Together Forever

## Synopsis

Everything seems horrible in Hadley’s life before she joins an interesting camp and meets a very special horse which gives her the chance to turn her life in the direction of happiness and success.

## Chapter 1 - Hadley’s Life

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick Tock.

The hands on the clock seemed to be moving ever so slowly. *Just fifteen minutes left*, Hadley thought, concentrating hardly on the face of the clock, *then it's goodbye school, hello weekend*.

"Hadley," Ms Colleen called as the distracted 15 year old sat up quickly, "would you mind writing up the answer to this equation?" The teacher pointed to a complicated algebra expression with her stick.

Hadley stood up slowly while trying to quickly calculate the answer. She never considered herself a good mathematician. Scientist, yes. Artist, yes. Historian, yes. Mathematician, never in a million years. She unhurriedly walked her way to the front of the classroom, where Ms Colleen handed her a marker. She twisted the lid off and placed the tip of the pen next to the "equals" sign. She hesitated before writing the number 210.

Ms Colleen raised an eyebrow at her student as if to say, "really?".

"I- I'm sorry, Ms Colleen. I've never been good at maths." Hadley apologised, giving the marker back and rushing to the bathroom. As she exited, she could hear the faint mocks of her classmates, saying how dumb she was.

Later that day, after school, Hadley arrived home.

"Hey sweetie, how was sc-" Mrs Rockhill asked as Hadley walked past but was cut off due to the fact her daughter had stormed off to her bedroom.

"I'm tellin' ya mum, she probably gets bullied but doesn't tell us." Piper, Hadley's sister said, taking bites from her apple. "Could you check on her for me, Pip?" Their mum asked as Piper nodded then placed her unfinished apple down.

"Knock, knock," she said, opening Hadley's bedroom door, "are you alright, Hads? You've been actin' up lately." Piper asked worriedly, hugging her little sister.

"Are you kidding? I'm doing *great*." Hadley sarcastically remarked, trying to hide her depression. Piper raised an "is that the best you can do?" eyebrow.

"Is it *that* obvious?" Hadley smacked her head down on her bed as she stared up at her star-themed ceiling. She pointed up saying, "that. That is the only thing that calms me down." Hadley expressed, tearing up.

Piper could read the expression on her sister's face. "Look, Had Had. I miss him too, alright? I know your life has been absolutely miserable ever since Jonas passed but, don't think of it as a sad thing. Think of it as a "congratulations" for all the things he'd accomplished." She said before being squeezed to death by a sorrowful, crying Hadley.

"You have no idea how much I miss him!" She sobbed into Piper's shoulder before Mrs Rockhill entered the room to see her daughters in tears. "Oh girls, you poor things. What's going on?"

Hadley's red, swollen eyes gazed into her mum's. She spoke softly with a croaky voice, "we miss him, mum. We miss him so much!" Mrs Rockhill hugged her two daughters affectionately before she, eventually, started crying as well. "I miss him too, girls." She whispered, "he was an amazing son."

## Chapter 2 - Jorvik Camp

"How's my favourite li'l Hads doin'?" Mr Rockhill called, dropping his luggage before giving his youngest daughter a tight hug.

"Hey dad! It's been, how long now? Almost two months since you were here?" Hadley asked, excited that her father had now returned home after a long business trip to Jorvik.

"Forget the details. I have some great news for you!" He yelled even more excitedly, sitting his daughter down on a chair. "I've gathered enough money for you, and your sister, to join a summer camp in Jorvik!" As he said this sentence, both Hadley and Piper's faces lit up in eagerness and hope. To tell the truth, they both *hated* life in America more than anything.

However, Hadley remembered something. "Wait, what's a Jorvik?" She asked, tilting her head like a confused puppy. Mr Rockhill chuckled loudly, gathering the disturbed looks from the people around them.

