The island was drenched in early morning sunlight, the heat warmed Harper's bare shoulders as she walked down the lane towards the stables. She already had a slight tan from the sun she had already been exposed to that summer, it was nice to see her fairer skin turn a healthier colour. As she was turning the corner into the stables, she could hear a car behind her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was Holloway's car and they were there for the friendlies.
Without turning around, she walked into the stables and Mia brushed past her to go and talk to Holloway, she had her game face on, and Harper knew to stay out of her way when she looked like that.
While Holloway sorted themselves out for the competition, Harper started to prepare for her own round, even though there was loads of time between then and the actual jumping competition. She wandered into the tack room and grabbed Robin's tack along with his white saddle pad that was only used for competitions or shows. It was odd to see people with uniforms walking around, as the general attire was sweatpants and a hoodie, usually covered in mud.
Harper was going to tie Robin up in the main area to groom out all the mud that he had collected during his night in the field. There was mud covering his legs, the ends of his tail and across his neck, there wasn't quite enough to make the excuse of giving him a hose down as you could get it out with some brushes.
She went to collect Robin's lead rope when she realised that hers had frayed nearly beyond belief and was one moment away from breaking. It was a lot worse than when she last saw it, one of the younger kids must have grabbed it and pulled a strand out which caused it to practically to fall apart. Harper groaned and had to go back into the tack room to try and grab a spare, as she opened the door, she bumped into Ted.
"Sorry! I wasn't paying attention." Harper apologised and helped Ted to pick up one of the brushes from the ground that she had knocked over.
Ted loaded the box back up, "head in the clouds?"
Harper laughed and fiddled with the lead rope in her hands, "something like that, do you know if there are any not-frayed-to-death lead ropes hanging around anywhere?" The spares in the tack room were also on the verge of breaking, it was impossible to find a decent one as people often hid them in corners and on shelves.
Ted grimaced as he inspected Harper's lead rope that was in her hand, "I will have a look, I think I saw where one was hidden."
Harper smiled in thanks and waited for Ted to grab her a lead rope. She tossed her old one in the bin and made a mental note to buy another one when she had the chance. Her vibrating phone drew Harper from her thoughts, she pulled it out and saw that she had a message from her dad.
It said that he would arrive to Friendlies a little earlier than they needed too, and he had invited her brother, Miles. Harper was so happy that her dad and brother were making an effort to get along, finally.
She sent off a quick message in reply and looked up when she saw a lead rope be held in front of her. "Thank you so much, Ted! You are my saviour."
"No problem." Ted smiled at her before he rounded the corner, where he bumped into Pin.
"Alright dad?" Pin asked as he fiddled with his uniform slightly.
Ted patted Pin on the shoulder, "yeah, just, be careful or you're going to lose that girl."
Pin frowned for a moment as his dad walked away from him before he was called away by his teammates.
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Harper, finally, led Robin out of his stable and tied him up by the fence. In order to keep tensions low, the Holloway lot were set up by the main arena; so, they didn't have to worry about bumping into each other an awful lot.
Just as she tied the lead rope to the string, Rosie rushed up to her, "have you seen Zoe?"
Harper's eyebrows furrowed and her lips were pulled into a frown, "no actually, I haven't"
Now that Harper thought about it, Raven hadn't been in his stable since Harper had arrived and she hadn't seen Zoe. Which would be very odd as everyone in the team had been here for a long while trying to get set up for friendlies.
With the panicked look on Rosie's face, it didn't take very long for Harper to get a general idea of what was going on. Rosie grabbed her by the black jean jacket she was wearing and essentially pushed her into the tack room, where Mia, Susie, Becky and Jade were sat. As soon as Harper pushed herself onto a cabinet by the sink to sit on, Rosie rushed back out into the yard, most likely to ask more people if they had seen Zoe.
The girls sat there in a tense silence for a few minutes before the stable door swung back open to reveal Rosie, Pin and Marcus. Harper made eye contact with Jade and Jade shot her sympathetic look and Harper mustered a fake smile to try and reassure her.
Rosie stood in front of them all after they had tried to suggest reasons why Zoe might have run off, "It doesn't matter why she's gone; I just want to know she's okay." The underlying fear in Rosie's voice bled through and was very clear to the group of teenagers in the room.
"Rosie's right, whatever lame reason Zoe had for doing this, she's one of us. And Brightfield's look after their own." Mia spoke, slightly shocking them all, she was never one to hide her distaste of Zoe, "we also really need her to help us crush Holloway."
Pin shifted his weight on his feet slightly, visibly uncomfortable, "I'll check the beach, she goes there all the time with Raven."
