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?
Smilys were made by Sapphire Heaven of LiveJournal.
The mini-profile hover follows a tutorial by Kagney of Adoxography.
Photos in the skin used under CC from Flickr.
Post by Athena Achilles on Mar 24, 2015 12:04:53 GMT -8
Athena's eyebrows rose at the younger girl's words. "You, girlfriend, belong to no one but you!" She said firmly. "And you have been his pet for so long that you have forgotten that." That mischievous smile turned up the corners of her mouth again, her eyes sparkling. "Tell me something. What would he do if you were to, say open my window and lean out and oh look, there goes your cell phone?" She raised her eyebrows again. "You are forever on that phone taking commands from him." She curled her nose up as she thought about it. "You're a lot like me, a well trained puppy who needs to learn that when told to sit, you don't have to remain there and pine for the one who gives the commands."
When the other girl began to cry again, Athena got up from her bed and walked into the bathroom, returning with a packet of moist towelettes and handed them to Amber before returning to her own bed. "Don't try and compare your life with mine, it's exhausting and pointless." She advised. "Some people are just wired differently than others."
Athena laughed gently at the question. "I'd like to think that after our first encounter, which was a lot like this one with us each sitting on a bed in here, that we already are friends." She replied. "Have you ever thought about what you want to do after graduation?" She decided that it was time to move the conversation down a different path.
Amber started to smile at Athena's words, having never been called anything like that before, but then she shook her head and sighed. "I haven't forgotten," she told her, "I've just never felt like that was the case." Amber tried to hide her annoyance at the comment of forever being on her phone because she didn't feel like she was on her phone all that much. She talked to her brother two or three times a day and she knew that that was probably more then most people talked to their siblings but they weren't just siblings. She thought about the question and, when she came up with her answer, she hesitated to say it because she knew that it would give Athena more reason to find fault with her brother again but then she realized that, at this point, it could not get any worse. "Well, first he would probably have our mother buy me a new phone and then he would deliver it in person and, the next chance he got, he would yell at me and beat me and call me an idiot."
"Thanks," Amber muttered, taking the towelettes. She whipped the tears from her face, again, and hoped that she would run out of tears to cry soon.
Amber smiled, when Athena told her that she was her friend. She looked at her and asked, "may I have a hug?" She almost thought that might be weird, but then she remembered that friends in books and movies did that all the time, and she had even seen some friends hug each other in real life.
Amber hesitated at the next question. Her and her brother had come up with a couple of scenarios for when they grew up, and they all including them being together forever. "Um... not really, except that me and Rapunzel were hoping to do some competing," she answered, keeping her brother as her manager, in this scenario, out of it. "What about you?" she asked.
Post by Athena Achilles on Apr 7, 2015 0:00:40 GMT -8
Athena smirked, as she seemed to have hit a sore spot with her phone comment. Her eyes widened at Amber's response to what would probably happen, though Athena knew it was more like what would happen, no probably about it. "He physically abuses you as well?" She gasped as she shook her head. "He has to be stopped Amber! If this is what he does to you, imagine what he could do to another woman who isn't related to him." She was actually beginning to wonder if the boy was holding back because he was assaulting his sister. Once again, she knew she was being a little hypocritical, as she'd never reported the men who had assaulted her in the past, but she was more afraid of what her social worker would do to her than talking to the police, and whoever had her at the time grew bored of her eventually and she was sent away; unlike Amber, who had to face this kind of abuse on a weekly basis.
She bounced up from her bed and jumped onto the other as she wrapped her arms around the other girl. "You can have a hug any time you want." She said as she gave Amber a kiss on the cheek.
She walked back to her own bed and sat on the edge of it as she listened to the other girl talk about future plans. She smiled when the question was directed back at her. "I'm thinking law-school." She replied with a shrug. "Unlike you, I don't have a horse of my own; so if I want to continue competing, I'd have to be a catch rider. I'd like to do something so I can help kids that have been through what I've been through; and I thought that law-school would be a good start." she shrugged as she looked around her room. "Of course, I could always join has-beens-on-ice, as my skating career kind of shattered when I was moved to Kentucky."
Amber shook her head. "He only beats me when he's angry at me and it's not any worse then when my mother gets mad at me and hits me with a belt, so it's discipline but not abuse. He doesn't like other girls and I am not a woman. He says that I'm a little girl trapped in a big girls body and that I will always be a little girl. I can't stop him and I know I can't because I've tried refusing sex with him but he just gets angry, beats me, holds me down and does it anyway and sex is worse when he's angry. Right after she said it, Amber realized that she probably just said the wrong thing and she wished that she could take it back but she knew that it was too late now.
