Make your mark (Ophelia)

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His face went blank and he glowered. Why was it that whenever people were trying to do the whole "I know how you feel" or "try to understand" bit, it turned into story-time? He couldn't care less about somebody's sob past, hell, he had one himself. Everyone had one. When people started sharing, it was like one of the most arrogant, self-centered things they could do. Like they were trying to compete for who had the sorriest life. Humph. "Yep, and it's those kind of people that my destructo-virus would target." He cackled and shook his head. Then he looked at her straight. "Now, I told you, I ain't dumb, but I ain't smart either. You shoulda gathered that by now, I'm way smarter than that jock dude of yours."

While he caught his breath, Oriel growled at her antagonizing words. He definitely did better that time, in some some ways. But she was clearly not impressed anymore. What was the point of continuing, if all he got was a discouraging response?

Oriel flopped to the ground, pissed and disgruntled about the whole ordeal. If he tried again, it might be better. If he practiced a bit, it would get better. But why the hell would he want to get better? "Like I said, there's no point in trying to impress those guys, their opinion won't change no matter how many 'talents' or 'redeeming qualities' I have. No matter how successful, all they see is a degenerate punk kid with no parents. Nothing's gonna change their minds." Which was the sad part. It was true. He'd seen it time and over again while in the foster system. It was damn near impossible to find someone who saw them for themselves and what they had, and not just for what they weren't.

Really sad.

He took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes for a few moments before snapping them open again. "One more time!" Oriel rocked himself up to his feet and headed back to turn on the music. "And you!" He pointed at the woman. "Quit your watching, however the hell you're doing it, and show me that thing again, from the beginning." Of course he had to up the stakes. It was the best way to win.

[Hay-lin Mae]

Hay-lin wasn’t sharing to compete for who had the worst sob story. She wasn’t trying to impress him, she wasn’t trying to get attention, and she wasn’t trying to make him care. All she was trying to do was connect with him, in a grown up way. And explain herself. But then again, she was arrogant, and self-centered. She laughed a little “Well I guess it makes me feel better knowing that I’m going with them.” Since she was smart and all. She smiled a little at his next statement, “Oh, I know.”

Truthfully, Oriel is the first person that would most likely become her student. She was still on the phase of trying to figure out what works, and what doesn’t. Obviously too much discouraging wasn’t working. That probably would never work, but that time, it had hit something deep in her heart. Dancing was her passion, and he had got under her skin from dissing it the way he did.


She moved to sit next to him on the ground. “Fine, don’t do it for them. Matter of fact, don’t do it for anyone else. Not even me. Do it for yourself.” She didn’t care how he saw it, by being famous, or feeling good about himself because he was good at something that not everyone was good at. “Or, do it because you want to win. What the fight is is totally up to you.” Even if it was to be better than her, she could respect that even. But eventually he is really going to have to actually want it. “If it makes you feel any better. I don’t see a degenerate punk with no parents.” What she did see, was a boy who was lost, the sad part of it was most orphans were. “I see talent in you.” He shouldn’t care what others saw or didn’t see, what he should care about is what he saw in himself. And it was obvious that he saw the same thing that everyone else did, and it was a shame. “But you have to see it too.”


Hay-lin jumped from the suddenness of his actions. She smiled, ‘that’s it, don’t ever back down’ she thought to herself. “alright. But if I quit watching you, I wouldn’t know if you’re doing it right or not.” She stood up, “One thing though. When you dance, you have to put more of yourself into it. You can’t just do the moves.” She really wasn’t sure how to explain it. She would have to think on it a bit more. “let’s do it.” She started from the very beginning, and did it slowly, for him to watch, or do it with her.

[Deleted]

Heh. Oriel stuck his tongue out at the woman with a smile. Blind or not, she deserved it. She was kind of cool, he decided.

When she sat down next to him for her "pep-talk", he rolled his eyes. Damn, she sounded like the damn social workers, who just spouted the crap they were supposed to over and over. The junk they had memorized 'cause it was the same stuff they said to all the kids. All the kids. Too many of them for those social workers to care about them individually, so they were treated like an assembly line instead. It was grating.

But Hay-lin was there. She was talking to him. She was looking at him. So far, she had seen more of him than any social worker with working eyes ever had. Be careful, his brain warned. Don't get too attached, she'll probably end up ditching you half-way through.

In any case, she was interesting. And this whole dancing thing was interesting enough to keep him from being bored.

For a while, anyway.

He sneered at her statement. "Doesn't matter. I'll know if I'm doing it right, you just have to show me what to do." As for the other part, who knew if he could do that yet. Though, knowing Oriel, he probably wouldn't be able to put "himself' in to it until he had a real audience to impress it with. Such was his nature. "Bring it."

Oriel stood behind and offset from Hay-lin, following her movements and watching her like a hawk. The slow pace was... aggravating, to put it mildly. Slow learning was definitely not his style, he'd much rather plow through it at full-speed over and over again until he got it right.

Whatever. He rolled his eyes again and continued.

