In Calico's gymnasium a large crowd of people stood in a circle getting ready to welcome their guests for the event. One of the very first North vs South dance offs were about to start and everyone was excited. For some Southerners it was the first time they had ever laid eyes on a Northerner.

Rosemary High's dance club were the guests of this event and amongst their numbers stood Nami who was uncomfortable with the whole arrangement. She had agreed to do the 1v1 battle up against Calico's finest, but the number of people who would be watching her was nerve recking. The students of Calico nearly filled the gymnasium. With loud music and students dancing their hearts out, Nami was convinced that the Rosemary team stood no chance. What bothered her the most was being a part of the losing team.

The Rosemary dance club's first team had the dance floor, and to say that they were uncoordinated was an understatement. Nami could list several reasons as to why they were this way. She attended one of their practice sessions and was horrified by what she found. Most of the guys were serious with the sessions, but some had too big an ego to join the practice and most of the girls only joined to increase their follower count on Instapic.

The leader of the dance club, Samantha, was as serious as she was stiff. Her choreography had a lot of enthusiasm, but no style. Her movements lacked flow which led most of the dances to appear basic and repetitive.

The Calico dance club far out did Rosemary's when it came to their routine. Sure, there were some rigid people within their numbers, but they were just outliers to the majority. They were all good dancers in their own right and their wilder more aggressive style of dancing out shone Rosemary's rigid and monotonous style.

It was finally Nami's turn to dance and her nerves began to skyrocket. She was so busy analyzing other people's dances that she completely forgot that she'd be dancing too. The announcer asked for Rosemary's finest, and Nami was lightly pushed by Samantha, causing her to stumble on the dance circle.

She shot a scowl at the girl before looking at her opponent. She was going to lose, and it was obvious. Her opponent was a guy named Devonte, who was a tall, milky-brown skinned and green-eyed male who instantly stole the favor of the crowd. Particularly the women.

The announcer disclosed the rules of the 1v1. Saying that each of the contestants would choose a song and dance half of it and the other half will be danced by the opponent.

These 1v1’s were glorified popularity contests which meant not only did she have to choose a song that she could dance to, but a song the crowd would enjoy as well. That would've been simple if she listened to any modern songs which were hot with her generation, but her taste in music was vastly different than the tastes of her peers.

Either way you cut it she was at a massive disadvantage. Devonte chose his song and stepped up to the floor. A song everybody on the circle began lip sinking to as he danced. His moves were a good mix of fluid and robotic and the crowd was behind him every step of the way.

She was going to lose, and as much as it bothered her, she remembered the real reason she came to such an event. She danced the song Devonte chose and as a slight tease she copied some of his moves and stepped up to his face as a subtle declaration of war. By doing this the crowd went wild and cheered for Nami.

The announcer came to her and asked for a song request as it was now her round. Nami thought; Fuck it. and chose her favorite song, a song native to her Oasis of birth. As she expected the song wasn't as popular, but due to its simple and catchy beat she was able to get the crowd to join her in her dance. She swayed her hips in a manner the crowd viewed as provocative, but to her, she was just dancing in a way her native people would. Being a Water-God master was a bonus as it allowed her to adopt a talent for dancing, but that reigned true for anybody gifted in the Water-God style.

When it was Devonte's turn to dance Nami noticed his struggle to match the beat and melody as Amapiano dances were vastly different to his style of dancing, but to Nami's surprise he was quick to catch on.

The dance off concluded and Nami was shrouded with praise by the Southerners. The announcer came to calm everyone down before announcing the verdict. As expected, she didn't win the 1v1, but the verdict was a lot closer than she initially thought. The crowd loved her and flocked over to her once the medals were distributed, with her getting silver for the 1v1 dance.

An unwanted memory invaded her thoughts, but she quickly shoved it away and pocketed the medal.

It was time for the Rosemary team to return to the North, but Nami requested for them to leave her behind. Samantha was a bit skeptical, but she was able to convince her. Lying about joining the Calico crew for their after party.

With them gone, Nami began being bombarded with students from Calico who were beaming to talk to her. All of them asking various things at once, like the song she requested, her IP(InstaPic), her number and a bunch of other things she couldn’t keep up with.

She was eventually pulled out by Devonte who practically shooed them away.

"Thanks for getting me out of there, I don't do well with crowds." Nami thanked, already feeling drained.

"No problem. Hey, are you busy after this?" Devonte asked. Nami thought about this for a bit until she remembered the reason she came.

"Uhm yes actually, I am looking for a friend of mine." Nami answered innocently, not noticing the guy's advances. She was leaning against a wall, and he stood rather close to her.

