Tria 12, 81381 Koyota gently pushed open the studio doors and poked her head inside. It was a very large open room with a slick wooden floor, one of the dancing studios. The door creaked as she pushed it further open and the sound echoed embarrassingly. She stepped inside and gently closed the door behind her. It was eerily silent. She tiptoed to the side of the room, where a row of benches were situated. She went to the far corner, her sneakers clicking loudly with each step. She sat down at the bench and put her bag down next to her. She wore a tight sleeveless dark blue shirt with silver flowers etched into it. Dark gray capris with bright orange stitching hung from her slim hips, and two orange and blue sneakers accompanied each foot. She wore long fingerless gloves of a dark burnt orange color. Her hair was pulled back into a clip, save for her long bang, which hung in front of one crimson eye. She opened her book bag and pulled out a worn sketchbook and a half-eaten pencil. She folded her legs and put the notebook on her lap. She hunched over the sketchbook and eyed the doorways. It was very quiet, and the silence seemed to weigh in on her. She hunched further and waited. Her drawing class assignment this week was to capture movement, and she had decided the easiest place to do a study on movement was a sit in at one of the dancing classes. She waited for the students to come in, and the class to start.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'>The door to the femme changing room was open just a crack as pairs of eyes watched Koyota walk into the room and seat herself in a far corner. As the door shut, nearly silent whisperings were sent far among the femme dance class as to why Koyota could possibly be there. Nearly everyone knew that the morbid femme pendragon was no dancer, that could be told by the sketchbook she carried. "You don't think she's here for art, do you?"</span> <span style='color:green'>"If that's the case, then lets hope she picks the best dancer instead of some of you lame-o's. Hmph."</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>A grin spread across the speaker, Gryffe Laloona. The femme's eyes sparked with life, the vibrant pink color dancing already. Wearing typical danceing clothes, tight-fitting but still able to let her body move in all direction without any problems.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Now move out of the way, I can already hear the boys coming out. I want to dance!"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe shoved the other femme's out of the way and slipped out of the changing room. Her eyes went to the boys who were currently beginning to file out of their changing room, but her eyes instantly went to Koyota instead. The lime green furred 'dragon couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow before she shrugged and began to stretch, preparing for the lessons of the day. The other femme's soon followed Gryffe out and followed suit in stretching. The teacher came out not a minute later, keeping eye over her students as they stretched. "Alright, come now everyone. We are still going over Ballet lessons. Boys I want you to sit along the wall for now, you wont be needed until I get this giggling girls to do their steps right." The males went over to sit along the wall as they continued to stretch their legs, making sure they didn't get too relaxed before they had to begin. The femme's on the other hand did as their instructor said. Legs went high, knees were bent, movement was fluid and graceful like water, but it seemed that none were beating Gryffe at their hidden game of competition in dance. When Gryffe dance it seemed everything else was gone, silent music played in her mind as she did every movement fluidly and almost without pause. For the rebellious femme, dance was but one thing she was willing to do.</span>
Had Koyota known she had been seen, she would have stalked out of the room, her cheeks flaring red. She would have made do with leaves out in the courtyard. It would have been much more boring, and would have earned a much lower grade, so it was fortunate that Koyota remained oblivious. She fancied she was invisible, it was not like very many pendragons payed much attention to her. Had this illusion been shattered, she would have spent the following weeks making herself less conspicuous, more invisible. She had asked the dancing teacher if it was alright if she sat in, and she was relived that the teacher had not seen fit to point out her pressence. As the dancers began to file out, she sunk further into her corner, creating her own little cloud of gloom. One or two of them noticed her, and she guessed that this could not be avoided, but they seemed to pay no more heed to her. She flipped open her sketchbook and held her pencil. She began to sketch as the dancers began to stretch. She tried quickly sketching several different dancers, testing out their potential as models. She settled on one, a lime green pendragon who seemed to have more aptitude for dancing than the others. Koyota found herself wondering if they had different levels of