Okay, so I guess I lied. I'm not up to ten reviews yet, but I just had to update, I was so excited about this chapter! It's from Jill's point of view, from the time when Micah first kissed her and her conversation with Sydney afterwards.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bloodlines.

"No… no… no… No!"

I was rummaging through my piles of clothes, desperately looking for something appropriate to wear. The problem was, my wardrobe was limited, because of the fast departure from court. So here I was, a half-hour away from my date, frantically sorting through what I had in an effort to find something, anything that could be deemed date-worthy. Stupid assassins. It was easy to blame them for all my problems.

"I don't get what the problem is. What do clothes have to do with dating?"

I sighed, turning to my roommate in exasperation. Angeline was a great friend, really, but she also had grown up in a society of savages. Well, not savages, per say, that was just mean. But they weren't exactly civilized, either, which meant that Angeline was about as socially inept as Sydney. And that was no small feat.

"Clothes have everything to do with dating." I informed her, turning back to my pile of clothes. "They give the person you're going out with an inner glimpse of your personality. What you wear says something about the kind of person you are." I noted, dryly, that I was sounding suspiciously like Julia.

Angeline was still confused. "But Micah already knows who you are. So why bother?" She said.

Very good point. "True." I admitted. "But I still want to look nice." That, and this was technically my first real date with Micah. I mean, we hung out all the time together at school, and we'd gone out with a group of friends a couple of times, but it had never been just the two of us, on an actual date. We probably wouldn't be going out tonight, either, if it wasn't within a mile radius of campus grounds. I'd promised Eddie to keep my phone on at all times, ready to text him if I saw so much as a suspicious character walking down the street. He worried so much. It was sweet, even though I knew it had more to do with his guardian training than anything else.

Finally, I managed to pull out an outfit that seemed appropriate for this date; a green tang-top that flowed in the wind, and a pair of dark jeans. It wasn't the most ideal dating attire for me, but it would do. The green matched my eyes perfectly.

I proceeded to doing my hair and makeup. I applied my makeup expertly, in a way that brings out my features and manages to make me look less sickly and pale. It was one thing I hated about being a Moroi. The paleness of my skin was such a contrast to the healthy glow of human and dhampir skin. It especially stood out in a group of humans.

My hair was a different matter. I could never really decide which was the best way to style it. I considered trying to straighten it, a style that made me look older, but I didn't have the time. Wearing it up wasn't an option, not with the outfit I'd picked out. I finally decided to just leave it in its natural curly state, and tossed some hair product into it to make sure it didn't look messy.

I dashed out of the bathroom, knowing that I only had about five minutes to meet Micah down in the lobby. Angeline looked up from her homework, a frown on her face. I recognised the look; she got it whenever she was trying to do something that she had never even heard of before. I knew it could be tough on her sometimes, all the work she had to do now that required brain power and no physical strength. I knew she preferred things that required action.

"You… You're okay with that?" I asked her, my hand resting on the doorknob. I nodded at her work. "You don't need any help? Because I could… you know… if you need it…" My voice trailed off.

Angeline's eyes went wide. "Oh! Oh, no. I'll get through it. You just have a fun time." She said with a smile. "Go on, or you'll be late."

Oh gosh, she was right. I gave her one last fleeting smile before darting out of the room and down the stairs. I prayed that Micah hadn't decided to show up early. I hated to keep people waiting. Especially when dates were involved.

Someone decided to answer my prayer, apparently, because Micah was only just entering the lobby when I made it downstairs. He noticed me right away and smiled, which caused butterflies to start fluttering in my stomach. It wasn't quite what I had felt for… Lee… but it was still an obvious sign of affection, which was comforting. I knew the others didn't approve of my relationship with Micah, Sydney in particular, and I was always questioning whether or not it was worth it.

All thoughts of doubt vanished from my mind as I walked over to my sort-of boyfriend. "Hey." He said, still smiling. He gave me an admiring look, and I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks. So he liked my wardrobe choice, after all. "You ready to go?"

"Yep!" I said, feeling enthusiastic. It'd be nice to spend some time off campus with just Micah. I counted my lucky stars that I wasn't being chaperoned tonight. It had been a close one.

Micah was an absolute gentleman when it came to dating courtesy. He opened the door to his car for me when we reached it, and I climbed in, smiling. He quickly darted around to the driver's side and started the car, pulling out of the parking lot. We started up our usual banter, something I was so accustom to by now that I could let my mind wander while keeping up the conversation.

