Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy, the amazing Richelle Mead does.


Previously: At that moment, the door opened, and in walked the devil himself.

RPOV:

I grinned as Christian Ozera himself walked in. "Speak of the devil..." I said. (A/N: I called Christian the devil b/c the saying goes: Speak of the devil and he shall appear, and they were just talking bout him)

Lissa giggled, while Christian, aka Sparky, raised an eyebrow.

"Talking about how irresistibly sexy I am, are you?" he asked jokingly.

I gagged, pretending to vomit. But just as I was about to reply with a witty remark, my acting became reality, and I sprinted to the bathroom, just before the contents of my stomach spewed out of my mouth. I felt someone come up behind me and hold my hair back. From the bond, I knew it was Lissa.

Once I was done emptying my stomach, I stood up slowly and walked over to her sink, rinsing out my mouth.

"You can use my toothbrush," Lissa said sympathetically. Ever notice how sympathetically has PATHETIC in it? Yeah, I had, I thought bitterly. But regardless, I used her toothbrush to get the disgusting taste out of my mouth. Once I was done, I turned around to face her and sighed. She had that sympathetic yet pitying look on her face that I wasn't sure she knew she had.

I sighed again. "I'm fine, Liss. No need to hover."

She continued looking at me with concern, but moved so that I could get out of the bathroom.

As I walked back into the room, I saw Sparky sitting on Lissa's bed, also looking concerned. Well look at that, Sparky has a heart!

Suddenly, I got an idea. Usually, it took me weeks of being around a guy and getting used to him before he could walk within ten feet of me. But with Dimitri it was instantaneous, which made me wonder if I was finally getting over it. Or maybe it was just him. I hoped not.

"Sparky, come here," I said. Christian got up hesitantly, and walked toward me, stopping the customary five feet away.

I shook my head. "Come closer."

He hesitated again, then slowly took a step forward.

Almost instantly, my palms started to sweat, and my breathing picked up, as if there was a bubble around me and Christian intruded on it with his one step, causing my body to react. I quickly shook my head, and he leaped back, knowing not to push me.

I closed my eyes as my shoulders slumped in defeat. Looks like it was just Dimitri. I didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, I was relieved because he was going to be my guarding partner, and my mentor for the rest of the year. On the other hand, I was disappointed because that meant I hadn't moved forward at all. It also made me wonder why he was the only person who could immediately get within 6 feet of me when I barely knew his name. And where he came from, if his Russian accent was any indication.

I shook off these thoughts, looking up to see Lissa and Christian looking at me patiently.

"What was that about?" Lissa asked once she saw that my attention was on them.

I shrugged. "I just wanted to see if I'd gotten better, ya know? Now that I have a mentor, I really need to get over this; how else is he going to train me?" I asked, mostly to myself.

Lissa's eyes widened. "You have a mentor? And it's a HE?"

I nodded absentmindedly.

Lissa's expression became positively alarmed. "Well, we can't have that! You'll be a nervous wreck! I'm going to go to Alberta and change this!"

She was half to the door before her words registered in my mind. But when they did, I hurried over to her, stopping her before she walked out the door.

"No, no, no, Liss!" I exclaimed. "I already talked to Alberta, and we figured it out," I assured her.

Lissa looked at me carefully. "So you now have a new mentor now, right? A female one?"

I shook my head. "No, Alberta and I figured something else out. Since Dimitri is going to be your guardian, or, well, is your guardian, and I need to get used to him, and all men in general, he's going to be my mentor, teaching me and helping me get rid of this phobia." I didn't mention the fact that it appeared I was already comfortable with him. It seemed like I was going to jinx it if I said it out loud.

Lissa continued looking at me doubtfully. Are you sure that's what you want, Rose? She asked through the bond.

I nodded, then smirked. "Besides, he's hot," I said, breaking the tension that had fallen on the room.

Lissa rolled her eyes, but smiled at me. "Who is is, anyway?" she asked.

I grinned. "Dimitri Belikov. Anyway, let's go to breakfast, we're hungry," I said, rubbing my tummy.

Lissa nodded, her eyes softening. "Of course, let's go." And with that, we left to go to breakfast.


DPOV:

After my very interesting lesson with Rose, I decided to get a quick breakfast, then go to the cafeteria to stand guard. I would be lying if I said that my decision to watch the commons during breakfast was purely me being a good Samaritan, and had nothing to do with Rose. To be honest, I wanted to see how Rose interacted with others, and how I could reach out to her to be a better guardian, and help her get over her fear. I ate a quick breakfast, and headed down to the commons from the guardian housing.

