Another suitcase in another hall

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stared out the window of the silver Jeep Chrysler she was travelling in, her ankles crossed neatly and her hands folded just so on her lap. She wore a charcoal grey pant suit, and on her feet were a pair of polished black paddock boots – not that anyone would actually know they were paddock boots though as they shined like polished marble. Her eyes stared at the passing scenery, but if asked at a later time, she would not have been able to tell anyone what had been on the other side of the glass, as her mind was a work, sorting through the knowledge of what was happening.

All too soon the vehicle was cruising to a halt and the girl shook herself out of her thoughts. Blinking her cat-coloured eyes, without moving her head, she swept her vision over the part of the campus she could see and dropped her eyes as the door beside her was pulled open. “Out!” The man barked as he curled his fingers over the edge of the door.

The girl bowed her head slightly as she slid out of the back of the Jeep, her feet landing lightly on the ground, only stirring the smallest amount of dust as they touched the gravel of the drive. Her head shot up as the sound of hooves hitting the metal walls of the silver float and she chewed on her lower lip, wanting to see to her mare, but not daring to move without permission.

“I’ll see to her, pet.” The man said softly as he lifted a hand and caressed the girl’s copper cheek gently. “You need to sign yourself in.” His hand dropped to his side, a slight growl in the back of his throat when she didn’t flinch.

She let out a breath as he walked off and opening the back of the vehicle began to deposit her few belongings - two duffle bags, a number of garment bags: equestrian show clothes, ballet costumes that she had sewn and competition leotards, a helmet bag and two boot bags - on the ground.

“Go!” His voice was a harsh growl this time and he smirked as the mouse of a child jumped. He then walked back around to the front of the vehicle, started the engine and drove off toward the stables, covering her things in a cloud of dust.

Stepping forward, the young teen collected her things, bushing the dust off what she could, and walking toward the building that was clearly labeled as the school office. Pausing at the door, she drew in a breath through her nose and released it through her mouth before she placed her door on the handle, opened it and crossed the threshold. She then stood there for a heartbeat as she let her eyes scan the room before walking forward toward what she hoped was the front desk.

After signing in, she headed over toward the Washington Dorm and without any problem, located her room.

Looking around the room, she could see that it was already occupied by other people. Blowing out a breath, she walked over to the unclaimed bed and methodically began putting her things away. After she had remade the bed with her own sheets - one of the girl's many idiosyncrasies - it looked as though her part of the room was still unused as the sixteen year old didn't have anything to make the place "homey".

[Thoroughbred]

"Oh cool, am I rooming with a freshman?" Summer asked in a friendly up-beat voice as she strode into the dorm room and gently closed the heavy door behind her. Her white-blonde ponytail bounced as she walked. Summer plopped down on her neatly-made bed. Someone knocked on the door just as she sat down. She groaned. "Who is it?" she asked in a somewhat-irritated voice.
"It's your sexy brother, open the door," said the teasing voice. Summer's blue eyes widened a little bit in surprise; she didn't expect her brother to stop by her room. He rarely did. "Sorry, I hope you don't mind if I let him in," she said quickly as she walked over to the door and opened it. Everyone finds him attractive, so I don't think she'll mind, she thought.
Trey swaggered into the room, sporting a grey hoodie, straight cut jeans, and a pair of loosely tied, goldish Timberland boots. His dirty blonde hair was intentionally styled to look a little messy.
"Shorty," he said to Summer (referring to the fact that he was at least a foot taller than Summer), "what happened to your old roommate?" Trey pointed towards the new girl.
"Remember? Marissa got caught using drugs and was kicked off the riding team, so she transferred out," Summer said. She ten turned to her new roommate. "My bad. Where's my manners? I'm Summer, and this is my loser brother," she said, extending her hand out to shake Cara's. Trey jokingly and lightly punched Summer's shoulder.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara leapt almost sky-high when a female entered the room and started talking. She clenched her fists momentarily as she gathered herself and calmed her breathing. "Yes, ma'am." She replied in her whisper soft, English accented voice. She didn't care if the girl had just assumed that she was a freshman due to her lack of having a proper teenage body. Standing at barely 5 feet and having a curveless body didn't make it hard for others to workout that she was young, she just didn't want to go into the fact that she was much younger then most people are when they start University.

