A.N. This is going to be pretty short. It is just a filler, between Rose kicking those guys' asses and Saffron and Paul going to class.
RPOV:
Christian walked passed Jeremy and said in a low voice, "Oh and tell your friend Rose Hathaway got stuck with me as a charge." He grabbed my hand and led me down the hall.
We headed over to the guest suites, where we were going to be staying. Our room was more like an apartment. There were two bedrooms, though we would only use one, one full bath, which was huge, a kitchenette, a living room complete with a plasma-screen TV, and there was a smaller room that had bookshelves a desk with a computer, pretty much your basic study.
I walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Christian sat down next to me, looping his arm around my back and pulling me onto his lap. We sat like that for a while.
"Rose?" Christian said, more like a question.
"Yes?" I asked.
"How would you feel about becoming an Ozera?" He asked hesitantly.
I paused, putting his words together, "Did you just propose to me?" I asked, still confused.
"Yes." He said.
"Yes." Was all I said. I felt his hand slide into his jean pocket and then slide something around my ring finger on my right hand.
I looked down at my engagement ring.
It had a large diamond in the center, which was surrounded by gold, like the band that surrounded my finger. Along the gold that surrounded the diamond were much smaller diamonds. I focused my attention back on the large diamond; it seemed to have a reddish glow in the center. I looked up at Christian in confusion.
"It's fire. There is a different ring, one for each element. Each ring went to one of the original four royal families." Christian said, "The water ring went to the Ivashkov's, the earth ring went to Zeklos's, the air ring went to the Dragomir's, and the Ozera's got the fire ring. These rings were passed from male to male. I ended up with the fire ring. The air ring, I think went to another royal family, since Andre died,"
Most people forgot that some royals were actually related (most people tried to forget they were related to the Ozera line), there had started off as four Moroi families. They were the only moroi's. Eventually they had children and the race began to grow. Soon the first dhampir was born, the first strigoi was made and there were twelve royal families, all branching from the Zeklos, Dragomir, Ivashkov, and Ozera. I had heard myths about these rings from Lissa, but to actually have one around my finger was amazing. I was able to feel the age of it but that didn't make it any less beautiful.
I hugged Christian. I would be able to hand this ring down to my son, since he would continue the moroi line of Ozera and the baby girl would follow Saffron down the dhampir-Ozera path.
"There is something you need to know about the baby." I said.
"And what's that?" He asked.
I told him everything Adrian told me; about there being two, one girl dhampir, one boy moroi, the auras, Jonah's story, everything.
"Twins. That means when we leave here, there will be four kids in this family." he seemed dazed, "Well, It's a good thing we will be King and Queen, or this would be difficult."
"'Well, It's a good thing we will be King and Queen, or this would be difficult'! Christian! This is going to be difficult no matter what! Think about it! I'm going to be the first Dhampir Queen! God! And I'll be the first Dhampir to give birth to a moroi! This is going to be difficult!" I exploded. I started in rage and ended in tears. I was so afraid, not for myself, but for my babies.
"Rose. I'm sorry. That's not what I meant." He said, kissing the top of my head.
"I know. I'm just. I don't know." I said admitting it. I had no idea what I was doing. I was the one who usually called the shots, not others. But here I was, looking to a moroi for what to do.
There was a knock on the door. I ran into the bathroom to clean away my tears while Christian got the door.
CPOV:
There was a knock on the door. Rose ran into the bathroom to clean herself up. That left me to get the door.
"Uncle Chrissie!" Shouted one voice.
"Pyro!" Shouted another.
Oh joy! The two twins, Clarissa and Jade, ran past me into the room. They sat down in front of the TV and began to roll a little ball between the two of them.
"Hey Christian." Said another voice. It was Lissa.
"Hey Liss." I said stepping aside to let her in. She walked passed me and I closed the door, "What's up?"
"Well first of all! Big announcement! Kirova resigned! She got pissed at some kid for trying to copy Rose's rubber band trick and she just resigned, yelling 'Rose Hathaway, I always say you'd put an end to me'. Soooooo….. I'm the new headmistress!" She was so happy. I was just disappointed I wasn't there to see the kid try the rubber band trick.
"Oh! So I'm remembered even after I graduated!" Rose said, emerging from the bathroom, no trace of the earlier tears. She placed her right hand on her chest, just below her neck. I saw something twinkle. So did Lissa.
RPOV:
"Oh! So I'm remembered even after I graduated!" I said, emerging from the bathroom, having cleaned up the tears. I placed my right hand on my chest, just below my neck. Then I remembered what was on my right hand. Shit!
"Rose? What's that?" Lissa asked staring at my hand. I shoved my hand in my pocket. I glanced nervously at Christian, "What was that on your hand?" Her suspicion was rising.
