Recap:

"Well," Christian had his eyebrows furrowed, thoughtful. "This may not be definite. I mean, Lyn said this hadn't happened for what, 83 years? That's if it happened at all. Just don't get too upset til you're absolutely sure, is all I'm saying." He actually had a point. And I guess all that's changed has been the nails. Then I remembered what I ate at the airport. I only just realised that I'd been eating more than usual. But that's nothing too bad, right?

It was then that they left, not wanting to get caught out by curfew. Only Adrian stayed, giving me a long hug and a kiss on my forehead before going to bed too. I had a shower and changed into my pyjamas. As I crawled under the covers, I wondered; what would happen next?

Chapter 7

Grand exit

Okay, now I'm almost certain I'm pregnant. Right now, my head is bent over the toilet bowl and I'm puking my guts out. I got up and flushed the toilet before splashing my face with cold water. I walked out of the bathroom and went back to bed. It was 5 pm and I was not looking forward to a new day.

I woke up to someone knocking on my door. I got up, put on my newly bought dressing gown and answered the door. Surprise, surprise, Adrian was at the door. I groaned and left the door open, flopping back onto the bed. He shut the door and sat beside me, rubbing my back comfortingly. I lay there on the bed with Adrian rubbing my back until I felt better. I sighed a few minutes later and sat up, facing him with my knees pulled up against my chin. "I'm going to see Dr Olendzki today. She'll be able to tell if I'm really pregnant, although after this morning I'm pretty sure I am."

Adrian climbed over and sat next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I leant my head against his chest. "I know this is hard, but you're going to get through this. You're strong, Rose. You always have been. And I'm here for you, we all are." We sat like that for about half an hour when there was another knock on the door. I sat up from Adrian's chest and called for them to come in.

One of the guardians came in. "Uh, Ms Hathaway? Headmistress Kirova would like to see you in her office as soon as possible." I nodded and he walked out. Sighing, I got up, grabbed some clothes and made my way to the bathroom. Adrian hovered in my room, waiting for me to get changed. As I brushed my hair, I noticed my nails again. A single tear ran down my face as I remembered what that brought on.

Dimitri was my dhampir soul mate, and he was now a strigoi. I was almost certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was going to have his baby. I would have to see his features everyday when I couldn't be around him.

Adrian knocked on the door and asked if I was alright. I hurriedly finished off my hair and opened the door. I smiled sadly and bit my lip. He held my face in his hands and used his thumb to wipe away the tear I had forgotten.

We walked together to Kirova's office, students gawking at me on their way to first classes. I heard people whispering, but I ignored them as I walked to the office. I knocked once and walked in, just like I used to. Kirova looked up from some files and chuckled. I sat in one of the chairs and Adrian sat in the other one. She eyed him for a moment but let it slide.

"Rose, I think we all want to know why you left. And most of all, why you came back." She raised her eyebrows at me expectantly but I just shook my head. I was reluctant to let my friends know about my predicament, let alone the headmistress. I bit my lip in an attempt to stop my mind from wandering to the facts of my life. I refused to cry in front of Kirova, besides, that would make her even more insistent to know what was going on. "Rose," her voice was firm, demanding an answer.

I felt a reassuring hand on my shoulder and looked up into Adrian's eyes. Kirova cleared her throat and I turned back to her reluctantly. "I left for my own purposes and came back temporarily to see my friends. And I'm sure Lyn's asked you about helping Dr Olendzki in the hospital." She nodded her head thoughtfully. "If you want a better explanation than that, then I hope you aren't too disappointed. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to see if Lyn's at the hospital, I need to talk to her." I stood up and swept graciously out of her office, Adrian right on my heels.

Wordlessly, he took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Together we made our way back across campus to the hospital wing. Just as we got to the door Lissa called to me in my head. Rose, meet us in the cafeteria. I groaned and turned around. "What, were are we going?" Adrian asked. His hand was still secured to mine and I felt comfort in that.

