell her why. She then received a brand new, black leather saddle and a gift card to the tack shop so she could buy appropriate pads and polo wraps to her liking. But once again, she was not allowed to use her gift, not once. Then she got a fancy tack box to put the saddle and grooming kit in, but that remained un-touched since she was not allowed to use the contents.
Brooke rolled her eyes as she thought of these gifts. She wasn’t getting a horse, no way, no how. Her mother and father just wanted her to wait to use these supplies until she grew out of Cloud, the Arabian she was presently riding.
But then something strange happened. Claire came up behind her and tied a blind fold around her head, covering her eyes. She then felt Jason take her shoulders and begin to guide her down the hall. Claire instructed her when there were steps, while Jason made sure she didn’t fall. They led her outside and into the car.
“Where are you taking me?” she had asked them. They had done this to her last year, they got her front row seats for a Grand Prix event, complete with ‘behind-the-barn‘ passes. She had got to meet Beezie Madden, her all-time riding idol, while looking at the amazing sport horses.
“Oh, you’ll see hon,” her father, Jonathan told her. “You’ll love it, we promise.”
The rest of the car ride was pretty quiet, since Brooke couldn’t see what was going on, and she wasn’t too happy about it. But when they did stop, she didn’t talk because it felt like her heart had stopped. She could smell horses, she could hear horses! But she couldn’t hear other people besides their small group, and she knew for a fact there were no large horse shows today.
They had her walk for a while, around and around. The smell of leather, horse manure and hay sent her sense of smell crazy, and she began to breathe faster with the excitement. She was then stopped and turned one hundred and eighty degrees.
“Happy birthday, Brooke!” she heard everyone exclaim as the blind fold was lifted from her eyes. They were met by the sight of an empty stall. But on the stall was a faux-gold plate. It read no horse’s name, just ‘Reserved for Brooke Cristonsun’.
The fourteen year-old could have fainted. She was getting a horse! She turned to Jonathan and Amanda. “When?” she could barely speak, she was in a bit of shock.
“As soon as you find the perfect one,” Amanda replied with a smile. “Since tomorrow’s Saturday, we’ll start our horse-hunting tomorrow, and have Millie look on weekdays until school ends.” Millie Roth was Brooke’s riding instructor.
Brooke could hardly breathe. She practically knocked down her mother and father as she attacked them with the biggest hug she had ever given them.
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That event had happened five months earlier. Brooke’s green eyes flicked to the still empty stall as she tacked up Cloud, the Arabian gelding school horse she had been riding for a year and a half. As she flipped the reins over the grey’s head, she multi-tasked by slipping her black riding helmet over her strawberry blond pony-tail.
Leading him out to the mounting block, she mounted. She walked him into the jumping ring of Frosted Pines Riding Centre, where a new figure stood in the middle of the ring. Nicole Young was the newest riding instructor at Frosted Pines, and was taking the place of Millie as Brooke’s instructor for the three weeks Millie would be away in Europe looking at horses.
Personally, Brooke wasn’t too fond of Nicole. She seemed to contradict a few of the things that Millie had taught her, and she could just feel bad habits beginning to form. But in other aspects, she was good. She was young and had a lot of energy, and was pretty funny when she wanted to be. Brooke just hoped Millie would be back soon.
“Okay Brooke,” Nicole told her temporary student. “Just start off with a working trot. Make sure you post.” Brooke rolled her eyes as she closed them. Sometimes the new instructor treated her like she had only been riding for eight days, not eight years. She picked up a posting trot, squeezing every few steps as she rose to the outside leg, keeping Cloud alert and focused.
“Lower your hands,” the young instructor told her as the team cantered around the ring. “And hold your hands at a forty-five degree angle.” Brooke’s green eyes flicked to her instructor with confusion.
“But Millie told me that keeping them here was perfect,” she replied. She would stick to what Millie said, no matter what. Her real instructor was a much more seasoned rider than Nicole and a good one too.
“Millie has her way of instructing Brooke,” Nicole said with only a slight pinch of annoyance in her voice. “And I have mine. And for the time being, you are my student. While you are my student you will listen to my instructions and ride in my style, understood?” The fourteen year-old held back the extreme urge to roll her eyes and glare at the older woman. Millie had asked her especially to be Nicole’s first student while she was away, and test her out. Boy could she not wait until Millie got back to tell her how terrible she was.
“Understood,” Brooke forced through clenched teeth. She did not want to be in this lesson, if it wasn’t obvious by now. She would rather just be looking for her own horse, or leasing Cloud and free riding him. Reluctantly though she was here, and she had to listen to Nicole. She moved her hands down slightly and turned her hands in to a forty five degree angle.
