Author Note: So, I haven't been wanting to write lately. I'll think to myself 'You really have to finish a chapter', but I just can't bring myself to do it. Well, last night I thought of this plot, and it's one of those stories that you can't forget about until you write it. It would just stay there, as a reminder, in your head. And I actually wanted to write again! So, here's that story.

Disclaimer: Everything that was in the Heartland books is not mine. However, everything that is unique, is. Please do not steal.

You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side

Chapter One

November 3rd, 2008

-Tuesday

"Guess what?!" Soraya Martin, long dark ringlets falling around her face, trilled. Her voice was high with excitement and her eyes held a dazzling amount of exhilaration in them. You could practically feel her joy, pure joy, in the information she held and wanted to reveal.

"Spare me the dramatics, Raya." I barked, impatient, as I deposited books into my open locker. My history book, however, got stuck in an awkward position as I threw it in, and I bent down to straighten it so that it could fall somewhat nicely along the rest of the junk beneath it.

"Amy, just because you're a social exile by choice, doesn't mean everyone around you has to be," I rolled my eyes as I finally jammed the book as well as I could into place before rummaging beneath it for my biology notebook.

"I believe the term is social reject, but I sincerely appreciate your different choice of words," I straightened, closing my locker as I stood, beginning to walk down the hall towards the café.

"Sure, sure. But really, I'm your only outlet to a social life, and I'm not going to slack in my duties just because you try your hardest to convince me that you're fine without it," She fell into step with me, matching my stride evenly.

"I gave up on trying a long time ago," I sighed, walking sideways through a particularly crowded part of the hallway. Raya slid through gracefully and skipped to my side once again.

"Yeah? Good, because it was all in vain, anyway," She smiled at me, and I couldn't help but smirk back.

"So, my personal social outlet, what is it you wanted to tell me today?" I watched as her eyes widened, having forgotten the point of the conversation.

"Oh, right. Ty Baldwin is back," She watched my face for the expression she was sure would pass over it. Excitement? Surprise? Horror? Complete fascination? She got nothing.

"And?" I asked, turning a corner and bumping into Marlin Chase, who caught my arms to keep me from falling.

"You good, Ames?" He asked, smiling down at me, amused.

"Just fine, Chase." I smiled back before dislodging myself from his grip and continuing along with Soraya.

"What do you mean and?!" She gaped at me, undeterred by my run in with Chase. "He's back, isn't that enough?"

"I just don't see why I should care," Jenni Conners waved at me as she passed and I smiled in return.

"Amy, Ty is the rebel of Jefferson," Soraya pleaded with me to understand, "Everyone's talking about it."

I rolled my eyes, "He moved. That hardly makes him badass."

"It's what he did after moving. Apparently he got into a bad group wherever he went, California, I heard, and eventually had to go to rehab," She stilled her tongue to say hi to a few passing friends, "I guess his mom sent him back to live with his dad, hoping he would settle down."

"I still don't see why this should effect me in any way," I said as we turned through the double doors of the café, heading towards our normal seats.

Soraya placed her bag down before speaking, "It doesn't really effect anyone, honestly. It's just information that I had and wanted to tell you about." She sat down and leaned forward as if she held a great secret that only we could be a part of. "Everyone is talking about it because apparently he's really changed. Physically, I mean."

I took in this information without a blink. Ty Baldwin had moved from Jefferson half-way through the eighth grade. He hadn't had many friends and no one had really noticed he had gone until nearly a month after he left. His empty seat in classes merely went unnoticed. Perhaps this was because even when he was there he was not acknowledged often. He had been short for his age, on the heavier side, and already sprouting acne along the sides of his face. No one had cared to be his friend, and when he left no one batted an eye. Now, nearly three years later, and everyone suddenly cared about him because he had gone bad and turned into some kind of mega-hottie? To be totally honest, I found that truly sad. He had to leave his hometown and totally reform to be noticed at all among those he had grown up with.

"Is he back in school?" I asked, actually feelings bad for the kid. He shouldn't of had to change to be noticed. It seemed wrong.

"I don't know, I'm assuming he'll be back soon if he isn't already," she pulled a brown paper bag from within her bookbag. "Ashley saw him at the convenient store and talked to him, I guess. That's how everyone knows he's back."

"Ashley Grant?" I questioned, smiling as a the rest of our table sat down around us.

