Blair O'Connor | 24 | Aidan, Livvie, Tyler

Blair felt a flicker of disappointment at the - still unnamed - young man's words. Stop it. Remember? The last time. "Mm, see you around then." She tried to sound casual, attempting to hide the break in her cool demeanor, the strain in her smile, the stiffness as she waved him goodbye. She was good at masking it; after all, doesn't practice make perfect? But then, they also said that if you don't succeed just try again, and that sure as hell didn't work.

She slipped out of the pair's conversation, avoiding eye contact as they walked to the main office. Last time. That was an experience she wished she could forget. Sadly, however, it was engrained into her head with a force only a bad memory has. Tall and dark, deep blue eyes with a smile that made her feel dizzy when directed at her. Maybe it was that same thing that caught her, in a net too tight to break free. Maybe it was the way he told her she was beautiful, or how her hand fitted neatly into his. Either way, she fell like a ton of bricks, unprepared for the shattering crash as she hit the ground.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a dark-haired man, seeming to have appeared from nowhere. "Ah, you must be the new students! Welcome welcome, I sincerely hope you haven't been waiting for too long. I'm Lorenzo, just here to show you around. Welcome to White Oaks." He shook each hand firmly, his demeanor welcoming and friendly. "You are?"

After a few minutes of exchanging names and receiving directions, Blair edged away to the dorms, her figure disappearing into the bustle of the busy stable. Only her red-dyed hair made her stand out from the others, a dot of scarlet between the grey jackets, tall boots, pristine outfits. Perfection - or at least the illusion of it.

Emily / Heather, Laurence, Thérèse, Tim, Zander

"The late morning, as in, right now?" Being the type-A personality she was, Emily was now more concerned about Heather's schedule than she was. "Well, I refuse to make you late. It's like, almost noon. Why don't you two go handle that, I'll bring the cookies to Laurence and Sam, and I'll catch up with you later? I promised him a walk anyway, so we'll probably be done at the same time."

...

Laurence had been sitting in the living room in deep meditation or prayer--one or the other, or maybe both--when he heard a knock on his door. Sam had fallen asleep maybe an hour prior, so he'd found something else to do. He'd gotten an 'I'm coming an you're not going to change my mind' text from Emily fifteen minutes ago, so he was expecting her.

"We brought you guys cookies, we figured baked goods would go over better than anything else. Tim and Heather send their love."

"Thank you, that's kind. Send them my--our--thanks."

"How is she? Can I say hi?"

"She's sleeping right now, but you're welcome any time.

Slipping out the front door quietly, Emily and Laurence became engrossed in small talk that quickly turned into venting and mutual advice giving. Both were natural caregivers and counselors, so it was odd for each to be vulnerable in this way, but they were forming the beginnings of a great friendship.

At some point, Laurence received a text from Kholo, who had placed him in a group chat with two unknown numbers. He skimmed over it briefly, not fully paying attention because of his willingness to stay present with Emily. He knew what it was about, and was partially avoiding it.

"What's that? You look troubled."

"Kholo convinced me to join some kind of international eventing team as the head dressage rider, can you believe it? She must have been coming up empty if she asked me, I haven't even sat on a horse since mid November of last year."

Thérèse / Laurence and Zander, Darraugh and Nessa

It didn't take Thérèse long to find the horses. In fact, she hadn't even waited to unpack before taking her assigned horse for a hack. She had all of eight days before their first competition, so she was eager to begin training. Besides, she had traveled all the way here from France to do exactly this, hadn't she?

She was dressed in a mauve riding shirt and chartruese breeches which were not necessarily an appropriate color for the season, but were bright and friendly like the woman who wore them. Jest wasn't dressed in any of Thérèse's tack, but the bits and pieces she'd found in one of many tack rooms that were labeled as his. Even so, she had to fix the noseband and find a different girth and was half convinced he'd either never had a person here, or his last person was the most unorganized she'd ever seen.

Jest was obviously a sport horse, it was his antsy nature and unwillingness to comply that made this so glaringly obvious. He had been prancing in the aisle way, couldn't be tied, and wouldn't stand still long enough in the stall for Thérèse to get anything done. She hadn't done her best work in preparing him to be hacked, but it wasn't horrendous, either.

Just as she'd gotten out to the ring, she felt a buzzing from her phone, and a long text from who she assumed was the barn owner or manager welcoming her to a group chat with two other numbers. She still wasn't used to the ten digit American numbers, nor all of the new ones that had been blowing up her phone since she arrived. Group text after group text came in, and Thérèse was excited about the prospect of meeting so many new people. Especially the two others on this text--she hoped she would work well with them and make them proud.

"Hello, I am Thérèse. I come from France," she replied with more emojis than could be counted, a very friendly and over-the-top welcome in a very Thérèse way. Everything from the French flag to the Eiffel tower to horses and smiley faces were in that text. It was just who she was.

