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!.
"how" she knew it was difficult to explain but she should have known. he wasn't the first brother to come home and struggle being around the family. "because dustin and avery were similar when they came home.." she knew it wasn't an explanation and she knew that it wouldn't be a good enough reason for sam but she didn't have another one. she just should have known, that's what she felt deep inside and she couldn't change it. it wasn't joe's fault. it was hers. "i don't think it's fair to put you in that position. he is dangerous, and they're burying their heads in the sand like it's fine?" she wished she could reassure him that there was no way her brothers were sticking their heads in the sand about what joe had done or the fact he could do it again. "they're watching him, they know what he's going through. it's just going to take time." she said as she bit her lip, knowing that she was doing an absolute shit job of explaining this and trying to put his mind at ease. she didn't do good with vulnerable, she never knew what to say.
she listened to him as he spoke, taking in his words and knowing that he wasn't wrong in what he was saying. she knew that if it was one of her friends that had been going through the same thing she'd have told them to tell their brother where to do, she'd have given sam the same advice. but she was so terrified of losing her brother over this, for alienating her other family if she didn't want to have joe around. it was a hard situation for them all and there was no perfect solution, they couldn't turn him out on the street, not when he wasn't right. "i can't argue with you sam." she said softly as she shifted a little on the couch and she looked at him. "i know you're right." she just didn't know what to do, how to be anything other than defensive of her family. they were her everything and she'd die on many a hill for them. she shifted slightly again, this time towards him as she tucked herself against his side, her head resting gently against his chest. right now all she wanted in that moment was to feel his arms around her. like somehow she knew that once they were, everything would be okay.
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.
she watched as faye put all her weight onto the bar that would hopefully loosen the nuts and then they could both get out of this weather that seemed intent on flooding every living thing out of the land it was falling onto. okay maybe that was an exaggeration but she didn't think she'd ever been as soaked through as she was now and that was saying something. she was just about to give up and tell faye it was pointless as the bar started to move. her eyes widened with joy and then horror as she saw it slip and the next thing faye was falling towards the car. "oh go-" she reached her hands to grab the back of faye's shirt, hoping to stop her from falling into the car but luckily faye was quick enough to stop herself and heather breathed out a strong sigh of relief as she let go of her shirt.
"superwoman!" she said with a genuine smile and a small laugh as she crouched to take the nuts off the tire after faye loosened them. there was no way she was going to chance losing these buggers. she wanted to go home, take a hot shower until the water in england ran out and drink as much hot tea as she could physically stomach. she'd probably even go as far as to start a fire when she got home and turn the heating up to just below boiling, regardless of what her family said. she was desperate to get warm. "who says damsels in distress can't rescue themselves." she said with a smile as she stood up so she could roll the spare tyre from the back of the car now they could take the flat wheel off.
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.
as much as she tried to fight them, she couldn't help the tears that sprang up in the corners of her eyes at his words. your brother tried to kill you. the feeling of helplessness she'd felt in the moment came rushing back, the fear that she'd felt in the moment, she could remember it. the absolute terror of thinking that she was going to die had been enough to keep her awake at night since but she couldn't tell anyone. they had to think she was fine. she needed them all to think she was fine. she blinked the tears in the corners of her eyes away, refusing to let them fall and hoping that sam was too mad to see them and she shook her head slightly. "no i don't .. i." heather wasn't often lost for words. she wasn't often unsure of what to say and she was hardly ever unsure about her opinions on things. she was loud, she was confident and she was normally so sure in her resolve that this feeling of not being able to explain, not being able to talk her way out of if or talk sam into thinking it was okay was confusing her. "i should have known." was the best she could come up with. she'd seen avery and dustin come home, go through what joe was going through. she should have remembered.