"Lissa wants to see me," was my reply. We were silent in the minute or so it took us to reach the cafeteria, eyes of my old classmates following us the whole way there. Morning classes were still in action so I was surprised to see Lissa, Christian, Eddie and another dhampir sitting at a lunch table. I remembered something Adrian had told me before about Jesse and Ralph losing their guardians and how Christian had gotten Ralph's. It looked like he was grateful for the switch. "Hey guys," I said, sitting next to Eddie. There was no room next to me, so Adrian let go of my hand and sat next to the new guy.

"Hey Rose!" Lissa greeted me. She indicated to the other guy, "That's Justin, he's guarding Christian now." He smiled slightly in my direction.

"Glad to see Christian's got someone protecting him against the evil strigoi teachers now that I'm no longer a student." I joked.

"Yes, well," Lissa interrupted another comment I was going to make. She bit her lip and looked towards Justin out of the corner of her eye. I sighed.

"Well, he's gonna be hanging around for the rest of the year, he'll probably find out sooner or later. And, unlike Kirova, he can't denounce either of our reputations." He started to protest, saying he could stay by the door or something, but I waved him off. "Lissa, what did you want to say?" I asked, turning back to her.

"I wanted to ask if you know for sure yet. I mean, any more symptoms shown up? You seen Dr Olendzki yet? Weren't you just there?" I waited patiently for her questioning to end before revealing that I'd just been about to find out.

"Lissa, I'm not sure yet. Yes, some more symptoms have shown up, I was just about to see Dr Olendzki before you called and I was at Kirova's office just before that."

Before anything else could be said, a teacher in all black came in through the door. He grabbed Lissa by her collar and I was just about to get up when Adrian tugged at my wrist over the table. I remembered that I was no longer a student here and had to watch from the sidelines as Justin and Eddie fought the teacher. I recognised him as one of the combat teachers for one of the other senior classes.

I watched Justin as he pulled Lissa gently but swiftly from the teacher's grasp. I closed my eyes and bit my lip to stop from reacting as I saw Stan come in through the window, but thankfully Eddie saw him too. Justin knocked the other teacher to the ground and 'staked' him while Eddie threw punches at Stan. Justin kept watch over the moroi as Eddie took down Stan.

"What were you four, uh, six doing here during class hours?" Stan asked us, getting up. He paid no attention to the students that started filing in the doors, only to stop and watch as Stan ratted us out.

"Hey Stan, nice to see you too." I said sarcastically. He looked over at me and blinked upon recognition before turning back to Lissa, Christian, Eddie and Justin. "We were talking if that's the answer you want." He reluctantly turned back to me.

"Ms Hathaway, Mr Ivashkov, I do realise that as neither of you are students, you believe that most school rules do not apply to you. But, even if you are allowed to wander during class hours, students are not permitted such luxuries." He turned back to the others. "You've all got detention after last class in my classroom, don't be late." And he just walked off, just like that. I clenched my fists to stop myself from going after him and kicking his ass.

As the four slumped back into their seats, I glared at the rest of the student body. "Well, you saw what you wanted to see. Now stop gawking and start acting like you actually have something better to do." I saw most of them roll their eyes and go their separate ways. All but two.

"Well, well Rose. It is nice to see your face here again. We were all worried you'd run off to be a blood-whore." Jesse's voice wafted over to us. I groaned and stood up, mumbling good-byes to my friends as I did. I walked to the doors, barging past Ralph and Jesse in an attempt to avoid a name-calling war. Just before I was out of arms reach, Jesse just had to grab my ass. Ralph laughed.

I spun around and kicked him in the side, making him stumble sideways -right into Ralph. They both went down and all eyes turned in our direction. My sneakered foot came down on Jesse's neck, not hard enough to actually choke him, like I wanted to. I bent down. "Just remember," I sneered. "Shane and Justin aren't here to save your sorry asses anymore. And I doubt anyone else wants to come to your rescue." I straightened up and once again, swept gracefully out the doors.

Just another grand exit by me at St Vlad's.

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Randomitis Sufferer