Free Falling ✎ 𝗣. 𝗛𝗮𝘄𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲

02

˖⋆࿐໋₊ ❝ I want to be completely weightless,
I want to touch, the edge of greatness. ❞ ✧*̥₊˚‧☆ﾐ

ISLE OF WIGHT
┌ ꒰⍉꒱─ ➤ season 𝘐 ｀⍜'ˎ-
｡˚ ✧ CAROLINE

I swung open the arena gate, leading Romeo in while trying not to bump him against the fence in the process, the gate made an odd screeching sound as it closed behind us.

Sam, who was chatting with Marcus, turned around at the sound.

"Ready for your lesson?" said Sam, approaching me warmly.
I gave her an approving nod, as I walked him towards the mounting block. I began adjusting his girth, and he clearly wasn't happy about it considering he tried to nip me in the process.

Dragging down my stirrups I began to count the holes,
"First gap, 14 on the right," I mumbled to myself as I adjusted my stirrup leathers. I moved the mounting block over once I was finished, sticking my foot in the stirrup and gently mounting him.

"Right, we'll warm up a bit, and start with a course," Sam concluded, taking her place against
the arena fence, where Zoe and a few others were watching intently.

I squeezed Romeo into an active walk, as we walked and trotted a few loops around the arena to warm up.

"I think he's pretty stretched out now," I called to Sam, halting Romeo by the fence. Sam walked over to the side of the arena where some poles and jump standards were set. She began dragging them across the arena and setting up a course whilst Marcus helped as well.

I stroked Romeo's mane as the two finished setting a course, at this point Romeo was half asleep, seeing as we were standing by Zoe and the others for a few minutes.

"Ready?" the voice of Sam brought me out of my daze.

"Sure."

I gave Romeo a light kick to wake him up, we trotted around the eyeing the jumps carefully. As we approached the end of the arena I glanced over at Zoe and her friends, who were cheering enthusiastically. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated it but I needed to focus. I drowned out their cheers and slid my outside leg back, Romeo immediately throwing his head and cantering.

I focused my eyes on the oxer ahead, counting my strides as we approached the jump. We were lucky enough to not get a half-stride in and we flew over the jump beautifully. Cheers chorused from behind me, making me glance over in the direction of them for a second, it was mostly Zoe, Marcus, Sam, and a few unfamiliar faces.

Romeo switched his lead as we circled around and approached the second jump, this time, our distance wasn't as good as the last jump, but we still cleared it. Switching my rein, and looking over at the final jump, which was much higher than the previous ones, I squeezed my leg on Romeo's sides, knowing he'd most likely get intimidated and attempt to slow down. Approaching the jump I gave him a small kick of encouragement and he flew over the large vertical gracefully.


Zoe cheered and clapped her hands in astonishment, my blonde locks twirling with the wind as I slowed Romeo down to a walk.

"Think we'll end on that today." Sam nodded, giving Romeo a pat on his neck.

"Alright." I agreed, patting Romeo and dismounting him.





‿︵‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - - - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵‿︵



After my lesson with Romeo, I had untacked him and left him in his stall along with his lunch. Seeing as I had nothing else booked for the day, I attempted to find Zoe, since I was still pretty new to Bright-fields Zoe and Marcus were practically the only people I knew.

So, I guess you could say I was pretty shocked to find Zoe watching something intently on her phone while sitting at the top of the hay-bale stack.

"Hey," I called from the bottom of the large bales, Zoe quickly tucked her phone away in her pocked before giving me a smile.

"Hey!" she smiled, "You looked great in your lesson with Romeo today."

I chuckled, climbing up the hay-bales carefully and taking my seat next to her.
"So, when am I going to see you ride?" I teased, nudging her side.

Zoe rolled her eyes playfully and shook her head, an uncertain look washing over her for a second. The screeching of a wheelbarrow filled my ears, but I tried to drown it out while Zoe and I were conversing.

The screeching came to an abrupt stop, making Zoe furrow her eyebrows and look down at the source.

"Oh, hey Pin!" Zoe called from atop of the hay-bales.

Pin. Definitely haven't met that one yet.
I looked down at the boy, who was dragging a large wheelbarrow, his features were extremely defined, with tousled brown hair and blue eyes that were looking into Zoe's with annoyance.

No response.

Zoe cleared her through at the awkward silence, while I shifted uncomfortably beside her.

"So... what are you up to?" she quizzed, attempting to break the silence.

Pin's grip on the wheelbarrow visibly tightened his entire demeanour stating he was uncomfortable to be conversing with Zoe.

"Sam has asked me to paint jumps in the arena," he replied monotonously, his gaze flickering from Zoe to me for a second.

"Oh." Zoe nodded. "Cool."

Pin glanced ahead of him, shifting his feet and sighing, before looking back at Zoe with uncertainty.

"You could do with a hat."

