Chapter 6: Intrusion

If Rose Hathaway can't learn to be patient, she should at least learn to fake it. She was ferociously grumpy at Monday morning's practice. She kept turning away and massaging her temples when she thought we weren't looking. At least she wasn't yelling as much as usual, probably because she looked like she was going to get sick if she tried to raise her voice. I wondered what was wrong with her. My concern for her, however, was overshadowed by annoyance. Rose had shown up this morning with a dhampir, Polina Kachusova, and been very vague about her reasons for doing so. Rumor had it that those two hated each other.

Polina was muscular like a dhampir, but tall and thin like a Moroi. The result was a long, lean look that made me instantly hate her. She hardly spoke to any of us, but I didn't get the impression that she was arrogant. Studying her face as much as I could, I only saw determination and a shadow of sadness. I was no longer the fastest runner in the class, now that she had arrived, but I was close. Watching her legs in motion, skinny little legs that were covered only by skintight yoga pants, I resolved to skip my usual breakfast of half of a yogurt—or at least cut down to a more reasonable portion of one fourth. Another reason to hate Rose: her training program made me seriously hungry.

To my surprise, Rose joined me and only me for my last lap around the track. Polina finished her workout and Rose ignored her entirely.

"Sydney Sage," Rose remarked thoughtfully as she fell in step next to me.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Join me for lunch today, okay? 12:00 in the cafeteria." Before I could decline the invitation, she continued. "If you have other plans, you can feel free to cancel them. This is part of your training program. Any other instructor will excuse you from whatever lunchtime assignment you're about to pretend you have."

She knew me too well. I skipped the yogurt entirely in preparation for lunch with Rose. I had seen Rose's idea of a good lunch, and it was the equivalent of a feast for the rest of us. Well, for me, anyway. My stomach lurched when I remembered that I had practice again that afternoon and would be exercising with a ridiculously full stomach.

My fears, however, were unfounded. In the lunch line, Rose watched me like a hawk, but she didn't try to tell me what to eat. I selected a veggie burger with no bun, hoping that it would appear substantial to Rose. I knew it was only 120 calories, but she probably didn't. I took a banana too. It had approximately 110 calories, way too many for a piece of fruit, but after all, I had skipped breakfast. I could splurge a little. On a whim, I picked up two chicken nuggets as well. Rose raised her eyebrows at me. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea. In fact, taking only two nuggets probably just made me look weird.

"So how are you doing?" I asked casually, as we slid into our seats. "You're probably pretty stressed out." She did look tired, but thankfully she seemed to be mostly recovered from whatever was wrong with her that morning.

"I'm good!" she exclaimed cheerfully, diving into her mountain of chicken nuggets. "You guys did well this morning, and my dhampir class was good too. Have you met Heath Morena? He was on fire today, seriously. I mean, I feel bad for Elijah, who was his partner. He's probably hurting, but he didn't do anything wrong. Heath was just that great. And I think my Theory class is going to do really well on their quiz this week. They seem to be getting everything." She paused to chew a potato chip. Food was probably the only thing that could trump Rose's love for rambling about her favorite things. I could see how much she loved teaching, and I felt a twinge of guilt for being angry with her during morning practice. To be fair, I wasn't the only one.

"How about you?" she asked, after gulping down half of her water bottle.

I sipped my coffee with one hand and use the other to chop what was left of my veggie burger into increasingly smaller pieces. "I'm doing well, thanks," I said. "I like my classes. My favorite is history, as always, but the guardian classes are pretty cool too. My classmates are so young though! At least they fast-tracked us into the sophomore class. If we stay on top of our independent study work, we can hopefully skip from first semester sophomores to second semester juniors in January. They're trying to make it a two-year program. But we'll all be at least 18 when we graduate."

Rose probably knew all of this information, but things felt a little awkward between us and I didn't want to run out of safe conversation topics. Her eyes kept roaming away from mine and down to my plate. I didn't like it.

"I'm definitely tired," I continued. "And I miss the weather in Palm Springs. Oh, and being on a daytime schedule like a normal human being. That was nice too." I realized I sounded like I was whining and quickly switched directions. "But I am so grateful to be here. It really is a unique and exciting opportunity." I sounded like I was at a job interview.

