[open] Jumping the Moon

[austin]

Every so often in our time, there comes a long a bond between a man and a horse that stands out among the rest, a bond that is unlike any other. Austin Gaines and his charismatic Thoroughbred Vodka on the Rocks had such bond. Neither of them were competitive, and neither of them had ever gone to a show. Neither of them had been trained by people better than they, Austin hadn't ever had a lesson in his life. They just did it because they were good at it. Vodka could jump to the moon if he put his mind to it, and Austin was just good at riding all the way around, so he was going to do it, just for the heck of it. Now some people would wonder why Austin wouldn't compete with Vodka, why he would deprive the horse sporting world of said talent... and well, the answer was quite simple, though certainly not expected.

Vodka, though extremely talented in the practice arena, couldn't clear a single jump for the life of him in the show ring. He hated it. No one could quite figure out what it was that made the horse so impossible in the show ring. It didn't matter if he had a professional rider or a beginner, he wouldn't go over a jump in the show ring. He would refuse very nearly every jump he came to, and when the rider would try to use the crop to get him to go over, he would just rear and twist to the side to go around the jump. On the rare occasion that they actually got him to go over the jump it would be an atrocious attempt at jumping, and without fail, he would knock at least one rail down. It was like he was determined to do everything wrong in the show ring that he did so perfectly in practice. So it was decided that he was better just for practice for the riders.

Austin... well he was the sort of guy who was rarely found wearing anything besides jeans and a T-shirt, except when Lexi talked him into something nicer or he was going to a wedding or something of the sort. That being true, it came hand in hand that he would be very unwilling to wear the breeches for English riding. He had no problem with other guys wearing them, but they weren't for him. Besides, having one competitive rider in the family was enough for him. Lexi was an Olympian, he'd met her almost just after she had returned from Beijing where she had done quite well. So for him that was more than enough. Not to mention the fact that he was already grossly overpaid by the government with his hacking job, so he didn't need to be out competing. Riding for him was just for fun, and that's how it would always be.

That wasn't to say they weren't good at it though. The pair had near perfect form, and Vodka was extremely willing, and that horse could catch some serious air, much like they were today. Normally they were into the high jumps closer to 5' but today Austin didn't feel like adjusting all the jumps before riding, so he left them at the comfortable 3'9" that they had been left at yesterday. He scanned over the course as he let Vodka lope around the outside perimeter of the arena, and once satisfied with the pattern, he turned the horse in, and a smile spread across his face as he felt the animal's eagerness kick in. He picked up his speed just a bit as he headed for the first jump and cleared it with room to spare. Vodka took each and every jump like he had been born to jump them and he'd been waiting his whole life for this course. He was quite an enthusiastic animal to say the least.

When he came up to the last jump, Austin felt an impressive surge of power which was probably overdoing it a bit, but that didn't matter too much. Horse and rider took to the air, and Austin glanced down as they soared over the jump with a good foot of air between them and the top rail. After Vodka touched down, he instantly started heading for another jump, but Austin tightened the reins and brought the horse down to an excited dancing walk. The horse was certainly a stunning animal. He wasn't overly large, but his bay coat always seemed to almost sparkle in the sunlight, and every part of him was symmetrical and he was built with fantastic conformation. Sometimes Austin really thought it was a shame that Vodka wouldn't show, he'd be way up there in the eventing world by this time, but since the horse was determined to fail every show, Austin was content with just keeping him as a non-showing horse.

Austin guided Vodka back out to the fence and let him walk along it in his excited jig, just letting the horse expend energy. He definitely lived up to the name Vodka on the Rocks. He was quite easily excitable and could get kind of wild sometimes, so Austin would often just let him circle the arena a few times after their first round just to keep him from getting too high strung and killing them both on a jump that he tried to take too quickly. Austin had been riding Vodka since he was about 17 and Vodka was just a three year old. Now he was 20, and Vodka was six. Both quite young compared to most of the eventing world at their level, but it wasn't easy to tell their age just by looking at them. They were definitely a perfect pair.

