A/N- My thoughts were actually on someone else for the 'little Moroi girl'. I had vaguely considered Mia, but when all of you kept mentioning her, it further became evident that she fitted the position, and I was able to better form reasoning behind her actions. However, I bet none of you will be able to guess these motives. ;)

When I was writing this, a completely different scene happened when they jumped in the car which led to the point that they didn't even end up going shopping. The scene didn't work, happening too soon. So it'll be added in later. I was bummed through. :( I was looking forward to giving you guys a chapter already! So this took a little longer than I expected.

Oh, and, guys, so many questions! I love them, but I just want to let you know, the majority of your questions and thoughts about the storyline will be addressed in following chapters. I'm starting to think my writing is too predictable because you are all guessing stuff that I plan to happen. :(

ALSO, I realised Adrian has been a bit OOC. I know we haven't seen much of him. But there is a little hint of the old Adrian, his flirtatious side, in this chapter. I didn't dive much into it, but it's there. I will actually get into some more actual flirting (like writing the actual conversation, not just mentioning it) later on. Just didn't seem so important to be mentioned in this chapter.

LASTLY! Please note: pen-name changed from Spuffy Shall Be Forever to minties. If you are interested as to why, check the profile. :) I mean... there's nothing interesting to it. But anyway.

Okay! Sorry for the long A/N! Please read:

Previously-

"Rose, Rose!" he chimed, standing up to introduce me. "Everyone, this is Rose. Rose, this is everyone." He started introducing me to everyone, but I wasn't really paying attention. Not until he motioned to the little Moroi girl from the bathrooms.

Chapter 5 – The New Rose

"... this is Mia and Natalie. Aaron. Oh, Eddy!" I stopped listening... well I wasn't really listening in the first place. I tuned in to get her name and tuned out soon thereafter. I stared at the little Doll Girl. Aaron had an arm around her shoulder, and she also sat quite close to Natalie. I didn't care about the two, only Mia. With plump little cheeks and blond ringlets, slim and very short, she looked like a porcelain doll. What had this girl been doing in the dhampir bathrooms?

I interrupted Mason, "Mia who?" I directed to him, but whilst staring at her with a tilt of my head.

"Mia?" he questioned, clearly unaware why I was so interested in her. Mia stared at me with an evil little porcelain doll smile.

She answered herself, "Mia Rinaldi. Please to meet you, Hathaway," she smirked.

"Likewise, Rinaldi. I'm sure not as much as you, though, after you decided to get a glance in the bathrooms." If she was going to play dirty, whatever her motives, I wouldn't let her do it easily. I wanted to ask her about the bathrooms, but thought I'd ask her in a more private situation. I figured it would be easier to get the truth from her when alone. Besides, now was a good time to build a new reputation – crush the one that Guardian Alto had created in second period.

She blushed, clearly aware of the innuendo. "I..."

"Save it. I know how irresistible this body is," I gave her a wink and turned my attention back to Mason. He continued introducing everyone, all with new found smiles on their faces. I bet they had all forgotten about Alto's class, focusing on the smart-ass that stood before them. I liked this new Rosemarie... no, Rose. Rosemarie and Marie were gone. I was now Rose – the soon-to-be best, the snarkiest, and most kick-ass Guardian to walk this Earth. The new Rose.

I walked to my next class, which Mason's friend, Eddy, showed me to before he headed off to his own class. I was surprised, to say the least, to see Lissa in the class. I hadn't seen her since we arrived the previous day. I supposed she had been at lunch, but I didn't even attempt to search for her. When I walked into Animal Behaviour and Psychology, she sat in a back corner, but clearly in sight. Next to her, sitting closely, there was a tall and thin Moroi. Messy black hair and pale blue eyes; he was cute. I figured this must have been the boyfriend that Dimitri mentioned would also be accompanying our trip this afternoon. Christian.

I sat at the front of the class and to the left, as far as way as possible I could get. I inwardly groaned at the feelings and thoughts that flooded my mind. They seemed even harder to ignore when there was less distance between us. She was ecstatic for shopping later, hoping she'd get a chance to further 'bond' with me. That we should be friends after 'everything that we had been through together.' Please note the dramatics and sarcasm dripping from my words.

Little did she know how bound I already was.

Little Doll, Mia, was there also, sitting next to Lissa like they were best of pals. I felt annoyance flow from Lissa. They had a falling out once due to a boy named Aaron just under a year ago. Mia wanted to mend their friendship, yet Lissa wanted none of it. She was too nice to actually say anything though.

