Em / Heather, Tim

Emily crossed her arms, watching Tim with an amused expression. "I think it's funny how everything is a laughing matter unless you're the brunt of the joke." She gave him a playful shove, then turned back to Heather. "Any of those sound amazing!" Giving the Brit a pointed, lighthearted glance, she added, "I happen to be great at baking, despite what Tim would have everyone believe. He's made an assumption about my baking ability based on my cooking ability, which, by the way, has improved quite a bit since I brought a living, breathing child into my home."

Giving Heather a charming smile as she finished letting her in on the joke, Emily gestured to outside. "We should get back to the barn and get moving on the baking, but we should definitely talk more about what kind of competition and the prospect of doing like a gala or something the night before, or maybe the last night. Some kind of awards dinner or something."

...

Emily pulled into the driveway of the barn, parking in an open spot next to Tim's car. A smile came to her lips as she looked around, feeling a sense of familiarity, of home. She'd missed White Oaks in her six month hiatus, or maybe the sense of community more. Kentucky had been amazing, but she was ready to take what she'd learned and apply it.

Since she hadn't been riding and probably wouldn't have time for it while balancing Camden and other various responsibilities, Emily had decided that she would get into another area of the equestrian world: breeding. She had more than enough money since closing on her father's estate in Germany and the millions of dollars of inheritance she'd accrued upon his death, and nothing to do with it. She'd gone to Kentucky to learn from experts on what to look for, and how to do it properly.

She stepped out of her car, rejoining Tim and Heather in a different parking lot. "Do you think the main kitchen will be open or would we have been smarter to just skip the guessing and go to my house? I don't know what kind of activities are going on here, but look how many people are here! Do you guys know what all this is about? If we weren't trying to get something done I would definitely be socializing right now."

Nessa + Callum / Darius, Darraugh

"Really attractive siblings, eh? And do you like what you see?"

"Callum!" Nessa couldn't help snickering at her brother's sass, although she felt obligated to give him a playful shove. She was surprised at how easily he'd warmed up to Darius, normally Callum was only this way around their family, and his few friends. He was the kind of kid that kept to himself mainly, both because of his bookish maturity and his lack of desire to gossip and make small talk, which seemed to be the only thing his peers wanted to do.

"He said it, not me," the younger brother defended, glancing back and catching his older brother's eye. They waved at each other and Darraugh walked over slowly.

"Thanks for the warning," Nessa pitched in, giving a genuine albeit small smile. "School? You're in college I'm guessin'?"

Darraugh's gentle voice interrupted the conversation amongst the younger riders, a friendly smile directed at Darius. It was remarkably similar to Nessa's.

"Hey mate, I'm Darraugh. I'm the older brother of these two mischief-makers."

Nessa gave Darraugh a pointed look, wondering if he'd ever begin to refer to her as an adult like himself. There were only a few years between them, yet he took an almost fatherly approach when addressing them. It'd always been a quality unique to him, some of Nessa's older sisters took her to parties and just about every place she shouldn't have been as a younger girl.

"Sorry to intrude, but I have to borrow these guys for a bit, we've ought to start getting our horses acquainted with the area before it gets too dark. Perhaps we'll see ya around, though."

Nessa frowned thoughtfully at her older brother's words. She'd thought to exchange contact information with him, but decided to leave it up to fate whether they met again. It seemed easier that way, no assumptions about what she was saying or wasn't, what her intentions were and what they weren't.

"Yeah, hope to see you around, Darius."

With a small smile and wave, Nessa joined Darraugh in heading towards the quarantine barn where there horses were. Callum had left mid-conversation to join Olivia in heading to see the ponies, so Darraugh began to fill Nessa in on the schedule for the night.

"I think we ought to just walk the youngsters around, then let the ones who are regularly competing come out and have a nice hack."

She nodded in agreement as they trudged through the grass, getting lost in a conversation about everything and nothing.

