Ahe

Female

23

April 26, 1996

Niu was a decent student, usually receiving a mixture of B’s and C’s, and never had trouble in school if it didn’t involve talking. However as soon as she turned 16, her mother decided that Niu needed to start working. She wasn’t happy with the money Niu was bringing with winning dance competitions and felt that this blight of hers needed to bring in more for repentance. Niu’s studies suffered greatly because of the hours she had to work and also she threw herself more into dancing to deal with all of the stress.

The stress would prove to be too much when Niu injures her knee at work and is told that she wouldn’t dance anymore. This sent Niu into a depressive spiral and she dropped out of school when she was 17. After getting help behind her mother’s back, she went back to get her GED when she turned 19.

Her mother, who was 19 at the time, truly never wanted children but only got pregnant in an attempt to keep her boyfriend at the time in her life. Unforatnelty for her, her plan backfired. Shortly after Niu was born, her father, who was 22, had to suddenly run an errand one night and never returned. Her mother was stuck to raise Niu by herself. This broke her mother and from that day, Her mother began to take out her frustrations out on her. Her abuse started off small but quickly escalated over time.

Niu stopped talking around the age of 6. Previously when she had reached for someone to help her, it felt like no one was truly listening to her. Whenever Child Protective Services would come to visit, her mother would act like the struggling but caring mother and soon, she would be left in her care again. Niu learned to regret reaching out for help after the second time the CPS came to the house. She realized that it is better to just fade to the background and be quiet.

When she was 8, she spent a lot of time with a cousin of her mom’s who happened to own a small dance studio. This cousin would teach Niu dance between classes and saw a spark in her. After training her seriously, Niu entered her first dance competition months later and won first place. Her mother wasn’t impressed at all and tried to put a stop to her dancing but gave up when her cousin begged to let her continue. Niu grew to adore dancing and was known in her local communities for her contemporary dancing. It’s said that you can’t tear yourself away when she dances.