Blue Ridge is a fictional town located deep in the heart of Kentucky. It is home to one of the most well known equestrian academies in the United States. Students and staff from all over the world join the academy for what it has to offer. Do you have what it takes to join us and learn from the Academy?
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Statistics show that people who have the most birthdays live the longest!
To be honest, it didn't surprise John, for all that his parents hadn't told him of their plans. After all, they lived only an hour or so away from the school, it made sense that they would drive down for his birthday. However, when John got the text from his father, asking him to come down to the common room, he pretended to be surprised and pulled on his shoes.
What he could not have guessed, was the streamers and the balloons that were hung everywhere already. His parents couldn't have been here that long without him knowing, right? But then, obviously, they must have. Before he could take it all in, his mother had come up to hug him, "Happy birthday, dear!" John smiled and hugged her back, then turned to his father. While the man wasn't usually very huggy, he too gave his son a hug, "How old are you now? Twelve?"
John feigned a hurt face, "You're off by a few years, Dad." However, as he glanced around at the room, he noticed that it was completely different than a colour scheme that his parents would probably have used for him, "Are we crashing someone else's party?"
Olivia had spent the better part of two hours decorating the common room, with permission from the head of house, of course. After all, for all that it was Halloween in other parts of the school, today was Jayne's birthday too. The streamers and balloons were all kinds of blue, with the occasional light blue, nearly white, interspersed between them. The cake that Olivia had made sat in the middle of one of the tables, minus candles, as she wasn't sure how that would have been received.
She had just sent Jayne a text, asking her to come down to the common room, when she heard someone enter. As they looked around, she nodded at them, then went back to her work. It had been hard enough to hide all of the stuff from Jayne, now that they shared a room, but she had managed, she hoped. Footsteps on the stairs made her turn with a smile on her face, but as she saw a brunet boy, her smile faded, and she walked over to fix one of the balloon arrangements.
She heard the brown-haired boy's question, despite the fact that she was trying not to listen in, and spoke up, "Yes, you are, but you can stay if you'd like. And now you're not crashing it anymore." She waited to see where Jayne was coming from, ready to surprise her friend.
It may have been her birthday, but today was just another day for Jayne. In her past foster homes her birthday had always been a big though, though sometimes overshadowed by a horse show, but her foster parents had always found a way to spoil her rotten. Other than the text she had received from her last foster mother, not a lot had been said, and she wasn't going to go out of the way to announce it to anyone.
She had been lying on her bed reading through a book for English when her phone had sounded again. Raising an eyebrow, hoping that it wasn't a test from her do-gooder social worker, and pressed the side of the screen, bringing the phone to life. Swiping her finger across the envelope on the screen she opened the text. A smile came to her as she read the text from Olivia. She couldn't understand why her roomie couldn't walk up the stairs, but she didn't bother texting that back as she sat up, swung her legs over the bed and walk out of the room.
As she walked down the stairs, she sent back a quick on my way, even though she was sure that she would probably get there the same time as the message. She shrugged as she pocketed the phone, reached the bottom of the stairs and headed toward the common room.
John hadn't really noticed the brunette that was fiddling around with something in the corner until she spoke up, at which he looked over at her. He knew that she was one of the two girls that had just moved into the Red Ribbon House from one of the other houses, "Alright, then." He was curious to see who else had a birthday on Halloween, as he hadn't met anyone before. After a brief explanation that they were surprising this girl, Jayne, he nodded and glanced at his parents, who it seemed, hadn't planned much more than coming down to the school and surprising, or at least attempting, to surprise him.
Salem shrugged at her son, "It's important for you to make friends too, we understand. We can stick around for a little bit and then head out for lunch afterwards." John nodded, then looked around the room, feeling like this would be interesting. He didn't really know his housemates all too well, because he didn't really know anyone at the school too well, but then, maybe this would be a start. As the brunette told them all to get ready, he stepped aside, feeling silly, but when someone entered, he shouted, "Surpise!" with the rest of them.
Olivia shrugged as the group decided to stick around. It would be strange, but as much as she wanted to send them away to let them have their party, she was aware that it was a common room, and she couldn't really send them away. And, even if they only stood around, the cake that she had baked, with help of the creative cooking room and teacher, was far too big for the two girls to eat alone, and so, perhaps having three more to eat the blue creation would help in the long run.
However, she managed to ignore them until she heard footsteps on the stairs, when she threw on a bright smile and approached her best friend, "Surprise!" As she left Jayne to figure out what was going on, she returned to the table and picked up a small, gift-wrapped box, turning back to her friend, "I know it's not much, but anyway, I thought we'd celebrate." She ignored the boy and his family almost totally as she handed over the tiny box, which she knew contained a cross country necklace. She held it out to her friend, "It's not much, but I hope you like it."
