the exception [pin hawthorne] 𝐢𝐢

chapter sixteen

Olivia walked up to the Bright Fields gates, a nearly unmovable smile on her face. Or so she thought, because it faltered slightly when she bumped into a clearly distraught Zoe.

"Are you alright?" Olivia asked in concern.

"Yeah I'm fine," Zoe said harshly, clearly anything but fine.

"Zoe," Olivia said, her tone telling her friend that she could confide in her. Zoe looked at Olivia for a moment, seemingly calming down. She gently took Olivia's wrist, bringing her to the side so as to not bother anyone wanting to use the gate. "I caught Gaby training on Raven," confessed Zoe. Olivia's eyes widened, but she kept silent so Zoe would continue. "Turns out she and James were planning on asking Meredith if she could give him to them. I don't know why I was expecting anything else from them but honestly I just-- I thought Gaby and I were friends and well... I don't know, I liked her a lot," Zoe said. Olivia offered her friend a sympathetic smile.

"I'm sorry, that sucks," Olivia said. "You know, I don't want to assume things, but I've met people like Gaby, and I'm willing to bet she's just trying to please her brother. It must be hard for her to have a brother like that, especially one who abandoned her. But I understand why you're mad."

"You're probably right," agreed Zoe. Suddenly, Olivia noticed Gaby riding out of the gate on Raven. Her gaze must've narrowed down on her, because Zoe turned around, spotting her as well. "That girl just won't quit!" she exclaimed, her dissipated anger surging back at the sight.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Olivia asked as Zoe mounted Major. "No, this is between me and Gaby," Zoe said before kicking off. Olivia simply stared after Zoe as her figure rode away until it was completely gone. After a moment, Olivia made her way to Nina's stable. She was hoping to get a last round of practice before leaving for Junior Nationals later that day. On her way out of the stable, Olivia's gaze stopped on Pin, her cheeks reddening instantly, recalling the prior night's events. They hadn't had the time to discuss their kiss yet, but Olivia didn't want to put something else on Pin's mind when he was already dealing with his mother's arrival. It could wait.

* * *

Emma was fuming. James had been unnecessarily rude to her this morning during practice. More so than he usually was. Usually, Emma could take his crappy attitude, but he was just unbearable today. She didn't know what had crawled up his ass, but she sure as hell didn't have to deal with it, she thought to herself as she stormed away.

"Woah there, you look like you're ready to kill someone," joked Marcus as he fell into step beside Emma.

"James is an asshole," seethed Emma, keeping up her urgent strides, though she promptly realised she had no idea where she was headed.

"Well I'm gonna have to agree with you there," chuckled Marcus, matching her pace. "Come on Emma, calm down." Hearing her name fall from Marcus' lips broke Emma out of her trance-like striding. She stopped suddenly, turning to face Marcus. Her erratic breathing slowed as she simply stood, looking at Marcus who was smiling at her. "There you go, now what's the problem?"

"I don't know, James was being rude, and I think the stress of Nationals is making it worse," admitted Emma.

"Don't worry, I've seen you train, you're definitely one of the best people on the team. Honestly," said Marcus, causing a bashful smile to spread on Emma's face. Marcus gently tucked a strand of hair behind Emma's ear, and for a brief moment, she thought he might kiss her. But the moment was broken when Mia interrupted them.

"Marcus," she called, dragging his attention away from Emma. "We need you for a fitting. We're making slight adjustments to our uniforms," Mia explained, not sparing Emma a glance.

"Right, I'll be right there," he told Mia, expecting her to leave, though she stayed rooted in her spot.

"Well, I'll see you later then," Emma said uncomfortably, bouncing away. She had to help start packing up for the trip to nationals anyways. She made her way to the tack room, gathering some of the boxes of equipment they were supposed to bring, silently making trips between the bus and the tack room. A few other members of her team joined her in packing up, but strangely nobody from the Bright Fields team. She knew Marcus was getting adjustments to his uniform, but were all of them getting tailored?

"Has anyone seen anybody from Bright Fields in the last hour?" asked Alex.

"Mia said something about them getting adjustments to their uniforms?" answered Emma, not quite sure herself as to where the other team went. Her unspoken question was answered when Callum spoke up, bringing her attention to him.

"What are they wearing?" he said, voice dripping with disbelief. Emma turned her gaze towards the direction he'd been staring at, and there she found the Bright Fields team, striding towards them in extravagant neon green t-shirts, each emblazoned with their names and different patches and stitchings personalized to them. When they reached the bus, Becky turned around to face her team.

"Bright Fields may not be the coolest, or the grandest stables, but, we're going to Nationals! And we're totally gonna win. So, look out pony lovers, we are team Bright Fields, the little stables that roared!" she spoke, her teammates cheering at her words.

"Those shirts are ridiculous," James said tauntingly, as he approached the opposite team.

"Ridiculously awesome, I know," taunted back Marcus, coming closer to face James. "I am a trainer, and this is my team. And you wouldn't need trash talk if deep down, you weren't scared that we were gonna destroy you out there," he taunted with a cocky raise of his eyebrow. James didn't find a reply to that, and Emma couldn't help but smirk at that.

* * *

Olivia stood worriedly outside the door of the bus which would take off at any moment now. Where was Pin? She'd called his phone, but gotten no answer. She knew he'd been here this morning, but she didn't understand why he wasn't here now.

"You okay Olivia?" asked Zoe as she and Emma approached her.

"No, Pin's not here and he's not answering his phone, I'm worried," admitted Olivia.

"Huh, that's weird, he was here this morning, he was picking up tickets for his mom and dad," said Zoe. Olivia's frown deepened.

"He texted the team, he told us he wouldn't be coming, but he didn't say why," Emma said. Dread settled in the pit of Olivia's stomach. She knew it wasn't like Pin to be late for something like this, but if he'd decided not to come all together, something must've happened. Decisively, Olivia pulled off her team Bright Fields shirt, handing it to Zoe.

"Olivia, what are you doing?" Zoe asked.

"I can't leave Pin alone here, something must've happened," explained Olivia, backing away. "I'll be right back!" she called out, breaking into a run.

"Olivia!" she heard her name being called, but she didn't turn back. "Olivia!" she heard again, turning around then to find Mia behind her.

"What are you doing!" she exclaimed in slight horror.

"I can't let Pin miss this, I have to go find him," Olivia said.

"Why not? He's with the enemy!" Mia exclaimed.

"Will you stop thinking about sides for a second! Something happened and Pin's not okay, he needs me!" Olivia argued back.

"I don't care about Pin!" Mia said.

"Well I do! I love him! I love him, okay, and I'm not leaving here without him. If you wanna try to stop me, think again, because I'm not changing my mind on this!" Olivia said, her eyes stinging and her heart beating.

"Olivia, we need to win this if we want any chance to rebuild Bright Fields!" Mia said, though her tone was calmer now.

"And I'll be there Mia, I promise," Olivia said.

"Okay, but if we lose because you were gone," warned Mia, and Olivia didn't wait to hear the rest of her threat before taking off running once more, the wind in her hair and adrenaline in her veins.