So my Homecoming was last weekend, and it was really fun! I went stag with a bunch of my friends, and while the grind line did get quite large at the end, it was totally worth going to. And my Homecoming theme was City of Lights, which I adopted for Rose's Homecoming as well.

The next week flew by as Homecoming loomed closer and closer. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that once Homecoming ended, Dimitri would crack down. There would be only one week left before tryouts after the dance.

But as of right now, he was going easy on me. Well, not easy, but not quite as hard as I'd been expecting. He hadn't intensified yet.

Lissa, however, was not allowing me leg room. If anything, the manhunt had intensified. And while I was grateful for the fact that she hadn't held onto her suspicions about Dimitri and me, I was still worried. After all these years, she could read me well, and I had no idea how well she could read into my relationship (or lack thereof) with Dimitri with the impropriety of it all in the back of her mind. With Lissa, it was hard to say how much she could see and how much her brain subconsciously chose not to. Also, I had no idea how obvious I was.

All thoughts of subtlety vanished when, after Friday's practice/dinner combo, Dimitri announced that he'd give me Saturday off, since that was Homecoming. We didn't have classes on Homecoming, either, which would give me more than enough time to meet with the group so we could prepare.

"Wait, what? Are you serious?" I asked excitedly.

He nodded. "I have three sisters. Believe me, I know how much time you'll need."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said, jumping up and hugging him. Surprisingly, he hugged me back, after a moment of hesitation.

I realized then what I was doing, and pulled away, blushing. "Sorry."

He, too, looked embarrassed. "No, it's okay. Like I said, I have sisters. I know how excited a girl can get over a school dance."

I nodded, still blushing. "Right. Well, I'm just gonna go in now."

"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow," he grimaced. "I have to chaperone."

I bit back my laughter. "You'll survive, Comrade. Just don't look down if you're patrolling the shelf. And don't look at the front of the gym, where the music's playing. St. Vlad's has an infamous grind line."

He grimaced again and turned away to go, before he turned around again. "Don't get into trouble tomorrow, okay?"

"I won't," I frowned. Did he have no confidence in me?

"It's not that I don't trust you. It's just that after all the drama with Jesse, he might try to get you in trouble, and that could ruin your scholarship. Be careful, okay?" he said, answering my question like he could read my mind.

"I will. Goodnight, Comrade."

"Goodnight, Roza."

I tried to wipe of my smile at the nickname as I shut the door and made my way up to my dorm with Lissa, but I couldn't quite manage it.

The next morning, I was woken up by a very excited Lissa. For once, I was up after the sun, and surprisingly, it felt weird rather than good. I enjoyed not having to wake myself up, but I'd grown so accustomed to waking up before 5:00 that I felt as though I'd switched time zones.

"Wake up, Rose, and get in the shower! Jill and Sydney and Mia are coming soon, and you'd better be done by the time they get here! You have...eh, maybe fifteen minutes."

I dashed in and began showering like crazy. Fifteen minutes later, I was ready to go. I had just put on some clothes when there was a knock on our door and our friends ambled in, bearing their dresses, makeup bags, and various other accessories.

This was going to be a long day.

Since I was the last one up, I was also the last one to be made over. First, we'd straightened out Mia's unruly curls with Lissa's straightener, and then we'd moved onto makeup. The final touch was the dress and shoes, and Mia was done.

Jill, like Mia, had been easy to prep. She's braided her hair the night before, so it fell down in soft waves. She had also come up with a makeup plan for herself, so we hadn't had to come up with anything.

Sydney, however, took a while. We couldn't figure out what to do with her hair. It was naturally straight, which meant that it was flexible and we could let loose. I wanted curls, Lissa wanted a crimp, and Sydney wanted it as it was. In the end, Sydney won, because it was her hair, after all. The makeup was easier, although we'd argued a little bit on the exact eyeshadow shade (my idea, dark purple, won).

Lissa, like Jill had been easy. The only reason she even needed up there was to help her do things. She had even written down her plan.

