Rags to Rider

[Pip]

This is a story about an Arabian 14 year-old, called Atiya, who dreams of owning a horse of her own. She has watched races many times on a restuarant's television, and adores horses so much, but is too poor to get one. Atiya's parents are poor, and make their living selling rubbish recycled into crockery/jewellery etc.
One day, Atiya's father is arrested, for a murder he did not commit. Atiya's mother has a mental breakdown and Atiya goes with her to live with her great-aunt, a well-off English woman, who is their closest known relative. She has a large stables with many horses, and quickly selects a white mare with a black mane and tail called Melody, who she often rides. She makes friends with the groom, a 16 year-old called Thalia.
Her great-aunt sends her to school where she makes a few friends, all of whom love riding. On her 14th birthday, she invites her friends to come to her new home and hack out with her, spend the night camping in the nearby wood, and ride home the next morning. This is where the story really begins.

Characters to play (crossed out are taken):

Atiya: 14, schoolgirl. Favourite horse(s): Melody
Thalia: 16, groom. Favourite horse(s): Shock and Chess
Cass (Cassandra-Jane): 14, schoolgirl Favourite horse(s): Dinosaur
Cec (Cecily): 13, schoolgirl. Favourite horse(s): Chess
Minnie (Mildred) 13, schoolgirl. Favourite horse(s): Mars
Eleanor: 14, schoolgirl. Favourite horse(s): Stormy
Abbi (Abigail): 14, schoolgirl. Favourite horse: Shadow
_______________________________________

"So, Thalia, who will you be riding?" I asked the groom, who was tightening Melody's girth as I pulled down the stirrups.
"Cec will want to ride Chess, won't she?" Thalia replied, "So I'll ride Shock." I nodded, and mounted Melody, who gave a little snort and tossed her elegant head, her black mane whipping againt her paper-white ears, streaming in the breeze.
Thalia ran to fetch Shock and tack him up, while I rode out onto the driveway to greet my guests, a large backpack on my back.
Just as I reached the drive, Cassandra-Jane's car pulled up, and she kissed her father before leaping out, cltching a large bag.
"Hiya, Cass!" I called, waving.
"Hello, Atiya!" Cass called, in her neat, clipped accent. "Who am I riding?"
"Whoever you like," I replied, as Cass shut the gate behind her. "If I were you, I'd ride Dinosaur, he's the right size for you." Cass nodded.
"He's my favourite as well!"
One by one, my other friends arrived, except for Eleanor and Abbi, who came together as they were sisters. They all chose their horses, and, with Thalia's help, tacked them up and mounted them.
When we were all ready, I opened the gate and we all rode out. Thalia, bringing up the rear, shut in behind us, and we trotted along the road, towards Halloway Wood.
When we arrived at the wood, we cantered around the edge until we had gone about halfway aroud, when we slowed to a walk and weaved through the pine trees to a large clearing, flooded with warm, golden sunlight. We halted our ponies and dismounted, before removing their tack and placing it on fallen logs, covering them with tarpaulin.
From Thalia's backpack we extracted a tent, and we built it while the tethered ponies grazed nearby. When we had finished, we all went inside, and layed out our sleeping bags. Thalia's stuff was in my rucksack with mine, as Thalia had brought the tent.
A few hours later, it was dusk. We had a roaring fire on which we had a pan of boiling water filled with pasta. In the flames was an egg wrapped in tinfoil. Poking the egg out, I plonked it in a bowl and shelled it, before mashing it with a fork. Thalie drained the water from the pasta and added the pasta to my large bowl. We stirred the egg into it, and sponned it onto plates for everyone.
After we had eaten, we went into the tent and...

[Lottie]

I'll be Thalia!
-----------------
...'Caterpillar fight!' I yelled, throwing myself in my sleeping bag at Aitya. Soon we were all jumping round the tent in our sleeping bags, bashing each other with pillows.

[hannahlovespuzzle]

I'll be Cass.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We kept on having our pillow fight - feathers everywhere!, untill we turned our torches on and told ghost stories while stuffing our faces with chocolate!

[charm]

I'm Abbi.

***

I stayed outside with Shadow, stroking her gorgeous steel grey shoulder and smiling as she nuzzled my arm before pushing her muzzle into my chest, puishing backwards. I rubbed between her eyes, grinning and laughing as she pawed at the ground with a snort. The girsl apperead form the tent, grinning.
"Come on you guys, let's get moving!" called Thalia, grabbing her horses tack. I got Shadows head collar and buckled it on, leading ehr out of the feild, a field made out of electric taping. I lightly grooomed her dappled body before tacking her up and mounting. As usual, I was the first on,a nd so spent a few minutes trotting in a small clearing to get Shadow warmed up. Finally alll the others appeared through the trees at a trot and we headed out.

