Read Online Initiation by Jessica Burkhart - Free Book Online

it’s too much?”
    â€œI think Lexa just meant you’re taking those AP classes, so it might mean more homework,” Khloe said. “It’s yourfirst year, is all. We just want you to be careful to ease into things so you don’t overextend yourself.”
    â€œI won’t,” I promised. Lexa and Khloe still seemed concerned, but they’d see—I’d just have to prove that I could handle the courses.
    We spent a few more minutes chatting about classes before it was dinner time. Khloe and Lexa waited in the hallway while I put away my tea and two mugs.
    As we walked, I checked my phone—two BBMs.
    Taylor: How’s it going, Canterwood girl?
    Brielle: Laur! How’s everything?! I need deets!
    I knew exactly who I was three-way conference calling when I got back from dinner. Smiling, I followed Khloe and Lexa to the dining hall—to my first official dinner as a student at Canterwood. Looking from my new roommate to my new friend (I hoped), I wondered how long it had taken them to feel like real Canterwood students.

WHISPER, WE’RE NOT AT BRIAR CREEK ANYMORE
    IN THE SUNDAY MORNING DARKNESS, I SLIPPED out of bed and grabbed the clothes I’d laid out the night before.
    It was barely dawn and I was on my way to the stable to visit Whisper.
    I loved getting up with the sun. I was definitely a morning person. I tiptoed to the bathroom, dressed in breeches, a lilac and white striped V-neck T-shirt and paddock boots. Being a morning person in a houseful of night owls had taught me the invaluable skill of moving around without making one sound. In the bathroom, I brushed my hair, putting it into a loose, faux-messy bun. I washed my face and applied tinted sunscreen and ran through the rest of my routine, thinking about last night’s dinner with Khloe and Lexa.
    I saw that Clare—Khloe’s other friend—sat alone across the cafeteria until Khloe’s arch-nemesis, Riley, walked over to her with a few other girls I didn’t know.
    Khloe waved at Clare, but the two definitely stayed separated at all times in the cafeteria. It felt as if Riley had drawn an invisible line between Khloe and Clare.
    Once I was all ready to go, I left a gently snoring Khloe in our room and walked down Hawthorne’s hallway. Even our dorm monitor, Christina, wasn’t up yet. Every single dorm room door was closed. Silent. No TV, no laughter, no ringing phones. Not even a whisper was audible.
    I pushed open the door and walked down the sidewalk. The fiery sun rose over one of the pastures and horses’ backs began to be illuminated in the light. Like a shadow was being lifted from the campus.
    I passed the gym, then the pool, and started past the tennis courts. Two older girls, engaged in a fierce tennis match, were red-faced as they darted back and forth across the court—slamming the ball over the net.
    The old-fashioned streetlamps made the campus look très parfait. Like a framed painting. The lamps turned off as soon as the sunlight hit them.
    My pace quickened as I walked down the sidewalk, passing through the courtyard and nearing the stable.
    I couldn’t wait to see Whisper.
    I hoped her first night on campus had been as good as mine.
    The stable’s sliding white doors were open. So . . . I wasn’t the only one here early. Several students were around. Some mucked out stalls, cleaned tack, organized tack trunks or even bathed horses in the wash stalls.
    This isn’t Briar Creek, I reminded myself.
    If I’d gone to my old stable this early, I would have been the only student there for several hours. This many riders here before six on a Sunday morning told me one thing: I have to be on. There were too many great, dedicated riders here for me to slack even for one second. I would have to be at the stable as much as possible and put everything I had into riding.
    Tomorrow was my test ride from which Mr. Conner would place me in the beginner or