Chapter 18: Six Weeks, One Night

The air itself tingled with nervous excitement. For weeks, all the senior novices could talk about was their upcoming field experience: Six weeks of guarding a Moroi senior while fighting off unpredictable attacks from their instructors. Honestly, I was looking forward to it as well. I knew I'd be pretty beat up by the end of it, because I would be staging a lot of the attacks. But field experience always spiced things up on campus after the long winter.

All thirty-two senior novices were sitting on the bleachers by the track. Alberta explained the procedure to the class. They all had it memorized, and my main job was to glare at students who were whispering to one another. Everyone was quiet when she began calling names, with the novice's name first and their assigned Moroi's name second. I was as nervous as they were, because I had had a say in the assignments. One of them, I knew, could be a problem. It was the result of a very tough decision on my part. I was protective of every student in my training group, as always, but I would really be holding my breath until the middle of the alphabet.

"Dominic Addison," Alberta began. "Nikolai Platonov." The assignment was fine with me. Nikolai seemed like a pretty quiet, easygoing kid. He and Dominic might not be best friends, but they would have a decent guarding relationship.

"Brooke Afanasyeva," she continued. "Kristina Ivashkova." Putting an Ivashkov under Brooke's protection had been Alberta's idea, and I glowed with pride. Getting assigned to a royal from a really prominent family like the Ivashkovs was usually a good sign for a novice's future.

Alex Clay was the next of my students to be called, and he too was paired with a royal: Melanie Badica. I was equally excited for Aria Shevchenko to hear that she was assigned to Jordan Drozdov. In addition to being from a powerful family, Jordan was pretty hot—not that I should think of St. Vladimir's students that way anymore, even if they were my age. Aria would have some decent eye candy to get her through six tough weeks. But first, Alberta had to get through the middle of the alphabet.

"Polina Kachusova." I held my breath. "Elliott Ozera."

Polina's blue eyes snapped instantly to mine, even though Alberta had read the names. Yeah, that went over about as well as I expected.

"Wesley McCormick. Savannah Conta." Polina's eyes narrowed even further at the thought of someone else protecting her girlfriend.

"Ian Zaleska," Alberta finished. "Hannah Szelsky." I had tuned out. The novices were instructed to pack a bag and go find their Moroi at lunch. I wanted to leave too, but there was a fireball coming at me in skinny jeans and knee-high boots.

"What the hell is this?" Polina demanded, shaking her assignment packet.

Alberta looked to me. It was just understood that the angry little dhampir standing in front of us was my responsibility. I guess I was up to the task.

"It looks pretty similar to your field experience assignment," I answered. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that's what it is."

"Really? Because I think it looks more like Wesley's assignment. Are you really going to make me find him and switch? Getting this right is your job. I have better things to do."

How did Dimitri never slap me when I was his student?

"You want better things to do?" I was not about to play this game with her again. "I can think of plenty for you to do on your day off. I'm happy to share my ideas if you speak to me like that one more time."

Alberta was watching us in both awe and amusement. She probably hadn't believed that I would ever meet my match.

"Well, if Savannah and some Ozera are attacked at the same time, I'm going to go for Savannah. I don't give a fuck whose name is on this packet."

I wanted to shake her. "And that is precisely why I made the choice that I did. Being a guardian is not about protecting someone you love. It's about protecting Moroi. I know you can't see it now, but being assigned to someone else will make you a better guardian for Savannah in the long run—assuming that you are assigned to Savannah, which you should never assume. You need to learn when to tone down your emotions and do what you're supposed to do. Right now, what you're supposed to do is find Elliott Ozera. This conversation is over. Go."

Still furious, she stomped off to the commons in search of Elliott.

I turned to Alberta and shrugged. "That went pretty well."

After lunch, I pulled up the senior class rosters on my computer. Savannah Conta and Elliott Ozera were both enrolled in seventh period Moroi Culture 4. This was going to be interesting.

Every instructor had different styles of handling field experience. The first difference was in timing. Some liked to wait several days before their first attack, keeping the novices hyper-alert and downright paranoid. I didn't really enjoy seeing them that twitchy, and more importantly, I didn't want to get bored. I staged my first attack less than two hours after lunch.

To be fair, I wanted to make it a relatively easy one. The novice, if he or she were able to take me down, would make a good first impression on all of the guardians and get a boost of confidence going into the next six weeks. I hadn't decided on my "victim" yet until I saw Alex Clay leaving the Moroi dorms with Melanie Badica. The quad was nearly empty except for the pair of them. I ducked behind a building until they passed, then grabbed Melanie from behind.

Alex sprang into action immediately. He punched my face with one hand, just hard enough to make me loosen my grip on Melanie a tiny bit. He pulled her out of my hands and she started to run away.

"Melanie! Stay where I can see you!" he bellowed, taking a strong kick to the shin from me. Guardians didn't wear shin guards in the real world, and Alex would almost certainly have a nasty bruise. He returned the favor, slamming me to the ground and raking his nails across my cheek. His practice stake went toward my heart, but I dodged it with my upper body and socked him in the eye. This was turning into a nastier fight than I had expected. I used my legs to get some leverage, then flipped him onto his back. As I twisted my arm to pin his neck and win the fight, his hand came out of nowhere and I felt the dull practice stake being shoved just under my ribcage. I admitted defeat.

