Waking up the next morning, the first thing I noticed was that Tasha wasn't there. My already good mood increased slightly. It was late in the morning, hopefully there was still breakfast in the cafeteria. I prepared myself for the day, jumping down the stairs, I greeted Alberta before slipping out of the building. While walking into the direction I remembered the cafeteria I noticed Christian talking to a blond girl. I stopped in my tracks, trying to recognise her face. Searching through my memories, she already squealed

"Rose! Over heeere." and waved like a maniac. I laughed and made my way over to them.

"Lissa, hey didn't knew you would be here." Hugging me

"I know, right? I never expected you to be here, too. When did you arrive? I'm so glad you're here. It must have been over a year since I saw you.", she babbled on and on about..., well I zoomed out a bit. I met Lissa a few times when we were younger because her parents were friends of Thomas. We did get along but it wasn't like we knew each other that much. Although Lissa was probably happy to meet anyone, it's just the way she is. I was back listening when I heard Eddie's name ".. was on his way to the cafeteria. I told him I would get Christian and join him, do you want to come with us? Oh sorry, I didn't introduce you. That's Christian my boyfriend. Chris, that's Rose, Eddie's sister."

"We already met, she's Tasha's new roommate."

"Yeah you're the friendly brother." so that's where I knew the name Ozera from, Lissa must have talked about him a while ago.

"Did you fight with her again?" Lissa scowled at him.

"Kind of…., but you know her it wasn't my fault."

"Yes and I certainly know you and.."

"Oh come on guys, I need to eat, now!" I looked at them, willing to murder anyone who would say anything to disturb our way to the cafeteria again.

So we made our way towards the building, Lissa babbling again about lighter topics.

Walking into the building I got confused, something about this picture didn't seem right. Ms. Sage already told us that the Elementary school had their own buildings and we would share with the junior high. I gazed through the crowds of students. Usually there were the different groups of teens, sorted by hobbies, lifestyle money or whatever. That was the case for the ones from junior high, seeing cheerleaders, jocks and all the other well known groups sitting around.

Although it was different with the seniors, there were just two groups, as I noticed observing the scene. The chattering went over the tables but didn't cross the invisible line between those two groups.

We had walked to the line of food when someone from behind spoke up to me

"Beauty, long time no see. I missed you.", so I turned around to grin at him.

"Can't say the same. But you can call me Rose now." I took four of the chocolate glazed doughnuts, moving on to the pancakes, the food here was awesome.

"So you're warming up to me. Now that we know each other, you should join us tonight." probably some break-is-over-party. Tomorrow was Sunday, so today was the last time you could party during the summer break.

"Not sure about that, yet." I told him, walking away towards the table, Eddie was already seated at. I loved parties though mostly I got myself into some kind of trouble.

"How do you know Jesse?" Christian eyed me critically.

"Talked to him yesterday. He wanted to "help" with my luggage. He just invited me to some party." I emphasized the word help, to let him know I knew what kind of guy he was.

"It's the recruiting party." I waited for an explanation before asking

"What?"

"Well, at this school things are kind of different." Lissa piped in, while watching in amazement how I ate one doughnut after another.

"After leaving middle school classes you have to join one side."

"What sides? I don't have to do anything." Shaking his head, he continued

"Alright. Since…, I don't remember the exact time, but it's been like this for over 50 years. There are two sides, moroi and dhampir. You've got to decide. The only ones who stay neutral are the Ivashkovs."

"And why exactly are there two sides?" Eddie asked between a few bites of eggs.

Christian looked as if someone had slapped him, but Lissa helped him out.

"Well the story says that all these years ago an Ivashkov woman has fallen in love with two men, who of course they were also in love with her. She told them to fight and after one of them died in this fight, his family wanted to revenge him."

"Oh sweet, didn't hear about that one yet."

A short blond girl had arrived seating herself next to Christian, she studied me and Eddie.

"Hey guys, I'm guessing you're Eddie and Rose, the gossip here is sure as hell working fast. I'm Mia and gonna tell you the real story," she talked almost as fast as Lissa did, even with the same high pitched voice. They could have been sisters if not for their appearance, the blond hair and pale skin was the only thing they had in common. Mia's hair was short and curly, besides her language wasn't as well-mannered as Lissa's.

"so 157 years ago, damn or was it 175, whatever a long time ago there had been two brothers. Both had been working for some Ivashkov, who told them to get the head of this other guy, for a lot of cash. They fought each other. The brother got killed but the crews continued to fight."