Amber hugged Athena back and smiled. She was a little surprised by the kiss, but she kind of liked it. This was the first hug and kiss that she had ever gotten from anyone outside of her family and it was nice.
"Good for you," Amber praised. She didn't think that she was smart enough to go to law school, not that she had any interest anyway, but she saw no reason why Athena wouldn't be able too. Amber could never understand how anyone could compete on a horse that they just met, because it didn't seem like they could do well without a bond and understanding of each other, but she knew that some people and horses could do it. Amber had never been ice skating, but she couldn't help but feel bad about Athena not being able too.
Post by Athena Achilles on Apr 25, 2015 17:16:28 GMT -8
Athena gasped as Amber spoke, but she pressed her lips together and bit down on the lower one. There was so much she wanted to say, but she knew that the last thing her new friend needed was a self-righteous sounding lecture for someone who was too chicken to speak up for herself when the same things were happening to her. "It's called rape, Amber." She finally said. "What he does to you, is called rape. Sex is something you have with a non-immediate family member who you love."
Athena shrugged at the compliment on what she hoped to do after graduation. "I still have a few years before I have to really pin down what I want to do. You never know, between now and then I could get adopted by some multi-millionaire and never have to work a day in my life." She stretched out on her bed and pretended to ring a bell. "Have servants waiting on me hand and foot." She laughed as she sat up and shook her head. "You would think that at my age and with my past, I would know that fairy-tales are just that." She shrugged as she stood up and walked over to the basket that held her cross-stitch things and selected the latest hoop that she was working on; a unicorn rearing under a rainbow, and returned to her bed with all the threads she would need.
"A hot bath helps with the pain, but a shower works just as well." She said as she jumped to her feet again and walked to the bathroom, returning with a bottle of clear liquid which she offered to the younger girl. "Arnica. Add four drops to your water bottle, or glass. Sounds silly, but it works wonders. I heard about it from another skater; she'd pulled her groin trying a new skill and her mother had suggested it to her." She sat back on her bed and picked up the hoop. "What do you like doing, other than horses, that has nothing to do with your family?"
Amber flinched at the word, rape. She sighed. "I don't like that word," she said. "It sounds evil. He may be selfish but he is not evil. Besides, he only rapes me when I won't cooperate and that's my own fault." She paused, and then continued. "Af-After having sex with me, he holds me and doesn't let me go until I stop crying and then, when were at home at least, he usually runs me a bath and even carries me to the tub. He usually says he's sorry but, even when he doesn't, I know that he is." A part of her wondered if maybe he wasn't really all that sorry, because if he really was that he probably wouldn't keep on doing it, but she tried to keep that at the back of her mind, remembering how many times he had told her that he could not help himself.
Amber smiled at Athena's fantasy, but she wasn't sure she liked what she said at the end. "I like them," she said, honestly. "They make people happy and they may be silly but I think that they do still give people just a little bit of hope for a better future." It occurred to her, after she said it, that it might have come off as a bit more corny then she meant it to, which made her wonder if that had been a stupid thing to say and she was kind of embarrassed.
Amber smiled and took the bottle from her. "Thanks," she replied, wondering how Athena knew that she was in pain. She wished that she had a glass of water so that she could try it out right now, but she dreaded that thought of having to get up and go and get some and she didn't want to ask Athena for a glass of water because she felt like the other girl had already done a lot for her.
At Athena's last question, Amber thought for a few moments. "I don't know," she answered, sadly. "Everything that I like to do has something to do with my family." That made her feel a little pathetic and ashamed.
Post by Athena Achilles on May 2, 2015 23:13:11 GMT -8
Athena released an exasperated rush of air at Amber's words. "The word sounds evil because it's an evil thing for people to do." She said, not letting her frustration into her words. "Your brother isn't selfish, he's a predator. Sex, as you call is, is consensual, where both parties are in agreement of the act. Him saying he's sorry and comforting you, and then taking you to the bath doesn't make it any less of a crime." She knew that she was now lecturing, which she hadn't wanted to do, but she needed to get through to her friend that her brother, and mother, had to be stopped.
She smiled and nodded as their talk turned to fairy tales. "I'm so sick of being the damsel in distress though." She said. "So move over Cinderella and Rapunzel, I'm staring in my own fairy tale and I refuse to wait to be rescued by my Prince Charming!" She felt thirsty from all the talking they'd been doing so she opened a cupboard and pulled out two bottles of water, tossing one of them onto the bed where Amber was sitting. "If you don't want it, just put it on the nightstand."
