A New Beginning

Birthday Party

"Happy birthday, Shania!" the girls' voices chorused as Shania blew out the candles on her cake. It was Saturday and Shania had invited her friends to her birthday slumber party. At the table beside her sat Savanna Vendaya, who was a slender girl with shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes to match. Abigail Montgomery sat next to Savanna; she had wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. Amy Leingang was sitting next to Abigail; she wore her brown hair short with bangs, and her brown eyes matched Savanna's perfectly. Kathryn Volk was on the bigger side, being almost six feet tall. She was a tomboy and her wavy brown hair was almost always a mess. Morgan Schafer sat next to Kathryn, and she wore her dark brown hair up in a bun, and her green eyes sparkled with happiness. Finally, Emily Williams was the other blonde who wore her hair down, and her blue eyes kept glancing at the delicious-looking chocolate cake in the middle of the table.

"Thanks, everyone!" Shania beamed, her green eyes sparkling. She watched as her mom, Mrs. Reynolds, cut the cake using a large knife and dished out the pieces on paper plates. She then passed a slice of cake to everyone sitting at the table. Each one of the girls eagerly gobbled up their cake, while visiting with each other at the same time.

"You make good cake, Mrs. Reynolds," Amy commented when she had finished the last bite of her cake.

"Thank you!" Mrs. Reynolds replied as she gathered up the girls' dirty plates, one by one, and tossed them in the trash.

"Do you guys want to see my horse?" Shania asked. She was eager to show off her champion-winning horse, Blue Jeans, to all of her friends.

"I do!" Morgan cried, standing up from the table. "I don't think I've seen him yet!"

More agreements came from the girls.

"Awesome!" Shania cried. "Follow me!" She eagerly led everyone out the door, down the gravel road, and towards the stable to see Blue Jeans. Behind the hills, the sun was just beginning to set, and it cast long shadows behind the girls as they walked.

When they reached the stable, Shania carefully pushed open the creaky door with her hand and poked her head in. Blue Jeans was waiting for her in his corral, and he cocked his head curiously at all the new people.

"Hi, Blue Jeans," Shania greeted her pet, her voice gentle and calm. She walked up to the horse and started stroking his nose. "These are all my friends."

"He's so pretty!" Abigail exclaimed with admiration in her voice.

"I wish I had one like him," Emily said wistfully.

The only person who did not touch Blue Jeans was Savanna. She despised animals and was trying her hardest to tolerate being in the barn. "Can we go now?" she asked, edging towards the door, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "It stinks in here!"

"Oh, Savanna!" Kathryn teased. "It's not that bad!"

"It is when you're wearing your brand new shirt!" Savanna retorted, glancing down at the floral print, cold shoulder top she was wearing.

"Kathryn's the outdoors type," Abigail told her. "She'd never worry about dirtying a new shirt!" The other girls giggled.

Several minutes passed, and Shania thought it would be best to leave Blue Jeans alone for a while, so he wouldn't get spooked by all the new people around him. So after leading her friends back inside, Shania suggested that everyone go up to her room to play board games. After a few crazy games of Apples to Apples and Pictionary, Shania and her friends made their beds in the family room upstairs and watched a scary movie while eating popcorn and ice cream. By the time they were done, it was almost 3:30 in the morning.

Shania noticed Abigail take out her cell phone to reply to a text message. "Who are you texting?" she asked, leaning over her friend's shoulder to take a peek. "Who's Shane Peterson?"

"My cousin," Abigail responded casually, furiously typing on her phone's keyboard.

"What's he still doing up?" Amy questioned.

"I'm not sure," Abigail answered. "Want me to ask him?"

"Sure!" Amy and Shania watched as Abigail typed, "what r u still doing up?" into her phone.

After a few minutes, Shane replied with, "idk what about u?"

Then Abigail typed, "were having a slumber party! :)"

"Haha i went 2 one a week ago and i bet urs isn't half as good as mine! :P" Shane's next message said.

"Show him that our slumber parties are better!" Morgan demanded. Shania and the other girls clamoured their approval.

"Okay! Okay! Calm down, guys!" Abigail cried. Everyone watched as she typed, "ours is better and u know it"

But Shane replied with, "boys rule girls drool. hahaha!"

"Okay, now he's just being mean," stated Abigail. She texted, "im not talking 2 u anymore" and flopped down on her pillow. "Good night, everyone!" She read Shane's final text, which read, "fine with me. i won :P", closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

Shania heard the other girls fall asleep, one by one. She thought about the day and how much fun she had with her friends. However, she was still anxious for school to start next week. What if her teachers didn't like her? What if sophomore year was much harder than freshman year? After tossing and turning for a bit, Shania finally calmed down after playing a game on her phone, which helped take her mind off of things. It wasn't long after that, in which she fell asleep.