We sat next to Natalie and her friends for the duration of lunch.

As lunch went on, I remembered why we had never spent time with any of them. They were so boring.

"I heard that you ran away to get an abortion, Rose," she said.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "No."

"Why'd you run away then?" Natalie's friend, Erin asked. Erin was just as boring as Natalie. Even more-so, actually. She had the personality of a dry-wall.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I grinned at them.

"What did you do about feeding?" Natalie asked.

Lissa and I looked at each other. We couldn't tell them the truth, that she had used compulsion on all our donors.

"It's really easy, actually," I said. "A lot of people are willing to do anything to get high. And afterwards, they're usually too out of it to remember."

"But our feeders remember us," one of Natalie's smarter friends said.

I nearly ground my teeth. "Maybe they just don't want to remember the night before," I shrugged.

They finally got the hint and left it alone.

Soon, lunch was over and Lissa and I walked together to Animal Behavior and Physiology.

We sat down next to each other. I noticed that Doll-Girl was in this class as well. I sighed. Was there no escaping her?

Doll-Girl sneered at Lissa. I looked back and forth between them. Lissa just looked confused and hurt.

"Are those the only clothes that a precious Dragomir can afford now?" Mia asked scathingly.

I got up and yanked her away from Lissa. I wasn't the strongest, - though I was strong for a Moroi- but Doll-Girl was very light.

"She can , which is why you're done talking to her," I told her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked. "You screw with me, I'll screw you right back!"

There were so many things I could say to that. Instead, I opted for something that was going to bother her more. "Are you lost, little girl?"

She huffed.

"The elementary campus is that way. I think it's your naptime, anyway," I told her.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Don't mess with us. You can ask Dawn Yarrow what I did to her arm in ninth grade, if you don't believe me."

The teacher walked in, and Doll-Girl backed off.

She slinked back to sit with Carly and Camille.

"Good afternoon, class," Ms. Meissner said.

Everyone quieted down, and I took my seat next to Lissa.

After class was over, we went our separate ways to math. I had stupid-math (Pre-Calculus).

I barely made it through the class. I had a feeling that I would be struggling through that for the whole year.

The rest of the day continued on in much the same manner.

I dreaded going to see Dimitri after school. I also wondered what we were going to do.

Probably some awful Dhampir exercise. I could just imagine it; he would probably have me clean!

After Slavic Art, I talked to Lissa for a few minutes. I figured I would get there when I got there.

"Liss, please, can you just coast through everything?"

"Coast?" she asked.

"Yeah," I told her. "I'm going to get us out of here soon. I promise, I am going to find a way."

Her eyes widened and glistened slightly. She was so fragile. I could tell that she wouldn't be able to handle the royals.

"But Andre-"

"Andre is dead."

Her eyes narrowed in anger. "You know, you can be a real bitch sometimes," she told me.

"You don't keep me around to be nice," I said. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just that Andre was himself, and you are you. You don't have to be Andre. Your parents would be proud of you, no matter what."

I heard steps coming towards us and lowered my voice. "I promise, I'll get us out."

She nodded.

It was then that I realized who had been walking towards us. "Princess," came Dimitri's voice.

"Hello, Guardian Belikov," Lissa said with a light smile.

"Ms. Hathaway," he said. He grabbed my arm gently. "You're late."

"Alright, alright," I said, looking up at him. "Don't get your panties in a twist."

I felt Lissa's shock through the bond.

Rose, she thought.

I shook my head at her. "I'll see you later, Liss."

She smiled and gave my hand a squeeze.

She walked away, and Dimitri began to lead us to the library.

"So, what are we doing, Comrade?" I asked.

He looked down at me. His brown eyes were narrowed, and I couldn't read what he was thinking.

"Don't call me that, Miss Hathaway," he said.

"Then don't call me Miss Hathaway, Comrade."

"Alright, Rosemarie-"

I cut him off. "My name is Rose. Not Rosemarie. Not Miss Hathaway."

He nodded tersely.

"So what are we doing, Dimitri?" I asked. I couldn't bring myself to call him by his Guardian title.

