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Post by Kiersten on Feb 22, 2024 19:19:37 GMT -6
Cosette was so happy that it was the weekend, it had been a rough school week, though it wasn’t as bad as her first couple of weeks. She was glad it was over none the less and now she and Silas planned to clean and organize the barn office and find the information on how long the trail was exactly. She and Aleah had already started working on the tournament and she needed this information before they could go public with it. She pulled up to the empty parking lot, feeling her heart race with excitement, images of Silas smiling coming to mind, but she still told herself she was just excited about moving forward with the tournament. She stepped out of her car, reaching over to the passenger side to grab her purse and the picnic basket she packed. She felt her cheeks flush as a blush grew across her nose and cheeks and she reminded herself that she had promised to supply lunch, it didn’t mean anything just because it was in a basket. She quickly headed inside, making her way to the office, stopping along the way to a few horses. “Hello my sweetheart, my Champion.” She kissed her horse, Estselle, on the nose before bringing out a sugar cube from her pocket. “Maybe we’ll ride the trail today, get another layout idea.” She whispered to Estelle, rubbing her neck in small slow circles.   |
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Post by Bri on Feb 22, 2024 22:32:20 GMT -6
Silas wasn't thrilled about being late to the barn, though his idea of being late was still being five minutes early to wherever he was supposed to be. He parked his truck next to Cosette's car and got out, walking into the barn and tucking his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. He smiled at a couple horses but when he didn't see Cosette right away he knew where to go, rounding the corner and spotting her with Estelle. "Hey, you beat me here." He greeted with a smile. |
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Post by Kiersten on Feb 23, 2024 10:46:13 GMT -6
Cosette turned to Silas, having forgotten what time it was, she couldn’t help but smile. “I wanted to make sure my Estelle got her sugar cube.” She said, not wanting to admit that she had been nervous and got ready earlier than needed. She didn’t want to admit to herself why, “Ready? I brought some goodies.” She held up the basket of snacks and drinks, hoping he wouldn’t find it too much.
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Post by Bri on Feb 23, 2024 14:00:44 GMT -6
"Ah right, can't deny her her sweets." Silas chuckled, walking over to his own horse and gently scratching behind her ear, horse nickering and nuzzling his hand. He looked down at the basket in her hands and smiled, "as ready as I'll ever be, I'm telling you that we'll probably find stuff from before the barn was remodeled." He chuckled.
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Post by Kiersten on Feb 23, 2024 21:29:55 GMT -6
Cosette giggled slightly, knowing Estelle was one to steal sweets from anyone’s hands if given the opportunity. She patted Estelle goodbye before walking towards Silas and his horse, “If it helps with the tournament, perfectly fine.” She chuckled, wondering what sort of mysteries they would uncover.
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Post by Bri on Feb 23, 2024 23:11:58 GMT -6
"Alright, your funeral." Silas joked, giving his horse a good scratch on the spot between her eyes before stepping over to Cosette. "Follow me, unless you come to your senses and decide to run." He joked before heading back to his office, a little worm of self consciousness wiggling into his brain, chastising him for never cleaning out the office himself when he took over.
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Post by Kiersten on Feb 24, 2024 9:53:21 GMT -6
“My funeral? Rude.” Cosette elbowed him lightly, not hesitating to follow him towards the office. “Why do you act like you’re a terrible person?” she asked, though she felt a shiver run over her skin when she remembered how Henri had seemed nice and normal, and turned out to be anything but. “I hope you aren’t lying about that.” She admitted with a nervous chuckle.
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Post by Bri on Feb 25, 2024 0:48:03 GMT -6
Silas laughed as they walked, looking back at her over his shoulder, "I was talking about the office, there's stuff in there I probably should have gone through and gotten rid of a long time ago." He told her before pushing open the door to his office, it looked relative clean but he knew that when it came to the files and drawers it was pure chaos and everything in the higher shelves were definitely coated in a layer of dust.
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Post by Kiersten on Feb 25, 2024 9:00:28 GMT -6
Cosette felt herself sigh inwardly, though she forced herself to smile, “That’s okay. I found a lot of things from my childhood when I cleaned out my apartment.” She felt a twinge of sadness in her chest at the fact she had to leave most of it behind, just grab the essentials, but she knew there wasn’t a need for it all. The office still looked fairly clean for having items from ages ago, but Cosette knew it was probably hidden, like a kid saying they cleaned, and shoving it in hidden spaces to be forgotten about. “Well, we can eat while we work, or save it for a break?” She suggested, her heart racing for no reason, forcing her brain not to make it romantic.
