Yeah, I know. I don't even wanna know how long, exactly, it's been since an update. All I can really say in my defense is that between volleyball, debate, newspaper, school, and flute, my life has been pretty busy, and will continue to be busy, so you might not get an update for a while after this. I also realize that I haven't even written a long chapter to make up for it. Sorry. It's definitely a (necessary) transition chapter, so the next one should be a lot more exciting (and probably a lot longer).

Do you remember a few chapters back, when we hit 50 reviews and I promised to reward you? And I never did? I've decided, since we're nearing 100, that I would, instead, start a new story, and for every 50 reviews this story gets total, that'll be the number of chapters. So assuming I get at least 2 reviews for this chapter, my reward will be a two-shot. The more reviews, the longer the story. If I accumulate enough chapters, I'll just make an actual story rather than a ficlet.

Sound good?

"I—we're friends, sort of," I stuttered. "Of course I like him."

Her voice went flat. "Rose."

I rolled over to face the wall. "What does it matter if I do?" I asked, my voice muffled.

Lissa paused for a minute. "Because, Rose, he's your teacher. And you're acting different with him than all the other guys you've liked. It's like there's...I don't know, more."

"And you figured this out...how?"

"You really aren't as subtle as you'd like to think, Rose."

I faced her again. "Why does it matter if I have a stupid crush on him, Lissa? It doesn't mean anything."

She shook her head, green eyes glinting in the darkness. "Yes, it does, Rose."

"Why?"

"Because he's your teacher, and it's illegal," she said.

"Exactly. He's my teacher, Liss. I'd be a fool to fall in love with him."

"We're all fools in love, Rose. And he cares about you, too."

I blanched. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?"

She rolled her eyes. "He cares about you. He's protective. He actually smiles around you. For God's sake, you got him to dance."

I couldn't think of anything to say for a moment, and by the time I'd found my voice again, Lissa was yawning and saying goodnight, and I was left alone to my own thoughts.

The next morning, I got up earlier than usual to get ready for my lesson, trying not to mull over what Lissa said (and completely failing).

Was it true? And if it was, what was I going to do?

I walked slowly down the gym. It was early enough that it was still cold, and involuntarily, I shivered a bit. The sun hadn't risen yet, making the sky a rich, dark blue. Unbidden, the phrase It's always darkest before dawn rose to my mind. I has always liked the way the quote sounded, but even I had to admit that the timing of my thought had been awfully cheesy.

I opened and closed the doors gently, still lost in my thoughts, and managed to collide with Dimitri about two steps in. In all honesty, I probably should've noticed a 6'7" dark spot heading towards me, but hey, when your best friend tells you that not only do you have a major crush on your teacher, but that he also feels the same way about you, you'd be out of it, too.

"Oh, hi," I said dumbly after I'd regained my bearings. The corner of his mouth twitched, which was basically the equivalent of him snickering at my response, and I felt my face turn at least five shades redder than normal.

"Hi," he said smoothly, and continued pulling the target along.

I stretched and warmed up quietly as he brought out all the equipment. By the time I'd completed two laps, he was done and joined me.

I suppressed to urge to talk to him (I'd learned the hard way that talking while running didn't exactly make it easier) and finished with him, managing to keep up with his long legs and seemingly endless stamina. By the time we'd finished, I was breathing hard.

As we walked in together, I said, "So how was your Homecoming?"

"I'm scarred for life."

I snorted. "But for us non-grinders, it was actually fun."

"For us non-dancers, it wasn't."

I grinned. "Ah, but Comrade, you did dance. Remember, the Cha Cha Slide?"

He muttered something under his breath, but I managed to catch "Slide to the left, slide to the right" along with what I assumed was a string of Russian words.

Smirking, I said, "Maybe I'll teach you the whole dance sometime."

I had been right about the crackdown: Dimitri was brutal. By the time I had to practice that night, I was as sore as I had been when I'd first started. But I dragged my ass to practice anyway, because I did need the scholarship, after all.

Also, I wanted to see him again. Hey, can you blame me?

And so it continued, day after day. I didn't dare complain about it to him, since I knew I'd gotten better. At lunch, even Sydney had been worried that I was working too hard, but without thinking, I'd assured her that I wasn't. Six weeks ago, I would have been complaining with her, and I was quite proud of myself for having matured enough to recognize that I needed the training. I suspected that it had something to my hanging around the Zen Master so much.

Things had gotten much easier between Lissa and I, now that she knew the truth. She was discreet, and although I felt some anxiety at having anyone know, it was best that it was Lissa, and not someone else, who had found out.

Her relationship with Christian had been slowly growing. He hadn't grown the balls to ask her out yet (though I couldn't believe that she didn't see all the puppy-dog looks directed at her), but it was coming. I was glad I hadn't interfered. As it turned out, Christian wasn't the freak everyone made him out to be. Sure, some of the things he had done in the past, like the fire incident, had been questionable, but he would be good for her. I knew he would be.

At one point, I tried talking to Lissa about it.

"So," I said nonchalantly one night as we were about to sleep.

She instantly became suspicious. "Out with it, Rose."

I tried to suppress a grimace. She knew me too well.

"A girl can't talk to her friend without having an agenda?" I asked innocently.

She gave me a dubious look. "You've got that look."

"What look?"

"The look that tells me you're up to something."

Damn. I couldn't really say anything to that, because it was probably true.

I sighed. "Fine. I wanted to talk to you about Christian."

At that, she blushed—heavily—and said, "Christian?" in a faux-confused voice. She had never been a good liar.

I rolled my eyes at her. "You were never a good liar," I said, voicing my thought. Her face turned pinker.

"What about Christian?"

I grinned at her. "He's cute, isn't he?"

She climbed into bed, blonde hair partially obscuring her face, but even that couldn't mask the obvious red tinge to those pale cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I snickered. "Keep telling yourself that, Liss. Whatever floats your boat."

I also tried talking to Christian about it.

"Oi! Pyro! I need to talk to you."

He sighed and walked over. "What do you want?"

"For you to man up and ask Lissa out already."

He blanched. "Where'd you get that idea from?"

I stifled a groan and glared at him. "You two are so deep in denial right now, I don't know how you'll ever get back out of Egypt."

"That was a terrible joke."

"Don't change the subject. You need to grow a pair and ask her out. No, really. She likes you back, despite her many see-through protestations. You two really need to work on facing the truth."

He groaned. "What will it take to make you shut up about this?"

I grinned. Now we were talking.

"For you to get her to go on a date with you."

By the end of the week, Christian and Lissa were still single, Lissa was still convinced that Dimitri felt something for me, and nothing had happened to convince me that she was right. In fact, he's remained curiously standoffish since our "Cha Cha Slide" conversation, save for the usual, "You'll do great at tryouts tomorrow" spiel. But even then, he had been oddly generic.

But when I woke up Saturday morning and began getting ready for tryouts with Lissa, my love life was the last thing on my mind.