He rolled his eyes, and for a moment, I swore that I saw a hint of amusement cross his face.

"You're going to start on today's homework," he explained.

I groaned. "Homework?"

"I know your past grades don't exactly reflect this, but I am sure you know what homework is."

I felt a spark of anger. Nobody ever took me seriously.

"I don't want to do homework," I whined. "I want to do something productive."

"Homework is very productive," he said. "It will help you prepare for your future."

I'd never given much thought to my future. What did I want to do with my life?

I knew that lots of Moroi took desk jobs, or even jobs out in the human world. However, I couldn't imagine doing anything. I supposed that I had to do something to live.

I felt so dense. Had I just assumed that I would be living off of Lissa's trust fund?

"I guess," I whined. "But we won't do homework everyday," I decided.

"What else would we do?" he asked.

I gave it some thought. What would I like to be doing?

I thought back to my confrontation with Mia, for some reason. I'd told her that I would break her in half. And I was capable of doing some sort of damage, I realized. I had broken Dawn Yarrow's arm on accident in ninth grade.

I thought back to class with Christian Ozera, and as if I had summoned him myself, I was sucked into Lissa's head.

Lissa was going into the church. I wondered what she was doing, and how she had been able to keep it a secret from me.

I could sense she wasn't there to worship.

I knew I was right when she glanced around sneakily and ascended a set of stairs I hadn't known were there.

She was in the church attic. She felt a sort of calm settle over her. This was her de-stressing, I realized. This was her place.

A voice came from behind, startling her.

"You can have the academy, but not the window seat," it said.

"Who's there?" she asked. She jumped up from the seat, her pulse pounding in my ears.

A shape formed out of the darkness. Familiar features materialized. Messy dark hair. Blue eyes. And a sardonic smirk. Christian Ozera. Would he never be out of my life?

"Don't worry," he said. "I won't bite… well, at least not in the way you're afraid of," he giggled.

She didn't think it was all that funny. And really, it wasn't. Vampire jokes.

She had forgotten about him. I could feel it in the way she bit her lip, half guilty and half anxious. She felt bad for forgetting him, but anxious because she didn't know what he would do.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Taking in the sights, of course. That chair with the tarp on it is particularly lovely this time of year. Over there, we have an old box full of the writings of the blessed and crazy St. Vladimir. And let's not forget that beautiful table with no legs in the corner."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

A look passed by in his eyes. "Well, what about you?" he taunted. "Why are you up here? Don't you have parties to go to or lives to destroy?"

Hurt flashed through the bond. Lissa let the feeling pass and allowed herself to be annoyed instead. "Wow, that's hilarious. Am I like a rite of passage now? Go and see if you can piss off Lissa to prove how cool you are? Some girl I don't even know yelled at me today, and now I've got to deal with you? What does it take to be left alone?"

"Oh," he said. Understanding crossed his features. "You're up here for a pity party?"

"This isn't a joke! I'm serious," Lissa defended.

"So am I," he said coolly. "I love parties. Especially pity parties. I wish I'd brought the hats. What do you want to mope about first? How it's going to take you a full day to be popular and loved again?"

He looked like he was going to keep ranting, so Lissa interrupted him. I wished she showed this much gumption all the time. "No. It's just hard being back. I liked it better when I had freedom."

Christian's expression softened. "What was it like, being out there in the real world?"

She looked at him appraisingly, wondering if he really cared or if he was being sarcastic.

"It was wonderful," she told him. "It was pure freedom. Rose and I did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted."

He had a faraway look in his eyes and absent-mindedly said, "As if anything would have stopped you two from doing whatever anyways."

"What does that mean?" she asked, a little annoyed.

"Just that when you two were here before, you ran the place. You both did whatever you wanted to or with whomever you wanted. Rose might have gotten in trouble a lot, but more often she didn't. Nothing would stop you two from doing what you really want."

Lissa's feelings weren't pulsing quite so strongly now, and I was able to get out of her head.

When I got back to my own body, I found Dimitri staring at me worriedly.

"Rose? Rose?" Dimitri asked, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Sorry," I said.

