When I didn't know

It was 3:53am on a Saturday night when I looked at my clock, I sighed, I loved to be up early, and that was just the kind of person I was but before 5:30 was really pushing it. I sighed again deciding to attempt at falling back to sleep when I noticed a dark figure slink across my room. I froze. But only for a second, I was always good in situations out of the ordinary, so I snuck my hand out from underneath my quilt, moving as little as possible. I grabbed my silver stake, (I'll explain later), and launched my self out of bed and directly at my intruder. Whoever it was seemed a little caught off guard and let out an ear-splitting scream.

It was then that I realized that it was my 7 year-old stepsister, Molly. When I stopped, she burst into tears that streamed down her face, in a never ending flow. Horrified at what I had nearly done, (not killed her but pinned her down with the stake at her neck), I tried my best at comforting her. I turned the light on and hurried her down stairs for some hot chocolate. "W-why would y-you do that wosieeee!"She stuttered in a muffled cry into my shoulder, on our way down the stairs.

"I'm sorry Molly, I thought you were a scary monster" I teased. This only made her cry even harder. She only quieted down when I gave her some of my hot chocolate.

By the way, I was given the steel stake when I was 13, I was never told why, but my real mother insisted that I use it as protection, she said a few years back: "my little rose petal, I swear on your fathers grave that it will save your and others lives, use it when you feel you may need to, but be careful, don't use it on the wrong enemies, you will know the type of people you will need to use it on when your sixteen." This was the day that my mother died.

Tomorrow, well today I suppose, was my sixteenth birthday, I didn't really care about presents very much, but there was one thing I wanted, one thing I knew they had to give me. The truth.

When I woke up again it was 7:30am, I knew no one would be up but my step-mother, (they had taken me into care ever since the death of both my parents, and also no-one ever told me how my parents died. They would just brush it off and change the subject.)

So I proceeded down stairs and would immediately demand the truth. "Hey mum, sooo can I ask for a special birthday present, it won't cost you any money I promise. I finished with my most angelic and innocent smile. She was doing the washing up and couldn't help but smile back.

"I know what you want but it can wait until three, we have a guest coming round".

I faked a horrified gasp "well, at least tell me we have other presents!" I gave my stepmother a puppy dog look that she had never been able to resist.

She caved, "sure, but you have to wait another hour, your stepdad will slit your throat if you ever pulled the covers of him at this time in the morning" she laughed at her own joke and then slipped off into her own little world. I laughed too at her joke but it was a fake laugh, because it was kinda creepy.

Two hours later...

eventually I just got sick and tired of waiting so I ran upstairs to drag my dad and friends,(they are supposed to be my friends but I used to go out with one of them so it's kinda weird to say it was my brother.), out of their beds. Ten minutes later I had succeeded and they were all sitting on the couch, their eyes threatening to fall back to sleep.

My stepdad then trudged off with a grumpy look on his face over to the cupboard under the stairs. He then came out with about four or five presents. I was pretty happy, but nowhere near as I was going to be when it passed three 'o' clock.

Megan my friend (or step sister) had bought me a necklace with a pendant on the end, it was a locket and inside was a picture of me and here and there engraved on the front were the words:"you kick ass x". This made me smile and I walked over to hug her appreciatively. Next was my stepmothers turn, she gave me a warm smile and I unwrapped my present to reveal a ticket to Montana, if we were going to Montana then why was there only one ticket? I gave her confused look, she then said cryptically:"all will be revealed later". I let it go, for now. I moved on to my step father's gift, he had given me a £200 gift certificate for all of the malls in the entire United States of America. I shot him a huge smile and he grinned back, I loved how much he knew me. It was then time for Jamie's present, we had gone out for a few months last year, and I had lost my virginity to him. But that had all ended when he cheated on me with someone in our year, Fern Harris was a SLUT! I still yearned to be with him as his girlfriend, a part of me kept saying that this was a lie, but every time we got close, I was reminded of how much he had hurt me and I had always pulled away. But him, he was more than eager to come back into a relationship with me. He did feel terrible, he also kept dropping not-so-subtle hints here and there, sometimes even full on flirting with me.

His present was a small one, as were all the others, it was in a small blue velvet box. I opened it up; there placed inside was an amazingly beautiful silver rose necklace with a small but equally beautiful diamond in the centre of the rose. Usually I hated things with roses on them, it was because it was my name, but this was just so incredibly breathtaking that I just didn't care. I looked at him gratefully and he smiled fondly at me, his eyes full of pure adoration and love. He then nodded at the box again and I saw a folded piece of paper in the bottom of the box, peeping out from underneath the jewellery pillow. I unfolded it

It read:

Dear rose,

My rose,

It's been two months since you broke my heart as I broke yours,

But as you clearly know I have kept trying. I love so much that you can't even imagine the half of it. In some parts of the last month you appeared to have taken an interest to me, leading me on, but then you turn me down cold if I ever properly pursue you. You are being unfair. You either love me or you don't. So please give me your answer, I know I can make you happy, I can be your everything as you already are to me. I need you, without you I am just a guy that people will look past and feel sympathetic for. Without you I am nothing, I can't be a real person. Please choose me, choose me as your man, your shoulder and your love. No matter what your answer for me, I may still always love you but I will try to move on, decide soon.