[Pip]

A midnight trek! This party was more fun than I had imagined! We rode around the woods and the fields bordering it, laughing and shouting as we trotted around, with an occaisional canter thrown in. At half past two, I rounded everyone up so we could have a wink of sleep before packing up and riding home tomorrow morning. I patted Melody, and replaced her saddle on the log we were using as a rack, before leading her to the field and lettting her loose with her friends.

[Charm]

I slipped Shadow a carrot before she slunk away to join the rest of the horses, whickering lightly and shuffling at the grass with her velvety muzzle.
I placed the saddle on the log and hung the bridle over it. Glancing at Shadow once more I ducked into the tent after Atiya, I grabbed my packet of marshmellows and offered them round very quickly so no one had time to grab one before I got one myself, well three but hey! Then I offered them round, missing out Atiya jokingly, before folding them up and putting them back in my bag, Atiya glancing my way every few seconds, hinting.

[Pip]

After everyone had settled into bed and the last torch was off, I slipped over to Abbi's bag, grabbed the marshmallow bag and took a handful, before tipping the rest on her face. I ran back to bed as Abbi sat up, confused, and switched on her torch. Seeing the pink and white blobs covering her pillow, she asked quietly: "Who did that?" I couldn't help giggling, so Abbi started throwing them at me. Throwing them back, I woke the girls near me, and soon we were having a raging marshmallow fight. When the last marshmallow had been eaten, everyone talked for a while before drifting into sleep.

[Charm]

I hopped around, snuggled in my sleeping bag as I went, bleary eyed and tripping over everyone to wake them up. I faked a cokerel's cockadoodledoo and jumped out of my sleeping bag, fully dressed with boots and all. I jogged outside, to help Atiya light the fire. We cooked some bacon and shovelled it onto plates with buttered bread as everyone came out, basically sleepwalking. We set them on the floor with blankets as we caught and groomed all horses before gicving the tack a once over clean as everyone went for a swim to clean themselves off in a nearby stream. Finally, they all trooped back to praise me and Atiya for our work, forcing us to go for a swim as they packed everything away onto the horses.

[Pip]

Pulling on our swimming costumes, Abbi and I headed for the river, splashing each other and screaming. The others could probably here us from the campsite! Sitting down on a barely submerged rock, Abbi and I chatted about the party, and how fun it had been with all the horses. I couldn't wait til Thalia's birthday next week, surely it would be this all over again? Until then, I just had to hope so...

[Charm]

We finally slipped back to the campsite, quickly drying and getting changed back. We helped evertyone tack up, each of us slinging a saddle bag over the horses back. Finalyl we all mounted, and settled our lively horses into a foreward going trot, with breaks of canter here and there to settle out fizzy horses.

[Pip]

Arriving back at the house, Thalia offered to take the girls and untack, while I went upstairs to tell my Great-Aunt and mother I was back. When I reached the lounge, no-one was there, so I hunted around downstairs, with no luck. Eventually I headed upstairs. I could hear sobbing...
I quickened my pace. What on Earth - ?
On reaching my Great-Aunt's room I knocked. No answer.. The anguished sobs came from behind the door. I had to go in. I flung the door open to a horrible sight. The corpse of my Great-Aunt lay, in eternal slumber, while my mother sobbed over the body. I rushed to the bed.
"Mum, mum, are you alright?"
Sobs
"Answer me Mum!" I could get no answer. My mother was beginning a mental breakdown. We had to get help.

[India]

I'm Eleanor.
..............................

Eleanor heard crying, and ran in.

"What's happened..."
she trailed off, seeing for herself.
"It's OK." she said, putting an arm around Atiya, "Everything will be alright, I know it will." though it was hard for her to say it with conviction, generally Eleanor always meant what she said.

[Pip]

"Well, Mum is still - here...." I tailed off.
"I'll get someone." Eleanor replied. "My Mum will help. So will Thalia." I nodded. I would be OK.

[India]

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her mobile. "Hello? Mum? It's me...yes, I'm still there...well, her aunt...she's just...passed away...yes, her mum is still here...but she's having one of her breakdowns. Can you come over? No we haven't phoned...you will? Alright, thanks Mum. Bye." She flipped her phone shut.
"Mum's coming over; she says she'll phone an ambulance."

[Pip]

"Might as well bring a Hearse too." At least I felt my sense of humour returning, though it was still dull, and numb with pain. Eleanor laughed shallowly, the hollow sound reverberating around the grief-stricken room, mingling irregularly with the tears of my mother. I knelt beside the bed, and kissed my Great-Aunts cold, white face, before kneeling to put my arms around my mother. We would be okay.