Second thoughts [Tyson]

[emily kate welsh]

Though she may have packed every dance outfit she could possibly use, Emily hadn't quite thought of everything for college. Her deficiencies, however, were not material. She didn't think about where she would put her suitcases and boxes after she unpacked them in her tiny dorm room. She hadn't planned for whether her classes would be easy to walk between or if she would have to run from one side of campus to the other to make it on time. She hadn't planned on how to keep from losing her student ID, or where she would even keep it on her person. And, what seemed to be the most troubling of all, where she would sit in the dining hall.

Now for most people who had any sort of social skills, plunking down at a table of people who looked to be as intimidated as you would be the perfect solution, and a great way to make friends. Emily was so inarticulate and shy that she was sure the other freshmen would laugh at her and scoff if she tried to sit with them. The mere thought brought chills and goosebumps. No, sitting at a table when other people were there first would be certain suicide.

This left Emily standing in the middle of the dining hall with her tray in hand, biting her lip and glancing from table to table. MMU may have been a small school, but their dining hall was miniscule. It seemed as if each table had at least three occupants at it. How was she to ever eat if this is how it was all the time? Taking food back to her room would make her look like some antisocial freak with an eating disorder. For the first time she could ever remember, Emily longed for the awkward yet normal silence of her family table, where her father read the paper or didn't come to dinner at all and her mother picked at her food before going into the kitchen to scrub the counters with a toothbrush. Emily was often left alone to daydream or whatever she pleased.

Squeaking chairs pulled Emily out of her reverie and she noticed a table clearing. She kicked into high gear and made a beeline for it, her longer legs making the trip fairly quickly. She plopped herself down in the corner, set her food down, and spread out her water and silverware, effectively claiming her spot. Her shoulders relaxed as she breathed a sigh of relief. See? That wasn't so bad.

[tyson lane stanford]

If there was one thing that Tyson was religious about, it was working out. Though he had quickly become consumed with the arts as a child and had never participated fully in sports, he had always had an appreciation for keeping himself healthy. Not to mention, he liked to make sure that his body was in perfect condition, just in case the other photography majors needed a model on hand. Which, obviously, he was quite perfectly suited for. His dedication often led to his spending a fair amount of his spare time holed up in the gym with his ipod, a bottle of water and all the machines he could ask for. That afternoon, he found himself on the treadmill. Running was something he quite enjoyed. The pound of his feet lulled him into a rather relaxed state and by the time the machine beeped that he had run another mile it seemed like hardly a second had gone by.

Pulling his tag out of the machine to let it roll to a stop, Ty hopped off with a bit of a huff. It had been a rather long workout, but a successful one as far as he was concerned. Wiping off his face with a towel, he swung it back across his neck and moved over towards the showers to shower off quickly before heading over to lunch. After such a grueling run, he obviously deserved to eat. In fact, he was a rather overwhelming desire at the moment and it spurred him to make his short a quick one. Ty changed back into a simple shirt and jeans, throwing everything else into his gym bag before leaving to grab a bite to eat. He would have gone off campus to grab something totally awesome, but he was too hungry to go that far and found himself wandering over towards the dining hall. Not ideal, but it was quick and that was obviously what he needed at the moment.

Reaching the dining hall, Ty slid into the line and waited anxiously, drumming his fingers on the tray as he moved along, grabbing this and that to make himself a meal. When he finished paying, Tyson turned about to look for a place to sit. Ty was an incredibly social guy, so there were more than a few choices as to where he could sit. There were a few tables full of his friends, or simply just people that he knew in passing and very few tables with people that he didn't already know or like. However, there was one table in particular that housed someone that he was quite confident he had never seen before. She looked young and quite afraid, so there was a decent chance that she was a Freshman and had no idea who most of the people around her were. Obviously, it was up to Tyson, the knight in shining armor, to fix such a thing.

Darting across the room, Tyson slid into one of the seats, a rather wide and goofy grin on his face. "Why, hello there. I'm Tyson and you're my new best friend for the day," he greeted her. Obviously, since he was doing her the great favor of gracing her with his presence, she totally had to agree to be his friend and let him sit there. It just wouldn't be fair otherwise. Shooting her another smile as he started to eat, Tyson looked her over briefly. Dancer. She had to be a dancer. "So, how's life as a freshie coming along for ya?" he asked between bites. Perhaps he was being a bit presuming in what he was saying, but he was confident enough in his skills to assume that she was both dancer and freshman. You could practically smell the fear, after all.

