You know what I don't get? Why you're trying so hard to fit in, when you were born to stand out.

RPOV

"Mase! You couldn't get Meredith to do it? I am already singing, thanks to freaking Lissa will they even let me do it with you guys?" I was sitting in the waiting area of the auditorium with my friends, waiting for to be called to audition for the talent show. I wasn't going to do it at first but when Dimitri said he was going to, I agreed to do it too. Now not only was I being asked to sing, but now dance/fight too?

"Ya, we already talked to Kirova, so long as you are in a group its ok to still do something solo." Eddie told me, waiting with us. They had decided that since they could not sing or dance that they would do what they were good at. Fighting. See Mase, Eddie and I had first met when the 3 of us were in karate class when we were 7, and since then we took other classes, of course while I still managed to be an awesome super popular chick.

"Gah! Fine! But you guys better be after me, I am not being all winded for my audition." Shaking my head I sighed and leaned back and half listened to Lissa prattle on about how she was so excited to be singing. She was going to be singing to Ice, only he wouldn't know it's her.

*2 ½ weeks later (day before thanksgiving)

Over the last 2 weeks, we had been working nonstop on our 'talent's well at least Mase, Eddie and I had. Lissa was just singing, and Dimitri was playing guitar (who knew he even played?) Andre was doing some song on the drums and Christian had flat out refused to participate. Loser.

Right now we were all sitting at Slice, the best pizza place in all of Montana. Lissa was going on about how we need to go shopping for what we are going to wear, and how I need to make sure that I can speed change since my solo was 2 acts before the group one. "of course I can change in time, so long as you are there to get me out of whatever dress you put me in." I told her, just as our pizzas were brought over.

"Ok, good. Now what are we doing for thanksgiving? Is your mom going to be here?" she asks, picking up a piece of pizza. Thanksgiving was 2 weeks away, and everyone (save Dimitri and Christian since it was their first year hanging with us) knew that my mom was normally out of town for any and all holidays. Sometimes I think she plans trips so that she is gone on them.

"Ya, she will be gone. Her boss is going to Tokyo and is making her go with him. So another holiday by myself with a turkey TV dinner." I said sighing, for the last 4 years Lissa and Andre had been telling me to come over to their house for dinner, but they always had so many people already that I couldn't burden them so I stayed home and watched reruns of Charmed.

"Come to my house. Mama will be thrilled to have you" Dimitri said from next to me. Since we had started going out 2 weeks ago, we had gotten extremely close. Closer than just boyfriend and girlfriend. He was becoming one of my best friends. There was only one thing that I had not told him and I was really avoiding telling him. I couldn't tell him that I was in love with another man.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love Dimitri more than life itself, and I would do anything for him. but at the same time, no matter how platonic we tried to be, everytime I talked to Penn I found something else to love about him.

"I can't, I cant intrude on your family." I told him, smiling shyly at him. he had to know that my argument was coming, we seemed to disagree about 9 out of 10 things. But that only made me love him more. He would always counter my 'Rose logic' with some zenny life lesion. Like now.

"you are family, your my girlfriend. Besides, this is our first thanksgiving in America, you can show us how it is done." he told him smiling knowing he had won the fight.

"fine, but on Friday we all do a dinner at my house. just us, our 'gang' your coming, and YOU are making that black bread you do, you better not have your mom make it." I told him as I turned to look at him, poking him in the side as I did.

"I will make it Roza, don't worry." Came his reply as he put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my head. I would never tire of being in his arms. its where I was born to be.

"you can cook? Should I bring a fire extengisher?" Chrisian ask shaking his head, he was annoying, but for some reason I was starting to grow fond of him. kind of like a little puppy. But not nearly as cute.

"yes Sparky, I do. Granted not well, but I do!" I defended, than glared and grabbed a napkin, crumpled it up and threw it at Eddie when he started laughing. "shut up! I burnt the tuckey one time! One time! And that was only because you and dumb ass were fighting over who was going to mash the potatoes."

"good thing I was there to carve off the burness or we would have starved" Andre added laughing as he shook his blonde head. looking around our table, I realized that its true that family doesn't have to be blood. We all may be just friends here, but they were my family. They were the ones that I chose. And I couldn't be happier.

Taking a deep breath, I ran my hands over the back of my tight skinny jeans. That morning Lissa had come over to help me get ready for dinner with Dimitri and his family. It took us half the morning, but the finished outfit was awesome. I had on a pair of blue skin tight skinny jeans, a pair of black ankle boots, and a black shirt with the top half covering my chest green plaid. I loved it.

