"So do you think Rozalia is going to forgive you?" Eddie asked Dimitri in the showers after their basketball practice Wednesday morning.

"She won't forgive you if she hears you calling her that," Mason laughed. Rose had been in early elementary school when she decided that she hated being called Rozalia, and would instead go by Rose. Now the only people to use her full Polish first name were her parents and Mr. Alto, who insisted on shaming everyone in his class by using their full given names – much to the embarrassment of Uriel, Clement, and Rozalia. To everyone else, she was Rose, except Dimitri who over time had come to call her Roza.

"I don't think so," Dimitri said dismally. "She won't take my calls, and she won't speak with me."

Dimitri looked around, making sure they weren't going to be overheard.

"I can't remember anything about the end of that night. You guys were there. What do you remember?"

Eddie was going to make a joke, but the imploring look on the tall Russian's face dissuaded him.

"Lissa and Christian went upstairs, and we all kept drinking. Tasha was trying to climb on your lap and shit like that, but you were pushing her off and telling her you weren't interested. She kept getting you to drink more, and eventually she said you were too drunk and needed to lie down and sleep it off. I helped her take you to one of the spare rooms, and then Mia and I went outside to make out…"

"I wasn't doing anything with Tasha then?" Dimitri asked hopefully.

"Nah. Right before you went to lie down you were talking about Rose and how much you missed her," Mason said.

"But Tasha didn't come back out from the room where I was?" he asked.

"Sorry man, she didn't. I fell asleep on the sofa, but she didn't come back after Eddie took you to a room," Mason said apologetically.

"The next morning she was saying I completed her collection," Dimitri said bitterly, looking at the ground. "She said she's been with all the guys on the team?"

"Not been with!" Mason said quickly. "But done stuff… yeah, that sounds about right."

Dimitri raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"She let me touch her when I was a freshman," he said quickly, blushing a deep red.

"Touch her?" Dimitri queried, gesturing towards his chest.

"Touch her," Mason hissed, pointing downwards. "It was for truth and dare!"

"Eww! I'm never shaking your hand again!" Eddie said.

"Well, what did you do with her?" Mason snapped.

"It's not what I did with her, it's what she did to me," Eddie said smugly.

Dimitri was disgusted.

"Listen, I know it's fucked up everything with you and Rose, and I'm sorry about that, but don't worry about the Tasha thing. Every guy here has had something with her. She's a ho - she can count the number of places she hasn't done it on the one hand!" Eddie continued, trying to console Dimitri. "Consider it a right of passage."

"That's feral, man," Mason said, noticing Dimitri looking more and more upset. "Come on – get dressed – we've got to get to homeroom."

The three of them quickly dressed and headed up to their classrooms; Dimitri heading into one, Mason and Eddie into the other senior homeroom. Rose was already sitting in her new seat beside Lissa. She looked up as Dimitri walked in, and he could see circles under her eyes. It looked like she hadn't slept well and that worried him.

Sitting behind her, Dimitri noticed her hair was out again today. The way he liked it. It was all he could do not to lean forward and play with it. He adored her hair. Something about it called to him; to wind the silken strands around his fingers. He sighed, closing his eyes and trying to forget the many times he'd done just that – played with Roza's hair as they'd kissed. The bell rang, and he gathered up his bag, looking at the floor as he hung back, waiting for Rose to stand and leave her seat.

They had physics first up today. Their first lesson since they'd been back. There were only a dozen students in Alto's senior physics class; all of them there because it was a pre-requisite for their desired college course. Dimitri hoped to study medicine, and while not every college required physics many did and since he needed a scholarship, he couldn't afford to close any doors. Rose hoped to major in Product Design, so physics was important for her, too.

Once upon a time they would have walked hand in hand to their class, but today Rose said farewell to Lissa, turning to stride down the corridor towards Alto's class alone, Dimitri following a few steps behind.

"Mr. Belikov, Miss Mazur," Mr. Alto said gesturing to the seats they'd once occupied in the front row. "Nice of you to join us!"

The second bell hadn't even rung, but they were the last students there, so already objects of Alto's ire.

Dimitri lifted his eyes to Rose's. They could sit separately, but Alto would only make an issue of it. Flicking her long dark hair dismissively over her shoulder, Rose dumped her bag on the floor, seating herself in her usual chair and folding her arms across her chest. Giving Rose a searching look, but finding her unwilling to meet his eyes, Dimitri placed his bag beside the adjacent chair, lowering himself to sit beside her.

Schooling his face into a placid, interested mask, Dimitri turned his gaze to Alto. The guy fed on disharmony and discord. Dimitri knew that sort of man – best to give him no ammunition. But, somehow, Rose didn't seem to have got the memo. She was sitting on the edge of her seat as far away from Dimitri as possible.

"Welcome back! I trust you all had a pleasant winter break?" Alto sneered, looking at the class, his eyes lingering on Rose and Dimitri. "We have four and a half months left of your senior year, and it's time to announce the senior year projects. Worth forty percent of your overall grade, the topics are based on real world physics problems, and I have randomly assigned topics and partners."

