I got Chapter 10 up! Yay :) Nice job on those 100+ reviews! I'm done bothering you with them now lol. I posted the link for the outfit Rose wore for the after-party on my profile, so if you're interested in a pic of those black leopard high-tops she wore go check it outtt.

Also, many of you have awesome stories of your own that you're updating often. Please don't get mad if you don't see me reviewing on them, or if you're not one of my fave authors or whatever. I really would review your story, but my computer won't let me open more than one window and it's so slow that it doesn't pull websites up that good, so I can't review. But my mom keeps promising to get me a new computer in the next few days, so it'll be all good soon, 'kay? Thank you! Much love ;)

"Ugh . . . Adrian, will you hand me that ice pack and bottle of Tylenol?"

I groaned, lifting my feet up onto the couch and leaning my head back onto the pillow. I was in Lissa's room, and Adrian was with us. Lissa was on her bed, practically passed out from last night's events. Dimitri was working his shift, trying also to fight off his hangover. Adrian was here to advise us on how to handle our first hangover in a whole year.

Adrian returned, laying the wrapped-up ice pack on my forehead and handing me the glass of ice water and two pills. "Thanks," I murmured.

"No problem, little dhampir. Is Lissa going to be alright?" He jerked his head in the direction of Lissa, who could pass for dead right about now.

"Yeah," I said. "She's not having any suicidal or homicidal thoughts right now, so she's good."

"My worry is that she's not having any thoughts."

I sat up a little, laying down becoming a little too uncomfortable. "You mean is she still alive? She's breathing; she's just . . . in pain. And, uh, cramping."

Adrian almost snorted. "Ah, I see."

"I can freaking hear you guys," I heard Lissa moan. "Yes, I'm on my period. But before you laugh about my crappy bleeding every month, go switch bodies with a girl, experience her period cramps, and then come talk to me. Bet you won't feel the same then, asshole."

I laughed, my head throbbing, but I couldn't help it. And I thought Lissa was bitchy when she was just on her period. . . . Add a hangover and she became your worst nightmare.

Adrian sputtered, taking offense. "Well, then, get your own Tylenol! And I called myself caring for playing mother and helping you two with your hangovers." Still muttering to himself, Adrian exited out the door, slamming it closed behind him. Lissa and I both moaned, but unlike me Lissa threw her alarm clock at the door in antagonism.

Five seconds later, the door opened again, and Adrian emerged through the doorway, looking sheepish.

"Back already?" I grumbled, just about to fall asleep.

"No . . . yes. You two are the only entertainment I have. Everyone else is passed out in their rooms, sleeping or moaning in pain."

"Well you might as well leave again, 'cause we're about to go to sleep too."

Adrian sighed heavily. "Fine, fine, be boring. See if I care." When I didn't hear the door open, signaling his departure, I peeked through half-closed lids.

Adrian was looking at me expectantly. When I opened my eyes, he whined, "Rose! Come on, I'm always drunk, but you don't see me sleeping or being boring the next morning!"

"That's because you get drunk all over again before you can get a hangover," I muttered.

"Please? Pretty please come downstairs and watch a movie with me? I'll buy you popcorn. . . ."

I sighed. "And you really think popcorn is a reasonable bribe for someone suffering?"

Adrian pretended to think for a moment. "Yes," he concluded.

I made a sound similar to the "wrong answer" noise buzzers make. "Wrong. Try again next week." I still didn't hear the door open. "No, seriously - bother me next week. I'm too tired right now."

Adrian must've been about to open his mouth to speak, because then Lissa said, "She said leave us the fuck alone, dick-head."

Not even ten seconds later I heard the sweet, joyful noise of the door opening and closing, and I drifted off into a painless, blissful sleep.

"Rose? Rose, wake up!"

I groaned as an earthquake erupted under me. "You bastard Oompa Loompa, I said give me the fucking pink unicorn back."

Rolling over, I caught a snippet of giggles and whispering. My eyes snapped open.