dancing, Advanced Dancing, Beginners Dancing, that sort of thing. She settled on assuming that this pendragon had some other sort of training that augmented her dancing talents. What that could be she had no idea, but it seemed logical. It was like her own talent at drawing as help in noticing details about a pendragon's face, her surroundings, and that sort of thing. This attention to detail helped in her studies as an assassin, and gave her a certain edge over the other students, not that she was top of the class, but it helped. As the class went on, she continued sketching. Mostly taking her references from the lime green pendragon, but also occasionally from other dancers as well. She never sketched the faces, so it was impossible to tell which dancers were which, unless one could pick out the details like Koyota could.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe reached her right leg to go behind her back, her foot going above her head. As she brought her leg back down she heard a few giggles from the other girls. Never stopping with her dancing, Gryffe turned her head to the girls and her vibrant pink eyes darkened and narrowed.</span> <span style='color:green'>"You got a problem over there?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>The three girls looked up to Gryffe and then looked at one another. "We have no idea what you're talking about, Gry. We were just talking about how flexible you are." Gryffe growled softly and shook her head.</span> <span style='color:green'>"At least I am somewhat flexible, unlike you three. You cant even bend you leg all the way to the back. How pitiful."</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>The trio of girls glared at Gryffe's back and snarled as they continued with their dancing. Finally the teacher instructed for the boys to join in. Gryffe was paired with a obsidian black Anubi male who was nearly a foot taller than her. He picked her up with ease as they performed. Suddenly as the Anubi lifted Gryfee into the air, she felt him shake beneath her. Before she could make a move to get ready, both her and the Anubi plummeted to the hard wood floor. The lime green Pendragon sat up, and looked at her knee which had a rather nasty looking scrap on it. Suddenly she whirled upon the Anubi male who was sitting on the ground beside her, eyes blazing, fists clenched, and teeth bared.</span> <span style='color:green'>"You idiot! I don't even weigh a hundred pounds and you stumble beneath me! If you are ever going to be even the least bit good at ballet you have be able to pick up someone shorter than you and who weighs a lot less than you!"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>With a final snarl, Gryffe stood up and brushed herself off. She turned and stormed off to the femme changing room, whilst the teacher looked the Anubi over to make sure he was alright. "Alright class, go on and change. We'll cut this class short. Go on!" A few saddened moans came from the class as they headed to the showers in the changing room. A few moments later, Gryffe came strutting out in a basic blue baby tee, with no sleeves that revealed her belly just slightly. The trim was pink and was only on the arm holes. Her pants were a bright, neon-like pink and rode dangerously low on her hips. A neon green star rested on her right hip and black 'x's went around the pants on either leg, below the knee and were spaced about two inches apart. On the outsides of the bottom of her pants they open up with a zipper, but were still connected with a neon green fabric with pink hearts running down them in a straight line. Gry also was wearing a large amount of bracelet's on either arm, the bracelets running all the way up to her elbow. They were plain rubber like bracelets in an abundent range of neon colors: from pink, to green, to purple, and to blue. Also among the plain bracelets were three spike bracelets on her right arm: one with pink, one with light blue, and one with purple spike. And also on her left arm is one spike bracelet with neon green spikes and another bracelet with red studs.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Stupid ingrate..."</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe stopped when she spotted Koyota and a grin spread across her maw.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Hey Koyota! Whatcha doin' down here, hm?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>Before Koyota could even think about darting away, Gry darted up and sat down beside her with a grin and pink eyes blazing.</span>
