AH/AU Soulmate themed. Got inspired by HiccuppedStudios!
I hated being the 'new kid'. It was my final year of high school and starting halfway through the year. It felt like a bad joke because everyone knew each other, and I was the odd man out. The only upside of going to this Podunk private school was that my childhood best friend went here.
I adjusted my skirt nervously and my eyes flicked around the hall, not able to see a face I recognized in the sea of kilts and blazers. I hated this stupid kilt, and I hated being here. My father said that it was a better school, but I think he was trying to make up for the last fifteen years of being absent. Mom's job took her overseas, and that meant that I had to stay with him for the remainder of the year. Which meant moving to the other side of the city, and no longer able to go to my public high school.
A shoulder shoved past me, and I glared at the back of their heads.
"Excuse me would have sufficed!" I snarked but another person slipped up beside me, an arm slipping around me.
"Oh no, don't start anything. It's not even nine o'clock yet," Lissa chided. I looked at her and rolled my eyes.
"Whatever. Where's your ugly half?" I asked, running my hand through my curls. Lissa smiled at the mention of her boyfriend and soulmate.
Soulmate. Gag me with a spoon. It was a real thing. Each person had a special someone designed for them in the world. Sometimes they worked out, and sometimes they crashed and burned. My parents were both. Great together, but horrible married.
Lissa knew Christian was her soulmate the minute she touched his hand, feeling the need to be near him. I thought it was a load of crap, but she believed in it. A lot of people believed in it. I wasn't so sure.
"He's not here yet. Now we need to go up to the office to get your schedule and pass cards," Lissa said as she turned me around and steered me toward the office.
"You look miserable," Lissa sighed as we walked, the hallway towards the office empty compared to the rest of the school I've seen.
"Living with Abe is miserable. I thought Janine was suffocating, but Abe hovers and doesn't at the same time," I explained with a shake of my head.
"Is it really that bad?" she whispered.
I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just moody, but it's so weird. I mean, whose parent just decides 'Oh, I'm going to take a new posting in Nepal six months before my kid graduates high school."
Lissa frowned and squeezed my arm. "I'm sorry. It was a shitty thing to do."
"And Abe. He's just…God! Honestly, you'd think he was a mobster with the way he acts. Weird closed-door meetings, security guards, state-of-the-art security systems. It's nuts."
Lissa squeezed my arm again. "You know you can come and spend time at my house any time you want, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I know," I said as I pushed the door of the office open. It was clean and almost posh looking, a woman sitting behind a large ornate desk. I walked up to the desk and cleared my throat quietly.
"Yes?" the woman asked, not looking up from her computer.
"My name is Rose Hathaway. I'm here to get my course list and hand in my notes for my medical file," I said. The woman looked up and clicked her tongue.
"Yes," she said as she turned in her chair and flicked through the files on the credenza beside her. She pulled one out of the tray and stood up, gesturing for me to follow her. I gestured to Lissa to wait for me as I followed the secretary, adjusting my bag on my shoulder. She led me into a larger office, one complete with an even more ornate desk and chair, and a wall of bookshelves.
"I just need Dean Belikov to sign off on your form, it was missed," the secretary said as we walked in, her lips pursing when we saw the room was empty.
"Dean?"
"I'm right here," a man called out, a voice thick with an accent I hadn't heard before. The tallest man I had ever seen walked out of a room near the back, fiddling with his cuff as he came in.
"Dean Belikov, this is Rose Hathaway. I need you to sign her form. It's missing the signature at the bottom," the secretary explained, setting the file on the desk in front of the chair. Dean Belikov looked up from his cuff and I was momentarily stunned. He looked way too young to be a Dean, and it wasn't fair how gorgeous he was. Honestly, he should have been a model instead of a teacher.
"Of course, welcome to St. Vladimir's Academy, Rose," Dean Belikov said as he flipped the file open, smiling at me. I gave him a mute smile, shifting on my feet as I waited for her. The secretary said something about grabbing the phone and stepped out of the room. Dean Belikov plucked a pen from the holder on the desk, signed the paper on top with the flag and then closed the file, extending it to me.
"There you are. And this is for your medical file?"
I nodded and pursed my lips as he read the sheet.
"It states that I am not required to remove my wristband during exams. It has a setting so that it shows just my heart rate," I explained and showed him my wristband.
"And this is used for… I'm not familiar with this," he said.
"Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. It's a condition that affects my heart rate when I move from sitting to standing. I'm pretty good at managing it, but I do also have a medical bracelet," I explained and he nodded. Dean Belikov nodded.
"Do you need any assistance getting to your classes?"