"Fuck," he said calmly, in between rapid breaths. "I'm going to look like I lost."

He had a point. "Well, that was an A plus job. I'll do my best to spread the word. Sorry there weren't more people around to see it." I really was sorry. I hadn't thought of that. Alex really had fought brilliantly and had no audience except a terrified Melanie Badica.

Or so I thought. I looked up to see an entire class of Moroi lined up against the first-floor windows of their classroom, chanting Alex's last name.

"I'll be damned," I said. "You have a fan club. Go take Melanie to her class. I'll go get you an ice pack for that eye and bring it to class."

He opened his mouth to protest.

"You'll still look like a badass; don't worry," I said. "The fingernails on my face were a nice touch, although I doubt a real Strigoi would have even felt it. Use your stake on the Strigoi's face, if you can. The silver will really hurt them. Good job keeping your Moroi in your line of sight. That was smart."

He thanked me and nodded, taking in the feedback and processing it. A Strigoi may not have felt his fingernails, but I sure did. My eye couldn't have looked much better than his did. This field experience was going to be far more painful than my own.

When I brought an ice pack to Alex's class, I held one to my own face too. Hey, I promised I'd help him look like a badass. Another instructor, Paul Vignovich, was on his way there to take notes on the novices. He shook his head when I passed him in the hallway. "Everyone is going to show up to trials in a cast by the time you're done with them."

"Not if we've taught them well!" I called back to him. I should have known I was going to be the one picking fights all day. I hoped my enthusiasm would dim by the end of field experience, or I was going to be one giant bruise. Fortunately, I had a brilliant idea to make this year's field experience extra fun for myself—I mean, to fully prepare the novices for the real world. I could hardly wait to bring it up at the next guardians' meeting.

"I have a proposal," I said loftily. Everyone turned toward me, no doubt a little afraid.

"Do enlighten us, Guardian Hathaway," Alberta said dryly. We still bickered a lot, although it was more for fun these days, much like my conversations with Christian.

"I want to throw a party."

"Of course you do."

"No, no, hear me out," I insisted. "We worry about the novices getting complacent and letting their guard down if they go too long without an attack during field experience. And it's all well and good to protect a Moroi who just goes through normal school days. But what about parties? Moroi go to all sorts of parties, especially the royals. It's easy to secure a classroom. Securing an entire venue? Much more difficult. So I want to throw a party. A dance, actually."

"Doesn't that seem a little mean?" asked Quentin McCortney, another guardian. "Their Moroi classmates get to go to a dance, and they just have to stand against the wall?"

"Not really," argued Alyssa Vogel. I could see the wheels turning behind her blue-green eyes. "There's nothing unusual about that when they're out in the real world, and it's about time they grow up. I actually think it's a great idea." Alyssa was probably my favorite instructor currently working at the Academy—other than myself, of course. She was only a few years older than me, also female, annoyingly smart, and every bit as tough as Alberta and I.

"It's never been done before," said Alberta. I shot her a look. "But that doesn't make it a bad idea," she conceded.

"I'm with Quentin," said Gregory Madison. "It's the end of their high school experience. They should be allowed to have fun."

"We could compromise," I suggested. "Have them show us how they would secure the venue, then let them have fun." Compromise? I was so proud of myself.

"On the other hand, we do sometimes stage attacks on the novices' day off, just to teach them that they should jump in to take down the threat no matter what. Why can't we do something similar? If you really want to make it a learning experience, we should let them get all dressed up and then stage an attack," said Alyssa. I made a mental note to buy her a cookie or something.

"Or attack an after-party," I said excitedly. I was met with blank stares. "Come on, you know the parties going to happen, and then we don't have to feel guilty, because they're already doing something wrong."

"Just because you were drunk for most of your high school days doesn't mean the rest of them are," said Alberta. I wasn't really drunk all the time until my teaching days, but that was irrelevant.

Alyssa shrugged. "Sounds like fun to me."

We all argued for awhile. In the end, my crazy plan of attacking the after-parties actually won. I think that the more conservative guardians just liked the idea of sending a message about underage drinking to all students, Moroi and dhampirs alike.

The evening of the dance came around, and I was a chaperone. I didn't really mind, even though it meant I had to wear a dress before I could change into my all-black "Strigoi" gear later on. It was weird to see my students, who were always athletic and serious, outside of the gym or classroom. I was also interested to see who went together as dates. Haley and Dominic, I had to admit, were cute. His maroon tie even matched her knee-length maroon dress. Brooke and Alex seemed to be together as well, although they split up whenever they needed to do so in order to keep an eye on their Moroi. We had told them it wasn't necessary, but I really admired their dedication and planned to make a note of it in their records.

