Chapter 25: Not Pictured

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy

RPOV

"Are you ready for Alto's final?" Dimitri asked. It was now Wednesday morning and we were all gathered around our usual table in the cafeteria

"No," I groaned. I'd tried so hard to focus and study these past few days, but I just couldn't concentrate. I kept reliving Saturday night over and over again. I'd been nervous after I left Lissa's that it had all been a dream and Dimitri was just going to go back to ignoring me like usual, but around six my phone rang. I thought it would be Lissa, but was shocked to see the word Comrade flashing across the screen.

He said he was just calling to see if I wanted to ride with him to school tomorrow. I was so excited I nearly dropped the phone. Not only had he called me, but he was going to make things between us public. We talked for a few minutes until my dad started harassing me to get off the phone and study for my finals. Apparently it didn't work because here I was five minutes before the first bell and I was cramming as much information into my head as I possibly could.

"Relax Roza, you'll be fine," Dimitri said putting his hand over mine in a comforting gesture. It sent tingles up my arm, but did little to reassure me about Stan's test.

As I sat behind him in class, I could tell he really knew the material because as he scribbled away furiously, I sat tapping my pencil on my desk. I didn't even understand what the question was asking let alone how to even begin formulating an answer. I sighed as the bell rang and everyone scrambled to turn in their tests. I had managed to finish, but just barely.

"How do you think it went?" he asked as he grabbed my books from my desk. He had taken to walking me to class and carrying my books. It was really rather sweet.

"Ugh, not good! What the hell is existentialism?" I groaned.

"It's what we've been going over all semester," he said scrutinizing me to see if I was serious.

"Maybe I should have paid a little more attention to the troll when he talks, but seriously who needs that crap anyways?" He laughed.

"In my experience not many."

After the initial shock on Monday morning when we showed up together, the student body had gawked at us all day. By the time the bell rang on Friday signaling the beginning of Christmas break most people had forgotten about the excitement. Everyone that is except for Aaron. He'd been pretty upset and had come by the house on Sunday evening. He looked like death from having the flu and probably from finding out about me and Dimitri.

Flashback

"Rose, Aarron is at the door," my mother called. My heart literally stopped beating.

"Shit, shit, shit," I muttered under my breath. I couldn't believe word got to him this fast.

"Hey," I said descending the stairs to find him standing in the foyer.

"Can we talk outside?" he asked shuffling uncomfortably from one foot to another. I nodded grabbing my coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

"So you and Belikov huh?" he asked looking down at the ground kicking at the snow.

I sighed. "Aaron, I'm sorry. I know I probably misled you. You didn't deserve that." It was cold enough to see my breath and I couldn't help but shiver.

"Nah, it's cool. I kind of figured after the way he gawked at you all night at the Fall Ball. I just wish you'd been honest with me." Wow way to lay on the guilt. He was being so nice and mature about this, it was really making me feel terrible. Perhaps that was the whole idea.

"I really am sorry. You're such a nice guy and if circumstances were different,"

"You mean if you were actually attracted to me," he snorted.

"Yea okay, I know it sounds lame so how about I just leave it at I'm really sorry and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," I said.

"Thanks, no hard feelings. See you at school tomorrow." He turned to leave.

"Aaron wait!" I called. He turned to face me.

I walked over and kissed his cheek softly. "See you around," I said before returning to the warmth of my house.

"Did you let him down gently?" my mother asked looking up from her book.

"How did you…?" She gave me a knowing look.

"Oh, you talked to Tasha and she's pissed that I stole her future conquest," I guessed.

She laughed. "No, but I'm sure she'll call soon."

"Then how?" I asked curiously.

She smiled knowingly pulling her phone out of her pocket. She flipped through it for a minute and then held it out for me to see.

My eyes widened as I looked at a photograph of Dimitri and I locking lips under the mistletoe.

"Who?"

"Lila took it. She was coming down to grab a few things out of the decorations box and couldn't resist. She said it was too cute to miss."