Eventually I tuned out, to Lissa in my mind and to the actual class. Ms Meissner called upon me at one point at the beginning of the lesson, but I simply shrugged without an answer, and she forgot about me for the rest of the class. However, Lissa only noticed me then for the first time that class, and she couldn't ignore my presence. I couldn't block out any of her thoughts involving me.

After that daunting lesson followed maths, Precalculus to be exact. I just did as much of the work as I could and zoned out for the rest of it.

Moroi Culture 4 was similar to Ms Meissner's class. Lissa was there, so I sat as far away as possible and pretended to be listening to the teacher's monotone voice. However, all I could really hear was Lissa, again. I hope we can be friends, she thought. I wonder why she doesn't like me. Is it something I did back at the house? Did she want to stay there with all those Strigoi? No... she couldn't have. I must have done something else wrong. My head throbbed with her anxiety. I had to grip my chair tight to keep myself from jumping up and screaming at her.

She was in my next class, Salvic Art, too. But I was able to concentrate so much on the hands-on work we were doing, that I was able to pretty much block her out. She was also probably too involved in her masterpiece that she wasn't thinking about me so much, anyway. This was probably going to be the only enjoyable class of every day. I also met a Moroi boy, Jesse. With a tousle of bronze-coloured hair and dark blue eyes, he was hot. And by the way he was looking at me; I bet he thought the same back.

After class I headed straight back to my dorm. I was so exhausted by the long day that I couldn't wait to get a nanna nap in before dinner. But, of course, I was once again interrupted by Dimitri.

I had just plopped myself down onto my bed, having just taken my shoes off, and hadn't even yet pulled the cover over myself, when there was a knock on my door.

"Come in," I growled.

He saw me lying on my stomach with my pillow hugged to my head. "Rose," he laughed a little, "you don't have time to sleep. We have to go."

I had completely forgotten about the shopping trip, and was suddenly very reluctant to go. "Just a little nap?" I pleaded.

He shook his head, "No, we have to go now."

I groaned and buried my head further into my pillow.

I expect him to yell and tell me to get out of bed. Or even pull my pillow from under my head, again. What I didn't expect was for him to stroll over, pick me up in his arms – one hand under my knees and the other around my back – and place me, standing up, on the ground. "Now, Rose," he whispered as he placed me down.

What was even more unexpected was his hand lingering on the small of my back as his face remained a little too close. My heart caught in my throat. What was he doing? He started at me intently, his brown eyes boring into mine. Something behind them... something I couldn't quite make out. My legs felt weak and I knew I was no longer supporting myself. But he slid his hand around me and snaked his arm around my waist to keep me stable. Somehow my hands had made their way to linger on his chest.

His shoulder length hair began to fall slowly and cover his face, which then tickled my nose. I squirmed as I began to giggle. It must have broken him from his trance, because he removed his arm and took a step back. I almost fell, but I managed to steady myself as I rubbed beneath my nose, giggles ceasing.

"Sorry," he barely whispered, looking longingly at me again. My nose still tingled and I giggled again, not being able to hold his gaze. He shook his head again, pulling his eyes away. "Get your shoes on," he ordered.

I complied, and without another word we walked silently out to the front gates.

"Dimitri," Lissa smiled, greeting him with a little wave.

"Princess," he addressed back formally. "Has everyone else arrived?"

She smiled at me, "Hi Rose." Turning back to answer Dimitri, "Yes, now that you two are here. Let us go!" she said enthusiastically.

I glanced a flustered look at Dimitri, before hoping into the small bus behind Lissa.

I sat closer to the back with Adrian next to me while Christian and Lissa sat very close together being all lovey-dovey. Dimitri was in the passenger seat, a female guardian drove, and a further two guardians took random positions around the bus. Dimitri and the female guardian spoke scarcely, while the other two simply sat still. It, oddly, seemed as though they weren't looking at anything, but at the same time saw everything.

I was relieved when we finally arrived at the shops. Adrian was trying inconspicuously to flirt with me the entire drive. I just ignored him, politely smiling, and looking out the window. Besides, something had happened with Dimitri earlier. I didn't know what, or if he even thought it was anything. But I wasn't about to do anything to ruin any potentiality by flirting with another guy while he was in earshot. Not that I knew how to flirt...

I started walking ahead, by myself, and seemed to end up leading the group. I wasn't really much of a shopper, and basically walked without entering the shops. Considering we were here for me, everyone just kept walking behind me. I suppose they thought I didn't like any of the shops.

