MSRA ⇢ Starting New

⇢ 9 ; holiday season

I head out into the kitchen where Mom was putting some food on the counter and the ham in the oven.

"Could you help your sister out?" Mom smiled at me. "She's having a melt down. She's in your bathroom."

I laughed and walked over to the bathroom where I heard my sister wailing. I pushed the door open and saw her half dressed and tears streaming down her face.

"Kelsey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I don't like my dress," she cried. "I hate it!"

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down," I said, helping her out of the plaid dress that trapped her in. "I'll go get you a different one, okay?"

"Okay," she sniffed, wiping off some of her tears. I slid out of the bathroom and went to Kelsey's room where Noah was changing.

"Noah?" I asked, knocking on the door. "Can I come in? I need to grab something."

"Yeah," he said, pulling the door open. "Oh. Wow."

"What?" I laughed, sneaking by him over to Kelsey's closet.

"You look really good," he said, biting his lip. I turned back over to him and planted a kiss on his lips.

"Mm, I think you look better," I said as I straightened out the collar to his sweater. He tipped my chin up and kissed me again.

"I'm so glad to call you my girlfriend now," he whispered, giving me one last kiss.

"I'm so glad to be calling you my boyfriend," I whispered back, then I heard Kelsey start wailing again. "But," I said, raising my voice, "I have a little sister having a pre-party meltdown."

He groaned. "We need more alone time," he said, almost making me blush.

"We'll get it eventually," I said as i dug through Kelsey's messy closet. I finally found a cute black dress gathered together at the waist with a bow. "This will do."

"I'll see you in five minutes," Noah said, holding me back to kiss me again. I smiled into it, then rushed over to the bathroom to help my sister.

"Is this one better?" I said, holding up the dress. Her face immediately lit up and her tears vanished.

"Yes!" she said, and I helped her worm into it. "Do my hair!"

"Kels, we only have a few minutes before people get here," I said. Then tears started to well up in her eyes again. "Okay, okay, okay, stop crying, I'll braid it!"

Her face lit up again, and I worked quickly to french braid her hair. It wasn't the best, but we finished just in time for the first people to arrive.

-

After almost an hour of people arriving, everyone was here. It involved a lot of "Hi auntie! I'm good. Oh, this is my boyfriend, Noah. Yes, I still ride horses."

Noah, three of my cousins, and myself were sitting together on the couch. I was curled up into Noah's side with his arm around me, we talked with my cousins Mabel, Alexa, and Tyler. Tyler and Alexa were twins, but all of us were about the same age, Mabel was just a year below us.

"So, Kathy, how's the academy treating you?" Alexa asked. "Obviously it's going great if you have a boyfriend like that."

We all laughed. "It's actually really great," I smiled. "I wish you guys would have applied!"

"I actually might be applying for next year," Mabel said.

"That would be fun!" I said. "My contract there says I'll be there until I graduate."

"Lucky," Tyler said. "It's too expensive for both of us to go."

"Well," Alexa said. "Maybe only one of us could go."

"Yeah," Tyler said. "Me."

"What's your specialty?" Noah asked him.

"Show jumping," Tyler replied, and the two launched into a deep conversation about show jumping.

"But for real, Kat, how'd you get so lucky with him?" Alexa asked when Noah was too deep in conversation to hear us.

I looked up at him, then back at them. "Don't ask me," I laughed. "We met on our first day and we've been pretty much best friends since."

"Ah," Mabel asked. "How long have you been a thing?"

"Actually, we just became official yesterday," I explained. "But we've been talking about getting together for a few weeks. I just wasn't ready."

"Well, in case you're wondering, Jackson is doing great," Alexa said. "He's perfect. Like, I've never met a more perfect human being."

"Well, I mean, you've met Noah," I laughed. "How's riding doing for you two?"

"Oh!" Mabel said, sitting up. "My dad bought me a new horse!"

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Please tell me more!"

"Well, he's kinda a rescue scenario, but we've come a long way already," she explained. "He's an OTTB gelding, six years old, chestnut. He is the sweetest thing. He had an issue with standing, and girthing, and mounting, and rearing and bucking, but he's really come a long way."

"That's awesome, May," Alexa said. "Prince and I qualified for the winter edition of States!"

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed. "Is his hoof all better?"

"Yeah, turns out he just needed to go barefoot for a while," she said. "Hows Hope doing?"

"Good! Yeah, she's really succeeding at Maple Stream," I said. "I'm thinking of bringing Moose next year though."

"Any specific reason?" Mabel asked. "She's not hurt, is she?"

"Oh, no," I said. "She's just getting older. I think she's turning thirteen this year. I know that's not too old, but I think Moose will learn more. He's only five, and he has so much to still learn. Plus, he can jump like a boss."

"That might be a smart idea," Alexa said. "Besides, Kelsey might be outgrowing Confetti very soon, and you want her to have a trustworthy horse like Hope for her to ride."

"Yeah," I said. We spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, eating, sharing stories, and exchanging gifts.

SORRY FOR THE BORING CHAPTER OMG