First, There Were Three …
Readers are first introduced to the main character, 12-year-old Cassie Piotrowski, and her two best friends, Ingrid Svenson and Allison Greene, in Mystery Horse at Oak Lane Stable (Book 1) - three friends bonded through time by grade school, regular riding lessons at the stable, and a deep love for horses. Feisty Allison is the only one of the three to have her own show horse at the beginning of the series, with Cassie a close second as her journey through Mystery Horse will eventually reveal the perfect horse for her. Shy, quiet Ingrid is sure she’s never going to get a horse because her parents feel she’s too young yet to take on the responsibilities of having a horse - something all adults need to address before moving forward with this important decision - but she proves them wrong and ends up with a show horse of her own.
They remain fast friends throughout Gray Horse (Book 2) until things start to unravel between Cassie and Ingrid in Dark Horse (Book 2) when David (Ingrid’s grade school boyfriend) dumps her for Mia Hernandez (Cassie’s classmate from her freshman English Comp class), and Cassie ends up siding with Mia because she likes her friendship. Ingrid’s cold shoulder toward Cassie continues into Ghost Horse (Book 4), with the first sentence of the book stating, “Ingrid, my best ex-friend, still isn’t talking to me … “
When I wrote the first two books in the series, I was sure these three would remain best friends throughout the rest of the novels, except that hasn’t been the case. I write down what wants to come through. I can’t “control” how the characters will interact with each other - it doesn’t work that way with me. They all have distinct personalities that want to come to life. Keeping everything “perfect” isn’t truthful. Girls don’t always get along, especially when they are at the tail end of middle school and entering high school. Maybe researching and writing about this will help me and others understand what happens to friendships over time, especially with those we were once so close to. Maybe it’s growing pains or a right of passage, or just moving on in life. I never understood why it had to happen at all.
