Chestnut Hill #1: The New Class

Dylan looked up and at the sound of the door opening. She felt her heart jolt as she prepared herself for the fact that her parents had likely come back for more goodbyes. Instead, it was Noel Cousins who smiled in at her before stepping back to let a petite girl with shoulder-length blond hair step into the room.

Dylan stood up and helped the girl drag in her suitcases. “Welcome to Room Two!” she said, feeling like a veteran. Acting confident seemed to ease the butterfly battle in her stomach.

“Thanks.” The girl smiled, pulling her hair back from her cute, heart shaped face and putting it in a ponytail.

“Dylan, this is Felicity.” Noel said. “I trust that you will show her around. Just make sure you’re both at the convocation.”

“No problem.” Dylan waited for Noel to shut the door behind her before turning to her new roommate. “How are you doing, Felicity?”

“I haven’t been called that in ages,” the girl replied, almost in a whisper. “It sounds so formal. You can just call me Honey.”

Dylan blinked when she heard her new roommate’s polished accent, but she didn’t miss a beat. “Nice to meet you, Honey. I’m Dylan. I’m from Connecticut.”

“Oh, I’m from…well, I used to live in London, in England. We’ve only just moved out here - my father is a professor at the University of Virginia, Honey explained. She nodded toward the suitcases on the far bed. “Are they yours?”

“No!” Dylan said quickly. “They belong to Lynsey Harrison. I like to think of her a BBB.”

Honey turned and raised a thin blond eyebrow.

“Best Bed Bagger,” Dylan translated, her face perfectly straight. “I mean, I guess it’s first come, first served, so I don’t really blame her.”

Honey smiled. “So we get to choose between the other two, then?”

“You go first, I’m cool with either one.”

“Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind, I’ll take this one.”

Honey pointed to the bed nearest the door. She skirted Dylan’s bed and lifted up a stylish plaid backpack. She unzipped the front pocket and pulled out a stack of photographs.

“Hey, he’s gorgeous!” Dylan exclaimed, spotting a picture of a showy chestnut pony jumping over parallel bars. “Is he yours?”

“He was. His name’s Rocky. My parents bought him for me when I was nine, but I had to leave him in England.” Honey reached out to trace her finger across the glass in the photo frame.

“That must have been really hard,” Dylan said sympathetically. She had never had a pony of her own, but she knew how difficult it had been saying goodbye to Morello after riding him for only two weeks.

She figured it would be kind of rude to head straight for the stableyard now that Honey had arrived. She started to unpack, almost wishing she had taken her parents’ offer to help as she realized just how much she had brought with her - her school uniform, riding stuff, clothes for wearing around the dorm, clothes for formal dinners, not to mention books and photos. And at the bottom of the case, there was a stuffed panda bear named Pudding that her grandmother had knitted when Dylan was a baby. He was a bit squashed after being stuffed in the oversized suitcase, but she gave him a shake, pummelled his nose back into shape, and propped him on her pillow.

Honey glanced over and caught her eye. For a moment Dylan paused. Is it totally babyish bringing a stuffed bear to boarding school? But then Honey wordlessly took out a small brown bear and tucked him under the top of her duvet, before flashing a grin at Dylan.

“There was no way I was coming here without Woozle!” she joked.

Relaxing, Dylan unwrapped the layer of tissue paper from around the first photograph. It showed her dad holding up a sign for his engineering company’s new branch with his other arm around Dylan’s mom. The next photo was one of her standing next to Morello, the yellow ribbon clipped to his bridle.

“Oh, do you ride too?” Honey asked, leaning over to look. “What a fabulous pony!”

“This is Morello. I can’t believe he’s here at Chestnut Hill. He’s a little spoiled. He’ll probably expect a bunch or organic carrots off a silver platter when he sees me,” Dylan told her. “I was about to go down to the stable before you got here. Do you want to head down together?” She glanced at her watch. “We’ve got lots of time before convocation.”

Honey’s brown eyes lit up. “That sounds good.”

Dylan grinned, figuring things couldn’t get that much better - and she’d only been at Chestnut Hill for an hour. She sprang to her feet. “Let’s go!“