I woke up the next morning in a gloomy mood. Today was the day…. Performance day.

However I quickly remembered last night and the favor I asked of Luke, so I started to feel a bit better. I got up and quickly got dressed, careful to not wake up Maya. I put on hiking boots, jean shorts, and a plaid shirt that I tied into a knot at the ends. After greeting Yolanda and the innkeepers 'good morning', I walked out of the inn and stretched as soon as I stepped outside.

The sun was barely rising, and the sky was tinted pink and blue. I took the opportunity to walk around the town, taking in every detail. I noticed a trail by the camera shop that led to a large open field so I decided to follow the trail. Today I didn't care if I got in trouble with Mama for wandering off; after what I was going to do tonight, I think I'm allowed some time to myself.

After following the trail for a while, I found myself at a run down farm. The barn and the coop looked like they were about to fall apart, and the house looked like the weather has really worn it down. There were holes in the roof, piles of wood everywhere, and badly in need of a paint job. There was a large plot of land in front of it covered with weeds and stones of all sizes.

Why is this place deserted?

I walked over to the house and knocked. No answer. I looked inside the barn and coop. Nothing inside.

I made my way to the plot of land, bent down, and started to dig into the ground with my hands. When I was deep enough, I scooped up a handful of dirt and carefully inspected it.

Dark soil.

I was rather confused. The soil here was pretty good so why was no one living here?

With a few upgrades this place could look quite amazing. I took a step back and carefully made some calculations in my head. The cost to repair this entire farm would be pricey, hundreds of thousands of pieces of gold without a doubt. But with the quality of the soil, you could plant one crop and get three times its worth when it's harvested. You could also plant good quality grass to breed healthy livestock and poultry. If you work everyday for year here, you could make approximately 500,000 G. Maybe more if you also foraged…

"Well howdy, Ma'am. Beautiful morning, isn't it?"

I jumped in surprise and saw Calvin standing behind me, who tipped his hat at me. I laughed in embarrassment, "Oh, hello. You surprised me."

"My apologies," he said gallantly. He walked up to me and glanced at the farm, "What is a young lady doing in a place like this?"

I scratched my neck, "I uh… was figuring out how much it would cost to renovate this place."

"Including the barn and coop?"

"Well, yeah." I admitted.

He looked at me in astonishment, "And you figured it out?"

"More or less, but I think I have a good idea. I have a degree in finance."

"You interested in buying or something?"

I looked down at the ground, "I can't. I'm leaving in two days."

Sigh, don't remind me….

"Ah, didn't know that." His voice didn't contain the same excitement it had anymore. He scratched his chin, "Silly me, here I was getting excited that I would be having a new neighbor. A beautiful one, I may add."

I felt flustered, I didn't know how someone could say things so boldly. I can't talk to people like that, how does he do it? Does he really think I'm beautiful?

He leaned down and set his eyes on me, which startled me. I noticed that he had dark blue eyes. "Did I say something bad, ma'am?"

I shook my head and stammered out, "No no no, not at all. Thank you, that's v-very sweet of you." I bowed politely.

"You don't take compliments well, I can see that." Calvin straightened up and slyly said, "It's alright, you can make it up to me by letting me show you around. I'm on my way to work so I would be delighted so have your company."

This is slightly strange, but it wouldn't hurt to have someone to talk to. It might keep my mind occupied in the meantime.

I smiled, "Alright. Lead the way."

XXXXXXXXXX

Calvin mostly talked as we walked, and I just listened. He was not only an explorer and traveler, he was actually an archeologist as well. And a talented one, at that. He knew all sorts of history including ancient artifacts, ancient tribes, rituals, and worldly cultures. I shared with him stories of tribes I've seen on our travels, which really fascinated him. It was nice to talk to someone about things we've both experienced.

"Well here we are. I wish our conversation could have lasted longer, I was really having a good time."

I looked around in surprise as I noticed where we were, "Oh, I didn't realize you worked in the mine. I thought only the miner worked there." I tried hard to look casual about it.

