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!.
Beth smiled as it seemed that her offer had pleased the teenager. And having the girl back in her life was so much more important to her than ever being called mum. Even after she had adopted her nephew, he'd always called her by her first name. "How do prefer to be addressed?" She knew the girl's name, but she wanted to tread carefully here, and if Anastasia suddenly said that she wanted to be called Sally, she'd be happy to go with that.
Beth chuckled at the comment as the detective stepped away to take a call. "Our parents did it to us, and when we become adults, we seem to think the younger generation won't have caught on." Her brows rose at the question about boba tea and she smiled as she followed the teen's view. "I prefer it over the smell of coffee." She replied with a grin. She liked the odd cup of coffee, but the smell could get to be a little too much when surrounded by it for too long. "Sounds like a great idea, let's go." She nodded her head in that direction and led the way. "What flavours do you like the most?" Seemed like a good way to break the ice between them.
Beth laughed and nodded. "Nothing better than pounding some pie pastry, with a rolling pin, when I need to let off some steam." Not that her job was ever that stressful, but some days it felt good to really let the pastry have it. "I spent too long as a stay at home mum, so my house is always white glove inspection ready." Her husband had expected that she always kept the house ready for company, so it had become second nature to always keep the house clean, even after he had left.
She grinned and nodded. She had always believed in serving up a meal of meat and three veg, and the easiest way for this to happen when she was working all day was if she had it cooking all day until she returned. Even before she started working, it was a great way of making a winter casserole, and made the house smell great too! "Crockpots are great for things other than meals too; popcorn, bread, soup, hot chocolate." She grinned. "I have a recipe for a self-saucing chocolate pudding too!"
She looked over and gave the other woman a warm smile. "That goes both ways." She offered. "My door is always open. In fact give Izzy my number, in case she needs an adult but feels she can't call you." She'd had a couple of adults like that when she was a teen, and was pleased to have them, until one had decided that she needed to tell her parents and she'd been grounded during an archery competition so had missed out..
The flat was beginning to feel big, now that James had left to attend art school, and his room had been cleared out and she was here all alone... well, her and the dog that no one could ever pick the breed of. Then, she'd received the one phone call that had ripped the rug out from under her, the call that she never expected to get.
She still didn't know where her emotions were sitting as she made her way to Willow Bridge City, where she had arranged to meet the detective and her daughter. She was equally nervous and excited about being reunited with her daughter, but mixed in there was a bit of fear, as she had no idea what the girl had been told over the last twelve years, and she knew that the girl wouldn't remember who she was.
After parking her car, she made her way down to the cute little cafe with nice outdoor seating, moving her phone from one hand to the other as she went through many ways this could work out, unsure whether to find a table or not. "Dr. Bones! How wonderful it is to final speak in person." She smiled. "Please, it's Beth." She hadn't been Dr anything since she had taken her nephew in. She gave Anastasia a warm smile "You can call me Beth, if it feels too soon to call me mum." She offered. They were strangers to each other, as this young woman wasn't the bubbly four year old that had been spirited away in the middle of the night all those years ago. "Shall we find a table and get something to drink?" even if the detective needed to hurry off, it would be a nice neutral place for her and Anastasia to get to know each other
Beth grinned, she didn't mind being an inspiration - though it was better when the compliment came from her students. She pulled a slight face, as her teenager at home, was very grown up and lacked the immaturity of the ones in her classes.
She laughed and shrugged. "Probably because baking is something I do when I need to unwind, rather than something I tell everyone about." She shrugged again. "I don't decorate cakes so much now that I'm working, as that takes a little more brain power than baking - which I can do on autopilot." Though she guessed that the cake decorating would come in handy if she were a preschool teacher, no child would ever miss out on a birthday cake. "I love my crockpot! Makes having proper meal at the end of the day so much easier than trying to work out what I'm going to throw together when I get home after a long day." And she could make sure that Bones was eating proper meals, rather than ready-made meals from the freezer.
She gave a soft smile as she gazed out over the ocean. "I support him in any decision he makes." She said softly. "If he decides that he wants to go visit the country where he was born, I'll support that too."
Beth's smile grew as it seemed that Ora really had to think over the insult and she chuckled when the wheels in the other woman's head seemed to lock into place and she got it. "Happy to inspire." She said with a seated bow. She laughed. "Bless your soul has to be one of the best backhanded compliments to give a person. And more times than not, they think you are actually complimenting them." Those were normally the parents who thought their child could do co wrong.