[Hay-lin Mae]

Unfortunately Hay-lin couldn’t tell if he was smiling, though she was able to tell that he stuck his tongue out. She smiled a little, it was obvious this kid didn’t like being nice, but it was nice to have him try. There was good in everyone, and she can defiantly see the good in this kid.

Hay-lin wasn’t a social worker, she wasn’t even close to being one. She also wasn’t getting paid for that ‘pep talk’ like social workers were. She wasn’t even getting paid to be here right now, teaching him how to dance, sort of. She was here because she wanted to be here. He wasn’t wasting her time, nowhere near it. It truly cared for this boy, and she wasn’t going to ditch him at all. It was him who was going to have to do the ditching, if there ever was going to be ditching.

“alright if you say so.” She still kept her powers on, though this time she wasn’t going to discouraging him, or at least try not to. However, she wasn’t sorry for going at a speed he wasn’t comfortable with. This is the speed he should be learning the dance, especially since he’s never danced before. He was just going to have to get used to it.

She ended the dance a turned toward him. “Think you got it? You don’t have to do it all today. You need to give yourself a break sooner or later.”

[Deleted]

Oriel grinned like a boy with an ulterior motive. And that motive was to use this woman. In his mind, he wasn't doing what she said, or following her suggestions, or trying to be a good little boy who found something to do with his life because that's what the adults expected of him, or even to show respect for the damn profession. Nope. He….wasn't actually sure what he was trying to do, but Oriel did know that he was going to use this blind gal and take everything he could from her and use it for himself.

He followed her movements, still not comfortable with the speed, but catching everything she did for the duration of the dance.

Heh….like he thought. Wasn't that hard.

Oriel scowled when she mentioned a taking a break. He stepped around her and started doing it again. From the top. Faster than when they practiced together, slower than the full speed of the music. He stopped about halfway through and turned to his "teacher".

"One more time!" he demanded. And he stepped back to give her the floor again. He was tired, but not too tired to do more.

[Hay-lin Mae]

Hay-lin herself had to admit that using her was easy. And not just because she was blind, but because of her personality in general. She believed in the positives, and situations and people. If something positive came out of all this, than she wouldn’t care that Oriel used her, and she wouldn’t care if that meant she got hurt in the end. If it helps him, than Hay-lin would let him take whatever he wanted from her. It was just how she was.


“Don’t talk to me like that. Respect your elders.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. But even though she didn’t like his demanding tone, she started again. Hay-lin could go on for days, this is what she did, and she did it because she loved it. Dancing is her soul, same as acting.

[Deleted]

"You? An elder? Aren't you like, 12?" The way she spoke indicated that she was older than 12 obviously, and probably close to an adult at that, but Oriel thought that she might've just been one of the older students. Then again, that was still stupid, since she spoke and acted more mature than most students around here, but that could've just been her disposition since she was blind. If he knew that she was actually a teacher, he might not have started talking to her as freely as he did, especially about his nonsensical plans for world domination.

Dammit, asian chicks always looked deceptively young.

Oriel followed her again. Stupid, slow speed learning. Making him concentrate longer than he felt like. But he'd get it all this time. No way was he going to do this over and over like a douche who actually practiced and worked hard or something. Nope. Not him. And either way, he was tired....

Oriel kept going.

[Hay-lin Mae]

“funny, but actually if I was really 12, wouldn’t your pride be bruised from me teaching you?” She really didn’t know she looked younger than she actually was, much less looked like a 12 year old. Yes, a lot of people said she looked so young, but really she thought they were just being nice. “But, I’m twenty-six.”

Hay-lin stopped, “I think you should join the dance team. You would do really well in it.” She sighed “Hey, do you know what time it is? I have an appointment with someone…”

[Deleted]

"Not as much as you think. I've seen some 12 year olds do some amazing shi---things." Oriel held his tongue, attempting to not curse in front of who he now suspected was an actual teacher. And his suspicions were confirmed when she gave her real age which was at least 8 years older than he initially thought. Because why else would a person so much older be on campus?

The dance team? Oriel had...seen them practice. They were mostly girls(actually, he couldn't even remember if there were any boys in it), and a bunch of preppy valley girls at that, or at least that's what they looked like to him. Annoying. Nothing but. He grunted to emphasize his loath for the idea.

Oriel pulled out his phone, a cheap little thing he got for $30 at the convenience store which was still a waste of money because he didn't even use it for much more than keeping the time. "It's..." Oriel paused and stared at the blocky LED numbers on the display screen. "...four twenty-six," he said slowly. Oriel scowled as he slipped it back into his pocket.

[Hay-lin Mae]

“ I see then.” Hay-lin was impressed by the way he tried to not curse in front of her. And she appreciated his efforts.

She rolled her eyes at the noise he made. “It’s really not as bad as you think it is… Just try it out? And if you don’t like it, you can always quit.”

“Oh… So late already.. I really hate to do this to you. But I have to run… I have an appointment with some boss person.” She walked over toward her bag again, and placed her hand on Olive’s harness. “If you ever need to find me, this is most likely the usual spot to do so.” Hay-lin started to walk off the stage, “good bye, I really hope this isn’t going to be our only meeting.” Then she proceeded to walk out the auditorium. She was going to be late, but she didn't care, because it was worth it.