Calvin shrugged, "That miner? All he does is smash rocks. I actually go to the lower levels to decipher ancient scripts written on the stone walls there. Perhaps you could join me sometime." He smiled at me as he took my hand. I felt tension begin to built up in my chest, a strange kind of anxiety. But I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to make out of what was happening right now.

"I do more than smash rocks, you know," said an annoyed voice from behind Calvin.

I didn't even have to look over Calvin's shoulder to know that it was coming from Owen. I just looked at the ground and waited for Calvin let go of my hand. But he didn't.

I heard Calvin speak up, "Fine. Pulverize rocks. Pound rocks. Push rocks. Whatever." Calvin turned his gaze on me, "I hope to see you again, Rose."

To make the situation much more awkward, he leaned and kissed my hand as he kept his eyes on me. My mouth opened but no words came out, only a gasp. He looked satisfied and walked away, leaving Owen and me outside of the mine. Alone.

I didn't even look at Owen, I refused to. This situation left me feeling really flustered and a little confused. And I really didn't have time to deal with this right now. I kept my eyes on the ground as I turned to walk away.

Again, life doesn't work that way.

"Hey! Don't walk away from me!" I heard him call out.

Was he mad at me?

I didn't care, I forced myself to keep walking. But I didn't get far because next thing I knew, Owen ran over and placed himself in front of me. He put his hands on my shoulders and kept me in place when I tried to walk around him. I still kept my eyes away from his and looked down.

"I don't think I want to know what you were doing with a playboy like Calvin, but I do want to know why you're trying so hard to avoid me."

I casually responded, "I'm not avoiding you, Owen. You're everywhere anyway."

Situations like these always forced me to act with indifference. Situations that threatened to expose my thoughts or feelings. And my thoughts and feelings were all over the place right now. I let my hair fall to my face, hoping he wouldn't see me.

"I meant, why did you tell Luke to convince me not to go to Gents' Night?" he said with an angry and hurt timbre in his voice.

I looked up at him in shock, "How do you know that?! He promised!" I pushed his arms off of me, although I felt butterflies form in my stomach as soon as I touched him.

Owen rolled his grey eyes, "Rose you don't know Luke that well. He can't keep secrets, he's too honest!"

Goddammit Luke, I will destroy everything you love….

Owen crossed his muscular arms and demanded, "Well? Why? Were you lying when you said that you didn't dislike me? I thought we were friends."

I stared at him blankly, "We are friends."

He shook his head, "There's something up. You don't act like this normally; you're not this apathetic. What are you not telling me, Rose?"

What makes you think you know me?

I stayed quiet, only to have him look more anxious. He lowered his voice more and gently asked, "Please tell me. Why don't you want to see me?"

The sadness in his grey eyes was breaking my tough act apart. I wanted him to back off and be intimidated but that didn't seem to work. No matter how cold I tried to be, this guy was completely immune to it from the day we met. And I could not keep those barriers up for long, no matter how hard I tried. I found myself feeling guilty for making him feel so bad, I almost felt like I had to… take care him like I took care of the rest of my family.

I'm gonna hate myself for this, I know it already….

"Rose, please tell me what's wrong. Remember that I told you that I'm here for you." He placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled gently at me.

Butterflies.

I took a deep breath and sighed.

"Listen, I'm just going to be clear with you on one thing. I don't dislike you Owen, in fact I think you're the nicest guy I have ever met. I still don't understand why you're so nice to me but… for some reason, I find myself caring about what you think." I looked up and saw a smile form on his chiseled face, "But I asked Luke to tell you not to come because I'll be performing tonight. And it's a rather… provocative dance."

"Rose, " Owen said with exasperation, "I don't care about that, I just want to go and show my support! That's what friends do."

That word has become like poison to me; every time I hear it, I feel my mood go down. I struggled to not show it.

"It's not that, Owen there's a bachelor party tonight."

"I know, I was invited. We all were."

"Well it's going to be at Gents' Night. And they hired me to perform a special dance for the soon to be groom…. Get it?" I looked at Owen sadly, hoping he got the hint.

I think he did.

"Oh. I think I get what you mean."