"Yeah," She was suddenly not as into the conversation, and I decided to just let it go. Whether I felt bad or not, the information really didn't bother me or ruffle me in any way. It was just Ty Baldwin, the kid who put the wall in wallpaper.

November 9th, 2008

-Monday

I hummed as I stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, and headed down the hall towards my room. On the way I rapped lightly on Grandpa's door and called gently in.

"Time to wake up, old man," I heard him grumble and smiled. His alarm clock had broken ages ago and he had yet to buy a new one. I, for one, didn't mind. It was amusing being the one to wake him up. I was still smiling to myself as I let myself into my own room and flicked on the light switch. The golden yellow room was subdued in the harsh light, and nearly invisible under all the posters and random assortments of other things tacked along them. I headed towards the east wall and opened the ancient doors to reveal my closet, or lack thereof.

Most of the closet was dominated with horse related junk. There were kits for this and that, my first saddle, riding boots, and all other sorts of things. However, a small portion was stuffed haphazardly with clothes. I carelessly grabbed a pair of jeans I knew were old and faded and an even older t-shirt. I threw them on before stuffing my feet into the work boots that had been kicked off near my door. Throwing on my work jacket that hung from the chair by my desk, I hurried downstairs and out the door.

The morning air was crisp and I shivered slightly underneath my layers. November had yet to bring the first snowfall, but I knew from the chill in the air that it would only be a couple of weeks before the ground was lightly sprinkled. I walked briskly across the dirt drive that separates the farmhouse from the barns and let myself into the tack room where the air was not much warmer. I hurriedly put together feed bins for the horses and distributed them in an orderly fashion, working from experience.

After that was done I began to walk down the hall of the long barn, only stopping to check in on Lizzy, Queen Elizabeth, the ebony colored mustang we had recently taken in. Grandpa had fought me for weeks on the subject of Lizzy, claiming that one teenage girl could not undertake a rowdy mustang. Not to mention, he stated flatly, that Heartland was not built to house one. I sighed, leaning against the stall door, realizing that he may have been right. Lizzy had been trained by a professional as a young filly, but recently she had taken to her instinctual ways and began bucking and rearing her riders. I'd only had her under my care for a week and a half, but so far I had made no progress. She was unlike any horse I had ever tried to help, and I knew that her lineage was part of the reason. Were she not a mustang, gaining her trust would be a hundred times easier. The only thing I could think to do would be to find the root of her problem, the reason she had suddenly gone back to her mustang ways, to be able to conquer her fear.

As I stared in at her, Lizzy was back along the far wall. I had been sure to give her the largest stall we had, and yet she still looked as though she was trapped. Confined within four walls rather than running free along the backdrop of Virginia. I sighed, making myself forget where she should be, and made myself remember why she was here.

"Like it or not, Lizzy, I'm going to help you," I took a step back from the door, "That's a promise."

As I was walking back across the drive I smiled and waved at the large truck that was heading up the drive. Ben Stillman had been working for us for nearly six months under the request of his well-known aunt, Lisa Stillman. At first he had been a challenge, only wanting to work with his own horse that was stabled at Heartland instead of learning our ways as Lisa had intended. However, after a while he had come to be quite interested in our use of natural remedies and we had become good friends.

"Morning," Ben grinned, stepping down from the cab of his truck. He was dressed in worn jeans and a dark blue hooded sweatshirt. His wheat colored hair was tousled as the wind picked up and blew it across his face, leaving it falling across his brow as it settled. His grin was infectious and I smiled back at him, elbowing him lightly in the side as he fell into step with me.

"How was last night?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows. He didn't look at me, but I saw the color rise in his cheeks and the smile he tried to hold back.

"It was good," he said, "Real good." I looked up at him as we entered the house together, slipping our shoes off next to the door and sitting down at the table in the center of the kitchen.

"Oh yeah, what happened?" I asked, rising again to start the coffee for Grandpa and Ben, and getting a glass down for my own drink of choice.

"Nothing, really. It was just fun," He smiled at the memory. "We went to an early movie, the one at 4:30, and then we got coffee and hung out for a while. It was an early night, though. I got her home around 8."

I looked over at him and studied his face. He was looking right back into my eyes, and I felt a blush creep up my cheeks. Ben was only two years older than me. Nineteen to my seventeen. When he had started at Heartland he was only a month away from graduating. He had commuted, from where he lived with his aunt and went to school, to Heartland every week day for that whole month. An hour and a half each day. A week after he'd graduated he commuted for the last time, packing up his belongings and moving into an apartment only ten minutes from the farm. He was not attending college, instead, he focused on learning the ways of Heartland and moving forward with his jumping career.