I surveyed the dance floor. Guardians really do make great chaperones because we see everything. I bit back a laugh when I saw old Quentin McCortney breaking up a Moroi couple who were dancing inappropriately, and Sam Silverstein arguing with Hannah Szelsky about whether or not her dress was too short for a school function. Her date was emphatically defending the dress. I beamed when I saw Polina and Savannah slow-dancing together. They looked absolutely beautiful.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dhampir girl leaning on the arm of a Moroi boy, laughing loudly. His hand was low on her body, pulling up the hem of her dress so far that he might as well have just felt her up in public. She was at least a foot shorter than him, and I recognized her curly brown hair and petite, muscular body from the back. Within seconds, I had approached her and spun her around by the arm.

"Ow!" she yelped angrily. It really shouldn't have hurt. I had to catch her as she tripped. Again, that should not have happened. I looked into her eyes. Little Aria was definitely drunk. The guilty look on Jordan Drozdov—who was her date and the Moroi she was supposed to be guarding—told me that he was too.

I steadied Aria, only to put my hands on her shoulders and push her out the door from behind. In the hallway, I lowered my voice.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She didn't answer, clearly not wanting to hand me any information that I didn't already know. Smart girl. She tried to keep her face in its trademark serious expression, but it wasn't very intimidating when she was tipsy. Still, I thought, she could probably get away with staying at the dance as long as she was done drinking for the night. I only knew she was drunk because I knew her so well. Still, I was pretty angry. If she wasn't going to explain herself, I'd do it for her.

"Do you have any idea what you're known for around here?" I began. "Being really talented and dedicated and full of promise. Do you know how lucky you are to be acknowledged like that? To have the reputation you've earned? Do you? I don't think so. Because if you did, you would hold onto it better than this. Showing up to a school dance drunk during field experience? That counts as endangering your Moroi. And you're dating him now too? You know better than that. You're disappointing me in so many ways right now that I don't even know where to begin."

She stared at me, wide-eyed. I realized that my words were really hurting her. She thought highly of me and really valued my opinion of her. I expected her to snap back at me with her usual feisty attitude, but she didn't even try. I began to wonder what, if anything, was really wrong with her going to the dance with Jordan.

"Are you… dating… Jordan?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No! I swear. I know it was unprofessional to go to the dance with him. I shouldn't have gone with anyone. We don't have feelings for each other at all."

"You didn't look like you were just friends," I said warningly. Then again, she was right—they didn't look like they really cared about each other romantically either.

"Well," she said, letting the alcohol get the better of her and giggling a little bit. "Not, like… emotional… feelings…."

Got it. I leaned in. "Is he trying to take advantage of you? Would he pressure you to do anything you don't want to do?"

"No!" she repeated earnestly. "I want to. I really want to. We've already done everything up to… shit… you don't need to know that, do you. Oh my god, I am so sorry. This is awkward."

I may never know what compelled me to do what I did next. "Stay here," I instructed. I marched back into the gym and found Adrian about to make out with Sydney in a corner. Was anyone around here not drunk and horny? "Adrian!" I barked. "Need you. Just for a minute." I led him into the hallway, where Aria had flattened herself against the wall, probably hoping she could just melt into it. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the incredible awkwardness that was about to go down.

"Adrian, meet Aria. Aria, Adrian," I introduced them quickly. "You two have a lot in common. You're both horny whores. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Adrian, give me your wallet."

"What, draining my trust fund in Russia wasn't enough?" he asked. "You want a dollar for the vending machine or something?"

"Just give it to me," I snapped. Silently, he handed it over. I flipped through it, pulled out a few condoms, and handed them to Aria. "Thanks, Adrian." I gave him back his wallet and he practically ran back into the gym, not asking any more questions.

I turned to Aria. "One night," I told her sternly. "You have one night to be reckless and unprofessional, and then this kind of thing can never happen again." Something in her eyes told me all I needed to know. "First time?"

She nodded.

"It'll probably hurt a little bit. If you change your mind, tell him. He'll stop. If he doesn't, tell him I'll kick his ass. It won't hurt for long. The sex, I mean. Not me kicking Jordan's ass. That would hurt for long. It might be good—your first time, that is—or it might not be. I've only ever had sex with someone I love. I don't know what it's like to do what you're doing, but it's your choice. And Aria? No more drinking tonight. You need to be clear-headed if you're going to make this decision." And if you go to an after-party, you'll be screwed tonight in more ways than one.

Her face was back to being the perfect picture of guardian seriousness. I knew, without a doubt, that she was going to be great. Soon, she would be a full-fledged guardian, and she would grow into her new role. To help her along, I decided I should probably ambush the hell out of her and Jordan on Monday. Or Tuesday. She might be expecting it on Monday.

I guess she didn't know I was planning her demise, because she threw her arms around me, surprising both of us. I patted her shoulder, strangely comforted by the way she was clinging to me like a little monkey. Nobody ever relies on me for this kind of stuff. I'm a fighter. So is Aria. But in that moment, we were just two young female guardians trying to do the impossible: make the most of our talent, keep our reputations clean, and not lose sight of those human genes that make us something other than just warriors—something arguably stronger.

We broke apart, and she hurried back to the gym. I didn't need to tell her to keep our conversation a total secret. She knew what was at stake.

Author's Note: Sorry about the incredible awkwardness. But it did serve a purpose, and you know how straightforward Rose can be! I thought it was kinda funny too. The next chapter will finish up field experience.