Life had seemed to be looking up for Jia Li since school started. Dance practice was going really well. All of her intense practicing over the course of the summer had proven to be really helpful. She had already progressed to being one of the best dancers of their team, even over many of those who were older. Then again, age didn’t really have a lot to do with talent. It just gave more time to hone skills. The dryad was very good at what she did, and she practiced many different styles of dance, and she aspired to learn even more styles. Incorporating various styles into one dance was something at which she was very skilled. That was part of why she was such a valuable asset to House Kemen’s dance team.
Academically, she was doing well, too. Now that she’d already sifted through a lot of the required courses for Alden last year, she could maintain a steadier focus on her major. This meant her classes were mostly ones that she wanted to take which made them more interesting to her. The homework wasn’t always easy, but she always appreciated it. Jia Li liked to increase her knowledge. She wasn’t about to be the stereotypical, aesthetically obsessed, flaky dryad. She wanted people to know that she had a brain to go along with everything else about her.
The only blight on her mood had dimmed over the last two and a half weeks since its occurrence. She’d thought over and over about what had happened, her emotions moving from furious to sickened with a hint of remorse here and there. She was still incredibly disappointed with herself over what had happened with Jack, but she hadn’t sought him out since that day. He didn’t want anything to do with her. That much had been made abundantly clear, and just because she knew about his past and he knew about hers, it didn’t mean a friendship could be forcibly forged between them.
He knew where she dormed, and if he’d really wanted anything to do with her, he could have come to her. She was just keeping a respectful distance. A part of her still hurt over the fact that she’d come so close to going all the way with him only to have him drop her like a hat. Of course, it was better that he hadn’t dropped her after having sex with her. That probably would have just been too much to bear, especially after he’d shown her that at least one person in the world could look past her scar, even touch it without portraying disgust.
No… She couldn’t think about that. It just made her feel worse, and it was so much better to just let it go, to let him go. She wouldn’t be one of those creepy stalker chicks. Jia Li would just go about her life, walking – or dancing – along the same paths upon which she’d been treading for the last year of her life. Dancing and earning her degree were important to her. She wouldn’t be the same person without those two constants in her life. Relationships could be created later, when she met a nice guy, when she met someone who loved her who she could love in return. Bad boys who acted like assholes were overrated. She didn’t need someone like that in her life.
During the summer, she’d had classes on Friday, but not this time. Now her classes were Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, ensuring she had three day weekends, but she still did all of her homework as soon as she could manage. Dancing practices were on Monday and Wednesday nights and on Friday mornings.
Jia Li had been changed into a long peasant skirt with patches of greens and browns. She wore a pair of dark green tights to cover her legs, and a brown tank top covered her torso. On her wrist, she wore the bracelet she’d had since she was a child, the only thing she really had left from her mother.
An idea had come to her for a dance she could choreograph, and she wanted to consult the guy who usually made their music mixes. Sho was a difficult man to track down, it seemed. He was a very free spirit, bound only to his music. He often helped Kemen’s dance team to find the right music to fit the dances, or he composed some of it himself. The hobbit was truly a mastermind of music, but he was also all too adept at disappearing when he didn’t want to be found. The dryad was having trouble finding him.