Last Edit: Nov 22, 2013 20:57:02 GMT -8 by Deleted
Jayne walked down to the common room, her mind a million miles away, thinking mostly about the next track meet, that when the room erupted in a cheer of surprise, she squeaked and jumped back before she regained her breath and her narrowed eyes landed on Olivia. "Thanks." She said as she looked around at the decorations around the room.
"You shouldn't have." She whispered as she accepted the gift and gave her friend a hug. "Really, you shouldn't have." She carefully unwrapped the gift and opened the box. "It's beautiful!" She gushed as she placed the box on a nearby table so that she could take the necklace out and put it on. "I love it, Olivia!" She said as she played with the tiny shoe pendant.
She then took the time to look around at the other people in the room with her. "Hi, Mr and Mrs Ahearne. Hi, John." She said with a small shy smile. Since meeting the couple in the common room not too long ago, she had discovered John's surname, and felt that she had just put it to goo use. She then turned back to her room-mate. "Where did you hide all of this?"
John stood awkwardly in the corner, wishing that he could disappear, while his mother beamed broadly at the blonde girl that appeared down the stairs. He glanced at her, and then realized why his mother looked so friendly. It had been the girl that his mother had talked to while he and his father had debated another horse for him. His father had mentioned that his mother had spent the entire car ride musing about where the girl's face looked familiar from, although he hadn't heard if she'd resolved the question or not.
Salem watched the blonde girl with her friend, smiling as she bent to untangle one of the balloon sets to give the two girls their space. However, hearing her name, she looked up, smiling, "Hi, Jayne." She paused, then joked, "Had we known it was your birthday as well, we would have brought something along." Now the girl's face did look familiar, although she could still see the resemblance to someone. However, she turned to John, "Why don't you grab a coat, and then we'll leave these girls to their party." Her son nodded, and as he walked upstairs, leaving his parents waiting in the common room, where they looked around.
Olivia grinned broadly at her friend, giggling at the girl's narrowed eyes, knowing that her friend wouldn't truly be mad at her for it, "You're welcome." Hearing Jayne's comment, she shrugged, "But I wanted to." She returned the hug, then released her roommate to open the present, waiting for the blonde to see what was inside of the small box. It had taken quite a while to find, but in the end, it had definitely paid off. She smiled at Jayne, joking, in reference to the shoe, "Although it may be a bit small."
She pulled out the packet of paper plates, luckily enough for everyone, and opened the plastic as Jayne spoke to the other people in the room, whose names she hadn't even known. Not that it really mattered, they were just taking up space, she wasn't even sure why they had chosen to stick around. When asked about where she had stored all of the stuff, she glanced around, ticking them off on her fingers, "The cake, in the creative cooking classroom. The balloons and streamers were in Goldie's tack locker. Your necklace was in Blue's locker, as were the gift wrap and stuff. The plates and utensils were in the kitchen," she indicated the House's small kitchenette, "on the top shelf, in the far corner." She grinned, "It took some planning to remember where everything was."
Olivia's grin was infectious and Jayne found that she was grinning back, a feeling of warmth filled her, it was like being back in one of the foster homes that actually treated her like a part of their family, rather than a hired hand. "Thank you! And I meant that from every inch of my heart." Her hand found its way to the shoe pendent again and she laughed at her firend's joke. "I'm glad it's small." She chuckled. "I'd look like a bit of an idiot with a normal sized shoe around my neck, and it would be a little heavy."
She was still smiling as she spoke with John and his parents and she gave a small shrug. "Believe me, if I knew that Olivia had planned this, I would have remained in my room." She replied with an impish grin. "Thank you, though." Her eyebrows flew up as the woman spoke of leaving. "Oh, please don't let us chase you out when you have travelled all this way to see your son!"
When her conversation had returned to Olivia, she laughed at all the extent the other girl had gone too to hide everything. "You do realise that it's going to be payback on your birthday?"
Salem watched the stairs as she waited for John to come down, turning her attention to Jayne as the girl spoke against their leaving. She smiled at the blonde, "Don't worry about it, dear. We were planning on heading out to Blue Waters anyway, we just hung around on Olivia's invitation to do so." She heard John coming down the stairs and shook her head in despair. As he appeared, she smiled at him, "Elephant." As the boy laughed at the old family joke, he came towards them, and when Mrs. Ahearne looked back at Jayne, it clicked, and she tried to work it out.