Only two months after beginning work at Heartland, in early July, we had a thing. Out on a trail ride one day, after stopping quickly to give the horses a rest, Ben had kissed me. And kissed me. And kissed me. And I'd let him, my heart soaring with the sensation. I had been kissed before, but never the way that Ben kissed me that day. However, it didn't work out. After a month of stolen kisses on trail rides or in the tack room, I realized that we were hiding our relationship and didn't even know why. I merely brushed it off as a summer romance and did my best to continue our friendship in a normal fashion. The way we had before that fated trail ride. Honestly, it was easy. We fell right back into friendship like it was nothing, but we still had our moments. Where our eyes met and we knew, at the moment, that we were both thinking the same thing. Both remembering the same thing.

Like now.

I turned quickly away, my heart pounding. I was happy for him, I really was. He hadn't been this excited over the prospect of a date in a really long time. And the fact that he was holding back details, such as kisses or the holding of hands, showed how serious he was about this one. In the three months since we'd ended our non-relationship, he had dated four other girls and never failed to give me the details of each. I had welcomed them like a friend should, and it had never bothered me. Yet, here he was, serious about one of them, and I felt like a jealous school girl. It was pathetic.

I finished my glass of milk with a flourish and grabbed a muffin from the covered plate placed there the day before by Lou. She had been baking non-stop since the birth of her first child, Jadyn Lynn Trewin, eight months previous. Muffins, it seemed, were her choice of the week.

"Thank God for Lou," I smiled at Ben, trying to restore our sense of ease. In moments like these, that was vital. Ben merely smiled at me, getting up and grabbing a muffin for himself.

"Amen," he finally smirked, swallowing his first bite. I laughed lightly, waving at him as I climbed the winding stairs to the second floor, passing by the bathroom door and hearing the shower running. I smiled, knowing that it had taken Grandpa a while to wake up. Without an alarm, he tended to fall back into sleep.

I skipped into my room, finishing off my muffin, and stripping from the clothes that I wore. I then bounded over to the dresser on the western wall and sifted through the full drawers. I pulled out a pair of jeans that were old, but not as worn as most of my others. I pulled them on before searching again for a top. I finally decided on a tank-top with a dark gray hooded sweatshirt over it. I didn't care about how I looked that day. I walked over to my closed door where a full length mirror hung. I frowned at my loose hair. It was nearly dry from being outdoors, but it was still slightly damp. The dull chestnut color framed my face in long sheets, ending slightly below my breasts. I sighed before gathering up the folds of my hair and throwing them back into a ponytail.

There, I smiled, all ready.

I grabbed my bookbag off of my desk chair and slung it over my shoulder. I then ran down the stairs, looking at the clock on the stove.

"Do I have the truck today or do I have to take the bus?" I asked Grandpa, who stood making his coffee.

"Bus. I need the truck most of the week." I nodded in understanding.

"Then I have to get going," I leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before slipping on my sneakers and running out the door. As I walked briskly down the long driveway I faintly heard the sound of the bus and hurried my feet forward, just making it to the end of the driveway as the bus pulled up. I smiled at the old man driving the bus before heading towards the back, seeing my friend Matt sitting there with headphones in his ears. I sat next to him and he looked over at me, smiling.

Pausing his music, he greeted me. "Hey, Ames."

"Hey. Why are you riding the bus?" I asked. While I didn't have my own car and only got to drive to school when Grandpa didn't need the truck, which was at the most, three times a week, Matt has his own car and usually drove himself to school. On occasion, he would go out of his way and pick me up for school also.

"My cars in the shop," he answered simply, looking pained at the prospect of having to ride the bus.

"Oh, well, I'm glad. I haven't talked to you in a while." I grimaced, knowing I shouldn't of said that. In truth, I hadn't talked to him in a while because ever since him and Soraya had broken up, a month before, we hadn't seen much of each other. Usually when we hung out it was all three of us, and I barely had time for that. Splitting my time between them was a huge task.

I saw the pained look in his eyes before he covered it up and smiled at me, really trying. "Yeah. It's good to talk to you. What's been going on?" I felt relieved that he hadn't brought up the break-up and I fell into an easy conversation with him.

Same Day

Lunch

"I don't know how you eat that stuff," Soraya grimaced as she saw me sit down with the school taco's before me.