"Summarizing all that shit, no one has a clue what really happened besides the tons of stories?" I asked, taking a look around.

"Sooo….? What happens? I mean are you like hogwarts counting points and get rewarded by just winning at the end of the year?" I just still didn't really get it.

"You aren't taking this serious, are you?"

Tasha appeared out of nowhere, looking like she didn't quite make it to her own room last night. She slapped Christian on the back of his head, he seemed like he also noticed her fashion and had wanted to say something about it, but after her slap he just glared at her.

Now it was silent at the table, Mia and Lissa looking down and Tasha watching me, awaiting an answer.

"No, not really. Why should you be enemies if you don't know why. Doesn't make sense, but you know what I mean."

"We are not just enemies, alright. When you join the high school years you are pulled into one group and then it's like war.

We don't kill each other, but it's kind of close. You know every school has one sport club, which is "the" sport club. Over here it's different, we have the fights."

I observed Tasha's face for any indication she wasn't serious about her words.

"What if we don't fight?" Eddie spoke my thoughts, a grim expression in his face, also mirroring my own feelings.

I didn't like were that was going.

"Especially then you've got to chose one group, to protect you. You wouldn't think I would be made for fighting." Lissa laughed nervously, I could tell she was embarrassed by not being able to fight for her own.

"Let me get that right: Instead of clubs you're beating the shit out of each other after school?" Eddie had stopped eating, my appetite was gone, too. Also I was missing words to describe how I stupid I thought all of that was and me searching for words to express myself didn't happen a lot.

"No, there are still clubs, but you shouldn't join the ones of the dhampirs. Whatever we rule the cheerleaders so they can eat shit." Mia had written a grin on her face "But you know there are some smaller fights in the hallways or so, besides that we're just, well hating each other… most of the times.", her grin faded with her last words and I wondered about it, until Christian explained further.

"It all comes together at the Zvezdas, one for each trimester. Most private fights are put off until then, also both sides pick five members, which are going to fight in one on one battles until only one of those ten is left. The one who wins gets the prize home for his team."

"Which would be?" I couldn't imagine anything worth the trouble.

"Power." I scrunched my face

"What kind of power?"

"A lot of kinds. While being around teachers you don't speak up against them, or they chose who owns which clubs, half for each of us. The things they get to rule about are a lot and it's tradition, just like the groups." ,definitely not worth the trouble.

"Why can't we just compete them like normal sport clubs, why hate them?"

"Oh Eddie, you're a sweet one. They start brainwashing you in elementary school, there is no way out. We usually don't get new ones joining this school after elementary." Mia smirked at the now deep in thoughts looking Eddie.

"I'm getting a headache from this shit. Can we start talking about another topic." Lissa's face lighted up at my plea and she started with the newest gossip, while moving our small group outside in the park.

We sat down on the grass, while they explained more about life at St. Vlads.

They didn't mentioned the fighting again, but couldn't get my thoughts away from it.

Was this supposed to be a coincidence? Mary had sent us to a martial arts studio when we were kids to motivate us for this sport and now Janine, my biological mother had gotten us scholarships to this school. A school were fighting was of such an importance. Still I wasn't going to fight, after what happened to Mase when he had gotten involved in serious fights. Even though they said they wouldn't hurt each other that much, it seemed there was more about it. The expression on Mias and Lissa's faces after Tasha lectured me about not taking it serious enough made it seem like something happened they didn't tell me about.

"Who won last year?" I asked without thinking about it, disturbing one of Lissa's torrents of words. No one except Chris created the impression of knowing what I was talking about.

"The dhampirs, they won both years because of Belikov, the guy is not normal, believe me."

"But hot as fuck." Mia smirked, I shaked my head at her though I still smiled.

"He's also the best friend of Ivan Zeklos, Jesses brother." I frowned

"So they're all three in our year?"

Chris laughed

"Yeah that's a funny thing cause they're very similar except that Ivan is a smartass and Jesse just a dumbass, or maybe just lazy. Ivan skipped a year and Jesse had to repeat it. They are two years apart in age."

A while later Tasha and Mia excused themselves to go into town. Eddie went to gym and I was going to join him for a run. I wasn't so fond of sitting between Chris and Lissa.

While walking to my room I ran into the mentioned dumbass.

"Rose, always a pleasure to see you. What are you up to?"

"Nothing that includes you." He was really getting annoying.

"Have you thought about the party? Don't say you would rather enjoy a lonely evening in your room." I had to smile, he was right, I wasn't one for spending relaxing time on my own at a saturday evening.