Shaking my head at my own stupidity I grabbed the bag from the passanger seat and got out of the car. On the way there, I had stopped and picked up a couple pumpkin pies. You can never go wrong with pumpkin pie.

Before I even had a chance to knock on the door, it was open, reveling all 6 foot 7 inches of my delicious boyfriend. And he looked good, in dark jeans and a dark blue button up shirt with the top 2 buttons open. "Roza, you're here. I thought you decided not to come." He said, holding out his arms for me. "you look beautiful. Come let me introduce you to Mama." He told me, leading me into the house.

As soon as we were in the house, I was met with noise. Well voices really. It seemed that I was not the only one here today. In what I took to be the living room were a dozen people, all talking and having a good time. but that's not where we went, walking past the living room he lead me to the kitchen where a woman who looked to be in her mid forties stood cooking.

She didn't seem to notice that we were there just yet, so I took a moment to study her. She had long brown hair, thick like Dimitri's, and I knew that when she looked up, her eyes would be the same rich chocolate that her son had. "mama, this is Roza. Roza, this is my mother, Olena Belikova" Dimitri introduced, and his mother looked up with a warm smile on her face.

"oh Roza, how nice to meet you." she said, grabbing a towel she wiped the flower off of her hands and walked over to me. what she did next surprised the hell out of me, she put her arms around me in a gentle hug. After a moment I hugged her back and smiled. When she pulled away she said something to Dimitri in Russian and he laughed and replied, "oh mama, Roza eats plenty." She just tisk at him and took the bag from my hands.

"go introduce her to your sisters" she nodded to the door leading back to the living room where everyone had converged. Nodding his head he led me to the living room where Christian sat talking to a guy with sandy hair. They were talking about Christmas 2 years ago. Turning, I glared at Dimitri. "You were here 2 years ago? I thought you said this was your first thanksgiving here." I put my hands on my hips, waiting for him to answer.

"Well, I may have told a little fig. see we have lived here since I was 13, but this is the first time we have celebrated thanksgiving. They don't have it in Siberia." He explained, his face turning red as an apple. Shaking my head I turned back to the room.

It took all of 10 minutes for my wonderful boyfriend to introduce me to everyone. The blonde guy Christian was talking too turned out to be Dimitri's cousin from Russia, Ivan. There was also Alex (whom I knew) Tasha, (Christians aunt) Karolina, Sonya and Viktoria, (Dimitri's sisters) Paul and Zoya, his niece and nephew, and in the corner a pretty blonde sitting with an older woman who creped me out. He introduced them as Yava and Elizabeth, his grandmother and his boss.

For the rest of the afternoon we all just sat around the living room, talking and listening to stories from Karo Sonya Vika and Ivan about Dimitri when he was a kid. "When he was maybe 8, Dimka would always beg to play with my friends and I. and of course being the older, cooler sister" Karo started out saying, only to get a napkin thrown at her by Viktoria. Seems I am not the only one who throws napkins. "Anyway, my friends and I would dress him up and make him marry our dolls. He was so happy to do it. He must have been married a dozen times."

"Yes, well now we are all excited for when he will get married for real. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later. I want more grandbabies." Olena said from the door to the living room. She had cleaned up from when she had been cooking and now stood there smiling. "Dinner is served. Come" she said smiling sweetly as we all got up from where ever we were sitting and made our way to the dining room.

And what a dining room it was. The table was huge, and could easily fit 16 people. And the huge table was loaded with food. Everything from salad to exotic looking Russian foods. When I just stood there staring, Dimitri took my hand and lead me to the head of the table, where he pulled out a chair for me. He really was the sweetest man around. Kissing my head, he walked to the front of the table where the biggest turkey I had ever seen sat.

"As most of you know, this is the first time celebrating Thanksgiving. So you will have to forgive us if we mess this up. According to everyone I talk to, and all I have read today is a day to show thanks for everything we have, and what we have been given. With that in mind, I would like to go around the table and have everyone say what they are thankful for." Dimitri said his deep voice strong and confident.

Slowly everyone said what they were thankful for, each person varying slightly but each had at least something in common. Family. Until we got to Paul, who stated that he was thankful for his Nintendo DS and the TV in his room. Gotta love kid's right?

When it was my turn, I took a deep breath and looked around the table, than let my eyes settle on Dimitri. "I am thankful for my friends, old and new who over the past couple years have become more of a family to me than any one related by blood ever could. And I am thankful for Dimitri. For showing me that it's possible to love someone with all my heart, and that not every man is the same. Thank you."