Koyota's paw began to fly back and forth across her paper. Her favorite part of the sitting was by far the partner dances. The way that two subjects flowed together and moved was perfect for what she wanted to achieve with this assighnment. She did very rough sketches, some no more than a collection of lines, and curves, her eyes flitting from one pair of dancers to another, collecting as many referance sketches as possible to refine later on in the safety and seclusion of her dorm room. Then suddenly, something snapped her out of her reverie. One of the pairs of dancers had tumbled to the floor. Koyota stopped her sketching momentarily. The female of the two was her main subject, the green pendragon. She was chewing out her partner for having dropped her. Koyota shook her head, and wondered why she was getting all worked up. Surely the other pendragon had been just as injured as she because of the fall. And it was simply a mistake. She felt a small pity for him, but not much, for she was more filled with regret that this incident had stopped all the dancing. This girl seemd very high strung, a perfectionist, at least in dancing, and proud. Koyota recalled that only a few minutes ago she had also chewed out a couple of the other girls while stretching. Koyota returned to her sketches, refining and shaping them into figures while the dancers stagnated. Then, it seemed as if the class had ended. Koyota looked at her watch, and realized it was a earlier that the class was supposed to end. How disapointing. She began to pack up her things, however, before she had even put her sketchbook into her backpack, her name echoed over to her. She looked up with a surprised, slightly terrified expression. It was that lime green pendragon, the perfectionist. Koyota leaned away as the girl sat down next to her, her cimson eyes wide in suspision and surprise. <span style='color:green'>"How do you know my name?"</span> she asked in a low, mater-of-fact voice, eyes narrowing, avoiding the question that had been put to her. It was not so much a question as a statement of 'There is no reason you should know my name.' She hugged her sketchbook to her chest, lest the girl see what she had been doing.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'><span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Out of Character Somehow I feel like this isn't one of my better posts, but I tried to do the best I could for now. </span> Gryffe cocked an eyebrow and she rolled those pink eyes of hers.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Sheesh, a bit touchy much? I've seen you around campus, some of the girls told me who you were. I'm Gryffe Laloona if you didn't know. I noticed you were sitting here all hour. So....what were you doing, hm?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe leaned forward, her maw breaking into a toothy grin as she laughed softly. Her voice was a bit cocky and curious. Bringing a hand up, the femme brushed a few locks of hair out of her eyes and smiled. She knew that Koyota wasn't a social type or a bouncy, bubbly kid either. But Gryffe was determined to get her to socialize and at least make one friend. The lime green femme loved challenges and here was a fresh and hardy challenge for her, and there was absolutely no way she was going to back down. Specially when she heard what came from the direction of the changing room. "Hey Lalo! You ain't tryin' to smooch poor Koyota are ya?!" Gryffe's head snapped up and she sat up straight, a low rumble coming from deep within her throat as she stared at the femme who had spoke.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Hmph...low lifes. Ignore them Koyota, I wasn't tryin' to kiss ya or nothin'. I actually got my eye on someone else, so you're safe. So tell me, what were you doing here all hour?"</span>
<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Meh, we all have our days. ^^</td></tr></table> Koyota hugged her notebook to her chest even tighter. Her eyes seeming to widen and narrow at the same time, as if they could not decide to be more surprised or suspicious. She had every right to be touchy, she told herself, some stranger walking up to her and striking up a conversation out of thin air was out of the ordinary. <span style='color:green'>"Nice to meet you,"</span> she said curtly, still trying to decide whether to bolt or endure this pendragon's pressence. She loosened her grip on her sketchbook slightly. <span style='color:green'>"Er....well...I...I was...a..."</span> she began shyly, when she heard a shout from across the room. Her face went instantly red, the tips of her ears, showing crimson through her dark green tinted fur. Her grip instantly tightened on her sketchbook. Her eyes darted to the open changing room doors, and then to Gryffe, and then to the floor, and then began to do an agitated dance as she tried furiously to keep everyone from entering her vision. She did not know why the comment had made her so flustered, but she suddenly felt very judged, as if she had to prove something. She stood very suddenly and picked up her backpack, flinging it over one shoulder, her other paw wrapped firmly around her sketchbook. <span style='color:green'>"I wasn't doing anything,"</span> she mumbled, her ears deaf to everything else Gryffe had said. She began to pace towards the door. The drawings seemed suddenly very private, and she did not want Gryffe to see them. It was the feeling she got when her class did figure drawings from live models. The drawing part was fine, but when it came to the models wanting to see those drawings, it felt very strange and sickening to her, as if she had picked out something of them and put it on paper, something that they might not want to have known was there, or something she felt ashamed about noticing.