He slowly went through the projects, reading out groups. It wasn't until he was down to the last four students that Dimitri saw the glint in Alto's eye and appreciated what was going to happen. Alto knew he and Rose were no longer together but was going to put them in the same group anyway.

"… will be done by Rozalia Mazur and Dimitri Belikov."

Rose uttered something profane not quite under her breath.

Dimitri turned to Rose in alarm. Alto was an asshole, but they couldn't afford to fail. He gave her a pleading look. He appreciated working with him was the last thing she wanted. If they couldn't share their usual happy banter, he felt the same way. To be so close but so far away was a living hell. But he couldn't afford anything less than a top grade. Rose's eyes met his just for a moment, and he thought he saw her angry resolve flicker.

"Is there a problem Rozalia?!" Alto asked, savoring her Polish name. He was all prepared, just waiting for an explosion from her. She seemed to know it, too.

Rose narrowed her eyes at Dimitri before turning to Alto. "No problem, Mr. Alto. Although feel free to call me Rose. I do prefer that…"

"I'll remember that thank you Rozalia," he replied with a sarcastic grin. "Class – you have the rest of the period to discuss your topic and the approach you might like to take."

Dimitri didn't know how to feel. This project was huge. Ideally he and Rose would need to meet outside of school at least once a week to make this happen. But he understood with her not speaking with him that would be problematic. Seeing Alto occupied at the back with another group, he pulled out his text and opened it to the pages most relevant to their topic. Closing his eyes and sending up a silent prayer, he looked at the page and spoke quietly – only just loud enough for Rose to hear.

"Rose? I'm sorry – I know this is the last thing you want. If you don't want to work together, I'll do it all. I just can't afford to fail this subject," Dimitri said, trying to appeal to her. Of course, it had the opposite effect.

"What?! You think I'm not smart enough to keep up with you?!" she hissed back. "You really are an asshole!"

"That's not what I meant," Dimitri groaned, trying to keep his voice down to avoid Alto's attention. "I know I fucked up! I know you hate me and if it helps in any way, I hate myself. I don't expect you to work with me after what I did. I was just saying I need to do well, so if you can't work with me, I'll do it all."

Rose raised her eyes to Dimitri, checking the veracity of what he was saying, and her heart clenched in her chest. The guy looked so sad and guilty.

"I'll work with you, but only because I need a good grade as well," Rose growled, but she didn't look pleased.

"All ok here? Trouble in paradise?" Alto asked acerbically, looking back and forth between the two of them.

Rose took a deep breath. "No problem, Mr. Alto. Just working out the best times to work together on the project. After school Thursdays and every second Saturday?" she asked Dimitri, fixing him with a hard gaze.

He nodded, not unaware of Alto's disappointed look as he moved away to the front of the room. Knowing Dimitri's schedule, Rose had chosen the best days possible to fit around his basketball and employment obligations. It was a kindness she didn't have to extend, and he appreciated it.

"Thank you, Roz… Rose," Dimitri muttered, saying no more as she divided the background reading into two even lists while Dimitri annotated the list with known texts, references or websites that might save them time.

"After school tomorrow at the library?" Rose asked in an unhappy voice just as the bell rang.

Dimitri nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

Rose looked pissed off as she stomped her way off to her next class, the only one she didn't share with Dimitri. But he was feeling happier than he had been since she'd arrived back from Scotland. In fact, he was in a great mood for the rest of the day.

"You're looking happy," his Babushka noted when he walked in the door. "Good day?"

"Not too bad," he said. "We got our physics project groups, and I am allocated to work with Roza. We will be meeting every Thursday after school and every second Saturday."

"Was she happy about this?" Babushka asked.

"Not really, but we both need a good grade. I was hoping maybe spending time together might help."

Yeva looked knowingly at her grandson. He was a good boy with a good heart who made the best of every situation he found himself in. He hadn't told them what had happened between him and Roza, other than that he was an idiot and she was entirely blameless. Whatever it was, he was hurting badly, and she hated to see him so despondent.

"Well, I was thinking of making Vatrushka today. You said your Roza liked the raisin ones best didn't you?"

"She's not my Roza anymore," Dimitri said sadly, "But yeah she likes the raisin ones best."

"A man is not the only one with a stomach," Yeva said cryptically, patting the boy on the back and sending him off to do his homework before putting on her apron and getting out the ingredients.

Rose lay on her bed the next morning looking at her closet with dissatisfaction. She didn't know what she was in the mood to wear, but whatever it was, it wasn't in her closet. She had a black skirt and tights on, but none of her tops appealed today. She looked out the window – it was a cold day so she'd need a jacket, but a sweater under that would probably be needed, too.

Thinking about her Mom's clothes, she had a pretty russet colored cashmere sweater that would look perfect. She couldn't borrow much from her Mom as Rose was taller and bigger in the chest. But this sweater was loose on her Mom and sat high on her hips, so should be perfect on Rose.