Lissa was staring me in the face, not even five inches from me.

I jumped, startled, my hangover completely numbed from the nap and Tylenol. "Woah, Liss, at least give me some sort of warning that you're going to do that."

She put her hands on her hips. "Well I told you to wake up, and I even shook you."

"So that's what that was," I muttered.

"Get up," Lissa said, reaching down to pull the cover off of me.

"Lissa," I moaned, my legs suddenly freezing in the cool air. "Why do I have to get up so early?"

Lissa gaped at me, and behind her Adrian stared, too. "Rose, it's one in the afternoon on a weekend! You've slept half the day away!"

I sat up then, walking over to the door where her alarm clock still lay. Picking it up and shaking it a few times made the numbers show up. It read 1:02.

"Huh. So I did."

Lissa snorted. "Yeah. You did. Now let's go, we're already late for lunch."

"Yep," Adrian added, coming up behind us as we walked down the hallway and draping an arm around our shoulders. "They're serving roasted chicken, green salad, and fruit pudding for dessert."

"Yum," I grumbled, shrugging his arm off.

"Hey Rose, how come Guardian Belikov was at the after-party last night?"

I looked up from my disgusting lumpy fruit pudding and into the eyes of Jesse Zeklos and his partner-in-crime, Ralf.

I sighed through my nose. I knew people would ask about it sooner or later. "Because he insisted on monitoring us to make sure we stayed safe. There was a minor breach in the wards and he didn't want any Strigoi crashing our party." It was a lie, but a plausible one.

Ralf believed it and was about to walk away, but Jesse, said, "If he really wanted to make sure we stayed safe, why was he head-over-heels wasted?"

Lissa's face was a mirror of my thoughts: anxious and fearful. Think, Rose, think. "Adrian spiked his drink." I grinned evilly.

Jesse looked aghast. "You spiked a guardian's drink? That's crazy, even for you. You could get expelled for that, you know."

Normally I would've thought he would like that idea. Huh. "I didn't spike it dumbshit. I said Adrian spiked it, and he's not even a student here."

Ralf smirked. "He could still be banned from school grounds."

I laughed. "You're a dumbfuck too if you think I care. It's Adrian. He'll be fine, and plus Dimitri can't remember anything. I don't even think he's had a drink before."

I must've satisfied what they came here for because then they turned and left.

Lissa was immediately in my ear. "Rose, that was so close! What if they tell Kirova you spiked a guardian's drink? You'll be in so much trouble, and even if they say Adrian did it he'll be banned from campus for nothing!"

"Relax, Liss," I said. "It'll be fine. Jesse and Ralf are a lot of things, but they're not tattletales. And even if word did get around to Kirova, we can tell her that, yeah, Dimitri came to the party, but he didn't really get drunk. He just interacted with everything to make the students feel more . . . I dunno, at ease, and like nothing was up. And they can't do anything to me for getting drunk. Everyone was, and it was a weekend. So there's nothing to worry about."

Lissa nodded, but through the bond I felt that she was still concerned. Of course there was nothing I could really do for that, except for make things seem as normal as possible.

The Next Day. . . .

"Oh my god, Rose! Graduation's tomorrow! Can you believe it? I didn't even realize it 'till I saw a poster outside one of my classes. We have to go get out nails and hair done today. Right now, preferably. It's only 5:30, so human stores will be opening soon. Come on, if we ask soon enough Kirova might allow it! I'm sure tons of other girls have already asked!"

"Huh?" I looked up from the computer I was sitting at. Lissa was standing in the middle of my room, having just burst through my door.

She sighed, stomping over to the middle of the room and dropping her bag on the floor, books and pencils spilling out. "I said graduation's tomorrow and we need to get dolled up."

My blood ran cold. "Graduation is tomorrow?"

Lissa gawked at me. "Yes! Rose, is something wrong? You seem really out of it. You weren't like this yesterday."

I shot out of my chair, running to the calendar on the opposite side of my bedroom. I flipped through the pages, counting days. "Liss, what day was yesterday?" I asked.