"Jorvik's not a what. It's a *where*. And it's a small island located somewhere just off the Gold Coast down in Australia." Mr Rockhill explained, showing them a satellite image on his phone. (This information was made up and is completely false as I do not know where the island of Jorvik is situated.)

"Ohhh," the two sisters said in unison. "Wait, what'll we even be doing at the camp and how long does it go for?"

"Well, that first part will remain unknown until you arrive and it goes for about two-three months. Something along those lines. Now, let's go home and start packing. You guys are leaving first thing next week!"

"Sheesh dad, are you trying to get rid of us?" Piper asked as their father gathered his luggage.

"Yes. Yes I am." Mr Rockhill joked as the girls playfully shoved him.

**Time Stamp**

"This place is so cool!" Hadley yelled excitedly as she exited the airport. Breathing in the air, she noticed it slightly smelled of horse manure. She and the rest of her family took a Jeep to a small stable, "Moorland Stables." She pronounced, reading the sign that hung above the entrance gates.

After getting settled in and saying goodbye to her parents, she and Piper walked together to a paddock, where they were assigned to go. "I'm guessing we'll be riding horses all summer," Piper groggily said, still jet lagged from the long flight.

Before being able to reach the paddock, a boy stopped them. He looked around the age of Piper; eighteen. "Hey, you must be Piper and Hadley Rockhill. I'm Pierre Snowweb. People normally know me because of my famous sister, Izabella." He introduced. "Anyways, allow me to escort you to the paddock."

When they reached the paddock, the girls could see a group of about thirteen people and a whole heap of horses who stayed clustered in the paddock just grazing peacefully. Leaving their eyes on the gorgeous horses, the girls made their way to the group.

"Hey everyone! I'm Melanie and I'll be your riding instructor for your time at this camp. now, first things first-" she started before being cut off mid sentence.

"We choose our horses?" A girl called out. She had chestnut hair, blue eyes and a seriously revealing set of clothes.

"No, Tegan. We are not choosing horses just yet. Besides, the horse chooses you." Melanie cryptically said, confusing a whole bunch of the riders.

## Chapter 3 - Introduce Yourselves

"Let's start off by introducing ourselves. As you all know, I'm Melanie." She pointed to the person next to her as he introduced himself as "Corbyn". In the corner of Hadley's eyes, she could see Tegan drooling at the sight of Corbyn, which made her laugh to herself.

"Giggles." She called as Hadley looked up to see Melanie and everyone staring at her. "Anything you'd like to share?"

"Um, no ma'am. Sorry." She said, hiding her smile. "Well then, perhaps you'd like to introduce yourself next."

"Well, my name's Hadley. Um, through my very short period of experience, I can easily say that horse riding is not easy and that the difficulty of it makes it *so* enjoyable! I mean, the wind against your face as you zip against it on your magnificently stunning companion. I just-" Hadley stopped herself as she realised she had been rambling.

"Hadley, that was beautiful! I can see someone here is passionate about horses." Melanie smiled at the enthusiastic 15 year old.

**Hadley's POV**

After Melanie got everyone to introduce themselves, I remembered quite a lot. One being everyone's names; Corbyn, Kyle, Tegan, Izabella, Rey, Benji, Pablo, Ethan, Zelda, Lacy, Stacy, Alistair and Zayn. Two being that I should definitely not offend Tegan. And three being the fact that Piper had to be moved to a different group because of her age. Oh well, at least she has Pierre.

Now, it was time for the horses to choose us. I was still confused about what that meant but, I trusted Melanie. Everyone stepped inside the large paddock as Melanie closed the gate, making sure the horses weren't able to escape. For a few minutes, we all just stood there, looking like a bunch of monkeys, before a horse approached Kyle. It was a chestnut tobiano Pinto Arabian, clearly a male. He sniffed Kyle's hair before nudging him playfully. From outside, Melanie nodded before yelling, "that's Cocodrop. He chose you Kyle! You can step out now."