And then there was me. Complicated, impossible me. It was truly lucky that Jill and Lissa had been fast, because boy, did it take a while to agree on me. Since my dress had the most versatile color, everyone decided to argue over how I should look, never mind the fact that I had my own opinion. Eventually, I got them to compromise according to my position: wavy hair and makeup that wasn't super thick.

As I shimmied into my dress, I glanced at the clock. 5:30. Okay. I had two hours before the dance started. I could actually eat.

Since we were allowed to order food for school dances (we weren't allowed to go off-campus, and no one wanted to eat at the cafeteria now), Mia called up an Italian restaurant and ordered pasta.

While chowing down on my Chicken Fettucine Alfredo, I reflected on what Dimitri had said about Jesse. He was right, in a sense. Jesse would not let the rejection go easily. But taking into account that as of right now, I had the upper hand, there wasn't too much he could do. He was still buying into my blackmail, and I had shot him down quite publicly. And with my "Rosie the Riveter" past, it would take quite the plan to get me back. And I didn't believe that Jesse was smart enough to come up with such a plan. Still, Dimitri wasn't stupid, nor was he oblivious. And if he was worried, then that was something I would have to be careful about.

I hadn't realized that Lissa had asked me a question until she waved a hand in front of my face. "Rose? You there?"

I blinked, blushed a little, and muttered, "Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something. What did you say?"

She smiled slightly. "I asked if you were going to dance at all tonight. Or if you wanted anyone in particular to dance with you, since you're stag."

I grinned, trying not to show her how obvious she was being. "Eh, I'll probably just butterfly around. Avoid the grind line. Recommend half the songs they play. Maybe prank someone."

She looked somewhat unhappy at my vague answer. "So what were you thinking about earlier?"

Telling the truth couldn't hurt in this case, right?

"I was worried that Jesse might try something to get me in trouble tonight."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Dude. You've got him backed into a corner. What could he do?"

"I don't know, but he'll want revenge somehow. And I can't afford to get in trouble with tryouts a week away," I said. "And I'm not the only one who's worried. Dimitri is, too."

"You're on a first-name basis with him now?" said Sydney.

I gave her a weird look. "We always were."

I caught Lissa's eye. She was studying me once again, looking for any signs of there being something going on. I rolled my eyes at her, and she looked away. Jill started talking about how excited she was now that she was an upperclassman, and the subject was dropped.

Our Homecoming theme this year was City of Lights, and as I stared at the gym, I was impressed. Student Council had handed out glow necklaces to everyone to wear around their heads like a halo (or a crown, depending on how you wanted to look at it), and in the darkened gym , it was like a light show. Of course, the disco ball and and colorful lights and the streamers had helped, too.

I had been here for about an hour now, and I was standing awkwardly at the back of the gym. "Someone Like You" was playing, and as I was one of the few stag seniors, almost everyone I knew was making out with their date. The sad thing was, the grind line was already in full effect, so the kissing was actually an improvement.

I walked out of the gym to get a drink. I hadn't realized how awkward it would be to be the only single girl in my group of friends, but I was definitely feeling it now.

As I filled up my cup, I felt someone up behind me. Instinctively, I whirled around, hoping it was just a friend.

Unfortunately, it was Jesse.

"Hey, Rose."

I stared at him, trying to decipher his reason for approaching me, but he was wearing his signature smirk. "What do you want, Jesse?" I asked tiredly.

"Will you dance with me?"

"Dance meaning dance, or dance meaning grind?" I asked. He froze.

"Um..."

"That's what I thought," I replied. "Give it up, Jesse. I don't like you, and you don't like me. And I don't grind."

"I do like you," he protested. I highly doubted that this was the truth, but as it was, it didn't really matter when I knew my own feelings.

"Then I'm sorry, Jesse, but the feeling isn't mutual." And with that, I walked back into the gym.

When I got back in, a new song had started up. I wasn't reflecting too much on the recent Jesse confrontation. It was getting old.

"What took you so long out there?" yelled Lissa over "Gangnam Style".

"Jesse tried to get me to grind with him!" I yelled back.

"What did you say?"

"I rejected him. Again!"

Lissa smirked slightly. "I think that we're going to have to do something about that."