I wondered, for a moment, if Sydney's dates went anything like this. Did her boyfriend open the door to the car for her? Did she get butterflies in her stomach? Did she have this easy ability to talk with him while letting her mind wander?

I abruptly shook the thoughts out of my head. They weren't mine, after all. Well, they were, but the emotion behind them was not my own. Adrian had spent a lot of his time thinking about Sydney and her boyfriend. Sometimes, the thought simply amused him, like it did the rest of us. Other times, he was filled with a strange longing and bitterness he couldn't quite place. As a thinking observer to the situation with unusual insight, it was beyond obvious to me that Adrian's feelings for Sydney went beyond friendship. Neither of them knew it yet, though. And it was frustrating for me. I looked forward in anticipation to the day I'll finally learn to keep Adrian out of my head.

We finally arrived at the little restaurant. It was an interesting cross between a fast food joint and a real restaurant. You basically went in and sat down at a table, and sooner or later a waiter would come around to greet you and take orders. The place did take-out, as well, but that fact had no relevance.

We sat down at a table for two, which we found in the corner of the restaurant. It was a couple minutes before the waiter came over and took our orders. I went for the spaghetti. Micah was impressed.

"With such an amazing figure, I thought you'd only eat the healthiest food." He joked lightly.

I smiled back. "Nope. I'm naturally skinny. Me and my other brother, Adrian. Sydney's the picky one in the family. She's as obsessive about calories as she is about organising things." Micah laughed, and though I smiled, I was a bit uneasy. It was actually Adrian who had noticed this, and it worried him. When I thought about it myself, it did seem a bit unhealthy. But what did I know about weight gain? For all I tried, it was physically impossible for a Moroi to gain enough weight to get curves. I felt like a twig.

"You're family's really unique." Micah noted, still smiling. "You really don't look much like each other, or act like each other, but you're a tight-knit family regardless. It's pretty admirable."

I felt fondness swirling in my chest as I thought about the people who were posing as my family. They really were like my family, I decided. They cared the way a family should, the way my real family didn't seem to. I banished the thought the second it entered my head. After all, it wasn't my parents I was thinking about. It was Lissa.

"Yeah," I said, shaking away the sobering thoughts of my life back at court. "I don't know what I'd do without them." And that was the truth.

We quickly switched to an easier topic, and we spent the rest of the night at the restaurant talking about random teenage things, as Adrian would call it. The more we talked, the happier I felt, and I knew that I had needed this date. It was an excellent distraction from Adrian's depressing thoughts, not to mention my own sobering worries about assassins sneaking up on me at night and stabbing me in the chest. The thought surfaced in my mind more times than I care to admit.

Of course, I was only so good at keeping Adrian out of my mind, and he intruded on my thoughts a couple times throughout the date. He was painting, I knew, trying to express his jumble of emotions that was his affection for Sydney Sage. I made a mental note to call him later and check up on him. Talking things out usually helped clear Adrian's head a bit and, subsequently, mine.

My date finally ended with a walk in the park. We strolled along the stone path for a little while, hand in hand, laughing and smiling. Eventually, we found a nice wooden bench and sat down, and Micah started pointing out stars and constellations, even though most were still hidden by the small remains of the sun's light.

I scanned the sky, trying to find something up there that Micah hadn't already spotted, which wasn't easy because he'd covered most of the sky. Finally, I found it, shining bright on the horizon, still touched by the light of the sun.

"What about that one?" I asked, pointing it out.

"Ah," Micah said, using his scientific observer voice that made me laugh. "That, my pupil, is not a star at all, but the planet we know as Venus."

I had to cover my mouth to stop the giggles. "Do you know what the name means?" I asked. I certainly did. Sydney had told us all about it a few nights ago. I was hoping this would stump him. I was wrong.

"The planets were all named after Roman gods." Micah said, still using his science voice. "That planet in particular is named after the roman goddess of love. It's the only planet in the sky named after a woman." He smiled triumphantly, and I stuck my tongue out at him playfully. We both laughed.

After a few moments, Micah's expression softened into something more affectionate. He gazed at me fondly, and I found myself leaning toward him in response, my own feelings stirring in my chest. It wasn't love, I knew, but it wasn't simply friendly, either.

The next thing I knew, Micah had leaned in and pressed his lips against mine. For a moment, my eyes widened, then they closed and I leaned into the kiss. His hand trailed up my back, leaving a tingling sensation where it touched. I put my arms around him, running my fingers through his hair. I felt good. Really good.

