In this story Rose meets nice and charming Dante at a party one night. They start talking soon after and become very involved. The only problem is that he's black and lives on the bad side of town. Rose and her family have nothing against black people; they're just worried that the more she hangs out on that side of town, the more danger she will put herself in. Soon Rose starts changing; talking and acting in a way she wasn't before she met Dante. Her best friend Lissa doesn't like this change in Rose and they soon start having problems. On top of that her next door neighbor Dimitri has been acting even more strangely than normal lately and Rose has no idea why now all of a sudden he seems to dislike her. These problems with her best friend and family make her cling to Dante and his friends even more. But then something bad happens that makes Rose question everything she thought she knew.
How Was I Supposed to Know?
Chapter 1
I always knew that I was crazy. Why you ask? Oh I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I would get sucked inside my best friend's head whenever she was feeling any type of intense emotion such as fear, anger, lust, sadness, depression, excitement, ECT, ECT. You get the point. I couldn't even begin to tell you how much that freaked me out. If I thought I was crazy, I could only imagine what everyone else would think of me if they found out!
But as I sat there in the kitchen of my pretty decent sized home, staring at my mother, Janine Hathaway, from across the island, I had to wonder to myself if I truly was the crazy one in this family.
"You're making me go WHERE?" I asked her thinking that maybe, just maybe, I hadn't heard her right.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. She was used to my teenage outburst considering the fact that when it came to her and me, we could never have a decent conversation that didn't include someone getting angry and raising their voice at the other. "I said, your father and I thought that it would be best if you went to St. Vladimir starting on Monday."
"I-I-I …. But … uh…" I couldn't believe it; I was actually at a loss for words.
"Rose, stop the dramatics. This will be good for you. We should have done this years ago, but Abe said it would be good for you to live as much of a normal life as possible." She spoke while I just looked at her like she had grown two more heads. She continued, "You're 17 now and you may possibly become Vasilissa's guardian so it's about time you start training. If you start now than you will have a year and a half before graduation to become a guardian. But if you're not prepared than no one will take you seriously enough and you and Vasilissa will be separated."
A guardian? I thought to myself. I had never considered actually becoming a guardian before. I mean I guess I just kind of took it for granted that Lissa and I would be together forever.
Lissa is a Moroi, which is another term for vampire. All Moroi are given at least one guardian, more if they are a royal Moroi. Lissa's family the Dragomirs are royals. I, on the other hand, am not a Moroi. I am a Dhampir which is a half human half vampire person. And St. Vladimir is an exclusive private school for Moroi and dhampirs to train and learn about our kind. Moroi train in controlling their magic; which include earth, air, water, fire, and spirit. There are very few spirit users in the world and many probably don't even know they have spirit. Lissa is a spirit user which probably has something to do with why I keep getting sucked in her damn head for some reason. Dhampirs on the other hand have no magical powers so we just train to become stronger so we can protect the Moroi from Strigoi. Ok I know you're like "WTF! What are Strigoi?" and I don't blame you, this is a lot to take in. Strigoi are evil vampires that need to feed off of Moroi and Dhampirs, and they are immortal unless they are stabbed in the heart with a magic infused stake, burned to death, or decapitated. Sounds simple right? Think again! Strigoi are impossibly fast and strong so you need to train to learn how to kill them and St. Vlads trains their students for this.
So in reality, my parents sending me to the school made a lot of sense if I wanted a chance to protect Lissa. But in true Rose Hathaway fashion I couldn't let this go without a fight, and I could tell that my mom knew this by the way she clenched her jaw waiting for the fireworks.
"But you guys can't just send me away to some new school in the middle of my junior year!" Ok, technically they weren't sending my away. St. Vlads was only 20 minutes away from my sub-division and it only offered boarding to those students whose family didn't live in the state or if the student and their parents felt safer with them living at the school since the school was protected by a magical ward that kept out the Strigoi. So I would be coming home every afternoon at 4. "I'll miss out on everything that all my friends are doing." Not particularly true considering the fact that Lissa and I are the most popular girls at our school so I would most likely be updated on every juicy gossipy thing that happened. "I won't know anyone there." Also not true. I'm Rose Hathaway; I know everybody. "I'll miss out on prom and graduation with my friends that I grew up with, and worst of all Lissa won't be there!" That last part almost made me cry. Lissa is like my female soul mate, the little sister I never had. I was Bonnie and she was Bonnie's little sister Clydetta, or something like that. Not spending senior year together would royally suck. We had made big plans to take over our school senior year and leave our marks on history.
My argument sucked and my mother knew it. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes "You can always see your friends after school, and I'm sure you will be invited to Hornet High's prom by someone," she rolled her eyes again. My parents knew how popular I was at my human high school. I was always invited to every party and spent hours on the house phone in the den every night since they wouldn't buy me a cell phone until I got a job. Yea that sucked. "And as for graduation I'm sorry, but the school won't be that bad. And once you have been there for a year you'll know as many people there as you do at school now. And beside Lissa and Christian both are going to be there. In fact Christian already goes there so I don't know why you said you wouldn't know anyone there."
This was true considering Christian is my brother through adoption. My mother and father Abe decided to adopt Christian after his parents had gone Strigoi and then were killed by guardians. No one else wanted him for fear that he would follow in their footsteps, but my parents saw good in him and decided to take him in. At first I didn't trust him and we hated each other, but after 7 years we're actually pretty close. While I thought about what she sad, I realized I had missed a very important part. "Wait! Lissa is going to be going there with me?
It was Janie's turn to look at my weirdly. "Yes, that's what I said. Actually Lissa suggested going when she heard that we would be sending you there and her parents agreed."
Upon hearing this, my heart leapt with joy. Lissa was the best friend ever! She was always looking out for me like I did for her, and I couldn't love her anymore for that. The more I thought about it, the more I became used to the idea of going to St. Vlads. I did want to become one of the best guardians like my mother, and I would do whatever it took to keep Lissa safe; even Christian and all his sarcastic gloominess. With Lissa and Christian being there it couldn't be that bad. Right?
"When would we start?" I asked
"On Monday." Today was Wednesday so that gave me enough time to say Goodbye to all my friends at Hornet High.
With that I looked at my mother and gave her my answer, not like I really had an option anyways. "Ok, I'll do it." My mother only nodded and left me alone in the kitchen.
A.N: Soooo, this is my first story I've ever posted. I hope you guys like it, and please review and leave me positive and critical comments! =) p.s I need a beta so if you're interested let me know!