Emily | Tim

Emily gave a cheery smile. "Ooh, fun! We should go socialize, huh? I'm guessing some of your new kids are there. I heard we got a boatload of new eventing students in this week..."

Gesturing to her car, she said, "c'mon, let's go before we become fashionably late..."

As she got in, she turned the key in the ignition, decidedly making casual smalltalk as they made their way back to the barn. "I meant to ask, what did Laurence want to talk to you about so bright and early this morning? He seems like a super nice guy."

...

As they walked up to the goings-on, Emily looped her arm in Tim's, explaining, "I suck at walking at night, I hope you don't mind." She gave a small, nervous giggle as she scanned the ground for anything she could potentially trip on or fall because of, trying to make out the new faces in between those concentrated stares.

"I can't believe how many people are here that we don't know. It feels like just yesterday we were the newbies."

Simon Triba / E / M: Vermont group.

The young man had to try incredibly hard not to imitate the beaming smile across Chandler's features,noticing how most people did the incredible Ray of brightness she just seemed to emit.Radiating Holy rays he had thought rather amused to himself before casually flicking his eyes between everyone else,his irises putting up a fight not to stay on her,

"The auction right? - If it's an open invitation I'm down."

His tone was cool,collected despite the slight mixture of anxiety and excitement beginning to fizz away inside of him.Simon despairately wanted to bring up the fact he recognised her,but couldn't think of a scenario where he didn't sound like a stalker.He most certainly wasn't,it was just a trick of fate - pure chance obviously.But it didn't seem to lessen his worry of her judging him at all.

" How'd you find Cali?"

It slipped out as the rest of the group seemed to get momentarily distracted amongst themselves,the silence a little unbearable.

(California seemed the best place I could think of,I'm not good on US Coasts Lol )

Chandler | Simon

Chandler had been kind of weaving her way between a conversation with Floyd, Bekkah, and Julian, and one between Kierstan and Asher. She'd heard Simon say something about Cali, so she turned her attention back towards him, a confused expression knitted on her face.

"Callie? Who's Callie? You mean, my horse, Ben? Or..? Sorry, I'm like suuper drained." With the most perfect giggle, she crossed her arms across her chest, waiting expectantly for him to elaborate while thinking about what in the world he was talking about. Was it some kind of joke? She was sure the expression on her face showed that she was waiting for the punchline, but somehow it just wasn't clicking.

(i'm gonna wait like one more post before we get to completely embarrass her lol)

Samantha Starr / Mickey/ M: Everyone,Laurence.

The strawberry Blonde gave a mental groan,the irritation passing her features as another one of her eyerolls.Really?Was he just playing her around now - Sam knew how intelligent that man was and guessed that his reply was just ignorance to how worried people were getting.Why did she care anyways -

"His problem to be missing out on all the fun."

She had grumbled,hastily putting her phone back away in a decision to ignore his rediculous questions and focus on the tedious task at hand.The young woman didn't feel like socialising before,now even less than ever as she watched everyone mingle in their groups - It made her exhausted to watch.

With this,Sam excused herself from the fire - not that anyone would have noticed - to go meander along the path alone.It gave her time to think,drop the irritation and leave it behind.His question on what time it was instilled a little unease into her angered thoughts,but once again brushing it off as one of his jokes.

- Such a teaser huh?Hilarious. -

The text remained on her screen for a while,unsent before her eyes watched it be slowly wiped from it.Why care?Why bother.She didn't even know what was going on right now with her,figuring - No hoping it was the effects of last night's exhaustion and the adrenaline of today's events driving her to be so out of character.

I can't wait for them to physically interact while he's sick lol, I intend for him to just not care about anything lol))

Laurence | Open

Laurence had found himself up around an hour later, shivering under a bunch of blankets. He'd gotten up, thrown a shirt on, and gone out to the dining hall, looking to see if he could scrounge up enough hot water to make some tea and perhaps find a thermometer. He didn't need one to tell him he was burning up, but having an actual number on his temperature would at least tell him if he needed to go to the medic in the morning. They seemed to be no good for the common cold, but even worse for sprains and injuries, simply acting as a place to hand injured or sick riders off to transport them to the hospital. Nonetheless, he could get some kind of over the counter meds from them, if he could get through the night.

Probably making a legitimate racket as he was able to make his tea, Laurence groggily walked himself back to his little 'home' on property, hardly feeling up to opening the heavy door. As soon as he had shut it, forgetting to lock it in his delirium, he sat down on the actual floor, lying down and staring at the ceiling, still feeling dizzy. He put the tea beside him and fell asleep again, sprawled out on the floor like a dead man, but woke up not fifteen minutes later in a cold sweat, seeming to have drenched his shirt and shorts. Not feeling up to a shower, he took off his shirt again, throwing it weakly across the room before retreating to his sleeping position inches from his bed. This cycle continued for the next hour or so, awake, asleep, awake asleep, each time more miserable, the tea he'd gotten now long forgotten and cold.

Timothy Blue/ CEI / M: Emily,Campfire Crew.

