Mossy Hill Academy~ The Competition

Chapter 10

Back at school everyone is congratulating us, for winning second for or team, and for our individual times. There's still no sign of Sue, and Mrs Maple won't tell me anything about her. The year sevens managed to pull in first at the competition, we came third, the year nines came third, the year tens came second, and the year eleven and twelve teams came in first.
As a treat for doing so well at the competition, we all earned new tack. Jack's new saddle is not worn and full of scratches and holes, it shiny and smells new, just like his bridle and saddle pad. The Mossy Hill Academy logo is even on the sides of them, to show we are on a team.
At dinner the next night Mrs Maple announces our win, and she holds the shield up for everyone to see, and I even haggle some extra dessert from the chef.
That night as I lay in bed Weslow and I talk.
"What do you think happened to Sue?" I ask
"I don't know, one minute she was out practising, and the next her horse threw her off." Weslow tells me.
"Was she alive?"
"Definitely, she told me to die on a hole, and that it was my fault. Somehow."
I scoff at that, leave it to Sue to get thrown off her horse and blame it on another person.
"I'm bored, and I can't sleep." I complain.
"Are you scared of the dark?" She asks.
"Of course not!" Why would she think that? I'm not five.
"Well then, let's go!''

Somehow I'm riding Jack through the forest with Weslow and Ghost at eleven o'clock at night, just riding around.
"You know that if we get caught, we're dead." I tell her.
"Yep, and that's why I plan on not getting caught." She sasses.
"Where are we even going?" I ask.
"We are going to, well, I dunno. Where do you want to go?"
"Perhaps we could go to the canyon?" I suggest.
"That's only an hour away when we are walking, so, shall we trot?" She asks.
"Sure, come on Jack!" I click my tongue and we change our gait to a trot. "We're still going to be ages trotting, canter?"
"Sure."
We both start to canter, and we slowly start to go uphill towards the canyon, and ghost is getting excited. We don't talk much, except about horses and the competition.
"You did really well the other day Zal."
"Thanks, so did you, you took out third place."
"Yeah, but you still beat me."
I laugh at that, "Yes I did, but only by a few points."
It was actually a few more points, perhaps ten? She doesn't really need to know that right now.
"So what's the point of this midnight ride?" I ask
"It's actually eleven forty-five, but, you'll see..." She keeps me in suspense. 
Weslow has apparently taken a backpack with us, and hands around some water to me, and we dismount to let the horses drink from our palms.
"Okay Zal, we're almost here." She sings.
"It's about time!" I sarcastically reply.
It's getting pretty steep, and there's a sign that says we have to dismount and lead all horses on foot from this point. We dismount again, Weslow chucks me a lead rope from her pack, and I clip it to Jack's halter which is under his bridle, in case I needed to catch him.
We're not walking for long, a few minutes maximum, and when we get to the top my breath is taken away. In the distance I can see all these bright lights from the town, that must be hundreds of kilometers away, and the trees up here are all draped in little fairy lights.
Weslow directs Jack and I too one of the trees, there's a few rings in the trees so we can tie up our horses. Once Jack is tied up next to Ghost, they've had some more water and an apple each we walk back to the cliff edge and lean on the railing. (It's obviously there so we don't fall off) Weslow grabs a picnic blanket from out of her bag, and another small pack of something. As she lays out the picnic rug I stand under a fairy light covered tree and stare into the distance, a few years ago I wouldn't have come near a horse, but now, I'm at a riding academy with Weslow and Jack. Life is pretty good, and it's even better that I've decided to give my friends a chance.
"Picnics ready!" She yells out.
"SHHHH!" I urge, "someone might hear us!" I tell her.
"Puh-lease, we're out in the middle of nowhere at a cliff in the middle of this night, no one else is here Zelie."
"Except me." A voice says from behind. "I've been following you, and I'm pretty sure it's way past your bed time."
We get pretty scared, it's obviously a male from the voice, and Weslow was right. No one is going to hear our screams as we get taken away.
The person steps out from behind a tree, and it's just James. Gosh, I'm gonna kill him.
"James! You little prick! We were scared we were going to get taken and killed!" Weslow exclaims.
"Yep, that's what I plan on doing..." He jokes
I just go up to him and punch him on the arm, hard.
"Ow Zelie, that hurt sooo much. No seriously, you punch like a girl."
I fake a look of shock, and put my hand dramatically on my heart. "Really???"
We end up all sitting on the picnic blanket eating fruit and cake, Weslow scrounged some from the chef.
"Did you bring Duke with you??" I ask.
"Yeah... Hang on, I'll just bring him up." James leaves quickly to fetch his Dutch Warmblood, Duke.
"I had no idea he was following us!" She tells me in a whisper yell.
"I know, he's pretty sneaky." I add.
After ten minutes James still hasn't come up, and we get worried, because if someone were to murder us no one would know where we are.
"Let's go see him." I suggest, Weslow nods.
We try not to fall flat on our face when descending down the mountain. We see James huddled up against a tree, a halter in his hand, but there's no horse.
"James?" I call out.
"He's gone." He tells me quietly, "Duke."
"Oh..." There's no other words to say, because a horse isn't just a mount, it's a best friend.
"All that's left was his halter and a note telling me that I shouldn't have come down here and left him alone."
I walk over to James, "We should probably go home in case there are prowlers around." Weslow suggests.
James and I agree, and we are both going to share Jack, he's stronger than Ghost.