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[ariellefairholm]

Jumping was generally not Arielle's thing. Sure, it was really fun, and on the occasion that she did try it, she always left the arena smiling. But it just wasn't the same as dressage... and there was another problem. Sunny was not a jumper. He used to be decent at it, but then one fateful trip to the vet revealed that he had navicular. No more jumping for Sunny. Ever since, people would always ask Arielle if she missed jumping, and she would always tell them no. And it would always be a lie. No matter how much she tried to tell herself otherwise, Elli missed jumping. She missed the adrenaline rush she got just as they came up to the jump, the momentary flight- lasting only a split second and giving her enough freedom to make that moment last for years. The exhilaration rushing through her veins as they landed gracefully on the ground, and how she just wanted to do it again and again and again and again. When she first came to Pinewood, Arielle had constantly told herself that she would get around to leasing a jumping horse or something... maybe taking a couple jumping lessons... if she had enough time and money eventually even buying a jumping horse. But it never happened. Everything always got in the way- horse shows, Sunny needed something, etc etc. And yet she always managed to find time to come to the jumping arena and watch the riders who had actually made it happen. It was a far cry from the thrill she got from doing it herself, but it satisfied some part of her... yearning. Today, there was a tall, elegant bay thoroughbred, and his rider was a dark haired guy who looked about Elli's age. The fact that she was watching people always made Elli a little bit self conscious- they probably thought she was a stalker. Today she had even brought her camera, in hopes of adding some nice shots to her portfolio... but now that she actually thought about it, taking pictures of this guy jumping would be really, really weird. Sighing, she shoved the camera to the bottom of her leather purse and instead got out some of her old pictures. She spread them all out in front of her and pretended to stare at them intently so that it would look like she was actually doing something. God, she was such a creeper.

Arielle managed to sneak a couple glances up at the horse and rider, and saw that they were quite good. The horse jumped with a certain... purpose? as if there were nothing else it would rather be doing. The rider had perfect equitation, even though he wore jeans as opposed to breeches. Probably good though- even though Elli loved English riding, and had seen plenty of guys in tight breeches, she had never really gotten used to it. Anyway, breeches or jeans, it didn't matter. This pair was seriously good. The jumps were probably at about four feet, but they soared over with at least a foot of space between the horse's belly and the jump. The team oozed with confidence as they completed the course, and Arielle found herself abandoning the photos and staring intently. As soon as she caught herself staring, she felt her skin burst into flames and looked down immediately. Elli glanced up for a second, and caught the last jump. It was beautiful- probably the best one she had seen yet. The bay soared into the air as if he had sprouted a pair of wings, and they landed gracefully, just in time for the rider to bring his horse to a rapid walk. They returned to the rail, and continued at a quick walk. Arielle quickly looked down at her photos, moved them around, and pretended to be deep in thought. After a couple seconds, thoughts of photography really did take over. She'd happened to grab some jumping photos she took at a local horse show. The horse in the photos was a brilliant chestnut, a bit like Sunny. The rider had almost perfect equitation, but the horse's from going over the jump could use a little work. As for the quality of the photos, it was good. They were some of the best jumping shots Elli had, in fact. Her favorite was angled upward, so you could actually see part of the horse's underbelly, and the mucky underside of the rider's boots. It looked like they were legitimately flying, because the jump was out of the picture. By the looks of it, the pair had cleared it with a lot of air to spare. Smiling ever so slightly, Elli moved this photo to a separate pile. This one was definitely going into her portfolio.