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[emily kate welsh]

The last thing Emily expected after the harrowing experience of choosing a seat was for someone to sit with her. Correction: some guy to sit with her. Emily "eep"-ed and jumped about a foot in the air with shock. She glanced at him and took a gulp of water, trying to calm her nerves. New best friend? Oh God, did this mean she had to follow him around all day?! She had hoped to get a look at the dance studios to see what type of floor she'd be working with (because marley vs. wood made all the difference). Following around this hot piece of male like a puppy was last on Emily's list. She didn't even know what to SAY to him, much less how to continue an actual conversation.

Thankfully, he saved her from at least a sliver of her impending humiliation by asking the questions. She took a bite of her food and then realized that he was probably waiting for an answer, so she tried to swallow quickly and began coughing. Flaming red, she gulped her water and tried to speak again.

The first thing that popped out of her mouth was "W-weird", and she spent the next couple of minutes mentally kicking herself. Weird? Being a freshman is weird? For God's sake Emily. Why not tell him the truth after that? 'It's weird and I'm downright terrified of running into someone I need to make conversation with. In fact, I'm so nervous right now that I think I may have a rash creeping across my stomach. If you'll excuse me, I have to go throw up. And now you probably think I'm bulimic, which just adds to this joyous day.'

Thankfully she had a mental filter and stopped speaking after her initial "weird".

[tyson lane stanford]

It wasn't often that Tyson dealt with shy people, since he tended to hang around people that were a lot more outgoing and exciting. However, he tended to be quite fond of people that were a tad less outgoing, since he felt a certain obligation to help bring them out of her shell. This young lady most definitely seemed like a rather perfect person to help. She was new there, obviously quite skittish and probably with no reason to be, all good reasons for Tyson to take up that protective, big brotherly sort of role. At least, that's what he was telling himself. Besides, it wasn't like she could really say no to him. In fact, from what he could tell so far it didn't seem like she was going to be capable of saying much of anything to him. Not that he minded, of course, since he was more than happy to sit there and chat at her with no response.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, a tad amused by her strange choice of descriptions. Of all the different things that came to mind when he thought back on the start of his freshman year, weird wasn't really one of the words that he came up with. Though, he could see how someone might find the place a tad weird. Sort of. "Ah, weird. Very nice, very nice. I'd say that you've become quite acquainted with the school than, eh?" he asked, giving her another rather charming smile. He wanted to attempt to calm her down a tad bit, but really he wasn't sure just how well that would go down. So, instead he decided that it was probably best that he just start to chatter and wait for her eventual responses. Or something to that effect, at least.

Taking another bite of his food, he waited to see if she had anything else to say. However, when she didn't continue, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, getting into a comfortable talking position. "So, yeah, my name's Tyson. I'm a sophomore here and I'm majoring in photography. It's a pretty neat place, for sure, so I'm sure you'll settle in alright eventually. But, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask around for Ty, I'm always happy to help," he started to chatter. Obviously, it was quite necessary for him to offer his help to the girl, just in case. After all, every small freshman deserved a big, strong man to help them settle into the campus and whatever else.

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[emily kate welsh]

Emily's eyes widened more and more as he spoke. Okay, so let's figure this out: some very, very attractive sophomore was offering to help her? She managed to come to her senses enough to smile shakily and quickly glance at his face. Ohmy. Nice eyes. He had to have a girlfriend, because no male this good looking would be allowed to walk the earth single. Any girl in their right mind would want to jump his bones.

Emily felt herself nearly sigh in relief when he said he was a photography major. She had had about enough of the dancers lately, and she was glad to have a bit of a reprieve. Taking a deep breath and trying not to throw up, she decided to try and talk. "I haven't seen too much of the campus," she said in a soft voice. "Only my residence hall and the bookstore...and here. I want to see the dance studio." She bit her lip with nerves. What if he thought she was ordering him around? Did she sound like her father there? Great, now she was as bossy as Daddy. She was going to have no friends at this rate, that was for sure. All Emily wanted to do was drop her head on the table and disappear into it.