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe's jaw dropped and she watched Koyota for a few seconds before shaking her head and standing up. The lime green femme darted after Koyota with large strides. She came up beside Koyota quickly, before she suddenly darted in front of her, blocking the exit with crossed arms and a well done smirk.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Stop right there, Koyota. Don't let those pee-brained dolls get to you. I mean come on, you're an artist right. You've got to have some good skills. Shouldn't you be holding your head high and being proud? Now come on. I was asking what you were doing to be nice, but it's kind of obvious what you were doing. So, can I see what you drew?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>She leaned back against the door, her smirk being replaced with a toothy grin. A whistle went through the gym, along with a few cat calls. Gryffe looked up and around the large room before smiling and shaking her head. Suddenly she just latched a hand lightly around Koyota's right arm and shoving the door open with her hip, Gryffe drug Koyota outside and into the fresh air of the campus.</span> <span style='color:green'>"I think it's best if we get out of the eyes of those idiots. So, you gonna talk to me or what?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>The femme let go of Koyota's arm with a sideways grin, shoving her paws into one of the many pockets on her jeans.</span>
Koyota stopped suddenly as Gryffe blocked her way, her eyes wide, and then a streak of bright green shot out for her arm and she was dragged out of the room. She let out a startled yelp. Then, before she could shake it off, the hand was gone from her arm. She shook her arm anyway to ruffle the fur back into its comfortable grain. With her free paw, she wiped her long bang from her face and looked at Gryffe with an expression between outrage and embarrassment. She was glad to be out of that room, but she was no more pleased to be confronted with such a...maniac. She hunched her shoulders and sunk down into herself, glaring angrily with vermilion eyes at Gryffe. Why couldn't she just leave her alone? Koyota wished disparately at times like this that she were just a shadow, observing, never if seldom seen. It was unnerving when it was proven so vividly to Koyota how visible she was. It made her wonder who else was watching, who else was talking about her, who else saw her. She stood with her angry eyes fixed on Gryffe for a long while, considering. Finally she let out a meloncholic resigned sigh. <span style='color:green'>"Why don't you just give up?"</span> she growled, forcing the sketchbook at Gryffe, slamming it into her. She did not even wait for the pendragon to get a grip on the sketchbook. She shoved it at her, let go as fast as she could, and crossed her arms. She did not care if the notebook fell, it was sturdy, and bent pages were not anything new to her. She simply hoped that it would take a little confidence out of Gryffe, put her a little out of her stride. She turned slightly away from Gryffe, her hair curtaining her face. She did not want to see the pendragon's expression as she looked at her drawings.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'>The lime green femme let out a comical 'oof' sound as she caught the sketchbook square in the chest and stumbled back a step or two. She stood there for a few seconds, an eyebrow raised and a quizzical look on her face. Gryffe couldn't help but think how detached the girl really was. She was trying to get her to open up, to at least have one friend at the school. And Gryffe wanted to be that friend. She liked having a wide array of friends, specially ones so interesting as Koyota. That was when she realized she was standing there like an idiot with her mouth open and holding the book to her chest still. Shaking her head as if the shake away the stupidity of her stall, Gryffe looked down to the sketch book with a smile and opened it. She flipped through, page by page, but she didn't stop until she reached Koyota's latest work. The dancing sketch.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Wow....um....um wow. These are....are really good! I mean, if I didn't know any better I'd say that these almost look like photographs. You really are talented, Koyota. Say, who'd you draw anyway. I wanna know....um, please tell me?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>The neon femme tried her best please she could muster and even added the pouty lip and fluttering eyes. She grinned then, a maniacal grin that would only belong to such a rebellious and boisterous Pendragon such as Gryffe. She took a step towards Koyota and moved to look at her face to face, holding the sketchbook out delicately for the gloomy femme to take.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Oh and to answer your question. I never back down from anything, even if it's trying to get someone to open up such as you, Koy. You don't mind if I call you Koy do you?"</span>
