Chapter 9

"If you all need a place to stay then you're more than welcome to stay here for as long as you need" She spoke. I was even more surprised that she sounded sincere. Five minutes ago she had clearly not liked Dimitri and the rest of us being here, but now she was willing to let us stay for as long as we needed? I was even more confused about her. I looked at Lissa, waiting for her to answer.

"If you're sure that it's not too much trouble then we thank you for your help." She gave them a small smile, her eyes still watery.

"Well then, I guess it's settled" Ivan began, "you guys get to camp out with us."

Dimitri POV

I had to admit, while Pandora and Ivan may get on my nerves at most times, I was actually looking forward to spending time with Ivan. I love Roza but I miss hanging out with my best friend all day. Sure, he could be a pain in the ass, and was completely irresponsible, but he was still my best friend. Pandora on the other hand, I could have gone a few more years without running into her.

We sat around and did pretty much nothing for about an hour or two until Ivan stated that he should be getting ready for work. Jill, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Adrian, and Sydney were all elsewhere, while Rose, Pandora and I were in the living room. I don't know why he was working, I mean its great that he found something to do other than play Xbox all day, but the Zeklos' had more than enough money to last them a lifetime or two just as every other royal moroi family does, but if he wanted to work, then I wasn't going to stop him, although there was one important detail that I was curious about. I was about to ask, but Rose spoke up before me.

"Who keeps an eye on you while you're working? I mean, you may not have any guardians assigned to you, but isn't there someone who makes sure your safe?" She mumbled, as Ivan was about to open the door to leave. She was curled up next to me, her eyes closed and head resting on my chest. I wrapped an arm around her. She was clearly exhausted, and I briefly wondered how she managed to speak some-what clearly while in her sleep-induced state.

"What makes you think I don't have any guardians?" He asked, clearly amused.

"Because A) you're supposed to be dead and B) you aren't worthy enough for anyone to attack, and therefore, you have no need for protection." Pandora responded. She was leaning against the door frame that lead into the kitchen, arms crossed and a smirk planted on her face. The dog was just sitting right next to her food, tail wagging with her head up and alert.

Ivan just mumbled something under his breath, before walking out the door without looking back or saying goodbye. The door was slammed shut, and I looked over at Pandora disapprovingly. When she noticed that I was looking at her, she stuck out her tongue at me, I just rolled my eyes and sighed in response.

"What?" Pandora asked defensively. "I didn't do anything."

"I didn't say anything. Although, yes, you did do something." I replied.

"No I didn't."

"I'm not having this argument with you", I said, looking back down at my book. Roza was still curled up next to me and appeared to have fallen back asleep. I smiled to myself at the sight. She looked so peaceful and I hoped that I wouldn't have to wake her any time soon.

"Good, because I have homework that I have to do before we leave and I don't feel like wasting my time and energy arguing with an inferior being such as yourself." She stood up straight and walked away, most likely to her room where she could get whatever work she has to do done. Wait, I thought to myself, just realizing what she had said, what did she mean,'before we leave'? Where were was she going, and did the 'we' part mean that Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and all the others were included in whatever it is she seems to be planning?

I briefly debated as to whether or not I should go after her and ask, but decided not to. Realistically she wouldn't tell me if I asked, so I might as well just stay here with Roza. I shook my head, clearing my mind and went back to my book.

The rest of the afternoon was fairly quiet and I hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep until someone hit me on the back of the head with something. I opened my eyes and my hand instinctively reached back to rub where I had been hit. I looked around and noticed that Ivan was back from work and everyone was sitting in the living room doing there own thing. Ivan and Christian were playing Xbox while Adrian sat on the ground watching them, Sydney reading while sitting in his lap. Rose was still curled up next to me, but was talking to Lissa, who sat beside her. Jill was playing with Ruby, who appeared to be loving the attention, while talking to Eddie. I looked around to see where Pandora was and spotted her hauling a stack of cardboard boxes to the front and setting them down at the door before going back to retrieve another one from who-knows-where. I was about to her what she was doing, but lost my chance as she threw a book at my head. I shifted to the side in attempt to avoid it and just barely succeeded.

