Usual disclaimers apply.
I woke up to someone shaking my bed.
"Yeva, what are you-?" I shouted, bolting up right, pillows flying in different directions, due to my weird habit of sleeping with every pillow except for one on top of my face.
"Yeva?" Adrian asked, his hands on the edge of the bed. "What the hell is a 'Yeva'?"
"Dimitri's grandmother," I growled, and was about to throw my comforter back to get up when I stopped halfway. "What are you doing here? Isn't this against the rules?"
"Since when do you worry about the rules?" Adrian stood up straight.
"Since when do you sneak into innocent little girls' rooms?" I threw back.
"You're not innocent, nor are you a little girl. You're anything but," Adrian said, a devious glint in his eyes.
"If you're here to flirt, get out."
"Oh, so I'm guessing you don't want my essay, contract, and video on why I am the perfect post-Dimitri boyfriend for you. Fine then. I'll just be going. I'm sure Lissa will love my company so much more." Adrian patted his leather jacket, and started walking for the door. Forgetting what I had fallen asleep in, I flew out of my bed and pinned him against the back of the door. The only sound was the slight thump of my body pushing Adrian's the last half foot to the door.
He pushed me away slightly to turn around and face me. His eyes found my very visible cleavage in my revealing black lace cami top. I had found it the night before and decided to do some self-indulging for a night in preparation for today.
"Yeah, I have it," Adrian said after a few minutes of staring. Now that a part of me had moved on from Dimitri, it felt kind of good to have Adrian looking at me like that.
"Do you?" I asked, pressing into him even more. Our faces were barely an inch away.
"Mm-hmm," Adrian muttered. It was obvious that he was surprised by this interaction. When I had played on his emotions to get some cash before heading to Russia, it wasn't nearly as this intense.
"I'd like to see it," I said softly. I tilted my head a little bit.
"Here," Adrian said gruffly, roughly slipping a hand into his back pocket. He gave me the papers and a DVD in a slim, clear case. His messy handwriting was scrawled across the top in red Sharpie, titled "Vid 4 Rose".
"Thank you," I said, my lips practically touching his. "Now if you don't mind, I have to get ready for class." I lightly blew on his lips and backed up, spinning halfway to my wardrobe, making sure it was evident that my flimsy booty shorts (the kind that were so small, they barely made the cut for being called shorts) were very thin.
"I guess I'll see you, later, then, yeah, okay, going," Adrian said, taking lots of odd pauses, and opening the door and disappearing so fast, not even a second had passed. Satisfied, I grabbed some novice training clothes and headed for the bathroom.
I was locking the door to my room, notebook and planner in hand, when Eddie slid up to me.
"So today's the big day," Eddie said bluntly, leaning against the off-white wall, and arm resting above him on the wall.
"And?" I prompted, pocketing the key in my duffel bag, which slung over my shoulder. I started walking down the hallway to the stairs. Old, dark pink work-out pants that I had cut into knee-length shorts made a soft swish noise as I walked, my extremely expensive sneakers I had bought in Missoula before coming back making no sound as my feet stomped against the carpeted cement.
Eddie shrugged. "Conversation starter."
"And I'm a on conversation ender." I started descending the stairs two at a time, a feat I had accomplished since none of the buildings on any campus had an elevator and I had been going to the same school since birth.
"What's with the funk?" Eddie inquired, keeping up perfectly with me.
"Funk?" I echoed, waving at another novice as we passed by.
"Why are you being difficult?" Eddie repeated.
"Adrian woke me up in a rather annoying manner."
"Which means?"
"I woke up to him shaking my bed uncontrollably."
"Sounds like Adrian?"
"How?"
"Breaking the rules and pissing you off."
We were standing outside the gym at this point, me looking up at Eddie.
"Yeah, it does," I said, laughing. I crossed my arms over my chest, my notebook squashed in between my arms and chest.
"Well, I should probably go check out the breakfast scene," Eddie said awkwardly after a few seconds of weird silence.
"And I've got to go take notes on Alberta's teachings so I can stall Dimitri when I see him next time," I said, waving the black notebook after unfolding my arms. The pencil was tucked inside the wire spirals. Eddie let out a nervous laugh. He, Lissa, Christian, and Adrian all knew about the note and stake Dimitri had sent me after I got back to the academy. Nobody else.
"Have fun," Eddie said.
"I will," I replied. He gave a half-hearted wave and ambled in the direction of the rest of campus. Steeling myself for almost anything, I walked into the giant room, overcome by memories. Tons of memories, most of them good and sweet, flooded me and after two steps in, I strongly considered turning back around and telling Alberta I forgot. But this was so I could have a fighting chance against Dimitri when he came to kill me. I knew he'd be practicing and training on his own after our multi-encounter in Russia.
I dropped my bag on the floor and threw the notebook next to it. The sounds echoed around the walls of the empty, dim-lit gym. The ceiling was a good twenty feet high, and only a small corner of the lights overhead were on. The only other light coming in was from the windows in the doors, the setting sun not giving much light.
Sitting in the middle of the gym, I started stretching. Each new stretch was a new memory of Dimitri. I had found that since I had seen him in the flesh, full Strigoi, a part of me had moved on, and memories of him weren't so heart-wrenching.
