Britco Academy

The courtyard of Britco Academy was packed. It was two days
before the classes started and the start of year presentation.
Most of the girls wore pink skirts and pink shirts, but there was
one girl that stood out from the rest; and her name was Veronica
Morgan. She had on a black band logo tee, baggy jeans, and her
hair was jet black, which also stood out amidst the bleach blond
girls. With all the differences between her and the other girls,
there was one similarity; they were all rich. She had a limo, a
driver, and designer clothes (although they are not the same
style and color as most rich girls.)

Veronica grabbed the lightest of her bags, and her driver,
Andrew, carried the rest. She hurried to her dorm room so she
could check on Mercury, her black Thoroughbred. She assured
Andrew that she was settled, and ushered him out. When he
left, she hurried down the hall to go outside. When she walked
outside, a lot of girls were in their riding outfits also and walking
towards the five barns on campus. She knew that Mercury was in
Barn C, so she turned left, toward Barn C, which is also toward
the cross-country course that her father paid for last year. When
she got to the entrance of the barn, she looked at the stall
assignments that were posted outside and saw that her horse
was all the way at the end (which she hated because that meant
more walking). On her way to the end, at least three girls
bumped into her. The barn was crowded, but not too crowded
that horses couldn't walk past each other. A lot of the girls were
leading the horses out, but a couple were leading them in.
When she got to Mercury's stall, he was pawing at the stall door,
he looked distressful. Victoria opened his stall door and he
stepped back, but still pawed at the ground. She looked around
to see if there were any small animals like rodents in his stall, but
she didn't see anything. She tried to soothe him. He tried to push
past her toward the door, which she left half open. She inched
toward the opening, so she could slip out and close it, but
Mercury finally go back, she yelled after him, but he kept on
running, jumping over the gate to the field, and over the fence
that ended the property of Britco Academy.Veronica went into
the office and called her parents to tell her what happened. They
couldn't believe that he did that. He was usually so docile and
calm. They said that they were going to go to the school to help
find Mercury. She went to the headmaster's office and also told
her what happened. She sent a foreman to thoroughly check the
stall to see what spooked him. The foreman couldn't find
anything wrong in the stall.

Veronica, her parents, and a few foreman went looking for the
horse. The reason why there were some many people looking for
one horse was that the horse cost close to $45,000. Usually, for
any other horse, they would have two people ask the
neighboring farm to see if they saw a runaway horse, but not
with this one. They checked every house and farm within a
twenty mile radius. Once they finished their search (without
finding Mercury) it was late at night. Her parents went into the
farm house to get some coffee while Veronica stayed near the
entrance of the school, in case Mercury found his way back. She
sat on the bench in front of the fountain and put her chin in her
hands, looking at the ground. She was about to nod off to sleep,
when she felt something tickle her forehead. She thought it was
a fly or something, so she swatted at it. She looked up and saw
that it was Mercury! He had found his way home! She led him by
the mane to the closest paddock. She ran into the farm house
and told her parents that he had come back. They put their
coffee down and rushed to the paddock where Veronica put
Mercury for the time being. He looked fine, but still looked
stressed.The headmaster looked on Mercury's body to see if he
was hurt, and he wasn't, except a welt on his neck. They went to
the dutch door of his stall that leads to outside and looked
around. He saw a whip hidden behind the row of muddy boots
that the student left to be cleaned. The whip had the initials JM
engraved on the handle. There was only two students with
those initials; James McCain and Jaquelyn Mars. Jaquelyn was
home recovering from a back injury she recivied during a jumping
competition.

The headmaster took Veronica and her parents to go and see
James. He was in the common room when they found him. He
was rubbing his hand, staring into the fireplace. Veronica
grabbed his hand and demanded to know how he got it. He said
that he fell during riding, but she could tell it was from a bite. The
headmaster asked why his whip was outside Mercury's stall. He
didn't know why. He said that he had been sitting in the common
room at the time of the incident. After threatening him with
suspension, he finally fessed up the story. He said that he had
just finished riding Midnight Story, his mustang, when he was
walking past the barn. Mercury had his head out and was looking
at him. James got mad because he would not stop staring at him.
He cracked his whip to scare him, but that didn't work. He got
closer and cracked the whip again, but this time it hit Mercury's
face, he started rearing and whining really loud. James freaked
out tossed his whip behind the boots.

In the end, he was only suspended from going anywhere near
the barn for a month, and had detention three times a week for
two months.