Redemption

Thanks to anyone has reviewed and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.

Chapter Four

The sun shone brightly through the skylight in the bedroom. Just as I thought that I could roll over and go back to sleep, a sharp knock sounded at the already open door. Looking up, I saw Andre standing in the doorway with a smile on his face.

"If you want breakfast, you'll have to get up and get it now" He announced. "Mum's making her full English and you do not want to miss that" Well, it was always good to get an early start in the day and food sounded brilliant now, so I followed him downstairs where all the guys were sitting at the dining table. My eyes fell on Dimitri. He was different than he was last night. He was no longer cheerful or even sweet. His eyes were narrowed as they stared at the mahogany table and his arms were crossed as though he was a child who was in a bad mood because they couldn't get something they wanted. God, this was going to be a tough day.

The seat next to Dimitri was the only one free, so I nervously slipped into it and waited until someone started conversation.

"So, I heard that you get religious studies today" Jesse started over the silence. "My uncle teaches that and he told me that your seat is right next to mine. You're a lucky girl" Oh, another guy who thinks they're brilliant. His grin told me that he wasn't serious which made me feel a little better about having to sit with him.

"Good, it'll be nice to sit with someone that I actually know" I sighed as Rhea placed a plate of food in front of me and smiled brightly. "Thanks, Rhea."

After breakfast, the house got busy. Everyone was hurrying around, trying to get some privacy to get dressed and then there was the small matter of the car journey. It was going to be impossible to fit everyone into just one car.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Rhea shouted up the stairs as she stood at the bottom. "You'll be late if you don't hurry up." I sat at the kitchen table as I waited for everyone else to finally get their asses in gear. They soon hammered down the stairs, school bags slung over the shoulders and their jackets wrapped tightly around them.

"What are we doing about the car?" Lissa asked. There were ten people who were supposed to fit in that thing and it was only a five seated car. Well the seats were pretty large. It was possible to fit five people on the back seat, but that was pushing it.

"Um, Andre you and Lissa are walking to school" Rhea said. The look on Andre's face was priceless. Walking involved exercise and he would surely look a little ruffled when he got into school. In other words, walking was Andre's hell.

"Mum…" Andre started, but the look Rhea gave him made him stop dead in his tracks as he pushed his bag further up his back and pulled Lissa with him. "See you later."

"Okay, it's going to be a little squashed, but we can deal with it." Rhea sighed. "Dimitri and Rose if you just sit in the front seat together."

"It's okay, Mrs Dragomir." Dimitri evaded. "I'll just walk with Andre and Lissa. I could use the exercise." He simply closed the door and stalked off. I was so intent on believing that the conversation we had had last night had really made him change his mind about me. Now it seems as though he can't stand the thought of even being around me. Although I had only known him for a day, I knew that this was going to be the last straw for him. His mood swings are freaky and, to be honest, I can't figure him out. It seems as though my kindness towards him is completely irrelevant. He just hates me for some unknown reason.

Trying to ignore the stab of hurt, I slide into the car, ignoring everyone's questioning stares. I feel the need to defend myself to them and to explain that he's not angry with me even though he probably is. I just stay quiet the entire journey and revel in the fact that Jesse was smart enough to steer the conversation away from Dimitri and on to one of the lessons we have to day. I may not know Jesse, but his action just there made me feel as though I was going to live my life in his debt.

When we pulled up to school, I was the first to get out with my thoughts trained on getting some fresh air and clearing my head about the whole Dimitri situation. Jesse followed and took my hand in his for a moment. I wasn't one to let people get close to me and especially not someone who I barely knew, but his touch soothed me. It made me forget about Dimitri and anything else that was bothering me.

"Hey, I know that Dimitri's on your mind" He sighed. I simply came crashing back down. Yeah, Dimitri's name now has the power to make me feel miserable. His hand dropped mine and he led me into school. It suddenly dawned on me that Lissa and Andre weren't going to be here for a good fifteen minutes. What was I supposed to do in a school where the two people are supposed to be by my side at all times aren't here?

"Yeah, he was just acting really weird this morning" I revealed. "I don't get what his problem is with me." When I looked up at Jesse, he was biting his lips as he tried to think of a suitable answer for me, but it looked as though he wasn't going to be able to come up with anything.

"It's Dimitri" He noted. "That's just the way he is. He's like that with me sometimes, too. Don't worry about it, Rose."

