Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alida smiled and accepted the punch. She raised her fingers to her mouth, signing thank you, but then pulled the sheet over so she could write it, too.

She let him read it as she took a sip of the punch. It definitely hit the spot, the air was really dry in here. Probably the effect of having so many people in the room.

Alida chuckled silently, and demonstrated it again. She raised her hand with her palm towards her mouth, and touched her lips with the tips of her fingers, then took them away, showing her smile.

She wrote, That's thank you. Want to learn a little more? It's up to you.

Alida smiled, glad that he was willing to learn a little bit. She tried to think of a few simple gestures she could teach quickly.

Then she held up her right hand, and made the gesture for "yes". It was very simple, consisting of making a fist of her hand, thumb curled outside the fingers. The palm faced outward, and she tilted it up and down in a nodding motion. After she demonstrated it a few times, she wrote down that that was the sign for yes.

No was also simple. She held up her right hand again, and curled in the ring and pinky fingers, extending her middle, pointer and thumb out from the palm. She pointed it outward, and closed the outstretched fingers in, so the finger tips touched gently, then opened them slightly and did it again.

That means no, but if I did the motion only once, instead of twice, it's more firm, and a little less polite. Oh, and if I oriented the gestures at myself instead of outward, they would be like saying that someone told me yes or no, whichever I used. Does that make sense? she wrote, and let him read it after he'd practiced a couple times.

Alida smiled and nodded. That two were a pretty simple. She was about to start showing him 'please', but his bangs were distracting. She watched them for a second, biting her lip, and then before she could decide not to, tried pushing them back herself, with a little half-sheepish smile on her lips.

Alida laughed silently, covering her mouth somewhat, and shrugged. She returned his 'yes' gesture.

She continued to smile as she wrote, Ready for one more? This is 'please'.

And she put her right hand over her heart, and made a counter clockwise circle on her chest with the flat of her hand. Then she nodded for him to try.

Alida's eyes widened, and she looked apprehensively out at the floor. She knew set dances, but this kind of dance... it didn't seem to have any pattern to it...

But she didn't pull her hand away, just swallowed hard and looked at him for reassurance. He wouldn't try to make a fool of her, would he?

This was why she didn't go to parties. There were so many people, and she was of the opinion that she was terrible at dancing. Of course, she never went out on the floor long enough to learn, but still.

She followed Zuko a little further out on the dance floor, blushing brightly across her cheekbones. She glanced about a little, looking at the people around her. What were they doing? That girl was swaying her hips, that one had her arms out from her sides... and those two shouldn't be doing that in public. She averted her eyes. (( XD ))

She didn't want to disappoint the golden demon, so she found the beat in the song, which was thankfully heavy. Absolutely certain she was making an idiotic spectacle of herself, she swayed with the music, axiety clearly visible in her eyes. She wasn't doing terrible, but she was still far to self-conscious for the movements to be fluid and natural-looking.