To stellabella: no none of the four royals have girlfriends, they're all single. As for Ali... he's had a couple of girlfriends but all of them were relatively short relationships with no real intention of long term feelings.

To littlepiggy: I really wish that I could publish a book as well! I'm pretty sure that most of the authors if not all on this website want something of theirs to be published! Now that would really be a dream come true ^.^ Also, no Ingrid's brother Tom isn't interested in Rose, one, Rose is already dead at this point so that would've been pointless, it was more of a boy's typical 'omg she's fit' kind of thing. Not to mention, pretty much all guardians and novices look up to Rose regardless of how much of a trouble maker she was.

Chapter 18

After getting back to my own dorms, I headed straight for Els' room since that was where I suspected the other two would be. On my way up, several dhampirs stopped and talked to me about what had happened earlier that day. Most of them seemed to avoid the topic of Marissa and focused on the training that we'd had. But there were those who might've been genuinely concerned and offered their thoughts on what had happened.

Honestly, I had no idea how I felt about that. It was bad enough that I had experienced it first hand, but hearing other people express their own thoughts about the fight that had broken out, I didn't really want to hear any of it. As much as I resented Marissa for what she'd done, I still didn't want to hear others, who probably didn't fully understand the situation, badmouthing her.

Eventually I managed to reach the top floor where conversation seemed to dissipate since most people were in the common room downstairs. I headed over to the end of the corridor and tapped on Els' door.

A few seconds later the door opened and Els beamed as soon as she saw that it was me. "Kai! You're finally back!"

"How were the little kids?" Roxy called out from where she sat on the bed.

"They were hyperactive and took a while to put into bed." I laughed as I stepped into the room.

"Kai?" Els asked curiously as she sniffed me.

"Yes?"

"Why do you smell of cinnamon?"

"Because I just baked some cookies for some people." I explained.

"You baked cookies and didn't bring anything back?" Roxy complained.

"If you guys write down a list of things that you like to eat, I'll see if I ever get around to making any of it for you guys." I grinned and sat on the bed. "So, how's this going to work?"

"Well…" the three girls shared a look before turning to me with devious grins.

For the next couple of hours, almost right up to lights out, we recreated various styles and threw together random ensembles of clothes. We continuously mixed and matched between what the four of us had.

"Oh yeah, is there a theme to this party?" I asked curiously.

"Nope, it's just a party in general." Ingrid shook her head. "Meaning we can wear whatever we want."

"So I could go in my normal clothes right? In theory."

"No!" they screamed at me.

"It's a party Kai. Party means you dress up, not down!" Els stared at me in horror. "And we will find you something tomorrow."

"It was just a simple question… I wasn't really going to wear training clothes. I've been to enough parties to know what to wear."

"Did you go to a lot of them?" Roxy asked.

"I went to a fair amount of them. Being in the football team gets you places." I grinned.

"I thought you might've been a party girl at heart," she smirked.

"Hey Kai, what's life like out there?" Ingrid put the question forward somewhat shyly.

I stared at her for a long moment and tried to think of a way to explain. "I can't really describe it since everyone would find it different. For me, I have to say that the main difference is the freedom. In schools out there, instead of dhampirs training or Moroi taking magic class, they do music or sports or even both… they have a lot of clubs and random school events and most of them are pretty awesome. Then there are also the sports events which are always great. There's a lot less pressure and a different sense of danger. Even though there was the possibility of a Strigoi lurking, I didn't let it phase me because there were no Moroi and I didn't want that worry to hang over my mind constantly. Those kids out there, they have so many more options in life. It's great to be valiant and all in protecting others but the lack of choice is… well it's suffocating."

"But then again, if this is pretty much the only that we know, then it's kind of alright." Els pointed.

"But there are also those who doesn't want this life but have to go with it, right? Because they don't know anything out there. The only ones who have a choice are the Moroi." I argued.

