Hi there! A huge thank you to Kira Drozdov for the follow - you're the first so this chapter is dedicated to you. Hope you like it :D
I was let out next day after classes finished. I'd been unconscious for the trip here so I had no idea where to go and the doc was too busy plastering someone's arm to give me directions so I had to make my own way over to the commons. I ended up walking around for an hour through twisted corridors, secret passageways and empty hallways before I got to the headmaster's office scaring the life out of the receptionist because I appeared from the trap door under her desk.
Once she'd recovered herself she said, "Lost, huh?"
"Yep," I grinned. "It's kind of fun though. How do I get to the commons?"
She pointed me in the right direction and then I left going a bit more quickly than before because it was nearly dinner time and I was starving. When I got close the smell of food called out to me and carried me forwards. There was barely a queue and yum, it smelled good. I hurried over to get some food – black bread, what looked like soup and chips. They also gave me something called borsht and some caviar. I sat down at a table and ignored the borsht and caviar and focused on what looked like normal food.
About ten minutes later Inna and a girl from my theory class sat opposite me. If I remember rightly her name was Anna or something.
"Anya," she corrected. "How's the head?"
"Hurts," I shrugged.
"It's all anyone has been talking about for the past two days," Inna said with a roll of her eyes.
I groaned.
"Well, you did faint at the queen's feet. What's an do alchemist anyways?" Anya asked.
It still surprised me that people didn't know this sometimes. "They help keep us a secret from humans and do cover ups and stuff after attacks," I shrugged. "They'll tell you more at court once we all graduate."
"But aren't..." she lowered her voice and leaned in a bit, "aren't they humans?"
"And my dad's a dhampir," I said with a shrug and put some more soup on my spoon. Only it didn't taste like soup when I put it in my mouth. I spat it out and gagged. "Ugh! Yuck!"
They laughed as I downed the majority of my drink.
"I'll eat it if you don't want it," Anya said and took it off my plate.
Dimitri and Ivan joined us then and asked what all the commotion was about. They sat on either side of me as Inna told them. She also explained about alchemists.
"Huh," Ivan said. "I always wondered how they got rid of strigoi bodies."
Dimitri looked thoughtful and didn't say anything. I wondered what was on his mind.
"Hey guys!" a new voice called. It was from another Moroi, an Ozera by the colour of her eyes and she had dark hair which reached her waist. She wore shades of blue and was pretty even for a Moroi. "Oh, hey, I'm Tasha Ozera," she said to me with a welcoming smile.
"Jasmine Cloud," I replied as she sat down.
"How was the wedding then?" Inna excitedly asked.
"Oh it was amazing, and Christian looked so cute in his suit though he was grumpy because of it which only made him look cuter still. And Moira's dress… She looked like an angel. I don't know what took him so long to propose," she sighed and shook her head. "They're moving to America permanently now and are thinking about having another baby."
Dimitri leaned over to me and in a low voice explained, "Lucas, the groom, is her brother, Christian's their son. He's about nine. They've been flicking between here and America since they got together."
I nodded as it all began to make a little more sense.
Tasha wrapped up her story and turned to me. "Anyway I heard that you fainted in front of the queen."
"Uh. Yeah," I groaned. As I'd walked in people had whispered about it. "Embarrassing."
"I don't know," Dimitri lightly commented, "You fell pretty gracefully."
"Oh, well, thanks. I'll use that to distract a strigoi some day," I scoffed and had some more soup this time making sure it was soup and not caviar and then sighed, "I'm not allowed in training for a week."
"You need to recover, Jasmine," Dimitri said.
"I know. But it's so boring! I mean what am I going to do the rest of the time? Double theory?"
That's exactly what I did for a week. I had morning theory classes with Dimitri and then joined Inna and Ivan doing their arty subjects and Russian and maths and English and in the afternoon I did those same classes with Dimitri, Stiva and Tasha. I quickly went bored out of my mind but I turned boredom into focus and got loads of work done as a result.
Still I was glad when Monday rolled around and I was allowed to go back to training. We had weights and conditioning first which passed in a breeze and then it was onto combat technique. Everyone went back to what they'd been doing last week, but I was paired with Sir for the first twenty minutes to quickly catch up the new moves that I'd missed. As always I picked them up pretty quickly.
"Good," he said and called Dimitri over who was working in a three. "Go to practicing those. Just, Dimitri, don't concuss her again," he joked and roughly patted my shoulder and quickly walked off to see how everyone else was doing.
"I'll go easy to start off with," Dimitri said.
"Sure." I nodded because I was starting to get a headache already and I didn't want to end up back in the hospital again.
I hadn't expected him to go as easy on me as he was though. After a couple of minutes of boredom I stepped it up a gear and he did too with a slight smile. Still we kept it slower than the other week but it was filled with as many difficult moves and intense concentration.
By the end of the lesson I was knackered. It was a good job it was only theory work for the rest of the day.
