Author's Note:
Sorry for the long (for me anyway) wait for this chapter! Midterms at school… blah. I'll probably update every 4 days or something since I prefer typing on my laptop at my mom's house and I'm here every other day and I have my other story to update too! So anyway thanks for all the GREAT reviews! I didn't think I'd get this many… not that I'm complaining:) So this chapter I LOVE because it's basically about football! Yeah me! Lol! So ENJOY and REVIEW!
Oh and if any of you have time or would like to see a better example of my writing check out my other story! It's called "Dirty Little Secret" and it's in the Alex Rider section!
Disclaimer: Based loosely on characters created and owned my Lauren Brooke.
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Chapter 3
I had just finished with Sunny's training for the day, the show's in 2 days! I'm really excited, I think Sunny and I have a good chance to beat Ty and Chief.
I was just walking out of the barn, after I put Sunny away, when I saw a car pull up in the driveway. It looked familiar but I just figured it was a client my parents were planning on meeting with. It was a gleaming black Cadillac Escalade with the truck bed thing in the back… oh yeah. Duh! That was Ty's truck.
I walked over to Ty as he jumped out of the car; we hadn't really spoken since he was over here that day we went riding. I don't know if it had anything to do with what Ashley said or not, I know he was busy with football practice and training Chief and all so who knows?
"Hey!" Ty called out to me and waved when he saw me approaching.
"Hey," I said as I reached him, "What's up?"
"Haven't seen you in a while," he said casually as he leaned against his car. I have to say he did look hott, I mean come on, guys+carstotal hotness add horses to that and boy oh boy… hehe. I think I'm getting off topic.
"Yeah…" I trailed off.
"Hey I'm sorry about what Ashley said to you," he said sympathetically.
"No," I sighed, "Its okay, I…"
he cut me off though, "No its not okay, she had no right to say something like that, Ashley's just so… well…" he trailed off looking for the proper way to describe her, "Ashley like," he concluded.
I laughed a little, "Okay. So why are you here?"
"Oh yeah I have to ask you something."
"Yeah what?"
"Well you know how our first game is tomorrow?" he asked.
I nodded, "Yep."
"I was wondering if you were going to go?"
"Er I dunno," I said.
"Aw come on, you should go!"
"I don't know anything about football."
"So?"
"Well I should know what's going on." I laughed, "I think Soroya and the others are going though, so… sure I'll go," I told him.
Ty grinned and said, "Awesome, hold on a minute," before he turned and opened the door to his car. I watched as he pulled something from the passenger seat. He held it up; it was white with green trimmings and a big, green number '2' on the front.
"Erm what is it?" I asked stupidly.
Ty laughed and said, "A football jersey."
"Well yeah I knew that, I meant why do you have it?"
(a/n: Okay so for this next part I know that in high-school you don't have jerseys with your name on it or their own football stadiums but hey this isn't 'AU' for nothing, so just go along with it!)
"Well it's my jersey. See?" he turned it around so I saw the name 'Baldwin' in dark green letters proudly displayed at the top, "And it's for you," he said and handed it to me.
I took the jersey and the material swished in my fingers, "Thanks but why are you giving it to me?"
Ty laughed again and shook his head, "It's for you to wear, you know to the game tomorrow?"
"Oh thanks!" I said enthusiastically.
"Great so you're coming tomorrow?" he asked with a grin.
"Yeah. But I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"Uh what exactly do you uh do?" he looked at me in confusion, "I mean on the football team? I know you're the kicker or something but what do you do?"
"Well I'm the kicker, can you guess what I do?" he said jokingly.
"You kick the football?" he nodded, "Ugh! I thought you use your hands in football!"
Ty sighed and said, "You really don't know anything about football do you?"
"No!" I exclaimed, exasperated, "In England we had rugby, I'm sure some people watched football, but I never paid any attention!"
"This could take awhile…"
"Oh if you're busy it's cool. I can just ask someone else, or go on the internet," I said quickly.
"No, I'm not busy, its fine. You want to hang out or something? We could go to my house," he offered.
"Sure!" I agreed, "If you're sure you don't have anything to do or something."
"I'm positive, now let's go!" he said while turning to open the door to the driver's seat.
I stayed where I was and said, "Actually do you mind if I change first?" I gestured towards my jeans, muddy boots and leather ½ chaps and I'm pretty sure my hair was coming out of its pony tail.
Ty turned around and said, "Okay, sure."
I turned and walked into my house and Ty followed me. I opened the side door that led to a little room we used for boots and coats and stuff when working outside and took of my ½ chaps and boots.
As I walked into the kitchen I yelled, "Hello?" to see if anyone was there.
My older sister Lou walked into the kitchen and said, "Hey Amy."
"Oh hey Lou, what are you doing here?"