"The Moroi can't risk it. There's a slight decline in the birth rate of dhampirs to begin with, they can't afford to have a bunch of dhampirs saying that they want to do something other than to guard them."

"Which is why it's so suffocating because humans don't have that obligation. They don't have the obligation to follow one life and one life only. I'm not saying that I don't like it here, because I do, but there are options out there and I envy those kids who still have them." I smiled sadly.

"You envy them because you had that choice torn away from you because of our society's selfish laws..." Roxy realised. "You must've wanted something else, worked so hard towards something else. I can't imagine what it'd feel like to have that ripped away."

"In a way, I chose this. If I really wanted to, I could've resisted harder but if I'd done that, then I wouldn't have gotten to know you guys which would've been a down right shame."

"You… You are such a sweet talker!" Roxy complained with a soft grin.

"We're glad to have met you too, Kai. I can't even remember what it was like without you around anymore. Life would definitely be boring." Els smiled and leaned over to give me a hug.

"Do you have a budget for the shopping tomorrow?" Ingrid asked out of the blue.

"Nope." I shook my head.

"I've been meaning to ask, but how did you manage to support yourself?"

"I got a major scholarship to a school and then I got a job at a bar type club type of place. I even have a car… my sweet baby…" I sniffed.

"You have a car?"

"Yep, I learned to drive early and passed my test on my birthday." I nodded. "But so far, I've definitely found a lot of things to stay here for. To tell you the truth, I wasn't planning on staying for graduation. But between us four, I've found a lot of things worth staying for so I've changed my mind." I smiled at them. "I mean come on; someone has to keep the popular girls in line, right?"

"You planned on dropping out?" Ingrid stared in shock. "Legends can't drop out!"

"Rose Hathaway dropped out." I pointed out.

"How did you know about that?"

"I read up on her last night since she seemed like an interesting character from history." I shrugged. The lie fell easily off my tongue. "Either way, I'm not going to drop out anymore so it's fine."

"We won't let you leave," Ingrid told me with a determined tone.

"Well you have no worries about that because I don't really don't have plans to drop out anymore." I reassured them.

"Promise?"

"Unless something diabolical happens, I won't drop out." I told them. "Are we done with this topic? It's kind of depressing."

"Let's talk about what we're going to do tomorrow!"

"Oh yeah, Maxwell and Jenson are our guards for the day."

"Oh? That's good that we got the nice Guardians."

"Definitely."

"So what time are we leaving?" I asked curiously.

"We'll have to leave a little early. Around four or so…"

"That's not too bad." I commented. "Hey Ingrid, have you ever tried having slightly curly hair?"

"I don't have curlers so no," she shook her head.

"Is there a pair of straighteners between us?"

"I do!" Roxy piped up.

"I'll curl your hair for the party on Saturday." I told Ingrid.

"You can create hairstyles?" Els stared at me incredulously.

"I'm not actually what you refer to as a fashion disaster Els. I just don't put that much effort into it every day." I shrugged. "I can't be bothered enough to care enough everyday but I do for occasions and stuff like that."

"That's good to know." Els sighed in relief. "So you are a girl after all."

"Well I would've hoped that you'd be able to tell that I was a girl just by looking at me but apparently not…" I trailed off awkwardly.

"No, no, that's not what I meant. I meant that you're really a girl in the way you dress." Els remedied instantly.

"I'm only joking." I laughed. "Don't worry about it. So… about the booze… How much do you think they'll manage to sneak through?" I asked deviously.

"There will be enough. Rest assured Kai," they laughed.

"Ah! And it'll be your first time seeing the four royals in party dress!" Roxy screamed in excitement.

"They. Are. Amazing!" Ingrid screamed. "Oh my god, they will make you feel that staying at this school with be so worth it!"

"They're that amazing?" I arched my brows at them.

"They totally are." Roxy swooned. "Those four are the gods of the Moroi community."

"Wow… now I can't wait. I thought they were pretty amazing in their training."

