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Previously: "I found this place in the third grade with my older sister. Clara was her name, she was a senior at the time and my best friend."

"Oh, is she a guardian now?"

"She was," Jake nodded sadly "She died two years ago."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, I'm kind of over it. Let's find a nice place to sit down and eat." Jake went over to one of the logs and sat down.

Chapter 13: Getting to know you

We stayed in our picnic area for three hours. Most of the time we talked, about our past, and we joked around. I can honestly say I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

"So where are you from?" I asked while we were talking.

"New York."

"Never tailed you as a city boy."

"Rose, only about 20% of New Yorkers actually lives in the city. I'm from Long Island."

"Isn't Manhattan an island?" I asked stupidly since I'd actually never heard of Long Island. Later on he told me about his family, including his dead sister.

"You were super close huh?" I asked while he told me about a time where Clara got him out of a detention by sweet talking an old teacher he'd had.

"You could say that." He smirked at me but there was a hint of sadness in his eyes. I'd always wanted a sister, I was jealous whenever I saw two siblings together, laughing and telling each other secrets. I had Lissa though. She was my soul sister and I was hers. Thinking of Lissa made me homesick; I missed her so much and couldn't wait for her to visit me.

After a while, we decided it was time to leave. But neither of us actually wanted too. I liked being in my own world, away from Dimitri and Cathy and everything else that, in one way or another, had hurt me. I'm pretty sure Jake didn't want to leave because he was with me.

Right when I was going to get up Jake opened his mouth. "Rose, do you, do you want to be with me?"

"I uh, I don't know Jake. I don't think I can be with anyone right now. I have too much on my plate and I wouldn't want to add another thing." I was hoping It wouldn't come down to this. I had a feeling he would ask me something like this but I wasn't sure.

"I understand." He looks away from me and I feel my face fall with regret. I didn't want to hurt him, at all. I grab his face and peck him on the lips. It probably wasn't very smart, but I truly did not want his to get hurt. Jake smiles widely and gets up. We grab our things and leave, not saying a word. There was silence but it was comfortable silence.

All of a sudden I feel nauseous, I drop my bag and I have my stake out in a second. I survey the area; I see a shadow behind one of the trees. Jake noticed my stake and quickly got into battle mode. I was going to ask him where his stake was but then I remembered that I was probably the only novice in the school with a stake.

"What's wrong?" He asks after a moment. I don't answer and walk toward the shadow, not making any noise. I take another step and the shadow moves and disappears. I look around again, the nausea leaves and I turn back to Jake.

"There was something, most likely a strigoi, behind the trees, but it's gone now." I tell him, he nods and picks up the bag I dropped.

"Let's go." We walk cautiously through the trees and when we make it over the fence, I feel myself calm down.

"We should probably tell the guardians about this?" Jake says.

"Wouldn't we get in trouble for sneaking off property? Its fine, we're safe in here. The wards are up and they can't get us." I bit my lip when I remembered that that was exactly what everyone had been thinking at St. Vladimir's. We walk past one of the Moroi dorms and all of a sudden a bunch of mud fell on us. I looked up and saw a bucket hanging off the roof. I look around and saw nobody but I had a good idea who dropped the mud on us.

Suddenly I get a nauseous feeling again, but this time it wasn't the Strigoi. This mud smelled really bad and kind of made me feel like it wasn't mud. Jake wasn't hit nearly as bad as I was, he mostly got hit on his shoulder.

Jake took one look at me and then he looked down at himself and then he started laughing. I glared at him and he tried to calm down.

"I'm sorry." He says, biting his lip to prevent him from laughing even more.

"Whatever. I just can't believe I have to walk all the way to my dorm like this."

"Come to mine then. It's around the corner and we could probably get in without anyone noticing."

"Fine, let's just go and hurry. I'm going to murder Cathy when we're done." He doesn't acknowledge my comment and leads me to a dorm that was, thank god, empty. We go into his room and he lets me use his shower first. It isn't till when I turn off the water when I realize that I don't have any clothes. I grab a towel he has on the rack next to me and wrap it around me.