Her eyes flew to the door when there was a knock on it and a slight shiver ran through her when she heard a male's voice, but she didn't say a word as he was granted entry. She watched the male enter through her eyelashes, but didn't comment nor react to his presence as she went back to making sure the military corners on her bed were perfect.

She was half listening to their conversation when she suddenly realised that she was being spoken to. "It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Summer." She said as she turned around and shook the older girl's hand. "And you too, Sir." She knew that her formal way of speaking got on the nerves of a lot of teenagers, but this was just the way she had been trained to speak.

[Thoroughbred]

Trey laughed gently, revealing his charming smile. He ran his fingers through his hair and shifted his weight to his left leg, relaxing his right leg. "Don't call your future boyfriend 'sir'," Trey said with a smile. "I'm Trey.

Summer rolled her catty blue eyes; she was used to her brother flirting with girls in front of her. "So what's your name?" Summer asked politely. "By the way, I can give you a tour of -"

Trey interrupted his sister. "No, it's okay, I can give her the tour. I've been here longer than you, anyways," he insisted.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara listened to the male's cool, charm and resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she was all too used to men like him and wasn't having a bar of it. "With all due respect, Sir." She replied, her face remaining emotionless as she took a small step backward, creating more space between her and the male. "But I wish to address you as I have been taught is proper." Now that she could have rolled her eyes at if it had come out of the mouth of anyone else.

She turned slightly toward Summer. "I am called Cara-Jean." She replied. "Though I prefer Cara to the complete title." She listened to them... well argue would be the best term - about who was going to give her a tour around the school. She lifted a single fine eyebrow as she chose her next words carefully so that she didn't release too much information about herself and her so-called gift. "I thank you both, but I will decline either offer." She chewed on her lower lip before continuing, hoping that she wasn't going to get herself into a hole she couldn't get out of. "Right now, I just wish to go and make sure my mare has settled in."

[Thoroughbred]

Trey was annoyed by Cara-Jean's coldness for a few seconds, but he shrugged it off and ignored it. He maintained a straight face.
"Okay, are you sure you don't want me to show you to the barn?" Summer asked softly. "We should probably exchange phone numbers, just because we're room mates now," she added.
"Oh yeah," Trey said excitedly, "And I'm Summer's brother, so I we should exchange numbers, too, just in case,".
Summer scowled in annoyance and rolled her eyes at her brother's comment. "Get lost,"" she said, pushing him with her hands flat against his back and out of the room. She slammed the door behind him. "Sorry about that," she said, clearly a little embarrassed.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara gave her head a small shake. "Thank you, but I couldn't take up your time. The set-up of the school is pretty good, so it shouldn't take me long to find it." It was the truth, and saved her from having to say that she already had a map of the campus in her mind which she could bring up at any given time.

She chewed her lip at the mention of a cell phone. She did have one, but she wasn't allowed to give the number out as the phone was only there in case her social worker needed to get hold of her, and he would slaughter her if she gave the number to anyone else. "I don't have a phone of my own as of yet." She said simply. "I shall be sure to exchange numbers with you, Miss Summer when I do get one." If, you do get one. a voice in her head corrected.

She watched, quite perplexed, as Summer pushed her brother out of the room, and the small girl jumped as the door slammed shut behind the older boy. She bowed her head in response to her room-mate. "There is nothing to be sorry about." She replied, even though she was glad that there was once again only herself and Summer in the room. She couldn't tell this to the other girl though as she did not wish to offend her. And telling her she felt more comfortable without a male around would also lead to her explaining too much of her past that she would rather forget - if that were actually possible.