"Wow that is really embarrassing. You didn't show Dad did you?"

She nodded. "He thought it was just precious. I think his exact words were it's about time," she said smiling.

"Ugh is nothing sacred anymore?" I groaned.

End Flashback

It shocked me that Natalia actually stopped me in the bathroom to congratulate me on finally wearing him down. She told me that I was all he could think about at the Fall Ball and how annoying he'd been all night. She was pretty nice and had a good sense of humor. It made me feel good knowing that he hadn't been with her physically or mentally that night. I did still wonder about all the others.

"No school for two whole weeks!" Mia shouted as we burst through the doors of the school. It was snowing quite heavily and our cars were buried.

"Hey let's go to the football field and make snow angels," I said excitedly. It was one of my favorite things to do in the winter.

"Awesome!" Eddie cried as he Mason and Andree took off towards the field.

"Thanks a lot Rose, now we're going to get pelted with snowballs all day," Sydney whined.

"That's the fun of it," I said picking up a handful of snow in my fuzzy red gloved hands and packing it into a ball. I fake chucked it at Sydney who squealed, but really threw it at Dimitri hitting him square in the mouth.

He spit out the snow and a wicked grin took up residence on his face.

"You'd better run Roza!" he growled. I took off across the snow as fast as I could. Thankfully I had the foresight to wear my snow boots today. Just as I suspected, he was faster than me in the snow and managed to tackle me to the ground.

"Stop, I give I give!" I cried as we wrestled.

"Not until I get you back," he said mischievously as he held me down.

"Do you like snow cones?" he asked with a smirk.

My eyes widened as he grabbed a huge fistful of snow.

"You wouldn't dare," I said smugly. He so wouldn't shove snow in my face.

"Wouldn't I?" he asked before shoving the snow right in my face.

I howled as all hell broke loose. Everyone had caught up with us by now and it was an all out snowball war.

"So much for making snow angels," Lissa said smiling as she tossed snow all over me.

"Let's have teams!"Andree called out.

"Rose you can be captain and Dimtri you can be the other," he suggested.

"You'd better watch your back Comrade," I told him. It ended up being me, Mia, Christian, Mason, Sydney and Adrian against Dimitri, Andree, Eddie, Jill, Lissa and Avery, who had joined us when she came to pick Adrian up from school.

"Game on! If you get hit you're out!" Andree ordered.

We all ran to our respective snow lairs to bottle up snowballs. We had ten minutes to make as many as we could before we could start to pursue the other team.

Lissa and Sydney of course were the first to go down. They didn't really want to play anyways. Then Mason hit Jill in the face and while he was laughing at her Eddie creamed him from behind. Adrian stopped to smoke and Avery snuck up on him. I hit her and they went off together to make out behind a tree or something. They were so sweet together.

Andree and Christian took each other down and Mia got in the way so she went down too. Then it was only Dimitri and I left. Everyone else had made their way back to the parking lot. I looked around the trees and saw nothing but white as far as the eye could see. I took a few steps forward trying to be as stealthy as possible, but my boots crunched loudly on the snow. I glanced around quickly to see if he'd heard me, but I didn't see him. I sighed turning around to head I the other direction and was met with a huge wet snowball to the face.

"I told you you'd better run," he said with a grin.

"You're so not funny Comrade," I groaned wiping the freezing cold snow out of my scarf.

"You're so cute when you whine," he said coming closer.

"Do you want me to kiss and make it better?" My heart rate increased as I nodded. He pulled me close and pressed his lips gently against mine in a sweet lingering kiss.

"So about those snow angels," he said leading me over to an untouched patch of snow.

I smiled. "It's silly. You don't have to," I told him.

"It's only silly if you do it alone," he said lying down in the snow. I laughed but plopped down a few feet away from him.

"Wow yours looks like a yeti compared to mine," I said noting the size difference.

