I don't own Avatar nor do I claim to... Strange. I put the diclaimer telling you to read chapters 8 and 9 together, but some people like to ignore such things... That's why 11 people read ch 8 and 15 people read ch 9...sigh... really strange.

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Marisol couldn't believe it. The crowd went wild after they barely made their entrance with that red fire trick.

"Geez, it was only an illusion," she thought, " I'm a little worried that this is going to get seriously out of hand".

Thinking back to prior performances she'd done and one of the worst immediately came to mind. It had happened last winter in some shantytown in the mountains. The entire time they were there it was cold and miserable for everyone, but that didn't stop Margan. He still made them dance in their skimpy out fits; luckily no one caught anything worse than a cold. To top the experience off, most of the spectators that night drank they're wages away on the cheap local brew, so they were stinking drunk. The ones that were close enough to the stage kept trying to grab them while they were going through the routines. And that wasn't the worst of it. The worst was when one idiot finally plucked up enough nerve and jumped up on stage with them. There he proceeded to try and kiss and/or grope every single one of them. The guards, who were now on duty as a matter of fact, took their sweet time getting there and when they did arrive they were laughing.

Marisol would have let her mind wander over the memory of that horrid night some more if it hadn't been for the light slap in the middle of her back. In case you're wondering, it was dancers' code for 'you're not smiling anymore, fix it'. She was grateful for the warning because not smiling during a performance was against Margan's 'rules'.

The 'rules' themselves were relatively simple to remember, it was the application of the 'rules' that got tricky. The 'rules' were: 1) don't interact with any man from outside the company unless Margan okays it; 2) always smile during a performance even if you don't mean it; 3) all chores are to completed by noon at the latest; and finally, 4) what ever you do, DO NOT PISS OFF MARGAN! And the girls knew that failure to comply with the rules is punishable by severe and painful extremes; it was torture, plain and simple.

Again, Marisol felt another slap on her back. "Dang it!" she yelled mentally. She looked over to Lily and Lily looked like she was going to laugh aloud at Marisol's rule breaking. Behind Lily was Afina, and she shot a look at Marisol that said plainly, 'you dumb arse…'

Marisol knew that she was joking with her though. The only one who really meant her looks was Akina, and Marisol knew why, well why it was true for her anyway.

You see when Marisol came she replaced Akina from her spot as Margan's favorite. Therefore, Marisol inadvertently 'pushed' Akina on the market, and made it so that Margan was free to sell her almost every night they were in a town. Poor Akina had only been off limits for only two weeks before she was sold like a piece of meat. Heck, if I were Akina I'd have a grudge too.

Marisol had let her mind just for a second when she felt not a light slap, but two quick taps between her shoulder blades. That one meant 'I need to tell you something urgently'. The signal was timed perfectly, as it was supposed to be, to one of Marisol's moves where she had to bend back, perfect for a quick word or two.

"What?" asked Marisol before straightening out and moving out of the way so that Isadora could take her place.

" Margan's got company," she whispered in reply and was able to continue because she had to do the move again in the routine, "Eyes on you".

No sooner had she shared this piece of information that the torches went out, allowing the girls to move off stage to get ready for their next performance. Marisol was literally up next because she had a solo in a glittering, no to mention skimpy, white and red dress. Marisol was already nervous about her piece and Isadora's news didn't help bring the calm she desperately craved.

What Isadora's cryptic message meant was that Margan was entertaining a 'special guest' and that they were both watching only her and not the others.

" Great, that's all I need…" grumbled Marisol as she changed. As skimpy as the outfit was, she still considered it to be her favorite. It was an off the shoulder, very snug dress that had hidden panels of red that would flash as she danced. The hem at the bottom wasn't even, but that added to the outfit rather than make it look cheesy. The glacial white of the dress contrasted starkly with her tanned skin, making her look almost exotic. After putting on the dress, Marisol walked over to the mirror and let the river of her brown hair tumble down with a sigh. "That feels better," thought Marisol as she stared at her reflection, unmoving, like a statue. Slowly, her mind started to wander and it ended up pausing on her family. She found herself wondering if they were okay, if they still thought she was alive and if they missed her as terribly as she missed them. Just as her eyes started to well up, Kiyomi walked in and said, "two minutes, Marisol… Oh, Marisol, what's the matter?"

" It's nothing…" replied Marisol weakly as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing her eye make up a little.

" If it was nothing you wouldn't be sniffling like that," said Kiyomi softly as she wiped some of the smeared make up off of Marisol's face in a motherly gesture, "What's bugging you?"

" It's really nothing…" started Marisol, but Kiyomi gave her a 'do not give me that crud' look. With a tired sigh Marisol turned back to the mirror so that she could talk more to the girl reflected on the mirror's surface than to Kiyomi, and said, "You know, before all this, people at home use to tell me how much I was like my mother. I had her skin color, her hair and her personality. The only difference was our eyes, she had ice blue ones and I…I have these paler than pale green ones. People would harp on our similarities but always forgot our differences. I hated it naturally, but mostly when they'd do it around my brother. He always…blamed me for what happened to her…"

Kiyomi gave a weak chuckle before saying, "Marisol, you're homesick! You know that that's okay, but, not a minute before your solo".

" Shite, I forgot all about my performance!" yelped Marisol as she hugged Kiyomi in thanks and dashed out to the stage.

Kiyomi shook her head and chuckled again before saying, "That girl…"