"I'm Heartland's accountant, remember?" she said jokingly and looked questioningly at Ty who was standing next to me.
"Oh yeah, Lou this is Ty. Ty this is my sister Lou," I made the introductions.
They nodded and said their greetings to each other before Lou said, "So what are you guys doing?"
"I'm going to get changed and than we're going to Ty's place," I told my older sister.
"Yeah and I'm going to attempt to explain football to Amy," Ty said jokingly.
Lou looked shocked and asked, "What's with the sudden interest in football?" questioningly.
"Ty's on the football team and convinced me to go to the game tomorrow," I said and held up the jersey so she saw 'Baldwin' with the number '2' under it.
She looked momentarily surprised at the name 'Baldwin' but thankfully she didn't say anything about it, "Oh what's your position?"
"Kicker," Ty said somewhat proudly.
"Ah right, so what's your favorite NFL team?"
"Philadelphia Eagles." (A/n: My favorite team!)
"Really? That's Scott's, my husband's, favorite team," Lou said, "I bet I can guess your favorite player?"
Ty grinned and said, "Probably could, David Akers." (A/n: DAVID AKERS RULES!)
Than they started talking about the Super Bowl or something and how the Philadelphia Eagles (whoever they are) won last year and how David Akers (whoever he is) did something… good I guess. But like I said I have no idea what so ever what they are talking about so I excused myself and went upstairs to change.
I put on a pair of faded jeans, my black converses, a navy Lacoste polo and my black North Face jacket, tied my hair into a lose pony tail and headed back downstairs where Lou and Ty were still talking about football.
When Ty saw me he smiled and said, "Ready to go?"
"Yeah," I replied and we headed for the door but I turned around and said, "Oh Lou? Can you tell mum and dad I'll be back later?"
"Sure Amy, see you tomorrow, bye Ty."
"See ya Lou," Ty called out.
"Bye Lou, tell Scott hi too," I told her before we walked out of the door and over to Ty's totally hott truck. I got in the passenger side and settled into the soft leather seat.
It was only about a 15 minute drive from Heartland to Ty's house… if you can call it a house. It was a huge stone mansion surrounded by huge trees and had a circular driveway. In the distance you could see the barns, training rings, paddocks, and the 1 mile track. They had their own road that was at least a ½ mile long! On either side it was lined with lush green pastures and huge trees. Some of the most magnificent horses I'd ever seen were grazing inside those paddocks.
"Whoa," was all I said as Ty pulled his truck in front of the 10 car (literally) garage, "This is amazing!" I exclaimed as I looked around the vastness of Baldwin Ways.
"It is pretty nice, isn't it?" Ty said thoughtfully and we got out of the car and walked up to the front door. And I thought Heartland was big! Ha what a joke, this was literally 5 times the size of Heartland, at least.
Ty opened the huge mahogany door and I walked into the entrance hall, oh my god his house was amazing! I'm not even going to try to explain it, just picture one of those amazing houses they show on MTV's Coolest Cribs or whatever it's called. Though it's probably bigger than all those places and I have to say it was decorated with a much better taste.
(a/n: Sorry I like literally just got sick and my nose is all stuffed up so I just didn't feel like explaining!)
"Come on," Ty said to me with that grin of his plastered to his face, "Follow me," and he led me down a bunch of a halls before we got to our destination. Ty flung the door opened and motioned for me to go in.
I gasped; it was probably the most gorgeous room I'd ever seen.
There were dark, hard wood floors that were partially covered with a beautiful green oriental rug. The ceiling was pretty high up and practically one whole side of the room was a window that had dark green velvet drapes flowing to the ground. On one wall was the biggest flat screen TV I'd ever (and probably ever will) see, the mahogany media cabinet was filled with DVD's. There was a complex stereo system attached to it and there were speakers in the corners of the ceiling. There was a mahogany coffee table in front of a huge light colored, leather couch and several arm chairs. On the other side of the room in the alcove was a library, the walls were lined with books. I suppose that this would be considered 'small' for a library but it was awesome.
Ty chuckled as he followed me into the room, "Yeah this is my favorite room," Yeah I can see why! He walked over to the library and pulled several books off the shelves before sitting down at the mahogany table and chairs in front of the library, "Come on," he said to me and I walked over to him in a daze and sat in one of the chairs, "Let's start…"
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An hour or so later
"Okay, so in football the offence has 4 chances, or downs, to move the football the 10 yards required for a 1st down. If the team with the ball gets the 1st down than they have the 4 chances back to get another 1st down. If the team with the ball doesn't get it the 10 yards after the 4 downs than the punter kicks it off to the other side," I recited what Ty had told me.
"Yes!" Ty exclaimed, "And what do I do?"
"Okay you're the kicker so after your team gets a touchdown you try for the extra point."
"And…?" Ty encouraged me to go on.
