the exception [pin hawthorne] 𝐢𝐢

chapter nine

Emma was most definitely not a morning person. This fact was made clear when she woke up to a call from Olivia.

"Hello?" Emma answered, barely awake.

"Where are you?" Olivia asked.

"In my bed?"

"I thought we were supposed to go on a hack. Twenty minutes ago." Well, Emma had completely forgotten about that.

"Fuck i'm so sorry Olivia, I slept in," she said groggily. She heard her friend's warm laugh from the other side of the line.

"No worries, are you still up for it later?"

"Yeah, give me two hours," Emma replied, sitting up. She put a hand up to block the harsh light from her tired eyes.

"Alright, i'll go help set up Zoe's birthday party in the meantime, I hope you've got something to wear cause you're my plus one," Olivia said, always the helper.

"Alright I'll find something, see you in a bit," Emma said.

"See you later," Olvia replied, hanging up. Emma groaned, throwing her phone across her bed and laying back down.

She really hadn't meant to fall back asleep. She woke up with a start an hour later. Great, she thought. Hastily, she threw on a red tank top and black jodhpurs. She quickly ran her hair brush through her tangled hair and applied her makeup. It was quite warm out, so a jacket wasn't necessary. She tied her riding boots and slipped her phone in. Thankfully, she lived a short walk from Holloway, and she was soon walking out of Stumpy's stable with a fully tacked up horse. She took out her phone to check the time, finding that she still had half an hour to make the meeting point which was near Bright Fields' entrance. She reached it with five minutes to spare. Olivia wasn't there yet, probably assuming Emma would be late, and rightfully so. Bright Fields was mostly deserted, only a few people walking around. Emma supposed most of the people were preparing for Zoe's birthday party.

"Hello? Can I help you?" a deep voice asked behind her. Emma turned around and came face to face with a very tall and very handsome guy.

"I don't know, can you?" she smirked. He raised an eyebrow at her response, returning her smirk.

"Maybe, what's your name?" the boy asked.

"Emma," Emma said simply.

"Marcus," the boy replied, with the same cool composure as Emma. "So what are you doing here Emma?" he asked, pronouncing her name slowly as if testing it out.

"Well if you must know, Marcus," Emma started, enunciating his name, "I'm--"

"Waiting for me," Olivia replied before Emma could. Marcus turned around to find Olivia behind him, Nina at her side. "Hey Marcus, hey Em," she greeted as she stopped beside them.

"You guys know each other?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah, this is Emma, she rides for Holloway," Olivia said. "Emma, this is Marcus, he used to be on our team, but he goes to the academy now."

"Really? That's so awesome," Emma commented. As far as she knew, nobody from the island had ever been accepted into the academy. Marcus must've been a really good rider. He rubbed his neck in slight discomfort.

"Right, well we should probably get going if we want to make it back from the hack in time for Zoe's party," said Olivia.

"Right, bye Marcus, see you around hopefully," Emma said with a wink, following after Olivia.

"What was that all about?" her friend whispered.

"I don't know, he's cute," Emma replied with a shrug.