Ready, Aim, Fire

Jason hadn't been here in quite some time, he felt it only fair he pay it a visit again. Although he didn't exactly have his own horse to own and name, he had lived here far longer than most students and knew the shared animals quite well. He wasn't wearing anything too memorable, his blonde hair messy and sporting a pair of worn blue jeans. He wore a plain shirt with a plaid shirt over it, the sleeves rolled up, giving good attention to the tone in his upper-body.

The young man yawned, throwing his stuff to the side and walking up to the nearest horse. "Hey there, buddy, how've you been?" He patted the creature gently on the neck, talking as if to an old friend. He hadn't cared to noticed if anyone else were there. Normally, there weren't, aside from the occasional staff member - which he paid no mind to anyways.

Verona had just had one of the more dramatic days of her life. And she had loved every second of it. There had been laughter, and crying, and even a little kissing- all in all a successful day in the life of Verona Andrews. But the problem was, she didn't really have anyone to tell it to. Her brothers weren't set to arrive here just yet and until then the only thing she had to remind her of home was Baxter, her horse. So there she stood, with a few carrots and sugar cubes in her hand. She was just about to push open the old wooden doors, when low and behold she saw an unfamiliar boy talking to her horse. Um, no.

"Um, what are you doing with my horse?" Verona questioned, her eyebrows furrowing as she studied the boy in front of her. Cute, really cute. Nice arms too. Hm. His dress was sloppy, and his hair was a mess but the look worked for him. Especially here. Verona glanced over at Baxter, running a hand across his nose as he eyed the treats in her hand.

The young man smiled quietly to himself, feeling a bit more relaxed than he had in a good while, and he thought for a moment that he should really be coming her more often - if he had the time for it. The moment ended suddenly, though, when he heard a voice talking to him from behind. Jason blinked and turned around to face her, 'caught rather off guard. "Uhm... This is yours?" The blonde said rather awkwardly, pointing at the horse behind him. Oh, man. Tell him she was in the wrong here. Maybe he was gone much longer than he'd thought.

"I'm sor- You see-" He took a step away, rubbing the back of his neck out of embarrassment with a nervous half-of-a-smile. Jace finally took a second to get a look at the girl in front of him. She wasn't at all bad in appearance, if he did say so himself, it surprised him a little. Something about her too did ring familiar, though he couldn't be sure he'd seen her before. He quickly wiped the uncertainty off his face and stood up straighter. "Hey, my bad." He threw his hands up in guilt, "Sorry about that. I'm Jason - And you are?" The boy questioned, holding his hand out for her to shake.

Verona stared at him quizzically, her eyebrows were furrowed and her mouth was parted in a slight smile. It was rare that Verona saw anyone in here other than the workers- but even they were pretty lazy. So the sight of a boy near her age without an apron on raised slight suspicion. Not that she thought that he was trying to steal her horse or anything, but Verona was almost confident that her horse was one of the fastest ones- or at least that's what she told herself- and anyone would've loved to gallop away on the back of her horse. "Yeah, he's mine." Verona said, blinking a few times and protectively side stepping in front of Baxter.

She watched him fumble over his words as he tried to apologize, and the silliness of it all made her let out a light ring of laughter. It was enlaced with a sickly sweet falseness and her laughter lingered with an air of mystery. Any seasoned ex-boyfriend could tell that she was merely setting out the bait for her next victim. He seemed sweet enough and Verona reeeeaaalllyyy needed a date to the dance... so why not? A short little fling never hurt anyone.

"You're fine, really." She said, pulling her hair up into a high pony tail and flashing him another smile. "Verona. Verona Andrews." Reluctantly, she politely shook his hand. Turning around, Verona leaned over to her horse and fed it a sugar cube. She turned her head towards Jason and said, "So tell me blondie, what were you doing here?"

Jace huffed and ran a few fingers through his hair, unable to help but smile lightly at her laugh. Well, this was some situation that he had gotten himself into, wasn't it? He couldn't help but feel like he'd known this girl from somewhere, or had seen her face - heard her name? Maybe it was just him, or word about her had gotten around. She didn't seem like the type of girl you could easily forget, though.
"Same reason as you, I'm guessing." He mused, glancing around the stable. The last time he was here, he'd found Lotte trying to snap a few pictures, and ending up in the hay instead. Jace laughed weakly under his breath at the memory, shaking it quickly away. "You don't strike me as the type for riding a saddle." He said, leaning against the stall door and crossing him arms.