I was bent over, my nose nearly touching the floor as I tried to stretch my right hamstring as far as possible, when the polished wood floor suddenly seemed brighter.
"I see you two weren't messing around in here," I heard a voice say, and I looked up to see Alberta leaning against the doorway. Her right hand dropped from the light switch panel.
I sat up as she walked over to me, her usual guardian attire looking crisp and clean.
"How-" I started to say, but Alberta just shook her head.
"It was his trademark, so to speak. Curling the leg that wasn't being stretched around the back of his body. He would do this thing where if he were stretching his left leg, his left arm would be behind his back and he'd be reaching with his right arm."
I just gaped.
"Guardian Belikov and I lived in neighboring towns. Our towns were carbon copies, minus the inhabitants, town name, and street names. We ended up going to the same academy and I was student-teaching the middle campus in my senior year when he was starting there. He started that odd stretching habit in about November. Don't know where it came from." Alberta sat down in front of me. She looked at me carefully.
"You're only thirty?" I asked softly, digesting the new Dimitri information. I had never seen him doing any stretching, save our first practice. It was almost a year ago, and a lot had happened in between then and now.
Alberta nodded. "Stress makes a person age much more than she should."
"Sorry," I offered, switching legs that I was stretching.
"Don't be. My fault for taking on a high-ranking job at the only school in the world that has new issues and problems nearly every other hour."
I smirked towards the floor at her sarcasm. What she said made me wonder what had happened when Lissa and I were on the run. I guess being in charge of tracking us down was stressful enough.
"What were you two working on before things...went crazy?" Alberta asked, and I saw her shadow stand up.
"Staking dummies," I said. I stood up and nearly met her eye for eye. "I think. It's been a while."
"Having heard about your adventures in Russia from those over at the Royal Court, I want to see what you've got, Hathaway," Alberta said forcefully, back in full guardian captain mode. "Let's go."
The next hour was torture. Despite having killed lots of Strigoi, Alberta was intense. I knew she expected a lot from me having trained with Dimitri for over half a school year and then killing countless Strigoi in a foreign country. We would have gone an hour and a half, the block of time she had told me she had set aside for this, but she let me go with a half an hour to go.
"You need a shower."
That was all she said when she ended our session. The entire hour consisted of me doing things and her taking notes.
"We'll start getting into actual training tomorrow. This afternoon will be running. Guardian Belikov had told me how much you complained about it, and I'd like to see how much your complaining was worth." Alberta looked at one of the sheets on her clipboard. I straightened up and slung my bag over my shoulder. My black tank-top stuck to my body.
"Great," I said, swallowing little saliva was in my mouth.
"I'll see you later, Hathaway," Alberta said, and waved a hand at me. I assumed it was her dismissing me, and I left the gym. I pushed the door open and was greeted by fairly warm air. I stumbled over to the grass by the door, threw my bag and notebook down, grabbed two water bottles out of my bag, and dumped them over my head, enjoying the cold water running over me.
I dropped down beside my stuff and sighed. I was pretty sure I had shown Alberta all I was capable of, and I was having a slight rush about that fact. Remembering my notes for Dimitri, I reached over and grabbed my notebook. It was a nondescript, black notebook I had bought in the airport in Missoula. I had meant to document my trip on finding and killing Dimitri, but as soon as I had put it in my carry-on after buying it, I promptly forgot about it. Ibrahim had apparently managed to get someone to find and send my stuff I had left at Tamara's in Novosibirsk to him, and then in turn, to me through Janine.
I pulled the pen out of the spiraling and flipped to the first page. I hadn't looked in it, and trying to comprehend the Russian writing on in that goddamned familiar handwriting, a part of me realized I should have. Much, more sooner.
The first quarter or so of the notebook was filled up. Somehow, Dimitri had gotten a hold of it, and decided to share his deepest, darkest secrets with the blank, lined pages. In Russian. I flipped to where it ended, and the last few sentences were in English.
As much as it pains me and the now cold heart that still loves her, she must be killed. She will be going back to the school. Two and a half months until graduation. That may be too much time. She may find Robert. I cannot allow this.
The words chilled me. I had no way of knowing if he wrote this before or after I escaped. If it was before, it meant I had pissed him off about being hesitant with turning into a Strigoi. If it was after, it meant that whoever Ibrahim had enlisted had to somehow get around Dimitri. The enlistee was probably dead. Dimitri as a fresh Strigoi killed three experienced Strigoi at the same time.
I drew a line under Dimitri's words and wrote my own.
Alberta is tough. Will work someone to death. Very business-like. Most definitely will take some time getting used to it. Especially after my former mentor was *in love* with me.
Happy with what I wrote, I dated it and closed the notebook, shoving the pen back in the spiraling.
I pushed Dimitri's words to the back of my mind as I walked to breakfast. There were more important things to worry about at the moment.
Like what Adrian had written in his essay and contract, not to mention what he had confessed to his video camera.
Review!
So how many people would read a story about Janine? Like, her in school/right after she gets out. Around that time period. Because I've got a story idea...