She smiled as Amber answered her question. "Maybe you too need to create your own fairy tale." She suggested. "Find a little independence in your life. Summer holidays are coming up, maybe you should find a horse camp that you could attend? Something out of State?" She hadn't heard about any up coming foster homes, so she would probably be stuck on campus for the summer. "I could ask Ms Carr if I could take Bear and I could come too." The thought of a horse camp for the summer sounded like a load of fun. "We should do it!"
Amber started to cry again. "He is not a predator and he is not a criminal," she wailed. "Besides, as much as I dread it I still let him do it and not just because my mothers says that I have too."
Amber smiled at Athena's comment, but she knew that she couldn't do that because she already had a Prince Charming, or at least she used too. Amber remembered playing with her brother when they were little kids and pretending to be a damsel in distress, while he was always the hero who had to rescue her. Amber had always wanted to be a hero and save him from something but, when she told him this, he told her that she was too weak and wimpy to ever save herself, much less him or someone else and that she always would be and she could never be a hero, and that he could always save himself and her and that she should just let him. She was pretty sure that she knew what Athena would say if she told her this, so she just didn't say anything. She remembered that that was back when she thought of him as her Prince Charming, which made her realize that that was no longer the case and she started to cry harder.
"Thanks," Amber said, taking the water bottle. She opened the water and then the arnica. She dripped exactly four drops into the water, closed the arnica, and took a drink of the water.
"Really," she asked, she was momentarily excited about the idea, but her face soon fell. "When I was nine, but Dad wanted to send me to horse camp for a week, over the summer. I was really excited about the idea, since this was before we had horses, but my brother got really paranoid over the idea so my mother, who always overrides my dad in things like this, said no. That's probably the same thing that's going to happen now."
Post by Athena Achilles on May 9, 2015 1:23:58 GMT -8
Athena raised her eyebrows but decided she had attacked the girl's brother enough for now, and she didn't want Amber to feel like she was trapped with her back against the wall, once again being bullied by another person she felt she could trust; a feeling that Athena always feared when she let people get too close.
Athena bit down on her lip when the other girl began to cry again, but she remained where she was sitting, now torn between physically comforting Amber or just letting her be.
She nodded her head. "I've never been on a horse camp, so we'd probably have to go and talk to Ms Carr about it, especially since I'm hoping to take Bear with me." She glanced at her clock. "I'm thinking that will be something we can do tomorrow." She chewed her lip as she thought about how to convince Amber's mother that horse camp was the best idea for her to spend her summer. "How about we let Ms Carr talk to your parents?" She suggested. "We don't even know if it's a done thing yet, so there's no point talking to our guardians yet."
She looked at the bed that Amber was sitting on. "I have spare sheets. Would you like to stay here tonight?" Though she would understand if the other girl wanted her privacy after spilling so much personal information when she had remained silent for so long.
Amber whipped the tears off of her face and realized, with relief, that there didn't seem to be anymore coming. She wasn't as sore as she was a little bit ago either. She took another drink of water and looked over at Athena, "I think this might be working," she said, a small smile creping onto her face for a moment.
"Um... okay," she agreed, nervously. A part of her hoped that Ms. Carr would say no, so that she would not have to face the wrath of her brother and her mother. Yet, she also hoped that Ms. Carr would say yes and that maybe her father would... but Amber knew that that would be too much too hope for. He probably wouldn't even be around at the time and, if he was, he probably wouldn't give the idea much attention. Amber knew that he didn't care about his family as much as he used too.
"Really?," Amber asked with excitement, "like a sleepover?" She knew that this probably wouldn't be much like a slumber party, which she had always wanted to go too, but she knew that it wouldn't be much like sleeping in her brother's bed with him when she was scared either.
Post by Athena Achilles on May 11, 2015 1:19:49 GMT -8
Athena nodded at Amber's comment about the arnica. "You'll still need the relief from a hot shower." She advised; though she knew that, for her, the need for a shower was more for cleaning the feel off her rather than the need for the heat.
She chuckled, it was easy to see that her new friend was torn between her want to go to camp and her desire to keep her mother and brother happy. Athena had felt the same herself so many times in the past, though Curtis was helping to change that mindset, though it was hard at times to change a habit of a lifetime.
She gave a bright smile and nodded her head. "Sure! And, sure." She's never had a sleepover before, not with other non-competitive teens anyway. "It's not like anyone else is using that bed. You can use my bathroom if you want to just go back and grab whatever you need for the night, or come back ready for bed." She shrugged, not too sure how the whole sleepover thing worked. "And I'll phone our house-mom and tell her what's going on." She didn't want there to be any fall-back if the rooms were randomly checked after light's out.
"Okay, um... I'll be back in about ten minutes," she told her. Before she left the room, she looked back at her and said, "Athena, thanks."