By the way his face fell, I assumed that meant he was probably disappointed. I wouldn't be surprised if he felt repulsed too.

I crossed my arms and looked at him, "I like keeping things brief, so I have to go now. I have to get ready. I'm sorry, but please don't come. I don't want you to see the things I have to do." And with that I quickly ran off.

But this time, I didn't hear him calling after me.

XXXXXXXXXX

6:30. Thirty minutes till showtime.

I had no idea how I was going to be able to perform well tonight with all these troubled thoughts in my head. My heart seemed get heavier and heavier as I approached the bar. Or was it getting heavier because I was getting further from Owen in the process? I shook the thought out of my head and kept my eyes firmly on the ground.

As I made a turn to the street that led to the bar, something caught my attention.

Yelling. Lots of yelling.

I looked up and saw a small group of girls arguing amongst themselves in front of the Brass Bar. I saw some of my cousins holding Marina back, who looked livid with rage. They seemed to be holding her back from another girl, but I couldn't tell who it was. I got annoyed, these girls were disturbing the peace and could get us fired for that. I marched over and yelled, "What is the meaning of this?!"

The yelling stopped as the girls looked at me. Some of my cousins looked terrified and stepped back but the ones holding Marina refused to let go.

I put my hands on my hips, "Let her go."

Rosalinda whimpered, "I don't think we should Rosie, or these two will start clawing at each other again!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Who's the other person?"

A pretty girl walked past them and made her way towards me. She stopped between them and I then snarled at me, "So you're Rose. To be quite honest, I'm not that impressed." She let out a sarcastic laugh, "I thought that silly faux of a belly dancer was the lead dancer!" I saw Marina struggle as the girls tightened the grip on her arms, her olive toned face tinted with red from anger.

I looked at the smug woman from head to toe. Her clothes looked similar to Marina's…

"You're a belly dancer too, aren't you?"

She rolled her red eyes, "I think that's pretty obvious. Way to go, Sherlock."

The tone of my voice dangerously lowered, "For your sake, I will pretend I didn't hear that. Who are you and why are you bothering my dancers?"

The girl flipped her dark, red hair and spat out, "I should be asking you the same thi-!"

I snapped back, "Don't waste my time and answer my questions. You either answer to me right now, or you answer to the mayor. Take your pick."

I really was not in any mood to be cordial, so I had to resort to my businesswoman stance. I honestly hated resorting to such severe behavior but this woman looked like trouble. My job was to handle trouble.

"The name is Selena and the ones in trouble should be you! Who do you think you bitches are to come to this island and take my job away from me?! I'm the only dancer on this island! You're going to pay for this, you cunt!"

I waved my finger at her, "Cuss at me one more time and I'll have to perform a citizen's arrest on you."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" She stomped her foot on the ground, making the little bells around her waist jingle violently.

She sure had a lot of guts to talk to me like that, but she probably didn't know who I was. I continued anyway, "Well let's see, disturbing the peace, assaulting an employee of the mayor, and provoking the executive that these young ladies work for… I think that should be enough to get you in pretty deep trouble with the law."

"Rose," Adilene whispered from the back, "I think the law works differently here. They don't even have jails."

I pointed at her, "Very true. However it's not your job to look up the places we have to travel to, Adilene. That's my job. And it wasn't too hard to understand the customs on Castanet." I looked at Selena who formed a smug smile on her face. I restrained myself from smacking that smirk off her face.

If you want to play this game, you're playing it with the wrong person.

I continued, "No one gets arrested because this is a relatively peaceful town. But in the event that someone like her," I looked pointedly at Selena, "goes out of hand and endangers someone, one has the power to perform a citizen's arrest. You would be held at the town hall, and it would be up to the deputy mayor to decide your fate. Then he runs his decision with the mayor, who can either agree or disagree. In this case, " I took a step towards Selena and looked at her right in the face. "I can say the mayor would agree to deport you back to your place of birth."

Selena pushed me back violently, but I caught myself from falling. I heard gasps and infuriated screams from some the girls and this time Rosalinda tried to lunge herself at Selena, but Adilene kept her back.

"Don't come at my cousin like that, you slut bucket!"

