*Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead does!*

Dimitri's Point of View

I looked at Rose worriedly. She was taking this well, too well. It almost made me think she wasn't really taking this seriously. I had tried again and again to tell her how much more dangerous St. Vladimir's would be this year. The population at St. Vladimir's has tripled and that's not even included all the extra staff. They've hired over fifty moroi and dhampirs so they will have more people to teach classes and help guard the campus. But Rose doesn't seem to care. I was so worried that she would become careless and slip up.

I was momentarily distracted as we had to move around suitcases to get all of Lissa's stuff to fit. How one person could have so much luggage was beyond my understanding. It took the combined creativity of me, Christian, and Rose to figure out how to fit twenty people's worth of luggage in a car that fit four people. In the end, we managed. And then we were off to St. Vladimir's.

I forced myself to concentrate on the road. I wasn't always successful. I alternated between looking at the road and shooting worried glances towards Rose. I knew she was excited to go back, but I wished she would have shown a little more caution.

When we were a few minutes away from campus, Rose pulled on one of my old hoodies and put on a pair of sunglasses. To someone who didn't know she was wearing a disguise, she would be entirely unrecognizable. Maybe she is taking this more serious than she is letting on. I felt myself silently let out a sigh of relief. I should have had more faith in her.

We were only on campus long enough to unload the car and drop off the suitcases before me and Rose left to transform her back into a man.

The first place we went was the barber. Her hair had grown several inches in the last year. While she was able to get away without cutting her hair during the school year, it would look strange if she went back to school with hair that long.

I saw Rose flinch as the first strands of hair fell to the ground. In that brief moment, she looked vulnerable. But the moment passed quickly and she composed her face into the blank guardian mask she had practiced. I knew how much this killed her. I hated to see her hair go. Her hair was so soft and smooth, but she didn't need it. She was just as beautiful without hair as she was with it.

Once Rose's hair was gone, we went to a convenient store. Rose needed some wrap to hide her curves. I wish she didn't have to wear it. Some scenarios went through my head of me helping her unwrap herself and suddenly the wrap didn't seem like such a bad idea.

After we got the wrap, we went to a store in the mall. It's a good thing Rose has so much practice being a guy. She didn't spend hours picking out outfits like she had when she got clothes over the summer. She just grabbed some shirts, shorts, and pants and bought them.

Rose looked like reality was catching up with her. She didn't look miserable exactly, but she didn't look happy. I really couldn't blame her. She's going to a school where she can't even be herself. I wanted to do something to make her smile, so I took her out to lunch.

This gave her the opportunity to become a boy in the bathroom. Rose seemed distracted all through lunch and I knew why. She was scared.

I paid for lunch and then we went back to St. Vladimir's. I pulled into the parking garage and gave Rose one final kiss before we parted ways.

I wished I could stay by her side, but I had a meeting to go to. Rose already had my spare key so I know she would be able to sneak into my room later. That's one of the huge inconveniences of the new setup. Last year, there was a hallway and then a wall and a door and then a little hallway with the door to my room. We're in a different building this year, so now my room is in the same hallway as the novices. Rose wouldn't just be able to walk in, she would have to be really sneaky.

I walked into the office where we were having our meeting and took a seat in the back. We were in a really large room that was filled with seats. I wasn't surprised. This was the first time we were going to be together as a staff. When he talked to us over the summer, a majority of the staff attended a different meeting with Stan.

As people filtered in, I got an idea of just how many people Stan had hired this summer. I let myself zone out until someone cleared their throat at the front of the room. It was Headmaster Kirova.

"Welcome," he said in a deep booming voice. "We brought you here as one staff to discuss some of the changes that will be happening to the St. Vladimir's curriculum. We will explain the ones that impact both our teachers and our guardians and then you will split up based on whether you are a moroi or a dhampir and learn the specifics of your classes. Do you understand?"

I sighed. This was going to be an extremely long day. I listened to speech after speech about the importance of us developing professional relationships and working together. This is a team effort.

After headmaster Kirova had talked for well over an hour, it was Stan's turn. His spiel was worse than Evan's if that's possible. I don't think I've ever had to strain so hard to stay awake. Really how many different ways can you stress the importance of working together? I think we got the message. After Stan had talked to us for about an hour, he snapped all of us out of our bored haze and told us where we should go next. Moroi are meeting in the library. Newly hired guards are meeting in one of the rooms in the gym. Newly hired dhampir teachers are meeting in the moroi academic hall. And returning guardians are staying right where we are. I internally groaned. That meant I had a couple more hours of listening to Stan talk.

Four hours later, I finally was able to leave the conference hall. My head was literally full of information. Our responsibilities had significantly increased. In addition to a daily six hour shift, we have to guard moroi classes in the afternoon and each teach two guardian classes. I, in addition to that still have to give Rose extra practice before and after school.

I understand the need for the extra protection, but between the wards and the guards, I really don't think we need five guardians patrolling the borders at all times. But it's not my place to tell Stan he's being an idiot.

I went back to my room, eager to see Rose. If it had been a long day for me, I know it had been a long day for her. I grinned when I saw her sitting on my bed, skimming a magazine.

She looked up when she heard the door open and close. A huge smile spread across her face. She looked so beautiful and radiant when she smiled. She jumped out of bed and ran towards me. She wrapped her arms behind my neck and I leaned down to kiss her.

"How were the meetings?" She asked.

"Let's not talk about it," I suggested.

"Fair enough," she quickly agreed, crushing her lips to mine. We didn't need words for what we were going to do next.