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There had been a flurry of activities for the past few weeks as both students and staff of Lumière International High School prepared for the interhouse competitions until finally, the week dawned.
A fever of excitement seized everyone in the school as they all readied themselves that morning. Some students and even a few teachers cast bets on which house would emerge the victor. The strong favourite was Aquila, which had been the winner for two years running.
Noel hadn’t been left out of the excited fever and as he painted his face in the Scorpius house colours, he chippered away pleasantly.
‘My first interhouse games, I’m so excited I could scream!’
‘Don’t,’ Jayden replied with a scowl.
‘Why are you in a dark mood today? It’s literally impossible to be in such a mood today of all days. Imagine it, the cutthroat competition, the bloodlust, the adrenalin pumping through everyone as they sit on the edge of their seats, the nail biting as they hope their house doesn’t lose, the excited roar of thousands of voices as their house wins a competition. It’s heaven,’ he finished with a sigh.
‘Oh, joy.’
‘Don’t be sarcastic,’ Noel chastened as he moved to dye his hair. ‘So what’s the problem with you?’
‘Nothing.’
‘It can’t be nothing.’
Jayden chose to ignore him and turned back to his book, which he read as he lay on his favourite couch. After a while, Noel stood in front of the door and looked askance at him.
‘You coming?’
‘No,’ he answered, not looking up from his book.
Noel opened his mouth to speak but closed it after a second thought. He looked at him one last time with worry before stepping out and closing the door silently behind him.
The roar of the crowds was so loud, it could be heard all the way in the dorms. After the third eruption, Jayden tossed his book aside, giving it up as a lost cause. Picking his music player and his earphones, he left the dorms for a walk to clear his head.
He made sure to avoid the fields where the competitions were taking place, and as he walked across the grounds, he let the music carry him as it always had to a place free of all burdens.
He stuck his hand in his grey hoodie and let his feet carry him wherever it wished. He soon passed the boathouse and came to stand before the still azure lake. He stood, watching the clouds glide effortlessly in its crystal surface and the small ripples that formed erratically on its surface.
He turned his face to allow it to be caressed by the cool gentle breeze that blew across the grounds and his rough haphazard thoughts were soon smoothened and carried away.
The sun was mild in its intensity and as he raised his face to be kissed by its warm rays, he felt a load lift from his shoulders. He sighed in contentment but that contentment was sadly not to last.
A voice he recognized all too well cut across like the perfect stillness like a knife.
‘Jayden! Hey, over here!’
Samuel jogged up excitedly to him with a bright smile on his face. He was donned in a tracksuit and trainers in his house colours and had a bag slung over his shoulder.
‘What are you doing over here all by yourself? Everyone is at the soccer match at Pitch 4.’
Jayden just glared at him.
‘It’s a shame I have to miss the game but I have to check if everything is ready for the boat race later in the day.’
Jayden turned around and begun to walk away but Samuel just trudged after him, his task completely forgotten.
‘What a bummer, I left just when Draco was about to score. We are leading Aquila by 3 points. Of course, no one is surprised by this, soccer has never been Aquila’s strongest suit but they are not taking it well.’
He chuckled at that. ‘You should see their faces. Their team almost attacked ours in the second half. You should have seen it, their captain pretended to fall and pulled down our captain’s shorts causing him to trip and fall. Of course, our guys couldn’t take it lying down so they pulled down their shorts and refused to play until Aquila was given a red card. So,of course, the Aquilas pulled down their shorts and demanded that we be given a red card. Then-.’
Jayden stopped suddenly, causing Samuel to trip by his side. He couldn’t take one more second of this rambling else he might just commit murder.
He turned to Samuel and glared daggers at him. ‘Leave.’
‘Come on, don’t be like that,’ Samuel said cheerfully. ‘You look like you need company to distract you from whatever is clearly bothering you so here I am. It won’t be right to leave you to fight those demons alone and until you feel that you can trust me enough to unburden yourself on me, I’m willing to be just a distraction.’
Jayden shook his head and gave up. As he continued to walk, he pulled up his hoodie and turned the music up to full blast to drown out Samuel’s incessant gibbering but the music player’s batteries soon run out. He sighed in resignation and resigned himself to his fate.
Samuel didn’t seem to notice and he continued to talk happily about everything and nothing. He also didn’t seem to mind that Jayden didn’t contribute or answer any question he put to him but that didn’t stop him from asking them.
Strangely enough, the presence of another person by him didn’t bother Jayden as much as he expected. In fact, he found out much to his surprise that that feeling of not having to walk alone was oddly comforting and that Samuel’s inconsequential chatter did indeed distract him from the demons raging in his head.
He wondered about this new feeling as they walked side by side, but he didn’t have long to wonder because the breeze soon carried a wonderful scent to him. He whiffed it curiously and his eyes brightened when he recognized it.
Hay.
He turned his direction and followed the smell down the hill until he came in sight of a stable house. Samuel stared curiously down at the stables wondering why they were looking at it. Before he could ask, however, Jayden had already begun to make his way towards it.
He rushed after him and they walked together towards the large stables. The stable house was empty of all people and the only sign of life were the horses who stomped their hooves and neighed every so often.
They were however proved wrong when a soft female voice was suddenly heard from the back. They followed the voice to the back of the building.
The owner of the voice was a second year student with pale blonde hair, which she had tied in a messy ponytail. She wore a yellow riding helmet and stood in front of a large racetrack and obstacle course. By her side was a beautiful honey-coloured mare with a white splash right in the middle of her forehead.