She smiled and nodded in agreement about Pinterest. "I find it's great if I'm thinking of a new way to ice a cake and want to know if someone has done something similar before. Or if I need a cute design... Not that I get a lot of time to decorate cakes for the fun of it anymore. I just make sure that the biscuit tins are always full." She added with a laugh. She'd had her archery competitions to keep her busy when she was a teenager, going to school was just something she did because she had to, keeping her grades just high enough that she didn't get below the curve, but not really putting much effort into school work. Maybe she had taken to baking the way that Bones did with his art, as she didn't have time for anything else in her head while she was mixing things in a bowl.
She thought of the country where her nephew had grown up, and wondered if he wanted to return for a holiday, just to see how the place had changed. "It's not the place or bloodlines that makes a place home, but the people that you surround yourself with."
Beth grinned and shrugged. There were times when it was easier to call a spade a spade, but other times it was just easier to let the other person work it out for themselves... or at least more enjoyable to watch the wheels turn until the other worked out they had been outed. "There’s small choice in rotten apples." Her grin deepened, as it was an insult that didn't sound like an insult. Basically she was telling the other person that they were nothing special.
Beth nodded, as there was no book in the world that could actually prepare you for motherhood. Sure, the books told you everything you needed to know to be prepared, but when that tiny baby is placed in your arms, nothing is ever the same again. She looked out over the water, thinking of the hole that had been left when her daughter was taken, all the years that had been stolen from her. When she had taken in her nephew, it had helped fill that hole, but there would always be that part of her heart that she needed her daughter to fill.
She shook off her melancholy thoughts as she tuned back into what Ora was saying and grinned with a shrug. "I found the idea on Pinterest." She confessed with a laugh and shrugged again. "It helps him sort through his thoughts, especially when talking about things isn't always the easiest for him." Her smile slipped when she thought about New Zealand. "Sadly, no." She replied. "I didn't go there as often as I should have, and we haven't been back since I brought Bones back here." After losing his parents, it had seemed that the boy had no intention of going back across the pond, so they kept in contact with the remaining family there via video calls. She smiled again. "I'm happy as long as he's happy."
Beth chuckled, as it was too often that she used Shakespeare quote to insult people and it would be a while before they worked out what she had said was actually not in their favour. Of course, she left things like that for adults, as she respected her students too much to insult them - for respect worked both ways. "There again, at times it's better to just tell people what you think. Rather then wait for them to work out I've insulted them."
She guessed that difficult was a good adjective for teenagers, and she liked working with the difficult ones, rather than the ones who were happy to do as they were told and follow the status quo - Bones had been both difficult and following status quo, but that was to be expected with what had happened to him . "I'm sure your teenager would rather be called a young adult." She chuckled and shrugged. "And I don't think she would like to be compared to the students I teach." After all, the students she taught, hated to be reminded that once they were the same as the current primary students who were just learning to read and write, as they seemed to think they knew everything and had nothing new to learn. She smiled when asked about her son. "He's doing well. Wanted to paint his room, but as we're only renting, I ask permission to turn one wall into a canvas, so he was able to channel his... creativity."
She nodded as she gazed out across the ocean. "And when I'm here, everything else just vanishes." She often sat here and wondered if her daughter was sitting on a beach somewhere, also looking out at the ocean. "In New Zealand, where my brother and sister-in-law lived, the ocean was a brilliant blue, so different from what I was used to from London."
"That was a clever pun, Beth. You may just have to trademark that before all the dad's ruin it with their jokes." Beth grinned. "Being an English teacher comes in handy at times." She said with a shrug. "I'm often good with words, even when I'm not trying to be."
She laughed at the mention of nuclear tantrums - which even her students tended to have at times, normally when she was telling them to use their words, rather than writing in text-talk. "I understand though. Teenagers can be...difficult." She giggled. "That's one way of wording it." She'd had too many years where she hadn't worked, so finding a job had been scary, and she wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew when she had applied for the job at the secondary school, maybe the primary would have been better, easier, but she had never been one to go for the easier option. "Is there someone in particular who was sassing off today?" She shook her head with a smile. "No more than the normal." She offered. "It's just been a long day, and the beach seemed like the best way to allow my thoughts to sift through the layers." She had always loved the beach, it was the one place where she didn't mind the wind blowing straight through her, as though it was blowing away the bad memories and watching the sunset, reminded her that it with the end of one day, the sunrise meant that it was time to turn the page of her life and start anew.
"Amen to that, Sister, I may have to steal from you come spring when the next rounds start." Beth laughed and nodded, though with the age that Ora taught, giving the parents a mini-class probably wasn't such a bad idea, as it would give the parents some idea of how to continue their learning at home. "Please sit and join me. There's plenty of room. I find that the sea breeze cools my temper," she joked now, "Plus I feel like I hardly see you any more since Izzy has graduated." Beth grinned again as she lowered herself onto the towel beside the other woman. "The sea breeze is great for many things, especially like blowing away the stress of the day."