"he doesn't have anywhere else." and they wouldn't let him go anywhere else. he might have been struggling but he still belonged here at home with them, she without a doubt thought it was still the best place for him, regardless of what had happened and how she was feeling. she didn't expect sam to understand that but she could see where he was coming from, she could understand it. if their roles were reversed she'd be the same, she'd be ready to throw hands if someone was hurting sam. it was just one of those situations where there was no good and bad, only bad and worse. "but he didn't mean it." it might have been her brother's hand but it hadn't been her brothers choice, at least not the brother she remembered. she didn't know how to make this sound better than it was, to explain it in a better way that would put sam at ease, or herself at ease, because really there was no way to, but it didn't stop her brain from trying to piece together an explanation that was better than anything she'd come up with so far. "and he's my brother." was what it settled on, because to her, it was what it all boiled down to.
heather woke with something of a start as her phone slipped from her hand and landed on the floor next to her bed with a soft thud. she blinked as the afternoon sun shone through her window and she inwardly cursed at herself for falling asleep. she's just been resting, texting with sam and the last thing on her mind had been sleep. she'd been fighting it for days now. since kara had found her passed out on the floor last week, she'd been told to take it easy. doctors said it was just a flu but it was lingering. the lack of energy was beyond a joke and when she was out of bed for longer than a few hours her body cried for her to curl back up again. most days she didn't though, she sat at her computer or in the lounge, keeping up on her school work, editing the photos she'd taken before she'd fallen ill and trying to do everything she needed to around the house. if she wanted to prove to her family that she was a responsible adult, she needed to keep on top of things right? not let them slip through her fingers.
she rubbed her fingers into her eyes as she remembered the fight that had brought on this sudden desire to prove her responsibility to her family. she could remember the words, what she and dustin had said to each other and it still made her feel guilty she'd not walked away sooner. their fights had always been impressive, both too stubborn to give in and both too stubborn to apologize but this one had felt different, more intense and things hadn't gone back to normal after it. they were both making good on their promises to each other, his to not parent her and hers to not need him. though at this point she was trying to prove to herself she didn't need any of them, she could do just fine on her own.
as she felt her eyes starting to close again she pushed herself up, probably a little quick as it caused her head to spin but she did her best to ignore it as she swung her legs over the edge of her bed and she sat there for a moment, getting her bearings a little as she pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail before she reached down to pick up her phone, shooting sam a quick apology message for vanishing on him earlier. then it was time to get up, head downstairs and see what needed doing. once she stepped foot onto the stairs she heard the unmistakable sound of a knife hitting a board and she couldn't help but think that it must have been kara or hayden starting dinner, so when she reached the bottom of the stairs she couldn't help but be a little surprised that it was dustin.
she paused for a second before she walked into the room and she set her phone down on the table softly, watching him for a few seconds before she spoke. "do you need any help?" she could only guess what he was making at this point but she could help cut vegetables as well as the next person could, even if her other skills in the kitchen were lacking a little. though the thought of food wasn't one she was going to entertain beyond some toast later this evening, her appetite since the start of this stupid flu had been nonexistent for more than a few reasons.
when he answered her she felt her knees almost go weak with relief. so he hadn't taken enough to kill himself, there was that. she looked down at him as she rested her hands on the towels, the packed in her hand as she tried to count how many had been in there and how many should have still been in there. she thought quickly that she should get dustin or kara again. avery or holly, someone who could help him more than she could but she didn't, something told her that she needed to stay there with him. he was her brother and she loved him and she wasn't about to let him go through whatever this was on his own. four, well that wasn't so bad. was it? she dropped the packet onto the sink again as she grabbed the towels and she lowered herself to her knee's next to her older brother and she draped a towel over the shoulders of his shaking frame and she put one down on the ground next to him, just in case she needed to wipe anything up in the near future.
she watched as he lowered his head into the toilet and she reached in to cup her hand against his forehead softly, feeling how sweaty he was and she grimaced a little at how awful he must have been feeling in the moment. she knew that he might yell at her for it but she was trying to stop his head from slamming into the porcelain, the last thing he needed was a concussion on top of this. it was awful to listen to but at least he was getting them up, the longer they were in his system the more damage they could do to him. "it's okay joe." she said softly to him, doing her best to comfort him in that moment but wondering if it would be well received, even in his current state. she did decide in that moment that she didn't care what his reaction would be. she wasn't an uncaring person, she couldn't do nothing. so she used her free hand to rub up and down his back gently as his body tried to purge himself of everything in it.