"And if by the 3rd down if you have good field position and your coach decides to not risk it you try for the field goal. Oh yeah and you kick it off to the other side after touchdowns."
"Great and how about the scoring system, how points are rewarded?"
"Okay a touchdown is 6 points, after that you try for the extra 1 point, or your team can try for the 2 point conversion. When it's a field goal it's worth 3 points," I said triumphantly as Ty grinned.
"See was that really that hard?"
"Well yeah seeing as it confused me for like an hour and I still don't even know the other positions and rules."
"Well I think you know enough to be able to understand what's going on tomorrow," Ty retorted.
"Yeah I guess that's true," I propped my head on one of my hands and looked across the table at Ty, "Hey thanks for helping me; I'm sure there were a million other things you could have been doing today."
"No problem and I wanted to help," Ty told me, "And besides if I wasn't with you I'd probably be doing something I didn't want to be doing right now."
"What?" I asked interestedly.
"Oh nothing… you know what? No. I would have probably had to go to the mall or something with Ashley," he grimaced.
"Oh, that bad huh?" I joked.
Ty smiled and said, "No, it's just that sometimes I don't understand Ashley or why I'm even going out with her," he told me truthfully.
For some reason this made my heart flip a little but I ignored it and said, "Well you've got to understand her, you said you've been together for 3 years."
"It's just that she's so possessive and clingy. It's like I have to be with her all the time and she has to know what I'm doing all the time and all my friends have to be 'cleared' by her or she totally flips out," Ty complained.
"Well I'm sure she just… cares about you," I told him.
"I don't know but it's really starting to piss me off. Like how she went crazy at you because I didn't tell her about you. We don't even have anything in common!" he exclaimed, "She hates horses, why am I with someone who hates horses? That's practically my whole life!"
I was silent and looked across the table at Ty. My gray eyes met his emerald green ones. We kind of just locked eyes for a minute or 2. I felt like if I allowed myself I could fall so deep into the twin emerald pools that were his eyes. I felt bare, like he could see into my very soul.
I tore my eyes away from his and said rather uncomfortably, "I should get going."
Ty shook his head as if he was trying to rid himself of a previous thought, "Oh yeah right," he said as he stood up from his chair and I did the same, "I'll drive you."
"Thanks," I said gratefully.
I went to gather the books we had been using back up but Ty stopped me when he put a hand on my arm, "It's okay, leave them. I'll get them later," he removed his hand from my arm but I felt the place where he had touched me tingling.
What's going on with me? I've never felt this way before…
On the drive back to Heartland we chatted aimlessly about whatever came up, nothing really important.
When we got back to my house I jumped out of the car and Ty said, "Hey, this was fun. You should come over again sometime."
"That would be great."
"So see you tomorrow at the game or if I don't I'll see you Sunday at the show."
"Yeah see you later."
"Bye," he said before I slammed the door shut.
Ty turned his truck around and waved before driving back off down the driveway. I watched until his headlights disappeared and than walked up to the front of my house feeling strangely happy and content for the first time since I'd moved.
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At the game, Saturday afternoon
"This is going to be so much fun!" Meghan exclaimed as we walked into the already pretty crowded football stadium the next afternoon about ½ an hour before the game was scheduled to start. I was with Meghan, Jen, Jamie, Soroya, Rachel and Rebecca, who were all either wearing a dark green shirt or a school shirt in honor of the Green Hawks, who were Green Acres Prep's team. I was wearing a pair of medium colored jeans and the jersey Ty had given me the night before. Surprisingly, it fit just right, not too small but not too big and I had it tied around the middle with a hair band.
"So tell me how exactly you got that jersey," Rebecca asked for the millionth time with a silly grin on her face.
I sighed and said, "I already told you, Ty came to Heartland and asked if I was going to the game. I said yes and he gave me this jersey to wear."
Jamie sighed, "I wish I was you."
"Uh why would you want to be me?"
"Because Ty Baldwin likes you!" she said enviously.
"Not like that he doesn't," I told them to set them straight, "We're just friends."
"You keep saying that," Jen said.
"Because it's true!" I exclaimed mater-of-factly while trying to forget how our eyes had locked last night. "Besides, he has a girlfriend," I reminded them.
"Ashley?" Meghan said in disdain.
"They're so not good together," Soroya put in.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"They fight all the time and they've broken up more times than I can count," Soroya told me.
"But they always get back together," I reasoned, "So that has to mean something."
"I think Ty's going to dump her soon anyway," Jamie said and I looked at her, "She's always ordering him around and won't ever leave him alone."
This I already knew from last night.
"Well he certainly doesn't like me like that," I told them stubbornly.
"Okay but how would you know that?" Jen said making a good point.
"Why would he like me?" I retorted.
"Well let's see, you hott, smart, funny, and you're totally into horses," Rachel commented.
