Je ne possede pas l'Academia de Vampire.

Rose POV

Okay, ballroom dance lessons. What do I wear for ballroom dance lessons? Conner said to wear heals, so I guess that means I wear a dress. Hmm, I don't really have too many dresses anymore since I don't have any reason to wear one. I take out the black dress I wore the night Viktor kidnapped Lissa, but that seems too clubbish, if that's a word. The dress Tasha bought me two years ago is too tight for ballroom dancing. Let's see, sundress, no. The blue one, too revealing. I'll save that one for homework with Adrian tonight. I keep pulling clothes out of my closet and throwing them all over my room, not finding anything decent to wear. Oh, fuck it, I'll just wear jeans and bring the damn heals. I finish getting dressed in my most comfortable jeans and v-neck tshirt with my sneakers and quickly put my hair up in a pony tail since I spent too much time going through my closet to do anything else with it. Adrian is still sleeping soundly in my bed, lightly snoring. He looks so peaceful, I hate to wake him up, but I want to say goodbye before I leave. I lean over him and gently kiss his lips, since I know he likes it when I wake him up like that. It doesn't take long for him to respond. His hand glides up my arm to my neck, where he pulls me in closer to deepen the kiss. Part of me is telling me to ditch Conner and stay here with Adrian. But the more responsible side is telling me Conner is my friend, who is doing me a favor and I should keep my promise to him. Responsibility won. I pull away and take his hand and free myself from his clutches, although reluctantly.

"Good morning, babe. I have to go to dance class now. Don't forget to get up in time for work. I'll see you later." He groans for his response and I quickly kiss him again before he can grab ahold of me and keep me here. He manages to open his eyes and looks me over.

"Is that what you're wearing to ballroom dance in?" he asks half asleep. I resist the urge to yank his pillow out from under him and beat him with it.

"I'm sorry if I don't have Ginger Rogers wardrobe, but this will have to do. It's only lessons, anyway."

"Well, have fun and be safe. Come get me for lunch, okay?" he says rolling over. I smile as he grabs my pillow and cuddles up to it like a little kid with his favorite toy.

I walk out to the parking lot where Conner said to meet him. I spot him leaning against a motorcycle and my heartbeat starts to race. Oh please tell me we're riding that.

"Cool bike. Yours?" I ask trying to hide my excitement.

"Yep. You ever ridden one?"

"No, I always wanted to though."

"You're going to love it." he says stepping closer to me, looking me in the eyes with a smirk on his face. "You're legs wrapped around me while you feel the power pulsating underneath you. There really is nothing like it." I take a step back and smile.

"Well, considering it's the only way you'll ever get between my legs, you better enjoy it." His face fell and I laugh. He recovers quickly and hands me a helmet, which I quickly put on. "I don't suppose you'll let me drive?" he gives me a look that says I'm must be crazy and gets on. I hop on behind me and hold on to him tight. This is going to be so fun.

I don't think I stop smiling the whole way there. I love the feel of the wind on my face and when he would accelerate suddenly, making me tighten my grip on him. Cheeky devil. We get to the dance school and park the bike. When I get off, I can still feel the vibrations going through me, and I like it. I'm going to have to talk to Adrian about getting one of these. "So, did you like your first ride?" he knowingly asks.

"Hell yeah! I can't wait to drive back." He looks over at me and shakes his head. He walks on ahead of me while I try to fix my hair using his little side mirrors. Once I think I look good enough, I walk in the room and see that some people have already arrived. I walk to the middle of the room and put my hands on my hips and look around. All the girls are wearing dresses or skirts with their heals. I'm the only one in pants, but since when did I do anything like the crowd. I pull the shoes I brought out of my bag and go sit in a chair to put them on. I see a couple young girls flirting with Conner across the room and he looks like he's really enjoying the attention. An evil grin spreads across my face as I think about having a little fun with him. I walk up behind him and put my arms around his waist. I stand on my tippy toes and kiss him on his neck seductively. I run my hands up his chest and I can feel him tremble under my touch. I didn't know I could have this effect on him. The two girls he's talking to are looking at me wide eyed. I stop kissing his neck and look over at them, faking embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I guess I should introduce myself." I remove myself from his back and move to face him, putting my hand out to him. "My name's Rose. Sorry about that. You just looked so yummy, I couldn't help myself." He shakes my hand and gives me a 'what the hell are you doing?' look because I apparently rendered him speechless. I turn to the girls and smile. "I call dibs on..." I look at Conner's shocked face. "I'm sorry, what's your name?" The girls quietly turn around and walk away whispering between themselves. I can't help but laugh out loud at Conners face.

"What was that about? Jealous I was talking to someone else?" he asks with a smirk.

"Pu-leez. I was helping you. You aren't really considering dating humans, are you? That can be a bit messy considering they don't know you're half vampire." I whisper the last part, not wanting to reveal our secret.

"Whatever, Rose. You know you've been wanting to man handle me since you got to Court. Just admit it." I'm about to give him a standard Rose Hathaway remark, when the teacher calls for our attention. She's a tall, beautiful woman, looking to be in her late twenties. Blond hair and blue eyes and a smile that shows all her perfect teeth.