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Post by Bri on Feb 25, 2024 20:56:35 GMT -6
Silas looked from the basket to the rest of the office then back to Cosette, offering a smile. "How about we save it? That way we have another thing motivating us to get this done?" He asked, that would at least keep him motivated-besides having Cosette with him, which he was starting to realize that he really did enjoy her company.
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Post by Kiersten on Feb 25, 2024 21:32:41 GMT -6
Cosette set the basket on the desk and looked around, “So, shall we pick a corner and get to work?” she asked, suddenly feeling slightly overwhelmed, not knowing where to start without knowing where it was best to start. So, she picked a random section where a bookshelf stood and started sifting through the papers and books there, wondering what could be tossed and what should be kept.
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Post by Bri on Feb 25, 2024 22:42:23 GMT -6
"That's probably the best way to go about it." Silas agreed as he shrugged off his jacket, draping it over the back of the office chair before turning and starting to look through a section of shelves that was a few rows down from hers, pulling out a couple books and paging through them, frowning at the little bit of dust along the top.
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Post by Kiersten on Feb 26, 2024 18:35:50 GMT -6
Costte started two piles to help, one that she wasn’t sure she could toss, but it probably needed to, and another one that was important information, even if it wasn’t helpful for her. She cleaned when she found solid wood under all the papers she had gone through and was planning to go through the books next. She set the possible trash pile on the desk before quickly running her eyes over Silas while his back was turned, though she forced herself to turn away. “This pile, I don’t know if you need to go through it and see.” She quickly explained before moving back to the two shelves she’d been working on.
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Post by Bri on Feb 28, 2024 23:45:14 GMT -6
Silas turned back to Cosette as she explained the piles and nodded, "okay." As he walked over to the piles it seemed like it had been a good choice to let Cossette come in and help, she made more progress in a few minutes than he had since working at the school. He leafed through the papers, setting most to the side to get rid of later, frowning a little, "a lot of this stuff is trash, this file is dated from like ten years ago."
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 1, 2024 19:44:24 GMT -6
Cosette turned around from the book she had just taken off the shelf to inspect and raised her eyebrows, “It’s not the only thing that is that old and a few even older.” She didn’t think it was necessary to keep, but there were people who thought ‘you never know.’ She smiled before turning back to the book, flipping through the pages, and feeling her chest tighten a little at the pictures of riders performing Dressage, and taking jumps, hugging their horses close. She missed competing, but as long as Henri posed a threat, she didn’t have a choice.
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Post by Bri on Mar 1, 2024 21:21:26 GMT -6
Silas grimaced, feeling guilty and kind of disgusted that he had kept all of this unnecessary stuff in his office. "That's awful, I have a feeling a lot of this is going to end up in the burn pile at home for a bonfire." He said as he added more stuff to the trash pile before finishing and returning to the shelves but paused when he saw her face. "What'd you find over there?"
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 2, 2024 17:44:49 GMT -6
Cosette looked up when Silas looked over, “Just a book about riding competition.” She admitted, leaving out that she had once competed. She had a cover story though, which she went over in her mind several times in case Silas asked her, partially hoping he wouldn’t. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow this.” She held the book out to him so he could inspect it if he wanted to.
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Post by Bri on Mar 2, 2024 22:21:44 GMT -6
Silas took a step closer to Cosette, looking over her shoulder at the book. "Sure, that's too fancy of riding for me." He joked, he was all about the dirty and going fast, not those fancy competitions. "You can borrow whatever you want, I can share." He chuckled.
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 3, 2024 12:17:54 GMT -6
Cosette straightened her back when he stepped closer to her, feeling him lean over her shoulder, she couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down her back, though I wasn’t a bad feeling. She laughed, “It becomes easier the more you do it,” She could still do her dressage routine, remembering how easy it was to fall into steps with Estelle. “Well, if it’s Western riding books, I’ll leave that for you.” She joked, setting the book to the side before grabbing another.
