Disclaimer: Based loosely off of material that has been created and is owned by Lauren Brooke.

Chapter 3: Back to School

Amy's POV

"Amy!" I turned around to see my best friend, Soraya, rushing towards me. "Can you believe it?" She asked.

"Believe what?"

"Summer's already over?"

"Oh, I guess not."

"Hey what's up with you? You're very low key today." She gave me a skeptical look.

"Nothing I'm just tired, I had to wake up at 5:00 so I could get all the chores done before I came to school this morning."

"Oh alright, what ever you say." She didn't really look convinced.

"What?" I asked waiting for her to press the issue.

"You're sure that's all that's going on? No other problems like um let's say with a certain someone?"

"With who?" How did she know?

"Oh don't give me that I see the way that you look at Ty."

"You're so wrong." I could feel my face turning red.

"Look at that!" She pointed towards my face. "You're blushing!"

"I am not!"

"Come on Amy! You like him and I'm pretty sure he likes you! You two would be so good together! Why don't you just give it a chance?"

"Because we're friends Soraya and that's all we'll ever be because I don't like Ty in that way!"

"You're really going to let an opportunity like this slip away?"

"There is no opportunity here." Why couldn't she just give it up?

"Whatever."

The bell rang telling us we had five minutes to get to class.

"Well we better get going." I said. "I'll see you third hour."

"See ya."

I walked to my first class, Chemistry, and sat down at one of the tables.

"This is gonna be a long day."

Ty's POV

I stood by locker just after fourth period when I saw Dawn Spencer walking towards me. She was what some people considered to be the hottest girl in school and according to all of my friends, I was her next pursuit.

"How's it going there stud?" She greeted me.

"Pretty good Dawn, how are you?" I answered in a lazy tone.

"I'm just fine now that I'm talking to you." She smiled at me.

I laughed a little not knowing what to say.

"How was your summer? I didn't see much of you at all at the pool or anything."

"My summer was really great but I worked a lot so I didn't really have any time to do any swimming."

"Oh a working man, just what I like."

"Hey, Ty!" My buddy, Nate, came to his locker at just the right time.

"Nate, what's up man?"

"Nothin' really just going from class to class wishing the minutes would go by faster." He looked over towards Dawn. "Hey Dawn, so has Ty taken my advice and asked you out yet?"

"No, he hasn't." She looked disappointed. "But at least I've got someone giving him good ideas. Well I'll see ya later boys."

"Bye," Nate called after her while I stood there and said nothing. "Dude what is your problem? She's like the hottest girl in school, am I wrong?"

"That's what the majority of the votes are saying."

"Not to mention she's all over you!" He looked at me with a stern expression on his face. "Oh my god, you've got your eye on someone else don't you? Is it that new girl from California, I mean there's nothing wrong with that. Or is it Dawn's friend, oh what's her name, Tessa?"

"No it's not Nichole or Tessa, there's no one else. I just don't like Dawn."

"Liar, there's got to be someone else because anyone with eyes likes Dawn."

"Not everyone."

"Dude," Nate backed away from me a little bit. "Are you gay?"

I laughed, "Not that I know of…… last I checked I liked girls."

"Okay good man, you had me kinda scared there." He laughed. "So seriously, who is it?"

"Someone I've known for a while."

"Amy?" He cocked his eyebrow and then shook his head when I didn't reply. "Should of known."

Lunch

I glanced around the cafeteria searching for the only person I was looking forward to seeing all day. I was in line to get a sub sandwich and I couldn't find her anywhere. Gradually the line moved and I got my turkey, with lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and mayo, sub. I looked around a little more and finally I spotted that long dark brown hair of hers. I walked towards where she was sitting.

"Hey Ty," Her friend Soraya greeted me. "There's a seat right next to Amy if you want to eat with us."

"Thanks." I made my way around the table and sat down in the open seat. "Hey Ames, how's it going?"

She looked up from her food, "Um, pretty good it's just kind of weird being back at school you know?"

"Yeah, it was nice just being able to work with the horses all day."

"Yeah," She said sounding kind of nervous. "How's your day going?"

"Good now that I'm here with you," I wanted to say but instead I just responded, "Good but busy."

"That's good," she paused. "Well I mean not good that's its busy but good that it's…"

I laughed, "I get what you mean."

She laughed and looked a little embarrassed.

I took and bite of my sub, "Why can't I just tell her how I feel?"

"So Amy," Soraya began. "Are you going on a trail ride anytime soon? Cuz you know you owe me one for helping you out when Ty took off last week."

"I was going to go on one today after school…"

"Oh, I promised my mom I would go shopping with her after school."

Amy's POV

"Maybe Ty could take my place today?" Soraya continued with mischief in her eyes.

"Yeah, I could probably do that," Ty said.

"Good then it's a date!" Soraya exclaimed. My jaw dropped.

"Guess so," Ty smiled.