"Are you okay?" he asked, relief evident in his voice. He was probably worried that his charge had had a stroke or something, and really, I didn't blame him. I'd be worried about it too, especially on the first day on the job.

"Yeah, I was with Lissa," I explained.

He looked at me confusedly.

"I was in her head," I clarified.

"In her… head?" he looked just as perplexed as before.

"It's part of the bond," I told him.

Understanding swept onto his features shortly before his mask was replaced.

"Is she alright?"

"Yeah, just stressed. How about we get to the library?" I asked.

He looked at me incredulously. I completely understood, because I had sort of shocked myself as well.

It was just the idea of not knowing what I wanted to do with my life that made me want to focus harder. I had to figure it out. I had no idea why I'd never thought about it before.

I motioned for us to continue on, and we did.

When we got to the library, I looked around nervously. I didn't want anyone to see me.

I chose a secluded corner.

"What were you assigned today?" Dimitri asked.

"Um," I thought. "I have homework for Russian, Colonial Literature, Ancient Poetry…" I thought some more, going through my schedule for the day and what we had done. "Also, for pre-calc and Slavic Art."

"How about we work on Russian first?" he suggested. "I can help with that."

I smiled. "Okay, but um, it's going to make me look really stupid when you know the whole language, and I basically don't know anything."

"That's okay. I was like that when I first began learning English," he said. It did help with the embarrassment I was already feeling.

"So what do you have to do?" he asked.

Dimitri helped me until my allotted hour was up. "Rose, I have a suggestion for you," he said.

I looked at him, raising both of my eyebrows.

"Why don't you take notes in class?"

"Notes?" I asked, aghast.

He nodded. "They help when you have a test, or when you're just doing your homework. Especially in classes like pre-calculus and Russian. Also, maybe you could keep a planner-"

I cut him off. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Comrade. I'll consider taking notes."

He smiled hesitantly. It made my heart flutter just the tiniest bit, but I pushed the feeling down.

"Okay, Rose. But you never answered about what you would like to do when you weren't working on homework."

"I don't really know," I said. "Can I get back to you on that?"

He nodded. "Of course."

I got up from the table, putting my belongings back into a backpack that someone had finally thought to give to me at the end of the day. It was an ugly thing, and I could tell it had been in the lost and found. For good reason, too. Backpacks like this were meant to be lost.

Dimitri must have noticed my frown at the backpack, because he said, "Your things from Portland should arrive sometime in the coming week."

I nodded and zipped the bag.

"So I'll see you tomorrow afternoon?" I asked.

He nodded. "Same time, same place."

We walked out of the library, and as I was walking towards the Moroi dormitory, I heard him call out to me. "And Rose?"

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"Don't forget about your house arrest!"

I groaned and fought the urge to show him what I thought of his reminder.

I heard him chuckle as he walked away. I grumbled as I walked into the dormitory. I was a social creature, and shouldn't have been caged the way I was.

I walked into my own room, wondering if Lissa shared with me. I had a feeling they weren't taking any chances.

I finished up my homework and thought about Lissa's exchange with Christian. I wished I could check up on her, but didn't know how to. Instead, I just listened in to her emotions. I wondered if she was back yet.

I supposed I would just have to wait until the next day.

I thought over what I wanted to do tomorrow after school. I could work on homework. Or I could take up a hobby. I'd never had a hobby. The only thing that had come close was getting into fights and flirting.

I couldn't flirt with anyone with Dimitri there. That would be weird. And uncomfortable.

But maybe… I could practice more magic. Maybe I could practice magic while Dimitri was there! But magic wasn't very fun when you just used it to show off or do parlor tricks like everyone seemed content to do.

Could I… Could I practice offensive magic?

No. Definitely not. It wasn't legal. It was looked down upon. And normally, I would be all over that, but I couldn't get kicked out. Not without Lissa, anyways.

I decided I'd just practice my magic anyways. I needed to get caught up with my classmates. I had barely used my magic at all when we were out in the human world. It would have been bad to get caught doing that.

And it would have hurt Lissa's feelings. She didn't like to be reminded that she had yet to specialize in an element. Except now, she would be reminded every day.

