Chapter 1*

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I run back to my dorm, with these words chanting in my head:
Rude, possessive, bossy,
Rude, possessive, bossy....
Over and over those words chant, is this how people view me? Why didn't they tell me so before?
Mali is a traitor, Snooker is a goner, Cloudy can never be ridden again, Star is Mali's horse, and Dream is still mum's.
I only have two people I can trust, well, I treat them like people. Snooker and Cloudy, and Snooker isn't even mine anymore.
Once I'm in my bed I can't take it any more, so I do what I have to, or what I need to.
I grab a backpack and fill it with some general food and water.
Then I head to the stables again, and I see Snooker is in his stall, Mali and her best friend Sue are nowhere to be seen. I head to the tack room, grabbing a saddle, bridle, saddle pad and everything else I need. I take Snooker to the cross ties, and clip him in, then I tack him up.
Unclipping him from the cross ties he gets excited, I haven't ridden him in forever, but when I am about to mount him I notice some wounds on his behind.
He's been whipped by a riding crop, harsh and frequently by the look of it.
Sue.
That son of a.....
I mount him and we gallop out of the stables, towards the forest, towards Misty Falls, where I went camping with mum. Where there is a small stream, where no one can find me.
Behind me I see Mali yelling out to me, running to catch up to me, but I ignore her, and concentrate on the ride ahead.
Mali wasn't running to see me a few minutes ago, so now I'm running from her.
We slow to a trot once we are a fair distance away, and I get an idea, if Mali thinks I'm running away I should put Snooker back and pretend nothing is wrong. So I turn Snooker around and we head to the stable, I untack him and give him a quick brush, then I close his stall door and head to my dorm. I run there, hoping Mali isn't there, and I snatch open the door, luckily Mali isn't there. Flopping onto my bed I sigh, school starts back in two days, and I am not ready. I hear Mali talking to someone outside, it sounds like Aunt Clara, and I hide under my covers, making myself as flat as possible.
The door opens, so I listen into their conversation.
"So you're sure you saw Zelie riding away?"
"Yes Mrs Maple, she was headed towards the forest on Snooker."
"This time she's gone too far, she is becoming uncontrollable..."
How can my Aunt say that!
It's time me to put the rest of my plan into action, I roll over and yawn really loudly.
"Zelie? Mrs Maple asks
I rub my eyes and reply with a half hearted yes.
"I thought....?" Mali stutters
"What did you think?" I innocently asked
"Never mind, bye Mrs Maple." Mali walks out, leaving me,alone with my aunt.
"Zelie, what's wrong? You don't seem like yourself lately..." She actually has the nerve to ask me that. I scowl at her, and then storm out without another word.
"I wish you would tell me what's wrong..." I hear my Aunt say.
I thought it was pretty obvious, but apparently you can take away your nieces horse and give it to some psychopath who whips it, she should be fine and still love you. She must be pretty daft.
I have no idea where I am walking, so I stop in my tracks and head to the common room and I decide to have a look at the names of people who are here this year.
The list is taped to a notice board, which also has a note about team tryouts for the dressage team.

 The list is taped to a notice board, which also has a note about team tryouts for the dressage team