Besides the jumping photos, there were a couple of Trevor... man these were old. He had always been a good model for her. Super good-looking, that was a given, and he liked posing... their baby was gorgeous by now, she was sure. Two years old. Already. Elli had tried writing a letter once... oh god, she really needed to stop thinking about this. Cringing, Elli crumpled up the shots of Trevor, even though some were really quite good- and shoved them to the bottom of her purse. She glanced up at the rider and the horse, and they were still walking along the rail. She looked down again, not wanting to be caught watching. Photos, Elli. Focus on the photos. Yeah, she could do that. The next set was of Julie's cat, Kiwi. He was a beautiful, creamy white creature with electric green eyes. The picture was a little unoriginal- Kiwi crouched in the grass, ready to pounce. The green of his eyes was exactly the same as the green of the grass. It was a nice picture... but she had better, more original works. Here was a cool one.. the shadow of an arm tossing a ball high in the air. The fingers of the hand were spread wide, and the bleak white of the wall contrasted nicely with the dark of the shadow. It was a really good picture... and it would work nicely in her portfolio. Here was a couple of Julie's niece, Katelyn. Katelyn was about four, and had big blue eyes and feathery blond hair. She was naturally photogenic, and Arielle had posed her in a field of blue wildflowers. The shot looked totally natural, with Katelyn looking down to her fingers where she was making a crown of blue flowers. Her eyes looked almost closed, and her lashes were long and delicate. Katelyn's dress was gray with blue paisley... and it was almost blue overkill. Elli made a "maybe" pile and put the shot in it.

[austin]

Austin was quite unlike any other person out there in the world. And sure, I know what they say... people are like snowflakes, not one is exactly like the other... but if people are like snowflakes, then Austin was like a quarter sized hail stone. He was adopted at birth, by a family from California, and it was quite obvious he was nothing like the people he called his brothers. He always knew he was adopted... but it never seemed to bother him at all. All through elementary and middle school, Austin was that nerdy kid who got the highest grades, wore the thick glasses, was horrible at sports... you know... there's one in every class. In his freshman year he did the whole hippie thing... smoking pot, wearing Tye-dye, longish unkempt hair... yeah, not very cool. Sophomore year the hippie deal went out the window, and he turned into a "lab rat." He was always in the lab doing something, whether it was with chemicals or with computers... he was always doing something lab related. Junior year he started working at a local cell phone retailer as the "cell phone mechanic," fixing peoples phone problems... and that was finally when he got his popularity. He was like Charlie Bartlett, but instead of giving people drugs he fixed their technological problems. Senior year he started teaching surfing lessons to beginners... and oh boy did that ever send his popularity through the roof.

Up until then, everyone had only seen Austin Gaines as that nerdy guy who was fun to be around and was good with technology. But as soon as he started surfing... people realized that Austin Gaines was one hell of a good looking guy... and of course the fact that he was teaching a bunch of kids how to surf made all the girls really like him. Pretty soon people started calling the beach where he worked "Austin's Beach" because nobody knew where "Shellfish Beach" was, but there wasn't a single person in town who didn't know where Austin worked. So to all the locals, the beach because Austin's Beach, and suddenly a lot more people starting going there instead of to the beaches where they had gone before. In case you were wondering... yes, the popularity did go to Austin's head, but he never stopped being the nice guy that he always had been.

One night stands weren't an uncommon thing for him throughout senior year... and even though most of the guys didn't really like him all that much thanks to his popularity, just about every girl in the school had a crush on him at one point. But good things never last... and Austin ended up getting bored with California. So after graduation, he started looking around for places to move to. While he did so, he made a few independent investments, and discovered the government hacking job that he could work for from anywhere in the world essentially. He applied for the job, got it easily, and then the money started coming in. The government was paying him ridiculous amounts of money because first of all, he was definitely one of the best, and secondly because if they didn't pay him enough and he someday got a better offer from someone who would infiltrate the government, then he most certainly could, so they wanted to keep him happy. The investments he'd made were also coming back to him with loads of money.

So at 19 years old, he packed up his horse, dog, and anything else he wanted to take with him, and moved to Pinewood to the massive house on the lake which he had been lucky enough to find before any of the other wealthy people searching for a getaway home had. So here he was, only 19 years old, and already well on his way to being added to the list of American Made Millionaires. It was impressive to be sure, and he was definitely lucky he had good money management skills and he didn't need to hire anyone to do it for him, so that way he knew what was being reported was what he really had, and he literally didn't have to worry about a thing. Basically Austin was secured for the rest of his life, and if he wanted to retire now, he probably could.