Koyota found herself feeling slightly ashamed with herself as Gryffe looked through her notebook and made comments. She had not meant to be so angry, and now that Gryffe did seem a little uncertain of herself, Koyota felt bad that she had put her in that possition. She scratched the back of her neck, but kept her steely face so as not to betray her sympathy. <span style='color:green'>"They are just sketches",</span> she mumbled then added for good measure a slightly louder, <span style='color:green'>"Thanks."</span> She accepted the notebook and clutched it to her chest again, hunching over it as if to protect it. She leaned reflexively away from Gryffe as the girl tried to get a look at her face. Koyota hunched down further and tried to hide her bright red eyes behind curtains of black hair. She fumbled over her words as she answered, trying to avoid Gryffe and assemble her thoughts at the same time. <span style='color:green'>"I just, er...um...drew....I drew everyone...the best dancers...and um...the most movement..."</span> she cleared her throat nervously and looked up at Gryffe. She did not want to openly say that she had mostly drawn Gryffe herself, but she assumed that the girl would figure out her meaning. She paused at Gryffe's next comment and considered it. Koyota imagined for a moment what it would be like to be a friend of Gryffe's. A shadow to a more noticeable pendragon, a dull reflection of the lime-green excitement that was this pendragon. This was not entirely a bad thing, Koyota told herself, she had always been slightly unnoticable, and the arangement would be no different. She nodded reluctantly in answer, <span style='color:green'>"My brother and sister always called me Koy."</span> she said.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe cocked her head to the side and looped her arms behind her back as she smiled softly. They may just be sketches, but they are still good. The femme liked that Koyota was ever so slightly opening up to her, but she still felt like an outsider in Koyota's little personal world.</span> <span style='color:green'>"If you drew everyone and the best dancers, then that means you probably drew me. I feel special, hehe."</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe laughed softly and grinned, she wanted Koyota to feel welcomed and liked. So she tried to be as friendly as possible. Suddenly, Gryffe's thoughts were interrupted by the bell that sounded the end of the class period. A low snarl eminated from the green femme as she looked up towards the source of the bell and sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Say, Koy, do you have a free period next hour? Because I've got no classes for the rest of the day. I was wondering if you want to hang out and do anything? Please?"</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>The femme hoped her plan would work. She really was just wanting to get to know the gloomy femme. She was tired of seeing the green Koyota around the school all gloomy like, she wanted to cheer up the 'dragon's mood. As the students from the dancing gym came filing out, they waved and called out towards Gryffe, but the lime green femme ignored them. Her eyes were only on Koyota and she was waiting for the femme's answer. She didn't care about anyone else at the point, besides Gry didn't exactly like her fellow dance students all that much. They got a bit on her nerves, because she felt they didn't appreciate the art and beauty of dance like Gryffe did.</span>
Koyota shuffled her feet and nodded in answer. <span style='color:green'>"Probably,"</span> she mumbled. She took a deep breath and said with an effort, <span style='color:green'>"Im glad you like them."</span> Koyota's ears pricked at the bell, but otherwise she made no reaction, only continued to slump gloomily. Koyota found herself wishing that she did have a class she had to go to, but unfortunately, she did not. She thought of saying that she had a class anyway, but since this period had very few classes in it, none of which she could remember, her lie would not be very convinceing. <span style='color:green'>"Yes I do,"</span> she conceeded, <span style='color:green'>"But I do have one in a couple hours that I need to be at."</span> This at least was not a lie. Today was an important test in her anatomy class. Koyota ignored the dance students as they passed, keeping her back to them, and vowing to make them look as hidious as possible in her drawings, and have her teacher congratulate her on how she could get such grace out of such monstrous subjects. They thought made her somewhat happy, though she knew she could not sully a drawing in such a fasion, it was the thought that counted. Koyota looked at Gryffe from the top of her vermillion eyes, pretending to be staring at her own shoes. She knew that her lack of pupils prevented others from knowing easily where she was looking, and she took advantage of the fact when she could to see other's reactions when they beleived she was looking a different direction. <span style='color:green'>"What did you have in mind?"</span> she asked stoically.