After getting the gist of how this whole "the horse chooses you" thing, I stood completely still. Everyone had already had horses choose them. Well, everyone besides me and that Corbyn guy. We both looked at each other before a bay Jorvik Warmblood mare walked up to me and chewed at my hair. "She chose you, Hads!" I heard my sister yell as she walked past with her new buckskin Lusitano.

"That's Smokefall. She’s a beauty, isn't she?" Melanie told me as Smokefall bent her head down to my height while I stroke her forehead and muzzle.

She was soft beyond all softness! She was such an elegant beauty, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

"Smokefall." I repeated, gently placing a loose rope around her neck then leading her out of the paddock. I tied her firmly to a post, making sure the rope around her neck was loose so it wasn’t strangling her but was still tight enough so she couldn’t run away.

I stood next to Smokefall, watching Corbyn who was still horse-less in the paddock. Suddenly, a black Lipizzaner stallion approached him as they instantly became best friends. We all watched as the pair exited the paddock.

Soon, all the riders and their horses were gathered around a huge field.

"Today, we'll be doing simple low-bars. Has everyone here done horse-jumping before?" Melanie queried, looking at the group of riders in front of her while using the brim of her hat as a shield against the blinding light the midsky sun cast upon them.

Everyone nodded before getting on their horses then trotting to form a line. Of course, Tegan was at the front.

"Okay, Tegan, can you demonstrate how to do a jump?" Melanie instructed as the egocentric chestnut-haired, blue-eyed girl tucked in her heels before spanking her horse's neck violently. As her horse galloped towards the obstacle, she leaned close to her horse's neck as the horse lifted it's front two hooves off the ground before pushing both its own weight and Tegan's weight off the ground powerfully. The two landed with a loud **THUD** on the other side of the bar.

"Very good. However, please do not disrespect Waterspell. Alright, who's next?"

## Chapter 4 - Friends?

Hadley and the rest of her group had now finished jumping and were taking a break for lunch.

Inside the dining hall, Hadley was sitting alone as Piper was busy with her new friends, including Pierre. Suddenly, three familiar faces approached her; two boys and a girl.

"Hey Hadley! Can we sit?" The girl asked as Hadley nodded silently.

While they organised themselves on the short benches, Hadley realised who they were. Izabella, Corbyn and Rey, from her group.

"You guys were great today." She said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Are you joking? There's no way we were as good as you! The way you and Smokefall soared above the jumps. You made it look so elegant!" Rey said enthusiastically while Izabella and Corbyn nodded in agreement. "I'm sure you'll be chosen!"

"Chosen for what?" Hadley asked curiously.

"Up in Silverglade, Thalia - the best actor and director in all of Jorvik - is planning on shooting a remake of the greatest horse movie in history, *Canter Ella*. She's currently looking for some of the best jumpers! And I saw the way Melanie smiled as you did your jumps. You're totally gonna be a movie star!" Izabella excitedly announced.

"I'm not quite sure I want that... I mean, I'm sure it'll be fun and all but I came here to grow a special bond with Smokefall and push away my stress, not create more. Besides, I'm sure the "beautiful and magnificent" Tegan is already plotting some sort of plan to make sure she gets chosen." Hadley answered honestly, exaggerating the last part about Tegan. The other three just laughed.

"I have a feeling we're going to get along well, Hads." Corbyn finally said, smiling at Hadley as she smiled back.

"So... Friends?" She asked.

"Friends." Rey, Izabella and Corbyn responded in unison.

## Credits & Reminders

Together Forever

A short story written by Alaska

I'd like to thank my sister for helping me create the title page. Also, thanks to the Pixlr creators because that's the editor I used.

Check the online, free Pixlr out here.

Now, the character, Izabella Snowweb, is actually a YouTuber. One of my absolute favourite Star Stable YouTubers. She also owns another character called Phoebe Snowweb. Check her out here.

Also, please remember that I'll be trying to upload one chapter everyday and sometimes, they may not come because I'm also writing a different story and I'm quite occupied with school and my hobbies as it is.