Stacy Gregg - Riding Star

Georgie had never been given flowers before – apart from the time her dad bought her a pot plant when she was in hospital having her tonsils out, but that didn’t really count. The lilies had a deep, musky perfume. Snow was falling on the petals. They were still standing there on the doorstep and no one was saying anything.

“Hey,” Riley broke the silence. “I’m sorry that I never called you after the Formal. I got really busy with the horses and—”

“I can’t ask you in,” Georgie blurted out. “We’re not allowed to have boys in the boarding house without a permission note. Besides, I have to get changed for dinner.”

They stood there for another moment or two, and then Riley raked a hand uneasily through his hair and grabbed his keys out of his coat pocket. “It’s OK,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at the pick-up truck. “I’ve gotta go anyway. I promised Uncle Kenny I’d bring the truck back straight away and I’ve been waiting here a while now.”

He smiled at Georgie. “I just wanted to say hi, you know, and that…” he hesitated, “I’ve missed you while you were away.”

Then he looked embarrassed. “Anyway,” he began, backing down the stairs towards the truck, “I better go now.”

He was halfway back down the path when Georgie called after him, “Riley, wait!”

He turned round. “Yeah?” “Thanks for the flowers. They’re really beautiful.” Riley smiled. “I’ll give you a call, OK?”

He got in the pick-up, slammed the door and drove off. Georgie watched the tail-lights disappear into the dark and then went inside. The clock on the wall said six-fifteen, which meant that all the boarders would be in their rooms getting ready for dinner. The first-year boarders all lived downstairs, and each of them shared a room with one other girl. Georgie had been sharing with Alice Dupree ever since Alice took the liberty of swapping her name for Daisy King’s on their first day of school.

Alice was lying on her bed when Georgie came in. She was studying a riding manual and had it open to a page about fitting martingales.

“Nice lilies,” she said without looking up from her book. “Riley must have spent a fortune on them.”

“How did you know they were from Riley?” Georgie asked.

“Because he’s been sitting out there in that pick-up truck for the past two hours waiting for you,” Alice said.

Georgie was shocked. “He’s been out there all that time?”

“I took him a cup of hot chocolate about an hour ago,” Alice said. “He looked really cold.”

Georgie had been so shocked to have Riley just turn up on the doorstep like that, she hadn’t known how to deal with him at all. He’d turned up out of the blue at the School Formal too. Didn’t he know how to use a phone?

“Why are you so late, anyway?” Alice asked. “School finished ages ago. Were you having so much fun studying dressage that you couldn’t drag yourself away?”

Georgie shook her head. “I went for a hack after class. And then I saw James.”

Alice frowned. “You mean Riley?”

“No. I saw James first. I took Belle out on the bridle paths behind the stables and I ran into James. And we… talked.”

Alice looked suspicious. “When you say that you ‘talked’,” she did air quotes round the word, “does that actually mean you really talked or do you mean… you know…”

Georgie’s eyes went wide. “No, Alice! I have not been out on a snog-a-thon with James Kirkwood!”

“Well, what about Riley then?” Alice asked.

Georgie shook her head. “There was no kissing! We hardly even spoke. I took the flowers and then I kind of ran. It was pretty bad. I was confused.”

“But you’re dating Riley, right?” Alice said. “I thought everything was all on with you two after the School Formal?”

Georgie flopped face-down on the bed and groaned. “Is it? I don’t know. I thought it was, but then he never even called me. I spent all the holidays wondering what was going on and thinking that maybe it was over and now he turns up with flowers.”

“Don’t complain. At least someone is buying you flowers,” Alice replied. “I’m giving up on Cam.”

“Really?” Georgie said. “I thought you guys were getting on really well.”

“We do get on well,” Alice said. “It’s just… he doesn’t think of me, you know, like that. I’m not some bombshell like Kennedy Kirkwood.”

“That’s not true,” Georgie said. “It is!” Alice insisted. “Cameron stares at her like a puppy looking at a bag of Purina. He doesn’t even notice me.”

“You just need to get his attention. You’ve got to do something to make him notice you.”

There was a knock at the door and Emily stuck her head in.

“Are you guys coming to dinner or what? We’ve been waiting for you for ages!”

*

When Georgie had first arrived at Blainford last September the walk to the dining hall each evening hadn’t been a big deal. It had been early autumn and the stroll up the tree-lined driveway had been kind of fun.

Now winter had set in and the five hundred metres from their boarding house to the main buildings of the school seemed like an intrepid hike up the Himalayas. It was freezing cold, and the girls were bundled up in school scarves, jerseys and blazers over their winter uniform of a navy wool pinafore and long black wool tights.

“I think we should be allowed to layer our jods underneath our pinafores in winter,” Alice said, teeth chattering with cold as they walked round the quad to the door of the dining hall.

“We could wear them underneath our tights,” Emily suggested. “Maybe no one would notice.”

When they reached the dining-room doors they were relieved to see that the queue didn’t stretch all the way outside and they were able to go straight indoors where it was warm. The dining room was one of the oldest buildings in the school. Outside, it was red Georgian brick, like the other buildings that surrounded the quad. Inside, the walls were dark-wood panelled, and hung with photos of famous riders who had once attended the academy. According to the blackboard menu, tonight’s dinner was ‘Meatloaf a la Betty-Lou’.

Alice wrinkled up her nose. “If the menu says meatloaf then why does it smell like fish?”

Daisy King shrugged. “I suppose it’s better than fish smelling like meatloaf.”

The girls took their loaded trays and stood in the centre of the dining hall, waiting for Georgie to have her food dished up. At the far side of the room, sitting at their usual table, were the rest of the eventing gang – Alex and Cameron and Matt and Nicholas. The girls began to walk over to join them when Georgie heard her name being called.

“Georgie, we’re here!”

Georgie saw Isabel Weiss waving at her, beckoning her over. Isabel was sitting with Mitty and Reina.

“Come and sit with us,” Isabel called out to her cheerfully.

Georgie didn’t know what to do. Daisy, Alice and Emily had all stopped and were watching her.

“Georgie?” Alice said. “What’s going on?”

Georgie looked at the eager faces of the Dressage Set.

“Don’t be silly,” Alice muttered to Georgie. “You don’t have to sit with them! It doesn’t make any difference if you’re not in the eventing class any more. You can still sit with us.”

Georgie shook her head. “I really should go and say hi,” she said, gesturing towards the dressages. “I’ll catch up with you guys later back at the house, OK?”

Alice looked upset. “OK, whatever.”

The dressage girls moved over to make room for their newest member.

“Hi, Georgie!” Mitty grinned at her as she sat down. “Fun lesson today, huh?”

“Ummm, yeah,” Georgie said, her voice tinged with sarcasm. “All that stuff with the walking? Awesome.”