When I walked into the room, it was mostly empty with a few early risers. As time passed, more people came down. I had been standing guard for about 20 minutes when Rose finally showed up with a couple of her friends. She was walking arm in arm with a blonde Moroi, who I assumed was the Princess. A dark haired boy I knew to be my friend Tasha Ozera's nephew, Christian Ozera, trailed after them, about five feet away. I figured that that was how far away all guys were around Rose after this morning. As I watched, Rose and Vasilisa went over to an empty table by the windows, while Christian, who was now joined by two novices, a redhead, and a brown haired one, went to the line, to get food for the three of them, or so I assumed.

I looked back toward Rose and Vasilisa and noticed that a blonde Moroi with curly hair had joined them. (A/N: Mia is going to be their friend b/c her mom was raped too, and she felt compassionate toward Rose. They're just sort of friends; Spokane hasn't happened.)

The girl sat on the other side of Rose. Then another female novice came over and sat in front of Rose. I was puzzled for a moment, trying to figure out why they were sitting like that, until the guys came back bearing armloads of food, and sat by the girls, successfully staying about four feet away from Rose. Then I got it. They had created a wall of girls around Rose so that she felt safe. I smiled slightly at the ingeniousness of this.

I strolled over to their table casually, watching for danger. Finally, I got within earshot of them, and stood against the wall, pretending to watch the commons, while really listening in on their conversation.

"So, Rose, who's your new mentor?" the novice girl asked.

"Dimitri Belikov," Rose said casually. "Why, Meredith, jealous you don't have one?"

Meredith snorted. "Yeah, right. Get up at the crack of dawn, get my ass kicked, go to breakfast, suffer more classes, then go back? No thank you, I enjoy my sleep and free time too much."

Rose snorted. "First off, it's not the crack of dawn, more like sunset. And second, if you were at all serious about becoming a guardian, you would try to get as much training in as possible," Rose said, surprisingly serious.

Apparently this was even more out of character than I had thought because everybody was looking at her like she had three heads.

"Yeah, serious. Says the pregnant one," Meredith sneered.

Rose glared at her, and opened her mouth. Vasilisa put a calming hand on Rose's arm and stared at her intently. I didn't think that that would stop Rose from snapping at Meredith, and started toward their table to defuse any fight that might break out, but to my surprise, Rose simple lifted a shoulder, and went back to her food. Lissa let go of her arm, and an awkward silence fell on the table.

"So Rose," the red headed guy said, trying to change the subject. "Does this mean that you're going to actually be part of the combat classes, or are you going to do your Christmas tree thing, being angry and jealous?" he asked jokingly.

Rose gave him a half smile. "I don't know, it's up to Dimitri."

"Who?" the guy asked.

"My mentor, remember? I just told you this like 5 minutes ago. Jeez Mase, get your mind away from my naked body and pay attention," she joked. Or at least I hoped so.

The guy, Mase, smiled cockily. "Sorry, Rose, you're just so hot I can't help but think about you naked."

Rose simply rolled her eyes, but my fists clench at his casual words. You have no right thinking about her like that! I wanted to scream at him.She's not a piece of meat for you to stare at! You have no respect! I wanted to teach him some respect. By ripping his eyes out so that he can never ogle at Rose again. Then rip his tongue out so –

Whoa! Where did that come from? I was shocked. He's just a guy, I assured myself. Besides, it's not like he had a chance with Rose, not now, not in her state of mind. He would never have a chance with Rose, even if –

I cut my thoughts off again. What was the matter with me? Why was I thinking these thoughts? I didn't –

"Hey Comrade!" Rose's voice interrupted my thoughts. That seemed to be happening a lot lately. I looked up to see her looking at me. I was puzzled. I had been sure she had said 'comrade'...

Rose grinned. "He lives!" she mock cheered.

I raised my eyebrow. "Comrade?" I asked.

She shrugged, still smiling. "So, are you going to train me during class, or do I get to sit out like every other day?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I'm going to train you during lessons, so make sure that you change."

She nodded. "Cool," Then she turned back to her breakfast, and I left the room, going to Guardian Alto's room instead, since it was Rose's first class.


A/N: Sorry about not updating yesterday; stupid site wouldn't let me! Anyway, there you go! I hope everybody understood my reference at the beginning of the chapter. Sorry to disappoint those who were hoping for someone more exciting (: I wanted to make this chapter longer, but it's late and I have school tomorrow, so I'm going to leave it here, but I promise a longer one tomorrow. I'm getting tired of all of this happening on the same day, so tomorrow we're going to finish it off, and move on with the story! thank you to all who reviewed, a special thank you for sunayna4sho review; you seriously made my day! I'll update tomorrow as soon as possible; I'll work on it at school, so it's not as late as it has been lately :P thanks for reading my story!