"Nothing Lissa." I said.
"Oh yeah, let me see your right hand than." She said.
I slipped the ring off and into my pocket, "Here." I held up my hands. Letting her see both. I stepped close to her, so my hands were at her face.
She smirked and dove her hand into my pocket. Shit! She was smarter than I gave her credit for. She brought her hand out and stared at the ring that lay in her hand. I could see the hurt expression oh her face.
"Please tell me you were hiding this from Christian." She said, squinting at the middle of the large diamond, "Oh my god! You were hiding this from me." She turned to run out of the room, but Christian grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"First of all. I am about to have twins of my own, I don't need to babysit yours. Second of all we were planning to tell everyone at dinner." Christian said, "Don't tell Adrian. I want the satisfaction of seeing him see my family's ring on Rose's finger." I knew what he meant by that, and honestly, I wanted to see his expression, too.
"Oh okay. I won't tell him. Congrats." She said hugging Christian and then me, "See you tonight. Oh and Christian when you bring Paul and Saffron to their classes, can you tell the teacher to spread the word?"
"Rose will have to. I need to talk to Tatiana. And I thought Adrian was annoying!"
"Sure. I know, the message. Your headmistress." I said. Lissa nodded, picked up Clarissa and grabbed Jade's hand.
They left.
"I'll see you in a day or two. I just got a message. I need to go to court, and speak to Tatiana." He practically growled her name.
"Okay. Call me when you get there." I said as he kissed my forehead.
Together we walked to the commons where we met up with Saffron and Paul. Christian hugged Saffron and Paul, then turned to walk away. We waited until he rounded the corned. Then we set off in the opposite direction, towards the Advanced Algebra classroom.
I had never taken this class, but Lissa had, so I knew where it was and I knew the teacher. We approached the building. I told the kids to wait here. This was and eighth grade class. I wanted to make sure there was nothing going on in there that shouldn't be.
I was smart to have done this. I saw two groups of kids. In one were the nerdy-looking kids; they were all hunched over an assignment, working hard. The other was the one I would have been hanging out in, the one filled with potential bad asses. They were sitting in a semi-circle, all facing three boys. I recognized these boys; they were the ones who had attacked Christian.
I decided to have a conversation in my mind with Lissa in my head.
R: Hey Liss?
L: Yes
R: Who are these kids?
L: Um…. Give me a minute. I felt a tickle in the back of my head. Okay the one on the left in Jeremy Dune. He is the adopted son of the Zeklos's guardian. The one on the right is Jacob Jefferson, he is very smart, and he aced every class, but refuses to skip grades. The one in the middle is Thomas Andrews. He hardly passed any of his academic classes, but he almost killed a kid in P.E. Tell Saffron and Paul to stay away from them. Oh and speaking of P.E., can you sub until you leave?
R: I guess. Thanks.
Oh. By the way Adrian was doing some research and found children from two Strigoi can reproduce with Strigoi, Moroi, Dhampirs and Humans, so tell Saffron to be careful.
R: I will thanks Liss.
L: Not a prob.
I snapped out of our conversation and walked over to the teacher. He was probably in his mid-forties and he had quite a stomach for a moroi. I walked over to him.
"Hello. You must be Mr. Morrow. I am Rose Hathaway. I have a couple announcements for the class." I said, with a sweet smile plastered onto my face.
"Oh. Hello Guardian Hathaway. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, I have heard many great things about you." He said, he actually sounded sincere; maybe I had a good reputation after all. I shook the hand he extended towards me.
"Class?" Mr. Morrow said, "Class?" I saw Jeremy look up from his conversation and shut his mouth. The rest of the class went on talking, except for the nerds, they looked up and started talking, "Class? Class?" Man, Mr. Morrow needs some help.
"Shut the fuck up!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, the sweet smile disappearing, "Oh and thank you Jeremy, I saw you were quiet. Might I suggest laps for every dhampir in the room, except for Jeremy, novices should behave better and listen to the teacher."
"Yeah, we listen to them like you did!" Thomas said acting tough.
"Oh. Well when you can beat me in a fight, I will let you bend some rules." I said. I knew that day wouldn't come for a while.
"Hah! Aren't you Rose? Hah! You wouldn't fight a guy, unless it was tongue fighting. My brother told me all about you!" A girl said, laughing.
"Who is your brother?" I asked.
"Jesse Zeklos." The girl said. So this was Arianna. Me and Jesse had actually become pretty good friends before graduations.
"Ah…Jesse. Who is his guardian?" I asked Arianna nicely. Replacing the sweet smile.
"It's actually that Mia girl. She kicks butt, even though she is a moroi." Oh, poor Mia, she'll have to guard this bitch when she graduates. Though she must have volunteered and shown serious skill.