Selena ignored her and kept her eyes on me, "How would he listen to a pathetic dancer like you? He only listens to Madame Victoria, why would he care about what a useless performer would say?" She laughed.

I pretended to look innocent and shrugged, "Because I'm Madame Victoria's daughter."

I saw Selena's smirk fall and she looked mortified. A few girls giggled from the back and I heard Marina yell out, "Ooooh she got you now, bitch."

Selena struggled to come up with something to say for a bit before she spoke again, "Even if that's true, you still can't decide to just deport me! I've been working here longer than you pathetic bunch!"

I crossed my arms and pretended to be deep in thought. For some reason, I found myself enjoying this. Don't judge me, it's better than getting physical. I prefer verbal jousting. Also part of my style. I don't fight, I talk.

"Ah, well you see, a part of my job is to not only do background research on the island but all its inhabitants as well."

Selena narrowed her eyes. I saw a hint of worry in her eyes."What the hell are you saying?"

I smiled at her, "I take good care of my girls. I want to make sure no one dangerous is around them. I did my research on everyone before coming across a portfolio of a dancer named Selena. That's you, isn't it? Apparently, you came to this island illegally. You stowed away on Pascal's boat one day, didn't you? You didn't buy a ticket to come to this island. You're a runaway. Did your employers know that?"

I heard more gasps and whispers come from the girls, and Selena's face tightened. She clenched her fists, "I had permission. My parents agreed to it eventually."

"Ah, that may be. But you still lied. And to make matters worse, when you left you still were a minor. In which case you should have had a written document from your parents relinquishing you into the care of your employers. Which you didn't have." I tossed all of my hair to my left shoulder and put a finger on my chin, "I'm also guessing you didn't tell your employers that."

I saw her face turn red in anger, "What are you trying to say already?!"

I looked at her blankly, "I can get you fired for false pretenses."

There was silence as she stared at me, probably contemplating killing me or something. I stood in my place, not letting her intimidate me. I was more amused if anything.

Selena's body was shaking at bit. I saw veins pop out of her forehead as she hissed, "You think you're such a great dancer, don't you? Well you're not. Because you're not bold, you're not afraid to be dangerous! To be sensual! And until you learn how to let go and embrace your femininity, you will NEVER be as great of a dancer as me! And another thing, " she took a step towards me with a devilish grin, "you think Owen could ever prefer such an uptight bitch? I have always been his first love, so don't think that you could ever win him over with that goody-two shoes façade of yours!"

She raised a hand to slap me but I caught her wrist and twisted it. Selena let out a pained cry and tried to pry me off. I shoved her off and she bent over in pain as she gripped her wrist.

"I told you not to cuss at me," I said quietly.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was 6:50 and we only had ten minutes before the show started. I was nowhere near ready. I walked in the Brass Bar to get ready and searched through the props. It didn't help my nerves that the girls were rambling in excitement about what happened moments before as they put on their costumes. I didn't feel that great about it. I didn't mean to hurt Selena that much when I grabbed her wrist, and what she said about Owen was repeating in my head relentlessly.

Am I really that uptight? Why didn't he mention that he had a girlfriend? Wait… Chloe mentioned that he had an ex. That must be Selena… But why is she acting as if… I'm competition or something? It's over…

Adilene slapped my back, "Proud of you kid. If I were you, I probably would have dragged her carcass to the ocean until she shut up. There's a reason why you're the boss, and tonight you reminded us why."

Compliments from Adilene were rare, so I smiled at her. "Thanks." She nodded and walked back to the group of excited girls, all getting ready for tonight.

Marina walked over with a frown on her face, "Selena was right though. Rose, sometimes I feel like you're too afraid to be bold."

I kept rummaging through our props and without looking up said, "Go on."

"It's like… you're afraid to be provocative. You have the curves and face for it, like you're really exotic you know? We all are, and we show it off. But you don't show it off, you hold back. I know it's scary but you'll get over it! That's why I do so well Rosie, I'm not afraid to go out there and make a man fall on his knees for me…."

I kept digging for what I was looking for, "I know, Marina."