"Well they are, but wait until you see them dress up." Els sighed dreamily. "They'll definitely be at the party, they go to every party. There are hot boys… but then there are the gods…"

"I'll have to take your word for it then." I grinned. "I think I'm going to turn in for the night if you want any hopes of my waking up tomorrow." I told them with a yawn. "So I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"We'll come to wake you up in the morning." Ingrid smiled and they each proceeded to hug me before letting me go. I headed into my room and I collapsed onto my bed in fatigue. So much had happened today that I was out for the count, seconds after my head hit the pillow.

I wasn't sure what I was dreaming about, but I knew that I didn't want to wake up, so when my alarm beeped, I slammed my hand down on the clock. It didn't seem to stop beeping and so that led to me throwing it across the room. There was a smash and I sat up with dishevelled hair framing my face. I grumbled and ran my hand through my bright hair in frustration. That was my third alarm clock this month! I glared at the broken object across the room and fell back onto the bed, facing the ceiling. I turned my head to the side to glance at the picture of my soccer team and I thought about the upcoming game which would declare our team as the all-time champions.

Eventually, I got up and took a shower to wake myself up properly. I fumbled around my draws for a bandage and used it to hide the mark which was unique to the Ivashkov name. It was a mark that people would recognise if they saw it. It was something that was placed on each child of the Ivashkov family regardless of whether they were Moroi or dhampir because of our lack in numbers. It was a good thing that there was such a rigorous training yesterday. That way, I could use an injury as the excuse for the bandage. The mark was on my lower back to the right and it was a mark of a dull blue usually but here were the occasional times when I used magic that the mark would flare and become a bright sparkling blue colour. The way that it shimmered and gleamed with such brightness reminded me of a spell.

There was a loud knock on my door and I called out, "I'm in the bathroom!"

I heard the door open and three people walked in. "Are you relatively decent, Kai?" Els called.

"I'm wrapped up in a towel." I told them and walked back into my room.

"Is there a logical reason why there are pieces of metal on the floor around your alarm clock?" Roxy asked as I walked to my drawers for my underwear and something to change into.

"Oh! Please let us choose!" Ingrid piped up.

"If you really feel the need to." I shrugged nonchalantly and sat on my bed. For some odd reason, they immediately went for my underwear drawer and they started riffling through it.

"Okay, clear, underneath all that kickass boyish style of yours, you're definitely a girl." Els nodded approvingly as she decided to hold up several of my bras up for inspection.

"If the Moroi girls knew your size, they would kill you." Roxy smirked.

"But there is no reason why they would find out so I'm safe." I glared at her. "Is this really necessary? I mean, can't I just pick something out and just wear it. We're only going shopping."

"Yes, Kai, this is necessary." Els nodded. She seemed to pick out various things from my clothes and handed them to me. "Go change into these," she practically commanded.

I couldn't help but grin cheekily as I gave her a military salute in return. She rolled her eyes at me and slapped my back, urging me into the bathroom so that I could get changed. I put on the purple and black laced bra with matching underwear before tugging on the flower patterned lace leggings. I didn't even realise that my friends from the city had packed them for me. I wore the high waisted shorts over them and a light grey nearly white long sleeved scoop neck top which I decided to tuck into my shorts. I draped the hoodie over my shoulder as I walked back into my room and glanced at them.

"You really want me to wear this? Just for shopping?" I asked them curiously.

"Yes! You look amazing like that." Ingrid marvelled.

"Now… for the make-up." Els and Roxy grinned mischievously as they held up their bags.

"Oh no, I can do that myself. I'm not letting you doll me up again for something so trivial." I glared playfully at them and took their bags from them.

I walked back into the bathroom to blow dry my hair. As I did that, I used a round brush to brush through my hair. By the time it was completely dried, it fell in large waves over my shoulders and around my face. I swiftly applied some mascara, eye liner, eye shadow and a little lip gloss as well to complete the look.

"There? Happy now?" I sighed as I strolled back into my room again.