At some point during her mental ramblings, she realized that the guy--Ty--had introduced himself and she hadn't. "I-I'm Emily," she stammered. Should she hold out her hand for him to shake? Daddy did that...but she didn't want to be like him, darn it! Oh this was hopeless.

[tyson lane stanford]

As he continued to talk, Tyson kept an eye on the girl to gauge her reaction to his friendly conversation. Obviously, he wanted her to relax and start to feel comfortable, so that was what he was hoping to see from her. However, the smile she gave him was slightly less genuine than he was aiming for and clearly she was still way more nervous than she needed to be. It was probably just his natural good look and charm that was putting her off a bit, since it probably wasn't something that she saw every day. He supposed that was understandable. Though, he wasn't sure what to make of the look that she got when he mentioned he was in photography. He couldn't quite tell if that was a good sign or a bad one. Ah, well.

At the very least, Ty was quite pleased when she started to talk to him. This definitely counted as a success, since obviously he was starting to break down the barrier she had to talking. "Oh, yeah? I could definitely take you over there if you want. I'm in there every so often, so I know how to get there and such," Tyson offered, nodding a bit as he spoke. He was more than ready to hop up right then and there to go lead her about the school and show her all of the awesome things that it had to offer, but he managed to contain himself enough so that he didn't scare her. Instead, he simply wriggled about a bit, looking over at her expectantly as he waited for her answer.

His eyes flicked back up as she started to speak again, quite surprised that she was doing so. Honestly, he had doubted that she would respond much at all to what he'd said. "Emily, Emily. Nice to meetcha," he nodded, holding a hand out across the table to offer a quick shake. He was a fairly polite guy most of the time and that seemed like something that he needed to do. Besides, it didn't seem like she was going to initiate any more contact than was necessary. "I bet we'll be great friends," he nodded, giving her another quick grin before settling back down. Obviously, he was good friends with like everyone ever, so this wouldn't be any different. At least, he was pretty confident of such things anyways.

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[emily kate welsh]

Relieved that he made the first move, Emily shook his hand in the firm grasp her father had ingrained in her. "Likewise," she said immediately, more habit than conscious statement. On a roll, she started another sentence. "I would love if you could show me the studio. I don't know where it is." Her eyes sparkled when she mentioned dance, and her shoulders lost some of their tension. She felt a little lightheaded at all the talking she had done in such a short amount of time, especially to someone she did not know. It was a record for her.

She took one final bite of her food and finished off her water, watching him squirm a bit. Was she boring him? She was probably boring him. He wanted to leave. Great, she scared someone away and she had only been on campus for three hours. Way to go, Em. Deciding to put Tyson out of his misery, she put everything onto her tray. "Did...um...did yyou want to lleave?" she stammered, growing very nervous. She didn't want Tyson to think she was trying to get rid of him, but she didn't want him to stay any longer than he wanted to either. His girlfriend was probably waiting for him anyways. Maybe he was off to take gorgeous model pictures of his gorgeous model girlfriend.

[tyson lane stanford]

The girl managed to return his handshake, which Tyson was quite pleased by. She was starting to look a lot more comfortable than she had at the start of their conversation, which he hoped was partially due to the fact that he was a fairly relaxed kind of guy himself. "I can definitely do that than. Consider me your own personal tour guide for the rest of the afternoon," Tyson decided with a nod. She probably didn't want to hang around him for the rest of the afternoon, nor did he actually expect her to, but he wanted to make it quite clear that he was absolutely free to help her out with whatever she needed. Sure, he could be off with his mates doing something for the day, but he quite liked meeting new people and helping them out. Besides, it didn't really look like she had anyone else helping her and he definitely didn't want to leave her lost and alone. That just wouldn't be right.

Having mostly finished eating, he pushed it to the side a bit as he watched her finish off the rest of her meal. Obviously, it was about time to go explore the campus now. "Yes! That sounds great. We can go the the dance studio first and then maybe I could show you the rest of the cool stuff around campus," he suggested with a nod, not at all realizing that she was suggesting he leave her altogether. Clearly, that just wasn't something he was going to do. Sliding out from his seat, he grabbed his tray and stood at the ready, waiting for Emily to get up as well. "Want me to get that?" he asked, motioning towards the remainder of her trash. Being the gentleman that he was, it was only right that he made the offer, even if she didn't accept it.