It had been a year since he moved to Pinewood, and he definitely liked the small town a lot better than he liked all the hustle and bustle of the city he had lived in before. Plus everyone here was into horses just like he was... not to mention Lexi. He was definitely enjoying living here. About his third circuit around the arena, he noticed someone sitting nearby looking over photos, and caught her glance. He didn't find it odd at all that she would be watching. After all, this was a horse stable, and it was home to several well known riders, so it was only natural that people stop to watch... especially when out of all the people in fancy getup, the one who was actually doing the riding was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, regular old tennis shoes, and no helmet to speak of. Yeah... Austin kind of liked to bend the rules, sometimes a little too much. But people gave up on trying to get him to follow them a long time ago... he was a lost cause.

He pulled Vodka to a stop on the rail near the girl who had been watching them, as friendly and outgoing as always. Afternoon. He said with that jovial grin of his, I'm Austin Gaines. He added, extending his hand out towards her over the fence. Although Vodka had clearly been dying to continue jumping, when Austin stopped him, he stood quietly and patiently, waiting until he was allowed to go again. He may have been a high energy horse, but he was patient, and he always did as he was told, so when Austin brought him to a stop, he would stop. When Austin told him to go, he would go. Some would say the horse was "push button," but Austin knew that it was just because he was ready and willing to do whatever he was asked to do, and had no reason to fight it.

[ariellefairholm]

There are always those broken new years resolutions, festering in the back of your mind like last week's trash. There are always those things you tell yourself that you will do- work out three times a week, eat healthier, be yourself around others more, be more confident, study harder, shave more often, read that book that your aunt sent you two years ago- that never get done. It's human nature- and Arielle has it bad. I guess you could call it a sort of procrastination. "Oh, too late... I had ice cream today. Guess I'll start my diet next week." "Eh, I'm too tired to go pick up that book... tomorrow I will." or "Oh I forgot to take the trash out, I won't forget tomorrow!" And then tomorrow, next week, next month, next year... it never comes. Because it just keeps getting shoved to the next week, the day after tomorrow, a couple months from now. But there's one thing that Arielle never procrastinated on. The day she discovered the pregnancy, Elli's best friend gave her a piece of advice she would never forget: live with no regrets. No regrets. And it made sense. Really, what was the point of sitting there worrying, wishing you'd done something different? It's not going to change anything. You might as well use that energy for something constructive, like figuring out how to get out of the mess that you've made of your life. You know, that whole "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade" philosophy. Live with no regrets. And it worked. Sure, Elli had her bad days when she sat around and sobbed all day, listening to loud music and hanging up and anyone who tried to call. And never regretted it once. The last set of photos was of -guess who- Trevor. These were the most recent ones of him... right before the pregnancy. He was standing in the ocean, waves rushing up against his calves. His back was towards the camera, and he held a surfboard vertically. The surfboard wasn't his, of course. Trevor had never been into water, and it was after much chiding from Elli that he posed for that particular picture. The surfboard actually belonged to some guy they'd met at the beach. He offered to let them use the surfboard if they gave him some of their Cheetos. It was an easy trade. The picture was taken at sunset, and Trevor and the surfboard were only silhouettes. A gull sweeping across the sky, wings spread wide, completed the scene. It definitely wasn't one of Arielle's best shots, but there was something about it. Something perfect and pristine. It was almost hopeful. Or maybe... satisfied? It depended on how you looked at it. If only that bastard Trevor wasn't in it. And then, Arielle surprised herself by doing something completely unexpected: she put the photograph in her "yes" pile. Quickly, she shoved all the "no's" back into her bag, and added the picture of Katelyn to the "yes's". She chanced a glimpse at the horse and rider, and saw that the boy had noticed her. He caught her eye and she looked down at the photos quickly, turning bright red. God, why did she have to blush so much? When they walked past the rail she was watching by, Elli focused extra-hard on the pictures, until she realized that they had stopped right in front of her.

