The next morning was the morning of Christmas Eve, where my family, as a tradition, spent the day cooking, and had family over that night. The next morning, my parents gave me and my sister gifts and we gave our parents their gifts.
"I may have left a little detail about Noah out," I said to my mom. Noah was still asleep, as it was only seven, but Mom and I were up making pancakes for everyone.
"Oh?" she said. "And what's that?"
"We're dating," I said, pausing to see her reaction. She continued stirring the batter.
"How long has it been going on?" she asked, and I checked the time on the stove.
"Um, just about eighteen hours," I laughed. "But we had talked about getting together before. I just wanted to wait until we actually knew each other a bit more."
"I raised you right," she said, stopping to give me a hug. "Well, as long as you're happy I can't really complain. Your dad and I kind of figured something was going on between you two anyways."
"What?" I asked. "How?"
"Just the way he looks at you," Mom smiled. "You could just tell."
Just as I sat down to think about what he said, Kelsey ran into the kitchen and started yelling about how she wanted chocolate chips in her pancakes.
"Kelsey, hush," I scolded. "You're going to wake Noah up."
"Am not!" she exclaimed, continuing to bounce around the kitchen.
"Kelsey, sweetie, why don't you go help your dad fix the fence your pony broke yesterday?" Mom asked.
"But Mom..." she cried.
"Hey, I had to fix the fence every time Hope plowed through it," I told her. "Go help Dad."
"Fine," she groaned, stomping to the door to pull her boots on. She shuffled outside and to the barn.
"Anyways," Mom said with a laugh. "How's school going?"
"It's... Good," I said. "Different. And hard."
"Yeah, they have a good academic reputation," she said as she wiped up some batter off the counter.
"No, it's not even the academics," I said. "If anything, the classes are boring. The riding classes are so physically exhausting though."
"Aren't you glad I made you and Hope do those conditioning drills?" she laughed.
"Oh, you don't even know!" I exclaimed. "I would have been so behind!"
"Hi, Noah," Mom said as he walked into the kitchen. We were all still in our pajamas, and he took a seat next to me. "We were just talking about school."
"Oh, yeah," he said. "I like it."
"What are you majoring in?" Mom asked, pouring some batter onto a pan.
"Show jumping," he said. "Me and my gelding Comet are competitive show jumpers."
"Really," Mom said. "I kinda figured you were a dressage kind of guy."
"That's what I said!" I laughed, handing a plate of pancakes over to Noah.
-
My whole family plus Noah spent the majority of the day baking cookies, making food, and listening to Christmas music that was too loud. By one, almost everything was done and we still had a few hours before company came over.
"Want to finish that geometry review packet?" Noah asked. After that, we spent two hours on the couch finishing up the rest of the week's homework. By three, we had to change for company. I put on black leggings, a white t-shirt, a red, green and white flannel, and a pair of wool knitted socks. After lightly curling my hair, putting on a pearl necklace, and putting in pearl earrings. I put on a bit more makeup than usual and check myself out in the mirror. I don't look too bad.
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