Hey guys!

So im having an off week this week, luckily for yalls this chapter was written a while ago lol.

But this just means that after this chapter, it might be a while until I update.

Please bear with me

Reviews make me smile no matter what my mood is

~XOXOXBecca


I groaned when my alarm clock beeped that dreadful Tuesday morning.

I hit the alarm clock to shut it up and rolled onto my back. I rubbed my eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Tasha will be coming in here soon to get me out of bed if I didn't get up soon.

So I reluctantly got out of my bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I tried to drag my shower out, but I started to become pruney, so I got out, threw on my pjs again, and walked back to my room.

I quietly shut my door and swung open the closet doors. I needed to wear something nice, but not too nice. Something that shows that I can be serious and professional, but can kick your ass at any moment.

I rummaged through the clothes and found a green blouse. I threw it on with a pair of skinny jeans and paired the outfit with blue velvet pumps. I brushed my hair and threw it up in a low messy bun. I looked in the mirror that hung on the back of my door and posed in front of it, examining the outfit from all areas.

Just then the cell phone Tasha lended me buzzed on the side table. I looked at the screen which blinked ONE NEW MESSAGE and read it. It was from, guess who? Yup, Tasha telling me to meet her in front of the gym.

I stuck the phone in my pocket, put on a thick coat of eye liner and some mascara and left the dorm.

As I was walking, I caught sight of my reflection. I stared at it for a moment, shrugged, and continued to the gym.

I tried to remember the way Adrian showed me the other day. I must have remembered it pretty well because a few minutes later I met Tasha in front of the gym.

"Ah, Dawn! You made it!" Tasha said, greeting me with a hug.

"Yes I did." I laughed nervously and hugged her back.

We walked out of the school and into a parking lot.

"Over here" Tasha said as she led me to a black SUV.

She held the door to the back seat open and I climbed in side.

"I'll meet you there" Tasha said.

I nodded as she shut the door and I was driven away from the place that I have felt the safest in a long time.

I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep until I was jerked awake from the car hitting a pot hole.

"We're here." The driver announced flatly. I stretched my arms, my hand sliding down my neck as I put my arms down.

As I got out of the car I remembered my reflection in the mirror and mentally counted how many days it has been. My hand found the back of my neck as I headed up the stairs and through the courthouse doors which were held open for me, vampires, as I had come to realized were guardians, followed me, some I followed. As we went through a doorway I threw my bandages in a trash can.

We finally met Tasha in front of a pair of doors.

"Everything's going to be okay." She assured me. I nodded. Tasha had a few vampires with her, but I was never told who they were.

"Are you ready?" Tasha asked.

I answered honestly, "As ready as I'll ever be."

Tasha gave me a sad smile as we walked through the doors which bought us into the courtroom that held my future, and life, in.

I saw the Revere's sitting at the table in the front of the courtroom. They glared at me as we came closer. Most of Tasha's posy went to sit down as we walked further to the front. Only two followed and sat down at the front table with us.

The judge tapped her hammer as we all sat down. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are brought her today, the 22 of October, by the hearing of a Mrs. Dawn Highland, who is charged by a Mr. John and Mrs. Shelby Revere for the death of their children, Mackenzie and Riley Revere."

Mrs. Revere let out a yelp as fake as her boobs. "Oh! Why me! Why my family! Why my children!" Mrs. Revere cried.

"So tell me, Mr. and Mrs. Revere what was Mrs. Highland doing in your home on the 26 of September?" The judge asked.

"We let her stay with us." Said Mr. Revere, trying to calm his wife down as she put on her performance.

"So Mrs. Highland was staying with you?" The judge asked.

"Yes." Mr. Revere said bitterly.

"And why did you let Mrs. Highland stay with you?" The judge asked.

"Me and my wife found her homeless and allowed her to stay with us until she could find a Moroi." Mr. Revere said.

"Mmhmm," The judge said as she looked at the paper work in her hands. "So was Mrs. Highland attending your ball on the 26 of September?"

"Yes Ma'am. We had her keep an eye on Mackenzie and Riley." Mr. Revere "choked" on the last words.

"So you accuse Mrs. Highland for the death of your children?" The judge asked.

"Yes." Mr. Revere said.

"Why?" The judge asked.

