Sweet & Bitter Rivals (1) (Saddlehill Academy)

Rising seventh grader Abby St. Clair has been through a lot of changes in the past year. Her mother has been gone for a while, abandoning the family without explanation when she was seven. Her father is always very busy at work, but has recently married Emery's mother. Emery, who is a year younger and has never had a father, is also going to be attending Saddlehill Academy, a boarding school that is outside Boston and has a lovely campus, strong academics, and an equestrian program that is superb. Abby has her own horse, Beau, (A Dutch Warmblood) on campus, and is excited to train and compete against rival Canterwood Crest. Abby is okay with all of the changes, but a tiny git apprehensive about how much time her father is spending with Emery. She's also not thrilled that she is in the same house with Selly and Nina, who are both incredibly mean to her ever since Abby made a mistake at a competition that caused Selly to do poorly. When Abby gets a video on her phone from a mysterious source that makes it look like Abby was saying terrible things about Emery, she's devastated. She reaches out to Emery right away to tell her it isn't true, and starts to investigate the sourse with her friend, Vivi. Emery is understanding, especially since she sees the effort that Abby is going to to try to figure out who made the video. Of course, there are also classes to attend, horses to ride, and the occasional cute boy around, so Abby is plenty busy. Selly continues to say mean things to her and tries to undermine her confidence by befriending Emery and telling Abby that Emery is a much better rider. When the true identity of the video poster comes to life, will Abby be able to remain friends with Emery?