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It looks like Millie is back this year, with a new horse, this time a quarter horse. They're quite good for beginners, especially if they're bomb proof, maybe she's learnt to gallop this year, but my heart rate spike up when I see the name Dallas. Katrina and Payton are back, are they going to be just as vile?
I hope not, I have Sue to deal with aswell, and I am so not in the mood. The horse Pirax sounds familiar, I've seen her at a horse show before, she's a professional and expensive dressage horse, and Serpentine is a jumping horse, she's won a few ribbons at the national level of showing. I'm doomed, if they have horses as good as that...
I'm surprised they only have one horse each!
Overall I'm just happy I haven't had the pleasure of meeting the horrible duet yet, but I'm bound to at dinner.
I exit the common room, and decide to have a quick ride on Dream, and give Cloudy a quick brush too, so she doesn't feel left out. On my way there I run into a girl, she has bobbed Raven hair and freckles sprayed on her face.
"Sorry..." I mumble, then hurry away
She pulls my shoulder and smiles at me.
"I'm sorry, but I'm new here and quite lost. I need to head to the stables, I'm going to take my horse for a ride, could you show me where it is?" She politely asks
"Of course, my names Zelie by the way."
"Well Zelie, it's. lovely to meet you, I'm Weslow." She introduces.
I smile at her, and together we make our way to the stables.
"What breed is your horse?" She asks
"My horse, well Dream is an Andalusian, what about yours?"
"Ghost is a Knabstrupper."
"That sounds cool, is she the black and white horse I saw before?" I ask
"Most likely, she was a wild horse that I found, she was like a ghost horse. She was amazing, she was injured, but I nursed her back to health and she never left. Some people have professionally trained horses, mine isn't really trained, we just listen to each other."
"Wow..." Her bond with her horse sounds amazing, sort of like the bond I had with Snooker.
I'll never get another horse like him, but yet again, I might. Yet, there will never be another horse like him, so no, every thing will not be okay.
"Hey, do you wanna ride with me?" I ask
She smiles hesitantly, "Sure, do you know any good trails?" She asks
"I know the best trails!" I excitedly reply.
"Cool, tack up and I'll meet you outside the stables?" She suggests
I nod my head, glad to have made another friend, wait, what am I thinking!
There are no such things as friends, only people who pretend to be nice, then backstab and betray you, but Weslow seemed legitimately  nice, but so did Mali when I first met her. There's no other option, Weslow has to go. So I quickly head to Dream, but while I realise that she's a fantastic horse, I know that Snooker is better. So I head over to Snooker, and for the second time today I saddle him up, this time faster than before, and we head out to the trails, at the back of the stables. I get Snooker to trot a little, and then once I am sure we don't look suspicious we go into a canter, but before I can get too excited about going unnoticed a blur of black and white show up next to us.
It's Weslow and Ghost. Great. Notice the sarcasm?
"Oh sorry Weslow, my mind wondered and I forgot."
"That's okay Zelie, my mind tends to wonder too, and I swear if it could walk I would have lost it by now." She smiles at me, but her niceness can't fool me, I know what people are really like.
"Where would you like t go?" I ask
"That depends, what are the options?"
"We could go to Misty Falls, walk the rail trail, head to a small forest, head to a large forest, or..." I am suddenly cut off by Weslow.
"How about we head to the large forest?" She hurriedly suggests
I am taken back by her assertiveness, she seems to want to go right now.
She clicks her tongue and Ghost takes off at a canter, heading off in the direction I originally pointed in.
I could get rid of her right now, but that would be obvious, so I sigh and head after her. I look behind me one last time, and I see Mali talking to Millie.
***
Laying on my bed I sigh, I'm glad that Mali didn't see me riding Snooker. I had a great ride with Weslow, but she's probably faking being  nice. I hear an announcement stating that it's dinner time, so I head outside towards the dining hall, hoping not to bump into anyone.
As I open the door to get outside I see Katrina and Payton talking to Sue, so I take the back way to the hall, and once I get there I see Weslow has saved me a seat. She's trying to get my attention, but I really don't wanna sit next to her, but, I would rather her than Mali, so I head over.
We chat for a little bit, about horses, school and frogs. It turns out she really likes frogs. Dinner is soon served on glass plates, with floral designs on them. We head up to the kitchen bench and serve up our own sausages and mashed potato, and I see a glimpse of jelly slice for dessert. Heading back to the table Weslow is tripped over by Katrina, and suddenly I get a spurt of bravery, and I push Katrina over, then help Weslow up.
"Oh my gosh, Weslow, are you alright?" I ask, genuinely hoping she is.
"I'm fine, but that girl... Oh well, it must have been an accident..." She hurriedly takes her plate, and goes to get more food, completely pretending it was an accident. There was no way that was an accident, and she knows it. Katrina is busy pulling herself and her expensive designer clothes out of a pile of saucy potato. Why did Weslow pretend that was an accident, and Katrina specifically targeted her. There's something going on here... I intend to find out what.

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