Willowpaw watched her mentor examine her looks. Willowpaw felt a bit self-conscious, but she shoved it down. Not the time. As Nightshade spoke up, Willowpaw straightened her back. Realizing she was right, Willowkit looked at her pelt. A few clumps of fur had been sticking out in the wrong places. The ceremony had been so sudden, she hadn't had time to clean herself up. Embarrassed, she groomed her fur back to normal as quick as she could so she could listen up. Willowpaw frowned at the mention of fighting, but listened anyway. Yet again, Willowpaw concluded that Nightshade was right. ShadowClan cats were meant to be proud, or at least the other Clans thought that. As Nightshade leaned closer, Willowpaw blinked in surprise. Willowpaw felt a spark of determination as her mentor talked about coordination and social skills. She lacked in those two skills, that's for sure. She never really tussled with her brothers and sister as a kit, and she never really played many games. She needed to learn sometime. And her social skills? Those needed some work too. Willowpaw was a quiet, sweet little she-cat who didn't talk much, but listened. Willowpaw shuddered as Nightshade whispered the last few words of her statement. That was definately true. She had heard how Snowstar said the wrong things at the Gathering, and she had heard how Blazingstar declared war on ThunderClan. Maybe Nightshade wasn't such a sinister cat as she thought. Maybe Nightshade had the most sense of them all. As her last few words were spoken from her lecture, Willowpaw looked down in thought. Remaining in the background seemed very nice. Keeping quiet, learning information she never knew, just following orders and being a nice, quiet cat. But standing out? Now that was a whole new story. Willowpaw had never stood out in a crowd, so she wouldn't know how that was. Was it fun? Was it right? Willowpaw frowned. She had never stood out, but she felt like she wanted to. Yes, it was all clear now. Willowpaw wanted to be in the spotlight. Of all her siblings, she got the least attention, and it was all coming back to her. How she was last to get comforted in a dire situation, how she was sometimes ignored, how she was forgotten. Now fuming, Willowpaw snapped her head up to look at her mentor. "I want to stand out. I want to be a good warrior. Make me the best warrior I can be," she answered boldly, eyes shining with a hidden fire that was not there before.