I shook my head. "No. Um, my best friend goes here so she said she would show me where is need to go," I explained.
"Oh good. May I ask who?"
"Lissa Dragomir."
"Ah. Yes, well, she's an excellent student. I'm sure that she will make your first day here a breeze," he said as he went back to trying to button his cuff. He sighed sharply when the button slipped again.
"Do you need help with that?" I asked, pointing at his cuff with a snort. Seeing him struggle brought one of the very few memories of my father from my childhood to the present. He always let me button his cuffs.
"I usually don't have a problem, but this morning I can't seem to get it," he said with a shake of his head but extended his arm enough for me to help him with the button on his cuff.
It was barely a brush against his skin, but I felt it. It was like an electrocution, but not painful. My eyes snapped up to his as I let go of his wrist, both of us knowing exactly what had happened. He sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, ripping his hand away as if I burned him. Well, I technically had. Where my fingers touched his skin, there were burn marks. And I knew that if I looked at my fingers, they would be darker in colour with the burn too.
We both just stared at each other before I blushed and grabbed the file off the desk, turning on my heel and all but running from the room. Lissa was waiting in the reception area, her leg crossed over the other as she looked at her phone. She looked up with a smile, but it fell quickly.
"What's wrong?" she asked slightly alarmed, but I gripped her arm and towed her out of the office. I looked around the hall and beelined for the first bathroom, pushing the door open.
"Rose!?"
I looked under the stalls to make sure nobody else was in there before I whirled on her.
"What did it feel like when you knew Christian was your mate?"
Lissa's brows knitted together.
"What?"
"Did it feel like a zap? Like being electrocuted? But not painful, like when you shock yourself on a door handle? Or when you touch a hot mug?"
Lissa gaped and me and shook her head before she frowned. "Who is it?"
"Dean Belikov!" I groaned, throwing my hands out to the side. Lissa folded her lips together, something she did when she was trying desperately not to laugh, but a breathy laugh still made it threw her nose.
"It's not funny, Lissa!" I exclaimed and she raised her hands at me.
"Easy. I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at the situation. Of course, you're the one who ends up with a teacher as a mate."
I rolled my eyes at her and growled, turning and kicking the trash can.
"This is such bullshit!"
Lissa smirked and quickly removed it from her face.
"How about we make it through the first two periods of the day," Lissa said as she gripped my hand, pulling me out of the bathroom as the bell rang.
I blew a breath through my lips, smirking at the feeling it made. I was lucky to score a third-period spare thanks to an extra credit I earned by accident. I thought I failed my math class and took it in summer school, but in all actuality, I had passed it. So I ended up with an extra core credit.
I swung my hands as I walked, looking over the photos on the walls as I went. It was the alumni hall, dating back to the eighties. As I watched there was a photo that stopped me, making me turn and look closely.
There was the old man in black and white and then upwards was my mom.
"I believe you should be in the study hall."
I pursed my lips and turned my head and shrugged before looking back at the photos.
"I got lost on my way there," I said plainly. It wasn't exactly a lie; I did get lost when I was looking for it. But then I decided that I didn't want to sit in there for the whole period. So, I went exploring instead.
"You walked right past it to get here," Dean Belikov said as he crossed his arms over his chest, walking closer to me.
"I always wondered how my parents met. They went to school together," I mused out loud, not particularly to him, "But it's weird. My parents grew up in different countries."
"The Academy used to have an international exchange program. It ended a few years ago due to a lack of students interested, but it was a good program," he said as he walked down a few feet and pointed at another plaque.
I followed him and followed his finger.
"You went here as an international student?" I asked.
He nodded his head. "Yes. There were five of us that year."
"And the Academy covers the cost for it all?"
Dean Belikov nodded his head. "Yes. You're paired with another student in your grade, a sponsor home. You live with them, learn the language, the culture. It's an amazing experience. I was lucky to know English well when I joined the Academy."
I nodded my head. "And where are you from?" I could have been a rude question, but I guess I could always claim I asked because of the soulmate bond.
"Russia. Southern Russia."
I nodded and pursed my lips. "You aren't as old as I thought you were."
"Thank you," he said sarcastically. I snorted a laugh and looked at him, cocking my head to the side. He turned as well, glancing down the hall.
"You know that we cannot allow anything to become of this."
I snorted a laugh. "Wow. Right to the point. Had all of a few hours to know that the whole soulmate thing is real," I drawled.
"You're a minor; I'm the Dean of the Academy," he stated and I rolled my eyes.
"I'm eighteen."
"Bullshit. I pulled your file as soon as you left. You're not eighteen for another six weeks."