It's around two am when we get home, and we quickly slip our horse into their stalls, brush them down and fill their water buckets up. I'm so tired, but that was so much fun, except for Duke going missing. Would it classify as missing, or stolen?

That morning for our classes we are so tired, and we have our riding lessons first up, Jack must be so tired from our midnight (technically eleven pm) ride. James has refused to go to Dukes stall, I think he's in shock.
In our lesson James has dragged himself out there, and when Mrs Grill tells us to go tack up James tells us he's going to pretend he never saw him last night. That way he can say he's missing, but when he gets to stall 10 Duke is standing there munching some hay, and attached to his feed bucket is a note:
Take better care of your horse, Duke cloud have been stolen for real, don't go out at night again, James.

It's actually kind of creepy, they know who exactly James and Duke are, and if they knew that they were out on a ride, then they must know that Weslow and I were there too.
"At least he's not gone." I optimistically add.
"I just hope no one tells Mrs Maple." He sheepishly says.
"Hope no one tells Mrs Maple what?" Mrs maple asks.
Damn, we're sprung.
"Last night James, I went out to get the arena ready for today when I saw you sneak off with Duke. Weslow, Zelie, I know you were there too. I am supposed to be telling you off, for going out after dark, alone, unsupervised. However, I think you have learned your lesson, am I right?" She asks.
"Yes Mrs Maple." We reply.
She walks off to speak to my mother, leaving us stunned.
"Holy sheet...!" I exclaim.
"It was your aunt all along?!" They both say in unison.
"Yeah, apparently."

***

The day is still quite boring, compared to last night, but I'm so tired I could just flop into bed after our last class of the day, but today's our classes turn to clean our tack. I'm lucky, because mine is all new it's not very dirty, so I'm bound to be quick. Unless I start talking to Weslow, then I'll take ages, because we'll get distracted.
I take out some polish and start to wipe my saddle with it, but it's already gleaming, and so is my halter.
Mum comes over, and tells me that my tack is already clean, and that I can go for a ride if I want, but I tell her that I'm going back to my dorm for some study.
I'm actually going to sleep, but she doesn't need to know that.
I wake up to Weslow violently shaking my shoulders, and urging me to wake up.
"What's this all about...?" I groggily ask.
"Dinner, now come on, I'm starving!" She drags me out of bed, and straight to the dining hall. I sit next to her and James, and when Mrs Maple comes up and tells us not to go out on trails alone we all share a knowing look.
"Who do you think went out at night by themselves?" Millie asks me.
"I have no idea, but they must be pretty reckless." I tell her.
"Yeah." She agrees with me and trots off to sit with her year level.
While devouring our satay chicken kebabs on a bed of rice Mrs Maple calls out the announcements, this part is usually pretty boring, but if you miss anything vital, you're in a mess.
"The dressage team tryouts are tomorrow lunch time, and the year twelves have a practise CAT the next day. All year eights have immunisations tomorrow, and just a reminder that all horses are to be in their stalls tonight, as we have some wild dingos around."
Dingos, I hate them, they're the reason that I have to take this stupid medication.
"Hey Zelie, guess who is here!" Mum tells me.
"Who...?"
"It's your father-" Before she can finish my sentence I'm storming up to him,
"How dare you not tell mum that you're out chopping trees!" I yell at him.
"Zelie...?"
"You are a liar, a bastard, and a cheat!"
"ZELIE SHUT UP! I have no idea what you're talking about, I've been home all this time, and I wanted to tell you about something that's come up..."
"No you haven't, we talked a few weeks ago!" I insist.
"No Zelie, I've been at home, breeding..." He tells me.
Then who was I talking to? Why were they pretending to be my dad?!
"Okay, sorry. What was it you wanted to tell me?" I ask.
"I came here with a small present," He pulls out something from behind him.
It's a woven bracelet made of fur, "dad, you know I hate fur things...-"
This time he cuts me off, "Cloudy is dead."
No, this can't be true. She was 'dead' before, but she wasn't, so she can't really be dead.
"No..." This isn't real, it can't be.
I look at mum, she just looks at dad.
"Sorr-"
"No, she can't be dead!" I tell him, "She isn't!" I yell at mum.
"Zelie, the bracelet is some of her tail, she really is gone." Dad softly tells me, he puts a hand on my shoulder.
All my worries and concerns all drift together into one big blob of emotion, and a tear escapes my eye.
"Is she really dead?" I squeak.
"She went in her sleep." He tells me.
I cry into his shoulder, and I cry for Snooker, for Cloudy, and for all the sad times.
"Wasn't she at Mossy Hill Academy?" I ask, remembering how I was brushing her.
"Yes sweety she was, but your father and I decided that you already had Jack, and she wasn't getting enough attention, so we took her home a few week ago. You didn't even notice." Mum explains.
I still can't wrap my head around the fact Cloudy is dead, and there's someone out there pretending to be my dad.