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"And which hot Russian would that be?" A voice behind us said.

We both shot up, and I prayed it wasn't someone who would tell my dad. I relaxed when we saw it was Jet.
"Hey Anya." He greeted me, and I stood up to hug him.

I ruffled his hair, smirking.
"Good to see Christian didn't reduce you to cinders for being with his little girl."

He grimaced. "Still, at least it wasn't your dad I had to deal with."

"Yeah, that'd be a real deal-breaker." Added Mason, stepping into the room.

"Naww, Mase. I knew there was another reason we never worked out. You were too scared of my big bad daddy."
Mason and I had 'dated' when we were about 7, and by that I mean walking around the playground holding hands and calling him 'my boyfriend'.

Mason collapsed against me, throwing his arms around my neck, fake sobbing.
"I'm so glad you finally understand. It's been killing me inside!"

I slapped his arm until he let me go, and turned back to Sophia, who was currently making out with Jet. I cleared my throat obnoxiously.

Jet looked up.
"So, who was that 'hot Russian'?" He asked, grinning.

I raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly.
"You know, a lady should never kiss and tell."

"Well, good thing you're not a lady, then." Laughed Mason, before tackling me to the ground.

A few seconds later, I had him pinned.
"Okay, I may not be the typical damsel in distress. But you sure do hit like a girl."

Just then, Ash walked in.
"Ooh, fighting talk from Anya on top there. Kinky."

I stood up, deliberately avoiding looking at Ash. I turned to his sister instead.
"Soph, you seriously need to start locking your door. That mangy dog got in again."

Ash snorted. "You can't talk about mangy dogs, Anya. We had to put up with that wolf whilst you were gone."

I spun around, momentarily forgetting my annoyance at Ash's presence.
"Where is he? Soph dragged me up here before I could see him."

I stuck my head out of the door, and shouted.
"Reka!"
A few seconds later, I heard the thud of heavy paws on the stairs, and was almost knocked backwards as the huge ball of grey fur hit me.

Reka was the dog I had begged my parents to let me get for my 13th birthday. They'd been unsure at first- although animals loved me, they weren't sure how one would be around them.
But with my awesome animal skills, and a few weeks of gentle encouragement, the dog had finally got used to them, and although he preferred Moroi, he could stand to be near Dhampirs without going crazy.

I'd got him at an animal shelter, and right from the start I'd felt a connection with him. My mom thought he was pretty cool, since he looked like a wolf (we weren't entirely sure he wasn't part wolf), and said yes. I had dad wrapped around my little finger, and with some pleading eyes and a 'go on, Comrade' from mom, Reka coming home with us. His name meant 'river' in Russian, because when he ran, it was as smooth as running water. And it sounded like 'wrecker', which still made me laugh every time he ate Ash's shoes. He didn't like Ash much.

As I said- we had a connection.

Reka finally stopped licking my face, and went to sit by the window, watching the people moving around outside the palace, after growling at Ash.

Sophia stood up.
"Alright, guys. Out of the room, now. Where are the girls?" She asked.

"At the gym, training. They'll be here in a minute." Mason told us.
The 2 novices were currently teaching Summer to fight, which she was surprisingly good at, for a Moroi, and she was using her powers to make training more interesting for the other 2.

Our last training session had involved Sophia moving the dummies with telekinesis whilst we tried to stake them, and Summer using vines to grab us, like an attacking Strigoi would use their arms. It was a great method of practicing, but though defensive magic was now taught at St. Vlads, our trainings never overlapped, which was a shame.

When the girls got back from the gym, we all lay on Sophia's huge bed and they updated me on the latest Court gossip, whilst I filled them in on what happened in Russia.

It was nice hanging out with all my girl friends, but as I talked about him, I found myself missing Aleks more and more. I always felt so comfortable around him, without even speaking. I loved the girls, but when I was with them I found myself making more frequent jokes to fill the silence. This wasn't bad, just... different.

We were all sitting round the huge table in the royal dining room, all 20 of us- (Abe, Janine and Mia's dad were here too). It was rare that all of us be here at once, but they'd all come to say hi to me before we all went back to St. Vlads tomorrow. We were laughing at Adrian's last epic fail at looking after the house whilst Sydney was away for the weekend he had to call a maid in just to clean the house up before she got back, because Jet and Lily had been in a fight and wrecked the living room.

Trying to divert the attention for himself, Adrian asked if we'd all got our bags packed, because we'd be leaving early tomorrow.

I suddenly became very interested in a potato on my plate, ignoring the pointed stares.
"Anya..?" Dad asked, and I looked up.

"I'll do it tomorrow morning, when I know what the weather's going to be like. That way, I don't have to pull everything out of the case again just to find what I want to wear."

He shook his head in despair.
"You're as bad as your mother, which also means that you won't do it in the morning. You won't even wake up until someone drags you out of bed, 5 minutes before the plane leaves."

"Fine, whatever. I'll go do it..." I trailed off, my eyes becoming unfocused. The buzz of conversation faded out around me, and it was like a wave of jumbled images, mumbled words and static fuzz crashed over me.

When I fought my way back to the surface, it appeared I'd only been out for a couple of seconds, as only the people closest were staring at me intently.
"What was it, Anya?" Mom asked.