"Why is he here?" Marcus's cold tone seemed to make the tack room chillier, "he's not even one of us."
Pin fired back quickly, "neither were you last time I checked."
Harper looked up from where she was fiddling with the ring on her pinkie finger, "will you two stop for once? You can check the beach together if you're going to get all pissy about it."
They all started to delegate parts of the island for them to check, Jade and Susie were going to check the pier, Marcus and Pin the beach, Becky and Rosie were going to check the woods, Harper would check the moors and Mia would stay behind and stall for time.
It made Harper slightly nervous to be riding out on the moors alone, that area was prone to bad weather and it was said to already have rained over that side of the island that day. With their areas delegated, the group filed back out into the yard and tacked up quickly. Harper sighed as she only had the chance to get the slightest of mud out of Robin's coat through the grooming, she wasn't sure if she'd have enough time once she got back.
Harper had just hopped onto Robin's back using the steps when she felt someone touch her leg gently, she looked down and saw that it was a very sheepish looking Pin who had his own riding helmet on.
"Be careful, it has already rained out on the moors today." Pin muttered quietly as he looked at Harper's un-gloved hand, "I can't believe you're still wearing the ring."
The girl was quite stunned, those were the first genuine words that Pin had said to her in a while, she tried to supress her smile as she spoke back to him, "of course, you gave it to me." It echoed a conversation that they had a week ago.
This time, a small smile went over both their faces before they heard that some people were already leaving the yard and Marcus was yelling for Pin to get a move on. The group left the stables and went their separate ways to find Zoe
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When Harper returned an hour and a half later with no sight of Zoe, it was to Mia who rushed up to her. The Holloway kids had caught that something was going on and all eyed the two girls as they spoke.
"Did you find her?" Mia asked as soon as Harper dismounted.
"No," Harper sighed, "maybe the others had some luck?" She suggested as she slipped his tack off in order to give him a quick brush to get the mud out before the competition, some of it had fallen off during their ride.
"I hope so," Mia pursed her lips, "you didn't work Robin too hard, right?"
"No," Harper confirmed, "just enough to basically be a warm up."
"Right," Mia started, "groom him, re-tack him and then bring him to the outside field, don't be any longer than a half hour as you need to sit down and help me stall."
Harper moved quickly to get all of the dirt off of Robin, she didn't bother to plait his mane or tail, she just brushed all of the dirt off, brushed his mane and tail, picked his hooves out and put his tack back on along with his black tendon boots.
James walked into the yard and saw Harper frantically getting Robin ready, "try and get a good look at the course before you start, here's a map of it. Make sure to learn it quickly, you clearly don't have a lot of time."
Harper laughed and took the course map from him; it was clearly written by Jade as she would recognise the neat handwriting anywhere. James gave her a few tips before he gestured that she should really get going to the back paddock.
Quickly, she took Robin over to the outside paddock along with her hat, she tied him onto the fence post and walked over to the tables where everyone was sat. Luckily, she had arrived just before Mia had planned to start her speech. She sat down on the competitors table and smiled at her dad and brother who were on a separate table.
She leant in to whisper to Jade quickly, "has anyone found Zoe?"
Jade shook her head with a frown on her face, "no one's seen her, you're the last one back too. It's not looking good."
Mia tried to buy as much time with her speech as she could, for Zoe and Raven's sake. Meredith was here and she was waiting for Zoe to show up, just to see that her horse was being trained properly. Harper saw her look at Robin longingly for a moment, it really was a good thing that she knew the laws about the horse ownership otherwise she wouldn't have Robin still.
Mia tried her best, but Holloway saw right through her and started with their rounds, a few of them went while others warmed up. While Alex was jumping his round, Harper started to warm Robin up over the practice jump in the separate arena. From watching the people go before her and the map that James had given her, Harper had memorised the course, luckily. She was up after Callum, who had started to warm up way before Harper had. His horse and Robin were right next to each other and that made Harper a little nervous.
Making sure that she knew the course properly, Harper watched from the side as Callum jumped his round. He jumped pretty well and only knocked over one pole and he had a decent time too.
Callum sneered at Harper as she rode into the outdoor arena when it was her turn, "you've got no chance."
Harper smiled concededly, "at least I don't knock down a pole on every round I do, keep calm and lose nicely."
Her stirrups were already set to the right length for jumping so she didn't need to check them, but she checked her girth once more and cantered into the arena.
"Riding for Brightfield's is Harper Reynolds!" Mia said into the megaphone she had, as it was trying to emulate a real competition.
The Brightfield's team clapped for her, as did her dad and brother. From where Harper cantered around the field once, she couldn't tell if Pin had clapped for her or even if he was watching.