"Everyone else keeps telling me that he'll change and that he's just taking a while to get used to me." Well, it didn't really look as though these people were being truthful.

"He could just be trying to get a feel for you. He's weird around new people. The others could be right. He kind of reads people before getting to know them."

"That sounds ridiculous" I scoffed. "Why can't he just take a chance and talk to people normally for once?"

"I don't know" Jesse admitted. "But that's the way Dimitri is and he's never going to change." We headed over to one of the tables that they had under the bridge and took a seat at the wooden seats. The weather had improved considerably since yesterday and it showed that summer was finally arriving. A silence fell over us that I had no interest in filling.

"Sorry about having to walk, Rose" A feminine voice said from behind me. Turning around, I saw a happy Lissa, an aggravated Andre and an infuriated Dimitri. Well, it didn't surprise me that Dimitri was angry. When isn't he?

"Ah don't be" I shrugged off as I flicked my wrist. "It gave me some time to get to know Jesse." In the corner of my eye, I could see Dimitri move over to where Jesse stood.

"Great, is she infecting you now?" Dimitri asked. My eyes narrowed on him as I tensed. Dimitri was supposed to be my friend now, but all he's doing is trying to make my life a living hell now. What is that kid's problem?

"Dimitri, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked, determined to deal with the situation maturely. His grin fell and was replaced by a stony glare. He took a few steps away from the group, so they couldn't here and I followed. "What's your problem?"

"What's my problem!" He asked in disbelief "You're the one who's putting on an act when I'm on my own. We were doing good last night, but that meant nothing to you. You said that you didn't even care." So, it was my fault. Guilt washed over me as I averted my gaze to anything, but him.

"I didn't mean what I said" It was a stupid excuse that had been used a million times before, but it was better than saying nothing and just letting him go. "Lissa wouldn't stop asking me questions about it and that was the best way to get her to be quiet."

"Rose, you're lying" He stated. "If you don't care then just leave me alone." He just went back to the group, leaving me standing at the pillar by myself feeling like the biggest bitch in the world.

"Rose, are you okay?" Lissa asked as she moved closer to me. "Dimitri didn't look very happy when he came back."

"I don't care about Dimitri" I snapped "I don't care if he's upset. I'm done with even thinking about him right now."

With a sad look, Lissa whispered "I'm sorry. Cheer up, though"

"I'm sorry, Lissa. I shouldn't have taken that out on you" I apologised just as the bell rang and we made our way to our first lessons.

My first lesson was uneventful. Chemistry with Mrs. Kirova is always going to be boring. She'll make an offhand comment about how I got expelled and then move on to giving us some work that no one knew how to do.

Going to second lesson made me feel a little queasy because Dimitri was going to be there and he was still in a mood with me. Andre wasn't walking with me today and Lissa wasn't in my lesson. I was screwed. A tall figure bumped past me as I was walking. Looking up, I saw Dimitri, his hands buried in his pockets and his eyes trained on the ground. It took everything in my power not the shout at him, but I managed it.

When I arrived at English, Dimitri was already sitting down with Andre just a seat away from him. I sat down, focusing on whatever Andre was saying, so I didn't have to think about the anger that Dimitri was probably going to aim at me during this lesson.

"Okay, we're doing a role-play exercise today" Mrs Karp called over the muttering of the class as she handed us each a piece of paper with a script on it. "Work with the people on your desk and we'll choose a few to present to the class." At least I was with Andre and Dimitri was with Reed. We got out of our seats and began to work through it. Role-play had always been something I had enjoyed because it was pretty much the only time you could mess on in English. Andre was pretty good at it, his body language conveying all of the anger in the world as I cowered away from him, stumbling over my lines like I should be. I took a quick step back, bumping into Dimitri as I did so.

"Would you watch it?" He snapped. "Can't you just stay on your friggin' half?" My eyes went wide as I turned to face him. He wasn't going to let this drop.

"It was an accident" I defended. "Stop reading into things so much." He rolled his eyes, showing me that his attitude problems weren't tamed yet. Turning back to Andre, I continued with reading my lines.

"Is your life based on torturing Dimitri?" He asked as we finished up the first run through of the script.

"I'm hardly torturing him" I whispered, making sure that Dimitri couldn't hear. "It's his fault! He's set on making my life a living misery."

"Really!" Andre shouted exasperated. "Because you both sound like two five year olds who are trying to see how many buttons you can push on the other before you push them over the edge" The class fell silent as Andre took a deep breath. It sounded as though this had been bugging him ever since yesterday and it seemed as though he had found it very hard to tell me what he thought.