The rest of the lesson followed as such. Nicole would say something that Brooke didn’t agree with and she would bring Millie into the mix. And then the young instructor would become agitated and start to lose her temper little by little. Following this, Brooke would make a snide comment under her breath or roll her eyes, getting Nicole angrier with her.
“New rule, Brooke,” the aggravated instructor said as the fourteen year-old dismounted. “Millie is not to be mentioned in the lesson, understood? With our silly bickering you’re losing lesson time which is losing your parents money. Let me teach you my way and forget Millie for the next three weeks. Please?” Her tone had softened so much, it surprised Brooke.
“Fine,” she told the instructor. “I won’t mention Millie.” She supposed she was giving the new instructor too much trouble over nothing. If she picked up a few bad habits over the next few weeks, Millie would break them in a few lessons, or at least try to. With those words, she completely disregarded the farewell from Nicole with a simple wave, bringing Cloud to his stall.
“Hey, Brooke!” The bright voice of Claire broke her thoughts as she was staring into the stall reserved for her, pitifully leaning on the door with her head in her crossed arms. Seeing the look of forlorn on her friend’s face, she put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find your horse soon.” The reassurance did no good, so the young girl began to tug at her friend’s arm.
“Come on Brooke,” Claire said as she wrapped her arms around her friend’s stomach and picked her up, pulling her away from the stall and setting her down a few feet away from it.
“What was that for?” Brooke snapped angrily, her green eyes flashing as they met Claire’s calm silver ones. “I was thinking, and you interrupted a great thought!” Her face softened into a smile as she saw Claire staring simply back at her, with no trace of anger for her friend snapping at her, just a small smile on her face.
“You were not thinking,” she said as she began to pull Brooke away from the empty stall. “You were moping. Now come on and cheer up. Jason is going to be here any second, we’re going horse-shopping remember?” Green eyes brightened as she remembered that they were going for another day of looking at horses.
“How long was I in front of that stall for?” Brooke asked her friend as she put a hand to her head. “I must have been there for at least an hour.”
“About that,” Claire replied, letting go of her friend to let her walk freely. “I walked passed you at least five times and you were just there, staring into the stall. Every time I said hello, but every time I got no reply. What were you thinking about?”
“Sorry,” the other girl replied with sincerity. “I was thinking about what my horse was going to be like, when I get it. I was thinking about what breed I would get and what color. Several hundred different names for him or her were running through my head, as well as show names. I was also thinking about how much I’m going to miss Millie in the duration of the next three weeks.”
“Just try and get used to Nicole,” Claire said gently. “She’s not that bad when you do.” Brooke scoffed in disagreement. She did not believe she would ever get used to Nicole. She hoped that during the three weeks she would at least be able to tolerate the damned woman.
“Well you better get used to her quickly, Brookie,” said the familiarly smooth, British-accented voice of Jason as he came up behind the two girls. He put his arms around both of them, walking in the middle of them. “Because she’s coming with us to look for horses.” Brooke turned her head to her friend quickly. She had to look up to see him, she was at least five inches shy of him. He was wearing his usual casual smile, his shock-blue eyes bright and showing every emotion.
“No way!” she said, her mouth dropping open to form a perfect ‘O’. She bit her lip into a pout, the usual symptom to tell she was getting upset. “So not fair,” she mumbled.
“Hey, hey,” Jason said as he half-hugged his best friend. “It will be good to have her coming with us; she could help us with finding you a good, healthy horse.” Brooke wanted to argue with her friend, but found she couldn’t, so she shut her mouth. She shot a pleading look over to Claire, who just shook her head.
“I agree with Jason on this one, sorry Brooke,” she said with the expression on her face lingering between apologetic and happy. Brooke felt slightly defeated by her two friends, one who didn’t even ride with Nicole!
Jason’s family owned a nearby schooling barn, Sycamore Hill Stables. He came from British wealth, only moving here to New York two years previous. Brooke, Claire and him had met a local horse show and clicked immediately, being practically inseparable ever since. He was like a fourth brother to Brooke, but better because he liked horses and didn’t treat her like a lower life-form, as her brothers did.
“Going to look for at horses again?” a mixture of kindness, snootiness, questioning and annoyance all mixed into one voice was heard behind the three friends. “Why don’t you use the internet to find a horse? Gawd, it’s been five months already.” Brooke broke free of Jason’s arm to turn around. Sharp green met sea green as she faced Kendall Montgomery.