She glanced out across the ocean and blew out a breath. "I sometimes wish I had signed up to work at the primary school." She said with a chuckle. "I miss children that want to learn everything, before they think they know everything." Which was her biggest issue with teens and tweens. Most of them thought that they knew enough of the world that they didn't need a teacher to tell them how to write a proper sentence and paragraph, using proper words and spelling, rather than text talk or their spelling being near enough. She knew that school standards were changing, making it easier for the kids to get a pass, when they would have failed with the same answer a year earlier, though she had her own standards, and knew that near enough on their cover letter, wouldn't get them the job they were after if another, and not even better, applicant, seemed to have a better grasp on the spelling and grammar.
When she had applied for the job at the secondary school, Beth had done so thinking that she had no hope in getting it, especially when she hadn't work for so long... well, worked in the sense of a 9-5 job. When she'd got the call to come in for an interview though, she had been secretly pleased, and then excited when she had got the job.
Working with teenagers was interesting, yes that was the best word to explain it. She had learned quickly that she wasn't only working with them, she was working with their whole family. Students mouthed off at her, and then got grumpy when she retaliated with punishment. Parents got grumpy when she sent their child home with homework that got in the way of the parents' social life. Aside from all of that, she loved her job! She loved seeing a student unlock a new part of themselves through their writing, as they worked out a new way to look at something, that no everyone had to have the same idea for them to be correct - in fact she encouraged her students to have their own opinions on what they were reading, or writing.
A walk down the beach was great for clearing one's head, there was something almost magical about it. The fact that the noises of everyday life vanished once you had stepped onto the sand, and the smell of the salty air, the sound of the surf, it all washed away the rest of the world. "Beth!" She looked over, her brow dipping as she tried to work out who had waved, but she approached the person anyway. "Did you have a rough night of Parent Teacher conferences as well?" She smiled. "They weren't as bad as they could have been." She said with a shrug. "I'm thinking next time I'll just get them all to arrive at the same time and run it like a class." Too many of the parents all the the same issues that they wanted to complain about.
HEY THERE! my name is Cara and i'm too many years old. i'm a wiminz and i've been roleplaying for many years. i was referred here by me but enough about me, here's my character. =]
[/font]:[/b] elizabeth michelle bones(now uses her maiden name)
nicknames: beth
age: 41, 30th June 1980
religion: if they have one
sexuality: straight
marital status: divorced (branden michael cavellier - ex)
occupation: has a BA in teaching (primary and secondary), though she's been a stay at home parent for the past 4 years
playby: natalie portman
hometown: london
parents: grace and george eason
siblings: brian (deceased would be 50 if alive)
brief history: grew up on the outskirts of london
floated her way through school with barely a passing grade because she hated it, her passion was in archery.
got a full-ride scholarship to Oxford, going on to get a her bachelor of arts in teaching, focusing on primary and secondary school.
had an on again, off again relationship with a young man she met during her classes, discovered she was pregnant, so they got married.
continued to complete her courses, all the while running a household and being the perfect wife for her husband and a perfect mother.
had an affair with one of her professors, she felt guilty though and ended the relationship, professor promised that she would live to regret it.
daughter was kidnapped while they were out celebrating her graduation, and getting new furniture for anastasia's grown-up room.
her drive to find her missing daughter led to the inevitable end of her marriage, as she was sure that branden just didn't care.
after the death of her brother and sister-in-law, she did all she could to bring her nephew over to England and once they got to know each other, officially adopted him so that there was no chance of him being snatched away from her too. [/font][/ul]
[/font]:[/font][/b] books (crime/mystery novels), teaching, children, animals, baking - give her a cookbook and she can create anything, cake decorating
dislikes: bugs (germs and creepy-crawlies), waking up too early, loud dogs
strengths: teaching, running a household, decorating cakes
weaknesses: her children, her life was put on hold when she lost her daughter and can be overprotective over her adopted son
secrets: thinks she may know who took anastasia accidentally broke a window when an arrow went amiss when she was learning (she never fessed up)
fears: what could be happening anastasia (that she could be getting hurt) clowns the dark
habits: bites her fingernails, curls her hair around her fingers when reading
overall personality: beth is loving and cares about everyone. encourages everyone to be the best they can be while she never liked grade school, she won’t tries to make it seem fun for others even though her marriage didn't work out, she hasn't completely turned her back on the idea of love, though a guy is going to have to work damn hard to win her affection. her caring nature can also be a curse, as she tends to smoother those she loves and can be a little possessive at times (hovering in the background) when she should be stepping back and allowing them to work things out themselves. [/ul]
credits! template by MOLLIVER ! @ Caution 2.0. lyrics are from "one more time" by the epically awesome daft punk.
