Chapter 3

Like I mentioned before, Lissa and I are very close, so when I walked in unannounced, no one was shocked to see me.

"Hello Rose" Lissa's mom greeted.

"Hey Mrs. D. Mr. D." I said nodding to Lissa's parents. Lissa's father waved a hand at me, but continued to watch the news.

Lissa's brother Andre walked out from the hallway.

"Trouble." He said using his nickname he gave me a few years ago because I was always in trouble. He ruffled my hair and headed up to his room I assumed.

"Lissa in her room?" I asked.

"MM HM." Her mother replied, her attention occupied by a news report on our bitch of a queen.

I took the steps two at a time until I got to the top of the stairs.

Lissa's house was setup exactly like mine. When you got to the top of the stairs you could either go right and turn left to get to the rooms or you could go left and turn right to get to the rooms. Both sides of the house each had one bathroom and three bedrooms with the master bedroom at the end of each hall. Each master bedroom had its own bathroom. Next to the master bedroom on the right side of the house was a stairway that led to the kitchen and next to the master bedroom on the left was a stairway that led to the den. The other four bedrooms were big enough that you could fit a queen sized bed in them and still have enough room to do flips and cartwheels.

At my house I had a hallway all to myself and Christian got the bedroom next to our parents. Neither one of us could get the second master bedroom because Abe and Janine didn't want us to argue over it. I didn't really mind, but Christian bitched about it once a week. I kind of liked my room because sometimes when I looked out my window that faced Dimitri's house I could see him in his workout room lifting weights, and he always worked out with his shirt off. Though, I would never admit that to anyone other than Lissa.

Once i reached the top of the staircase, I went left and headed to Lissa's room.

Her door was slightly cracked and I could hear Beyonce's and Shakira's song, beautiful liar, playing. I slowly pushed the door open and silently laughed to myself.

When Lissa and I were at the party Dimitri caught me sneaking back from, Lissa was upset because some guy made a comment about her looking like a stick next to me. I hated seeing my best friend sad because she felt inferior to me so I suggested she try belly dancing to help her get some kind of curves. So she looked up how to belly dance on YouTube and every since then she's been practicing every night.

As I watched her now, I had to admit that she was getting a whole lot better than she was when she first started, but it was still funny to watch. She was trying to imitate the hip movements Shakira and Beyonce did in the video. I watched her for a few more moments then I laughed out loud. Startled she turned around.

"Oh my fucking gosh Rose! You scared me!" She had her hand over her heart and she was breathing heavily. The sight only caused me to laugh harder while she glared at me. "Well it's nice to know that I at least have your support in this." She angrily said.

I stopped laughing finally. "Aww Liss, don't be mad. I support you 100% on this. You've gotten way better since you've started." I said trying to make her feel better. It worked because her scowl was replaced by a smile Ronald McDonald worthy.

"You really think so?" she asked. I nodded me head eagerly, happy that she was happy. "I've been practicing a lot. So what's up?" She asked, grabbing a water bottle out of her mini fridge.

"Well, Dimitri just caught me staring at him. That was slightly embarrassing." I admitted.

"You guys haven't talked since you slapped him?" Lissa asked just as Andre walked by.

"Whoa Trouble! You slapped Belikov?" he asked "What'd he do to deserve the wrath of Rose Hathaway?"

I shook my head. I didn't really want everyone knowing that I slapped Dimitri because of course they would take his side. Lissa, knowing that I didn't want people to know about the incident, walked over to the door and slammed it in Andre's face. I gave her a slight smile and continued.

"I was going to before I came over here, but I shouldn't be the one to apologize first. He insulted me!"

"That is so true. I can't believe he would say something like that." Lissa said for the hundredth time since I had told her about the incident. "Usually he's always so nice; well unless he's over here drinking a beer with Andre and their friends and they're joking around and laughing at eachother."

Joking? Laughing? "Wait! Dimitri knows how to laugh?" I exclaimed.

"Well duh Rose he laughs. He's not some robot." She looked at me sideways.

"I don't know. I just can't see it. He's always so formal around me, and polite."

Lissa shrugged and started twirling her hips to the next song that came on. "I don't know either. He's always talking when he hangs out around here. Maybe it's because Andre is 21 so him, Dimitri, and their friends have more to talk about then you and Dimitri would considering you just turned 17."

I shrugged as well. That did make a lot of sense.

Forgetting about Dimitri I moved on to the main reason I came over here. "So why didn't you warn me that my parents were sending me to St. Vladimir?" I asked her half shouting it.

She turned around again, "They finally told you? Your mom begged me not to tell. She said she wanted to tell you first."

"How much did she pay you to keep quiet?"

Lissa's eyes widened, "Why in the world would I take money from your mother?"

I snorted, "Oh yea, I forget you like to do things out of the kindness of your heart."

She laughed, "You should try it sometimes. It's really not that bad."

"Hey! I do nice things all the time!"

""Like what?" She asked giving me a pointed look.

"Well, um. Well, you know." I stumbled over my words trying to think of something I did nice without expecting anything in return. She laughed and I moved on. "Anyways, I'm so glad that you're coming with me! You didn't have to do that you know. You could still stay at Hornet High and rule there." I didn't want Lissa to miss out on her last year with all of our friends just because of me.

"I can't believe you would say that!" She exclaimed. "It wouldn't even be the same without my best friend Rose! Where ever you are I'll be there too."

"Aww Liss I love you!" I said.

"I love you too rose. And besides I think it would be cool to learn how to use my spirit correctly. Hey!" She exclaimed moving on to a new subject, "Jeremy is throwing a party this weekend and I think we should totally go and have fun before we start at the new school."

As soon as she said Jeremy and party, I didn't even have to hear the rest. Jeremy was another popular at Hornet High and he always threw the best parties. "Of course I'm in!"

"Great and I was thinking Friday after school, we should go to the mall and buy some new clothes for St. Vladimir…"

"Yea, we'll definitely be the two hottest bitches at that school!"

"Yay!" She exclaimed. "I'm so excited now. I can't wait!"

I could feel excitement pouring out through our mysterious bond and I started getting excited as well.

"Ok now practice this dance with me." She demanded. I got up and threw away my now browned and bruised banana, having forgotten about it, and spent the next two hours dancing with Lissa.