The bell rang and Harper circled around to where the first jump was and lined herself up. They were stimulated cross country jumps that were mostly made of wood but there were some show jumping style jumps mixed in there too. Robin popped over the first three jumps with a flick of his tail which made Harper giggle lightly. The ground was slightly slippery, and Robin was forced to take a long stride on the fourth jump and Harper patted him gently in reward. It felt as though they soared over each jump.
As she rounded Robin at the corner to the final jump, she felt her left leg slip free from underneath herself. She glanced down quickly and saw that her stirrup leather had snapped, which was odd as they were practically brand-new leathers that had barely been worn in. At a last second decision, she veered Robin into a circle in order to gain a little bit more balance.
She had to think fast, people that were watching could already tell that there was a problem as Harper leant down to pull her stirrup leather out. She wouldn't have time to pull them both out and Harper could not jump with only one stirrup as that would unbalance Robin. So, she left one stirrup hanging and wrapped her legs around Robin's belly as hard as she could to make sure that she wouldn't fall off.
Harper made sure to over fold on the jump to keep her balance, she wrapped her hands into Robin's mane and held on tightly. When Robin landed, Harper scrambled a little to keep herself on Robin's back, jumping without stirrups wasn't something that she had ever planned to do; it was too terrifying of a thought.
Once she sat up again, she beamed a great big smile as she patted Robin on the neck and promised to give him lots of carrots and treats for being a good boy. Her dad and brother were applauding as hard as they could and Harper smiled at them too, the Brightfields team were also cheering on the side-lines embarrassingly loud.
As much as she tried to resist, her eyes filtered over to where Pin was sat with his team. When they made eye contact, Pin looked down quickly and Harper felt a little hurt at his actions, but this was seeming to become a fairly common occurrence. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't look him in the eye.
Harper sighed and trotted Robin over to where her stirrup had fell into the grass, she slowed him to a halt and dismounted. She grabbed the broken leather and wove one arm around Robin's reins as she walked him back to his stable as he was warmed down enough to go straight into his stable.
She inspected the leather until Jade ran up and grabbed it off of her before she ran back to her stable. Harper giggled and just took Robin back to his stable and untacked him, it now meant that she had to buy a new lead rope and new leathers. Time to splurge some cash.
As soon as she put her hat away and walked back into the makeshift arena, Jade practically pulled her back to the table when she saw that Harper was carrying the other, fairly ruined leather in her hand.
Jade took the other leather from her hand too, "look, they're cut clean. It's not a stretch break and it wouldn't be possible as you got them like, last week."
"I know," Harper grumbled, "I'm so annoyed that I have to now buy another pair."
"Who would do that?" Jade asked as she compared the cuts on the leathers.
Harper's eyes instinctively drifted over to Callum, he had been stood between his horse and Robin for a long time and it now made Harper suspicious. "I think we know..." Jade caught Harper's drift and looked over to Callum, who had that insufferable smirk plastered on his face that Harper was so close to slapping off.
As most people had ridden their rounds, the competitors tables were now just general tables. Jade left to go and talk to Susie to Harper went to go and sit with her dad and brother, "hey Miles, dad."
"Hey Harper." Miles smiled and pulled Harper into a hug, "well done! What happened with your stirrups?"
"Oh, someone cut my left one and tried to fray my right one too," Harper explained as they watched Mia do her round, "it was best to ditch the snapped one as it could've caught on something."
"That would put you in so much danger." Her dad commented, "why would someone do that?"
"Beats me." Harper murmured before she clapped and cheered for Mia, who rode a good round. Mia had a good time and didn't knock any poles down.
When Mia returned to the paddock after her round, Zoe still hadn't returned. Meredith was starting to get very impatient, she wanted to see Zoe ride Raven and the pair weren't even here. Attention was drawn away from Meredith when Harper saw that Rosie, Becky and Ben had retuned, but Rosie was riding Bob; which was really, very odd.
"I'll be right back." Harper said to her family before she got up and jogged towards the trio.
"What on Earth happened?" Harper asked as Ben led Bob further into the stables, "why is Rosie on Bob?" Harper knew that Rosie would never, ever ride Bob if she ever had the choice.
Ben explained to Harper at a pace faster than race cars that Rosie had fallen and hurt her ankle while they were out looking for Zoe. Harper helped Rosie to dismount by making sure that she didn't put any weight onto her ankle.
"Okay, okay. It's alright." Harper soothed after Rosie put a little bit of weight onto her ankle, she walked Rosie into the tack room with her arm around Rosie's waist. Harper set her down onto the sofa and put her ankle onto the coffee table with a cushion underneath it, to make sure that it didn't hurt more than it needed to.