As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt my stomach tie in knots. While it was true that I loved Dimitri with all my heart, I loved Penn just as much. What the hell was I going to do? No, don't think about this right now. Those are thoughts for later. When I looked over at my boyfriend he was cutting the turkey, and Tasha was standing next to him. A little to close if you ask me but if he didn't mind then I would have to trust him right?

Throughout dinner, conversation flowed like wine. We talked about everything from the weather to the upcoming talent show. Than Vika brought up a subject I REALLY did not want to talk about. The pen pal assignment. "At first I thought the assignment was going to be a waste of time, but I am really liking it. Stix is so funny. I hope when we meet he is not going to turn out to be one of the weird fat band geeks. I will scream." She said, picking at her turkey. "What about you Rose, how is your pen pal?" she ask smiling.

"Oh, uh he is cool." Was all I said, which got me looks from everyone, like they wanted me to say more. What the hell was I supposed to say? Yes, my pen pal is amazing, and I am in love with him. Ya, don't think that would go over to well. "There is not much to say. He is one of my best friends and I can talk to him about anything. I don't know what I would do if I had to stop talking to him. I don't care what he looks like, he is awesome."

As I was finishing what I had said, I felt a foot rubbing up my leg. Wow, I don't think that was supposed to be me they were touching. Looking across the table I saw Tasha smiling dreamily at MY boyfriend. "Tasha, can you stop rubbing my leg please, if you want to take a girl home, the lesbian is at the other end of the table" I told her as I moved my legs away from her and watched her turn red as an apple. I could already tell that I didn't like her.

Before I knew it, Olena was bringing out the desserts, and I smiled as she set a loaf of the black bread on the table. That reminds me. "Olena, I am having a dinner at my house tomorrow for my friends, and I ask Dimitri to make some of the black bread. If he asks you to make it, can you call me? So I can yell at him?" I ask sweetly and got a glare from Dimitri, meaning he was intending to ask her.

"Of course Roza. It's nice that you're having dinner with your friends." She told me, as she held out a small fancy crystal ice cream bowl with what looked like fruit in it. "This is Smokva, it is an old recipe mama made when I was a girl." She told me, before smiling sweetly at her mother who sat with Elizabeth at the other end of the table. When I took a bite, I nearly swooned. It was delicious.

It was nearly 9:30 when everyone slowly started leaving, and I decided that it was time for me to go too. Lissa and Mason would be at the house around 11 to start helping with dinner. After bidding everyone goodnight, I walked out to my car with Dimitri. "Thank you. For inviting me." I told him when we got to the driver side.

"You are more than welcome, mama loved having you and you know every moment I get to spend with you is amazing." He told me and then leaning down he pressed his lips to mine. Wrapping my arms around him I pressed myself against him, deepening the kiss. Small moaned escaped my throat as he leaned back a hair and his lips bit my bottom lip.

"Mm Roza, we can't. Not here." He said softly pressing his forehead to mine. When I nodded he took my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles. "Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow" he whispered softly before stepping back and opening the car door for me. After one last kiss, I closed the door and started the car.

AN: whoop! Chapter 13 is out! Yay me. Lol it would have been out earlier but we were having cake and whatnot for my nephews and niece for their kindergarten and 5th grade promotion. It was cute and I got chocolate cupcakes out of it. XD

Plus I found a new toy online. Ha-ha I know everyone uses it but I just learned how to use Polyvore. So I was making Rose's dinner outfit. XD I'll put a link to my polyvore in my profile for anyone who wants to see what everyone is wearing. Lol

Lurie, I know I owe you a walk in, sorry I didn't get it in this one, and I'll put you in chap 14 along with whoever gets this chapter quote. Ha-ha.

The talent show is coming up, I think it will be chapter 15, and there will be videos on my page of the talents, (well Mason/Eddie/Rose's at least) since they are doing a form of martial arts called Capoeira. If you have seen the movie Only the Strong, that's the stuff they are doing. If not go on YouTube and type in Only the Strong, they have the full movie on there and it is awesome.

Oh and I have added a poll on my page, go vote on it! The future of the story rests on it! Ha-ha

Anyway, I know there was no interaction between 'kit' and 'Penn' in this chappy but we will see some in the next one.

As always, review and tell me what you think and what you want to see. 9 times out of 10 I add it. (The chapter where Rose and Dimitri kissed was because someone said they should. Ha-ha I was just going to make them friends. And I was going to wait till Christmas for Dimitri to realize about Rose/Kit But you guys wanted them to kiss and him to find out. So he did. Ha-ha)

XD