Kendall was the richest girl in the barn and had one of the most two-faced personalities that a person of age fifteen could have. At one moment, she was kind. But in a matter of seconds she was a mean brat that thought she owned the barn. Brooke had to admit though, no matter how kind or evil she was, her rival always looked immaculate. Like at this very moment, for instance, she could enter a schooling show and be obeying the rules of attire. Bleach-white breeches with black leather tall boots that you could see your reflection in covered her lower half. The collar of her black polo shirt was starched to stand up in the back and her dirty blond hair was perched in a stylishly messy bun near the top of her head. Compared to Brooke’s jeans, brown half-chaps and Jodhpur boots and her loose blue polo shirt, Kendall looked stunning. Non-consciously, Brooke pulled at her strawberry blond braid.
“Because I don’t trust the internet, Kendall,” she replied calmly. “I’d rather see the horse in person and try him or her out instead of paying a lot of money and getting a lame horse.” She could see that Kendall was trying very hard to resist the urge to roll her eyes. She had a thing for Jason, anyone with eyes could see that, and she was always on her best behavior when the Brit was around.
“Oh?” she replied. “Why not? I got Chagall and Aurora off of a very reliable website; I could give the web address to you.” She made a motion for her bag, but Brooke stopped her.
“Thanks but no thanks,” she said quickly. “I have a good feeling about the place we’re going to today.” She was lying through her teethe. She had stopped herself from getting those ‘good feelings’ about the barns they visited two months ago. Kendall slapped on the fakest smile and nodded.
“Well, okay,” she said as she turned on her heel and began to strut away. Over her shoulder she added, “I’ll have that website if you need it.”
Brooke rolled her eyes and turned back to Jason and Claire, who were standing patiently. She often got into little conflicts with Kendall, and her two best friends were used to it. She half-smiled at them and resumed her spot on the right side of Jason, with Clair on his left. He rested his arms lazily on their shoulders.
“C’mon slowpokes!” they heard someone call as they walked out of the entrance of the barn. Brooke groaned inwardly as she saw Nicole waiting at the car with her mother.
“Be nice,” Jason warned under his breath. She scoffed and earned a warning glance from Claire. She quieted herself and walked to the car.
“Don’t you want to get a horse, Brooke?” Nicole asked in a teasing way that also shared a bit of seriousness in the tone. Brooke didn’t trust herself not to make a nastily smart remark so she just forced a smile and a chuckle as she climbed into the back seat. Jason took the middle and Claire took the other window seat. Nicole took the front passenger seat and Amanda took the wheel.
“Now Jason, why are you coming?” Nicole asked in a sporadic fashion. “As a matter-of-fact, why are you at Frosted Pines almost every day? Your family owns Sycamore Hills, are you a spy?” There was little to no teasing tone in her voice, and Brooke clenched her fists tightly. She looked over to Jason, who looked completely calm.
“Because my two best friends ride at Frosted Pines,” he said nonchalantly, resting his arms on the shoulders of Brooke and Claire and half-hugging them briefly. “And I want to be there when Brooke finds her dream horse.”
“Oh,” Nicole replied, turning her eyes back on the road. Jason looked to Brooke and Claire and rolled his eyes.
“See what I mean?” Brooke mouthed to him. He nodded and put one of his arms to his side. The other‘s hand ran through his short brown hair, a sign that he was a bit agitated. She sighed as she stared out the window at the New York country-side. The leaves were changing to all different colors, painting the land with splendor. She rolled down the window and let the early November wind rush into the car. It was chilly, but it felt so good. She rested her arms on the window and laid her head onto them. Closing her eyes, she let the autumn winds roll over her.
Black eyes. Large, black eyes suddenly burst into her mind as brilliantly as if she was staring into the face of a horse at that very moment. Brooke opened her eyes and looked around. Jason and Claire were talking quietly amongst themselves, Amanda and Nicole were talking about breeds that would be suitable for her and the clock showed that a half an hour had passed from the time she set her head down.
Was I asleep? she thought to herself as she laid her head back on her arms again. No one had seemed to notice she had stirred, so she figured she would just go back to resting. As soon as she closed her eyes, the large horse eyes returned. She did not recognize these eyes, no matter how much she tried to fit them to horses around the barn.
Those eyes, she thought to herself as she sat up and rolled up the window, alerting the others to her movement. They were pulling up a long, winding drive towards the sport horse breeding barn they were headed to today. It was called Hunter Valley Acres, and it was supposedly one of the best in the business in the whole state. Brooke could see by the state of the horses grazing in the pasture that they’re reputation was befitting.
Those eyes will belong to my horse.
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