I heard the click as a key was inserted into the lock and a girl with almond shaped eyes stood in the doorway.
"Hi" I greeted her "you must be Brit Chan right?" I asked.
"Yea and you must be Sasha" Brit smiled at me. I nodded and returned her smile.
"Well what do you think?" I asked gesturing to the room behind me.
"Wow!" Brit exclaimed "you did an amazing job!"
I blushed "thanks but I had a lot of help" I said weakly
"Well I think I need to meet this fabulous design team" Brit replied.
"You will tomorrow morning at the stable" I told her.
"Ok" Brit replied with a shrug. I helped Brit bring her stuff in from the hallway. "Thanks for helping with my stuff" Brit told me.
"Glad to help" I replied pucking up a duffel bag. We both continued to pick up the various types of suitcases and duffel bags until at last the hallway was clear of luggage. As I helped Brit unpack we chatted about our families and horses. Turns out she has a grey andilusin gelding named Apollo.
"He is pretty big but acts like a big puppy" Brit giggled
I giggled too "Charm acts the exact same way" as we continued to get to know each other I realized that I needed Brit because if I didnt find a friend in her I wasnt sure what I would be capable of.
"Lets go get lunch at the sweet shoppe" I suggested to Brit
"Ok cool" Brit smiled
"I think you'll love it, they have an amazing menu" I told her. Brit put her ssuitcases under her bed, put on a adorable pair of wedged ankle boots before we picked up our purses and left.
"Wow your right this is great" Brit exclaimed. We were at the sweet shoppe and were sipping iced coffee and both of us had ordered sugar cookies.
"Yeah I love the fun desserts they have especially the seasonal ones" I babbled. Brit and I shared a smile.
"Hey Silver". I looked up and saw the leader of the trio Heather Fox in front of me.
"Hi Heather this is Brit Chan my new roommate she's a rider too"
"Hi nice to meet you" Brit smiled at Heather
"Same to you," "any way Silver can we talk for a sec." The way she said it was more of a demand than a question.
"Sure" I sighed sick of playing games. I got up and followed Heather to the back of the sweet shoppe.
"What happened" Heather demanded as soon as we were out of earshot from anyone in the room.
"What are you talking about" I asked
"I mean what is up between you, Paige and Eric"
I tensed "Nothing" I lied
"Yeah right" Heather retorted " I know something is up cuz of multiple things, one you have a new roommate, two you and Paige have been disgustingly close since you came here and now you are avoiding her, and three you haven't gone out in public with Eric in weeks." Heather stared at me for what felt like hours.
"Fine" I cracked "but we can't discuss this here" I whispered
"Fine spend the night this weekend Julia and Alison are going off campus for and social studies field trip so it will be just the two of us" Heather suggested
"Ok" I replied to tired to argue.
"Good" Heather smiled and walked away.
I went back to the booth where Brit was sitting. "Sorry" I apologized "Heather and I have a crazy history and now she can read me like nobody else can" I explained
"Its cool" Brit said "I don't mind"
"Thanks for understanding" I told her. Brit just smiled
"So do you just want to go back to the room or do you want to do something else" I asked with a grin
"What did you have in mind" Brit looked at me suspiciously
"How would you like to do something that every equestrian at Canterwood should do?" I teased Brit. I could tell she was curious.
"Um yeah" she exclaimed
"Lets go on a bareback trail ride to a secret field I discovered a few weeks ago after the incident with Paige and Eric. " I suggested
"Why are we sitting in here then" Brit reasoned
"Lets go change and get to the stable" we got up and left the sweet shoppe and headed back to Orchard.
"So what was your old school like" I inquired
"Well it was a nice school and had terrific teachers but I needed a school that had a riding program and a good academic program and was close to home"
"And Canterwood had all three of those things" I figured
"Yup" Brit nodded
"Cool " I to nodded
"So are you ready to go" I asked
"Lets go" she replied. As we walked to the stables Brit asked me about Briar Creek, Charm and the school I went to in Union.
"Union middle school was great and so was Briar Creek, everything I learned back home has helped me here " I confessed.
" Well here we are " I announced as we reached the stable.
" Its amazing, I mean I saw it earlier when I got here but I didn't really see it " Brit glanced at me
" Thats called the Canterwood haze and I was the exact same way " I told her.
As we walked into the stables we discovered that Apollo was stabled right next to Charm.
" Sweet " we both smiled and high fived. We groomed Charm and Apollo and put on their bridles. Then we grabbed our helmets and led the horses outside. We put on our helmets and I gave Brit a leg up then launched onto Charms back. We walked to the ttrail that led to the secret path and had a big medow with a lake at the end of it. Simontanously we broke into a canter.
" Follow me now " I whispered in case some one was near by. Brit just nodded. I led the way around a group of big trees and under the branches of a willow tree. After we came out onthe other side of the willow we came to a fork.
" This way" I took the left path and then I stopped.
"There are a couple of logs across the path so ill let you know ok" I told Brit
"Thanks for warning me"she said
"Lets go then" I smiled and took off at a canter.
"Log" I hollered back to her. Then I focused on Charm and the log and I didn't need a photo to tell me that our form was near perfect even bareback. That's when I let go, as we cantered along the twisty path I didn't care about anything but that moment. We all easily cleared the rest of the logs and when we reached the meadow I smiled happy to share this place with my new roomie.
"Wow" that was all Brit could say and I agreed with the grove of trees by the lake and lake on the far side and a waterfall that cascaded down the rock cliffs into the lake.
"Last one in the lake's a rotten egg!" I hollered. Then I heeled Charm into a gallop.
"No fair!" Brit yelled and she to heeled Apollo into a gallop. As we raced towards the lake I threw my head back in happiness. Charm didn't hesitate as he bounded into the lake and it appeared that Apollo loved the water as much as he did because he was right behind us. I made sure that my boots didn't touch the water so my phone didn't get wet. Charm swam over to the dock and I took off my boots and socks and put them on the dock, Brit did the same and we splashed around in the water until we were both soaked.
"Lets head back" I suggested and Brit agreed and we put our boots back on and started back towards the stables.
"Lets take the long way so we all have a chance to dry off" Brit nodded in agreement. There were no lessons till next Monday because we had just had a five day event and this week was a teacher seminar so there were no classes.
We took the path on the other side of the field and that one was hidden in a grove of trees along one of the emergency routes for the advanced cross country course. We trotted along the trail until we reached the big field then cantered across it. When we reached the other side I saw the last person I wanted to see right now. His dark brown eyes met my green ones.