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[emily kate welsh]

Emily was immensely relieved when he said he wanted to take her around. That meant she hadn't bored him and she was doing all right with this social thing. "I'd like that," she said with a small smile. There was more to campus than just other residence halls? Who knew? She felt incredibly stupid. She had been dying to go to MMU for a few years now and she didn't even know what the heck the campus had! True, her parents had refused to go on a tour of campus when she was considering it...hell, they had yet to set foot on campus at all. Suddenly, Emily felt very unprepared for college life.

She blushed when he offered to take her trash. "Oh no, I can take it," she nodded, standing up and gathering her things. She realized that might seem rude and gave him another small smile. She always grew very uncomfortable when people offered to do something for her. It made her feel like she was using them, which led to even more guilt and bad feelings. Emily thew her trash away and nervously crossed her arms around herself, waiting for Tyson's lead. Considering she had no idea where she was going and all.

[tyson lane stanford]

Tyson was quite excited that she was all for his showing her around the campus for the day. It wasn't often that he got to take a pretty girl around and show her the place, which was obviously too bad since he would make quite the tour guide. Not to mention, she was now smiling at him, which meant he was doing a good job. "Great. It'll pretty much be the most fun you've had all day," he nodded. He couldn't guarantee that for sure, but he was quite confident that spending time with him was much better than sitting alone at a table in an otherwise crowded lunch room. Letting her take her own trash, Ty pitched the rest of his into the garbage can and gave her a subtle wink as he moved over next to her.

So as not to frighten her, he simply waved his hand in the general direction they would be heading and started to take off. "So, it's not exactly the biggest campus ever, but there's definitely all kinds of cool stuff packed into it. We can head over to the dance studio first, of course, then cut around and see everything else. Sound good?" he chattered, pausing for a moment to look over at her for confirmation. He was already starting to walk over in the direction of the dance studios, walking at a rather leisurely pace so that he could chat at her and make sure she knew everything ever that was going on. Obviously he couldn't just show her things and it was absolutely necessary for him to carry on in a very long diatribe. Coming around the corner to where the dance building was, Tyson's stopped walking and moved his hands in a circle to indicated the building. "There she is. Michener Hall. Home to the dance studio, classes, all that good stuff," he nodded, giving her his quick talk before starting to walk again.

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[emily kate welsh]

Because of her long legs, Emily easily kept up with Tyson until they reached the dance building. She stopped and stared up at it, in shock. This WHOLE BUILDING was for dance? You could fit three of her old studio in it! She was dying to tear up the steps, burst through the doors, and explore every inch of it. Seeing that Tyson had kept going, however, she finally pried herself away and rushed to meet up with him again. "How many studios are in there? Are the floors marley? Do they have portable barres? Does it have it's own auditorium? How many dance professors are there?" She knew she was babbling, but she just couldn't help herself. Everything about dance made her so giddy, her mouth took on a mind of its own and she spoke more in five minutes than she did in a normal week.

Blushing when she realized how fast she interrogated him, she quickly shut up and tightened her ponytail, a nervous gesture. Would she ever learn to be comfortable with people? College was supposed to be the time a person would blossom, come into their own, do things they never thought they would. All Emily could think about was getting from one minute to the next without panicking that she said the wrong thing or laughed at the wrong time. Why were people so darn intimidating?

[tyson lane stanford]

Even though Tyson had spent time around the area, he couldn't say that he had any in-depth knowledge about the dance building. Really, her didn't know much about dance at all and probably couldn't answer any of her questions as he would have liked to. For that, she probably should have gone to a dance major. "Ah, there are a few different studios, I know that," he offered, as an attempt at an answer. "Ah, I don't know what marley is...or portable barres. And I know that there's definitely a few professors," he nodded, deciding that this was a fairly good enough answer. Obviously, he didn't quite have as much knowledge as he would have liked, but he was sure that when they got inside she'd be able to answer some of the questions on her own. Maybe.

Giving her another wide grin, Tyson reached over to grab her hand and started to lead her over to the dance building. "How about we go inside and you can check things out hardcore?" he offered, though he wasn't particularly giving her much of a choice in the matter. Obviously, getting in the building would be the best thing for her. Besides, Ty loved to be inside the building, since there was always a good chance that you'd find any number of hot girls prancing about the place in next to nothing. He couldn't really mind being in there, of course. Walking up to the door, he pulled it open and held it for Emily. "Milady, after you," he said with a ridiculous wink and a grin.

