Round and Round we Go

[Tobias Xayarath]

Tux led the last of the foals into the arena and tied the pair to the same rail as the others. For that day, he had picked a few games that he wanted to play, although he still hadn't quite figured out what prize he would be giving. Perhaps preferential pick of a foal for the next game, should they wish to continue... He would continue to think about it, and have a final prize at the end of the day.

Standing near the foals, separating them from the gate where the students would be coming in, Tux faced away, waiting for the students to arrive. After a good group had gathered, and the time he'd noted for starting had come and gone, Tux smiled, clapping his hands once for their attention, "Okay, guys. Let's make this short and sweet. The foals have a number assigned to them. You will be picking your foals by said number." Except that the students had no idea of which foal had which number, making this as close to random as Tux could really get, "We're going to start by having each of you call out a number, and then I'll tell you who you're working with for the first game, and then we can start." Nodding, pleased with himself, Tux pointed at one of the students, "You, start. Try not to pick a number someone else has already used, otherwise you get half a foal."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stood up from the bathroom floor and flushed the toilet. She rubbed her temples as she walked to the basin and washed her face before brushing her teeth and washing her face again. Her entire body ached, and she couldn't get her heart to slow down; which is what she put down to her throwing up.

After a quick shower, she dressed and fixed her hair into the normal French braid bun and then checked to make sure that her clothes covered everything she didn't want people asking questions about. She then pulled open the top drawer on the vanity and pulled out the last thing people would think she would use; make-up. She used enough concealer to camouflage the bruise on her cheek, but not enough so that it looked as though she had make-up on, unless anyone actually got close enough to notice.

Pushing her feet into her paddock boots, she made her way out of the House and across campus toward Evening Primrose. Walking through the barn silently, she headed out to the starting arena and slipped through the gate. Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, she kept herself distanced from Mr Xayarath, but bowed her head respectively toward him.

She kept herself slightly distanced from the other students who entered the arena and listened as the man began to speak. Ok, picking a number wasn't too hard. She flinched as the teacher pointed at her. "Four." She said in her whisper-soft voice.

[Martijn van der Berg]

Martijn grinned as he left the Red Willow barn behind, headed for the Evening Primrose barn instead. He had heard about the clinic that Mr. Xayarath was putting on, and was looking forward to getting to work with foals again, even if there was the likelihood that they had been trained differently from what he was used to. As he entered the barn, he looked around, then realized that he was in the wrong place. Yep, now that he thought about it, the listing had been for the starting arena.

His face flushed, Martijn made his way to the arena, glad to see that this time he was in the right place after all. Although when he saw that it was just Mr. Xayarath and Cara for the time being, he bit his lip again. He enjoyed the girl's company, especially when she relaxed enough to talk for a while, but he didn't know what she thought of him... And she seemed the kind of person who would be too polite to push him away even if he did bother her.

However, there was nothing for it, and there would probably be more students. And if he never talked to her, he would never have the chance to actually break through and figure out if he was bothering her... One way or the other, eventually. So he entered the arena, his eyes drifting briefly over the foals before he stopped a few steps away from Cara, "Hey. Are you here over the summer too?"

When their attention was called back to the host of the games, Martijn looked up, picking a number at random as it came his turn to speak, "Seven."

[Deleted]

Amber had enjoyed working with Fifi during the school year so she was excited by the idea of foal game day. She walked into the arena, hoping that she was on time, as she had been having trouble paying attention to time and pretty much everything except for Rapunzel and Klein.  She was glad that she had them, because without them she wasn't sure if she would have anyone to live for anymore.

Judging from the lack of people, she assumed that she was on time.  They were people that she had seen before but had never really spoken too.  She stood a little ways from them, wanting to save any social energy that she could muster on trying to make new equine friends right not, instead of humans.  She hadn't spoken much to humans, since coming back to school and she had not wanted too.  The only humans that she wanted to talk too were her dead brother and her friend, Athena, who was gone for the summer.

Amber listened as the other students picked random numbers which would determine their foal.  Amber did not really like randomness, because it was kind of scary, but she knew that it was the only way to get a foal.  "Two," she picked, when it came to her.  She was not sure why she had picked that number, except that she liked lower numbers better, although she didn't like numbers much.

[Danielle Green]

This was Danny's last summer at the academy and so she decided to soak it up at much as she could. Walking to the arena she realized that she had never been to this part of the campus only walked by it a few times. She wanted to get some experience with foals and the fact that she had the whole summer to do what she pleased, or close to it, meant that she had to fill in the time before school came around.

Danielle moved cautiously into the arena to see what the setup was. There were already three other students plus the instructor in the arena. She had seen the other students around the academy and if she wasn't mistaken they were in one of her classes or another, unfortunately with all of the curriculum she had packed into her schedule she was stuck between studying, exercising and caring for O'Malley, and the barn work she did not have much time for friends.

Once the other students arrived Mr. X began the clinic with a each student picking a number. Listening to the other students to make sure her number had not been called she waited her turn and then said, "Five"