[Thoroughbred]

"No, no no, you don't have to call me Miss Summer," Summer insisted, beginning to think Cara-Jean was a little too proper. "Good thing I bought this stick on white board thing, we can write notes to each other just in case something happens or something like that," Summer said. She pulled a stick-on whiteboard out of her suitcase and pressed it onto the wall. She also pulled out a dry erase marker and put it on her dresser. "I'll leave the marker here," she said.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

"Yes, Ma'am." The words left her mouth in reply to being asked not to call Summer Miss before she could even stop herself. She chewed on her lower lip and a pained look flashed across the young teen's face before it vanished again.

At the mention of a whiteboard which was quickly supplied, Cara quirked an eyebrow but she remained silent. She nodded her head to what Summer was saying, but couldn't think of anything to say so that she wouldn't refer to the older girl as Miss or Ma'am. "Do you ride, M...um, Summer?" She asked, carefully picking her words as she didn't want to get on the wrong side of the other girl on her very first day.

Stepping over to the window, she watched a silver Chrysler and float vanishing down the driveway. The girl released a breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding as her delicate fingers touched the window-pane. Her nails were short and unpolished, though she had an almost perfect natural french manicure. She had never thought of either polishing her nails or growing them long as they would just get in the way of her sports, especially gymnastics. Her teeth played against the back of her teeth as she thought about needing to find the gym and see what equipment they had.

[Thoroughbred]

Summer's clear blue eyes lit up at the mention of riding. "Yes, I do! I have a beautiful horse, Thunderstruck - he's a thoroughbred that I helped train myself," Summer said dreamily. "I'm on the team. You should try out..." Summer grew distracted from Cara looking out the window. "What's out the window? A cute guy?" She started trotting towards the dorm window, trying to see what was out there that was so interesting. Her pale blonde ponytail bounced with her steps.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

A hint of a smile touched the sixteen year old's face as she listened to Summer talk about her horse. Just listening to people talk about their mount (whether they owned said animal or not) was a good indication of whether people ride for the horses or the prizes, and she could tell just from the tone of the older girl's voice that she was in it for the love of her horse. At the mention of the equestrian team, Cara gave a small shrug, she had no choice about joining the team, as it was what Tony Andrews wanted.

"Pardonnez?" She asked as she glanced away from the window. "Cute guy?" She shook her head as she worked out what Summer had meant. "No, Ma'am. I'm just..." No matter how hard she tried to word it, should couldn't get out a lie. "I am just looking to see if the vehicle that brought me has left yet." Another of her many idiosyncrasies was that she couldn't lie, or at least to anyone older then herself - there again though, she struggled to lie to anyone.

She drew in a deep breath. "If you will excuse me, I am going to go down to the stables." Just out of habit, she gave a graceful curtsy before walking over to her bed, picking the paddock boots out of her wardrobe and then sweeping out of the room.

[Thoroughbred]

"Okay, have fun. I'm going to organize my stuff; I'll see you later," Summer said. Summer could tell that Cara wanted some space. Although she was actually going to spend a few minutes organizing her room, she was planning on going down to the stable anyways. She owed her high-energy thoroughbred a visit.

Summer knelt down and transported her carefully-folded, colorful tops that were in her suitcase into the college-provided dresser. Summer used to be a slob, and she still sometimes was, but she was trying her hardest to "change her ways" and become neater. Cara-Jean seemed to be about her size - I'll tell her later she can feel free to borrow my clothes later, Summer thought. Sharing clothes was always fun, it was like having a never-ending wardrobe.

Summer finally finished unpacking, and took a hanger and planned her outfit for tomorrow. She hung it up on the bathroom door hook.

Summer changed her outfit into something barn-worthy. She quickly wrote on the whiteboard, Heading down the barn - I'm assuming you're still there. If not, ttyl.[/size] She then left the room and locked the door.