"Quit it will you?!" I asked her, knowing that she would continue to throw things at me in between her moving the cardboard boxes. She just looked at me and crossed her arms.

"No." She stated simply.

"What are you doing anyways?" I asked her, curious as to what the cardboard boxes held.

"I'm coloring" she said sarcastically "what does it look like I'm doing Einstein?" I decided to not respond to her, not really in the mood for doing anything that included Pandora in some way.

"Seriously? You're just going to sit there? Get your lazy ass up and help me damnit" she said before turning back towards the kitchen most likely going to grab more boxes. I got up to see what it was she was doing and wasn't paying attention when I ran into her, causing the contents of the box she was holding to spill out.

"Damnit!" She cursed, as she knelt down to pick up whatever it was that had spilled. I knelt down to help her and as I was helping, I couldn't help but make note of some of the objects that had fallen out of her box.

Compass… matches… flashlights… a rolled-up sleeping bag… re-usable water bottles… arrows…

Then it hit me, camping. These were the kinds of things you would take on a camping trip (minus the arrows). Everything clicked together suddenly.

'You guys get to camp out with us.'

'I have homework to do before we leave.'

I groaned internally, standing up and pinching the bridge of my nose. You have got to be kidding me, I thought to myself. Of all the things that they could have been planning to do it had to be camping.

"You gonna stand there and feel sorry for yourself or are you gonna help me move this shit?" Pandora asked, holding the box under one arm while resting her other hand on her hip. I groaned out loud, shaking my head before burying my face in my hands.

"You're kidding right? Would it have killed you to give us a heads up that you had plans before we decided to stay?" I asked, already knowing what her response would be.

"Yup" She replied, "there's a few more sleeping bags and tents in the closet that I need you to grab, you can just set them down by all the other stuff" she said, pointing to the pile of boxes laying by the door. I was about to say something to Pandora when Rose spoke up.

"Wait, we're going camping? As in outside, middle of nowhere, wilderness kind of camping?" She said, looking between Pandora and I, a look of disbelief plastered on her face.

"No, we'll find somewhere else to st-" I was cut off abruptly when Lissa spoke up.

"Oh! Camping sounds fun! It's been a while since we've done anything like that" she said, clearly excited by the idea of camping. "Would it be to much of me to ask if we could maybe go with you? I mean, I'll have to ask and see what the others want to do first but if they do then can we?" Her whole face seemed to be glowing and the excitement seemed to be radiating off of her in waves.

"Yeah, sure, if you guys want." Pandora said shrugging. This caused Lissa to squeal in delight.

"Yay! I'll be right back, I'm going to see what everyone else thinks." She hurried off to ask everyone else if they wanted to camp, and I couldn't help but notice that there was a bounce in her step, showing that she truly was excited by the idea. I sighed internally. After a minute or so, she came back with a huge grin on her face.

"All the others said that they would love it if we could all come with you two." Lissa announced very happily.

"Alrighty then," Pandora began, "y'all better start helping me get this shit together. We leave at 5:15, meaning we have", she looked at her watch, "23 minutes until we need to head out."

"Where are we going? Are we driving? Do we have enough stuff for everyone?" Lissa asked.

"We can pick up some more stuff on the way there, and no we aren't driving, we're taking a train, which you all will have to purchase tickets for." Answered Pandora.

"Where are we going though?" Christian asked. I looked over my shoulder to see that everyone had stopped what they were doing and had all gathered in the kitchen. Pandora either didn't hear his question, or just ignored it as she went on to inform us that we would need passports and 'all that good stuff', in order for us to go. She rambled on for about thirty seconds or so before Christian interrupted her.

"Okay, we got all that", Christian began, "but where are we going?"

Happiness shown in her eyes and excitement laced into her words as she answered.

"Alaska", she answered, a smile lighting up her face.