"Jake!" I yell and open the door just a crack. I notice that Jake had a friend in the room. Nate.

"Hey Rose." He waves at me with a wolfish smile on his face.

"Jake, get him out of here." I sent Jake a glare.

"I'll give you the essay later Nate. I'm in the middle of something." Jake kicked a laughing Nate out of the room, but before the door closed I saw Nate smirk and blow me a kiss.

"Why would you let him in while I'm showering? Nate doesn't strike me as a guy who keeps secrets." I want to yell at him but I didn't want to risk Nate overhearing.

"Sorry, he just walked in without knocking. I was kicking him out when you first called my name. Why were you calling my name?"

"I need clothes and mine smell really bad."

"Do you want to borrow some of mine? I don't think I have a shirt your size, though." I looked him over; any clothes he would let me borrow would be too big for me.

"Can't you run to my room or something?" I was desperate.

"No, it's past curfew. Nate only got here because he lives right next door. So I guess you are stuck here for tonight." Jake didn't even seem worried about it.

"Won't someone notice I'm not in my room?"

"No. All the guardians care about is keeping everyone out of the halls. They don't check the rooms at night." These people definitely have it easy.

"Fine, grab me some clothes than. I'll worry about the rest tomorrow." Jake looked through some drawers and came up with a T-shirt and a pair of boxers.

"That's all you have for me?" I wrinkled my nose.

"It's the only things that I own that will fit you."

"Are you sure you don't just want to see me half naked?" Jake just smiled at me, so I just took the clothes and closed the door. I considered putting my dirty bra on underneath but voted against it and just threw on the shirt and boxers. I tied my hair up and walked out of the room. Jake had thrown a few blankets on the floor, which I assumed was where I was sleeping so I sat down on the makeshift bed.

"No Rose, you're sleeping on the bed. I'll take the floor."

"It's okay, I'm a big girl. I'm the guest I'll sleep on the floor." I sent him a toothy smile.

"Well, if we're going to fight about it why don't we share the bed?"

"Try again." I scoffed.

"Just take the bed, Rose." I shrugged and got into the bed.

"G'night" Jake whispers and gets comfortable.

"We're sleeping? Are you sure you don't want to tell each other ghost stories or secrets?" I laugh.

"I'll tell you a secret if you tell me one Rose."

"Okay, you first" I had no idea what to tell him.

"No, I think you should start."

"Fine, somehow I don't think Cathy likes me very much." I joke.

"Really? Could have sworn you guys were braiding each others hair and gossiping about cute boys last time I checked." I just grinned at him.

"Your turn"

"Okay," I saw him grow a little sad, or maybe it was nervous. "I don't want to be a guardian."

"What?" I yelled, sitting straight up. "But you're one of the best novices around here."

"Yeah, but I only train because that's what my sister would have wanted. I don't want that responsibility on me. I can't imagine having someone's life in my hands. I'm only eighteen, there are eighteen year olds who's only worry is whether or not they get in the right college or where the next party is. It doesn't seem fair to me that we're worrying about fighting and killing to protect vampires."

"Someone told me a long time ago that life works like that. It is hard to admit but it's our life." I sighed; I had absolutely no idea what to say to Jake. I don't think I've ever met a dhampir (with one exception) thinking like this. Mostly, you meet novices who can't wait to get out there.

"Well it shouldn't be. I don't think we should be guarding someone's life this early in our own lives. Isn't the world bad enough already with all its faults, it doesn't need more gun-happy people in it. Especially since many of those people don't even know what the outside world is actually like." I realized that Jake had been thinking about this for a while now.

"I know." I shut my eyes tight and felt my arm go automatically toward the tattoos on my neck. "Believe me, I know."

"Oh yeah, you have killed before haven't you?"

"Yeah, sometimes I wish I hadn't. That, what happened to me, had never happened to me. It really sucks." I felt my breathe leave me.

"You have things you want to hid don't you Rose? You have demons."

"You could say that." I turn, lying with my back to him. "It's late we should sleep."

"Okay, good night." I hear him yawn and become silent.

All I can think about was his last comment. You have things you want to hid don't you Rose? You have demons. Don't we all?

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