The blonde had offered an unenthused smile,following her back to the car after a few more stolen glances around the building.He felt it was a shame to leave something so different and unique to do the most generic Smalltalk with strangers.Again.

"Sam actually.Can you believe it?"

Tim offered an amused boyish eyebrow raise,not entirely sure if Emily had even picked anything up about the pair.Although he guessed if anyone had,she was mostly likely to be at the helm of any new developments as such.

"Yeah - I mean I haven't really seen much of him yet but he seems decent enough.Taken a liking to you anyways."

Who doesn't?

- - -

Tim had visibly tensed as she looped an arm through His,which had been casually tucked into his hoodie.He was thankful in a way for the slight flush it gave him,the night air beginning to get a bit cool for his liking.

"The good Old Days.."

He had offered with an confirming nod,eyes full of sentiment at the mere thought of being back then.Life was so much easier,simpler.They were so much simpler.

"You go mingle - I'll be there in just a sec."

Tim had murmured gently as they got just to the edge of the bonfire,his eye noticing one of his students wandering in a rather testy way back down the path.He pointed her out to Emily with a look,shooting her a reassuring smile and gentle hand squeeze as a way of confirming she'd be fine to walk on her own from here.Once she'd given him the all clear he began to follow Sam along the pathway,in all honestly glad to be able to avoid the gathering for even a mere moment.But part of him felt a little regret - knowing that in a moment he would effectively be staring down the barrel of a gun..

(Blessed Lord help him,Perhaps Sam's temper will cure his fever? >.< )

Simon Triba / M: Chandler,Group.

Now he really couldn't help the smile that crept over his lips,a sly amused grin that was mirrored in his chuckle,

"I honestly doubt 'Ben' would be impressed that you've changed his name and Gender all at once."

With a faint eyebrow raise he waited for a few moments,debating whether to continue with the conversation or pretend it was just some silly slip of his tongue.No,He'd committed now.

"California - I meant."

He simply reiterated,expression serious but expectant.It was eating at him to know if she'd noticed him at all - taken the liberty to recognise him.But the longer her blank expression continued,the less hope he had his chance at building some kind of relationship was going to be successful.

Chandler/Aodhan | Marley, Simon, and friends

Chandler gave him an enthusiastic but falsified smile, now searching his face. "Wait...I...I know you? I mean you looked familiar, but..."

...

"Oh my gods, who is she talking to?" Aodhan pointed Marley's attention towards Chandler and Simon. "Wait, what the heck, that's the beach guy..." Without hesitation or any social awareness or consideration for what was happening, Aodhan came up behind them, vaguely hearing the end of the conversation.

"Chandler," he exclaimed, patting the man on the back. "You remember this dude, right? This was the guy..."

"The guy?" She looked between the two of them now, utterly confused.

"No, I'm not joking you," he read her body language, scrolling through his phone. "I gotta find the picture, you literally made me take a picture of him, you said you were gonna marry him one day..."

"Oh, did I? Simon? This guy, right here?" It was impossible to tell what was running through her head as she flicked her bright eyes between the two men. It finally hit her like a ton of bricks in a second as he showed her the picture, from years ago. "Lord have mercy," she whispered under her breath, looking between the picture and the person in front of her. "Wait--how did you remember that? Did Aodhan tell you already?"

"I'm gonna ease my way out of this happy reunion and go hang out with non-Americans again, but for the record I didn't tell him anything..." Clapping Simon on the back, Aodhan returned to Marley and grinned, having no idea they already knew one another. "Ah, young love, eh?"

Laurence | Open

Laurence woke up for the umpteenth time, still miserable on the floor, shaking, his body covered in a cold sweat to the point where his hair was wet. Obviously it was a fairly high fever, but he felt no need to go anywhere or do anything, especially knowing the germaphobes who lived here. He knew Tristan would cover up his trail with gallons of bleach, and Emily would start washing anything he came into contact with, not to mention the dozens of others he knew were absolute clean freaks. Dozing off on his phone, somehow he'd managed to, in his completely asleep state, send Sam a text message of just a ton of letters and numbers--his arm had somehow fallen on his keyboard, and resulted in a text to her that looked like he was having a stroke.

Welll,Damn Aodhan LMAO)

Simon Triba / M:Chandler,Aodhan,General arena.

Simon hardly moved as a hand patted his back firmly,the man he turned to see incredibly over-friendly and in no way unsettled by just dropping such a bombshell on their conversation.But he was gone as soon as he had appeared,leaving the raven-haired man feeling a little lost on the whole thing.It did take him a few whole moments to catch up and absorb the information before glancing to her and raising his eyebrows slightly.

"Blessed with good memory I guess?"

He had offered simply,trying to cover the real reason he remembered so vivedly.A small yet perfect laugh left his lips,eyes bright yet unsure,

"Better than yours obviously anyways."

Simon wasnt entirely sure where this whole thing left them,and wasn't even certain her friend was being serious.He seemed the joking type,which didn't help the matter whatsoever.