Not that the quiet of our that first theory lesson lasted all long. We were on the way out of class when Tasha dashed up to us and grinned. "Did you hear?" she asked really loudly and far too excitedly. I cringed at the volume.
"Hear what?" Dimitri asked.
"About next week." She was pretty much bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"It starts with Monday and ends with Sunday?" I dryly asked.
"No, spoil-sport. There's a pool tournament!"
"I thought it would have at least been a school dance," I muttered. I mean who got excited over pool anyway? It was just hitting balls with a stick.
"You entering, Dimka?" she asked overly loudly again. "There's a doubles game as well, we could do it together! I mean, if you want."
"Sure."
"Great!" she squealed. Then she realised how much noise she was making and quietened down a lot with a blush. "I guess I'll see you next week then."
He laughed. "We have classes together before then."
"Oh, right. Yeah. Sure. See you later," she stammered going redder by the second and then rushed off.
"She totally fancies you," I said.
"No she doesn't."
" 'There's a doubles game as well, we could do it together. I mean, if you want'." I quoted and batted my lashes at him. "She's totally hot for you."
"No she's not!" he replied looking slightly panicked.
"Hey, you're good for each other. I mean, she's ridiculously tall too. And you'd have really cute kids."
"Jasmine!" he yelped. "I… That is… She –"
"Luuuuuuuuuuurves you. She waaaaaaants you," I sang and began walking to dinner.
He hurried after me not looking overly impressed and a little stressed. I laughed.
"God, Dimitri, anyone would think the end of the world is coming."
He didn't reply but walked a little faster. I hurried to keep up with his long stride wondering what exactly was wrong. Tasha was great. She was lively, caring, funny, everything a guy like Dimitri could want. He got his food in silence and sat down in silence. Because he'd been walking so fast we were the first into dinner.
He sharply turned to me. "What do you think?"
"You're overreacting?" I asked because I wasn't sure what exactly I was supposed to be thinking about.
"About Tasha. Should I still play with her?"
"Sure. I mean, it won't be a date but you'll still be spending time with her and you'll be able to decide if you like her back?"
"And if I don't?" he asked. "I don't want to hurt her feelings."
"Just say you're not ready for a relationship or something. Fall back on focusing on guardian stuff."
He nodded thoughtfully and then smiled a little. "Thanks."
"No problem. Oh, here she is now."
He groaned a little but put a good face on.
"Hi, Dimitri," she breathed.
"Hi, Tasha," he replied. Then he saw Inna walking over. "Hi, Inna."
I very nearly slapped myself in the head. He was being an idiot.
"Oh, hey, Dimka. Hi, guys," she said to Tasha and me. "Ivan's got detention again for refusing to do some art work. He'll squirm out of it and be along in a minute no doubt."
Dimitri sighed. "I told him not to pick art."
"So did I," she sympathised and sat down. "Hear about the tournament?"
"Yeah. Dimka and I are doing doubles," Tasha piped up with a smile.
"O-kay then," Inna replied a little taken aback. "You playing, Jasmine?"
"I suck at pool."
"How can you suck at pool?" Dimitri and Tasha asked at the same time in loud voices.
"Ow! Guys!" I groaned and put a hand to my head. "Quieten down a bit."
"Hey, Dimitri!" Ivan called from a few tables away. "Hear about the tournament?"
I just groaned louder and rested my head on the table. He clattered his tray down next to me and scraped his chair on the floor.
"It'll be awesome. We'll clear everyone –"
"Ivan!" I snapped.
"I'm only telling the truth!" he loudly defended. "It's not like –"
"For the love of god, man, shut up!" I all but groaned.
"What did I do?" he asked in a normal voice.
"She's concussed still, Ivan, and just had a full day at school," Dimitri softly said and rubbed my back. "Need anything?"
"Silence," I muttered. "Sleep. To not have a headache."
I made it the rest of the way through dinner and stumbled through my homework before going to bed. Inna had sat with me in our room and put her work away too.
"What was with Tasha earlier?" she asked.
"Oh she fancies Dimitri," I shrugged with a yawn and crawled into bed. "And then Dimitri asked me of all people for advice."
"Yeah? Well, you're, like, the most intelligent out of all of us. You don't even have to try in class to get A's," she replied as if it were obvious why he asked me.
"Yeah, but I've only just met the guy really, and, don't people normally ask close friends about that kind of thing?"
"Jazz, you spend pretty much every waking moment together either in class or hanging out. Of course he values your opinion already. The only time you're not together is when we're in bed."
"Huh. I guess."
"You sound really surprised," she frowned.
I yawned again. "Mum and I move round every two years. I don't normally let myself get really close to people because I know I won't see them again. Here though… I'll graduate from here. I'd like to have some real good friends before we're chucked out there to guard people."
"You'll always have us, Jazz."
"I know. I guess it's just a bit strange that's all. Anyway, I'm going to go sleep."
"Ok. Set the alarm clock?"
"Uh… no. Haven't."
"Ok. I'll get it. Night."
"Night."
I hope you liked this chapter, please leave a review!
Richelle Mead owns VA