"Very." Els nodded in approval. "See, that didn't take that much effort, now did it? Why can't you do that every morning?"

"I can never be bothered." I pouted. "Are we ready to go get something to eat now? Or are we just going to sit here and debate over whether I should be bothered to dress up every morning or not?"

"We'll continue this conversation another time only because breakfast sounds like such a good idea." Els glared playfully at me.

I quickly put on a pair of ankle length socks and my converse. I threw my phone, purse, notebook and iPod into my shoulder bag. All the while I felt slightly odd. It didn't feel right to not have a silver stake with me while being out. I was so used to having at least one with me, that suddenly having none at all made me feel on edge.

"Kai? What's wrong?" Roxy placed her hand on my shoulder in a comforting gesture when she saw my expression.

"Sorry, I was just thinking of something." I shook my head. "Let's go before we miss breakfast."

After breakfast, the four of us chatted animatedly while waiting for Joe and Crispin to arrive and drive us to the mall.

"Are you girls ready?" Joe asked as the black SUV drove up to us.

"Yep." I nodded and the four of us got in.

The drive to the mall wasn't as long as I thought it would be and Crispin picked a spot to park on the top floor. I couldn't really understand why they did that. The only logical explanation that I could think of was that they wanted us to exercise even on our day off. I could imagine how tiring it would be to climb those stairs after the shopping with the bags that we'd probably end up with by the end of it all.

"You two are sly." I whispered to the two Guardians.

"I don't know what you mean." Joe said defiantly.

"You're going to make us walk up the stairs at the end right?" I glared at him over my shoulder.

They glanced at me before giving matching grins. "Well we're busted aren't we?"

"Completely." I scoffed.

"Oh yeah, this is for you." Joe held out an envelope to me and I eyed him suspiciously.

"It's money isn't it?" I glared at him.

"No…"

"Liar, I'm not taking it." I told him bluntly.

"It's yours," he argued.

"I don't want it." I argued back. "Take it back to whoever gave it to you."

"Just take it," he insisted.

"No." I shook my head stubbornly.

"Kai!" Ingrid yelled to me. Just as I turned and walked away, Joe slipped the envelope into my pocket. I turned to glare at him but continued to walk towards the other girls. The three of them didn't notice the small exchange and proceeded to drag me through every shop possible in the mall. Along the way I remembered to buy the chocolate that Ali had wanted and I also saw a small little device that I thought suited a certain kid quite well. It was a small projector of stars and star signs. I deliberated for a moment and stared at the object before deciding to buy it.

The first shop that I went into was Hollister. It was the shop that I frequented the most since they had the most confortable tank tops ever and their shirts were pretty amazing too. Hollister was probably my favourite shop when it came to buying tops. I bought two normal hoodies and the inside of the hoods were ridiculously soft to the touch. I also picked out a thickly knitted hoodie, two sweaters, two crop tops, three tank tops and three pairs of shorts.

Along the way I also saw various off shoulder tops and jumpers that I couldn't help but buy because they were all so comfortable and snug. Several of them were cropped short with long sleeves which meant that my midriff would show if I didn't wear something underneath it. I also bought a few more pairs of joggers and tracksuit bottoms. Considering that we would be doing the obstacle course as part of the weekly training, this meant that items were clothing were going to get ruined so it definitely wouldn't hurt to have some spares with me. I also saw a couple of cropped short shirts which I bought and two lace shirts that I knew would go well with several other things in my wardrobe.

And the dress? Well, the dress was certainly easily definable. It was almost primary red, sparkly, relatively low cut without being indecent, short length skirt that clung to my curves and flared just past the hips down to just past mid-thigh and there were spaghetti straps. If inspected closely, you could see the slight pattern of roses on the dress but that was mostly overpowered by the sparkles. Well, in my opinion it was, and according to the opinion of the other three girls, it was the dress that I would be wearing to the party on Saturday. I'd thought that it may have perhaps been a little too much but apparently, according to them, it was perfect. Because the dress was at a relatively cheap price, I didn't argue too much and obeyed Els' command of buying the dress.

