AN: Hey guys! I'm so sorry this chapter is so late... I don't even really have a regular update chedule and still I feel like it's late. So sorry. Anyways, it's here now and I hope you enjoy it!

Little lies

All characters belong to Richelle Mead, I only own my imagination.

Chapter 4.

Lissa's point of view

I walked through the cafeteria. My feet felt heavy and I dragged them along. I didn't feel like eating with my friends. Maybe it sounded like the biggest cliché in the world, but I felt like they didn't really understand me. Honestly I didn't quite understand why they were so keen to have me back in their group. I had been gone for what seemed like centuries, and my time away had changed me. I wasn't the same girl anymore. Couldn't they see that? People changed but I was expected to act the same as always. I was expected to be the rich party girl, Lissa Dragomir, but I couldn't play that role anymore. I just wanted to keep my head down and lay low. I just wanted to survive high school. If anyone ever survived high school that is.

"Your highness." I heard a sarcastic but familiar voice chime behind my shoulder.

I turned around to see Rose Hathway, my best friend, guardian (or hopefully guardian to be) and ally wearing a smug smile.

"Yes," I said, my voice instantly pitched higher. She made me happy in a way that always seemed to work. It wasn't something that took effort or something we had to push for. We just sort of clicked.

"You off to dinner with the vultures?" Rose asked, rolling her eyes and making a face towards a group of royals waving at me. Her skin was paler than usual and she was sweating. She was wearing black training leggings and a grey tank top. It wasn't really her style, but it was necessary for her training here at the academy.

I sighed. "I suppose I have to have dinner with them, you know keep up the appearances." I twirled some of my hair between my fingers.

"Hey don't act like it's all that miserable," Rose said raising her hands up as a defensive move. "I'm lucky I even get to eat. Honestly that Belikov guy is a whack job. Every muscle in my body is aching and I feel like shit all the time. He has me working like I'm supposed to take down a whole army of Strigoi all on my own."

"Maybe that's the plan," I said, grinning. "You're like their superman, their wild card. Maybe it's all part of a bigger plan." I made a surprised gasp and let out a giggle.

"A conspiracy theory…" Rose mumbled. She looked at me with her sharp dark eyes. "I like that," she said and returned my grin. "Now, you're coming with me princess. We need some food and preferably a lot of it." She gently placed her hand to the small of my back and guided me towards the cafeteria line.

"So how was your day?" Rose asked me as she piled food on to her plate; mashed potatoes, peas, gravy and of course meatloaf. I picked up a chicken salad and a piece of bread.

"You know…" I said pretending to read the ingredients of the salad dressing. Who knew ranch dressing was so complicated.

"No, I'm pretty sure I don't know. That's why I'm asking in the first place." Rose walked us to a table full of her friends. They were all Dhampirs, young and fit with piles of food that almost out shined Rose's.

"Hey," Rose cleared her throat. "Lissa's gonna eat with us today, so try to behave."

Mason Ashford tapped the seat next to him. "Have a seat and join the crazy train."

I let out a laugh and sat down. It was rather easy to talk to Rose and her friends; they seemed so outgoing and wild. They explained stories with wide hand gestures and loud voices. It was nice. I blended into the crowd. Most of all they didn't act like they owned the place. They were down to earth. And if they didn't like me, they certainly didn't show it.

"So Liss, seriously though, what'd you do to today?" Rose stuffed mashed potatoes into her mouth.

"I had classes; math, Latin, physics and English."

"That's only four classes," Rose pointed out, raising four of her fingers to mark each class.

"Yeah, I kinda skipped Social studies," I mumbled, hoping to make the topic very bland and boring.

"You skipped class." Rose looked like she was about to choke on her food.

"It's not that scandalous," I protested.

"You never once skipped a class when we were out in the real world. You even dragged my sorry ass to every morning class we had. So tell me, what gives?"

"I just didn't feel like going to class, that's all." I played with my hair again. I decided to pick on my salad. I ate a piece of tomato and chewed on it thoughtfully.

"Yeah…okay. I'm stuck with Mr. Whack job Belikov and you get to skip class. Fair play." Rose rolled her eyes and took a sip of her water bottle.

"It couldn't have been too much fun for her either," Mason interrupted. "I saw her walking out of the chapel with Christian Ozera."

Rose dropped her fork on the plate. "Why are you hanging out with Crazy Ozera?" She looked almost offended. "Actually scratch that, why are you hanging with Crazy Ozera in the chapel?"