"And out of all those things the only thing Ashley is, is hott," Rebecca put in.
"Yeah she hates horses, so isn't smart and not too funny either," Jen said.
"Okay but he doesn't like me," I said firmly hoping that they'd just drop everything now.
"Okay Amy," Jamie sighed.
"Whatever you say," Meghan said.
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End of game
YEAH! We won! The first game of the season and we won! 44-10 at that! I think I'm going to start watching football; it was pretty cool and exciting.
I admit I didn't understand everything that was going on but for the most part I understood how the game was going and what was happening.
Ty was brilliant! At least that's what everyone at Green Acres thinks and even some people from the other school thought so too. We were winning basically the whole game and Ty made some brilliant kicks from like 45 yards back or so. It was amazing, he didn't miss one kick!
I know there had to be some college recruiters watching today's game and they would all probably be begging Ty to come to their university.
I didn't get to talk to Ty though. I saw him and the rest of the team come out from the locker rooms and I think he was heading towards me but Ashley intercepted him and jumped on him and kissed him. I felt a pang in my chest as I watched this but pushed it away.
"Look she's not even wearing green," Soroya said in disgust and we all looked at Ashley's outfit, another short denim skirt and a pink top with high pink Uggs.
"I guess that shows how much she really cares about Ty," Meghan said scornfully as we walked to the parking lot.
"It looked like he was coming over to you though Amy," Jen said after a minute.
"I doubt it," I mumbled and continued walking. Even though secretly, deep down I hopped that it was true, at least a little.
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Devon Horse Show, Sunday
"And the next competitor is Amy Fleming on Sundance!" the announcer announced to the crowd as I rode proudly into the ring. The crowd cheered loudly and I set off towards the 1st fence.
Sunny was brilliant! I don't think we've ever had a better round. We flew over every fence at a pretty good pace but didn't get any faults.
The crowed cheered loudly again as I soared over the last fence and the announcer said, "Amy Fleming and Sundance ride clear and collect no faults! Their time is enough to bring them into first place! Our next competitor is Ty Baldwin on Commander in Chief!"
As I rode out of the ring I passed Ty, "Good luck," I said brightly to him. He just smiled tensely at me and tuned his attention back to Chief.
Chief seemed to be fighting a bit for the reins and didn't seem as calm as he normally was.
I rode up to my friends and family who were all standing by the side of the ring. They all called congratulations out to me as I hopped off Sundance.
I turned back to the ring to watch Ty's round. Chief certainly was not himself today. He wasn't as responsive to Ty's commands as he had been the previous show. Ty tried to walk Chief in a circle to get him to calm but Chief was at a fast, nervous paced trot that he would not break. He shied away in front of one of the jumps that had a bunch of colorful flowers at its base. He hollowed his back and flung his head up in the air and tried to snatch the reins away from Ty.
Ty sat deep in the saddle and tried to get Chief to calm down. I caught a glimpse of his worried face as the judge gave him the signal to start the course. Ty turned Chief towards the first fence and nudged him into a canter, a canter Chief seemed almost reluctant to pick up.
Chief cantered stiffly to the first fence and gave a tremendous leap to get over it. His tail was clamped down and he picked up a faster pace. As Ty rounded the corner of the ring I was standing at, I saw him speaking clam words to Chief but they seemed to have no effect on the horse.
Every jump was worse than the last. On the 5th jump Chief gave a mighty buck after they had landed and I was surprised to see that Ty managed to keep his seat.
What was going on with Chief? I thought worriedly. This was not him; it was like someone had switched Chief with another horse.
It was at the last jump that everything went from bad to worse.
It was a water jump so I'm guessing Chief spooked at how the sun was glinting of the water?
But it was so weird, it was like there was still a part of Chief that wanted to please Ty and do well but there was a greater part that was acting strange, for seemingly no reason at all.
Chief hesitated before the jump and gave a buck. Chief, however, did not stop; he crashed through the jump sending polls flying everywhere. Since it was a water jump he slid on the water in the small tub under the jump.
That's when it happened.
Ty had already become slightly unseated from when they crashed through the jump. It seemed like Chief started to go down but managed to catch himself at the last second. He proceeded to give a series of wild bucks that would have made even the best rodeo bronco jealous.
Chief squealed piercingly before he gave one more buck.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I watched Ty being thrown from the saddle and flying threw the air.
The sound was turned back on just in time to hear Ty land on the hard, solid ground with a sickening thud.
Time stood still for a moment before a scream cut threw the silence like a knife, "TY!"
The scream was from me and I chucked my helmet and Sunny's reins at whoever was closest and quickly jumped the fence, dodging the security who yelled at me not to go into the ring.
For the first time in my life I didn't think of the horse first.
I completely ignored Commander in Chief, who was still bucking and rearing around the ring, as I ran toward Ty's still body lying in the short grass…