A/N: Sorry for such the long delay, I've had this chapter written for quite a while now but I was waiting for the traffic bug to get fixed so when it did I briefly read over my chapter and didn't like it. So I had to redo the entire chapter /: & then it went back down again.. so i decided not to care and update anyways. (:

So this chapter originally had been two different chapters in my mind but I morphed them together so we can get Dimitri back sooner! (: Doesn't that make everyone so happy? It does me too((:

Anyways READ and REVIEW!

Disclaimer: I do not own vampire academy or any of its wonderful characters.

Chapter 4: Bleak Past/shopping

I woke up before my alarm went off this morning; I was so shocked from last night's events that I never truly fell asleep. I kept thinking about what Adrian had asked me.

It was undeniably sweet, but something about it had seemed off. As if he was counting on me saying yes way too much. I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't interested in his offer.

He was right when he called me out on being jealous when I thought Lissa and him had secretly been together. As soon I felt that Lissa was lying through the bond I was overcome with joy, but oddly the jealousy hadn't been the only reason I was happy. I was happy that she didn't do that to Christian.

When she told me that they were seeing each other I instantly thought of how Christian was going to feel. For some reason I could easily imagine the heartbreak of having someone ditch you. For picking someone else when you knew that you were never going to ever love somebody as much as you loved them. I don't know why I could have related so much to Christian at that moment but I did. Geez, I think I was turning soft on him.

I quickly got ready and went to go meet up with Jake for my practice. I got to the gym and was surprised to see Jake already working out without me. He was by the gym equipment doing pull ups on a random bar when I stopped dead in my tracks, his shirt was off and the combination of his gleaming sweat and bulging muscles were doing wonderful things to my own body, but along that pleasure I was also feeling guilty. Damn I needed to get a grip of myself, what was wrong with thinking my mentor was sexy as hell. I shook my head to get all the crazy nonsense out of me and cleared my throat. Jake did a few more then dropped to the ground, when he turned to look at me I couldn't help but let out a laugh, I was right his eye did look worse today.

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up Hathaway; you won't be so lucky today."

He grumbled while setting up a few dummies on to something that looked to be in between an obstacle course and a fortress. There were parts of the obstacle that was out in the open and some that were completely concealed I had no idea what I would face going in there. There were twisted mazes and bridges you had to escape by jumping to a rope and swinging yourself to the other side. It looked like so much fun.

"What are we doing today?" I asked excitedly.

"You are going to go through and save as many dummies [moroi] as you can in ten minutes, you will repeat this until you save all sixteen dummies in the correct time frame."

I looked at him like he was crazy, "Do you know how many times I'm going to have to do this? It takes forever to carry one dummy let alone two. How am I supposed to carry sixteen at once?"

He chuckled for whatever reason and pointed to the obstacle course. "In the course you will find three circles marked with red tape, those are your wards. You grab a dummy and place it in the wards and continue finding the rest."

"Aren't you supposed to guard your moroi even when you're in the wards?" I asked hoping he would consider this and change his mind with the number of dummies he'd laid out. It just seemed like too much.

"Rose this is just an exercise, not everything you do in here is going to a replication of what you do out there." He said in an exasperated tone.

"Like take running for example, when you're facing a Strigoi you're not going to run away you're going to fight him until one of you die. But we run every morning here so we can loosen up our muscles so there is a less chance of us getting injured." He smiled triumphantly.

But as far as I was concerned he was completely wrong. "Running is very helpful and you might say that you would stay and fight no matter what but when you're stuck in a mall with no weapon and a scared moroi you're going to do anything to get out of danger, running is one of those options."

I didn't know why I was defending the thing I hated most about working out but even though I hated to run I could see the importance of it, which made it even more sad that my mentor couldn't.

"Why would you be without a weapon? Guardians always have at least one stake with them?" He asked challenging my opinion.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Anything could happen, you've got to be prepared for everything."

He gave me a smile, "Alright enough arguing with the mentor. I'm about to start the timer."

I smiled knowing I'd just won, "Okay, well while I'm working my ass off what are you going to do?"

"I will be watching that sexy ass of yours try to save all of those bodies." He smiled seductively and I rolled my eyes still trying to ignore his shirtless status.

He continued instructing me on where the starting point was and where I was to end. I got set up and as soon as Jake started the timer I took off.

It took six tries before I finally got all bodies in the wards. I stepped out of the obstacle course and looked to Jake; he was reading some kind of western magazine, it was weird that only his choice in books and his accent were the only things that would make you think he was a country boy. Everything else about him indicated otherwise. Something about the country lifestyle was eating at my brain but I just ignored it and focused on something else I was wondering.

"Jake what did you do to become a legend?" I had heard some stories before I had actually met him, but each one seemed a little farfetched to me. I had no clue what was true and what wasn't.

"Well I could tell you that I saved the queen by six Strigoi by myself a few years ago but that's not really where my legend ranking comes from, I actually got my status when I was growing up but I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear about it. It's wasn't pleasant." He gave me a grim look.