"He's not crazy," I said defensively. "He's actually been very nice to me." Perhaps that wasn't entirely true, he had been friendly and all, but that could just be because he needed my help on a project. I made it sound like he was ready to take a bullet for me. Still I felt the need to stand up on his behalf. It wasn't really fair what people said about him. I knew people said things about me too. Wild theories involving my escape circulated around the academy. And if I were in this situation I would hope that he would stand up for me.

"Oh he's cray cray alright," Rose said. "I had English with him today and he totally snapped at me."

"Yeah 'cause you totally didn't do anything to agitate him," Mason said and laughed to himself.

"What did she do," I asked suddenly worried. The conversation I'd had with Christian earlier came rushing to my head.

"She you know…asked him about his parents," Mason stated in an oddly calm blur.

I took in a sharp breath. "Rose…" I shook my head. I could feel a blush of embarrassment rise to my cheeks. It wasn't a secret what his parents had done, but I could only imagine the impact it had on the rest of his family. They were shamed, all their power stripped away. Their royal status was now merely a relic. It was nothing like it had once been. In my opinion he was a victim of his parent's actions, but no one else seemed to see it that way.

"What!" She exclaimed and shrugged her shoulders. "It's not like it's a secret."
"That's not the point," I said and put down my fork.

"What is the point then?"

"The point is," I said looking her dead in the eyes. "You can't just ask people about things that are probably painful and hard to talk about." I gave her a meaningful look. I saw her face change into a reflection of concern. I wasn't really sure what the concern was about. I saw her understand. And then sadly, I saw her shake it away.

"He's still creepy though," Rose said and cleaned off her plate.

"You're impossible," I sighed.

"Hell yeah, but that's why you love me," Rose said, a wide grin spreading across her features.

"As I said, you are impossible." I shook my head and wiped my mouth.

Her face grew serious and she placed her hand firmly on the table. "Look Lissa, I'm not stupid. I know what you're saying, you shouldn't judge people by rumors and that blah, blah, blah, but I thought the plan was to lay low and try not to draw any attention to us. Hanging out with Crazy…"

I gave her a sharp look.

"…With Christian Ozera," she said emphasizing his name. "Is not laying low. It's like a big red sign that screams 'look at me, look at me'"

"No one cares about who I hang out with," I said. "I'm not that interesting."

"Oh I beg to differ, you're the most interesting thing since Jesse Zeklos' girl drama, and let me tell you that's some interesting shit. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but you have to behave. We both have to behave." Rose looked like she had a hard time saying those words. Behaving…it wasn't really her way of life.

"Can I quote that?" I asked, laughing nervously.

"Oh, God no. Don't tell anyone I said that." She sighed. "But I mean it you can't hang out with Ozera anymore. At least until things calm down."

I mulled over the thought. The mere thought of giving up my time with Christian made me sad. I'd known him for two days, but he was like a breath of fresh air in the middle of the desert. And honestly, the thought of not spending time with him, because it would be bad for my reputation repulsed me. That wasn't who I was anymore. I felt like if I listened to Rose's advice I'd chip off an important piece of me. I knew Rose only meant good, she always did. And I knew I should probably listen to her and just leave Christian to survive alone, but I couldn't bear to think of him screwing up that Slavic art essay especially now that I'd seemed to get him interested.

"Liss?" Rose still had that concerned look on her face.

"Alright, I'll stay away from Christian."

"Good," Rose stated with a simple ease to her words. She picked up her plate and beckoned me to follow suit. "Now let's see if we can manage to escape for a while, I need a break from Belikov."

"He can't be that bad, can he?" I'd only actually met him when he had brought us back to St. Vladimir's. He'd seemed perfectly nice, except for the part of him dragging us back here, but I guess all guardians were nice to Moroi.

"Oh believe me, if he didn't look so good I'd like to break his nose." Rose balled her fists.

"Could you actually break his nose? I mean I'm not trying to put you down or anything, but I saw you try to attack him in that ally and he threw you around like you were a stuffed animal." I tried not to laugh at the thought.

"I totally could, it would just be a waste to ruin such a pretty face." Rose grinned at me and I laughed.

"Well at least he looks good. You could be stuck with some middle aged lady who would make you file documents all day. You know some Dhampirs do work with paper work," I pointed out.

"Filing…" Rose shivered. "Good point."

XXX

My first class of the day was Slavic Art. Usually I would never dread that very class, but today my heart could seem to find a steady rhythm and my palms kept getting sweatier by the minute. I had to face Christian. I don't think I could do this. If only he were horrible and obnoxious, this would be so much easier. I leaned against the wall of the corridor. The cold bricks dug into my back. That's when I saw him. He was wearing a dark jacket and dark jeans. His eyes pierced the room and looked straight at me. He was smiling and made his way to me. He stopped in front of me and picked up a folder from his bag. He said something that I couldn't focus on. I was too busy looking at every angle of his face. I tried to memorize how he looked now; happy and excited. I swallowed loudly.