Then a horrible thought occurred to me.

What will I do if he notices my fangs?

A shiver of fear and unease suddenly crept up my spine. I could hide my fangs while talking and laughing no problem. The Moroi are taught to do that from the time we can talk. But kissing? It was too intimate. He was centimeters away from discovering the truth and creating a heap load of problems, problems that Sydney would likely have to fix.

So I was the one who ended up pulling away from the kiss, gently, mind you. Despite my unease, I still smiled at him. He was beaming back, clearly in a state of bliss. Regardless, I wracked my brain for some explanation as to why I pulled away. Thankfully, a reason came quickly.

"Curfew?" I said, like a question. This brought Micah back down to reality.

"Right." He said. Still grinning, he got up and offered his hand to me. I took it gently and we headed back to the car hand in hand.

Micah continued our usual conversation on the way back to Amberwood, and though I smiled and laughed with him, inside, I was working hard to calm myself down. I was so relieved he hadn't noticed anything, that I had managed to pull that off without causing problems with my family or with Micah. But still, a traitorous voice in my head kept saying what are you going to do next time? You can't hide your fangs forever.

Needless to say, as soon as Micah dropped me off in front of my dorm, my mood plummeted. My thoughts turned troubled, the only interruption being a surge of excitement from Adrian that pulled me into his head for a moment, letting me know that Adrian was going to learn self-defence with Sydney. I was back in my head within seconds. The thought of Adrian punching and kicking lightened my mood for a second, but my troubled thoughts returned pretty quick.

Was I going to have to end things with Micah? I didn't want to, but if that kiss had been any deeper… well, I didn't really want to think about it. Maybe the others were right. Maybe human-vampire dating was a bad idea.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't see Sydney when she entered the dorm. It was only when she yelled "Hey! Jill?" Did I notice her there. I stopped walking, halfway through the lobby. I went over to her.

"Oh, hey." I said. "Were you out with your boyfriend?"

Sydney winced. "Not sure I'd call him that yet."

I'm going to get Julia to write a book on dating and give it to Sydney. "How many times have you gone out?"

"Four."

"He's taking you to the dance?"

"I'm meeting him there."

She seemed to be growing more uncomfortable by the second. I fought down a smile, and shrugged instead. "Sounds like a boyfriend to me."

"Sounds like you're quoting something from Kristin and Julia's dating guidebook." She shot back.

Kristin and Julia's dating guidebook. That would be the perfect title. We'd give it to Sydney as a Christmas present. The image of the look on Sydney's face as she'd be opening the present brought a smile to my face, but my dark mood chased it away pretty quickly. "I think it's just common sense." I pointed out to her.

She seemed to be studying me for a second, and it occurred to me that she might've picked up on my mood. "Are you okay? You looked like something was bothering you." So she did pick up on my mood. That wasn't too surprising. What she said next was. "Is it… is it Adrian? Is he still upset." Worry crossed her face, and for a moment I was pretty sure she was more worried about Adrian than she was for me. Hmm. Interesting.

"No." I told her after a moment. Then I reconsidered. "I mean, well, yes. But he's a little better. He's excited about learning self-defence with you."

"Excited?" She asked. I realised that excitement was a bit of a strong reaction, if you weren't in on his affection for Sydney, so I quickly jumped in with a different excuse.

"It's a distraction. And a distraction's the best thing for him in these moods." Mentally, at least. When most of your distractions are alcoholic, it's physically the worst thing for you. "He is still upset, though. He's still depressed over his dad." I felt a little uncomfortable talking about the incident with his dad, mainly because I witnessed the whole thing. Curse this bond

A look of guilt crossed Sydney's face. "I shouldn't have taken him to San Diego," She murmured. "If I'd refused, he wouldn't have been able to get there."

Knowing how stubborn Adrian is? Unlikely. I figured this wouldn't be the best way to answer her, though, so I tried to be a bit more diplomatic. "I don't know. I think he would've found a way, with or without you. What happened between them was going to happen eventually." I said.

"I just feel terrible seeing Adrian like this." Sydney said. I knew she meant it, too, which made her statement all the more intriguing.

"These moods come and go for him. Always have." I said, trying to reassure her. "He's laid off the drinking a little bit- for my sake. But then that just opens him up for…" I groped for the right words, but didn't manage to find any. "Well, it's hard to explain. You know how spirit drives people insane? When he's down like this and sober, it makes him more vulnerable."