Harper grabbed the medical kit from the shelf, which was brand new and which had clearly never been used before. She placed the box onto the table and started to gently untie the laces on Rosie's shoe and moved her foot into her lap. Rosie hissed slightly as Harper used a little too much pressure and she apologised gently.
"This might hurt a little." Harper reassured Rosie as she dug around in the first aid kit for what she needed, "these cool packs will help with the swelling, given how it looks, I don't think you've broken it but it's best you get it checked if it feels worse tomorrow."
When Harper asked if Rosie was ready, she got a quick, "Okay! Just do it!" from the girl. Rosie put on a brave face as Harper wrapped the cool pack around Rosie's ankle and wrapped the bandage around after it to make sure that it was secure.
"There." Harper smiled down at the girl, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Rosie smiled up at her, "no, not really."
"You did well, let me go grab your mum and she can give you some painkillers." Harper eased Rosie's foot back onto the cushion on the table and left her in the tack room and ran to get Maggie. Once she found her, she explained quickly, calmed her down and told her where Rosie was waiting for her.
Cheering drew her away from Maggie's retreating figure and Harper looked over to see that Zoe had just finished her round. Albeit confused, Harper joined in with the cheering even though she had no clue how well Zoe had done. The good news was that Meredith was pleased and she left the stables straight over.
And in the blink of an eye, Friendlies were over.
Most of the teams stayed behind later than they needed to so that they could help pack away everything that they needed to. Harper was carrying a few rental chairs that needed to be piled by the entrance for the stables. She had just placed her set of chairs down when she saw that Ted was struggling with a few too many chairs. His face was hardly visible behind all of the chairs.
Harper rushed up when she saw that Ted was close to teetering over and dropping all of the chairs, she grabbed all of the chairs on his left arm and heaved them over to where the other chairs were.
"Thanks Harper." Ted smiled at her, "What happened to Rosie? I saw you rush off with her and grab Maggie." Ted asked, his curiosity clearly got the better of him.
Harper stacked a few chairs on top of each other before she answered, "Rosie hurt her ankle, so I put some cool packs on and bandaged it for her."
"How'd you learn to do that?"
"Oh, I was a first aid administer at my old stables." Harper explained, "I learned ages ago."
Harper had said goodbye to Ted and was walking towards the arena to see if anything else needed to be done when she heard Mia practically screaming. Harper joined the small crowd and tried to get a better look.
Shock overtook her when she saw that Mia was yelling at James. Disbelief covered her completely when she heard Mia fire him.
"Looks like Brightfield's lost their trainer." Callum chortled as he walked past the group with the rest of his team.
Mia lost it even further when Bob bumped into her, "that's it! Get this hairy mongrel out of my stables now!"
Harper stepped forwards to stand by Becky who was shaking, "don't take out what James did on Bob, that's not fair."
The words did nothing to calm Mia down in any way, "Look at this place! No wonder everybody thinks we're an embarrassment!" Mia then rounded her attack onto Becky and Bob, "I mean it this time Becky, I want him gone, by tomorrow night!"
Mia stormed off and Susie was the first that spoke up, "sorry Becky, she's had a hard day, it's hard when you realize someone's a rat."
Harper turned in bemusement to Susie, "that's no excuse for what she called Bob." Harper walked over to Bob who was still tied up, eating his hay bale as if nothing was even going on.
"Harper's right, Mia called Bob a mongrel. He deserves better." Becky turned to face Jade as she spoke her next words, "and so do I."
Harper walked with a shaken Becky back to Bob's stable.
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Zoe, Becky, Rosie and Harper were sat on Harper's double bed. There were two tubs of ice cream between them. Her dad had said that it was okay for the girls to have a sleepover after all the great riding they did at the friendlies that day.
Becky had lost a place for Bob. Zoe and Marcus had broken up and Harper was having general relationship problems. Overall, it wasn't a good day for any of the girls.
"You'll feel different in the morning Becky, don't give up on Brightfields now." Zoe reassured Becky as she gave her tub of ice cream to the girl.
"We'll talk to Mia first thing tomorrow morning; she can't take Bob's home away. Nothing can." Harper smiled.
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[UNEDITED AS ALWAYS]
Hello!!! I got loads of inspiration today and pushed through this chapter (I'm so exited to start writing the next one tomorrow for you!)
Quick question for all my lovely readers; which do you prefer, the Valentines special or the Christmas special? Comments would be appreciated.
Leave a comment on how this chapter was, it helps tons!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter,
- Angelica