I spotted Dimitri around the time the Cha Cha Slide came on. Without thinking, I went up to talk to him.

"Hey, Comrade," I said over the music. "How's your Homecoming been so far?"

He grimaced. "You were right about the grind line."

I snickered. "Jesse came up to me."

"What did he do?" he said, instantly on edge.

"He asked me to dance—dance meaning grind—with him. Don't worry, I shot him down. Again."

"He hasn't given up yet?" he asked. "Wow."

"He said that he likes me, but I doubt it," I drawled.

Dimitri thought for a moment. "He actually might, but he's got a bad way of showing it."

I wrinkled my nose. "Let's hope you're wrong about that."

I glanced around, watching everyone dance in unison to the song, and suddenly, I decided to let my reckless side loose.

"Wanna dance? Even the chaperones are doing it." It was true; I had spotted Mr. Nagy, Alberta, and Stan all dancing along. The Cha Cha Slide was one of those things you could dance to, no matter how old you were.

He shook his head. "I don't think that would be very appropriate."

I smirked. "Alberta, Stan, and Mr. Nagy don't seem to agree."

"Yes, but dancing with a student—"

"It's the Cha Cha Slide, Comrade. It's the universal dance-along song."

"I—"

That was when I got it. "Dimitri...you do know how the dance goes, right?"

He hesitated. "...No."

I smiled. "I'll teach you."

"One hop this time..."

I danced along through one verse. "It's easy. Just follow whatever he says."

He hesitantly stood next to me.

"Slide to the left." We slid easily.

"Slide to the right." And we slid back.

"See? It's easy."

Actually, it wasn't. The slides, for whatever reason, were the only moves he got the timing right to. I had no idea why. Still, we simply danced along to those two moves.

Slide to the left, slide to the right.

When the song ended, I turned to him. "See? You got two moves down. One day, you'll be able to dance along to the whole thing."

He smiled one of his rare smiles, brown eyes flickering with the colored lights of the room, and my breath caught in my throat. His face was so close. If he leaned in, he could easily kiss me. "One day, Roza. One day."

The rest of the night passed in a blur. We danced, we sang, and didn't grind. Jesse tried to approach me several more times, but I lost myself in the crowd every time I saw him coming for me.

I didn't speak to Dimitri the rest of the night. I noticed him a few times, and every time I looked at him, he seemed to be watching me. I shook off the thought. Why would he watch me?

As Lissa and I lay in our beds, she said, "Why were you dancing with Mr. Belikov during the Cha Cha Slide?"

I smiled softly in the darkness. "He was the only one not dancing to it. Even Mr. Nagy, Alberta, and Stan were dancing along. And plus, I needed to talk to him about the Jesse thing anyway."

Lissa turned and faced me, green eyes glittering in the darkness. "Why would he care about Jesse?"

"He doesn't want me to get in trouble. That could ruin everything and destroy my chances for tryouts. And Jesse definitely had a motive for screwing me over."

"He cares about you."

I froze. "Well, yeah, he's my mentor."

"More than that. He's...protective. You can see it in his eyes. It's like he doesn't want you to get hurt."

"Is he supposed to want it?" I asked defensively.

"No, that's not what I meant. It's just—you two are close. Closer than what a normal student-mentor relationship would be."

I rolled over to face her. "I don't know, Liss. I guess we just get each other."

"Do you like him?" she asked, and I froze.

"Lissa, he's my teacher," I said slowly.

"That's not what I asked," she said quietly. "I asked if you like him."

Pause.

"It's okay if you do, Rose."

I took a breath, unsure of how to respond, and quickly weighed each option. Not telling her was safer, but she'd figure it out eventually and, presumably, get mad that I didn't tell her the truth when asked, and I didn't want to risk our friendship. But telling anyone, even Lissa, who wouldn't say a word, could be bad for both of us, even if nothing was going on. But if I waited too long to answer, that would be answer enough.

I opened my mouth, becoming resolute in my decision. "I—"

Cliffie! Hey, it had to happen sometime, right?

So what should Rose do? Tell her now, or let Lissa stay in the dark (well, semi-dark, since she's already pretty much figured it out).

Review and tell me what you think!