"June third, why? Rose, you're really scaring me now."

I continued counting. "No . . . it can't be. . . ."

"Rose! I swear I'm about ready to run back out the door and grab Dr. Olendzki, and you know how weird she gets every time you come into her office."

But I didn't hear Lissa. I was too busy staring at the calendar. Graduation was tomorrow. Which meant everyone would know about Dimitri and me tomorrow.

My stomach twisted with nerves. God, Rose, get it together! This is what you wanted. This is what you still want - no one holding you back from loving Dimitri.

But I was still so nervous. I wondered where all the bravado and confidence I had had so recently about this whole relationship went. Before, I wouldn't have cared. Before, I would've said bring it on, and I would've been ready to run outside and make out with Dimitri in front of the whole student body, whether it was graduation or not. But now . . . I was worried. What if the school was able to do something, considering they would know we were in love while Dimitri was still working? What would Queen Tatiana do if she found out? Take me away from Lissa? And, oh god, what would my mother say? Even worse, my father! He'd break Dimitri's legs off!

Suddenly, my head snapped to the side in a swift, jerking motion, and I fell to the floor, caught off guard. My vision blurred, and the world was a whirlwind around me. Seconds later, I began making out shapes and the dizziness faded . . . but it was all replaced with a scorching sting on the side of my face.

I looked up at Lissa. Her hands were covering her mouth, and her eyes were wide with shock.

I held my hand up to my cheek, and the appalling realization that I had just been slapped came to mind.

I followed my gaze to a shape looming near my vision, and turned my head.

"Dimitri?"

Dimitri was kneeling at my side. "Rose, are you okay?"

Well let's see, my head is sore from the impact of my fall, and my cheek is currently in so much pain that my eyes are tearing just the slightest bit. Does that seem okay to you? I thought. But all I could manage to say was, "My cheek. . . ."

Dimitri bit his lip. "I'm so sorry about that. Rose, you were just standing there staring into space. You stood there for so long that you didn't even notice Lissa leaving the room and running down a flight of stairs, then returning. What were you thinking?"

My head managed to clear enough that my speech skills came back. "Graduation . . . it's tomorrow, Dimitri."

A small smile played on Dimitri's lips. "Yes, it is."

I sighed, moving myself into a more comfortable position. Lissa was watching us, and I think she was still recovering from seeing me bitch-slapped. "I'm scared, Dimitri."

"Oh, Roza," he breathed, scooting over to wrap his arms around me. My arms circled his waist, and he pulled me to him tight, planting a kiss on my forehead as he rocked me back and forth. "It'll be okay. Everyone graduates eventually. Besides, you should be happy to get out of this hell hole, as you like to call it."

I grinned at his use of "hell hole". "That's not what I'm afraid of Dimitri. I'm afraid that we'll still get in trouble."

I felt Dimitri tense, and then he hugged me more firmly. "Roza, no one can do anything to us once you graduate. We'll be free, you'll be Lissa's guardian, and I'll be someone else's guardian at Court so that we can always see each other. Things are going to work out, trust me."

I laughed humorlessly. "So what fortune-cookie destiny will you read to me when Abe finds out?"

Dimitri stiffened again, but this time he didn't relax. I moved my head so I could see his face. "I'm sure he would react the same way any concerned parent would. And he would have every right to. I'm still seven years older than you."

I smirked. "Wear lots of padding," I said, patting his chest sympathetically.

You likey? Next chapter up tomorrow, but I'll start on it tonight :) They'll be going to the mall in the next chapter, and, as promised, there will also be tons more action. What, did you think things stay all happy and bright throughout the whole story? THINK AGAIN! Hahaha. Thank you to those who reviewed! You ROCK.
xoxo,
Ryan
OH, P.S. Just so you guys know, I always had the story planned out to begin just a few days before graduation. It mentions somewhere in Chapter 3 that graduation was "a few days away". So, no, it wasn't accidental. Just so you know :)