Yet another reason to break out of this school again.

I sighed. As much as I hated to admit it, I liked it here. I liked having feeders on hand. I liked being able to talk to people about normal Moroi things.

But I had to get Lissa out. We had only been here a day and it was already wearing on her.

We had been best friends practically our whole lives. We were practically sisters, even. I owed it to her to make sure she was okay.

I fell into an uneasy sleep, riddled with confusing thoughts and familiar faces.

I looked into their apartment, watching as he offered his blood to her. I tried not to cringe as I saw her bite down on his neck. I tried to reason with myself. It was probably just difficult to find feeders. They weren't involved.

At least, I didn't think they were. Their files claimed that they had been best friends their whole lives. Ever since Kindergarten when Jesse Zeklos had been picking on her. I watched as his eyes closed, and she drank.

Less than a minute later, she was done. She said something to him, and he nodded. She left the room, and he stumbled over to the window. He looked up, I assumed at the stars. He really was cute. I would be surprised if the Princess wasn't involved with him.

Then, he happened to glance down into the street where I stood. He blinked and recoiled from the window as if I had stung him. I watched him scramble to pull on pants and shoes, and grab something. He ran out of the room.

I touched my ear piece, telling the other guardians to fan out. They were going to try to escape.

Two minutes later, they rushed out of the house. Her eyes were wide and frightened, while he looked like a fierce guardian. However, I knew that he would not be prepared to face down a Strigoi.

They ran blocks away, and I let them run. I let them run until they were a few feet away from the car that had been identified as their roommate's. And then, I stepped out in front of them. Something in his face hardened even more than before, and he sprung into action.

I woke up, my heart pounding in anticipation. I tried to calm it down, glancing at the glowing digital clock on my night stand. It was two o'clock in the afternoon. It didn't feel like afternoon, though. It looked dark outside. It looked like dusk was falling. I had to remind myself that I wasn't in the human world anymore, but back with the Moroi. Back with my people.

And we slept in the daytime. It had been strange, really. I hadn't minded being in the sun too much when we were gone. It had affected Lissa much worse than it had me.

Perhaps it had been because my skin was darker than hers. Not by much, of course. But enough to tell that I was almost an entirely different race.

My skin was a lot darker than the average Moroi. While theirs was a porcelain white, mine was more of a creamy beige.

I got up, bothered by my dream.

What did it mean?

Why was I dreaming of Lissa and Dimitri?

I had barely known him a day, and I was dreaming of him being fed on by my best friend.

Like he was me and I was him.

How strange.

I tried to shake the visions off. I tried to go back to sleep.

I couldn't. I knew I might regret this, but I pulled on a sweat shirt and covered as much skin as possible.

I was going out, at night. Guardians would probably be patrolling, so I needed to be careful.

Hopefully, they wouldn't be on the look out for any Moroi. After all, what sensible Moroi would be out in the sun?

Nobody ever said I was sensible.

I slipped out of my room, certain that Lissa and I weren't sharing a room. Was she alone, or was she with someone else?

I decided to not think about Lissa for once. It was strange not to do so, since I was tied to her. It was a nice break.

I looked around for the dorm matron. She was asleep.

Clearly they had not trained her properly to deal with Rose Hathaway.

I didn't plan on teaching her a lesson, either. I liked the opportunities this afforded me.

I ran down the stairs, careful not to be too loud.

I glanced around the lobby. The matron there was reading a magazine. I grinned.

I waited until her back was turned before sneaking out the door and into the afternoon sunlight.

It was glorious.

I knew I needed to be careful about how much sun I got, but its warmth felt so good on my face.

I heard footsteps coming and stopped basking immediately. I snuck into a little hidey-hole that I had discovered when Lissa and I had first moved onto the upper campus.

I had no idea how many people knew about it, but I assumed it was a well-kept secret.

I saw that it had indeed been a guardian passing by me.

A very tall guardian. Dimitri.

I didn't know a lot of them, but I was certain none of them were neither as tall, nor as handsome as he.

What was wrong with me?

He was old!

