Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
heather was just about at her wits end. she loved her niece, she loved her more than just about anything but today she was being driven insane by her. the day had been getting worse slowly and painfully so. she'd woken up feeling fine but as the minutes ticked by she felt herself feeling worse and worse. if she didn't know any better she'd think scar knew she wasn't feeling great and was being extra difficult because of it. heather had tried everything to settle her down on her own because the last thing she wanted to do was call kara back from her day. she'd offered to watch her niece so her sister could have the day to herself. jasper was somewhere with one of his friends so why not babysit and give her sister some 'me' time? it had seemed like a great idea at the time. after all with everything going on in the house they could all use a break right? heather was finding herself spending more and more time with sam and with her friends and being out of the house as much as she could, that way she was less likely to run into joe and cause some sort of argument when she said hello to him.
she had scarlet in her arms, bouncing her and rocking her softly to try and coax the child into sleep, something she was desperate for her to do but it just made her grizzle louder and squirm in heather's arms. she'd checked that scar was okay, she wasn't sick or hungry or thirsty, she was just in a bad mood. "please scar, just for five minutes." she begged, the headache that had been creeping up on her all day now pounding behind her eyes. her limbs felt heavy as she walked across the living room and she set scar down in the playpen, trying to encourage her to play with a toy so she'd be distracted for a while but it didn't work. she almost groaned as she rubbed her fingers against her temples and she sunk to the ground next to where she'd put her niece and she grabbed her phone from the couch. she quickly shot kara a text 'can you come home? scars fine but i can't watch her anymore. i'm sorry." she typed the words quickly, the light from the screen on her phone almost blinding her as she did.
once the message had sent she chucked her phone back on the couch and she lowered her head to her knees and rubbed her fingers on the back of her neck in an attempt to soothe her head. all she wanted was to crawl upstairs and into her bed but she couldn't. she couldn't leave scar until kara or someone got home to keep her safe. if this was the flu it had better be over quickly, if there was one thing she hated more than anything it was being sick, so she was praying for a quick one. "shh scar." she mumbled tiredly as she felt herself stretch out on the floor in front of the playpen, resting her head on her arm. she'd just close her eyes for a moment. just for one moment. that would help. but the second her eyes were closed, they didn't open again until someone walked through the front door.
Kara smiled to herself as she strolled out of the hair dresses, fluffing her newly trimmed hair she decided to stop for a quick bite to eat. It had been a while since she'd treated herself, and it had been quite a surprise when Heather had kindly offered to watch her daughter for the day so she could do just that. She loved her little family, but she had to admit she'd been really looking forward to some 'me' time and intended to make the absolute most of it whilst she could. She'd booked a hair cut as it had been quite a while and her split ends were beginning to look depressing, and she'd popped in for a facial - because her pores were looking gross. Retail therapy was next on the list, as there were a few things she needed to grab and then she'd figured why not just take a good look in general and treat herself. To top her day off, she'd booked in a massage for later, to go home fully relaxed and mellow for the evening - hopefully dinner, a movie and an early night with Jasper. By then they would have had Scar gifted back to them, but she was fine for that.
Her phone sounded in her pocket just as she was at the till to order and she took a quick glance at it, on the off chance something was wrong or it was important. 'can you come home? scars fine but i can't watch her anymore. i'm sorry.' Kara sighed. Well, that was short lived. She couldn't help the slight wave of disappointment, but she supposed at least she'd managed a couple of hours of time to herself before being called back to reality and the job of being a mother. She didn't like to assume but she couldn't help but wonder if Heather might have gotten a better offer - not that she was like that, but having already had Scar for a morning, sometimes when you were young it was easy to be tempted by a boyfriend or friend offering to take them out. She fired off a quick reply to say she'd be home in ten, and changed her order 'to go' instead of eat in.