"And who might this friend of yours be? Who knows, maybe she'd want to join." Nami giggled, imagining what a female version of Mohammed would be like. He’d probably have a worse temper if that was the case.

"No, it's a guy friend of mine. His name is Mohammed." Devonte stepped back as he began to process this information, first letting out a disappointed “Oh,” before letting out a curious “Oh?” and then, as if something had finally clicked, he let out a loud “Oh!”

"Oh shoot, you're that Nami?" Nami looked at him questioningly. As he put emphasis on, “that”.

"What “Nami”?" She looked at him with tons of questions circling her thoughts.

"Yo, look I'm sorry, I didn't know you rocked with Mohammed like that. I think I can help you though." Devonte said as he gestured for Nami to follow him.

"Yo Cap!" He got the attention of a dark-skinned guy who was on the other side of the gymnasium talking to some chick in a short skirt. The dark-skinned guy walked over to Devonte and asked him "What's up?"

"Nathaniel, this is Nami." Devonte introduced.

"Oh yeah, I saw her on the dance floor already, what, did she want to see me?" Nathaniel asked. Nami could feel the positive energy radiating from him, his whole demeanor just screamed hyperactive.

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"No, like, this is “Nami” Nami." She noticed her name being mentioned twice, but didn’t know what that could possibly mean, which frustrated her.

How the hell do these guys know me? She wondered.

"No. Fucking. Way! You're her?" Nathaniel was practically glowing with excitement.

Who’s ‘her’? How am I supposed to know which ‘her’ you’re referring to if you are using code to talk about me? Is what she wanted to say, but instead, she answered with a hesitant, “Yeah.”

“Ah shit, I knew Moe should have come, seeing you might’ve brightened up that gloomy bastard.” Nami’s irritation turned soft when she heard Mohammed’s state.

“Can you take me to him?” It was more of a demand than a request, but that didn’t seem to faze him.

"Oh, don't worry, I got you. My car is outside, I'll take you to him." Nami followed Nathaniel to his car, waving Devonte goodbye. Before she got in, she looked at Nathaniel with a sharpened glare.

"Try anything funny and you will regret it." Nami said before sitting in the passenger seat of his Isuzu D-max.

"I see you got a little bite on you milady, but I can assure that you're in safe hands. Moe is my brother, and I’d never do anything to hurt a girl of his." Nami didn’t liked being labeled as Mohammed’s girl, but she ignored it as Nathaniel drove off.

"So, tell me how you two met? You and Mohammed that is." Nathaniel asked, sparking up conversation between them.

"It's not much of a story. He was looking for a party I was going to, and we walked together to it. He ended up sleeping over at my place since he couldn’t go back to the South, and he showed me around the South for a bit the next morning." She summarized the main points of their first meeting, figuring that there would be no need for her to add detail.

“Why let a stranger in your house like that? He’s a Southerner y’know, bro could have made off with your TV and you would have been none the wiser.” Nathaniel’s voice was full of enthusiasm, but his question was anything but surface level.

“I… I felt bad about our first encounter, and I thought the least I could do was let him spend the night. And plus, he’s a student of Rosemary. He must have some credibility to him if he made it out of the South like that.” This wasn’t the first answer that jumped in her head, but she felt only Mohammed was entitled to that answer.

“So, how was he?” The car went silent for a bit as Nami processed the question.

“What?”

“Ya see, Moe is my brother, but in all his 19 years of life he has never experienced a good night with a woman. He can admire a fine woman just as much as any of the guys, but when it comes to doing the deed, he always chickens out. I was beginning to think he was playing for the other team before you came along.” His rant devolved into him talking about all of Mohammed’s failed past relationships, and Nami couldn’t help but laugh at some of his stories. Moe was handsome enough to be with any woman he wanted, and she had seen first-hand that he was good enough with his words to charm any female. His issue seemed to revolve around finishing what he started, which Nami found strange.

“Moe has already told me about what happened between you two. Of course I’ve already chewed him out for it, but I want you to understand where he comes from.” Nathaniel’s energetic tone began to soften up as he began explaining.

"Listen Nami. Life here in the South is different from your comfortable life in the North. Trust is a commodity that people can die for, if given to the wrong people. Moe worked hard to get to where he is, so please go easy on him." Nami was surprised with how serious he became, but she understood what he meant. The South was a completely different world to the comfortable life the average Northerner was accustomed to. Was Moe’s experience with such adversity why she found him so intriguing?

"Okay." She answered. She hadn’t noticed that the car had stopped a while ago, in front of a two-story flat that looked ready to collapse at any moment. Nathaniel unlocked the doors and flashed her a smile.

"Let's go see the man of the hour." The two walked out with Nathaniel locking the doors on his way out. Nami felt more understanding of Mohammed’s situation and it almost took away all the frustration she harbored for him.