She zoned out, thinking about the similarity between the two children. With how they treated John, as their own son, it was easy to forget that he had been adopted, but he definitely had. Thinking back to the paperwork, she remembered seeing that there was another child, but that they were supposed to be split up, for whatever legalese reason. Or had they said the sibling was dead? She couldn't remember. However, the resemblance, and the same birthday, couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Maybe it was.
She shooed John and Robert out to the car, telling them that she would be out in a minute, then turned to Jayne, and asked, "Are you a ward of the court?" Hearing it, she heard how tactless it was, and flushed, stammering an apology for her bluntness.
Olivia could feel Jayne getting into the spirit, if only a little bit, and relaxed slightly, glad that she played along. As she heard her friend's logic for enjoying the small shoe, she laughed, "Now I know what to get you for the next two years. Just consider it a workout." She was joking, of course, getting Jayne a single shoe to wear around her neck would make a much better April Fool's gift than a birthday present.
When she heard Jayne saying she would have stayed in her room, Olivia frowned, looking at her friend with wounded eyes, "And waste all of me hard work? What a friend you are." She let the two converse, turning to unwrap the plates, taking off only two when she heard that the group was going out for lunch. Lucky, too, she had only planned for the two of them. When she heard the threat of retribution, she grinned, "Bring it. But you need to find your own hiding places."
When she was getting ready to cut the cake, she heard the blurted question and raised an eyebrow, turning towards the woman to see where the question had come from, but she couldn't read her face well. Sensing that she was witness to something that she didn't understand yet, she turned back to things that she did know, and started cutting the cake.
Jayne laughed and gave her friend a good-natured push. "If I knew about it, it wouldn't have been the pleasant surprise that it was." She said with a big smile. She couldn't remember the last time she had smiled this much, her cheeks were beginning to ache.
She looked over at the woman's comment about her son's feet, but held back a retort of her own about elephants having very soft footsteps.
Jayne laughed again as her threat was challenged. "You bet I will!" She retorted, already planning the girl's next birthday, and what kind of cake she would bake. "Nah, I'll steal all your hiding places, including your locker, that way you'll never think to look there!"
She turned from her friend as the woman sent her son and husband out to the car, as it would have been rude to have her back to the woman who was obviously about to say her good byes. However, the words that left Ms Ahearne's mouth sent the girl's mind reeling. She frowned and shook her head as she gathered her thoughts. "Ok, that's not normally the question people ask. I was abandoned at birth and, yes, made a ward of the court." She replied, keeping her tone bright. Talking about her family situation used to bring her to tears, but at sixteen she was now too old for silly childish antics like that."
Salem could see that her question had surprised the girl, and hurried to apologize, but Jayne was already answering. When she heard the answer that she had been half-expecting, half-dreading, she nodded, although 'abandoned' gave her pause. That wasn't the story she'd heard, and from the research she'd done, it made sense that her story was the actual one, "Born in Kansas, in nineteen-ninety-eight?" That would coincide with the story, though. She shook her head as she thought about it, she definitely wasn't good at figuring out puzzles.
Deciding that she'd have to look through the files again to see if she had misread the whole 'dead' thing, She smiled at the girl, "I'm sorry for asking. I don't know where my mind was going with that." She turned to include the other girl in her gaze, "Have a wonderful time." With that, she took her leave, planning on going through her old records as soon as she got home, but then, she pushed her thoughts out of her mind. John didn't even know he was adopted, and she didn't want to let it slip just yet, although they were talking about letting him know sooner rather than later.
Olivia stepped quickly to regain her balance as Jayne pushed her, sticking her tongue out at her friend, "Surprise, yes. Pleasant? You're giving me the impression that you don't want any of my wonderful cake." She glanced at it, then shrugged, "Okay, you're probably right about that. But it's a mix, even I couldn't have ruined it!"
Hearing that Jayne was going to use her own hiding places against her, Olivia raised an eyebrow, "The logic of that escapes me. You do realize that telling me where you are going to hide them is redundant?" She grinned, knowing that she would probably forget about it by April, "But if you insist, use Goldie's, it has less odds and ends in it." She tried to keep the Academy mare's tack locker cleaner than her own, since they might check it.
She kept slicing the cake, trying to figure out where the comment had come from, because it was just so strange, but as she heard Jayne relating the answer, and then the woman's follow up questions, she felt even more confused. Without realizing what she was doing, she kept slicing part of the cake smaller and smaller, trying not to dig into what was obviously now a private conversation.
When the woman had left, she turned to Jayne and raised an eyebrow, rolling her eyes at the closed door, "What was that all about?" Her tone left no doubt that she thought the woman crazy, and she turned back to her cake to see about an eighth of the cake reduced to nearly crumbs as she tried to ignore the conversation, "Oops."