Terribly sorry for the long wait. I've been really busy writing lately, starting a 70,000 word original novel for an arts award at college.
Guest reviewer curlygirly requested more Lily in the story. Lily agreed wholeheartedly. She doesn't like feeling left out. Gets it from Adrian I guess :P
"Ah, shit." I groaned, standing in the girls changing rooms in nothing but a sports bra and Lycra shorts, both barely more than underwear.
"What is it?" Lily asked.
"I forgot to bring a shirt and sweatpants with me, and there's no way I'm training in my normal clothes. It's freaking boiling out there- I'll keel over or something. Again."
Lily and the other girls began searching for spare stuff, but only Maddie had a spare shirt and Lily some running shorts. Sadly, Lily had inherited her mother's tiny waist, so there was no way I was getting into those shorts. Maddie's top was cropped to begin with, and her chest wasn't much more full than a Moroi's. One I had it on, it was so tiny that it didn't cover much more than was already showing- it just made it worse.
"Screw it. I'll just say I was worried about overheating again." That was kind of true. It was a mixture of stress, dehydrations, starvation and exertion that had made me pass out last time. To put it shortly, I could get away with blaming it on the heat.
Marina smirked. "When they said 'revenge is a dish best served cold', they clearly didn't think of this scenario. You look so hot, Aleks is going to be crying into his vodka after you kick his ass wearing that."
"Very true," I reasoned. "He already thinks I'm a massive slut anyway, so I might as well have some fun with this."
"'Atta girl."
"Great work today Anya," the instructor said as I left the gym. "I wasn't sure about letting you back into combat training so soon, but you proved yourself when you took down Mr. Kozlovsky this morning. He didn't even see it coming."
I gave a non-committal noise of agreement before letting the door close behind me, readjusting my gym bag on my shoulder. Now fully dressed again, I was meeting the gang to go and sign up for the fundraiser committee. Sophia had arranged a meeting time with Kirova and Ms. Carmack, who served as our events coordinator.
"Anya!" I heard Jet shouting my name, and saw him jogging over to me carrying something that looked suspiciously like my guitar.
"What are you doing with that?" I asked, grabbing the case from him.
He shrugged. "Sophia gave me your room key, and told me to go and get it. Kirova wants to see us perform something before she 'considers our proposal'." He grimaced.
"Great..." I clenched my fist, thinking that it would probably hurt to play after smashing my fist into Aleks' shoulder earlier. It had got me a good score though, and had been more than a little satisfying. Not as much as the look on his face when I walked out of the changing room though.
We were meeting in Ms. Carmack's office, and I entered the Moroi building to see that everyone else was already there, Mason holding his guitar as well.
"So they want us to play something? We haven't even practiced in months, and we haven't got nearly enough equipment..."
Sophia cut in. "She said she just wants to 'get a taste for our music', so don't worry. "
"She wants to make sure we don't suck." Ash added. "Which we don't, so we'll be fine."
"Hmm..." Just then, there was a faint 'come in' from inside, and after passing my gym bag to Lily, I led the way into the office.
Ms. Carmack was sitting behind her desk, smiling at us as we filed in. Kirova was sitting to her left, in all her hawk-like glory. She had a look in her eye that said she was just waiting for a chance to swoop down and rip us to shreds, and that she'd enjoy it very much. She'd be good on the X-factor panel.
There was only one chair in front of the desk, and Ms. Carmack gestured for me to take it. When I hesitated, Marina pushed me forwards. I shook hands with the 'panel' before sitting down.
"Good afternoon Anastasia. Sophia told me that you have a proposal for the Sophomore fundraiser. Whilst it's a little past the registration date, we're still open for good ideas."
Kirova's scowl disagreed. She was a stickler for deadlines, and probably didn't appreciate this flexibility. Score one for us.
"Thank you Ms. Carmack. I hope you'll like our idea." I then launched into an explanation of how long we'd been playing together, our music, and hopeful profit from this event. "Plus, if we sold refreshments afterwards or had a break, then we could make even more money from that."
Ms. Carmack nodded, seemingly impressed. "It seems like you've got everything figured out, and I must say, you've made a very strong proposal. Before you go, I'd like to see an example of your playing." She smiled. "I know you haven't got much equipment and the acoustics in this room aren't great, but whatever you can manage..."
I turned around, facing my friends. Mason had his guitar out already, leaning against the wall, and was just opening my case. He passed the guitar to me, and I stood up. After a quick discussion on what to play, Sophia came to stand beside me and we began to sing.
"We nailed it." Mason said confidently as we strode out of the office, me just remembering to call a goodbye over my shoulder.
"Don't get too cocky now, they might have said that about everyone." Marina said.
"As if. It practically killed Kirova to give out that compliment, no way would she just throw them out to every person who auditioned."
Jet stopped to pick up a stone from the path, turning it over in his fingers before throwing it a huge distance so it disappeared into the thick cover of trees around the edge of campus.
"Why is she even a teacher? I swear she hates kids."
"I think she hates everyone," I pointed out. "This way, she actually gets to punish people. Be glad she isn't Royal. Can you imagine is she'd ever had a council seat?"
A verbal expression of horror echoed around the group as we pictured hard-ass Kirova in a real seat of power, not stuck behind the headmistress' desk on the swivel chair she perceived to be one.