He knocked on the door to his house and after a brief silence with footsteps approaching the door, Moe opened. He stood there frozen when he saw Nami next to Nathaniel and before he could say anything, he was met with a punch that sent him tumbling back.

"Yo, I thought you said you understood!?" Nathaniel had to hold Nami in a full Nelson to stop her from pouncing on Mohammed.

"I did, I just wanted to get that out of my system." She said with a scarily innocent smile.

________________________________________________________________________________

After Mohammed healed from his painful punch to the ribs, he sat down next to Nami on the living-room couch, leaving an open space between them. Nathaniel had gone to the kitchen to find something for them to eat.

"So, about Monday. I am sorry for blowing off on you like that. It was uncalled for me to accuse you without hearing your side of the story." Mohammed started with his apology.

"Do that again and I swear I won’t hold back next time..." Nami maintained her scarily innocent smile.

“I lost sleep, worrying about you. Hours and hours of wondering if you were okay, and you didn’t even have the nuts to respond to my texts.” Moe sunk in his seat.

“No, let’s forget about the texts. You know I have no friends to sit with during lunch and yet you choose to avoid me by not coming to school? Did my “Rumors” hurt you so much that you didn’t even have the nuts to face me?” Moe sunk even deeper in his seat with Nathaniel wincing at the secondhand pain he was getting from the exchange.

“You may have thought that I betrayed you when “I spread” those “rumors”. But you left me, ALONE. Feeling guilty for a crime that I didn’t commit, that you didn’t have the nuts to properly confront me about, for a full, FUCKING, week.” She sighed the anger out of her and closed the space between them. Taking his hand into hers and resting her head on his shoulder she asked.

"Now tell me what’s been bothering you.” Moe was at a loss for words, hearing the worry in her tone. The warmth of her hand, no, her body, traveled through his veins, and her lavender scent filled his nostrils. Moe felt calm.

“I don't want to believe you were suspended so early, or that you hated me so much that you were willing to risk the future of your family, just not to see me." Nami asked feeling a stinging sensation in her chest after asking him that. For some reason, she didn't want him to answer that question.

"No, it wasn't because of you. Something… something happened back at home." Moe said. Nami felt a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders, but she didn't understand why. She noticed how tense Moe became and figured that he wasn't comfortable talking about it.

"It's okay Mohammed. You don't need to tell---""No, I do! After how I acted, the least I owe you is an explanation." Nami could hear how nervous he was, his grip tightening on the baggy pants he was wearing.

Nami allowed him to calm down and waited for him to speak. Moe grabbed his arm, trying to stop it from shivering as he recalled the events that led up to that moment.

"Mmm-My dad he...he was released earlier this week." Nami took a minute to process what he said before her eyes grew in a mixture of shock and rage. She stood up abruptly, getting Mohammed's attention.

"Let's go." She said plainly. Moe looked at her in confusion.

"Where are we---""To face your old man." Nami said, cracking her knuckles. It was Moe's turn to be confused.

"What do you mean? We can't face that man, he'll kill you!" Moe protested.

"Oh yes we can," she said with confidence, "and I'll give him an earful." Nathaniel popped out of the kitchen after hearing Nami’s declaration.

"Woah, hold your horses. This is Aha’med Binyam we're talking about. The king phoenix. You’ll be deep fried before you could even touch him." Nathaniel said, voicing Mohammed's concerns.

"Mohammed's life was going just fine without him, so who is he to pop out of nowhere and ruin everything!" She shouted.

"He's dangerous Nami! You'll only be throwing your life away!" Moe intervened with a worried expression.

"So are you fine with throwing yours away!? Didn't you tell me that you were going to take your family out of the South!? Please, tell me how you plan on doing that, living in this crumbling pile of bricks far away from the Northern gates!?" The room went quiet and Nami sighed her frustration out.

"I can't sit back and watch you waste your dream away. Mohammed, please, let's go confront your father." Nami asked with a softer tone. Moe struggled to answer as he began weighing his options.

She stepped closer to Mohammed and took his right hand in her left. Moe looked down at her unwavering eyes, but as hard as her stare was, he could feel a sense of softness from it, as if she was about to cry.

"Trust me." Nami said, tightening her grip on his hand. Moe's mouth hung open for a little bit, but it turned into a smile.

"Damn, I’m so pathetic.” He laughed. “Nathaniel, let's go!" Nathaniel looked at the two and chuckled.

"You two gotta death wish. I still gotta life to live!" Nathaniel said as he walked out the door flailing his car keys around.

Nami pulled Moe out of the door as they both sat in the back seat of the car. Her hand still gripping tight around his.