"No I haven't decided yet."

"Don't play hard to get, I know girls like you." he winked at me, snorting I responded,

"You don't know girls like me, because if you would, you would stop talking." he was about to say something, when someone stopped while walking by

"Sweet lord you were right. I should meet her." he grinned at me. His appearance resembled Jesse's though he wasn't that tall and a bit more muscular, like he was training but not on a regular base.

"Yeah right, whatever got to go now." Jesse moved in front of me,

"Oh come on Rose, I know you would enjoy the party, I would certainly enjoy it with you there."

"Jesse move it, now!" I scowled at him.

"Yes, Rose you really should be there. I'm Ivan by the way. Ignore my brother, he just doesn't know how to treat a woman like you." shoving Jesse aside he raised his hand aiming for a strand of hair, fallen in front of my face. I grabbed his wrist

"Don't touch me or you're going to regret it.",I really wasn't in the mood for this dickheads. Someone else appeared behind of him

"What is going on here?" glaring at me, I glared back, trying to seem unaffected by his form. He was tall, even taller than Jesse, 6'6 as I would guess. His hair was bound back into a ponytail, making him look stoic though his eyes were narrowing at me with anger flashing in them. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, showing of his muscles. I knew what Mia was talking about now, this must be Belikov.

"Not your business."

"Let go of his arm."

I growled,

"And if not?" it's not like I intended on holding on to his wrist, but I wouldn't give in in front of this guy.

"Do it, Rose. Don't get yourself into trouble you cannot handle." I ignored the fact that he knew my name, released Ivans wrist and stepped up to Belikov crossing my own arms.

"You have no idea what I can handle, so don't tell me what to do." He made a step towards me,

"I won't, if you will stop harassing my friends."

"Dimka, let it go, she wasn't…"

I cut him off.

"Harassing? You think I harassed them? I'll show you me being harassening."

While saying that I pulled back my fist to let it collide with his face. Only it didn't, without blinking he had caught it with his own hand, smirking at me. The hand around mine grabbed its wrist, moving it behind my back. He made me spinning around, the grip was firm but didn't hurt. Breathing on my neck, his face only inches away. I couldn't see him anymore but I heard him when he told me

"I do not want to hurt you, but I will if you mess with us.".

His accent gave the words an even more dangerous sound. I could feel his presence right behind me and had to remind myself to breath. He was intimidating, not because of his threat, at least not entirely. There was also something else, something I didn't want to think about.

He released me so I could turn around to face him again. The two brothers were standing behind him by now.

"It was nice meeting you, Rose." They turned around walking away, I stood there, frozen in my tracks for a moment.

Running on the treadmill for around half an hour, I saw him from the corner of my eyes entering the gym. I hadn't told Eddie about my encounter with Belikov yet. Although I was not sure if I should tell him at all. It would just make him angry, so I just had to stay away from that guy, wouldn't be that hard, he ignored most of the persons around him. Except from me, I watched him glancing at me from time to time. Searching my face he didn't look like he found it. Whatever it was, studying me did not help him, so he decided to talk to me again.

" I'm Dimitri Belikov." I kept my mouth shut waiting for him to continue.

"Which party are you going to join?" There was more than one? So the moroi also threw a recruiting party as Chris called them.

"Why do you wanna know?" there was a silence for a few seconds until he responded.

"So?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"You neither." we glared at each other again.

"Don't know yet." I gave up, but I lied. I wouldn't join them, the dhampirs, the friends I had found by now were on the other side.

"You are a bad liar and making the wrong decision."

"Stop patronizing me. I am able to make my own choices, thanks."

I turned of the treadmill to leave

"You fought before, didn't you? Why did you stop?", I couldn't look at him, while spating

"As I already told you, none of your business." , I shot him one last look that said he should leave it, before I stomped off annoyed by his pushing.

I went for a shower since I was meeting Lissa and her puppy for lunch. The rest of the day went by, I was hanging out with Mia and Tasha after they arrived back from town. I still was not sure if I liked Tasha, but Mia was good company.

The evening getting near I walked over to Eddie to talk to him about this whole party thing.

At lunch, Chris had explained further that we would decide for one group by showing up at their party. I was already dreading that decision although I knew which one I would make.

A/NI hope you enjoyed it. Dimitri and Rose have a difficult relationship already.Just wanted to say that I could not think about any other names for the groups so don't get confused by the members, it has nothing to do with the spezies they are in the books, they are all human!

Next chapter will be about the party, is Rose really going to join the moroi?