"Because we put her in charge to make sure Mackenzie and Riley were to stay safe and at the ball at all times. And where were they? Ah yes, a mile away from the ball in a forest!" Mr. Revere said getting angry.

"We allowed her to come into our home to stay and we fed her and gave her clean clothes and then she goes and does this to us!" Mrs. Revere finally spoke, crying hysterically. "We loved her like our own daughter!"

"Oh bull shit!" I exclaimed.

"Mrs. Highland!" The judge said, hitting her hammer.

I stayed quiet and allowed the bullshiters finish.

"See! Don't you see! This is how she acts!" Mrs. Revere all but jumped out of her chair. "That little lying killing brat!"

Hon, I've been called a lot worse, was I wanted to tell her. But that would just make the situation worse.

"She killed our children! She killed our children!" Mrs. Revere cried.

"Objection, your honor." Tasha said.

The judge motioned to Tasha to hold on, and when she realized the Revere's were finished for the moment, she turned to us. "Now you can speak Mrs. Highland." The judge said. My cheeks turned a bit pink.

Tasha stood up. "I would like to say that that the Revere's are lying." Gasp filled the room.

"What are you saying?" Mrs. Revere said. "That we killed our children!"

The judge smacked her hammer.

"No, not at all," Tasha said. "But what I am saying, is that they're lying about Dawn being responsible for the killing of their children."

"Go on," The judge said.

"On the 26 of September, St. Vladimirs got a call for assistance to the Revere's ball for a Strigoi attack. There we found two dead Moroi and a severely injured guardian who was on the brink of death. We then took this guardian in, and after weeks of being out, woke up with amnesia and hysterical fits that she had no control over." Tasha said.

"That means nothing!" Mrs. Revere yelled.

Smack!

"Mrs. Highland was, yes, in charge of watching Ms. And Mr. Revere, but you can't expect them to all survive after a Strigoi ambush!" Tasha said.

"But she should have been watching them in the first place!" Mrs. Revere shouted.

Smack!

"They shouldn't have even been outside!"

Smack!

But that was the end of it.

"Well what were you doing putting a seventeen year old girl in charge of two Moroi!" Tasha was getting a bit angry.

"Is that true, Mrs. Revere?" The judge said.

Mrs. Revere hesitated. "Well, um-yeah, sorta- but"

Smack! "

Enough! Mrs. Revere!" The judge exclaimed.

Mrs. Revere sat back down.

"Continue," The judge said to us.

"Anyways, as in results, if Mrs. Highland wanted the Revere's dead, she wouldn't have been as injured as she was. The injures she had is a proven fact that Mrs. Highland did not in fact, tried to run. If she wanted to kill them off, she would have gotten out without more than a few scratches. But her injures have shown that she stayed and fought. She fought for her life and the life of two others. At only the age of seventeen." Tasha then took out some big screen shot photos of the scene. They made me cringe. But then she got to picture of me. A tear rolled down my cheek.

Tasha sat down.

"Okay now the jury will decide" The judge said. The jury huddled together and talked in hush tones.

"You doing okay?" Tasha whispered. I just nodded.

After a few longing moments, the jury handed the judge a paper and she looked at it.

The judge cleared her throat, "Mrs. Dawn Highland" my stomach tightened, I felt like I was going to throw up. "You are-" Here it was. "Not guilty."

Did she say what I think she just said?

I wasn't guilty!

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

The judge hit her hammer a few times.

"On the charges of putting an underage dhampir in charge of two Moroi and accusing her of death, I am sentencing Mr. John and Mrs. Shelby Revere two hundred hours of community service." The judge said.

My jaw dropped and a smile formed, going ear to ear. The Revere's expressions were priceless.

"On the other hand, I will be hoping that Mrs. Ozera and the other behalf of St. Vladimirs will be putting Mrs. Highland into training and discipline?" The judge looked at us.

"The plan is already in motion," Tasha said coolly.

The judge tapped her hammer once more. "You are now dismissed."

"I'm not guilty!" I sang as we exited the courthouse. I twirled and danced around like an idiot, not fully aware of how much of an ass I was making of myself.

"I told you everything was going to be okay" Tasha said giving me a hug. I gladly hugged her back. "Now let's go get something to eat. My treat."