In a school where she boldly made her name be known, she truly was hard to forget. Verona spoke out in class, flirted with boys in the halls, and was part of nearly all of the drama in some way. So unless you lived under a rock, you knew who Verona was or had heard of her in some point. Not to mention the fact that with her bubbly personality matched with her virus-like gift, it made it easier to made her name be known.

"I highly doubt that," Verona said with a shake of her head. I mean it was unlikely that he had wanted to come to talk about his day with Baxter, but not completely impossible. I mean, that's what she was doing right? But she figured that a boy that charismatic would most likely not spend his time talking to horses... unlike her. Not that she was antisocial, clearly she knew how to talk to people, but when typically when you are this well known, people tend to get jealous.

At his comment the girl let out a surprised huff and raised her eyebrows a few centimeters. "I'd say the same about you pretty boy," She mused with a playful jab at his upper arm. "But, never judge a book by it's cover, eh?" Her back was completely turned to the horse now and she looked up at Jace with flirty and amused smirk on her face.

Jason raised an eyebrow, "I can't think of one too many other reasons why somebody would come here." He mused, looking up thoughtfully at the ceiling, trying to think of some other reason she'd be here. No camera. No overalls. No idea. If that was her horse though, then where was his favorite? The young man stood up and leaned forward, looking in the stall next over - he saw a horse of a similar appearance; slightly lighter, in the back of his stall. Good 'ol Chevalier, he apologized in thought for the misunderstanding and doing the poor animal wrong.

In response to her mockingly surprised expression, he gave an almost clueless, innocent look back - nudged slightly when she jabbed at his arm. He held back another laugh. Jason had a fairly good idea of what sort of game she was playing, he'd played it quite a few times himself. "No, go ahead and judge. You'd be right." The autumn said lightly, turning to face the girl who had her back to him. His eyes flickered downward to assess the view from behind before, with a mischievous smile of satisfaction, leaning forward closer to her ear. "I always go barebacked." In regards to the saddle dilemma, of course. /cough.
Jace took a few steps back, reaching into his pockets and pulling out a few sugar cubes of his own; he popped one into his mouth and walked to the next stall, whistling to catch Chev's attention.

AWWWW YISSSSSS. EB'S TIRED LAME ARSE NOT-SO-SMOOTHNESS STRIKES AGAIN. qwq /criesofshame

Verona rubbed the nose of her horse, feeding it a carrot, not nearly expecting the boy to really do anything. But when she felt him come up behind her and whisper in her ear, her face turned blank with shock. Well that was a little blunt, and it really caught her off guard, turning her a little red on her cheeks. Then when he wasn't behind her anymore she turned around, poor Baxter now forgotten. "Bareback...? Eh-hem... How fascinating. " Verona said slowly, still a little frazzled at the hint of sexual innuendo.

With a stunned, but predacious look on her face, the brunette watched him walk away. Never had she been more intrigued by the game of chase. Biting her lip, the girl walked up behind him and grabbed a sugar cube out of his hand. Verona threw it into the air and caught it in her mouth with a swift motion. "How about a race then Blondie? But on my terms." She said cooly, putting a hand on his arm. "And let's make this a little interesting. If I win you're going to the dance with me."  Without waiting for his part of the bet she walked towards her horse, looking over her shoulder at the boy to make sure he wasn't going to back out now.

Jason couldn't help but let out an audible laugh this time around, shaking his head as he reached out tenderly for his own horse. And here he thought that she would take that little comment in stride. Well, damn. Maybe she simply wasn't as "bad" as she thought she was. He gave her a strange look as she took the sugar cube out of his free hand, watching it as it flew into her mouth. It was a bit cute how she was trying to get her game back, feeling a strange warmth when she touched down on his arm gently again. Touchy after that, are we?
"Go with you?" He repeated, thrown off a little and giving her a strange look. Jace said nothing for a few moments as she quickly saddle her horse. Quite honestly, he wasn't even sure that he'd be going at all. "Alright, but if I win, I'm taking you out riding sometime." Giving her a wry smile, the boy opened the gate and led Chev out - putting a rein on the horse and hopping on himself.

Hey, everyone couldn't be that smooth and cool all the time. Sure it was out of her character, but when it came to sex Verona nearly always started blushing. Nearly always Verona was as cool as a cucumber, going around flirting her way through the male population of the school, but this... it was strange. Almost like Verona had met her match when it came to flirting and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. But she couldn't lose her cool at a time like this, no no, not now. And with a determined look in her eyes she stood up a little taller and met Jace's look. "You heard me blondie, it'll be fun." Verona said to him with a mischievous smirk and a subtle wink. The girl started to lead the horse outside, but stopped to retie her ponytail more securely near the nape of her neck. "Deal." Despite the slight color on her cheeks, Verona remained cool this time and gave Baxter a reassuring pat on the butt. This was it, she was determined to have a date to the dance and knew she was going to win this. She had to win this, and with this mentality she placed her helmet on her head.

