New chapter! Building to more Sydrian fun. I introduced some more characters in this chapter! Hope you enjoy it. I don't own the characters, just the plot. Praise to the lovely Richelle Mead. Read and review!
XOXO
-M
I walked into bio grimacing. My asshat of a lab partner, Keith, strolled over, smirking.
"Hey, Syd. Looks like we're going to have a lab today. Something about flowers, not that I really give a fuck about any of it. Think you can handle doing most of it today? I'm not really feeling it today. I'll just tell Karp I'm allergic to the pollen or whatever." Before I could haughtily reply that Hell would freeze over before he actually did work for the labs we had to do, he sauntered off to go try to chat up some girl that had just moved here from Montana. She was about medium height with a strong build. She had long, beautiful, dark hair that seemed to cascade down her back like water cascades down a mountain. Her equally dark eyes flashed in annoyance when Keith swaggered up to her.
"Hey, baby. Haven't seen you here before. Got a name? I'll take your number to," he said, sounding as slick as an oil spill.
"My name is Rose and my number is 1-800-Fuck You. Call me anytime. Babe." With that she threw her hair over her shoulder and headed for the empty chair next to me, leaving Keith scowling. She put out her hand for me to shake and introduced herself. "Hi. I'm Rose Hathaway. Ms. Karp told me I could work with you since I didn't have a group. She said if anyone could get me acquainted with the class, it's you. Unfortunately, I forgot your name."
I laughed and replied, "My name is Sydney Sage. People call me by both my first and last name. You can refer to me as basically anything as long as it's not derogatory. Today we are doing some lab with flowers which shouldn't be too hard. You met Keith," I said motioning over to the jackass. "He is my-and now I guess our- lab partner. Luckily, he never does anything, so we can ignore him."
She smiled at me and we started working. She took it upon herself to fill me in on all things Rose. "I just moved here with my best friend, Lissa. She's British. You'll probably see her in the halls. She's tall and blonde with really green eyes. Her parents died last year, so she moved in with me and my mom. We moved here to Palm Springs because of my mom's job. She runs this really high tech security company"
"It was actually really good that we moved here. My boyfriend, Dimitri, lives here. He goes to college here. He's Russian." With that admission, she looked off with a dreamy look in her eyes. After a moment, she shook off her daydream and refocused on me, her gaze like a high powered laser. Rose had a very noticeable presence. Nothing about her could fade into the background. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
I shook my head and blushed. "No. You should meet my friends, though. They'd like you. There's Adrian, who's my best friend in the world."
He's tall with messy hair that he spends forever styling and really deep green eyes. He's hilarious and a genuinely kind guy. He is kinda snarky though. He's- what? Why are you looking at me funny?" She had this strange little grin on her face.
"Sounds like this Adrian is more than a friend, Sydney. You have feelings for him," she accused.
"What?! That's ridiculous. He's my best friend. It's completely platonic," I say defensively. How could I have…romantic interests where Adrian Ivashkov was concerned? It was preposterous.
She raised her eyebrows. "Just figured with the way you described him you thought as him in a…friendlier manner than you were letting on."
"I'm just descriptive. Anyway, there's Adrian and there's Eddie and Jill. Now they are friendlier than they let on. They'd never admit it but they are madly in love with each other and won't tell the other their feelings. Then there's Trey and Angeline. They let each other and everyone else in the vicinity know how they feel about each other. They're almost always connected at the mouth. You and Lissa should sit with us at lunch. We sit at the table near the big twisty tree in the courtyard."
Rose smiled at the offer and agreed to meet us there for lunch. We finished the lab and turned it in right as the bell rung. To my surprise, Rose hugged me and thanked me for being so welcoming and for helping her with the lab. I awkwardly hugged her back and bid her goodbye. I was walking to y next class when I felt arms go around my waist. I was hit with the smell of very light cologne and clove cigarettes. Adrian. I turned and returned his hug then stepped back.
"Hey, Sage. You doing a little better since this morning? I was worried."
I smiled. "Yeah, I'm okay. I got a new lab partner in biology, so I didn't have to put up with the asshat. Her name is Rose. She's gorgeous and really nice. You'd like her."
His eyebrows furrowed. "Rose, huh? I knew a Rose. Hope this one is better than the one I knew."
"I'm sure it's not the same one. Anyway, I have to get to class. See you at lunch."
With that I headed off to my classes, counting the minutes to lunch so I could hang out with my friends. I wanted them to meet Rose and I needed to work out a few more details with Jill for the dress plan. Little did I know, lunch would not go as I had hoped.