-Heather would have smirked a bit at the joke, holding in a laugh like usual then she nodded a bit. Agreeing that they should head back to the barn since she needed to make sure that Storm is staying out of trouble. She gets Toby into the backseat first then she gets back into the driver seat before starting the engine then putting the jeep into reverse, backing out of the hospital parking lot while making sure that no cars are coming then she puts the car into drive and drives back to the barn while the large dog slept quietly in the back-

-She parks into the barn's parking lot, she made sure that she had everything before getting out of the jeep then letting Toby out after taking his leash off, along with his vest. She shyly waves at Tim and Em when she met back up with them again. The red brunette did notice how many people there are here in White Oak which kinda messed with her anxiety a tad bit but manages to answer- "My guess is that the main kitchen is probably open since I hardly seen anyone use the kitchen unless they were grabbing a snack or something."

-Heather turned her head to where the pastures are as Mystery was playing with one of the other horses and Storm was trotting over to the fence line, neighing as loudly as he could when he caught sight of his short rider, flicking his tail in an active manner-

-Heather let out a sigh as she watched Storm for a while then she shifted her eyes over to Mystery, who had noticed that she was finally back when she got done playing with the other horse, she could hear the colorful mare let out a greetingful whinny towards the group. The red brunette let a small gracefully smile show on her face, she loved her animals like they were her own children but the thought of losing Mystery the same way that she lost Prince...replaced the smile with a small frown, she still missed her gelding even though it's been a long time ago since his death. Her mind started to race, was Mystery ready to take on the Olympics like Prince once did? Will Storm be finally be ready to get broken in so she can teach him about carrying a person on his back or was that mission impossible?-

-Heather would be kinda listening to the trio speak while her eyes stayed very focused on her two horses, Toby would be staying right next to his owner, being a good boy like usual-

Em // Heather, Tim

"Which one? I heard there's an attractive new eventer who took over half the program, and he's Irish." She winked at Tim playfully, pulling out all of the baking essentials from one of the cabinets, feeling grateful that the barn took such good care of its people. She'd forgotten the southern hospitality of White Oaks, always providing the cooking and baking essentials that one may need. Kentucky had been gorgeous--a brand new adventure--but not home. White Oaks was home.

"Have you met any new people, Heather? Any boyfriend material?" Sure, she wasn't very close to Heather, but she felt comfortable asking any question in any room. She found the fellow eventer to be a rather intriguing sort--definitely introverted and a tad bit awkward, mainly a listener but she answered questions. She'd learned after some time that this was just Heather and that it was nothing personal, and this satisfied Emily.

After some amount of time they'd successfully completed the task at hand, the cookies in the oven drawing the attention of some passer-byers coming in and out to eat a quick meal. Someone had grabbed Heather's attention so Emily turned to Tim. "Do you want to go for a walk or grab a drink or something later? I know we mentioned it in passing before, but I can't go home until at least eleven because of Camden's routine, and it would be good to catch up with a friend. You're like, my only real friend here, you know?"

-The young woman remembered something before she finally checked her phone and silently scolded herself- "Speaking of that stud, I forgot that I scheduled an appointment to go get him gelded today." -Heather felt very comfortable socializing with Emily, Tim, and Kholo but she can be very anti-social with people that she tries to avoid or generally people that she doesn't really know that well-

-Toby would have looked up at his owner, sensing the change of her emotions as the large Shepherd began to whimper a bit, pawing at her leg ever so gently-

Aiden watched the pair walk up and couldn't help but think of how wrong this could go. He looked the bubbly Irish up and down before nodding. " Yeah Blair, you should go with them. They said they're heading to the main office, so it shouldn't be a problem. I've got a couple of things to do. I'll see you guys around." He smiled nervously before promptly walking off towards a different area.

With his head in the clouds, Aiden didn't notice the man he ran into. He stumbled backwards, cursing under his breath. " Dude I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing." He apologised quickly. He patted the dirt off of his butt and his legs before straightening his body and letting out a muffled groan.