I shifted my weight and heard a twig snap under my foot.

I cursed.

Next thing I knew, Dimitri had found my spot. He also had a stake in his hand.

Until he realized that I was not a Strigoi, but indeed a Moroi.

"Rose?" he asked.

"Hi, Dimitri," I said.

"What are you doing out past curfew?" he asked me.

"I couldn't sleep," I explained.

"So you just decided to go outside in the sunlight?"

I nodded.

"That's not very smart."

I frowned at him. "It could hurt you," he said.

"Not as much as it hurts Lissa. Besides, I already miss it."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why would you miss the sun?"

"It's warm," I said. "I don't like living in the darkness all the time. It seems as if I was born into the wrong species."

He nodded acceptingly. "Okay, but it's still breaking the rules. You've only been here less than a day, and you've violated your probation."

I pressed my lips together, irritated with him. "I know that! I just couldn't sleep. I wanted to get some fresh air."

"How about this?" he asked.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for his proposal.

"I won't tell Headmistress Kirova you were out as long as you agree not to break anymore rules."

I nodded, too excited to be off the hook.

"Get back to bed, Rose," he told me.

I stood there, frozen.

I didn't want to go back to bed.

"Rose," he said warningly.

"Alright. Good night, Comrade," I said.

"Good night, Rose."

I left, trying not to look back at him. I would have a full day tomorrow. I was tired. But I didn't want anymore weird dreams.

I looked into the lobby. The dorm matron wasn't even there anymore. Some sort of security!

I walked up to my room and turned off the light. I pulled the covers over my head, concentrating on slowing my heart beat and un-tensing my muscles. I finally fell asleep, only to wake up to my alarm a few hours later.

I sighed as I woke up. The alarm clock said it was seven in the morning. I could see the faint rays of the sun through my window and picked out an outfit that also had to be from the lost and found.

I really hoped my clothes would be here soon.

By the time I got out of my dorm and into the commons, it was dark out.

My cheeks were a little red from the sun. So much for assuring Dimitri that I could handle it.

I decided to go the feeders, instead of eating breakfast.

When I got in there, I saw Christian Ozera was there.

"Hey," I said to him. He looked up from his feeder. "Can you not creep on Lissa so much?"

His cheeks turned the slightest bit red.

"Yeah, she told me."

That was a lie. I hadn't been able to talk to Lissa since the day before.

His eyebrows furrowed in anger and I smiled. "Well, time for breakfast!"

I pranced off. I wasn't actually that happy, in fact, I was livid that she had even considered hanging with him for so long. We weren't going to stay here forever, but she needed to have as easy a time as possible while we were still here. I couldn't let her get depressed again. Not on my watch.

Once I was done with my "victim", I went to the commons for breakfast. I smelled French toast and started salivating immediately.

I hadn't had French toast in so long. I wasn't a very good cook; I could burn water. Lissa could cook if she really wanted to, but she wasn't a huge fan of it.

I'd only ever had it when we'd managed to scrap enough money to go out to eat.

I filled up my plate and looked around for Lissa. I found her sitting at the same table as we had sat at yesterday for lunch.

That was the first time I realized that I had fallen asleep before dinner.

No wonder I was so hungry.

I went and sat next to her. "Hi, Liss," I smiled.

She smiled at me angelically.

"I forgot to ask, where's your room?"

"I'm rooming with Natalie, actually," she said.

My jaw dropped. "They put you with Natalie and not me?"

"She requested it, Rose."

I narrowed my eyes. Why would Natalie do that? Lissa was my friend.

"Leave it, Rose," she reasoned. "And don't you go to the feeder's in the morning?" she frowned, looking at my plate.

I rolled my eyes at the obvious change of subject. I decided I'd let it go, this time.

"Yeah, but I'm still so hungry."

She made a disgusted face, just as she had at lunch the day before.

"My life, my choices," I said.

She sighed. I could feel her annoyance, and realized I was being a bit of a hypocrite. I didn't let Lissa make her own decisions very often. But I did know what was best, most of the time.

I owed Lissa my life. I would stop at nothing to make sure she was safe.