I'll love you eternally

Jamie x

I hadn't noticed that I was crying until I saw the droplets fall on the paper before me. I looked up to everyone, each of them, they were looking concerned and worried for me and wondering why I might be crying, Megan punched him in the arm, play yelling: "you idiot! You made her cry!" he didn't react, his eyes were totally focused on me, searching for my reaction, my signal and whether the crying was a good sign or not. I merely stood up, and walked out of the room and indicated for him to follow with a look.

He obeyed. He had an anxious but hopeful look on his face. I did something that he did not expect. I kissed him. Not that I don't just do what I want whenever I want, but I felt like I shouldn't have. Granted, I really did love him, as a brother, this felt wrong. But, I felt like I had to give this a chance, he felt a connection, I did not. He felt heat, I did not. I felt sibling love He did not. A voice in the back of my head told me: You'll never love him, he is just your stepbrother, you're sick for kissing him when you have no love feelings for him but family-like love. But I was trying my best to convince myself differently. But there were things that I loved about him, like his cute wind-swept hair style and his vibrant green eyes. I loved his smile and especially his laugh. But that was about it, I would have to find out more about him, there were surely other things that I would grow to love about him. I just needed to search him hard enough.

Later on in the day there was a knock at the door at precisely 3pm. I heard my mother walk towards the door, her heels clapping onto the floor, then she opened the door and I heard voices the one that was not my stepmother sounded like a woman in some age over forty, I could tell by the formality in her wisdomess voice.

The stranger stepped inside and I listened to their conversation:

Stepmother: I'm so glad that you could come. Rosemarie has been desperate on information about her life and what was going to happen to her, she knows something is going on. She is a very curious teenager, she deserves the truth and we haven't told her anything before you came, Guardian Petrov.

Guardian Petrov: that's just fine, we understand your special situation and we are more than happy to help. Now where's rose? ...

Two minutes later, sitting in my mother's office with Alberta, just her and me.

"My name is Alberta petrov, I work at a school in Montana-"the pieces began to click into place"- as a guardian, someone who protects a species called moroi-"moroi...why did that name seem so natural like I knew what they were already"-they are vampires, as you would have been told about their kind. We are taking you to st Vladimir's school. You will there train to protect your moroi for the last two school years of school. This is what dhampirs do; you may choose one subject off of this list as your own SAT's choice. Other than that here is your time table, read it then any questions you have, ask them."

She finished with a nod of her head. My jaw was basically on the floor, but the power in her voice made me read my time table:

Week day 1st period 2nd period 3rd period 4th period 5th period 6th period

Monday geography history Slavic art YOUR CHOICE music theory

Tuesday method gym/track YOUR CHOICE hand to hand FREE biology

Wednesday first aid gym/track hand to hand FREE theory

Thursday hand to hand English YOUR CHOICE music Slavic art theory

Friday languages method method maths maths

I was pretty happy of the lack of math and English classes, but I guess that there were more important things to learn. Now my questions

"What's a moroi?" I asked

"A not evil vampire, they only feed off of voluntary humans." She replied expressionless.

What's a dhampir?" I enquired

A mix of the two species, human and moroi equals damphir, but damphirs cannot reproduce with each other." She said

"What do we protect them from?"

She paused, wondering if I was ready for some apparently bad information. "Strigoi they are evil vampires, they are merciless creatures of the night, they need blood any kind, but they greatly crave moroi blood, especially royal moroi" she emphasized.

I raised my eyebrows and asked" when are we leaving?"

"Very shortly you need to pack now, but choose your two electives first." She handed me the list. OMG WHY WAS I TAKING THIS SO WELL, LIKE I HAD HERARD IT ALL BEFORE? IT WAS JUST SO FAMILIAR! Perhaps I had heard it when I was back with real mother. I missed her so much. But I didn't really feel like I was going to miss my family, they had been great to me, but they're not my real family, so I can move on more easily at least.

The list of electives read:

Extra:

Music

Spanish

French

Gym

Experienced music

Theory

Slavic art

Leave free (you may fail classes)

I chose basically without hesitation:"experienced music and gym" I was always up in my room writing songs on my guitar, not to sound cocky but I was pretty good. She nodded approvingly at my gym choice. I loved the thought of fighting and sparring with class mates, while it was still all fun of course, I still enjoyed punching a bitch in the nose. But if they pissed me off, I would kick their ass and not just their face would be in danger.

I said goodbye to my family and packed my bags, the moment with them was too uncomfortable, so I did what I could to hurry it up. It didn't help when Jamie came upstairs to seduce me into a goodbye reward, if you know what I mean. I rejected and he went off angry with me, I would have never said yes to the get-back-together thing if I knew I was to be leaving that night.

I was travelling soon so I stuck on a pair of worn out jeans, a black tank top and a purple jacket. I threw my long, dark and thick hair up into a messy bun, but making sure it still looked pretty cute, leaving a few strands framing my face. With that, I nearly skipped out of the door with Alberta carrying some of my luggage, I packed everything. I was extremely excited to begin my new life. My new life at Vampire Academy...