I tried to suppress my laughter, taking his statement as an insult to Zoe's hair, however, it resulted in a snort.

Zoe glared at me for a moment, before she turned back to Pin.

"Is that a new tip for the upcoming season?" she replied, while I had to cover my mouth to prevent myself from bursting out in laughter.

Pin rolled his eyes at me, "Riding hat," he began, "Sam has got Major tacked up in the arena, she says you're on the free-ride list."

I raised my eyebrows looking at Zoe expectantly. Zoe's eyes widened.

"Oh, no, no, no, I'm not riding today."

Silence.

"Suit yourself, I'll tell her you're busy."
To which he picked up his wheelbarrow and continued on his way, not glancing back once.

I hit Zoe in the arm and she looked at me with confusion.
"Come on, you might like it!" I ushered.

She sighed, having an internal battle with herself for a moment before she finally spoke up.

"You...Ugh!" she started, her voice low, "You are going to get me in trouble."

I furrowed my eyebrows, not having a clue what she was going on about.
"Pin, wait!" she called after the nearly out of sight boy. Pin froze in place, looking behind him at Zoe, awaiting her response.

"It'd be a shame to waste practice lessons, tell Sam I'll be there in five."

"Yes!" I whispered triumphantly.




‿︵‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - - - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵‿︵

I fidgeted with the small pieces of chipped paint, peeling off of the arena fence. Zoe was mounting major, while Sam helped. Marcus was currently observing Zoe's lesson since he was apparently in-training to become an instructor.

Meanwhile, Pin was painting jumps a few feet across from me, occasionally glancing at Zoe and me in-between paint strokes.

"Caroline, right?" Pin speaks, momentarily lifting his head to meet my eyes.

"Yep." I respond, giving him a small friendly smile in return.
Pin averts his gaze back to the jumps, concentrating deeply on his task at hand.

I stare at Pin intently, studying him closely as he dipped his paintbrush in more blue paint to contrast against the white poles. I couldn't help but think about how mysterious he was, I didn't know what it was about him but it seemed like there was so much to uncover about him.

I decided to take my eyes off of Pin before he noticed me staring and I looked like some creep. Instead, I averted my gaze to Zoe, who was astoundingly trotting on the lunge without stirrups or her arms on to the reins. Zoe had a lot of natural talent, normally, the competitive side of me would be extremely jealous of it, but the side of me that reminded me that Zoe was my best-friend, drowned the rebellious thoughts out.

Things could get nasty easily if I got competitive.

"Marcus!" a voice called.

I looked in the direction of the voice, only to see a tallish brunette, looking clearly upset.

"Where have you been all morning, you promised to help me with the jumps." her voice whined.

Marcus sighed in annoyance, glancing between Zoe and the girl.
"Wait a minute." he stalled, awed by Zoe's talent.

"Well, you promised you'd help Firefly and me." she pleaded, putting her hand on her hip.

"Five more minutes, okay?"

The girl rolled her eyes, and glared daggers at Zoe before she quickly stormed off. I shook my head, mentally cursing the girl for being so bitchy.

"Stop!" the voice of Zoe shrieked. I mentally prepared myself to catch her in case she was about to fall off, but seeing as Zoe was looking around frantically I was quite confused.

"Make him stop!" she protested.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows, earning a confused glance from Marcus, who helped slow Major down to a walk. Zoe quickly dismounted Major sprinting towards me and yanking me with her.

"Z-Zoe! What are you doing?!"

Just as she dragged me a few steps from the arena, the previous girl wanted Marcus's help got in her face.

"Now look," she started, pointing dramatically at her, "I know you think you're some riding guru but let me tell you something-"

Zoe simply eyed her up and down, before brushing past her without a second glance.
The girl called after her in frustration, making me snicker momentarily.

Approaching Raven's stall, with Zoe's hand still tightened firmly on my arm, I was confused.
I was even more confused to find Pin inside, examining something that looked to be a camera.

"I found this," Pin declared, looking at Zoe suspiciously, "someone has been filming the horses."

"Huh," she replied blankly, earning an odd glance from me.

"Says your logged on," Pin glared at her. My eyes widened and I looked at Zoe in confusion, awaiting her answer.

She glanced at me quickly before replying to Pin, "Okay, fine, so we set up cameras."

"Why?" he asked, to which I decided to say something as well.

"Yeah," I crossed my arms, "Why?"

Zoe looked down at her feet sheepishly, "It's stupid, really." she muttered.

Pin's features turned into a scowl, his luminescent blue eyes swirling with anger and frustration, "Yeah, I figured it would be stupid." he spat.

"We were... filming Marcus..." she stated with uncertainty, before raising her voice more confidently, "Yeah, Becky and Jade already track his every move, so, I thought we could track him even better on camera."

"Don't tell anyone," she whispered.

authors note///

hi I'm sorry this is slightly trashy,, trying to get through the next few pre-written chapters so I can finally sail smoothly from there--