Afternoon, I'm Austin Gaines said boy, extending his hand. His voice oozed with confidence, and Elli wished she could be that outgoing. She took his hand, shook it with a smile. Hey, she replied quietly. I'm Elli. She wanted to compliment his riding, but wasn't entirely sure how to do it without sounding like a creeper. Ah, whatever. It didn't matter what he thought... if he didn't like her for who she was then why waste the time? Hey, that's a good quote... Arielle realized that she was getting hopelessly distracted. Damn ADD. Um, I saw you go over those jumps. You looked really good. She smiled, and hoped he saw how sincere it was. Your horse is gorgeous. What's his name? The horse actually looked very patient and well behaved at the moment, and Elli almost smirked when she compared his behavior to what her own horse, Sunny would probably be doing. Sunny did not like to stand still. His brain was always working overtime and to balance it out his body had to be working overtime too. Even though he wasn't young, he always had to have a long, hard, warm-up to get him to settle down for the actual ride, and even then he never got tired. It used to be that Elli could hardly control him when he was at his most energetic, and a lot of their training time was spent lunging.

[austin]

Yes, Austin was extremely outgoing. He always had been, and he most likely always would be. Shy wasn't a word Austin understood the meaning of, and he was absolutely incapable of being humiliated... well, almost anyway. Except that one time when he and Hayley were out on the boat and Hayley was drunk and she was trying to get him to have sex with her, and being a typical guy he was having a hard time resisting the seduction... and then Vivian, Liz, and Tyler showed up... then he was rather humiliated, and mad at himself... and sort of mad at Hayley... and of course later on when Hayley's fiance Charlie came to get her, Austin had to tell Charlie because he just felt guilty about it, and Charlie ended up punching Austin twice... and Charlie was a cop, so it came hand in hand with being a cop that he could hit pretty damn hard and after that Austin was in a lot of pain... but aside from that it was impossible to humiliate him.

No one quite knew where he got his boldness from, but odds were it came from the same place he got his impeccable skill of thinking on his feet. No one would deny that Austin was one of those few geniuses that comes along every so often and just completely blows people away with the massive amounts of information stored in their head. He didn't really even seem to realize how much he knew. It was absolutely ridiculous. There were so many facts stored in his mind, both useless and useful, that he could engage in just about any conversation, whether it was just about the weather or if it was about something having to do with quantum physics, he knew enough about practically everything there was to know that to him that sort of thing was just casual conversation and he had no idea that it wasn't exactly normal for people to know as much as he did.

He was an amiable guy all the same, and as long as you didn't mind someone who knew just about everything there was to know, he was incredibly easy to get along with. It never took him long to meet people and make those casual acquaintances into friendships. Hell he'd probably only known Lexi for a month before he'd asked her out, and they'd probably only been dating a week before she moved in with him... and she hadn't even been living with him for 24 hours before she ended up pregnant. Then again... Austin seemed to do everything more quickly these days. It took him a while to mature like most guys, but I mean really. He moved out by the time he was 19, he was filthy rich by the time he was 19, he was going to be a dad before he was even 21... yeah, he did everything faster than most people these days.

There was hardly a moment in Austin's life when you could catch him without a smile... well, aside from when he was working. He always took his job seriously, and he had to, considering he was hacking the highest level security government computer systems. But since people rarely saw him when he was working, people rarely saw him without that grin of his. He was an extremely happy-go-lucky person and for the most part he was never down. When he'd had to tell Alex that he did sort of still have feelings for her even though she was dating Anthony he'd been rather down, and when he'd thought Lexi was going to just up and leave to go back to London he'd been rather down... but for the rest of his life he couldn't remember a moment when he'd been down and out.

Thanks. he said with a nod when she complimented his riding, I'll be sure to let that go to my head. Of course he was only half kidding, but he was good at making people more comfortable around him by acting like they'd known him their entire life. It didn't matter if they were friends or complete strangers, to him it was all the same. This here's Vodka on the Rocks. He added in response to her question. The horse's name was so fitting for Austin. Not in that he drank Vodka a lot... which he sometimes did, but that was besides the point. When he'd heard the name Vodka on the Rocks at the auction, he just couldn't help but purchase the horse, just because of the name. It was only later that he discovered the animal's skill in the practice ring and lack thereof in the show ring. He was a big drinker, and any horse that had a name like Vodka on the rocks just had to be made for him.