As for the money that Joe slipped into my pocket, well, let's just say that I gave it to a charity that probably needed it a lot more than I did.

By the end of it all, I felt absolutely knackered and walking up six flights of stairs was definitely not on my agenda and so I formulated a little plan. The plan consisted of shoving Joe and Crispin into the small crowd of women that had gathered around the two guys. They immediately flocked around them and the four of us instantly went for the elevator. I gave the pair of them a wink and a cheeky smile along with a small wave as their both glared at me. We waited patiently by the car for them to come up.

"I can't believe you did that!" Ingrid squealed.

"I was doing those girls a good deed, those girls have been following us the whole time so it was an easy move." I shrugged.

"They're going to kill you." Roxy giggled.

"They could try."

"Valentine you are so dead!" Joe boomed but I could sense the playfulness in his tone so I wasn't too worried. Crispin on the other hand looked livid. I chose to ignore it for the moment.

"How many numbers did you guys get?" I asked bluntly with a smirk. "You have got numbers right?"

Joe managed to look sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well we both got some but Crispin got more," he admitted.

"Do you have any idea what you just did? You shouldn't have run away like that. What if you'd gotten into trouble?" Crispin demanded and stormed over so that he was standing square in front of me.

"I'd whip their ass, Ingrid would run to grab you and I'd keep said trouble at bay until you guys arrive."

"You can't 'whip their ass' as you so bluntly put it. You're completely vulnerable outside of the confines of the Academy."

"Says the guy who got his ass whooped by the girl in question." I scoffed with crossed arms. "Seriously, I do understand the gravity of the situation but I promise you, I had it under control. I've been living out of the 'confines of the Academy' for god knows how long."

"How? How can you promise that you had it under control?" Crispin demanded sternly and Joe looked like he wanted to diffuse the argument but couldn't bring himself to because he knew that ultimately, Crispin was right and had a fair argument. But Joe knew me better personally and knew that unless I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't have put the other three in danger like that. I had after staked my fair share of Strigoi and so I would've been able to handle myself and protect the girls if trouble did appear. Crispin on the other hand had absolutely no idea.

I dropped my bags, yanked out a chain that I just bought and dove at Crispin. Without another thought, I threw him to the ground, bound him with the silver chain and paralysed him within the space of ten seconds. "You were saying?" I glared menacingly down at him. "You can give me that lecture when you take me down."

"Alright Valentine, you've made your point, now let him up." Joe told me gently and placed a hand on my shoulder to calm my temper.

I unbound Crispin and released the paralysis. I stood up grumpily and picked up the bags again. Joe helped Crispin up and seemed to whisper something into his ear as he got up. A hesitant expression passed over Crispin's face but Joe clasped a hand to his shoulder and shook his head. Joe probably knew that if Crispin pushed me any further, I'd probably knock him out by accident in my fury.

"She's an undergraduate Maxwell! How can you be so calm about this? She's vulnerable!" Crispin glared at him. "Don't tell me to just leave it."

"Not here Crispin. Not here." Joe stared levelly at him. "Valentine, I want you to keep a level head and don't do that ever again."

"I'm not going to bow down for this but I am sorry for the worry that I've caused you." I told them sincerely. Crispin watched me for a moment and he gave a heavy sigh.

"Don't do it again," he warned me and patted my head.

"I can't promise anything but I'll be more considerate in the future so smooth out that frown of yours. It doesn't suit you." I told him. "So please get rid of that frown of yours before I contemplate on throwing cake in your mouth."

"I don't like cakes."

"I bet you I can make a cake that you'd like." I challenged him.

"You're welcome to try," he grumbled and unlocked the van. "Let's head back before we run into trouble."

"I agree with that, I have to get back to the kiddies or Guardian Castile will be in trouble." I smiled and dumped the bags into the boot of the van.