"Lissa?" He asked, his eyebrows arching in a curious manner. "Did you hear what I just said?"

"Um, no," I confessed.

"I started the essay; I think the beginning is really good. I started by categorizing the different artist and writing down a little of their background and then I…" He continued to speak so eagerly. Well I'll be damned, Christian Ozera, the self claimed Slavic art hater was actually excited about Slavic art. How was I supposed to not like him? He waved the paper in front of my face, dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Lissa, are you alright? You seem really distracted." Christian's eyes softened a bit, like ice slowly melting.

"I-I don't know." Was all I managed to mumble before the bell rang and people started to shuffle into class. I swiftly made my way to our desk at the back of the class. Christian followed me with a mildly annoyed look on his face. He sat down next to me in one quick movement and placed his notebook on the desk.

"What's wrong," he asked. His voice was friendly enough, but I could detect hint of something odd in the way he dragged out his words.

"Nothing is wrong; I'm just not in the mood to talk." I took out my pencil as Mrs. Reed started the class. Christian didn't say anything. He just sat next to me in complete silence. The clock ticked painfully slow. I didn't pay attention to anything Mrs. Reed was talking about. Sometimes out of the corner of my eye I would recognize a piece of art, but that's as far as my contribution to this class went today. I felt stiff, I sat there on my chair like I was paralyzed. I wanted, no,I needed to explain to Christian why I was acting this distant. He didn't deserve this. I wanted to be honest, but my lips seemed to be sealed with glue. Talking suddenly became a daunting obstacle.

Finally the class ended. I stayed back to collect my things. I watched Christian get up without a word and walk to Mrs. Reed's desk. He handed her his folder. I felt a bit bad for eavesdropping, but I did it anyway. I listened in on their conversation.

"I came up with a subject for my essay. I already started the essay as well," Christian calmly stated.

Mrs. Reed picked up the folder and slowly went through the pages. "This looks impressive Mr. Ozera. I have to ask, did you do this all by yourself?"

"Of course I did, you would be surprised by what I can do when given a bit of inspiration." I didn't mind him taking credit for the essay, he had done all the work, I had only given him the subject. Still I felt a pang of jealousy hit me when he didn't mention I was helping him with his project.

"Well, keep up the good work and you might actually pass this class," Mrs. Reed said. She almost smiled. Almost.

Christian turned around to leave. He looked a bit surprised to still see me there. I didn't actually know why I had stayed back. This went against Rose's advice, but I couldn't just leave without explaining myself to him. It was silly really, what would I say 'I'm sorry we can't be friends because your social status just doesn't match mine'?

We walked out of the class together. "Do you feel like talking now?" Christian asked with a leveled voice.

"Yes," I said. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe I was doing this.

"Are you ready to tell me what's wrong?" He asked, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"We can't do this." I just spit it out. I didn't even think about what I was saying. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I regretted them.

"Exactly what are you talking about?" Christian asked. He sounded very reserved. I felt my heart sink. He knew. He knew what I was about to say. I saw it in those ice cold eyes of his. I saw it in the sarcastic smile that was playing on his lips. He knew.

"We can't be friends," I said. I lifted my chin up and avoided his eyes. I was afraid if I looked in them I'd take back everything.

"Who said we were friends," Christian snapped. "You're just helping me with my project." His mouth twitched into a tight line and his eyes bore a whole in my soul. It was very uncomfortable. It was like he could see right through me. Read me like one of his books, escape into my mind.

"Oh, I just thought…"

"Right, well you thought wrong," Christian said. His words were cold and emotionless. I didn't like it. They didn't suit him at all.

I took a deep breath, composing myself. "Alright, then there is nothing to talk about."

"Yep, nothing at all," Christian confirmed. "Thank you for your help with my project Vasilisa." He turned around in one swift spin of his heels and stalked away.

I was left standing there in complete shock. I just stared at his furthering form in a paralyzed state. His voice rang through my head. Vasilisa. It was so cold. I took a tentative step. My world was still firmly around me. I wasn't crumbling. Everything was still here. If everything was still here, then why did I feel like I was suffocating?

AN: So here we go. Tell me what you thought of this chapter? Tell me what you think about the way Lissa is acting and how Christian responds to it. Do you like it, do you hate it? Also if you would like to see characters from VA that are currently not in this story make an appearance in this story, just let me know!

Well, you know what to do to make me happy :D

Love Always, Alexandra!