Sam blinked her eyes against the bright sunlight that streamed straight at her face through the open tent flap. After a second a shadow protected her sleepy eyes from the bright rays. But after a few seconds Sam's foggy brain came to the realization that the shadow was a somebody. After a few more blinks Sam recognized Jen's face staring down at her. Jen's eyes were inspecting her owlishly as if she was some kind of U.F.O, or more like U.S.O(unidentified sleepy object..lol) "Uuhem." Sam said, wondering if perhaps she spoke Jen would in fact identify her as a human being. But Jen seemed just as bewildered. So finally Sam made her way out from under her sleeping bags, as Jen continued to watch her curiously. "Excuse me?" Sam prompted, as she stood on her knees, hands on hips. "Do you realize what time it is?" Jen asked blatantly, then added, " You sleeping creature." Sam nearly laughed at aloud at Jen's last comment, but what she asked distracted her. "What do you mean?" Sam questioned. "Remember you're Gram said to get up early this morning for a surprise?" Jen asked. Sam nodded slowly, realizing the night's events had side tracked her. "Well," Jen continued," It's after 8 o'clock!" Sam froze in shock. It wasn't surprising she'd slept in a little since she hadn't gotten to sleep until almost four am, but what was surprising was that Jen thought 8 o'clock was such a big deal, and that if it was a big deal why no one had woke her. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" Sam exclaimed. "Well I tried to, but you growled at me, and muttered something about "Don't tell Daddy" Jen replied in wonder. Sam wrinkled her nose, baffled as to why she didn't have a more charming sleep talk vocabulary.
"Anyways, " Jen continued calmly, " You're Gram already announced the surprise." "Really?" Sam gasped, "What is it?" "Well it turns out we'll be cutting this camping trip short." Jen said with a smile. " Why?" Sam questioned in confusion. "Because..." Jen bounced in excitement, "We're riding back to the ranch then heading down to the fair grounds!" What Jen said combined with her excitement kept Sam thoroughly baffled. "What do you mean?" Sam asked in confusion, "The fair isn't going on this time of year." "No it's not." Jen continued with a smile, "But the Fall EquiFest is!" "What?" Sam exclaimed, starting to get excited but still a little bewildered, "They've never had an EquiFest in this county." "I know!" Jen exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight, "That's what makes it even more exciting!" Sam just stared at her, starting to get lost, probably partly because she was still half asleep. "Okay, okay, "Jen said with a roll of her eyes, "I'll calm down and explain." "Finally!" Sam said sarcastically. Jen just gave her a look and continued. "So, since this will be the first annual EquiFest here, their giving away free food, samples, etc. And the admission to most of the clinics and shows will be free too!" "Cool!" Sam replied, "It sounds like fun!" "So if you want to go, we we're supposed to be heading out already, so you'd better get dressed and saddle up quick!" Jen said, and then as if she'd never been there she disappeared out of the tent flap.
Two hours later the horses were back in the River Bend barn, and Sam was squished between Jake and Jen in Jake's truck, while the rest of the Ely brothers were in the truck bed. Maxine and Gram were in Gram's Buick, and Wyatt was meeting them at the fair grounds. They had all felt bad that Brynna had to stay home alone with the baby, but she insisted that Dallas could take care of things and she'd be fine as long as they brought home souvenirs. So then they were off.
Most of the drive to the fair grounds was silent and once they were there everyone piled out of the car before the car was even fully stopped.
Everyone split up and started heading different directions. All the Ely boys but Jake ran off, and Maxine and Gram headed towards the pie stand. And that left Sam, Jen, and Jake. "So what do you want to do first?" Sam spoke up. Jake, naturally, just grunted and shrugged. "How about we just look around and see what there is to look at?" Jen suggested. Sam nodded and Jake just followed along like a puppy dog on a leash. (A.N haha that line just made me laugh as I wrote it) After watching a few clinics on various methods of horse training the trio (ha) headed toward the food stands.
