Metamorphosis

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 14 (Gaining Notice)

A lucid air surrounded Jason as Trina watched him practice a martial arts formation. The sky was a brilliant orange color and the ground was level beneath his white tennis shoes. His right leg was bent in front of him and his left leg had slid behind him.

As she scanned up his body, she was enthralled by his strong and commanding figure. In his right hand he held the handle of a sword, and his left arm was extended towards the blade. His left hand was positioned flat on the blunt side of the blade.

When he moved, his chest muscles squeezed together and his biceps a contracted as his head turned towards her. His movements were slow and all time started to cease as his sharp gaze fell into hers.

Trina's breathing grew labored and her body temperature began to rise to dangerous levels. "Trina." His voice could command the mountains to move, and surely he could cause her world to tremble. "Trina." His lips remained shut and in the position of that warm smirk she loved to see, and while she could hear him speaking to her, that tender smile never once budged.

"Jason?" Beneath her feet the ground started to crumble away and her body was slowly sinking. When she looked down, she saw the hole. "N-No!"

Her eyes flew open and she let out a scream as her body collided with the floor beside her bed. She groaned out and looked up to see Lindsay standing with her hands on her hips. "Dang it Trina, I've been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes. Too busy dreaming about Jason to get up?"

She sat upright and pressed her back against the bed. "Dreaming?" Her heart stopped as the blood rushed to her cheeks. "I wasn't dreaming about him. I don't know what you're talking about." She scratched behind her head and saw her friend's eyes roll.

"Uh huh." Lindsay tossed Trina's gi into her lap and shook her head. "We're going to be late. I swear, I don't know how on earth you end up on time or early."

"I eat breakfast quickly?" She was looking for anything she could use to throw Lindsay off this track she was on, but the girl's annoyed expression said she wasn't buying it. "So, I'll get up."

She wasn't exactly sure why Jason appeared in a dream, or why she suddenly felt any amount of arousal over it, but every hormone in her body was acting as though it were on fire.

Her stomach was also cramping up a storm, and she could feel something on her leg that gave her an unpleasant realization.

As her hands moved to her stomach, she saw her friend already in the bathroom. "Lindsay?" The girl poked her head out and her eyes fell down to Trina's hands. "In the medicine cabinet above the sink." She winced as the cramping in her stomach grew worse.

These weeks were sometimes hell for her, so she could only pray this week wouldn't be terrible.

Lindsay's eyes widened and she interrupted before Trina could finish. "On it." She rolled her eyes and looked out the door, thinking to herself that it was a good thing that Jenny wouldn't be in her group anymore.

She entered class with confidence, ready to take on the world and anyone that dared to mess with her. Lindsay followed close behind and was keeping an eye on her, since she was already starting to feel a little moody.

As some of the people in her group greeted her, she responded back with a polite smile. It was nice to be recognized, and for once, not turned away. Travis approached them, though his focus was on Lindsay. "Lindsay, you doing alright?" The girl nodded and waved at him. "Good, I'm glad. I was just telling some of the others, I think we're going to like having you here instead of Jenny."

"I hope so," Lindsay replied, "Can't say I envy my last group though. Now they have to deal with the witch."

She heard a scoff and glanced over to see Eric waving his hand dismissively. "It is what it is, no one wanted her around. Not after the last meeting." He walked up and nodded to Trina. "How are you, by the way? A few of us were talking, we didn't know if Jenny upset you too much or not."

"No she didn't." She was gracious for his concern, especially after the crap that went down during the last class. "I just needed some time to myself."

"Yeah." He snapped his fingers and grinned openly. "A lot of us saw you leaving camp with Jason. Can I ask?" She gave him a smug look and crossed her arms.

"It was just a friendly hike in the woods, and a little bit of rock climbing. Nothing more." She expected rumors, but hoped they could be diffused before they begun. "I'd appreciate you leaving it at that. Especially with that woman running around…"

His lips flattened and he shook his head. "Jenny's nuts, you could do nothing more than say 'hi' to Jason and she'd still consider you a threat." There had to be some reason Jenny was the way she was, but Trina wasn't sure she wanted to make a big deal out of it.

At least not now; she simply didn't care. Her eyes scanned the area, to see who she could spot. Lindsay and Travis were now off to the side, talking amongst themselves, and some of the other group members were idling by the wall.

Then in the corner at his desk, Jason was standing with his hands behind his back. He looked almost like he was positioned in the form of an arrow, with his legs spread and his back straight. His eyes watched the clock, waiting as they so often did for the start of the class.

Trina excused herself and walked towards Jason, ready to pull him away from his strict schedule and eager to talk to him. "Jason." He turned his eyes to her and curled his lips into a smile. The second his eyes fell into hers, she was struck by an intense heat that had her near paralyzed on the spot.

She blew out a heavy breath and continued to him while cursing her hormones. "Trina. Did you sleep well?" She chuckled nervously and partially sat on the corner of the desk. Her right leg extended and rolled partially on the surface while her left hung off and nearly touched the floor.

"I did." She curled her hair over her left ear and looked out at the class. Seeing them from the desk had a different feeling, but she couldn't quite make it out. "So…Mr. Sikowitz is a teacher, do you like teaching?"