Once she'd paid and grabbed the sandwich and coffee, she hurried home. She knew Heather had said Scar was fine but as she mulled it over during her walk home she couldn't help but begin to worry that something was wrong - then again, it had been a text and not a call, so nothing urgent. The house was still empty as she let herself back in, calling out "I'm home," to let Heather know she was back, wandering through the house and leaving her bags in the hall to try and find her sister. "Heather?" She called out, concerned by the quiet that following her words - the crying of her daughter alerted her to which room and she frowned, pushing open the door to the lounge and taking in the scene. The mother in her automatically sent her rushing across the room to her child to sooth her, but as she rushed she took note of Heather - seemingly asleep on the floor nearby. An odd place for a nap. Picking Scar up as the child raised her arms, she shifted her to a hip and then knelt down next to Heather, shaking her shoulder gently. "Heath?"
heather groaned as she stirred, the feeling of a hand on her shoulder, the shaking making her head feel like it was going to explode. she'd had some relief in her sleep, all she'd heard was a pounding, the pain that seemed to threaten her skull with imploding had been gone but now she was stirring it had come back with a vengeance. she suddenly realized that she couldn't hear scarlet crying anymore and her eyes flew open and she pushed herself up onto her hip as she looked worriedly at the playpen she'd put her into. "scar?" she breathed out in a shaky voice before she noticed that kara was kneeling in front of her, her baby niece settled and quiet in her mother's arms. she could feel her arms shaking as they held her up and she felt the colour drain from her face as she came to the conclusion that she felt worse than she had before. she slowly shifted so she was sitting against the couch. "i'm sorry kara." she said, her voice rough as it made her throat feel like it was being slashed with razors.
she brought her knees up to her chest and she rested her forehead down on them, hugging her arms around her knees as she swallowed back a sick feeling that was rising in her raw throat. she didn't know what the hell was wrong with her, why she felt so out of it and like she wasn't quite in the room with her sister. she coughed into her knees as she brought one hand to rest on her chest, moaning a little as it hurt everything within her tenfold. "fuck." she whined a little as she lifted her head to look at her sister. "is scarlet okay?" she wanted to know. she'd left her crying, she'd left her niece while she'd been crying and the guilt burned in her almost as bright as whatever else she was feeling. she should have called kara sooner but she couldn't admit defeat. she didn't tell people when she was sick, she fought it, she hid it and she pushed through it. why couldn't she do that now? she didn't know why it had knocked her so quickly and so hard.
She heard the groan and frowned slightly, her sister could sleep but this was an unusual response to someone waking - it was more like the noise someone made when they had passed out and where coming to. Sadly she knew that quite a lot, despite not being a nurse, Kara had an extensive knowledge of first aid thanks to her family. Not even with the situation of the war and running from it, but just from boys being boys growing up and their mother dusting her hands of them when not in the mood. "scar?" Kara shifted and sat back a little to give her the space to rise. "It's alright," She said, her voice low and soft, concern filling her gaze as she looked Heather open. "i'm sorry kara." Kara shook her head, sure in the first moment she had been frustrated but that had rapidly disappeared in place of worry to see something was wrong with her little sister. "Don't be sorry, what's wrong?" Because something quite clearly was.
Scar settled easily enough and gurgled slightly, and then reached up to start tugging on a couple of strands of Kara's hair. Her attention was on Heather however, the child was fine and already over being left to her own devices for a few minutes. "fuck. is scarlet okay?" Kara nodded and nodded her head toward the youngster twirling Kara's dark locks around her chubby fingers. "She's fine, see? All okay. But you're not, so what's going on?" She asked, her main concern was Heather in this moment and she needed to know what was going on. Whether she needed to go to the doctor's to get checked out or even A&E if things were bad; was this contagious and did she need to worry about Scar catching it too was another thought that crossed her mind.
scar was okay. that was the main thing. she lifted her eyes up, grimacing a little at the light that shone through the living room window behind her sister but the sight of her niece happily playing with her mother's hair made her forget about it for just a second. she could remember the crying, how helpless she'd felt when she couldn't stop it and she felt a stab of guilt she'd been frustrated with her but it felt like such a distant memory now, even though it had only happened a short time ago. she brought her hands to her face as she lowered her head down onto her knees once again, her shoulders sagging a little because she lacked the energy to hold them any straighter. "She's fine, see? All okay. But you're not, so what's going on?" she was quiet for a second, because she didn't even know. she knew how she felt, what was feeling horrible but trying to explain it felt like a task she wasn't prepared for, like her brain was scrambling for the words to put together.