she knew she'd hurt him, her siblings had told her to talk to him but she hadn't been able to bring herself to. there was this image she liked to put out there, that she could handle anything life through at her, that nothing brought her down and there wasn't anything that could hurt her but it was just a facade. she tried to hard to keep it up and she hadn't been able to this week. she'd been the cause of what had happened to her, she knew that there would be people out there that wouldn't have understanded it and she hadn't wanted to put that onto sam. for him to need to understand it. she had been feeling a gut wrenching guilt over it but it had been the only option she'd seen working. and now that he was standing there, worried it had been something he'd done well that just made the guilt fill her even more.
she knew it wasn't something to joke about but she couldn't help it. smile it away, brush it away, act like it hadn't hurt her. it's what she did normally, at least when it came to things outside of her family. she couldn't act like that with her family, her constant clashes with her older brother were a symptom of that but she was trying to be better, to stress him less. she didn't enjoy fighting with him, though she wondered if he thought she did. she just chewed on her bottom lip lightly as she nodded her head, hearing the change in his voice and knowing that he was serious.
she looked up quickly at that and she shook her head quickly. "no sam, i didn't mean to .. it's not like that." she said, wanting to step forward and throw her arms around his neck, to hold onto him as tightly as she could until he understood that it hadn't been about her not trusting him, it had been about her not wanting him to think badly of her brother. she stepped back a little as he stepped inside. she had to tell him, there was no backing out now, but she didn't know what he was going to think. the one thing she needed to stress was that it wasn't joe's fault.
she stepped back into the living room, taking a seat on the sofa and leaving him enough space to sit down next to her if he wanted to. she still held the flowers in her hands, not sure if she was half hiding behind them or if she didn't want to let them go because they felt like a lifeline to sam in that moment. "my brother joe, he came home a few days ago." she started softly, her fingers moving to touch one of the petals lightly, as unsure as she'd ever looked while she'd known sam. "he was in the army, he didn't tell us he was coming home and when i saw him i just .. i was so glad to see him i just hugged him and he wasn't ready." she took in a breath and she looked up at sam. "he reacted the only way he could, it's not as bad as it looks and dustin was there to pull him off me." she said as she shifted slightly on the couch, the feeling of her brother's hands around her neck flooding right back to her. "it wasn't joe's fault."
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.
that's where the saying 'read between the lines' comes from. i mean i never really took much stock in it until i had to start writing reports on books. speaking of, is jasper your professor? i mean you could always bribe him joking joking.
by the way, did you wake up with a killer headache this morning?
it might have been funny to joke about but she knew there was more to men than their height and the size of their arms. of course height and strength came in handy sometimes, like when changing a stubborn tire, but when push came to shove she's rather someone who was kind and reliable. she'd thought she'd wanted excitement, nonstop passion and adventure. but she's had excitement and it hadn't been all it was cracked up to be. now she was with sam it was different but she couldn't help but feel it was better. there was no hiding, no being worried about getting caught and she could find herself gushing without fear of getting into trouble. there was that and the person he was, she felt safe in his arms, he was somewhat opposite of her and she found that to be calming when the world felt too much.
"beauty and brains over brawn any day." she said with conviction as she wiped some of the water from her forehead with her wet sleeve. she looked down at the nut and couldn't help but think it was doing this on purpose, that this inanimate object was taking great delight in keeping her out in the rain when all she wanted was to go get a hot coffee and curl up with a good book. "it was probably hilarious. me trying to jump on this stupid thing but i was desperate." she could imagine the sight and if it had been anyone else she'd probably have had a chuckle before she helped but it had been so frustrating at the time.
"we could always amuse other people watching by both trying to jump on it?" she said but there was no real suggestion there. the last thing she'd want would be for faye to get hurt while trying to get this nut off. it wasn't worth someone else getting hurt for her car, it was her problem so if she got hurt it didn't matter so much. who changed the last tire? probably the last person who owned the car. she hadn't done it while she'd owned it. "i mean, the person who owned it last? the tires have been great till now." she said as she shivered slightly, looking up at the sky as the clouds started to roll back in. "maybe i should just call the service?"
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.
but no, i'd babysit her just because i love her to pieces.
