She and her father made the big move to the States when she was fourteen. It was a big decision, but Stephen (who had been born in California, and held dual citizenship) felt like a fresh start was exactly what their tiny, broken family needed. They moved just in time for Cera to start attending Quincy High School in Quincy, Illinois. At first, she was nervous about starting high school in a new country, where she didn't know anybody and people gave her sideways looks because of her accent. She was a likeable girl, though, and she made friends quickly. During the second semester of ninth grade, she met Mina Corbeau, and the girls immediately became fast friends. For a little while, she spent more time at Mina's house than she did at her own.

Cera started dancing when she was fourteen years old. She started out on her school's jazz team because Mina wanted to join, but she refused to do so alone. She quickly got a taste for it, loving how she could just go somewhere else for awhile when she was dancing. It was just her, and the music, and she didn't think about her father who stressed out over money or her mother who never sent so much as a card on her birthday. All she thought about was the dance. She quickly moved on from jazz, and took any classes that she could. Ballet was by far her favorite, and even though she had a late start at it, she was something of a natural. In fact, she was able to graduate to en pointe after only a few years of training. Mina didn't continue dancing, but she was there for every one of Cera's recitals.

In Cera's senior year, Quincy High's cheerleading squad held emergency tryouts. Two of their girls were gone, a set of twins moving suddenly due to a family emergency, and there was an important meet coming up in a few months. And somehow Mina managed to convince Cera that it was a great idea for both of them to try out. They both had the required five years of gymnastics, Cera had the grace that came from her almost religious dance studies, and as Mina pointed out, they both had the legs for the little pleated skirts. So they went to try out, though Cera was dragging her heels, and complaining about how stupid this all was. She wasn't exactly excited, but all it took was one comment from the captain of the squad ('Oh. Cera. You know these are tryouts for cheerleading, right? This isn't exactly your thing...') to make the competitive side in her flare up dangerously. So, even though she didn't want to be a cheerleader, she gave her all in that tryout. She flipped and twisted and smiled and bobbed her head. Her hands ached from clapping, and her voice was hoarse from calling out the routines. She didn't want this, but damned if those snobby cheerleaders were going to think she couldn't do it. And that was how she was presented with a neatly folded uniform a few days later, along with a schedule of all the football games, the practices, and the fundraisers. Her beloved pointe slippers were set aside more and more often, to be replaced by pompoms and hair ribbons in the school colors!

Senior year is also when Cera met THE BOY. It was at a gas station, just as the sky started turning purple, the air getting cold. She was with a couple of other cheerleaders, on their way to a victory party after a game. She was on her way to the change machine to get quarters for the vacuum when she saw him. He was standing at his car, waiting for the tank to fill, and his eyes followed her across the parking lot. They made small talk (He asked her if she had change for a ten. She didn't.) and he raised an eyebrow at her uniform. Later that night, at the party, just as she was being hit on by a faceless football player with beer breath and sweaty hands, THE BOY showed up again, out of nowhere. He was there to deliver pot to the host of the party, and when he entered the room, their eyes met. He jerked his head once, the universal sign for 'come on', and just like that she was following him. She didn't know him from Adam, didn't even know his name, but with that expectant gesture, she was his.

Cera and THE BOY dated for awhile, but eventually they decided that it just wasn't working. The sex was fantastic (but don't tell her father that!), but they weren't compatible as a couple. They broke up the week before prom, but still went together because hey, the tickets were expensive! It was a nice night, though she wouldn't consider it the magical evening everyone talks about prom being.

Cera graduated from QHS somewhere near the top of her class, and even got a partial scholarship to Northwestern University. It wasn't her father's first choice of schools for her, but he was so relieved that she was actually going to college that he couldn't complain much. And the scholarship allowed him to help Cera with the rest of tuition, and even buy a brand new set of bedding for her dorm room. She did alright in her classes. Not great, but well enough that she didn't lose her scholarship, which was all her father could ask for. She did float around a bit in her first year, switching majors twice before settling on History, simply to please her father who had never been overly fond of the 'dancer as a career' thing.

History classes just weren't for her, however, and Cera found herself becoming increasingly miserable. Projects and essays were handed in late, much to the chargrin of her advisor, if they were handed in at all. She spent more time doodling little ballerinas in fluffy tutus on her notes than she spent studying them, and eventually she got pulled aside after a lecture and told that she was failing, and that there was nothing she could do to bring her mark up enough to keep her scholarship at this point. Disappointed in herself, but not surprised that academics were not for her, she made the hard but ultimately necessary decision to withdraw from her courses. She moved from Evanston to Cheshire Hills, finding a small group of girls who had a spare room in the house they were renting, and got a job at Starbucks so she could afford the rent. A month later, she enrolled in a career path level of dance classes at Heinze Dance Academy. There was no use in denying the fact that dancing was what she was meant to do, even if it upset her father that she was chasing after a dream that he thought was foolish.

It was hard work, and Cera almost forgot what sleep was. Between slinging lattes, her dance classes, and practicing when she wasn't in class, she barely had time to do things like sleep or eat or attempt a social life. But it was worth it, because when she went out for a place in a proper company she was accepted on the spot. No more roles in the corps de ballet, no more waving a rose back and forth, she was a principal dancer. She had a headshot, and she was finally making money dancing. It was all she'd wanted for a decade, and when the role was offered to her, all she could do was stare at the president of the company, then ask if he was serious. After she was told yes, he was serious, Cera thanked him profusely before beating it out of there before he could change his mind. No point in tempting fate, after all.

It was around then, when Cera's life was beginning to pick up again, to really go places, that she met Carter. Beautiful and dark with flashing eyes and a smile that made her fingertips tingle, he swept into her life like a tornado. Uprooting everything in his path, he tore her life asunder in the best possible way, and she fell in love with him faster than she thought was humanly possible. He filled roles in her life that she didn't even realize were empty, and brought light to the last dark spots in her soul. She was drawn to him like a moth to a flame, and found herself skipping morning rehearsals at the barre her roommates had let her set up in the basement, just so she could spend more and more nights with him. Soon, it didn't make sense for her to keep paying rent at that house full of girls who giggled madly every time Carter's car rolled up to the curb to fetch her. She was spending more time with him than she was at home, and had so many of her things there that moving in with him took three hours. And most of that time was spent looking for the pairs to socks and trying to decide if she really needed to keep the old bedding set her father had bought her for college. It was a seamless transition, and she fit into his house the way she fit into his life; like she was meant to be there. All in all, life was pretty awesome.