Free Rein P.H

*18*

*unedited*
Pin had suddenly raced towards me and grabbed my arm desperately.
"Pin, woah, what are you doing?" I asked as he tugged me also gently into the yard. His grip around my wrist was firm however.
He pulled me towards the tack room and stood me in front of the trophy case.
My eyes were immediately drawn to the large mug with the backside of a horse on it., stood in the place of the county cup.
"Please tell me this is a practical joke, Pin." I fretted, biting my lip unconsciously. I looked up at him but his stoic expression was unchanging.

"That is a really big... mug." Zoe remarked as she stared into the trophy case.
"She looked official." Rosie argued.
"Who did?"
"The cleaner!"
As she moaned at the unfairness an image came to my mind. The girl with the bike who had ridden away only minutes beforehand.
"Callum just posted this." Susie spoke. She stood behind me with her arms crossed, scrolling through her phone. She held it out to me and I looked at the post.
The Cup was in a display case at Holloway.
"The County Cup back where it belongs?" Becky cried indignantly. "Holloway stole the cup. We beat them at the County Show for the first time ever and now they're out for revenge!" She cried dramatically.
"Mia's interview is in less than an hour. She needs that cup." Susie explained, as though we didn't all know the pressure of losing the Cup.
Rosie was despairing,
"Oh, Mia is going to hate me forever. And she's like the only good thing about these stables. Apart from you guys of course." She corrected as seven pairs of eyes bored into her.
"Hey don't stress. Mia will never know the Cup is gone." Her sister assured.
"Pony squad assemble!" Becky cried and we all shook our head fondly at her cute actions.
"Where's Mia?" Zoe asked and Susie replied,
"She's on the hay bales with Marcus, practicing for her interview."
Zoe ordered Rosie to distract her and offered herself to get the cup back as Holloway didn't know her.
"You can't go on your own." Susie said.
"Well there's two other people they don't know." Susie smiled, her eyes drifting towards the corner where I stood beside Pin, his arm wrapped round my waist absentmindedly. He pulled me closer to him as he thought of why I hadn't been able to attend the County Show and compete.
"Well, what do you say? Help me bust in?" Zoe asked and I grinned conspiratorially at her. Pin however tried to excuse himself.
"I've got too much stuff to do."
"Come on Pin. Live a little." I smiled, walking over to stand beside Zoe. He watched me carefully before his lips turned up in a small grin.
"Alright. Fine. I can't exactly clean a stolen cup, can I?"
"Let's do this."

*. *. *.

I gripped Joey's reins tightly as I slowed down to a stop beside Pin and Susie.
"This is all Holloway?" Zoe asked in shock. Even I had difficulty comprehending the sheer size of the riding school. It was well over double the size of Bright Fields and much more impressive. The fields surrounding the place where lush and green, contrasting the red brick building that had a magical air encompassing it.
"They're so much bigger than us." I sighed.
"Has to be, to contain all that evil." Becky looked distastefully at the building.

*. *. *.

We left the horses behind a clump of trees and Becky stepped forwards with her phone out.
"Becky? Are you live blogging?" Jade asked as she hurried after her friend.
"Top secret missions mean they can't know we're coming!" Zoe hissed, try not to attract attention.
"Good point." Becky nodded, cutting off the feed.
"The main entrance is over there. They practice from about 3:30 till 4:30. Go around the back, no one will see you." Susie advised.
I had gotten much closer to the stylish follower of Mia since she came to visit me in the hospital and had gained some of her own independence.
"We'll let you know if anyone comes." Jade assured us.
"By using a top secret signal. The call of a tuft duck." Becky started making strange cooing noises. Jade interrupted her,
"We'll call you."
I nodded and Zoe, Pin and I raced across the road. Zoe stopped at the sound of hoofbeats and peered into Holloway's training ground where they were practicing already.
"Wow, they're so..."
"You're as good as they are." Pin assured.
"We're better." I said with a reassuring grin, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with me.

*. *. *.

We tried the back door first. Of course it was locked. However, as Pin returned towards where Zoe and I stood on lookout, I noticed the window to the left of the door was slightly ajar. I jogged over to it and prised my finger under it, lifting it up enough to be able to fit through. I poked my head in and looked around to check the coast was clear.
"Come on." I called over my shoulder as I stuck first a leg through, then my arms and then my other leg.
Zoe followed me and then Pin and we stepped out of the small room, which seemed to be a spare room as it was completely empty, into the hallway. Upon the striped walls hung portraits of famous riders and horses. As we passed a window I saw a couple of Holloway riders and ducked immediately. Pin and Zoe followed my lead and we crouched down as we hurried past the window.

We walked into one room that held a ginormous pool table and around the edges, the walls were decorated with trophies.
"How many trophies do they need?" Zoe asked.
"They're clearly into winning." I added as I surveyed the room.
"Yeah, or cheating." Pin reminded me. He was stood close behind me, his arm brushing against mine and I felt a light blush creeping onto my face at the contact.
Before I could step into the room he gripped my wrist and pulled me back towards him.
"We need to cover that." He reminded us. Zoe and I both looked to where his gaze sat and noticed the flashing red light of a security camera.
Zoe pulled out a jumper from my bag and I realised that it was Pin's. He did too.
"Hey that's mine."
"She stole it." Zoe shrugged. "It reminds me of when you were a horse thief though. Good times." She shrugged as I blushed at the small smirk Pin sent me.
She managed to step on a chair and threw the jumper carelessly onto the camera but in doing so she fell. Straight into the arms of my boyfriend.
She looked up at him with bright, confused eyes and he caught her waist. Before I could react footsteps echoed down the hall.
With a gasp, all three of us dived under the pool table.
Riding boots stepped past us and walked to one corner of the room before exiting again.

*. *. *.

Once we emerged from underneath the table, we peered around the room for the trophy.
"Bingo." Zoe said, drawing both mine and Pin's attention to the case in the corner.
"It's locked." I complained as I tried opening it. Pin walked up next to me and gently pushed me to the side.
"I may not be a horse thief but I've been picking locks since before I was born." He said as he concentrated on the lock in front of me. Moments later the case clicked open. Pin reached into my backpack again and took out the horse mug, replacing it into the case and putting the cup in the bag.
"Well done guys." I grinned, high giving my best friend and my boyfriend.
We raced out of the building, throwing caution to the wind.
"Mission accomplished!" Zoe called as we neared Becky, Jade and Susie who stood with the horses. "Let's get out of here."
"Holloway incoming." Becky pointed at the two riders ambling towards us.
"Practice isn't over yet, how did they know we were here?" Susie asked.
"Take the cup back to Rosie." Pin ordered as he got onto his horse. I clambered onto Joey just as fast.
"I'll keep them busy." Pin said as he decided to cross paths with the two riders.
"Wait!" Zoe called but I stopped her.
"It's okay, take the cup and get back to Bright Fields. We'll meet you there."
I then trotted after my boyfriend.
We both waited in front of the gate and Pin called to the two Holloway riders.
"Hey, over here! I guess you want your cup back."
We shared a cheeky grin before turning around and galloping away across the field, the riders from Holloway close on our heels.