"Leading something, sure, I can do that." He shrugged and pulled his arms from behind his back. His gaze drifted to the rest of the group and his smile faded for a moment. "I don't consider myself a teacher here, just so you know."

"No?"

"Group leader, and I'm in charge of the others. While I do teach, I think I consider myself more of just a leader while equal to everyone else." She moved her lips to a circle and hummed to herself.

She brought her left hand down to her left knee and grasped it gently with her fingertips. "Oh." Her chest expanded and she drew in a heavy breath while watching a couple students practice sparring with one another. "You don't want to teach, then?"

"I see myself being a fitness instructor, but I'd prefer being something more of a personal trainer or a nutritionist. I don't see myself teaching like my uncle does."

"I guess we're not all that we seem at first."

"No. No we're not." She could feel his eyes on her and was certain he was smiling. When she turned to look, he turned his head away. Her lips parted, then closed and slid into a tiny smile. "You walked in with that dress the first day, it was loud in color and I think a lot of people just thought it made you look like you'd be a diva."

"Thank you, by the way."

"For?"

Her fingers tightened around her knee and she bowed her head. "Being a friend." She moved her hands up to the ponytail sweeping over her right shoulder and gently slid her hands down it as if to be grooming it. "Giving me a chance."

Jason laughed once and shook his head. "I never judge a person off of when I first see them. It's not my style."

"You could have been right." She visualized herself in two forms, standing in the center of the room. They were side by side. On the left was the diva, with her long hair flowing around her shoulders like a brown waterfall, and wearing a long bell-shaped dress while holding on to a designer purse. Everything about her was bright and in loud colors like red and gold.

While on the right she stood in her purple gi. Her legs were spread apart and her wrists were locked on the small of her back. She had a ponytail that swept around the right side of her neck and pointed down the middle of her chest, and her head was turned to give a focused glare on the girl beside her.

"I'm calmer, and less inclined to try and force people to notice me. I don't see anything wrong with dressing up in nice outfits, or even carrying around a designer purse, but…maybe everyone's right." She lifted her head and closed her eyes. "I don't know what I want to be, I don't know who I want to be. I don't know what I am."

"Strong." She turned her head over her shoulder and the corners of her mouth dug into her cheeks as Jason seemed to look past her. "I see someone that's strong, confident, and trying to find her place in the world. I see someone who doesn't need someone else to make her happy, you can find your own way without being dependent on others."

"You think so? I don't know if that's what I see…"

Jason looked at her with soft eyes and a charming, warm smile that seemed to draw her closer to him. She could almost feel herself moving towards him and had to stop just to make sure she wasn't.

"I think you've been through some things, and there are people who have let you down or hurt you, so you're not sure what to do. I think you can pick yourself up, stand up for yourself, and find your way. You just have to trust yourself. I think you've shown that you can be strong, confident and independent if you want to be."

"I guess." It was easier to do that when no one knew her and when she could control how people were perceiving her. "I could try to be confident, to be more assertive." She moved her hands to the edge of the desk and curled her fingers over it, grasping it firmly and tensing her arms.

"Before, like at Hollywood Arts, I wanted to make a scene. I would make an entrance just to get people to notice me." As her hands started to tremble, she felt a sudden urge to cry. Trina had to grit her teeth just to hold the tears back, but it was a struggle. "I wanted friends, and I was scared that if I didn't make a grand scene of some sort…but even still no one ever noticed me."

Jason extended his hand, motioning to those in the area. "You didn't have to make a grand scene, and everyone here notices you."

She laughed and protested with her disbelief. "I think people only noticed two things." She held up two fingers and raised an eyebrow at him. "One, I'm talking to you, and two, your crazy ex-girlfriend hates me because she thinks I'm a threat."

"People notice you in the group activities. They notice you when you're working out and being yourself, and well…" He started to walk around the desk and leaned slightly towards her while moving past her. "I notice you, and I like what I see."

The blood rushed to her cheeks and her jaw fell open. Jason moved in front of everybody and called out, ready to start the day's lesson. She recovered and jumped off the desk. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"Come on now." Jason smirked as she started to move past him. Her heart skipped several beats and she looked at him with a nervous sweat forming around her collarbone. "Let's start today's lesson."

Trina took her place and struggled to hold back the goofy grin that was stretching across her blushing face. "God this is embarrassing. I hope he doesn't see." Unfortunately, he was looking right at her. The minute their eyes connected, his attractive smirk increased to the point she found herself wanting to kiss him.

This wasn't allowed in her world, and whatever desires she felt had to be ignored. They'd failed her so many times that she just wasn't going to let the monster that was attraction tempt her into pushing somebody else out of her life.

It was almost never mutual. She may not know exactly what she wanted out of life, but there was one thing she knew of herself from her experiences: She wasn't likeable. Friendships were possible, but she wasn't attractive in the slightest. Not in her mind.

No one wanted to be with her, and the more she pursued potential relationships, the more she wound up hurt and running someone off.

"I'm tired of losing people that I want to keep. Tired of taking risks, tired of getting hurt in the process." She closed her eyes and took in a slow breath of air while listening to Jason going through the events of the day. It was enough to keep her focused, and that was all she needed.

Your thoughts on the events here? It looks like Jason's also beginning to show his attraction to her. We'll be getting to the relationship discussion soon, but there's a catalyst that must happen to allow these two to actually act on what they've been feeling.