"Great now he thinks I like him," I thought. Soraya was so going to pay for this. I caught her eye and glared at her. She gave me the "What did I do?" look and continued smiling.

After school

"Hey wait up Amy!" I heard someone call behind me. I turned and saw Ty rushing towards me. "Do want to ride with me?"

"That definitely beats riding the bus," I told him and we started walking to his truck.

"Hey Ty!" We both turned our heads to see the one and only Dawn Spencer walking over by us.

Ty smiled politely at her, "Hi Dawn."

"What's this here?" She looked at me.

"This is Amy, I work for her family."

"It's so nice of you to give her a ride home so she wouldn't have to ride that crummy old bus."

I looked at Ty wondering what he was going to say. "Is that all he thinks of me? As just the girl who's family he works for?"

"I guess," was all he had to say.

Dawn laughed, "So modest."

"We should get going," Ty looked at me. "Bye Dawn."

"Bye!"

"I am so sorry about that," Ty said once we got into his truck.

"It's ok," I replied.

"No it's not she doesn't need to be treating you, or anyone, like that."

"Ty, seriously don't worry about it." Why was he getting so worked about this?

He drove out of the parking lot and turned to the left. "She still shouldn't be treating you like that." He clicked on the radio and the newest hit from The Fray was playing.

This is going to break me clean in two.

This is going to bring me close to you.

She is everything I need that I never knew I wanted.

She is everything I want that I never knew I needed.

It's all up in the air and we stand still to see what come back down.

I don't know where it is, I don't know when, but I want you around.

"You know, I don't like Dawn." Ty said all of a sudden.

I laughed, "You're probably the first guy to ever say that."

"She's really not that great. All she has is her looks which in my mind aren't even that great. Her attitude is horrible, she acts like anything she wants is going to be hers and when she gets bored with that she just tosses it aside."

All I could do was nod my head because I was shocked at what Ty was saying. I mean I knew that Ty was different from other guys I had met but I never thought he would think this kind of stuff. I started twiddling with some of the key chains on my backpack.

She is everything I need that I never knew I wanted.

She is everything that I want that I never knew I needed.

This is going to bring me to my knees.

I just want to hold you close to me.

"What are you that surprised?" He asked breaking the silence.

I looked over at him, "Well, no but I just didn't know that there were guys out there that actually use there brain."

We both laughed.

"I guess I'm different than other guys. Is that a bad thing?"

"No, not at all," I paused. "It's actually a really good thing."

Ty put his blinker on and started down the driveway that led to Heartland. He smiled, "Good." He pulled up along side of the house and shut off the engine. We both opened our doors and got out.

"I'll be out in a few minutes, I just have to change into some barn clothes." I told him and I walked up the stairs and opened the door to my house.

A little while later I was walking to the front barn in an old pair of jeans and a teal blue spaghetti strap tank top. I saw Ty busily trying to get all the feed buckets out of the stalls as I walked into the barn. "Need some help?"

"Nope, there's only one more left."

"Okay, who are you going to ride for the trail ride?"

"I think I'll take Beans, he's going home tomorrow so it will be my last chance to ride him."

"Sounds good," I said and I walked over to Moon, an Arabian mare that had a foal at the beginning of summer. "Do you think you're ready for the trails girl?" The mare nickered at me as I unlatched her stall door.

I hooked her up to some crossties and got her grooming bucket. I only had to brush the loose hairs off because since she hadn't been outside that day she wasn't too dirty. After brushing her I picked up each of her hooves and cleaned them out making sure that any rocks that might be in there got out. I put the last of her hooves down and she was ready to be saddled.

"You ready for this?" Ty was holding her saddle.

I smiled, "Yup." Ty carefully set the saddle on Moon's back. "Is Beans saddles?"

"Yeah, he's just in his stall right now. I'll go get him." Ty walked towards the back of the barn and stopped at Beans stall. Ty disappeared for a couple seconds and then came out leading Beans.

"Ready?" I asked Ty as they approached.

"Yup."

When we got out of the barn we stopped and mounted our horses. "Which trail should we take?" Ty wanted to know.

"I was thinking maybe Bumpy Ridge?"

"Okay, sounds good." We walked for a little ways in silence. All you could hear was the sound of gravel underneath the horse's hooves. "I'll race you!" Ty said and before I could even react he was lengths ahead of me. I told Moon to go faster and pretty soon we were catching up to Ty. After a couple more fast strides we were ahead of Ty. I could tell he was pushing Beans to go faster but it didn't seem like he could. Beans had shorter legs than Moon so he would never be able to keep up with her.

After a few more strides, I reached the starting of the trail and slowed Moon down to a walk. "Geesh, what took you so long Ty? I've been here for like five minutes." I teased him when he met up with me.

"Oh don't give me that, you know that Beans is shorter than Moon." He smiled.

I laughed, "Okay what ever you say, Ty."

a.n.: hope you liek chapter 3 sorry it took so long for me to update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!