The girl was attempting to soothe the mare, which was twitching its ears and stomping her hooves nervously.
‘Calm down, Honey. It’s going to be alright. Calm down, there’s a good girl.’
Samuel cleared his throat to announce their presence before speaking. ‘Hello, where’s everyone?’
The girl looked up, startled. She glanced curiously at them. ‘They’re all at the games. The horse games aren’t until Thursday so the place is going to be empty for a day or so,’ she answered in a slight English accent.
Jayden had stepped closer to examine the mare who twitched and fretted even more at this unfamiliar people.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ Samuel asked, stepping closer to Jayden to have a look at the mare.
‘This is Honeycutt, but we call her Honey for short. She’s extremely shy and gets frightened easily. She has a problem performing and we don’t know what’s wrong with her. That’s why I’m here to work with her.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with her,’ Jayden finally spoke up. He was running his hand soothingly over Honey’s glossy coat. ‘She just lacks confidence.’
Honey leaned into Jayden’s touch, nuzzling his hand for him to pet her nose.
The girl looked closely at Jayden. ‘Hold my saddle! Oh my god! You are Jayden Mills! I can’t believe it! The Jayden Mills, right here in front of me! I think I’m gonna faint.’
‘Don’t,’ Jayden warned.
She stretched out a gloved hand. ‘I’m Chelsea by the way, Chelsea White. I’m a huge fan.’
Jayden just glanced down at her arm and Samuel, who was entirely confused by the whole thing, swooped down and shook it exuberantly.
‘Hi, Chelsea! I’m Samuel but you can call me Sam or S.K. One question though, why are we fans of Jayden?’
Chelsea looked surprised at the question. ‘Are you telling me you’ve never heard of Jayden Mills? The star of the racetrack? The jockey prodigy? The show jumping extraordinaire?’
Samuel shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not.’
Chelsea looked personally offended by his response. ‘He is the best horse rider of our generation. He’s won every single competition since he first sat on the saddle at twelve years. At fourteen, he won every race at the junior divisions and even proceeded to win all the races at the senior division. He remains the undefeated champion on the continent!’
She turned to Jayden. ‘I’ve been following you since your first race where you won with a comfortable lead even after you had a late start.’ She paused for a moment. ‘But then you suddenly stopped. There were mad speculations at the time but no one knew why.’
They were silent for a few moments when Chelsea asked tentatively, ‘Why did you?’
Jayden didn’t look up from where he was stroking Honey’s neck but at the question, a dark cloud seemed to descend upon him. The question hang in the air unanswered and an awkward silence fell.
Samuel, highly uncomfortable with the awkward atmosphere tried to change the subject. ‘How long have you been riding Chels?’
Chelsea blinked. ‘Me? Since I was nine but I started competing when I was thirteen. Hey, could you help me out front? I need to bring in a couple of things.’
‘Sure.’
She turned to Jayden. ‘We’ll be gone awhile so would you mind watching Honey for a bit?’
Jayden shrugged as he continued to pet her neck.
‘Thanks,’ Chelsea said brightly before leading Samuel to the front of the stables.
They never made it there however for when they had almost turned the corner, Chelsea had glanced behind her and when she had ascertained that Jayden wasn’t watching, she suddenly ducked behind a pile of haystacks pulling a surprised Samuel down with her.
‘What are you doing?’ Samuel asked as they crouched behind the hay.
‘Shh,’ Chelsea shushed him before peeking carefully over the haystack.
Samuel peeked with her and whispered, ‘Why are we hiding?’
Chelsea pulled him down and leaned back against the stack. ‘Someone like him doesn’t just stop racing,’ she explained. ‘He would never get on the horse if we were there so I wanted to see if he would if he thought we weren’t.’
Samuel cast her a strange look. ‘I don’t want to be the one to tell you that your plan is crazy.’
‘But?’
‘It’s crazy,’ he deadpanned. ‘What makes you think he’ll ride her? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he is not the type to suddenly jump on a horse and ride into the sunset.’
‘That’s what you don’t get,’ she countered, peeking over the top again. Jayden had now grabbed a grooming brush and was gently brushing Honey’s gleaming coat. He seemed lost in thought.
Samuel pulled her down after taking a peek himself. ‘What don’t I get?’
‘You don’t understand, people like him don’t just give up on something like this. There’s a part that always yearns to get back on the saddle and hold the reins once more. They yearn for the rush of the wind on their faces, they steady thumping of the hooves on the hard earth, the feel of the horse’s powerful body rippling beneath them, the adrenaline rushing through their veins.’
Her face had taken on a beatific look as she spoke. ‘You never get over that feeling and always want to experience it again. Besides,’ she added, shaking the look of her face. ‘Didn’t you notice it?’
‘Notice what?’
‘The fire that lit in his eyes when he saw the racetrack and obstacle course. It disappeared and flickered back to life when I was talking about his glory days. It was there for just a moment but it was there.’
They both turned to peek over the hay.
‘Trust me on this,’ Chelsea whispered. ‘Everything in him will be dying to get on that course.’
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I know I’m late with this update but I fell sick but don’t worry, I’m better now.
To make it up to you, this is a double update 🤗. How exciting is that!
Do you think Jayden will get up on the horse? What do you think caused Jayden to stop riding?
Lemme know in the comments and don’t forget to vote if you enjoyed this chapter😊.
P.S: Happy belated birthday to Uraverageshipper666 happy sweet sixteen and have fun crashing cars😉.
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