"my head, it's splitting." she said quietly, her throat once again feeling like there was razors running up and down as she spoke. whatever it was she hadn't woken up feeling this shit. actually she didn't think she'd ever woken up feeling this rough before. not in years and certainly not while they'd been living in england, though to be fair she didn't remember all that much of their life before the war in france either. she felt sick to her stomach but she was going to assume that was because her head felt like it was going to split open, that was the reason for all of it. it was just a headache, it had to be just a headache because she had school tomorrow, she had practice tomorrow and damned if she was going to miss any of it because her head was sore.
she rubbed her hands from her face into her hair, resting them on the back of her head, working her fingers into a massage into the base of her neck, doing her best to do anything to dull the pain and refusing to acknowledge that it felt like it was getting worse by the second. she coughed into her knees again and she almost curled into herself a little more as she did, letting out a little moan as the movement pounded through her head. "it feels like everything's going to split open." she said as she lifted her head from her knees to look at kara's face.
She watched the way her sister attempted to lift her eyes, the way she seemed to shrink away from the light like it hurt. That was never a good sign, clearly she was light sensitive, and that usually went hand in hand with a migraine or serious headache. Kara touched her sisters shoulder in concern when her head dropped to her hands and then returned to her knees. This wasn't like some silly hangover or a cold, this was clearly something a little more than that. She had to ask what was wrong, if it was something serious, if her sister knew what it was or if she needed to get seen by the local Doctor. She watched Heather for a reply, her brows furrowed as she waited, not pushing her to answer quicker.
"my head, it's splitting." well that was a given, she had no doubt her sister's head was some cause of the problem. "Is it just your head?" Kara queried, thinking that it could be solved easily enough with some pain medication and going to bed. Perhaps a stress related response, there had been a lot going on recently, it was why Kara had had some time to herself - which had intended to be a day but beggars couldn't be choosers. "it feels like everything's going to split open." She nodded to show she had heard, shifting Scar a little so she could go to stand properly and also offer her sister some support to get her to her feet too. "Alright, to the kitchen for some water and pain meds and then I think it's best we get you to sleep. Rest is always the best medicine. " it didn't fix everything but it damn well helped the body to get what it needed. What couldn't be solved with sleep the other meds would help with at least and then if things were right in a day she'd get Heather down to the doctor's to see what they could do to help.
heather rubbed her fingers into the back of her neck, pressing them a little harder than she probably should in that moment but she was desperate for the relief. she'd never had a headache quite like this before and it was a little scary for her. as tough as she tried to be and as much as she tried to act like she never needed anyone, it was so hard to keep up that facade when she was unwell. injured it was easy, pain was easy to hide. illness wasn't. at least not for her. "everything hurts.." she said so softly it was almost a whisper. she bit her lip and lifted her eyes to kara's face once again. "i feel like i'm going to be sick.." but she'd fight that tooth and nail. if there was one thing she hated more than anything it was being sick. so much so she'd been terrified of it when she'd been a child.
she watched as kara started to stand up and she almost panicked that she was going to leave her, but that was only because her brain wasn't working right. she closed her eyes as a few tears started to well in her eyes, a side effect of the pain in her head and her fighting the nausea she was feeling. she knew she needed to get up off the floor, she couldn't sit here for the rest of the day and as kara spoke about bed she could just imagine how nice it would feel to fall into her bed and curl up and sleep for a fortnight. she used all the support her sister gave her to stand up, staggering a little as she got to her feet and she used the arm of the chair to hold herself up to. "i think i'm dying.." she couldn't help but whine a little as they started to make their way slowly to the kitchen, her head making her feel like she was floating a little, like her feet weren't actually touching the ground as they walked.