She noticed as she wrestled with Jest that there were two other riders in the particular arena she had decided to hack in. As she got closer [much more quickly than she would have liked] she noticed it was Darraugh, her only friend here so far, and his sister. Each was riding a calm-minded, pristine mount, and suddenly she felt abashed. Jest was neither seasoned nor pristine, and she wondered why it was that she had been assigned to him. She knew she wasn't at the highest levels of showjumping, nor did she have the accolades to truly call herself a professional, but it felt humiliating to be hacking a sapling in the presence of seasoned, fruitful, mature trees.

Climbing aboard the extremely impatient mount after having to receive help from Callum, who was standing idle in the ring, the young woman fought the gelding a bit more just to stay at a walk, no jogging, bucking, or other antics.

Aaron Franklin | 21 | Diva/Romeo | Opennnn

"Shh, we're almost there." Aaron glanced in the rear view mirror momentarily, before returning to the road. Diva had been shifting anxiously for the past ten minutes - a remarkably short time on her record - but he still wanted to get her settled as soon as possible. The blood bay mare could get set off by the smallest things: a strange stall, different feed, even new people. The move was already bound to set her off on the wrong foot, but add to that the stress of an uncomfortable ride and there was no avoiding it.

The stately white gates came into view a few minutes later, much to Aaron's relief. Driving slowly, he pulled into an empty space in the parking lot. He worked efficiently, unlatching the trailer door and unloading his horses. Romeo let out an ecstatic neigh, his grey head tossed in the air joyfully. His less obedient travel mate, though, stood obstinately in the trailer, all fears forgotten once the car had stopped. "C'mon girl, out," Aaron chided, tugging the lead rope assertively. "Don't have all day - still need to hack, remember?" Diva clearly didn't, her hooves planted firmly on the trailer floor.

He ignored her, lengthening her lead rope and bringing out Romeo. The dappled gelding followed calmly, his demeanour unruffled by the three-hour journey. His lead was slack, always staying close to his owner. Suddenly realizing that her friend was leaving without her, Diva leapt into a trot to catch up the 'huge gap' of two meters. She almost ran into Aaron, halting only just before his body.

The brunette sighed. He had owned the mare for a little less than a year now, and her manners were still terrible despite the hours of groundwork. They hadn't clicked amazingly either, though admittedly he had been spoilt by his connection with Romeo. The gelding was his soul-horse, the one he could always depend on; Diva was more of the wild runaway who lived up to her name to the letter. Too clever for her own sake, she got bored easily and had to be stimulated practically constantly, always demanding attention. And yet still, there was something in her that stopped Aaron from giving up, from reselling her problems to someone else.

"You're a real mischief, d'you know that?" He smiled dryly, one eyebrow raised at the cantankerous mare. "Come on, we've got to get you two settled here, mm?"

[i hate the flow, but you guys are going to have to live with that for this post xD]

Aaron Franklin | H/E | Diva/ Romeo | Vikram

Aaron gripped the teen's hand firmly, nodding in acknowledgement. "I'm Aaron. Oh, and these are Romeo and Diva." The mare nudged his back impatiently, her tail swishing from side to side. "Give me a moment, girl." Turning back to Vikram, he added, "She's an impatient little idiot, don't mind her." He smiled with his eyes at Vik, only just turning up his mouth to resemble a friendly grin.

Noticing the wary way that he looked at the Trakhener, Aaron nudged her chest to make her back up a few steps. "Still working on her manners," he explained, gesturing to the now-sulking Diva. "She was unridden for a good while before I bought her, so yeah. Work in progress, I guess." He unconsciously started rubbing Romeo's forehead, methodically massaging the grey. The gelding leant into it, letting out a small, blissful groan.

"Anyways. I need to get these two situated soon - she's already getting antsy - but nice chatting to you. What discipline do you do?"

Nessa / Tim, Open

Nessa had just finished turning out Nikolas in a small round pen near the quarantine barn, since they were not yet allowed to be integrated into the herd. He was a fairly good-natured citizen, so she prided herself in the fact that it wouldn't be a problem. Olivia's ponies, on the other hand, were being absolutely satanic, and when she'd left her beloved brother, he was trying to mediate that situation, which had probably turned into bargaining, then being pushed around by this point. This brought a small smile to her lips as she drew her phone out to text him, in the process nearly walking into a man who was headed in the opposite direction of her. She let out a quiet squeak, barely hanging onto her phone as she stepped back, apologizing furiously. What she hadn't prepared herself for was just how attractive the man was.

Nessa had never been very attracted to blonds, but this one was an exception. He was also remarkably short for her taste, considering her own boyfriend was almost 6'5 and average height as far as her list of boyfriends went, yet, something about him made her look past it.

"I-so sorry, first day on my new feet I guess." She quickly got an obvious shade of crimson, her sparkling eyes trying to remain on him without panicking or doing something embarrassing. All of her boyfriends had been long distance which had removed this piece of the equation. Yet, this piece also made her feel something she wished she could bottle up, something foreign to her. This was the third unreasonably attractive guy she'd met here--where did they all come from?!

After standing there studying him for an amount of time she could not recall, Nessa offered her hand to him. "I guess this is that part where I introduce myself," she gave a charming grin, pushing back a strand of dark wavy hair with her free hand. Her touch lingered in the handshake until she finally retracted her hand, putting them both at her sides. "I'm Nessa, and you are?"