She sighed, "Selena did make a good point. You're Mama's protégé, you're supposed to follow in her steps. Remember the tales we would hear from her old customers? How she could make someone feel as if it was just her and them alone in the room when she looked at them as she danced? When you were born with violet eyes, she took it as a sign that you were meant to do the same. So when will you Rosie?"

I found what I was looking for and got up, "Tonight."

Marina stopped blabbering, "Wait what… I was hoping you would say next Tuesday or something."

I handed her the box I found, "Can you tell Adam to set this up?"

Marina took the box and looked inside its contents. She looked up and stared at me in horror, "A POLE?!"

I walked over to our wardrobe and started to button down my shirt, "You and Selena did make a valid point, and I agree with you both. Time I proved myself tonight."

My sister ran to me and whispered urgently, "No you can't do this tonight! You can't do it at a bachelors' party!"

I shrugged off my shirt, "Why not? It sounds like a good opportunity to me. Plenty of men around."

Truth be told? I hated to be challenged this way, but Selena's words did provoke me a bit. I realized that I've always been too concerned about exposing myself and messing up my performances, but I have never truly proved myself as Mama's protégé. I have never had the guts to make eye contact with any men and make them fall to their knees like Mama was known to do. That's what made her famous. Her ability to not just lose herself to her dancing, but to make others lose themselves to her. Tonight, I'm going to see if I really can be her protégé. Because the only one that has done what Mama was known for is Marina.

She shook her head in alarm and loudly whispered, "I'm not gonna have my little sister dance like that for with a bunch of strangers!"

I looked for a proper costume, "And you think I'm okay with you doing that? Besides, it's just a performance and you know that. I can't be scared anymore. I'm way too uptight; I have to do what you and Mama do. If I fail, then I'm not meant to be her protégé."

I pulled out a black lacey corset and matching pantyhose. Marina's eyes widened, "Oh my God! You're really doing this!" She put a hand in her mouth and stared at my choice of clothes, horrified.

"Don't worry, it's a whole lot conservative than the outfits you wear. At least most of my legs and stomach will be covered. Have you seen my garter straps?"

Marina grabbed my face and hysterically begged, "I take it back! Stay the way you are, just don't wear this! I'll do the performance for you!"

I shook my head and gently removed her hands from my face, "It's all on contract, Nina. They hired me. Thank you for caring for me, but I have to prove myself to Mama."

I put on my corset and adjusted my garter straps to my black pantyhose. I stood up and zipped up my corset, which pushed my breasts up quite a bit. I had to admit, I wasn't a fan of lace. But I would only have to wear this for half of my three-minute performance. I took a dress shirt and skirt and put them over my lingerie. I walked to the vanity and applied dark eyeshadow over my eyes, and outlined my lips with red lip liner.

My older sister just watched me, not knowing what else to say. I finished applying eyeliner and mascara, and then sat down to put on my black heels.

Without looking up I calmly said, "Do what you're told, Nina."

I heard her get up and slowly walk out. A short time later she came back in.

"Adam isn't happy about it, but he agrees that it was about time you got over your fear. Mama would be pleased… Hey Rose, can I ask you something?"

"Hm."

She hesitated but then asked, "You are not doing this because of what Selena said about Owen… are you?"

I finished putting on my heels and looked at her squarely in the face, "No, I'm not. He's not even going to be here. Does that make you feel better?"

Before she could answer, the door opened and Joyce poked her head in. Her brown eyes widened when she saw me, "Wow, I've never seen you put on such dark makeup on or such red lips. Hehe, you actually look… like Marina!"

I forced a smile, "Is everything ready?" I tied my hair up in a bun.

She nodded in excitement, "Yes! It's packed out here, some guys are even standing! The soon to be groom is in the front, he has white hair so don't forget that. Ooooh I'm so excited! You look gorgeous! Good luck out there, Rose!"

Marina grabbed my arm, "Please don't do this. But if you do, please don't pick what I think you're going to pick…."

I smiled, "Man, it's like you know me."

"ROSE, DON'T-"

"Joyce," I called out, "Tell Adam I'll be performing to Body Party."