Sitting around, eating a delicious chocolate cake with my friends, I felt totally and completely happy. I looked around at the gifts on the table that I had opened earlier. I appreciated and loved everything but Lissa's gift was possibly the best one. It was a long gold chain necklace that had two small gems on it. The gems were the stones of our birth months. The necklace symbolized us and our friendship. It was slowly creeping further into the afternoon. I knew I was going to have to leave soon if I wanted any time to spend with Dimitri. I looked across the room to Lissa, and pointed down and tapped my wrist, the universal sign for "time." Realization crossed her face. "Oh Rose, don't you have to get ready for dinner with your mum?" Everyone turned and looked over at me.

"Yeah, sorry guys, I need to go. But seriously, thank you for everything. This was really great." I took turns hugging my friends before gathering my gifts and leaving. Once I reached my room I noticed there was a note on my bed. I set my things down on my table before picking it up and reading it.

Roza, come meet me at the cabin.

Love; D

I quickly checked myself over in the mirror before doing as the note said. As I walked across campus to get to the cabin I realized it was pretty dead outside. No doubt students and staff were in their rooms relaxing before classes started back up tomorrow. It took a few minutes, but finally I was right outside the front door of the cabin. I gentle opened it and walked inside. "Comrade!" I called out. I heard someone's feet shuffling before Dimitri appeared in front of me. When we saw each other we both smiled at one another. "Happy birthday Roza." He leaned in and kissed me, longer than usual. Now that we were alone we didn't have to worry about getting caught.

"You already said that earlier Comrade."

"Yes, well, I'm saying it again to reinforce the message." I softly chuckled. He grabbed hold of my hand and led me into the living area. We sat down on the surprisingly comfortable sofa and I cuddled as close to him as I could. He looked over at me. "What's got you smiling like that Milaya?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm just happy, I feel like things are finally going right in my life." He pulled me even closer to him, which I didn't think was possible without me ending on top of him.

"I know what you mean, I feel the same way."

"I wish graduation would hurry up. Not only so we can come out and be a couple, but so I can be Lissa's official guardian, and not feel trapped here anymore."

"Only a few more months." I sighed.

"Yeah." I looked up at him and he seemed to be deep in thought. "Hey, what are you thinking about." He looked down at me and a smile broke out on his face.

"Our future."

"Yeah? What does it look like to you?"

"It looks great. We will both be guarding, but spending lots of time together. Wherever Lissa and Christian go we will live close to them, together. Maybe every few years get a break to go see my family." The smile on my face got even bigger as I heard what Dimitri was thinking about. "How does that sound to you Roza?"

"That sounds like a dream come true." I looked up into his dark eyes that were impossible to resist. I leaned up and kissed him, after a while things began to pick up between the two of us. I knew how this would end, and the thought of it made me even happier.

After two hours of very a personal birthday celebration with Dimitri, along with just cuddling and talking, it was time for me to go out to dinner with my parents. "I need to go Comrade." He nodded his head.

"I'll walk you back to you room." Which he did. The one sad thing about it though was that we still couldn't openly hold hands or show our appreciation to one another as we walked down the halls of the academy. I may be of legal age now, but Dimitri was still my mentor. We would have to wait three more months; until graduation, till we could openly come out as a couple. Once we reached my door he looked around to make sure no one was around, the halls were completely empty except for the two of us. He quickly leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss on the lips. "Have a good dinner with your parents, I'll come by your room afterwards, just text me to let me know when you're back."

"I'll be looking forward to seeing you again soon Comrade." With that I walked into my room to quickly get ready for dinner with my parents. I fixed my hair and makeup and grabbed a leather jacket to put over my outfit. Soon there was a knock on my door. I opened it to reveal my father. He smiled kindly, looking nothing like the cruel mobster others thought he was.

"Happy birthday kizm."

"Thanks, where's mom?"

"She's in the car waiting for you, no come on." He held is arm out for me to link my own with. I locked my room and we made our way to the front of the school. As I walked the halls and outside I could see and hear the students whispering about me, thinking up of reasons as to why I would be seen leaving the academy linked arms with non-other than Abe Mazur. I just rolled my eyes. I wasn't exactly going around telling everyone that he was my father, however I was sure people would figure it out soon enough.

"So, where are we eating at?"

"We're going to a restaurant that's for moroi and dhampire. So they will be serving actual dinner meals rather human breakfast."

"Oh good, because I could seriously kill for a steak right about now." He chuckled and we got into the car. A guardian was driving us, but seeing as my mother was a trained guardian herself Abe didn't feel the need for any more. I sat in the back seat beside my mother. She leaned over and gently hugged me awkwardly in the car.

"Happy birthday Rosemarie."

"Thanks mom." She leant down and looked around in her purse, after a few moments she pulled out a small navy blue bag, small enough I could fit it in the palm of my hand. "What's this mom? You didn't have to get my anything."

"I didn't." I looked at her oddly. She just rolled her eyes. "Just open it." I did as she said and poured the condense of the bag out into the palm of my hand. Inside of it was a gold ring, with a very small garnet stone in the middle. I gasped softly.

"Wow, this is beautiful."

"It was your grandmothers. I know because you father and I were never really in your life you never really knew much about your own family and heritage. But her grandmother, she was an amazing guardian and woman. You remind me so much of her sometimes. I wanted you to have this, so you could have some sort of tie to her." I carefully put the ring on and then hugged my mother.

"Thank you, mom, really."

"You're welcome Rosemarie."

Sorry for the lack of update, my life has been super busy. I just got a job and I also have school on top of that so lots is going on. I hope you like this chapter. Let me know what you think. Next chapter will be lots of Rose and Dimitri and also some drama! If you have any ideas for this story let me know! When you review more it really puts me in the spirit to write more and update faster.