Splintered Heart

Chapter 1

Sometimes you have a day. It's the type where every piece seems to fall into place and the sky is blue and everything feels as if it'll be fine. I, Kalani Gareth, was having the best day of my sophomore year of college. It almost felt like living in an episode of Black Mirror, but not metaphoric or prolific. Just an alternate universe of every step I did falling into place. 
"Keep your leg on him when you're heading to the fence. When you don't he backs off and doesn't have enough impulsion over the fence. At shows, that's the one thing I notice," Telly, the coach of  Kraiser University's equestrian team called  to me.
I pulled up the gelding, asking him to walk as I looked over at my couch. Telly looked like a couch. Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail with a blue cap with the school's logo of a horse shoe, embroidered across the front.  She reminded  me of a chihuahua. While I had a solid five or so inches on her, she didn't notice. She was the tallest person in any room she strode into. I wanted to be like her one day. True life goals.
She crossed her arms, her eyes on me from the center of the ring.
I looked over to the course again. Because of placing 1st at the last team show, I'd moved up to the open division and qualified for regionals. Which meant new competition and more pressure to show well. Everyone had bad show days, but I expected myself to have very few of those. My scholarship was tied to me being on the team and I wanted the college to not pause when deciding on financial aid next year.
I squared my shoulders up, the sun shining on my t-shirt. The chilliness of  spring still clung to the air, but it was the perfect weather to ride and jump horses in. I shortened my reins before pressing the gelding into a slow canter to go over the fences.
It was a short course, but I managed to remember to keep my leg on the gelding. After finishing, I pulled up, waiting on feedback. I sucked in the scent of horses. That was the best part about here. The barn and the scent of hay, peppermint, and horses. There hadn't ever been a time where those scents weren't a part of my daily life. Horses were steadfast—much better than any boyfriend that'd slid in.
I found Telly staring at her phone, her free and tapping against her riding pants. They were her usual attire, along with her boots, just in case she needed to demonstrate a particular lesson for a student or correct an unruly horse.
I nudged the gelding over to her. "What's wrong?"
She looked at me, shaking her head. "Another college is shutting down. All of the students have a few days to leave."
So much for a great day. This virus had become the elephant in the room. The mass that kept brewing and growing while looking at the news. I kept going forward as I always did—class, work, practice and repeat. But in numerous classes I'd heard whispers of disgruntled students about a lack of conversation Kraiser University was having.  Or if there was a plan to be had.
I didn't want to think about it. I just wanted the virus to die as fast as it'd started.
I pushed a loose curl that'd fallen from under my helmet. Telly swallowed, before tugging on her pony tail. Sometimes I wished my hair worked like that. Straight. Uncomplicated. Not a mass of almost black semi loose curls. The best order of action when I wanted to ride was to make sure they were a tad wet so they'd dry flat underneath my helmet.
"Cool him off. You did a good job," Telly mumbled to me. Her face twisted with worry as she mentioned another school implementing an extended spring break for its students. "I don't think anything is going to change, but make sure you check your phone and email."
She quickly strode out of the arena and left me to continue working. I pushed the gelding into a slow walk, letting my reins slide through my fingers. There wasn't an in between for this virus. Either schools didn't mention a thing or they reacted by shutting down everything.
I couldn't worry about the going on outside. I had numerous exams coming up, regionals, and group projects. With closures, I hadn't heard about school work not being due. Even still, I worked at the barn. Cleaned stalls in exchange for lessons and extra money to spend. Closing would mean the horses would still need fed and watered. They'd still need their stalls cleaned and be ridden.

All to soon I finished with my mount. I looked down at my cell phone. Twenty minutes to get across campus. Kraiser Univeristy didn't become its own college town, but it was still large enough that I'd use all of those twenty minutes trying to make my class. I never saw Telly before leaving. Hopefully all of the talk of closures and uncertainty didn't get to her. Avoidance wasn't the best way to live life, but I found it worked well in this moment.
I sped walked, my boots and helmet hanging off of my backpack. My brown skin felt like it was covered in a layer of dust and dirt. But it couldn't be helped. I tried to create a schedule this semester that allowed for a good balance between my riding commitments and classes. But it didn't leave enough time for a shower after riding.
The paths were full of students going in the opposite direction of me. I passed groups and heard whispers of closures, the virus, how all of the disaster movies were true and that we'd all die.
Kraiser had spring break a week before every other college in the United States so the option of an extended spring break couldn't happen.
I ran up the steps of the oldest building. It was a large three story brick one—the type where you could tell the architect a century ago put blood, sweat and tears into designing everything. I slid into my classroom, a medium sized room filled with classes. Where was everyone? I'd gotten in with three minutes to spare, but the fifteen person class had whittled down to seven people.
The professor nodded at me as I moved to my seat. I loved how at college you were never assigned seats but everyone knew where everyone's place was. And not sitting in that place messed up the whole atmosphere.
Professor G stood up and grinned at us. He loved teaching this class all about how to be a student. Seriously, that was the point of the class. How to study, the various resources one could access. In many ways it was a throwaway class, but most students will showed up.
"I want you all to work in your groups. I'm not sure where everyone is," Professor G tugged at his grey beard.
I'd sprayed some strawberry mist on myself before coming to class since everyone didn't enjoy the smell of horses.
The few people in the class stood up and began moving into their prospective groups. I forced myself to turn around, trying to find my partner. This was the main assignment for the semester. We were each given a chapter in a book to talk about and write a report on.
And of course Ash wasn't here. I mean, to be fair, even during class he didn't seem really present. He always seemed to be a thousand miles away.
When Professor G had assigned Ash to be my partner, I could see the rounds of disappointed looks from his numerous crushes in the class. I didn't have the time to  screw around with someone who seemed to glide through life on his looks. He was hot—with a lean build, bright blue eyes, black hair, and an angular face. But what mattered most in group projects was the brain power. Professor G wasn't going to hand out an A because Ash batted his eyes at him.
I sat alone, my annoyance building with every second. I hated group projects because I always ended up completing them. And I wasn't a control freak who lamented about a lack of participation from their group mates while never letting them lift up a finger. Deadlines were real and maintaining a high GPA was my only option.
Trish, a girl who sat next to me with vibrant red hair and freckles, turned to me. "We're taking bets about how long Kraiser is gonna stay open. You in?"
I smiled. "Sure. I don't think they'll close."
Trish laughed. "You're always so funny. I love that snarky dry humor."
I gave her a look because I couldn't tell if she was being real or not.
"I give them a day," Trish said. "I want to go home for the semester. And I see you're solo."
I gave her a toothless smile. I really didn't want to go home. That was at the bottom of things I yearned to do. "Hopefully he's at the next class."
Trish rolled her eyes. "This isn't a hard project."
She turned away back to her group mates.
Nothing's hard until you're the one tying up everyone else's loose ends.