After our meeting with headmistress Kirova, Dimitri and I went to see Alberta –eh, Guardian Petrov- so we would know who we would be teaching. She told us about the two students that would need us as their mentor. They were both good, but missed a small part in attitude. Dimitri and I would be teaching two girls. Both were different of course, but both had the same thing in common; they both had the potential in being really good Guardians.

Leila was a 15 year old girl and raised by the Keepers, who believed that 'our kind' of Dhampirs and Moroi lived the wrong way. We did separate ourselves from the humans, except the feeders of course, and the Dhampirs are the one who protect the Moroi. It has always been like this for centuries, but there are groups out there who live the other way. Those groups are groups with human, Dhampirs and Moroi living all together, all equal. The Moroi and human fight too, like the Dhampirs. The human are not only seen as feeder, but as someone equal to the rest.

Leila's dossier didn't say anything about her reason to decide to leave the Keepers, but fact was that most of the Keepers were good fighters. While Leila too was a good fighter, she missed a part of the technique, which is what Dimitri and I had to teach her.

The other girl, Cora, was also 15 years old. While reading her dossier she reminded me of myself when I was younger. Her grades told me that she was a good fighter, but the rest of her grades weren't that good. There were several notes of her being a troublemaker, not paying attention during her other classes and she was a bit rude to teachers sometimes. Dimitri and I would try to teach her a different attitude, the attitude that she would need, if she wanted to become a Guardian.

While both Dimitri and I had read the dossiers, Alberta spoke again.

"Do you have any questions?" she asked.

"No," was my answer. Dimitri only shook his head.

Alberta smiled. "Well, if you don't have anything against it, I thought you will want to meet the girls before training starts?" she asked.

I nodded. I was curious about the two girls.

"You can meet them when classes are over. Training will start an hour later, to give them some time for themselves. I'm sure they want to meet the two of you too. It'll be a sort of first training, but don't be too hard to them, this is the first time," she said.

Dimitri nodded. "where will we meet them? The gym?" he asked.

Alberta nodded. " Oh, I almost forgot. Before you go to your rooms and settle down, since you now are staff members, we kind of expect you to have shifts too," she said before Dimitri an d I took our stuff.

I nodded, kind of concerned. How would I have time to guard Lissa?

Alberta seemed to read my expression. "Rose, Moroi usually don't need Guardians during their time at the academy. I think Queen Vasilisa is an exception. During your absence she has guardians, but I think you still want to guard her when you have time?" She asked.

"Of course," I said without thinking. "But, I will have to take shifts here too, right?"

Alberta shook her head. "No, if you will guard Lissa, and teach the students, you don't have to do the shifts."

I smiled. "Thank you, Guardian Petrov."

Then Dimitri spoke. "Will I have shifts or will I guard Lord Ozera?" he asked.

"We have enough scool guardians, so you can guard or help Lord Ozera if you want, though we can ask you, same for you Rose, to take a shift."

We nodded. Of course we understood.

Alberta smiled at us. "That was what I had to tell you. Do you have other things you like to know?"

We shook our head.

"Then you can settle down in your dorm and go to the gym after the classes end."

I unpacked my stuff in a short time. Of course I didn't take much stuff with me, so I was done quickly. When I was done unpacking, I knocked on Lissa's and Christians door.

A smiling Lissa opened the door. "Christian is with Mia to the fighting club of them and I sent the guardians off for a while, so we have some time together. Just the two of us, like it used to be."

I smiled. It was a while ago since we were together with the two of us. We talked for a few hours. Since we came here in the morning and classes ended 3am, we had quiet a lot time.

"Rose?" Lissa asked after a short silence.

"Yes?"

"Are you happy?"

I thought about it for a while. "Yes, I am. I have a great job, protecting you with Eddie. Our group of friends stayed together, all at Court. I have the life I always wanted," I said. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. I was happy, I had a great life, but I was still heartbroken after the break up with Dimitri. He broke up with me while I just tried to protect him from more pain, and I was afraid to lose him.

"Rose," Lissa said.

"Yes."

"Are you being honest?"

"Yes, of course," I half lied.

I glanced at the clock, noticing it was time to go.

"I have to head to the gym," I excused myself.

I went back to my dorm, changed into my training clothes and headed towards the gym. Of course Dimitri already was there, reading one of his western novels. He only nodded when I came in and continued reading.

I tried to hide the hurt I felt after that.