<span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe cocked her head to the side and ran a paw through her purple and blue short hair. Her nails had been painted at one time, but the lightning yellow nail polish was chipped and almost gone off of her nails now. She had been telling herself that she would repaint them soon, but just never got to it.</span> <span style='color:green'>"Great! I wasn't thinkin' on what we could do. But I do know some fun games, card games and I've got a TV in my room if ya wanna flip through the tube. But I was just wantin' someone to hang out with. We'll be lucky though if my older sis doesn't come in. Don't worry though, she's isn't a really social person."</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>A grin spread across her face and she looked Koyota over quickly before she chuckled softly and looped an arm around the dark green femme's shoulders and began to walk with her.</span> <span style='color:green'>"I'm really glad you decided to hang out with me, Koy."</span> <span style='color:#FFFF99'>Gryffe didn't really have much running through her mind save for how Koyota was actually agreeing to hanging out with her. The lime green femme had expected the gloomy Koy to turn her down and say that she was going to be busy or something of the other. Despite her boisterous and confident exterior, Gryffe was actually quite insecure and afraid at times. She was always afraid that someone would reject her on a date or someone would say that they would rather die than be friends with her. The femme did have trouble keeping friends at times, some of them saw her as a tad unruly and too rebellious for their liking. Just don't make a fool of yourself again, Gryffe, don't scare her away like you do the others. <span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Out of Character Sorry it took so long. I was tryin' to think of an idea, I sorta had a writer's block.</span></span>
<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Pft. No problem. Better to think something out than do it half heartedly. Hehe.</td></tr></table> As Koyota watched Gryffe from the top of her eyes, she saw the look of genuine happiness that crossed her face. Reasuringly, this seemed a sure sign that this was not some sort of joke being played on Koyota. A snide grin, or roll of the eyes would have merited a speedy getaway. Still, as the arm went across her shoulders, Koyota began to imediately regret not just making up some excuse to be elsewhere. She felt herself involuntarily tense at the contact, and she looked at Gryffe with eyebrows raised and eyes wide and slightly frightened. She squeezed her notebook to her chest as they walked, trying her best not to look too much like a cornered animal. Her tail flicked nervously and her ears were flat against her head. <span style='color:green'>"Tv"</span>, she said automatically. She grabbed at the idea like a life-preserver. The great thing about TV, she had always thought, was that it was a great excuse not to talk to anyone else in the room. It was only the comercials where she had to watch out. However, surprisingly, her older sister sounded slightly more sane than Gryffe herself. Koyota found herself noting that if an anti-social sibling could grow up around Gryffe, Koyota herself might have a chance of actually surviving her pressence as well. It was not that Gryffe was mean or disagreeable, in fact she was one of the few with enough gall to withstand Koyota's stonewalling for so long. It was simply that Gryffe was too...lively for someone like Koyota. The effect was overwhelming at first. <span style='color:green'>"Do you share a room with your sister?"</span> Koyota found herself asking, still tense as a bowstring. It was not a question for idle chit-chat, it was simply a question she had wondered, and the least probing of those that she had come up with. Besides, she thought, if I am confronted again with this lime-maniac I can ask for some tips on how to survive with her from her sister. Koyota let herself be led, to where she did not know. She assumed Gryffe's room, but there was no knowing where the strange pendragon could be going.