I didn't want to seem rude but I really wanted to know what happened, "I'd like to hear it if you don't mind sharing."

I watched as his eyes became distant and clouded with shadows, "I was raised by my father –he was a Dhampir- because my mom got sick and died when I was really little." I nodded hoping I had a look of understanding on my face and not pity.

"On the days when he was in a good mood I'd ask about her and he'd say she was the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen, she was smart and didn't let the royal's push her around. He said that they were criticized for raising me together and that I would never be a real guardian."

He looked at me to see if I was keeping up, "you see my mother thought it was wrong for me to go to an academy away from home, she wanted me to be with family. When she died my father kept her wishes and when he wasn't guarding some snooty royal he taught me at home, but his anger for everyone that had ever criticized them had turned his heart to stone, he started to care more about how I fought instead of my well being, he began beating me if I didn't get a technique down right away. When the neighbors started noticing they called in some guardians and I was taken away from my father. Of course they never locked him up due to the lack of guardians so as soon as I went to St. Basils he was sending me letters telling me that if I didn't end up winning every match I was thrown into he'd come and beat me until I did." His face was grim.

"At first I wasn't worried because I thought there was no way they'd let him in. But when my first actual match went under and I lost he found me that night." He looked at my horrid expression and for my benefit skipped the gory details.

"Let's just say that I was in the infirmary for weeks, nobody believed me when I told them my dad had done it, they thought it had been because of the fight, which didn't make any sense; I think they just didn't care enough to look into it further." He gave a disgusted look as if he was living in that moment again.

"After that night focused all my efforts in training. Day and night I trained so hard I didn't have much of a social life other than to talk to a few upper classman about certain techniques they were taught. I began hanging out with this guy a couple years older than me; he kind of took me under his wing and showed me all his moves we practiced together and together we became the most feared novices in school. It became then that I earned my legend status and though I'm not happy about how I got it, I am happy that it gave me this opportunity to work with you." He smiled a sappy smile that made me laugh.

"Well then show me what you got teach." We both got up and sparred for the rest of practice.

After practice with Jake I went inside to eat breakfast with my friends, I saw them in our usual corner, trays already filled but Adrian and Lissa were arguing. I couldn't tell what it was about from where I was but I could tell from the glares at Adrian from Christian and Eddie I figured they were ganging up on him. As I got closer I saw Eddie elbow Lissa and everyone went silent.

"Hey everyone what's going on?" I asked hoping I didn't sound too suspicious, seeing how I was so wrong about my suspicions the night before.

Everyone stayed silent except for Adrian, "Good morning Little Dhampir, have you come to a decision yet?"

Christian groaned and Lissa shot glares up at Adrian, I guess they weren't too happy about him asking me out, not that I knew why.

"Actually," I glanced nervously around at all of our friends; I didn't know what rejecting him in front of everyone would do to his self-esteem. But then I thought this is Adrian were talking about so I went ahead.

" Adrian I just don't think I can be your girlfriend right now, I mean we haven't even been on a date yet, maybe after a few then we can talk about that." Honestly I had no idea why I was rejecting him but my heart was just telling me no. At least for now it was.

I looked at him and instantly regretted everything I said, he was hurt that I could tell just from his eyes but he quickly hid it.

"That's okay, we can start out slow if you want." He seemed to consider something for a second then added. "How about you be my date for my cousin's wedding, it's supposed to be the wedding of the year?"

I had heard that Sophia Ivashkov and Ivan Badica were finally tying the knot, and what Adrian said did ring true. Every Royal was invited and knowing how extravagant the Ivashkov's were I knew they wouldn't give their daughter away without throwing the best wedding –or party, whichever way you looked at it- first.

"Alright we can go together if you want, but I'm not going to listen to your bitchy Aunt complain about us the whole time."

"Agreed," Adrian said with a smile so big I was afraid it would get stuck.

I sat down next to Lissa and everyone went on with breakfast as if nothing had happened. It seemed a little quieter than usual so I decided to strike up a conversation.

"So Lissa I know you're going to go to this wedding too have any idea on what we're going to wear?"

Her frown turned into a devious smile and I gulped. "I arranged for all of us to miss school tomorrow for a much needed shopping day!" she squealed in delight.

Everyone around the table groaned and Lissa ignored them, I on the other hand was excited about it. Sure shopping with Lissa was sometimes extremely annoying but dress shopping was an entirely different matter.

I now had something to look forward to and it made the rest of the day fly by as if it lasted only a few minutes.

…

The next morning I was rudely woken up by a pair of dainty hands banging on the door.

"Go away Lissa," I mumbled knowing she would hear me.

The banging stopped and I heard a rustling noise behind the door, and few seconds later the door flew open letting a gush of cold wind come in my room.

"Shut the damn door Lissa. It's cold!" I said shivering in bed.

She came around my bed and started to rummage through my closet.

"We need to hurry if we're going to find amazing dresses."

"Lissa, how did you even get in my room?" I asked kind of annoyed I had never given her a key.

"Well, um. I had a spare made and put it under your mat." She said guiltily.