Although, after doing a full three laps around the shopping centre, Lissa spoke up. "Hey, Rosemarie?"

I turned around. "Rose," I corrected her gently.

"Okay, Rose, why are we wandering around the shops? You do know you actually have to go into the shop, right? So you can pick something and buy it?" she mocked.

"I don't want to buy anything." I honestly couldn't be bothered. Although I hadn't meant to wander around aimlessly, I was kind of glad it had annoyed all the Moroi. I wasn't as fit or strong as any of the other trained guardians. But dhampirs naturally have more strength and stamina then Moroi. Dhampirs, being half Moroi and half human, obviously gained this from our human side.

"Well, you kind of have to."

"Well, I kind of don't want to," I mocked. I gritted my teeth, she was right though. "Not with all you following me, anyway. How about you all go scatter off and I'll go by myself," I requested, shooing them away with my hands.

I felt annoyance flood through Lissa. She didn't get angry, I realised. But people annoyed her easily, and she would no longer want to deal with them. Suddenly, she didn't care so much about making amends with me. "Fine," she huffed, "Let's go Christian." She grabbed his hand and stormed off, taking Adrian with them who was talking animatedly to Christian. The three guardians who I didn't know followed after them.

I waited for Dimitri to go, but he just stood before me. "Didn't you hear me, Comrade? I want to go by myself." I didn't really want him to go, silently glad that he decided to stay with me. But I had to keep up my facade, even for him.

"You're still untrained. I can't leave you by yourself." Of course that was the reason. He didn't want to hang with me. He was simply doing his duty.

"Whatever," I grumbled.

"Besides," he said, pulling out a credit card from his pocket, "You need this."

"Okay, give me then," I said, holding my hand out to receive it.

"You don't know the pin," he teased, holding it further away from me.

But I was tired and not in the mood for jokes. "Whatever," I grumbled again, turning around and heading into the first shop I saw.

A couple of shopping bags later, I had plenty of clothing to last me two and a half weeks if I didn't do any washing. I thought that was enough without going too overboard (for this was my entire wardrobe remember!), but wasting enough of Kivora's money to satisfy myself. We met up with the rest of the group at the food court.

I was starving, but, more importantly, I needed to go to the toilet. I asked the guardians, trusting them to keep Adrian from sneaking a peek at my underwear, to watch my bags as I ran off. After I had been, I stepped out of the cubicle to only come face-to-face with a...

Strigoi.

He sniffed at the air. "You're just a dhampir," he noted, voice deep and seeping with – what would only be described as – 'evil', "but you smell so much more delicious."

My breath caught in my throat. I was frozen, I couldn't move. Back at the hell-hole, Strigoi didn't scare me like this. Maybe it was because I knew, although being fed from all the time from Witmoore; I knew I wasn't going to die. He kept me to feed and not kill, and no other Strigoi would dare touch another's property. But now, here, in front of this smirking Strigoi, I could be dead in minutes.

A grumble of a laugh rung from deep in his stomach. "You're Witmoore's, right? The one that got away..." he sighed, almost in content, while walking towards me "He's very angry, you know; that you got away. But hey, it's okay, I'll bring you back to him."

He gripped my arms, tight, pushing me against the cubicle door. "But not necessarily in one piece," he laughed before he leant in towards my neck. I wanted to scream, possibly for help or even just to scream. But I couldn't. I couldn't find a way to work my mouth. All I could do was struggle and shake my head, my hair flying into his face. He gripped my hair at the nape of my neck and pulled.

Ever since I was taken away from Witmoore, I didn't consider the need to cut my hair anymore. So I had let it grow. It was now past my shoulders, and I instantly regretted not cutting it. You will always be in danger of Strigoi... I told myself. Not that it really mattered now though. I was going to die. My hair no longer mattered.

Keeping my head still with his tight pull on my hair, he leant in once more. I couldn't help the excited gasp as his teeth brushed my skin. I didn't want to look forward to it. I didn't want to want the bite. I didn't want to be so weak! But I was... I was weak and wanted him to bite me. The endorphins... the high... I couldn't help the want.

Right on time, just as he nipped my skin but before I could completely succumb to the bite, the door flung open. She squealed. It was Lissa. I couldn't see her face beyond the tall figure that held me down, but I could feel the sudden emotions that flooded through me. Surprise, fright, worry, dread. I was already feeling them enough and my anxiety just rose with hers added. But worse than that, she just stood there, screaming. Not clever enough to run and get the guardians. Standing and squealing is going to help, now, Princess, is it?