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Post by Bri on Mar 3, 2024 23:42:10 GMT -6
"Hmm, of course you'd say that." Silas joked and took a step back, returning to the shelves and going through the contents with a slight frown. "Wow, don't hate on the Western style, we just know how to get down and dirty and have fun." He joked.
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 4, 2024 19:31:37 GMT -6
Cosette felt how cold the air got when he moved away from her, and she hated how much she wanted the feeling back, though what she felt, she couldn’t describe perfectly. “I’m not,” she said, then started giggling a little. “I bet.” She teased, setting two books to the side for him. She couldn’t believe she’d said that… “I mean. I’m not an expert at Western style, I won’t be able to know if the book is worth keeping.” She felt her neck and half of her face heat up as her face turned slightly pink.
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Post by Bri on Mar 5, 2024 22:50:58 GMT -6
Silas chuckled, "I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping some books around here, but it isn't like I need them to teach class." He said, wondering if the books could be of better use elsewhere. He looked over at Cosette, tilting his head slightly, "western can be fun because it can be wild, I think, there aren't a lot of rules to it."
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 8, 2024 21:41:46 GMT -6
“Do you have students that compete though? Sometimes old school tricks turn heads.” Cosette’s dad had taught her thought, pulling out his old dressage books when she was in high school. She chuckled, “I mean, riding a bull seems a bit wild.” She didn’t say what she was really thinking, deciding to force herself to look down at the current book she had in her hands about horse breeds and set it aside, the library probably had better use of it.
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Post by Bri on Mar 8, 2024 23:02:57 GMT -6
"A couple, but most take the class because they think it'll be easy or something they'd never have the chance to do again." Silas explained and he didn't mid it when kids came in to try something new, what bothered him was when they didn't take it seriously or complained about the hard work of taking care of a horse. He chuckled at her comment, shaking his head. "It's exciting." He told her before looking through a couple more books.
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 9, 2024 22:11:00 GMT -6
Cosette nodded her head, already losing three students who had barely joined the class three weeks ago. All that work felt wasted to her, and while she’ll always have Shannon, it was a little different since she was already a competitor. “Is a bull riders’ life always exciting and wild?” she teased, thinking he couldn’t be wild ever outside of the ring, but strangely felt the need to know he was.
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Post by Bri on Mar 9, 2024 22:37:04 GMT -6
Silas chuckled, "mostly during the competitive seasons," he replied, "but you never know what could happen." He joked, thinking of practice time but also with raising cattle that peace wasn't always guaranteed. "Before settling down and working here my life was a lot of on the go activity instead of sticking around one place for too long."
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 9, 2024 23:52:39 GMT -6
Cosette hadn’t seen a rodeo, but she’d seen pictures and watched a few videos, she’d been just a little curious. “You followed the rodeos?” Thinking he traveled, much like she did for her competitions. She never did come over to the states till now though and regretted it.
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Post by Bri on Mar 10, 2024 0:44:36 GMT -6
"Yeah, it was easier that way with how much I had to compete." Silas explained, pausing to look around the room and wondering if it would be too much if he brought in a couple pictures from that time. "I had what I needed and followed the rodeos and in between I'd come back here and stay with my family until I was done." He told her. He didn't regret taking in Samuel but sometimes he wondered what life would be like if he hadn't needed to take in a child.
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Post by Kiersten on Mar 10, 2024 20:59:09 GMT -6
“Does sound a little exciting, but I bet being in the ring was where it was at,” Cosette said, though at the back of her mind she couldn’t help but think about if he had a camper car, and how big the bed might have been. She felt her cheeks flush, knowing they would be a light pink color now, and she pulled up a book to cover her face in hopes he wouldn’t see. “Did you have an accident that ended your rodeo career?” She asked, knowing that was the major reason she knew her fellow competitors had to quit competing.
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Post by Bri on Mar 11, 2024 0:00:10 GMT -6
"It was." Silas smiled fondly, almost everything about rodeo life had be exciting and held good memories. He'd made some close friends, did what he loved, and got to make money to save and support himself. Those late nights laughing with friends, going out to the bars, dancing, all of it had been amazing, a true once in a life time moment of opportunities. His thoughts of those times making him not notice the blush on her face, "an accident did happen," he said, hesitating slightly, "but not to me exactly."
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