"Does this sweater make me look fat?"

I laughed inwardly at Lissa's fretting as we walked along the cobblestone of the Lehigh campus. You would think that, oh, I don't know, being elected freaking queen of the entire Moroi world would make my best friend immune to first-day-of-school jitters.

"I mean, Christian said it looked fine when I wore it last week, but looking in the mirror this morning I really felt like-"

"Liss!" She stopped.

"You look great. You always look great," I assured her. It was true; with her Moroi height, fabulous cheekbones and picture-perfect blonde hair, Lissa looked like College Barbie. In the best way, of course. "And stop worrying! You've been looking forward to this forever."

From the corner of my eye, I spotted one of our dhampir shadows lurking ten or so feet away. One of the downsides of being Her Majesty the Freaking Queen was Lissa's ever-present hoard of guardians. Being one of Liss' sanctioned guardians was what I'd wanted to be my whole life, but I'd always pictured working with one other guardian. Not an entire parade of ninjas.

Lissa sighed. "You're right. I shouldn't stress out so much over this. It's just school, right? We can handle that." She laughed nervously.

"Oh yeah, school has always been was smooth sailing." That got a genuine laugh out of her. "We can totally handle this."

She smiled, and I could see the tension melting off of her. Then she started talking again. "So, are we even going in the right direction? We need to be there at least fifteen minutes early to meet the professor and make sure we have the required supplies and check that our textbooks are the correct edition and-"

"Liss!" Okay, so the tension was still there. "We'll be there in plenty of time." I felt a buzzing in my boot. I leaned down to pull out my phone and swiped the screen. Just arrived in Palm Springs, it read. He doesn't seem too happy. Of course, Dimitri would be concerned about my ex-boyfriend's feelings. He can deal with it, I typed. How's sunny California? Not exactly duster weather, huh? In seconds, his reply came back. All weather is duster weather.

I laughed out loud. Lissa was smirking at me knowingly, but we were quickly approaching the building and I knew I shouldn't get off on the wrong foot by texting in class. I love you, was all I sent back before tucking my phone away again. Lissa and I whooshed through the sliding doors and located our classroom (in plenty of time, I might add). She was still fidgeting, twirling her hair nervously, but she looked excited at the same time as we settled in at our desks. I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of four more years of school, but I was happy for her. She'd always wanted this.

I managed to sneak one last look at my phone screen before the teacher started the first-day orientation speech, and the waiting response made me smile. I love you too, Roza.