Suddenly overcome with a need to protect her, just like from when we were saved, I was able to mitigate my emotions. When his attention switched to Lissa, and he went to grab at her, I managed to land a sloppy kick in his stomach. It wasn't enough to cause any damage, but I was just able to escape, dragging Lissa with me.

I bolted to our table in the food court, practically pulling Lissa along the ground. "Strigoi!" I gasped to the first of the guardians I came across, the female.

"Where?" she ordered.

"Female bathrooms."

She turned to Dimitri, "You, come with me. You other two, take them all back to the academy. Take the bus and we'll find our own way back."

"Alberta," Dimitri addressed her quickly, "it's probably long gone. We are better of just getting back to the safety of the wards. And if he does come after us, then the more guardians with the Moroi, the better."

She sighed, "You're right." I had a sense that she was in charge, and didn't particularly like being wrong. "Let's go."

We all hurried our way back to the bus. I had Lissa clinging onto my arm the entire time while I, along with everyone else, held a couple of my bags. I did not like Lissa holding onto me one bit, but I didn't care enough to do anything. I was actually glad at the calming feelings radiating off of her. She didn't feel completely safe yet, but enough that kept her from looking back behind her. She didn't have to worry with all the guardians here to protect her.

When we finally jumped into the bus, Dimitri choose to sit next to me. "You're bleeding," he noted, brushing my hair behind my shoulder.

I dabbed my palm against my neck, there was only a little blood. "It's just a scratch," I told him.

"It bit you," he said quietly, with a small gasp of disbelief.

I shook my head, noticing his use of 'it'. "No, he didn't puncture the skin."

There was a moment's pause. "You have a lot of scars," his voice turned low, dark, while he continued staring at my neck.

Looking away from him, I nodded. I was bitten a lot, after all. The bites never completely got to heal, and I was barely bitten in the exact same spot. On both sides of my necks there were several little scars, mostly dots and with some scraps as well.

Blushing, I pulled my hair back over my shoulder. Although I didn't want it long with the chance for it to be pulled on, I discovered then that I needed it long so I could cover my scars. Covering my scars didn't matter before, but at the Academy, people would stare. I didn't know which to do.

When we arrived back, I was told to go back to my dorm while the guardians talked to Kivora about the incident.

Adrian helped me bring my bags back to my dorm. "Are you okay?" he asked, putting his share of my bags at the foot of my bed.

"Yeah, fine." It was true. I wasn't particularly thrilled at the scene of events, but I'd been through worse.

"Do you need anything?" he asked awkwardly.

"No. I just want to sleep." I heard my stomach growl, uncertainly I said, "And food?"

He laughed, "What would you like?"

"Anything."

About half an hour later, he came back with a plate of roast chicken dinner. My mouth watered. "How did you get this?" I asked, a massive smile gracing my face.

"I am specially looked after. I am the Queen's nephew, after all," he winked.

I ignored him, digging into my dinner.

He didn't say anything while he watched me eat. I was about half way through the meal when there was a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I said, with a mouthful of food.

Dimitri walked in. "Rose, I wanted to-" he cut himself off at the sight before him. I was sitting cross-legged against the head of my bed, while Adrian sat in the middle facing towards me. It wasn't anything intimate, but Dimitri seemed to think it so.

I shoved another chuck of chicken in my mouth. "What Dimitri?" I managed to say, barely comprehensible.

"What is going on here? It is almost curfew, you realise?" I vaguely sensed jealousy lingering in his voice.

I swallowed my mouthful sharply. "Adrian just came to give me some food. I never got any dinner, because of the Str-"

"Well, Mr Ivashkov," he cut me off. "You should be leaving now, then. Just because you are not part of the student faculty here, doesn't mean you have any rights in keeping the students from their curfew," he said authoritatively.

"Dimitri," I said, calmingly, "it isn't even curfew yet..."

"Ivashkov," he demanded – without the words – ignoring me.

"Whatever," Adrian brushed it off. "I'll see you later Rosie," he said with a purr, adding a wink onto the end.

I laughed, "Bye, Adrian."

Once he had shut the door, I turned to Dimitri with a smirk on my face. "So, Dimitri. If Adrian isn't allowed to keep me from curfew, how come you can?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Goodnight, Miss Hathaway," he said harshly, before slamming the door behind him.

And that was..?

A/N- Little fluff going on. ;) Like, don't? Review and let me know. :)