"Easy, really. I just ingest it." She glared at me from across the table.

"I don't know how I'm friends with you," She said, her face totally serious.

"Me either. What with my being a social exile, and all." She nodded serenely, picking at the homemade egg salad sandwich in front of her.

"I think I take after my mom. She tends to fall in love with charity cases, wanting to take care of them." I thought of all Soraya's mom's friends and realized this was slightly true.

"You know what I love?" She raised her eyebrows in question. "Casually blunt put-downs. Love them."

She laughed and then smiled at me. "Speaking of your exile status, you haven't heard the new scoop on Ty yet, have you?" I shook my head, placating her.

"He was sighted again." Once again, I couldn't help but feel sorry for this poor kid. Soraya, and I'm sure the rest of the student population, was making this whole deal seem like a bad episode of Steve Irwin. The word 'sighted' just made me cringe.

However, I still didn't care.

"I don't care."

"Kailey saw him in the office this morning, just sitting there," Kailey Chase was Marlin Chase's twin sister. She usually sat in the seat next to Soraya during lunch, but she was absent from the table today. She was probably sucking up to Ashley Grant at her table, reveling in her fifteen minutes of fame, knowing she was the one with the rumor. The one feeding the gossip to the mongers. On cue, I heard Kailey's shrill voice and looked over to see her practically sitting on Ashley's lap, telling her story in full to the waiting ears around her. Poor girl. Didn't she know that Ashley was just using her, just like she used everyone? Once she got the story she wanted she would just push Kailey away, not caring if she hurt her feelings.

"I don't care," I stated again, beginning to eat my lunch.

"I guess someone saw him pull up on a motorcycle," Soraya's voice was intense, "I wonder if that's true."

"Doubtful," I added to her thoughts.

"You're probably right," She looked over towards Kailey, "She said she couldn't get a real good look at his face, since she didn't notice him until she was almost out of the door, but she knew it was him. She can't confirm the major changes though."

"I. Don't. Care." I punctuated my words, making each one a sentence in itself.

"Whatever, Amy. I'm just telling you that he's back in school." She paused. "Or he will be, anyway."

Lily Braden, the girl sitting beside me, had cued in on our conversation and broken away from her boyfriend, who sat next to her, to look at Soraya.

"So it's true? He's actually back?" Soraya nodded enthusiastically. "You know, I remember him from middle school. He used to always be put in front of me, since our names both start with a B." She looked thoughtful. "I remember feeling bad for him because he had no friends."

From beside her, Lily's boyfriend, Mark, spoke. "The kid was a total nerd. He brought it on himself."

"Markus! He probably couldn't help it. I mean, if I remember correctly, he wasn't very appealing. He was self-conscious, most likely." Lily had ripped her hand from Mark's, angered at his words. However, he merely followed her hand with his and linked them again. Lily didn't protest.

"All I'm saying is you make your own choices. He could of made friends if he wanted to, bad looking, or not." Lily scoffed at his words, but I noticed Mark squeeze her hand and she squeezed back. Their love was slightly sickening.

"Do you think he'll make friends now?" Bobbi Mason asked, her voice coming from my other side.

"I'd think so. I mean, you can't be talked about for over a week and not have someone have the guts to go up and talk to you." Soraya crumpled her lunch bag into a ball. "Plus, I heard he's changed a lot. Bad looks, supposedly, won't be getting in the way of making friends this time around."

I rolled my eyes at the whole conversation before finishing my milk and placing it on my tray. "Has anyone thought to consider how Ty is feeling in this whole situation? Maybe he doesn't want to make friends now. Maybe he's still bitter over having been rejected his whole life until he finally packed up and moved across the country."

"Don't act all self-righteous, Amy. You weren't exactly befriending him back in middle school, either." Mark stated flatly, turning to look at her.

"No, Mark, you're absolutely right. But I'm also not sitting here talking about him like he's something to be ogled." I stood up, tray in hand. "I find it really pathetic that this guy had to totally change to even be considered as a friend to any of you. I, for one, do not plan on being his friend merely because he's changed. Add in the fact that none of us even know him, or know what he wants, makes it worse." I turned my back on my table, dumped my tray, and walked out of the café.

Author Note: Okay, so this wasn't the longest chapter, but I wanted to just get this story started and introduce the characters and their backgrounds. I think I got most of the important people into this chapter. If not, I've got the whole story ahead of me to introduce some more people. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you read it, please review. They'll definitely keep the story going.

-Shawna