"Maybe yours looks like a dwarf compared to mine," he retorted playfully.

"You so did not just call me a dwarf," I cried. He put his hands up in surrender, but it was too late. I was so going to get him.

"Be nice Roza," he warned backing away.

"You can run, but you can't hide," I called running after him.

We finally ended up back at my house freezing cold and sopping wet.

"You want to come in?" I asked. My mom was at work, dad was at school grading furiously so he could enjoy his holiday break, Christian was at Lissa's and Tasha wasn't coming until tomorrow.

He looked around uneasily, but nodded following me inside.

"You're shivering," he observed coming over and rubbing my arms with his hands trying to warm me up.

"I'll make some hot cocoa," I told him.

"Let me," he said. "Why don't you go up and dry your hair. You'll catch a cold."

When I came back down there were two steaming hot mugs of cocoa on the table with tiny marshmallows floating in them.

"Mmmm Comrade this is soooo good," I moaned.

He smiled widely at me. "The secret is to put in two packets of cocoa mix. That's the way my grandmother makes it for us at home," he shared.

"So if your grandmother is clairvoyant, did she see you meeting me?" I asked.

He laughed heartily. "I'm sure she did, but she's not very forthcoming and when she does say something it's usually cryptic or tied up in riddles."

"So what are your plans tomorrow night?" he asked pushing a strand of my hair that had fallen in my face behind my ear.

"Nothing really. I have to babysit in the afternoon, but I'm free in the evening.

"Would you like to go out?" he asked.

"You mean like a date?" I held my breath awaiting his response eagerly.

"Yes, like a date," he replied pulling me closer before pressing his lips to mine softly running his fingers through my hair.

"You have such beautiful hair," he murmured kissing my ear.

DPOV

Being with Rose was a dream come true. As we stood in the kitchen I realized I had a choice to make. Would I continue to let things go in this direction that could possibly lead to heartbreak for the both of us or would I end things now and save us both the pain and suffering. But as I tangled my hands in her magnificent locks I realized I was too selfish to give her up now. We talked and kissed for a little longer before I thought it best for me to head home. I had a lot of planning to do if I was going to take her on a date tomorrow and I still had some things to do for the case.

I wasn't going to allow myself to slack off on my work even if that meant lack of sleep from trying to balance my time with Rose and my time spent on the case. I sat down at my desk after having made pleasantries with the Dragomir's. I'd been over this particular file with a fine toothed comb many times yet still had no idea as to who I was looking for. I was beginning to think that the way I'd gone about making my list had been wrong. If the DNA results of the last few candidates came back negative, I would have to broaden my search. So here I was meticulously scrutinizing the file on Rosemarie for anything that could possibly stand out that I hadn't already thought of.

I had her copies of her birth certificate, doctor's appointments, school records, dental records, anything one could possibly imagine yet was still drawing a blank.

I studied the photos of her that had been taken by a Christmas tree in early December of 1999. She would have been six on January 27th so she was nearly six years old. She was smiling with a missing front tooth. She didn't have any birthmarks to speak of, her eyes were deep brown, her hair was nearly black. She had tanned skin and was of average height for her age.

Her medical records stated that she had always been very healthy. She'd been to the emergency room only twice. Once was after having had an allergic reaction to juniper berries. That in and of itself was an odd allergy, but not many places in the United States even sold those let alone used them in cuisine. I could try and get ahold of medical files from the school and check for allergies, but I was almost certain she had never been exposed to those here. Why couldn't she be allergic to peanuts or something easy like that?

The second hospitalization was for hypothermia when she was four. Abe had explained that Janine had let her play outside and had forgotten about her. She had stayed outside until the wee hours of the night without a coat. It had been January and in the thirties. When Abe had come home after a business trip early in the morning he'd found Rosemarie curled up under a bush in the front yard shivering and nearly in shock. It was a sad story, but had no lasting effects. Her blood type was O positive which was a universal donor and one of the most common blood types out there. If she'd been AB- it would have been a lot easier to narrow down my list.