"Oh! Mia! I love Mia. I feel so bad for her! If you will excuse me." I walked into the hall way and dialed Mia's phone number, then Jesse, making it a three way. We devised a plan. Mia hung up, Jesse stayed on the line.
I walked back into the room. "Arianna, your brother would like to speak to you." Arianna reached for the phone.
"Nope. He said speaker phone." I turned it onto speaker.
"Hello brother." Arianna said tentatively.
"What the hell Arianna! Rose called Mia and told her what you said I said! I am currently locked in the bathroom, with Mia trying to claw her way through the door!" Mia pretended to claw at a door, the noise was very realistic.
"Mia! That's enough." I said.
"Okay Rose." Mia said sweetly.
"Arianna, I would never say that. It's not true. Rose is not a slut by any means. In fact she was the hottest girl in school, but she remained a virgin until… Rose? Are you still a virgin?" He directed the last part to me.
"Nope. Three months pregnant actually." I said. A little embarrassed, but they should know I could kick ass even when I was pregnant.
"Oh congrats! Anyway she graduated high school as a virgin. And Arianna, I bet she is move selective than you are." As far as he, or anyone else knew, that statement was true, "See ya Rose. I gotta go, sorry for what she said."
"No prob, Jesse. See ya!" I hung up, "Now that that's settled…."
"Wait. You said 'when you can beat me in a fight, I will let you bend some rules' Tom already kicked your ass!" Arianna pushed.
"Is that so. Okay class. Do you all believe Tom can kick my ass?" Everyone raised their hand but Jeremy, "Okay Tom. Let's fight. You win, me and Jeremy will run ten miles each. In fact I'll run fifty. You lose, the entire class except Jeremy runs ten miles each. The winner is the one to pin down their opponent first."
"Deal!" Tom said. Okay I think he forgot how last night went.
Tom walked to the front of the class. "One. Two. Three. Go." Mr. Morrow said.
He ran at me. I picked him up off his feet, threw him down onto the floor and pinned him down. The fight lasted less than ten seconds.
"Mr. Morrow, May I have a class list?" He handed me a list with all their names on it, I scanned the list, "I expect to see you all at the gym today after school in work out cloths. Those who are not there by 3:30, will be forced to run twenty miles and serve a week of detention." I began to walk out, "Oh I forgot, why I was here!" I walked back into the room, "If you are planning to go complain to Kirova, don't bother, she resigned. The new headmistress is Princess Vasilisa Dragomir. Also I will be the new gym coach. I will run all training sessions, until next January."
"Why are you leaving in January?" A small moroi girl asked.
"I will be moving on to bigger and better things in January."
"What?" the girl asked.
"In January I will be Queen." I said.
I saw everyone staring at the ring, "Oh and if you notice, there is a flame in the middle of the larger diamond. Anyway, now here is the larger reason I'm here. Two new students will be joining your class. I suggest you don't mess with them. The first skipped a few grades, Princess Saffron Ozera." Saffron stepped into the room, "I am her mentor. So if you mess with her, she knows how to kill you in fifteen different ways, without magic, stake, knife or any other kind of weapon. The second is Guardian Dimitri Belikov's nephew. Now Dimitri trained me. I am not related to Dimitri, imagine someone trained by Dimitri Belikov from the time he was able to walk, plus it runs though his blood." Paul stepped in.
"I will see you all on the track at 3:30. Jeremy if you want, you can come, but you don't need to." And with that I left.
SPOV:
I watched Rose leave. I turned to face the class. There were only two seats available. I walked over to one and sat down.
"Hey. So that is your brother's girlfriend?" The boy next to me asked. I nodded without looking at him, "So are you anti-social like your brother? Or are you just nervous. After all you are three years younger than us all." He had a light Russian accent.
"My brother is not anti-social." I said quietly.
"She talks! An Ozera talks!" He shouted for the whole class to hear, but the other kids talking drowned it out. I turned to look at him.
Bad idea. I may only be eight, but I knew what a hot guy looks like, and this guy was H-O-T. He had brown hair, which looked like Christian's. His hair fell in front of his eyes, but only enough so that he could hide them behind it if he needed to. This brought my attention to his eyes. They were a light brown. They reminded me of Rose's. His skin was perfectly tan and hidden behind a long-sleeved light blue shirt, which hinted at his strong abs and muscular arms. He wore light jeans, which had a slight rip at the knee.
"Okay. Are you done checking me out?" He asked, normally I would have blushed, but today I had a comeback.
I held up a finger. Looked him over for a minute more then said, "Okay now I'm done."
"Okay. My name is Jeremy Dune." He said.
"Saffron Ozera." I shook his hand.
A.N. Okay everyone! Review!