One, Two, Three, Up-Down

"Hmm…" I turned back to look at the jumping ring behind me after I had shifted. "To be or not to be…"

"I say not to be." Miranda answered laughing.

"Oh, shut-up. What are you doing up anyways?" I asked.

"Uh, time zones?"

"Oh…right. Well, I want to try this! I've never thought of it before!" I snapped. I can't believe I had never thought of this before! No one usually left the jumps up back home so it had never occurred to me.

I jumped the fence into the ring.

"Show off."

"I know." I smiled. Trotting half a circle and picking up the left lead, I approached the outside line.

"There is a thing called warm-ups, I suggest you try it before you kill yourself!" Miranda yelled at me. "You have the weakest ankles and you're jumping without wraps!"

"I'll heal." One, two three, up, down. I cantered, shit was this a five or a six?

"Five." Miranda answered. "Six if you trotted in."

"What if I walked in?"

"Then I'd have your head checked. You don't walk in and canter out."

Five.

Touchdown!

"You moron."

"I'm going to do the course." I pranced and cut the ring in half long ways to circle back at the beginning again.

"Slow DOWN!" Miranda yelled at me after the second jump, "You're as bad as Ben was, you don't speed up unless you have to. You aren't doing cross country, No GALLOPING!"

"Calling the red and white oxer!"

"You're the only one there!"

Out of the corner, one, two, three, four, UP! Lead change, green and blue combination.

"You're insane. You're completely insane!" Miranda told me.

"What is she doing?" Aw, little Justin was working out his problems.

"Aw, little Justin is twelve years old!" Justin said sarcastically. I jumped an in and out and then a final oxer. "What was that?!"

"A jump." I circled to a stop.

"How high?!"

"Um…" I took a look at it. "3ft, 3ft 6in, 4ft-ish? I-D-K! The thing is somewhere between 3 and 4 feet high and two feet wide."

"And you jumped over it?" Justin asked, astounded.

"Don't be so surprised, she's a show off—loves to hurdle. She jumped the fence to get in the ring in the first place." Miranda sighed.

"Sweet! I wanna try!" Justin galloped through the forest wherever he was. I recognized it immediately.

"Why are you at my place?" I asked both of them as Justin jumped the familiar log in the woods behind my house and bounded up the ridge into my backyard. The others were playing volleyball with our net and Jennie's sister, Laura, and Justin and Elizabeth's little sister, Catherine, were pushing my baby brother on his swing.

"B-B-Q!" Justin announced, hitting the volleyball in the air with his nose, saving Carolyn's team from losing.

"Olivia and Meghan are there too? They haven't even shifted!" I made a face.

"No, but they're family." Miranda trotted into the backyard. "And it's not as if we kept it a secret from them. Grandma pretty much made sure everyone above 13 knew when Aiden first shifted."

"Speaking of family…Aunt Jeanie wants to know if you're coming back for your mom's 40th in September." Justin suddenly remembered, having spotted my Aunt.

"Tell her I will, and so will Aiden, but expect a few extra guests." I had completely forgotten about Mom's 40th…oh she was going to kill me.

"She intends to kill you for this morning, go ahead and give her more reasons." Miranda laughed.

"Yeah…I know." I sighed, galloping the outside line again.

"Suicide mission, Shea." Miranda told me and I thought she was referring to my careless jumping. "Forgetting a present, I mean. Although, galloping a line isn't safe either."

I heard a whinny from the barn and someone from the pasture answered. The night was supposed to be free of rain so many of the horses had gone outside in the actually mud-less pastures. Fire, Grant, and a few others had remained in however.

I reared up, pawing the air with my front hooves.

"Shea likes a show." Miranda spoke to a very confused Justin who had thought I was killing a rattlesnake.

"Nah, I was just stretching. I'm going to go home now though, Jacob has probably had to tie Seth down or something because of his panic attacks."

"Do you feel no pity for your imprint?" Miranda asked, I felt Justin cringe at the word.

"I don't feel pity in general. DAMN I RACKED THE OXER!" The pole barely managed to stay in the cup. "Stop distracting me!"

"We'll keep you company on the way home, but hurry up, Eric is pretty much hogging all of our food. Not to mention the fact there are forty-something of us here!"

"Yeah, please hurry!" Justin agreed.

"Sure, sure."

"Oh my God you've been hanging around Jacob way too long, Shea, you know that?" Miranda told me.

I hopped the fence again and raced through the trees, homeward bound. It wasn't taking too long, but about halfway there I heard a howl.

Seth.

"You guys get all the fun!" Miranda whined.

"That wasn't a vampire warning." I shook my head and pushed myself faster.

"Great, so what was it?" Justin asked me.

"That, my cousins, is what we call an imprint having a mental breakdown. I'm going to phase…maybe I can calm him down…"

"See ya!"

"Oh thank God, maybe we'll get some food after all!" Justin was relieved.

I thought for a moment. Paws replaced hooves and I had an unnecessarily long coat.

"My God I need a haircut…" I mumbled.

"Shea, where the hell are you?!" It was Seth I heard having a panic attack.

"I'm almost there, keep your head on straight. I'm not going to live at the barn all night…" Well…unless Grant has colic or something serious like that. Or if there's a fire or something…

"Dude, chill, she's coming."

"Seth, give her a break!"

"She can handle herself."

"We told you there was nothing to worry about."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys!" I laughed, "No need to rub it in his face."

"I was doing no such thing." Leah begged to differ.

"Mmm-hmm." Alex laughed.

"Wait, you were jumping? As in running over jumps? SHEA, YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" Seth was insane with worry.

"Couldn't you guys have sedated him or something?" I sighed.

"Carlisle wasn't home."

"Ah." I nodded.

I reached the forest where they were all gathered, Jacob still had a hold on Seth's scruff.

"Bad dog!" I laughed as Jacob let him up and he bounded over to me. "Sit. SIT!"

"So what are we doing tomorrow?" Alex asked.

"I'm spending most of the day at the barn again, I found the last greyhound a home."

"NONONONONONO!" Seth whined.

"Seth, calm down. If you want, you can come watch."

"He'd have a heart attack watching you ride a horse. Then he'd die and it'd only be me and mom." Leah contemplated, "Yeah, go ahead, Seth!"

We all laughed except Seth.

"Who's Madelyn?" He asked curiously.

"A new friend I met. She's okay."

"She looks like a vampire." He mumbled.

"Well, she certainly doesn't smell like one, hold your horses." I sighed.

"I'm trying to but she won't let me rein her in!"

"You guys do not realize how wrong that sounds right there." Embry laughed hysterically.

"Oh grow up!" I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, can I ask a question?" Leah interrupted politely for once. "What's so big about a 40th birthday party? Besides the fact it's your mom's…"

I hadn't realized I had been thinking about that.

"That's right! Shea you're going to miss the planning for it." Aiden woke up from his imprint insanity, now if only Seth would…

"Nah, I'll just show up the day of with a present and a card." I shrugged.

"Is that safe?"

"With my mom, nothing is. But, you know that already, Aiden." How many times had she beaten my poor cousin up over stupid things? My mom had temper issues!

"If Shea's mom does that, I'm scared to know what Leah does to you!" Embry felt instant pity for Aiden.

"Hey, if all of us are here…who are watching the kittens?" It dawned on me that that could be a problem, especially with puppies in the same room.

"JENNIE!" We all thought together and rushed back to the house.

*Ω*

A/N-

Terrible chapter, I know. It's a disappointment. But I'm working on a chapter for pacific that's a little longer so that's why.