"So what happened to you two last night?" Curious Jen blurted out as soon as the three of them had seated at the picnic tables. Jake just stared at his hotdog. "Well..." Jen urged, looking at Sam, obviously not expecting a reply from Jake. " Umm...well..." Sam began, " Jake went through with the dare. But Gram...sort of...caught us." Jen laughed out loud. Wait a minute..Sam thought to herself, Jen's laughing? Sure enough, she was laughing her darn pants off. "Sorry," Jen gasped, "It"s just.. that.. Gram caught you?.." "Yes Jen." Sam replied sternly, "Gram CAUGHT us. In. The. Act." Jen laughed even harder, "In the..act.. of.. what?" "What do you think?" Sam replied, getting flustered, "She caught us in the act of sneaking out on a ride at TWO AM!" Sam yelled the last two words so loud several people looked over. Jen giggled again. "What is wrong with you?" Sam demanded, in a now loud whisper. "okay, okay," Jen said, trying to regain a straight face, "It's not that funny. It's just that, the image of you and Jake riding in to camp at two in the morning and getting in trouble is just a little...crazy." "How is it crazy?" Sam was now completely bewildered, " Jake got dared. We snuck out. Gram woke up and saw us. It's logical!" "That's not what's crazy." Jen stated, "What's crazy is that it was Jake , and he didn't even come up with a "mature" excuse. He just let Gram send him to bed like a little kid in trouble." Sam thought for a minute. What Jen said was true. But there wasn't anything funny about it. But that was just Jen's warped sense of humor, she supposed. "So are you in trouble?" Jen questioned, now serious. "Gram said I'll have to talk to Dad when we get home, so I guess that means yes." Sam replied glumly. "What about Jake?" Jen asked. Then Sam was reminded that Jake had been sitting next to her through the whole conversation, as he spoke up, "It' s not Sam's fault anymore than mine." Jake said stoically. Then he got up, dumped out his garbage, and walked away. Leaving Sam to wonder, What was he thinking?
It was the next morning and Sam awoke to her Father's voice. As she drifted between sleep and awake she heard his barely audible words that sounded like, "Sam..bake some cake, belly aches down stairs so throw up. " At that completely ridiculous sentence, Sam knew she must have been still dreaming. In her dream she heard the foot steps fade away. It was silent. Then she heard food steps coming closer again. Suddenly something wet plopped on to her head, draining on to her face. Then she knew she was definitely NOT dreaming. She jumped up, only to be face to face with none other than.. Jake Ely. "What the heck?" Sam screeched, feeling like a wet cat, and knowing she probably looked like one too. Jake chuckled, "Breakfast's waitin for ya downstairs. Actually everyone's waitin for ya downstairs." Then Jake just walked back out of her bedroom, closing the door behind him. Sam stomped her foot and glared at the door for a second. Then she rushed in to action, getting dressed as quickly as possible.
Ten minutes later Sam was dressed and had finally deciphered her Dad's "Dream words" from "Sam bake some cake" to "Gram baked some cake", and "belly aches downstairs so throw up" to "really, Jake's downstairs, so now up". With this revelation Sam figured that there had to be something special going on. Or at least something out of the ordinary. And she figured that surely, Gram wouldn't bake a cake just to sit down and discuss the "Midnight Ride" thing. So Sam went downstairs, her curiosity at it's peak.
When Sam reached the dining room table, she nearly jumped as a large chorus of "Surprise!" rang out around her. For a moment she just stood shocked, staring at the group of people around her dining room table. Dad, Gram, Brynna, Dallas, Pepper, Ross, Jen, and Jake all looked at her with smiles on their faces. "Wh-what's going on?" Sam stuttered in confusion. "We decided to have a little belated celebration of the birth of baby Cody, and your return." Gram explained, as she gently guided Sam towards a seat between Jen and Jake. "Wow." Was all Sam could reply, as finally a smile spread across her face. There were all kinds of tasty foods set around the table, including a very delicious looking german chocolate cake. "Well, let's dig in!" Wyatt exclaimed cheerily. And so they did. And Sam enjoyed every minute of it, not only because the food was delicious, but mostly because she knew that she must not be in too much trouble. And Gram's words "and your return" had given her another spark of hope.
A.N Sooo Sorry that it's been SOOO long since I last updated! I've been REALLY busy, and to be honest I've been having a bit of writers block on this story. This chapter is pretty much a filler chapter, and I know it's not great. But I promise I'm going to try to update more often, and finish this story successfully!:) So PLEASE review, It really gives me much more motivation and inspiration! :)