A/N: I hope you guys liked my first chapter, I meant to add the rest, but my mom made me get off the comp, so I didn't. But I have most of it up and written, ready to be posted. Enjoy! (And please review!) Lorna

I woke up again, and I raised my hand to tenderly touch my cheek; the cut had scabbed over, and it did not feel pretty. My feet felt cold, and I tried to pull the blanket over them, but I noticed I was not near my bed at all. I was not even in the house. I was at the river.

My feet were dangling in the frigid water, and I wondered in what fervor I had walked here in. Suddenly, I heard a crinkling in the bush next to me, and Galatea warily walked over. She looked at my waking form with narrowed eyes, and I in turn narrowed my eyes at her.

"You're not leaving too, are you?" Calmly, I asked her, closing my eyes, not knowing what I would do if she said that she would.

"No. I'm not. This is a perfectly fine reason to not get married. Your relatives go insane." She didn't want to get married, and the spite that she spoke the words with showed.

"What would you do if you don't get married?" I asked her, pulling my feet to myself, and out of the water. If my feet could talk, they'd be singing from the warmth of the air.

"I would go to school and then move to the city," she said. I opened my eyes fast. I hadn't realized that they were closed. "I will get a fine job, and settle down. There is no rush to get married." I wasn't looking in her direction, but I could hear her smiling through her words. I raised my eyes to the heavens and shook my head.

"Mon dieu, Gala, you will be shunned from society. No one will marry you." I said with a sigh.

"But does no one understand? I don't want to get married! My plan is not to follow societies rules!" she said, and with a huff, rose and ran through the bushes. The bushes rustled, and eventually ceased to make noise, and I relished the quiet. I did not wish to speak, and since yesterday, or at least I think it was yesterday, my voice was fading. I had overused it with my relentless yelling. And talking with Galatea was wearing it out even more. I closed my eyes again, and put my warm feet back in the water.

I liked it cold better.

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My feet were tinged blue, and walking back into the house hurt my feet. I motioned to my mother that I could help with the food, but she sent me a nasty glare, as if I were something on the downside of her shoe. The neighbors were talking about me, I knew it, and my mother didn't like to be on the scum of gossip; she preferred to be the one talking. Rolling my eyes, I walked back into my room, grabbing the broom on the way out of the kitchen. I supposed I could help by sweeping.

My sister was sitting on her bed, fixing the hem of her skirt that had ripped. She saw me walk into the room with the broom, and averted her eyes from me, to the broom, and to the door. I knew what she thought.

"I'm not going to hit you with the broom Gala. I want to sweep," I motioned sweeping, "the room." I pointed to the room. I smiled to her carefully. We were on shaky terms, not trusting one another as well as sisters should. I started to sweep, my back to Galatea, and I could feel her eyes burning a hole into my back, like at any moment I would turn around and beat within an inch of her life. But I didn't. Obviously.

I smiled, thinking how ridiculous all this was. I was just emotionally unstable, it was true. If she did instigate anything, this broom, this innocent little honey colored broom, would make everything much worse. But I wouldn't. My knuckles turned a pasty yellow-white; I was gripping the broom hard, seeing as my thoughts were giving my head ideas. I was not about to go mad again, I told my self, I was not going to lose all abandon to my raging feelings. I heard the bedsprings creaking, and Galatea rose, and scampered out of the room, like a dog with its tail between its legs. How shameful.

I laughed to myself, knowing that people thought I was most likely a mad person. The neighbors thought they 'knew' it, seeing my rage firsthand through the window, and everyone else...well, they could just go to hell.

I grabbed a new jug; god knows why my mother put another one in my room. And it sure as heck was not on Galatea's side of the room. I wanted water. Now. So I started heading over to the stream, I needed water for my parched throat; talking to Galatea had hurt it, and it burned. I looked down at my feet as I walked through the house, I didn't want anyone to think that I was going to smash it on their head. Soon, after what felt like time plus eternity, I reached the river, and scooped up water in the jug. I put it down when I heard music from nearby.

Pinpointing it was hard; I didn't know where it was coming from, and it could have easily have been coming from the forest nearby, or down by one of the houses in the village. I got up and in my head I recognized the tune very vaguely. I hummed it, because I couldn't sing, and I started to dance a waltzy kind of dance. I wasn't sure what the song was exactly; maybe it was a waltz, or it could have been a folk dance. Either way, I stood up and started to dance with an invisible partner, and the words flew through my head, slipping over one another and dancing with the music, intertwining, and forming a full song through my head.

I closed my eyes, losing myself in this solitary dance, and I pretended that I had on a fine gown, and perfectly made up face and hair.

Times could be so cruel.

Still humming to myself, I grabbed a bit of my skirt, and I twirled myself around, feeling like I was in one of those fabled ballrooms in the city. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I spun around, a rosy blush creeped up my cheeks. The music was still playing, but it was distinctly faded, thanks to the blood pounding through my ears.

"If you want to dance, please don't dance alone. It hurts my eyes to see such pretty ladies dancing alone." I blanched. This young, very handsome man said to me. My mouth went dry, and I nodded, not being able to speak anyways. I licked my parched lips, and motioned for him to wait a moment; I needed to drink some water. He smiled, and chuckled to himself. Mt blush was still not going away, and I started to get a silly, giddy like kind of smile on my face.

After drinking the cool, refreshing water, I turned back towards him, and noted that a different song has started to come on, and it was one that I had never heard of. Wonderful. Not only did I not know the words, I didn't even know how to dance to it. He held out his hand and I took it. I looked up at his face, and I noted that he was at least a head taller than me, which was good.

He started to do the steps, and I found that it was easy to learn. I just mirrored his steps, but that took looking down much of the time, and I was staring at our feet. Finally, after learning the steps, I looked up, and my blush came back. He was looking at me intently, and he had a smile playing on his lips. I smiled back, but I couldn't control it, and I had to look away. He had dark skin, like golden honey; perhaps it was from working outside. Looking back up though, I saw he had amazing blue eyes. They were piercing, and an almost gray that bordered on green. He had dark eyebrows, not thick, but not thin, and strong enough to capture his expressions and define his eyes with shadow, like my grandmother would say. He had dark, long hair that just went down to his neck in the back and in the front just barely brushed over his eyes. I found myself drawn to his eyes, and it took much will to stare too much; I had to periodically look away from him.

I think he noticed.