I blinked, trying to fight through the confused jumble of information to find something that made sense.
"Changes. Everything's changing, over and over, round and round again. Turning full circle."

By now everyone looked bemused, but a clearer thought in my mind meant I had to ignore them.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, about 5 seconds before it started ringing. I didn't even need to check caller ID, though I was surprised at who I thought it would be calling.

I answered on the second ring, holding up a finger to tell my mom to hold off on the lecture that would probably ensue from taking a call at dinner. This was important.
'Anya?'

"Aleks! Hey!" Uuh, I sounded so... perky. Bleaugh.

I heard him chuckle softly. 'I can't talk for long, I just have to tell you. I'm at the airport- I'll be in America in 12 hours."

"America...airport...what?" I stuttered. It's hard to catch a psychic off guard, but if anyone could, it would be Aleks.

"Yes. My mother was talking to Olena, and they were talking about their sons, and my mom was saying how she'd like me to have the same chances your dad did. So that made her think about America, and then she spoke to my teacher. They told her how I'm the best at English, and how a trip to America would be good for me, and how it would help me be a better Guardian. They've wanted to send a pupil to St. Vladimir's for a while, and since I know people there, it's even better. So when they asked me if I wanted to go, I said yes."

I literally couldn't speak, and I wasn't made speechless very often.

"Anya?"

"Why didn't you tell me before? We go back tomorrow, Aleks."

"Well, I only really decided 3 days ago, and I've been really busy getting everything sorted, and I packed my phone and only just managed to find it." I could feel this was all the truth.

"Will you be here tomorrow, then?" I asked.

"Yes, I'll meet you at the school." I could hear the smile in his voice.

I heard a muffled announcement over the speaker system.
"That's my flight now. I'll see you tomorrow, Anya. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Aleks."

I ended the call, and turned back to meet the questioning gazes of my friends and family.
"Aleks is just boarding a plane that will bring him to St. Vladimir's in time for school tomorrow. St. Basils thought it would be good for him to transfer here."

There was silence for a moment, before Jet opened his mouth to speak. By the smirk on his face, it wouldn't be a genuine question or comment.
"Get in there, Anasta-"

I swiped a pea off of Sophia's plate and threw it into his open mouth, which he promptly spat out into Ash's face.

"Not all of us feel the need to date our best friend, Jet."
He shut up, and for the next 10 minutes I answered questions from my parents about why Aleks was coming, and how he was getting to the Academy.

When I finally got to my room, I slumped down on my desk chair, and Sophia sat on my bed.
I got straight back up again and closed the door, before dragging out my 2 huge suitcases and throwing things in their general direction.
Sophia immediately moved over to the cases and began folding clothes into them.

I growled in frustration.
"I have nothing nice to wear!"

"Well, there are ways of solving that."
Finishing with one case, Sophie pulled out her phone and called a number she'd memorised years ago.
"Nadine? Hi. Listen, we have a bit of a clothes emergency. We're going back to St. Vladimir's tomorrow and don't have anything to wear. Can you send over some of the new collection in Anya's size? Please, Nadine, we'd come over now, but we have to pack."

I heard a muffled reply.
Nadine worked at our favourite clothes shop at Court. She was used to Sophia calling her to put in rush orders, so I doubted this would be a problem, even if the deadline was closer than usual.

"Thanks, Nadine. You're the best. Oh, and can you bring those black boots I tried on last week? Great. See you in half an hour, then. Bye."

She hung up, and turned to me, grinning.
"We got the threads."

Half an hour later, Frederic, the flamboyant shop assistant, was waiting in the hallway, flanked by Adrian.

I took the heavy box out of Frederic's arms, and Sophia pulled a stack of bills out of her back pocket.
After a moment's discussion, I saw her count out 7 $50 bills. Having grown up with Sophia, I was used to it.

"Seriously, Soph. I swear you spend more on clothes than I did at your age." Adrian said.

"But in the case of hair products, we are a speck on the horizon of overspending allowances." I shot back, and he smirked, running a hand through his messy hair.

"Perfection like this doesn't come naturally."

"Definitely not, in your case." I said, looking him up and down with a pitying eye.

He stepped forward and ruffled my hair.
"Hey! Hands off the merchandise." I shouted, stepping back.

Adrian grinned. "Just like your mother."

I scowled, trying to flatten my hair. "Yeah, and I can kick ass just as well as her, so you better watch it."

"I don't doubt it, Annie."
He turned and walked off before I could tell him off for calling me Annie. I hate being called that. True, Anya wasn't even a proper diminutive for Anastasia, but I wasn't exactly one for following the rules.

Later that night, I lay in bed, turning things over and over in my head.
Tomorrow, I would see Aleks again, for the first time since the kiss. I wasn't sure what it would be like. Would it be awkward, or would we act like nothing had changed? I knew that he didn't feel the same way about me as I did him, and I was used to that, and I severely doubted that one spare-of-the-moment kiss would change that. To him, it was probably just something not too far from normal for2 best friends who wouldn't see each other in months.

I don't know.

I turned over again, trying to instruct my brain to fall asleep instantly like dad could, but it didn't work.
After a long while of tossing and turning and replaying every word in my head, I finally managed to drift off, hugging a pillow, and imagining Aleks' arms around me.

So Anya has foreseen changes, and Aleks is going to St. Vlads. I sense drama brewing...

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