She knocked on her Mom's bedroom door, entering when bidden and flopping onto her parents' bed, wearing her tights, skirt, and bra. She didn't need to worry about her father seeing her half dressed – he left for work early every weekday.

"What's wrong, wee one?"

Rose snorted. 'Wee one' was the name her mother had called her since she was a little kid, but only ever when it was just the two of them.

"I've got nothing to wear. I was wondering if I could borrow that sweater you bought last winter?" she said standing up and pulling it out of the drawers in her parent's walk-in-closet.

"Try it on," her mother said nodding. Rose slipped it on, and it looked great. Tight without being slutty, the V-neck showed a subtle curve of the top of Rose's bosom, and it complimented her skin tone.

"I've just lost that, haven't I?" Janine laughed, admitting to herself it looked ten times better on her daughter than it did on herself. She'd never worn it much anyway. While the color worked on her, somehow with her red hair the overall effect was a little florid.

"Thanks, Mom!" Rose said, giving her mother a kiss and bouncing back to her room to collect her waist-length leather jacket. Putting it on and teaming it with a pair of lace ups with a small heel, she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked great! Not that it mattered, she reminded herself. Today was just another school day.

Dimitri's eyes seemed to know Rose was in the doorway milliseconds after she appeared. He wasn't sure how, but he always seemed to know when she was nearby. Some sort of sixth sense. She looked sensational today. Black shoes, tights and skirt; short enough to be fashionable, but not too short. She had a black leather jacket on and a fluffy brownish-red sweater underneath. It looked soft, and something about it made Dimitri want to touch it – to see if the fibers were as comforting to the fingers as they looked.

Rose looked at Dimitri just in time to catch his gaze of admiration, longing and then sadness. He looked away from her, dropping his eyes to the table in front of him.

She sat in front of him, turning to talk with Lissa in the seat beside her. Dimitri sat with his eyes closed, just listening to the cadence and rhythm of her voice. It was the same in their other classes and at lunch. Dimitri chatted with guys at the table; not speaking with Rose, but listening to her voice and sneaking looks at her when he could. More than one he thought he'd almost caught her looking at him, but he dismissed it as wishful fantasies.

They had physics last on Thursdays, which made it a little easier. They started discussing their project as soon as they sat down. Even though they'd only got their topic yesterday, Dimitri had gone to the city library after school yesterday to get some books that might help them, and Rose had spent a couple of hours last night on the Internet looking up websites.

Rose smiled to herself as Alto passed them in class for the third time, obviously expecting to see she and Dimitri arguing. The guy was a dick, and sure it was uncomfortable working with her ex, but he'd probably done them a favor. Like it or not, their best friends were dating, and they were stuck together in a small school. They couldn't ignore each other forever. At least this project gave them a safe, common ground around which to communicate.

The bell rang, and Dimitri stood. Usually, he'd carry Rose's bag, but he got the sense offering today would be overstepping. They needed to take baby steps in their new post-relationship interactions.

"Did you want to grab us a good table? I've got some of those books from the city library in my locker," Dimitri explained. It was the truth, he did have books for them to go over together – but he also had the Vatrushka his Babushka had baked. And if he knew anything about his Roza, it was that she loved her sweet treats!

Ten minutes later they were installed at a large table in the back of the library. It was deserted in here, but they'd still got the most secluded workspace so they could talk without bothering anyone. They continued with their discussion from Alto's room, outlining the approach they were going to take. Their project was looking at Faraday and Lenz's laws, and they had to design an experiment to demonstrate them.

Sadly that was only half the project. They also had to write a paper on the history of the theories, conduct experiments and analyze results and then write a second paper on real-world uses of the laws as well as any future research or practical applications.

"I think I should do the future applications," Rose said. It was undoubtedly the harder of the parts, but she had a computer and the Internet at home, whereas Dimitri had to use the public library if he wanted to research online.

"That's not fair," Dimitri said instantly. "That's the bigger part."

"Yeah, but I have the Internet at home," she argued, not wanting to make him feel like shit, but trying to be reasonable about things.

Dimitri frowned. Rose was right; it was more practical for her to look up latest developments.

"Ok, then I'll do the history and write up the analysis of our results," he countered.

Rose nodded. That would make it fair, and Dimitri was better at that sort of thing, anyway.

"Alright. For the experiment, I had an idea for the project, but we'll probably need some help with it. My Tata has a kind of workshop space in our basement. I thought we could build it there and he could help us? He's a building surveyor, so he's pretty good at physics…"

"That makes sense," Dimitri said, his heart pounding. He loved the idea of spending extra time with Rose, but he'd heard enough about her strict father to worry about spending time with him.

They spent the next half hour working before Dimitri noticed Rose start to fidget, the way she always did when she was hungry.

"Are you hungry? Babushka made Vatrushka last night, and she remembered me saying you like them," he said shyly, fishing the container out of his bag and opening it on the table between them.

"Oh! I love those things," Rose said, taking one from the plastic box and biting into it blissfully. She finished her mouthful, before turning to him and giving him a smile. The first she'd given him this year. "Thanks, Comrade!"