"Andre, can you just step outside for a moment?" Mrs Karp asked, her eyes flashing with anger to tell him that he really didn't have a choice. With one quick huff about how it was all so unfair, he pushed past me and Dimitri to get out of the room. "Rose, practice with Dimitri and Reed." As much as I respected Mrs Karp, she was stupid to ask me to practice with Belikov, but I did it anyway.

When Andre came back into the classroom, his hair was ruffled and his eyes were showing obvious signs of stress. Had I really caused that? Something told me that Lissa wasn't going to be too happy about me doing that to her brother at all.

"Andre, are you okay?" I asked once he had returned to his seat and Mrs Karp was asking Mia and Mason to show the class their performance.

"What do you think?" He grumbled, trying his hardest to avoid eye contact with me. It hurt me to know that I had pushed Andre away from me and now he was probably going to hate me as much as Dimitri did. "Look, Rose, I just need you to stop getting into all of these arguments with Dimitri. You guys are both really good friends of mine and I hate seeing you argue. Arguing with him is affecting everyone around you."

"I promise I'll stop arguing, Andre" I mumbled. By the look on Dimitri's face, I could tell that he was listening, but he was choosing to just let me do all the talking. Wow, I knew Dimitri was a lot of things, but I didn't expect him to be a coward.

At break, I had to put up with a mouthful from Lissa, but I knew that it was going to come and I had a few quips for whatever she was going to say.

"Why the hell are you arguing with Dimitri?" She asked, anger flashing through those pale eyes. "You know it's going to annoy Andre."

"Look, I didn't have a clue that it was going to annoy Andre" I argued. "If I had, I wouldn't have done it. You're the one who told me that I should stay away from Dimitri."

"Yeah, stay away from him" She sighed. "Not argue with him into oblivion." Lissa pulled at her hair, looking as though she was getting really stressed over the situation. Maybe living with the Dragomir's was a bad choice. I'm stressing Lissa out, Andre's already been kicked out of a lesson because of me and there's only a matter of time before I do something to get Rhea to hate me.

"Okay, Lissa" I mumbled. "I get what you mean. I'll stay away" With that said, I stalked off. Something told me that she didn't understand that when I said I'd stay away, I meant I'd stay away from everyone. Including her.

The end of the day soon rolled by and I found myself walking out of school with Andre and Lissa, my headphone lying snug in my ear, so I could avoid conversation with them. They didn't try to talk to me. I was an outsider to them at the minute. To be honest, not talking to them was making me feel better. It gave me time to just think on my own without having to be told that I shouldn't be doing this and doing that was wrong.

Rhea's car was parked up near the doors of the school, so I slipped in without saying hello. She seemed to understand that something was wrong, but she respected me enough to leave it. Or maybe she couldn't be bothered with me today. I wouldn't blame her.

When we arrived home, I hurried out of the car and went straight up to the room that I shared with Lissa to get started on my homework. Wow, this must have shaken me up badly if it meant that I was going to do homework.

About an hour later, Lissa finally came upstairs to see me with a guilty look on her face.

"Rose, I'm sorry about shouting at you at break" She sighed. "It wasn't really my place to say anything and I should have stopped myself before I made you upset."

"It's fine, Lissa" I shrugged off even though I didn't feel like that at all. "It's all just such a big change and I'm just a little touchy lately. I'll be back to normal in no time."

"You really do like Dimitri more than you let on, don't you?" She asked. Was she ever going to let that one drop?

"Lissa, can we talk about something other than Dimitri?" I asked, but she gave a firm shake of her head. "I don't know what I think about Dimitri. Right now, I just want to stop arguing with him and be friends."

"What were you guys arguing about today?" She asked.

"He heard me say that I didn't care about him to you" I answered, hoping that it wasn't guilt that I just saw in Lissa's eyes.

"So, it's kind of my fault?" She asked.

"Lissa, you're not the one to blame for my problems with Dimitri" I assured. "I shouldn't have said it if I was planning on getting on with him. Don't worry about it"

"I'm going to fix this if it's the last thing I do" She stated as she got up from the bed and walked out, determination marking her face.

"Lissa, please just leave it" I called. What the hell was she planning on doing?

I apologise for this taking so long to write, but I hope you enjoy it. Oh, and sorry about making Dimitri and Rose argue more XD