"Why would you do that?" I wondered still snuggling in my blankets.

"Just for precaution, in case you lock your keys inside or something. I've got one under my mat too." She spoke fast almost as if she was lying but I was too tired to care.

I looked at my clock and moaned out load, "Lissa it's 6:00 I thought I was at least going to be able to sleep until 8."

She gave me an exasperated look. "Don't give me lip Rose just get up and get dressed. Now."

There was no point in arguing in this matter, she was going to get her way no matter what. I sighed and got out of bed. She handed me a pair of clothes, "Go get ready, we're leaving in half an hour." Before I could say that she was nuts for thinking I'd ever get ready in that amount of time she was out the door.

I walked outside to a SUV waiting for me. In the car, Lissa, Christian, Adrian, Eddie, Jake, Alberta, and Stan were all waiting for me.

"Good to see you finally show up Hathaway." Stan grumbled.

I ignored his jibe and sat next to Lissa and Christian in the back. This SUV was made with two bench seats so that the guardians didn't have to take as many cars. The ride was mostly a quiet one besides the soft conversation that Christian and Lissa were having. Well it was mostly Lissa she was having a hard time figuring out was color to wear and when Christian said she had all the time at the mall to figure it out she told him that she had to figure it out now so they could match. I quietly laughed to myself. Poor Christian, he didn't realize what he was getting himself into. When she started discussing the possibility of pink I had to intervene for his sake.

"Hey Lissa, why don't you both wear a soft green, it would bring out your eyes and it's not too girly for Christian."

She seemed to think about this for a minute. "Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be too bad." Christian breathed in sigh of relief, probably glad that the conversation was over and that he didn't have to wear pink.

"Little Dhampir, I think you should wear red because any other color just wouldn't do you justice." Adrian said smiling brightly.

Funny he should say that when I was thinking the exact same thing. But I wasn't going to let him in on that.

"Oh really, and I suppose you will be wearing red as well?" I asked.

"Why of course," he said as if it should've been obvious and it was. "Don't you want everyone to know we are together?"

"Not officially." I reminded him and he just waved his hand at my words.

"Nonsense, be the end of the wedding you're going to have fallen madly in love with me and then you will be the one begging to be with me.

Everyone laughed at that except for Jake who was extremely quiet during the discussion. Soon we arrived and the girls and guys split up. Alberta stayed with me and Lissa, while Jake and Stan went with Christian, Eddie and Adrian. I wasn't too worried that Alberta was our only guardian because I knew I could help out if anything were to happen.

Once we got inside Lissa went crazy, we couldn't stop at any store without extensively going through every dress, shoe, necklace, or earring. The first few stores I found plenty of red dresses but when I went to go buy them Lissa took them out of my hands and said they weren't good enough. I was really getting angry that she wouldn't let me buy any dresses when I saw it.

It was a beautiful red, black, and purple strapless dress with pleated detailing and layers of ruffles, it was the kind of dress that had to pick you; it wouldn't have looked good on just anyone. Lissa saw me staring at the dress and grabbed it off the hanger.

"Go try it on," she said smiling. "Oh and I want to see it."

I nodded and went to change, the dress fit snug on my body and though it wasn't like half the other dresses I'd picked out –all the other ones had been extremely clingy and revealing- I had a feeling that this dress would fit in perfectly at the wedding.

I came out and both Lissa and Alberta complemented me on my look. I felt so pretty as I twirled in my dress, Lissa took a picture on her Iphone and sent it to Adrian so he'd know that it wasn't just red.

I took the dress off and went to buy it; Lissa had found a dress there too and had already bought hers with all the accessories a girl could ask for even Alberta had bought an easy to move around in dress with flats. We shopped at a couple more stores upon Lissa's insisting that I needed accessories to go with my amazing dress. Once I got everything I needed we headed off to meet the guys at the food court.

Our day of shopping was turning out to be one of the best days I had had in a long time.

That is until an annoyingly familiar voice shouted our names from behind.

"LISSA, ROSE! It's so great to see you!" Lissa and I turned around to see Tasha Ozera and a tall man behind her holding about fifteen bags.

A/N: WAIT DON'T SHOOT! [Run's and hides behind rock]

I know you're all loading your guns at that cliff hanger but think about this logically, if you were to kill me then how would this story get finished? (; alright now that your all settled down.. [takes a deep breath and steps out behind rock] I just want to let you know- OUCHHH! HEY GabbiCalabrese Bebe guns might not kill me but they still hurt!- that I had to end it there! I mean really I already combined TWO chapters what more do you want? Ohh you already want the next chapter? Well you know what you gotta do now right?

REVIEWWWWWW! (:

The first part of this chapter was kind of depressing to write since Jake's background was so sad but it had to be done (: And the shopping was just too fun to write ohh I loved it! SO. MUCH. FUNNN.

Anyways I can't wait to get out the next chapter it is being written as we speak!

More reviews = happy hollyjayy = faster updates…

so all you silent viewers let me hear you! ((:

LOTS OF LOVE

-HOLLYJAYY-