"Are you saying Adrian's going crazy?" Sydney said. It was a good question, one that, despite my insight, I didn't really know the answer to.

"No, not exactly." I finally decided, pursing my lips as I mulled it over in my mind. "He just gets a little scattered… weird. You'll know it when you see it. He kind of makes sense but kind of not. Gets dreamy and rambles. But not the way I do. It's got like a- I don't know- mystical feel. But it's not actually magical. It's just him kind of… losing it temporarily. It never lasts, and, like I said, you'll know it when you see it." Thinking about it, I hadn't actually seen him like that in a while. Maybe it was leaking into me and I didn't even know it…

"I think I might have…" Sydney said, caught up in a memory. This was relieving. I lived in fear of catching Adrian's insanity, even though I hated the thought of him going crazy.

"Girls?" A new voice spoke, and we both looked over to Mrs. Weathers, who was sitting at her desk. "you need to get to your rooms."

We nodded obediently and made our way up the stairs. When we reached my floor, Sydney stopped me before I could leave.

"Hey- if Adrian's not the problem, than what was bothering you when you came in? Is everything okay?"

"Huh? Oh, that." My memories from earlier that evening returned, and I felt my cheeks go red. "Yeah. I guess. I don't know. Micah… um, well, he kissed me tonight. For the first time. And I guess I was just kind of surprised at how I felt about it." The anxiety, the fear…

Sydney jumped in with questions. "What do you mean? Did it feel a lot less exciting than you expected? Like you were just touching someone's lips? Like you were kissing a relative?"

What in the world? I gave her a puzzled look. "No. That's crazy. Why would you think that?"

"Um, just guessing." Sydney said. A faint red touched her cheeks, giving me the sense that she wasn't being truthful. I let it drop, though, and went on with my story.

"It was great, actually." I said, thinking back to the moment. "Well, almost. I couldn't quite get into it as much as I wanted because I was worried about my fangs. It's easy to hide them talking and smiling. But not while kissing. And all I kept thinking was 'What am I going to say if he notices?' And then I started thinking about what you and everyone else said. About how this thing with Micah isn't a good idea and how I can't keep things hands-off forever. I like him. I like him a lot. But not enough to risk exposing the Moroi… or endanger Lissa." Things may be awkward between me and Lissa but, well, I still cared about her. We were friends before the whole queen ordeal. Sydney looked proud, and a little bit relieved. My chest clenched up on seeing that pride.

"That's a noble attitude." She said.

"I guess." I said, steering my thoughts back to Micah. "I don't want to end things yet, though. Micah's so nice… and I love all the friends I've made being with him. I guess I'll just see what happens… but it's hard. It's a wake-up call." I sighed and made my way into my room, feeling sad.

Going into the room, I found Angeline still on her bed. She grinned at me sheepishly and showed me the work page that she'd been working on earlier, still incomplete. I rolled my eyes with a bit of a smile. Sitting down together, we managed to finish the work in less than fifteen minutes, mainly because I didn't have Sydney's qualms about simply giving the answer.

"I still don't get why this is important." Angeline said, as she scribbled down the last answer on her sheet. "Kissing boys is much more fun than this, and just as useful."

That made me laugh, but it also brought back Sydney's earlier comment on kissing boys. It was almost as if… almost as if that's what she'd experienced. But this was Sydney Sage, after all. I'd be surprised if she'd even figured out holding hands yet.

"I know how you feel about kissing boys." I said to Angeline, who'd been sitting there waiting for an answer. She smiled mischievously at me, and it was in a somewhat lighter mood that I went to bed.

Surely, she had been guessing, I finally decided. If that's what it felt like to her, than she wouldn't still be dating that guy whose name I can never remember. Probably.

But still, the strange words stuck, and all I could think about was the way Sydney seemed to care about Adrian, and how he brightens up so much when she smiles at him.

Well, that was fun. Anyways, some of you have suggested I write something from Dimitri's point of view. I'm not gonna do that for a couple reasons. One, there's no awesome scene in the book that I could recreate from Dimitri's point of view, because he wasn't there. Two, Dimitri is like a foreign creature to me, and getting into his head is virtually impossible for me. Besides, we've had so much of him in VA.

The next one is, however, from Adrian's point of view, on the night of the Halloween dance. It'll probably take a little while to write, but I have high hopes!

P.S. Is it bad that every time Adrian goes off on a spirit rant, I can understand him perfectly?

P.P.S. check out the song 'Boys like you' by 360. It is 100 percent Sydrian. It's almost creepy.