"Do you miss your family?" she asked. "And the Alchemists?"

I froze. The question was innocent enough, but that was one topic I was not willing to discuss.

"I guess," I said casually. "But I believe this is for the greater good. I'm happy to do my job."

Rose nodded solemnly, as if she had anticipated my answer. "You can take the girl out of the Alchemists, but you can't take the Alchemist out of the girl."

By the end of lunch, she still hadn't mentioned my food intake. Maybe she knew that I was already making an effort by forcing myself to finish everything on my plate. Or maybe she knows you're actually too fat, a nasty voice in my head murmured. Why would she worry about you? There's nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. If anything, she should tell you to stop being such a pig. She's a dhampir. She's allowed to be a size 6 or 8 or whatever. Sydney, you could look like a Moroi if you tried hard enough. Still, I got the feeling that she was simply observing me and forming some sort of plan.

Sure enough, she ambushed me as we were putting our trays away. "Sydney, I need you to meet me here every Monday and Friday. Same time. And things are going to be a little different from here on out. Remember, you're my friend, but you're also my student. Either way, I'm going to look out for you, whether you like it or not. Okay?"

No, Rose. Not okay. Stop asking everyone if things are "okay" every five minutes.

"Yes," I answered. "Have a good afternoon. I'll see you at practice." I was back in business mode, on guard, and wondering whether I could ever just have a normal friendship without work getting in the way.

I crawled into bed that night with an ice pack, physically and mentally exhausted. Zachariah was making good progress in our sparring exercises. I would have been happy for him if I hadn't had the misfortune of being his partner. I placed the ice pack over the worst of my bruises. Before long, I drifted off to sleep.

My sleep was rudely interrupted when I found myself back in Palm Springs. I was sitting in Spencer's, my favorite coffee shop, but nobody else was there. Nobody, that is, except for a messy-haired boy in black jeans and a sage green t-shirt with an abstract design on the front.

"Adrian!" I exclaimed furiously. "You know how I feel about spirit dreams!"

"Sorry, Sage," he said. "At least I brought you a coffee." Sure enough, a steaming cup of coffee appeared on the table in front of me. No cream, no sugar. Perfection. Spirit dreams did have one perk: We could feel physical sensations. I was ashamed to admit that Adrian and I had had plenty of fun with those sensations, which had nothing to do with the taste of coffee. If a Moroi and a human only kissed in spirit dreams, did they really kiss at all? I hope not.

"Thanks," I said grudgingly, picking up the coffee. He knew the way to my heart.

"So, guess what?" He was bubbling with excitement. "I'm moving back to St. Vladimir's! I could have continued studying at Carlton, but I don't want to live in Palm Springs alone. Or with Clarence. So I'm taking a break from the whole college thing for awhile. Kirova hired me as an assistant teacher for the art classes at St. Vlad's."

"Adrian, that's great!" I exclaimed. Inwardly, my heart sunk. My life doesn't need to be any more complicated than it already is. I don't have time for friends, and even if I did, Adrian and I are not very good at just being friends. Falling out of favor with the Alchemists did terrible things to my sense of values and social norms. I can't believe that my first kiss was with a Moroi—and that I want to do more than just kiss him.

"Aww, Sage, you're sad," he said, clearly not fooled by my smile. "This will be a good thing, I promise—not just for me, but for us."

I gulped. Now there's an "us"?

"We can take things slow," he assured me. "But damn, Sydney Sage, this rebellious ex-Alchemist act of yours really gets me—"

His words were interrupted by my lips.

Author's Note: Don't worry, I didn't forget that this story is rated M! Expect some decent Sydney/Adrian action coming up soon. Or indecent, depending on how you look at it. ;) I reworked the entire story today, and I'm really excited about everything that will be happening to the characters. There will be approximately 12 more chapters, most of which will be longer and more substantial than this one, and the story should be finished by the end of July. If you're enjoying the story, please consider throwing a review my way! The next chapter will be in Sydney's POV again, then back to Rose for awhile.