You, Me: Us

1. Guilt

Here Lainey was, on the bus to Nationals for her school's equestrian team. She never thought she would make it, let alone be on the team. She never would've thought of competing for anyone other than Bright Fields.

The reason she's going to National's for Saint Emily's is a little sketchy. Let's go back to last year.

She had a friend named Carla. She had a boy who was harassing her named Dominic. Dominic fell behind in his classes and had an essay due that was going to keep him in St. Emily's. If he didn't turn it in, he failed.

So when Lainey found out about the harassment, well, she knew what she had to do. She paid a friend of hers to steal his computer. She hacked into it and deleted his essay. Which meant that he had nothing to turn, which got him kicked out.

Unfortunately, somehow a teacher found out. Luckily, it was the equestrian coach who was also one of their history teachers. Thus, leading Lainey to be blackmailed into joining the team.

So far, it wasn't bad. She loved being able to compete, but hated the secrecy. No one knew except her mom and brother. Well, she did tell Pin a few weeks ago because she really wanted him to come see her compete for Nationals.

Originally, he was entirely hurt that she didn't tell him. They were engaged after all. But, she was so embarrassed about being blackmailed that she didn't know if she should tell anyone.

Now, she just had to get through Nationals, hopefully place well, graduate, and she was home free. She would tell Bright Fields about it when she got home. Hopefully they wouldn't be too mad.

The bus came to a stop and they all got out to get organized. Lainey got her number and took Angel to his stable where her team was setting up. Their trainer came over with a clipboard and everyone gathered around her, "okay, so your biggest competition will be Zoe Phillps from Anglesey, Mia McDonald from Anglesey Island, Sophie Williams..." her voice started to fade as Lainey closed her eyes tightly.

It was impossible. The island never made it past sectionals, let alone regionals and onto Nationals.

She looked around and sure enough, her eyes found the island team. There was Callum, Mia, Jade, Becky, Susie, Zoe, Alex, and Gaby. They were all happy and in their own little world, not even noticing her.

They looked so excited to be competing and once again, Lainey was on the opposing team. How? All she had even wanted was to compete with Bright Fields and now, both times, she was competing against them.

Their trainer stopped speaking and walked away, each girl went back to what they were doing and Lainey looked around before spotting Pin who was walking over to her.

She started running and he caught her in his arms, laughing. "I missed you too. How's everything going? Are you excited?" He pulled her away and saw how guilty she looked. "Woah, hey, what's wrong?"

"They're here! The island made it! They've never made it before! We're on the opposing team again!"

Pin sighed, "I know, it's not great—"

"Not great?" Lainey scoffs, "they're going to think I did this on purpose!"

"Well, just think about it. You're a senior, this is your last year. They have another year or two for some of them. Let yourself have this," her boyfriend reminded her, placing his hand on her face so she would look at him. "I'm proud of you. Don't think about them."

She softly smiles at him, "thanks Pin. I love you."

"I love you too," he promises. "Now, go tack up Angel, the opening ceremony should be starting soon.

She nodded and ran off with a giant smile. He was right. She should take this. It was her last chance in high school to do this.

Meeting up with her team, they started to prep their horses. The opening ceremony was to present each team. It was in district order and they were district 3 while Anglesey Island was district 12.

"Hey, Faith, we were thinking about going to dinner tonight to do some team bonding, want to come?" Chloe asked her. Lainey smiled at her.

"Of course, I'd love too!"

"Fantastic!" The girl smiled back and walked back to her horse. All the people on her team were really nice. They all took a few different categories so that they had at least one person in each event.

There was Chole who did Dressage and eventing, which is a combination of dressage, show jumping, and cross country. Siena, who did show jumping, vaulting, and barrel racing, Grant who did show jumping, polo, and reining, Eliza who was eventing, cross country, and polo. Henry who did polo, barrel racing, reining, and cross country. Carla, she did dressage, cross country, and vault. Devin, he did Horsemanship, endurance running, and was an extra for polo. Lainey did eventing, individual show jumping, polo, and horsemanship. She used to do hunting and hunter-jumping instead of polo and horsemanship, but with a change in horses came a change in categories as well.

She was a little sad that Daniel never joined the team, but she understood. They were both already overworked with their amount of schooling and sports. She had gymnastics finals in a few weeks and exams in a month.

"Ready Angel?" She questioned and the horse neighed in response. Lainey laughed before leading her to the ceremony. Each team watched from backstage as they themselves got ready.

Luckily, she was able to avoid Bright Fields. That was until her school was called. "District three's competitors– from St. Emily's school for the gifted and talented Captain- Faith Nightly!" Lainey rode out into the pin, smiling and waving as her team followed her out. Their trainer walked with them and she spotted her boyfriend and family waving at her from the stands. She smiled even bigger before she started the walk back to the stables. She caught the eye of Zoe, who looked absolutely betrayed, they all did.

She made it back to the stables as the island team started talking. "What the hell?" Mia questioned.

Callum laughed, "guess she doesn't love you guys as much as you thought."

Becky glared at the boy, "listen, you don't know what you're talking about! She loves us as much as we love her!"

Gaby scoffed and shook her head, "then why would she be competing for the other team?" She crossed her arms and watched as the next school came out. Becky looked down sadly at the ground as Alex hugged her.

"There must be an explanation, I know it," Jade promised, smiling at Becky as she reached over to hold her hand.

"Yeah, maybe," Zoe said sadly as they walked over to their horses.