Important authors note at the end!

The next morning, when I woke up and went to the cafeteria where I hopped I would find Heather so that I could apologize. I indeed found her, and when we locked eyes, she glared a t me, but that didn't stop me from walking over to the table where she was sitting.
"Hey" I said softly. She ignored me. "I just came over to say that I'm sorry about yesterday, I could have been very stressed but that is no excuse to be rude with you." I admitted. I looked at her but saw no change in her. I sighed and turned on my heel to walk away. I headed over to the stables and tacked up Mandala, I was going for a hack to clear my head. I walked her out and swung into the saddle and trotted away. I loosened my grip on the reins and let Mandala walk through the trail. I felt my eyes water and a tear slip down my cheek, it was the first time since I got here that I felt homesick, I felt like I didn't belong. I turned Mandala through the long trail and weaped quietly. I leaned over Mandalas chestnut neck and cried on her, she nickered as to say it was all going to be okay. I cried for a while as I walked through the trail, then a shape came into view, as it got closer, I saw it was Eric riding Noir. I wiped my eyes as he got closer, I think he noticed I had been crying because he stopped and in a calm voice asked me if I was okay.
"Yes, I'm okay." I answered softly sniffling.
"Really? You don't look okay..." he pressed the topic and lightly touched my arm, my whole body felt like if it was on fire. I surrendered hiding what was wrong and spit it all out.
"No, it's not okay!" I said, new tears forming in my eyes "I failed two tests the other day, and I lost my temper with Heather and she won't talk to me, I think she doesn't want to be my friend anymore!" I felt my voice crack, but i continued "I-I just have so much pressure on me right now. I have to take the team to do well at regionals and we are not close to being ready, I have focusing so much on riding, that I have let my grades slip, and my friends as well." Tears flowed down my cheeks, prickling my porcelain colored skin. He dismounted and opened his arms inviting me into a hug, I hoped off Mandala and let Eric hug me. I buried my head in his shoulder and cried a couple of tears. Eric held me tight softly rubbing my back.
"It's going to be okay Amber,you have to trust yourself. And I'm sure heather won't be mad at you forever, just give her time." He whispered to me "and maybe you could ask Ms. Steel for a little break of being head rider and you get ahead of your schoolwork and you fix things with Heather, it's all going to work out." I greatly appreciated Eric's help and confort. We stayed there a bit longer before I took a step back, I suddenly felt embarrassed of shoving all of my problems on Eric.
"I'm so sorry for dumping all of my problems on you." I said wiping my tears away.
"It's okay, you can tell me anything." He said. I offered him a small smile and thanked him for listening to me and conforting me. We walked back to the stables leading our horses. I handed Mandalas reins over to Mike, my groom so that he could set her up for my lesson while I walked my face and got ready for my lesson.

In the lesson, I couldn't focus, my mind was wondering about Eric and my eyes constantly flicked over to Heather, I tried to lock eyes with her, but she would avoide them.
"Amber! Your turne" Ms. Steel broke through my thoughts. I taped Mandalas sides with my heels asking her to canter, I counted my strides and flew over the first three fences, that was when I realized that softer I jumped the fourth fence, I didn't know the rest of the course. I quietly scolded myself for zoning out while Ms. Steel explained the course. We approached the jump quickly and I only flashed back to reality when we were two strides away from the 1.20 cm jump, I instantly noticed that we were not going to make the right distance, I tried to correct Mandala but it was too late. My mare stopped short in front of the jump making me loose my balance. I luckily stayed on, but I was embarrassed, I walked over to Ms. Steel and although she didn't say anything, I knew what she was thinking, this made my cheeks flush a brighter hue of pink. I went over the same jump to end on a good note, this time we cleared it, and I asked Ms. Steel if I could leave, even though the lesson wasn't over, I also asked if we could talk a moment. I untacked Mandala and gave her many pats, I didn't blame her for refusing, it was my fault.
"I'm so sorry girl, I wasn't focused today. What you did was right, I should have been paying more attention, if you wouldn't have refused, we would have had an injury. I'm so sorry!" I whispered into her ear. I spent some time grooming her and walked slowly to Ms. Steels office prepping what I was going to say to her.

I knocked on her wooden door and I heard her voice asking me to come in. I opened my door letting myself into the pretty office, it was full of pictures and rossetes. Ms. Steel motioned me to sit down and I did.
"What happened out there today, Amber?" She inquired in a knowing tone.

"That's what I wanted to talk about actually. When I first got here, i was granted with the title of head rider, and I have loved it so far, leading this amazing team to Nationals, but the greatest comes with pressure. Lately I have been putting riding ahead of all the rest, it has been my top priority, and because of it, I'm not doing homework because I spend all afternoon planning the next lessons. I have been getting bad grades and I have been juggling riding, school and my social life. I have been going to bed late and I haven't been in the right mind, I have so many thing to do and so much pressure on me and I can't handle it any more. I can't have more bad grades, and yesterday I had a big fight with heather because of all this pressure, and she won't talk to me, I think I lost a friend." I continued " this has been fun, but I'm going to quit." I said finally, I had made my choice. Ms. Steel didn't show emotion so I stayed quiet.

After a while, she broke the silence saying "no Amber, you are not quitting. You have done a great job, all the exercises are beneficial but still fun for you, you have done great things with this team!" She said with a smile, and that was saying a lot, she never smiled! " I will give you a break for as long as you need, but I expect you to regainin this position. And things are going to be fine with Heather, and your grades are going to improve, although they are not at all bad." She said and let me go, I left happy with the final decision, I was going to take a break. I texted Eric to tell him what had happened.
Amber: hey! I just talked to Ms. Steel and I'm going to take a break. Thanks for your advice. I'm now off to see if H wants 2 talk 2 me.
Eric: that's awesome A! And good luck with H!!
Amber: fingers crossed!

I walked to my dorm, I was going to make things better with Heather.

Omg! I'm so sorry for the terrible chapter! As some of you may know, I have kind of lost motivation for writing, I don't enjoy that much anymore, I think that part of it is because I don't have a direction with this story. This chapter was kind of forced, I just wrote it because you guys didn't deserve to be left hanging, that's why it wasn't a good one. I'm not proud of this chapter, and I don't want the rest to be like this one, so I'm going to take some time to figure out the rest before I write the next chapter. This may take long, or a short amount of time, I'll tell you what's going on. Anyways I hope you liked it! ~Lilaph