I woke up to an earthquake. Jumping up in bed, I hugged the covers to me as the shaking and pounding that engulfed me stopped, allowing the chandelier hanging above my head to settle back down to complete stillness. My brother stepped through the doorway of my bedroom, letting the door slam against the wall behind him. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked super agitated.

"You didn't have to wake up the whole neighborhood with your footsteps, you know," I groaned, squinting toward him. Ace merely shrugged and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

"Be ready and downstairs in ten minutes maximum or else you're driving us to school," he called from the other side of the door. The pounding continued.

The room spun as I searched around for my clock, conscious that it was still dark outside. As my eyes adjusted, the neon digits shifted around until they read 4:30 am. I wasn't even confused about why Ace was waking me up this early; the suspense of this day had kept me awake and on my toes for months. It was September 1^ and Ace and I had to drive to Clare Prep, the boarding school two hours away, where we would be spending the next two years of high school. I groaned as I got up and slowly made my way to the bathroom around the piles of textbooks on my floor that had been lying there since the day I received my letter of acceptance to the prestigious high school. With each step, the cacophony of conflicting emotions that overwhelmed me from the moment I opened my eyes seemed to get louder and louder until my whole body was ringing. Any control over my feelings completely deserted me, leaving only a swirl of fear, anger, excitement, anticipation, and sadness in its place.

It was hard for me, this change. It meant that I had to give up riding, my horses, and everything else in my life that I had relied on for so long. The year before, my parents had pushed and prodded my brother and me to take this opportunity, a new chance to be able to start over and rebuild our lives. For years they had wanted to send us to boarding school; my dad had a bad experience transitioning into college and leaving his family behind. He had gone to the same public school as us and claimed that the curriculum hadn't prepared him for the rigors of college academics at all despite the number of AP's he had taken. Our whole lives he always talked about how a prep school could have saved him years of regret and anger. When two extra spots at Clare opened up after years of waiting, my parents pounced on the opportunity and forced us to apply. Ace had been all for it since he had always wanted to go to boarding school and as far away from home as possible. ... he was the type of kid to hate anything that had to do with his parents and childhood. But me. ... me? Well, I was packed now, wasn't I? So, life reconstruction it was.

I had heard so many terrible rumors about junior year and its notorious tendency to burn high school students out. Yet, for some reason, I wasn't scared. I glanced around my room at all the ribbons that adorned the walls, but not even one picture of a friend. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do without riding. I wouldn't really call myself a social butterfly, and before, that had been fine for me because of my horses. Now, I was alone. The day before, I had visited my horses for the last time. I wasn't sure when I would see them next, if ever. From the moment I accepted the spot at Clare, I knew that I was putting my riding future on the line. At first, I thought that I could do it ... after all, I never dreamed of riding professionally, so I knew that there would be an end-date to my competitive riding. I just never knew that the date would come so quickly.

I shut the door of my bathroom and ran a brush through my hair, staring at my face. There were dark circles under my dark brown eyes and my hair stopped midway down the small of my back. My features were really nothing to point out; I was the plainest looking person anyone could be and my personality was not really one to add a glow around me. My whole life, my twin brother Ace had always been the shining star. His eyes, a dark hue of green, with his dark brown hair and chiseled features, always caught the attention of everyone around him. His personality was magnetic: the complete opposite of mine. He, unlike me, wanted to reach out to people, know people. I just never saw the reason why. Because of these, most people radiated to him, leaving me in the dust as just "Ace's sister," a by-product that Ace had to live with.

"Erin, let's go! We have to leave now if we want to make it in time to move in!" Ace's low voice echoed from downstairs. Outside, the sky was still dark. I flipped my hair, grabbed my bag, shoving the textbooks into it as quickly as possible, and slipped out the door of my bedroom. Before I made it to the staircase, my mom emerged from her room, her eyes sleepy.

"Hi, sweetie! Have a nice day, and don't get into too much trouble," she smiled, winking. "By the way, are you sure that you don't want me to take you two to school? It feels weird just letting you go on your own," she added, biting her lip nervously. The whole summer, she had planned out the first day of school from the moment we would wake up to the moment we would say goodbye to her. However, as September approached, Ace got more and more agitated with her planning until one day he told her that he didn't want her to come. His remark really hurt her, so my dad, in order to make her feel better, told her that us going on our own into a new environment would be a great life lesson. He always believed in independence and self-reliance and told her that learning these valuable life lessons at such a young age would really help us in the long run. So, my mom agreed, on the one condition that she would drive us home on the last day of school.

I smiled at her, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing her once before letting go.

"We'll be fine on our own, Mom. I promise."

"Okay ... just please, don't let Ace push you around at Clare. Stand up for yourself; you need to show him that he can't look down upon you and that he needs to treat you with the same respect that he wants to be treated with. And if he gives you any trouble, just give me a call. This is your chance to show everyone what an amazing and unique person you are, Erin. This is your chance to show them that Ace does not dictate your life and your friends ... you do."

She touched my cheek before she made her way back into her room. I smiled as I made my way downstairs and to the kitchen where Ace was leaning against the counter with an orange in his hand. He raised his hand in greeting, tossing me the orange at the same time. It bumped into my shoulder with a painful thump, and I bent down to scoop it up before it hit the ground.

"So, Erin, is junior year going to be the same as every year? You know, no one knowing your name, etc., etc., etc., need I say more?" he scoffed, shaking his head. I frowned. As per usual, Ace and I were two entirely different people. I stared down at my shoes for a second before looking back up and plastering on a tight grin.

"You betcha. I mean, at least I'll be going somewhere with my life," I smirked forcibly, leaning over and grabbing the car keys off the rack over our sink. I needed him to think that I was strong.

Ace grunted as he made his way next to me, and we walked outside. I crossed my arms in front of me and walked quickly to the car. I tossed the...