Her school records indicated that she was ninetieth percentile, which meant she was very intelligent. If only I could get a hold of the elementary school yearbooks. Looking at a seventeen year old and a six year old there were so many changes, but if I could get a hold of photos from grade school maybe say of age seven or eight then I might be able to place her. So that is how I found myself rummaging through Lissa's things while she was at a hair appointment.

It wasn't hard to find as she had a large bookshelf. I sat down on the bed and opened her yearbook from second grade searching for the girl in question. I came up empty handed. I then went to third grade and so on and so forth until I reached sixth grade. Not one girl resembled the photo of Rosemarie which led me to draw two conclusions. One, the girl had not attended the same school as Lissa or two, she'd had plastic surgery to alter her appearance. I was about to close the last book when I became curious. I'd seen all kinds of goofy pictures of Lissa, Andree, Christian , Mason, Eddie and Mia, but hadn't seen any of Rose. She would have been pictured right after Christian, but she wasn't there. I glanced down at the bottom of the page and it read not pictured Rosalie Ozera.

I glanced back through the rest of the books and found similar entries. She had missed picture day every year. I would have to ask her about that later. I'd originally crossed her off the list because she had siblings and a biological family. But not being able to locate a photo of her before age sixteen and her not remembering the first six years of her life were two very large issues that I could not ignore. The only question was how could it be her? The Ozera family was practically perfect with the exception of Tasha's bad attitude. They certainly didn't act like they'd been raising someone else's child all these years. There had to be another explanation for why Rose's photos were missing.

As I put the yearbooks back in their rightful place, I came across childhood photo albums of Lissa. Surely there would be pictures of Rose in there. As I flipped through them I identified all the usuals, but curiously there were none that included Rose. How could that possibly be? I shook my head furiously trying to avoid thinking about the repercussions of her being the one I was looking for. The most important being that her life would be turned upside down when she found out her entire life had been a lie. The other part would be that now I was dating my boss' daughter. He would surely have me castrated.

Woah, I told myself. Let's not get too far ahead of the game. She doesn't fit the profile. There are some strange things in her background, but until I had explanations for them, I would not begin to panic. Nor would I share my theories with Adrian. I didn't want him doing something stupid and blowing our cover.

The first thing I needed to do was hack into public records and find her birth certificate. That way I'd have somewhere to start. If it was missing, I would keep investigating. If it was all there intact then I'd have no reason to continue speculating. Besides Rose was not good at school, someone with Rosemarie's aptitude would be acing Alto's dumbass class.

I revved up my laptop and accessed the database I'd been looking for. Sure enough the documentation I'd been looking for was all in order. Rosalie Elizabeth Ozera born March twenty-third 1994 at 7:26pm at St. Mary's Hospital in Portland, Oregon to Oksana and Mark Ozera, seven pounds six ounces, 19 inches long. There were even little footprints stamped on the bottom. I sighed in relief that I would not have to tear apart the life of the woman I loved. Why had I even thought it was her anyways?

I sat back down at the computer and researched places to go on a first date. After about an hour I came up with the perfect plan. I grabbed my phone and texted Rose.

I'll pick you up at six tomorrow evening. Dress warm. Can't wait to see you. ~D

A few seconds later I received a message.

Can't wait Comrade. XOXO ~R

Before I logged off my computer I signed into my facebook and there on the top of the page was a little symbol stating I had one new friend request I clicked on it and smiled widely. It had taken almost five months, but Rosalie Ozera had finally added me as a friend.

So Dimitri finally entertained the possibility that Rose could be a suspect. Do you think he'll be satisfied with the (fake) birth certificate? What about Avery? Do you think she'll see past it? Next chapter will be their first date and Christmas. Then we will skip a few months and move on to January 27th! I wonder whY? Please review. I hope to update again on Monday. I write faster with encouragement.