You a photographer? he asked, legitimately curious. He'd seen that she was looking at pictures, so he was guessing that she was, but he could make conversation out of just about anything... and when he ran out of things to talk about that were actually interesting, he'd come up with some random comment about the color of the grass or something, and a whole new conversation would arise. Sometimes it would be about how random he was, sometimes it would actually be about the color of the grass, and sometimes it would be about whether or not he was ADD. Anything Austin said could almost instantly produce some sort of conversation. It was a gift really, and came in extremely handy during those times when there were awkward silences that no one was quite sure how to break. After people knew Austin for a while, they almost expected him to be the one to break them, and then it didn't seem quite so strange. He was definitely one of a kind.

[ariellefairholm]

It was a beautiful day. Summer's sweet reprieve was reaching the end of it's reel, and the fade into autumn was gradual. The trees still retained their fresh, green leaves and the sun shone bright overhead, merciless for the muggy season dubbed the "dog days of summer". The grass lay sparse and wilted, crushed since the last distant rainfall. All sorts of birds lingered and sang their songs, enjoying the last couple months before their long journey to the kinder weather of the southern hemisphere. Most of the horses were out at pasture, nibbling up the last bites of grass. It was a picturesque setting: white picket fences and horses grazing serenely in their pastures, the occasional rider soaring over a jump or galloping down a woodland trail. If you looked at it from a painter's view, everything about this day was perfect. However, if you looked at it from a photographer's point of view, it wasn't so great. The very best time to take pictures is right after a rainfall, when the clouds still linger high and heavy. That way, the lighting is even and you don't have to worry about pictures being too bright or too dark or a subject being hidden in shadow. And the raindrops, scattered over everything added a certain artistic touch- imagine the serendipity of coming across a spiderweb lined with water droplets. Rainy days were also good, and they were Elli's favorite. It added a certain...dark freshness, if you will, to the shot. But there are exceptions to every rule, and every now and then you will get the perfect picture on a sunny day. It all depends on patience and luck, really. But if you think about it, isn't that how it goes with most things in life?

"Thanks. I'll be sure to let that go to my head." Austin smiled down at her, and Elli grinned back, laughing. She liked this Austin- he was a cool kid. She'd only just met him, and already it felt like they were old friends. She was reminded of their just-met status when he told her the name of his horse. Vodka on the Rocks. Elli smirked- the name certainly seemed to fit the horse. She wondered, as she always did, on the origin of the name. Did Austin choose it, or a previous owner? And why? Did namer, like Elli, think that it was just a fitting name, or were they a big drinker? Arielle herself wasn't much of a drinker at all- she had been back in high school, but that had all changed after she realized how much a little alcohol could blur your judgment and smudge the once sharp lines of your values. More specifically- after a night of crazy drinking had landed Elli pregnant with an asshole of a boyfriend, she'd swore to never get drunk again. So far, she'd kept that promise. Austin interrupted Elli's reflections with a question, "You a photographer?" Instinctively, Elli glanced down at the pictures. The one on top and most easily visible was the one of Katelyn- not really her best, and she wished something a little better was on top. Yeah, I guess so, she said with a smile. I mean, I'm not a professional or anything... but I've had a few gigs at a wedding and a few horse shows and for my family and stuff. I'm actually applying to go to an art school.... that's what these are for. To be one-hundred percent honest, Elli wasn't sure whether she even wanted to go to art school. There was Sunny, and dressage, and it was touch deciding which meant more to her. Julie and her trainer always told Elli she was made of riding potential, and had a pretty clear shot to the Grand Prix if she just kept riding. It was an opportunity she didn't want to pass up- and she was hoping that she could continue training for it if she just kept riding during art school. But ultimately, she would have to make the decision sometime. You couldn't be a full-time professional photographer and a professional dressage rider all at the same time, and eventually she would have to decide which meant more to her. But that time was far away, and for now Elli was focusing on the present.