"Okay class, let's get started. My name is Mandy for all the newcomers. Today we're going to be doing the Waltz. Everybody find a partner." I stand next to Conner and glare at any girl that dared come up to him. It's not that I'm jealous, of course. I just don't want to have to dance with anyone else. Besides, he wanted me to come, he's going to dance with me. As it is, a couple brave souls come up to me and ask me to dance, which I politely refuse.

Mandy shows us how to position our hands and Conner gets a little too excited when he puts his hand on the small of my back and pulls me up against him. "I think I can get used to this." he says with a shit eating grin. I try to put a little space between us, but he stays firm. Just for that, when we start doing the steps, I make sure to step on his toes as much as possible. "Damn, Rose. For someone who is so graceful when she fights, you suck at this. Owe!" he yells, hopping up and down on one foot.

"Oops. My bad." I decide to give his feet a break and do the steps correctly. We actually do pretty well, if I do say so myself. So good in fact, Mandy pulls us up to the front to demonstrate in front of the whole class, only she seperates us and dances with Conner herself. She asks for a volunteer to dance with me, and about half of the guys in the class run up to be chosen. I choose the guy who looks to be about Adrians height and build and get into position. He puts his hand a little too close to my ass for my liking, so I move it back up and lean in to whisper to him. "If you would like that hand to remain attached to your wrist, I suggest you keep it off my ass." I must sound pretty serious, because I can hear him swallow and feel his hand move further up my back. We introduce ourselves and I find out his name is Dean. We start dancing and he's pretty good. I give him a smile to let him know he can relax a little, which he does. When the music stops, he pulls away but keeps ahold of my hand and bows to me.

"Thank you for the dance, Rose." he says then kisses my hand. He's a nice guy. I kinda feel bad about threatening him now.

"Your welcome, Dean." I smile. Our first class is over and I had a pretty good time. I can't wait to go home and practice with Adrian. It's dark now as we walk outside, but since we don't have any Moroi with us, I let my guard down a bit. I still stay alert watching the humans and making sure they all make it to their cars alright. The building our class is in is next to a honkey tonk bar that already has some drunk rednecks in the parking lot. The two girls that were flirting with Conner earlier seem to have unknowingly gotten the attention of a couple of drunks who are eyeing them intently. I don't like this. One of the rednecks starts to stagger over towards the girls, calling out to them.

"Hey ladies. How would you like to c-come in for a drink and dance with me and my fr-friend here." he stumbles. The poor girls look terrified as they hurry to get into their car. I quicken my pace as I see the other one join his friend and start walking toward the them. I stop so that I'm in between the drunks and the girls and face them, arms crossed over my chest. I turn my head to speak to the girls.

"Get in your car and go. I'll take care of them." They look a little hesitant to leave me, but they look over to Conner who nods his head to them and they take off. The only ones left from our dance class is Dean and his friends, who are leaning against their car, watching the scene unfold. "Sorry guys. Looks like you're going to have to dance with each other now." The first one starts circling me while looking me up and down, checking me out, with a stupid grin on his face.

"Aren't you a pretty one. How about you let me buy you a drink and we can get to know each other better?" I can smell the booze wafting off of him to me, and I think I'm getting a buzz just from the fumes.

"Not in this lifetime." I turn away from them to walk back to Conner when redneck one grabs my arm and pulls me to him.

"I don't think you heard me correctly. I want to buy you a drink." he says right in my face. His breath is so bad, I want to hurl. Then I feel the hand that isn't gripping my arm go straight to my ass. "Then we can get to know each other better." He says with a squeeze. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Dean move away from his car and start running toward me. Conner stops him just in time as my fist makes contact with this jerks jaw. He immediately goes down with a thud. His friend, redneck two, calls me a bitch and lunges toward me. It only takes a kick to the chest and a punch in the nose to bring him down too. Part of me wants them to get back up so I can do some more damage to them, but they just lay in the gravel and bitch and moan about their injuries.

I walk back over to Conner and Dean while rubbing my arm where he was holding it. Dean looks shocked as his gaze shifted from me to the two drunken idiots sitting around on the ground. "Wow." is all he can say. Conner and I both laugh as we walk him back to his friends, who all share the same expression as Dean.

"Alright, shows over. Why don't you all go home and we'll see you tomorrow mor-uh, night in class." I watch as their car drives away, leaving Conner and me alone. "Well, that was fun. You sure know how to show a girl a good time." I tease.

"What's a date without a good bar fight." he says getting on the motorcycle. I hop on and put on my helmet.

"Hey, do me a favor and let's not mention this to Adrian. I'm not supposed to be fighting, remember? He'll freak if he finds out." Technically, I'm not supposed to get hit, which I didn't, but I don't think Adrian will see it that way.

"My lips are sealed, Hathaway." he shouts back to me. I put my arms around his torso, readying myself for him to accelerate, when I feel that all too familiar feeling in my gut. Strigoi. I tap his helmet to get his attention, when he turns on his headlight and I see a familiar red eyed figure staring back at me about fifty feet away. Ahh, hell.

Just a bit of a cliffie there. Thanks for reading don't forget to review and let me know what you think.