Aww, going through all these men and no one had ever tried to grope her or get into her pants? Well no, they must've, even Jace had his temptations at times with pretty girls like her - any man who said he didn't want a feel of something like that had to have been lying. But aside from that, watching her as she tried to keep her cool composure with a warm blush on her face was something he couldn't deny being a bit adorable. He smirked, "Alright then, Sweet Pea. You better hope that horse of yours is as good as you think he is." Jason nudged Chev forward with his boot and rode him out of the barn to one of the tracks already set up - a loop with three jumps.

Well it wasn't that no one wanted to "get in her pants" per say, but Verona preferred being the one to call the shots, she didn't like it when someone else tried to take charge of the situation. Boys were cute and all, but they were used more for getting her way or having arm candy more than anything really serious. And sure, Jace was extremely attractive and charismatic, but she didn't see him as a boyfriend material or anything, mostly because Verona didn't really do serious relationships. Especially with a boy who was just as much of an equal match at flirting like she was. "You obviously like my backside, don't enjoy yourself too much when that's all you see of me." Verona joked, flashing him a set of her pearly whites. "I just hope you have a tux picked out." Then looking over at him, she shot him a swift smile and rode over to the path so that they were right next to each other. She looked over at him and let out a laugh, "See you at the finish line." Then without further notion, Verona shot off down the path.

That was alright, he supposed. The boy honestly held little to no interest in having a girlfriend at the moment anyways; what with happened to his father, that was the only thing that had been on his mind the past few months. He'd been trying to reconnect with his friends, hell - even his own brother. Finding the "love of his life", or even just a girl to keep at his side was one of the least of his concerns; however, there was still one thing Jason enjoyed - and that was fucking around with people. (Not literally, mind you.) He was simply minding his own when this girl walked into the barn like she owned the school, thinking she could get the best of him. Oh, no. He couldn't let that go so easily.
"Oh, I won't enjoy it now - but I sure as hell will enjoy it later." Jace called back, a crooked smile on his face as he lined up next to her. His old horse, he knew, wasn't the fastest - but he was great at jumping. It would give him an advantage, for sure. What he wasn't sure was if it'd be enough. It was weird, he thought, how exciting this was. He could feel his heart racing as he kicked his horse forward - racing to the first bars and making a smooth leap over. He didn't check to see how Vera was doing.

Well it was good that the two were unknowingly on the same page when it came to dating. Only luckily Verona's father didn't almost die, so her reasons were more selfish than Jace's. She just loved the freedom of being single, and the game of chase that came with meeting a new guy. And dammit, Verona ALWAYS won thank you very much. Besides you'd be pretty cocky too if you had boys practically flinging themselves at you. (With the exception of Richard, but Verona never included him with the regular male populous anyway.) Which actually really intrigued Verona about Jace, he put up a good fight but Verona knew that when it came down to it women always won.

Verona arched a brown brow high at Jace's response and rolled her eyes playfully. "You only can wish you'll get the chance." She retorted again, yelling over the wind whistling in her ears. Baxter was quickly gaining speed, being a horse bred for it's speed and agility Verona figured she had this one in the bag. But it had been a while since she and Baxter had done jumps, so the site of the bar made her heart pick up it's pace. The horse nervously lurched over and Verona mentally cussed as Jace passed her. Oh hell no. Verona urged Baxter on more with the heel of her boot and the two shot past Jason again, nervously jumping over the bars once more and now barely in the lead. One more jump and she could win this.

The horse jumped again, gaining confidence and shot off towards where they had started. She reached the end quickly and pulled Baxter to a stop, her heart racing and she rested against her horse, trying to regain her breath by in taking shallow puffs of air. She pulled off her helmet with a puff and looked around to see if she had made it first or not.

"Well, well..." Jason mused, circling around on his horse as she paused to catch her breath. He patted the neck of the large creature, giving him a job well done. To be completely honest, they had finished so close that the young man himself couldn't be certain who won or not. He supposed he would just wing it and see what she thought. No harm in rolling with it, "Must admit Sweet Pea, you and that horse of yours aren't half as bad as I thought you were." The blonde swung one leg over and slid off his horse, not wanting to admit how sore his thighs were from riding - but damn, he looked cool doing it. He pulled another sugar cube out of his pocket and fed it to his stallion, shooting Verona a curious look.