"Stop being so dramatic." Lily, as always, was the practical one. "She's not exactly a dictator-"
"Speak for yourself!" He brother interjected. "What about that time she was angry at me for speaking out in class without raising a hand, and I responded with 'it's a free country'? Her reply was 'that may be true, but within the wards of this Academy, I decide who can speak and when they do so. Then gave me a detention."
Lily did her patented 'why do I even know these people?' eye roll. "Maybe if you paid as much attention to what she was teaching as to her lectures, your grades wouldn't send mom into a fit again."
Jet shrugged. "I'm learning from the best. She may be a crappy Moroi Culture teacher, but those lectures are pure genius. You just haven't heard enough of them to truly appreciate them."
"You may want to work on your excuses a little before mom calls tonight to make sure you've done all your homework."
Jet cringed. "Oh shit, I forgot about that." He turned to Sophia, linking their hands. "Can you please get your mom to schedule some meeting that my parents will have to attend around 8pm?"
Sophia kissed his cheek, hiding a smile. "Sorry Jet, she's already got a meeting with some ambassador tonight."
"Sydney's gonna kill you." I teased, poking Jet's arm. "Or at least lock you up."
He turned back to his sister again. "You'll testify, won't you? Or even better, be the judge."
"I'll get Abe to give you some tips," I added helpfully.
Lily rolled her eyes again, but this time less severely. There was a hint of a smile on her lips- she secretly liked this attention. She wasn't the most physical of Dhampirs, preferring the theory and tactical side of Guarding, but she definitely had a career in protecting the rights of those who felt the same.
Things were better since Lissa was on the throne, but there were still those that saw us as a lesser race. Like I dreamed of destroying Strigoi to make the world safer, she wanted every Dhampir to have the opportunity to do whatever they wanted- become a Guardian, raise a family or work with humans- and not be looked down upon for their choice.
It was one thing Lily and I had in common, our whole group did, actually. None of us had been spared prejudice for our parentage, and as much as we pretended not to notice, all of us bore some mark as a result of that.
But we had each other. Perhaps part of the reason Aleks had strayed from our group was because he hadn't been a part of that. Back in Baia, everyone knows that the Moroi world as a collective looks down on them, thinks that every woman is a blood whore. As a family, everyone in the commune accepts what the world thinks them to be, and moves past that. They know that the truth is entirely different.
Here, those names had the power to change who an entire body of people looked at you. Whilst other Dhampirs hadn't taken part in my own personal slandering over the last couple of weeks, there were enough narrow-minded, backstabbing Royals to make it bad enough without them. I'd grown up with it, come to expect it, and usually wasn't bothered by it.
But to Aleks, it was something he wouldn't be prepared for. In Baia, if someone was called a bloodwhore, it was because they really were. The name wouldn't be bestowed without proof, and the recipient usually brought it on them self, too high on endorphins to even realise it was them being talked about.
When Brooke and Hayden made their accusations, 99 % of the students of St. Vladimir's knew they were nothing more than rumours, perhaps with a hint of truth. He'd slipped into this new community- one that I'd eased his passage into, and not realised that these teenagers also thought the worst of the communes. To Alex, the 'Moroi world as a collective' was a 50-year-old balding Royal, still living on the fringes of society and refusing to enter the 21st century and buy a cell phone.
The thought that these teenagers, some of whom were my friends, were still stuck in that mindset, hadn't occurred to him. The way I'd sold it, this was like a home-away-from-home, an American Baia.
But that didn't change the fact that he had believed it, and hadn't defended me anyway. He still should have known that it wasn't true, should have known that the accusation- even if he believed it to be serious- was false.
He didn't know me as well as I knew him.
"Anya? You in there?"
I blinked, focussing back on Lily's face. I forced a grin into place.
"Just trying to get a heads up on tomorrow's results. Why wait?"
"And?" Ash asked impatiently.
I pouted. "Same results as looking for winning lottery numbers."
The next morning, we all met outside the hall to read the result of who had been chosen for the fundraiser. There was a cluster of other people waiting there with us, proving my earlier theory that even though people said they weren't really interested, they secretly were.
After a couple of minutes, a teacher came up and shooed us away from the notice board, before pinning a sheet of paper to it. We waited until she had stepped out of the circle of students that had steadily been growing, before somebody made the first move towards the letter.
There was a surge of movement, followed by a series of groans from the disappointed unfortunates, and sarcastic comments from the jealous ones.
Ash forced his way forwards, threatening to burn anyone who didn't get out of his way. A few people across from me, I heard a frustrated noise half-way between a groan and a squeal, and turned to see Brooke glaring daggers at me.
The grin found its way onto my face even before Ash made his way back to triumphantly reveal the good news.
We were going to be hosting the prom fundraiser, one of the most prestigious opportunities in the (Moroi especially) school year.
And we were going to have some fun with it.
Next chapter, there may be some more Rose Motherly Wisdom! Then the concert in the chapters after that. *Cue dramatic music*
We were at 99 reviews at the end of the last chapter, virtual donuts to the person who gives the 100th review! And also to every reviewer after that. And I'll give you all shout outs at the beginning of the next chapter. Because you guys are awesome :D