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[emily kate welsh]

Emily's mind quickly switched from the fact that she was trying to speak without fainting to the fact that Tyson was holding her hand. A male was holding her hand. Tyson had her hand and he was holding it and a guy was holding her hand and he was hot and oh. Dear. God. She could hardly breathe, she was so shocked. And she was definitely enjoying it.

She was enjoying it and trying to understand it, to the point where she almost lost her balance when Tyson began to lead her toward the building. She was surprised that he was so at ease entering it...unless he was there all the time. Emily felt herself deflate for reasons she did not quite grasp. That had to be it. Tyson was so comfortable with the dance building because he went there constantly. He probably spent his free time oogling dancers and trying to get their phone numbers. And because he was so gorgeous, he probably succeeded all the time. I don't have a chance, she thought before blinking and entering the open door, smiling her thanks. Why should she care what he did?

Trying to take back her runaway thoughts, Emily gazed around the lobby of the dance building while waiting for Tyson to follow her. She had no idea where she was going and really was not in the mood to get lost.

[tyson lane stanford]

The fact that Emily hadn't responded to anything he'd said didn't bother Tyson in the slightest. He was kind of used to that sort of thing from people, since he often got to talking so much that he rarely paused anyways.He certainly never minded actual conversation, but he often got to be way too talkative for his own good. However, perhaps in this case it was a good thing for the both of them. At the very least, Tyson didn't feel at all bothered by the fact that he was the one doing all of the talking and it probably saved Emily the worry of having to talk. Walking into the building behind Emily, he let the door close lightly so as not to result in a loud bang when it shut. Obviously, it would just be rude if he were to interrupt any dancers that were hard at work with any number of routines and that was the last thing that he wanted to do.

It took Tyson a moment of looking around to figure out where, exactly, to take Emily, but once he had found where he was going he eagerly started forth again. Coming up behind her, Tyson pointed over towards one of the halls. "So, that's where most of the studios are at. Some are pretty big, but yeah. They'll be down there if you want to go check them out," Tyson said with a nod. Of course, he couldn't really let Emily come into the dance building and not see what the whole place was about, so without waiting for a reply he had taken her hand once again to take to over there to see them. The possibility that she wouldn't want him to drag her around like that didn't even occur to him, nor did it bother him that some of the girls around them were giving the pair weird looks. Totally jealous.

Swerving around a group of people getting out from one of the rooms, Tyson paused in front of the first of the large dance studios and poked his head in. It had a few people in there, but no one that looked like they would kick him out for being there, so he felt comfortable enough to slide into the room with Emily right behind. "So, what do you think? Will this suit your dancing alright? You should test it out, show me some moves," he suggested with a sly wink. He was joking, sort of, but he wouldn't have been opposed to the idea. Hell, he'd probably even have jumped in and joined her if she decided that she felt like dancing. Even if he couldn't dance well at all, he liked too flail around and pretend like he could.

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[emily kate welsh]

Emily barely had time to process Tyson's question before she was being pulled along again. Her face absolutely flamed at the stares from the other girls, and she trembled a tiny bit. Thankfully Tyson didn't seem to notice, and he paused at a doorway. Emily poked her head in and gasped.

The wall opposite of them not only had a beautiful wooden double barre on it, but floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the campus grounds. The barre ran across two walls of the studio, with the wall to their left was home to a portable double barre and amazing stereo system. The wall the door was in had full-length mirrors and curtains to cover the mirrors when necessary. A look at the floor reveled marley, and Emily felt a shiver of excitement run up her back. She got to dance here for four whole years. The thought was enough to make her barge into the studio and do a happy dance--but she didn't.

She blinked up at Tyson when he asked her to dance. "I-rr-you wouldn't mind?" she stammered, surprised. She wasn't used to anyone outside of her studio family wanting to see her dance, much less someone she had only known for a half an hour. Taking a breath, she kicked off her shoes and took a few steps into the center of the studio. She turned around to face the mirrors and closed her eyes for a moment, waiting for music inside her head to kick her off. She felt her body relax and a rhythm begin in her mind, and she began to dance what was looking like a contemporary piece.