She went back to her room., She took the shower head off of the hook and too a quick shower of her lower body. Then she brushed her teeth, took a leak and changed in her pajama's. She tried to hurry because she did not want to keep her new friend waiting but, right when she was about to leave, she turned back and took a little extra time to look up a word in the dictionary.
Rape: unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of another person, with or without force, without the consent of the victim.
Amber was a little confused. How could rape be done without force? She looked up another word and hoped that maybe that definition would help her figure it out.
Consent: to permit, approve, or agree
Amber may permit it most of the time, but she never gave any approval. Actually, she had never not made her disapproval known. She only ever put up with it because she knew that it would be worse if she didn't. If she only ever cooperated out of fear, was that still consent? Probably not. Was that what rape without force was, sex by threats or fear.
Amber threw the dictionary up against the wall. She felt tears starting to come again. She didn't know why she was so upset. It's not like he hadn't obviously raped her before. Maybe she just didn't like the idea that it was every time.
Normally Amber would call her brother before going to bed, but they had said goodnight when he dropped her off and she was supposed to get ready for bed as soon as she got back and then go to sleep and it was too late to call him now. Amber whipped her tears away and waited several seconds to make sure that she was done crying. Fortunately, she was. She headed back over to her friends room and knocked on the door.
Last Edit: May 13, 2015 14:18:44 GMT -8 by Deleted
Post by Athena Achilles on May 15, 2015 20:22:38 GMT -8
"You don't have to rush." Athena replied. "And it's not a problem." When she was alone in her room, she grabbed the sheet with the campus numbers on it and phoned through to their House Mother and told her that Amber had had an argument with her brother before returning to campus and was feeling fragile so would be sleeping in the spare bed in her room; it was an abstract version of the truth.
Putting her phone back under her pillow, she pulled her bottom drawer open and took out a clean set of sheets, like blue with colourful stars patterned over it. She then pulled the bedspread off he other bed and quickly set to work making it, turning the corner of the bed down so that it looked inviting and ready to be slept in. She stood back and looked at it, smiling about the fact that the only thing it was missing was the mint-chocolate on the pillow.
Athena then walked into her bathroom and had a quick shower before pulling on her My Little Pony pyjamas. She sat on her bed with her journal and started writing down what she wanted to remember about that day; a few interesting quirks from classes, what she had done with Bear (and how Bear had seemed to feel about it). She was just finishing it off as there was a knock on the door. "Come in." She called brightly as she put the book away in the drawer of her nightstand - a rather obvious place for a journal, but she no longer kept things in there that needed to be hidden from the eyes of everyone else.
When Amber walked into the room, she saw Athena closing a drawer. She didn't ask her friend what she was doing in the drawer because she did not want to pry, although she found it an odd time to be thinking that she didn't want to pry. Amber felt that Athena had pried into her life more then she had pried into Athena's, not that she would ever point that out. She was just a little bit annoyed by that, even though she didn't think that she should be. She was pretty sure that Athena had only been prying because she cared, and few people had ever cared about Amber before so it was nice that she seemed too, or more like that she clearly did. Amber cared about Athena too, although she could not help but remember her brother warnings about developing relationships outsider of their family and she knew that she should ignore it but it was hard.
Amber looked at the already made up bed, crawled in and then looked at Athena and smiled. She didn't know what to say now. Maybe they should just try to go to sleep. She wasn't sure if she, or either of them, would be able to sleep right now, but it was late and Amber would normally be asleep by now. "Should we try to get some sleep?" she asked.
Post by Athena Achilles on May 19, 2015 2:02:25 GMT -8
Athena grinned as Amber walked back in. "I just thought I'd write in my journal before you came back in." She said. "It's a nightly ritual that I started years ago and it seemed rude to do while you were in here. I promise I didn't put anything in there that you told me." She pulled her covers up to her chin and rolled onto her side to face the other girl. She knew that she didn't have to explain herself, but she didn't want to seem that she was holding anything back from the younger girl, and she didn't want her to worry that there was written proof if what she had confided. "I called our House Mom and told her a little white lie." She shrugged. "I mentioned that you'd had an argument with your brother before returning to campus and that you were feeling a little homesick, just in case she says anything to you tomorrow." She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. "I'm sorry, but she asked for an excuse, and you and your brother being close is common knowledge." And from the number of siblings on campus, being close wasn't a bad thing.
Her eyes widened as panic gripped her at the mention of sleep and she quickly shook the childhood fear of the night-time off. It didn't happen often, but there were times she would lie in bed at night and listen to her younger self begging someone to stop. She shook her head and blew out a shaky breath. "Yeah, sleep." She finally replied, though she made no move to turn off the light. "If you could be anything, animal or human, what would you choose to be?" She asked as she pulled a pillow to her chest and tightened her arms around it.