"Did the math already, have we?" I retorted, putting my hands on my hips as I glared up at him, "That really sounds like someone who doesn't want that."
"Ms. Hathaway-"
"I think you can call me Rose."
"I don't think that is a good idea."
"Do I at least get to know your first name?" I returned, "It's only fair."
"No. Now, you should head to study hall. I don't want to give you a slip on your first day."
I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "So that's it. You're going to write the whole thing off because you're the Dean? There are only a few months left of the year."
"I'm not interested in pursuing a relationship with anyone. Including a mate. I've been shown enough times that it's a death sentence. I don't intend on being in one as well," he said and there was something about what he said that hurt.
I knew him for all of five seconds and he already hit me in the gut. I had seen good relationships between mates. But he made his thoughts clear.
"Okay," I said quietly, a lot quieter than I had meant to. My eyes were a little more downcast and turned, walking out of the alumni hall and straight into the study hall, finding the first spot I could find.
I tossed my bag onto the floor and huffed as I walked through the house, flinging myself onto the couch. There were footsteps on the floor, a head poking into the living room.
"Your father is upstairs in his study," Pavel said, the head of Abe's security.
"Kay, thanks," I said as I threw my arm over my eyes.
"How was your first day?"
"Rather not relive it," I grumbled.
"That bad?" Pavel laughed.
I groaned and pulled my arm off my eyes.
"The Dean is a douche!"
"Summers?"
"Belikov," I groaned and sat up, "I need food. I need to eat or I'm going to punch someone."
As I stood up my watch beeped and I sat down quickly, my head spinning. I blew out a breath through my lips. Pavel came over and picked up my wrist, his fingers pressing against my pulse.
"I'm never going to get used to this," he said and I hummed, leaning back against the couch.
"Me neither," I joked. At the start of high school, I spent a lot of my time at the doctor, constantly feeling like I was having anxiety attacks, getting dizzy to the point when I'd fall over. Eventually, Mom realized I wasn't over-exaggerating, she pushed for the doctors to pay attention. Four weeks later, they told me that it wasn't just anxiety, it was my heart. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS for short. It meant that my heart rate was higher than it should have been, high enough that it affected my blood pressure, and circulation in my legs. It even gave me horrible headaches. Once we discovered what was wrong, I was given ways to help manage, one of the being a monitor I wore on my wrist. It would alert me when my heart rate got too high, giving me time to sit down before I fainted.
But when I was anxious or stressed out, I would have bad days.
"It's starting to come down," Pavel said softly.
I swallowed. "I know," I whispered, waiting for my dizziness to pass enough to stand. Once that happened I stood up slowly, waiting for a moment before walking towards the kitchen. I opened the fridge and shifted through it before finding a jar of dill pickles. I pulled it out and cracked the lid off and then got a cup from the kitchen.
Pavel followed me into the kitchen, asking me if there was anything he could do to help. I raised my brows as poured the pickle juice into the cup.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
I held eye contact with him as I drank the juice from the cup.
"High salt content," I said plainly.
"Okay, and?"
"Salt helps with blood volume," I explained as I swallowed the rest of the glass and gasped. I moved to the sink and filled the glass with some water, drinking it to help with the dryness in my mouth now.
Pavel nodded and sat at the counter. "So, why is Belikov such a dick?"
I paused and pursed my lips. "I don't know."
The first few weeks seemed to breeze by, all while bumping into Dean Belikov and butting heads. It seemed like every time we saw each other, it started out fine and then it was like a switch clicked. We would end up bickering with each other.
He even gave me a pink slip because I was in the hall after a guidance appointment. Granted, I was about ten minutes later back to class than I should have been, but still. He was trying to assert power and there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it.
I hated this substitute with a passion. She was the sub for English, and every time she opened her mouth, it was like nails on a metal pan. She would yell every time someone's phone beeped, or they spoke too loud out of turn.
But today's test was seriously the kicker. I was already having a bad day. My heart rate was up, my period started, and I overall felt unwell. Lissa had watched me worriedly all through lunch, trading lunches with me when most of what I was able to get was carbs. I wasn't thrilled about the salad, but it was better than eating a bunch of bun with very little meat between it. But even with all that, I knew I was going to have a bad day.
Before she handed out the tests, I switched my watch to monitor mode, making it so that I couldn't check messages or anything with it.
"Put the watch on my desk," Ms. Kirova snapped as she stopped on my desk.
"I have a medical necessity to wear it," I said plainly, knowing that if she read the notes about the class, it would have stated that as long as the teacher checked the watch before any tests, I was not required to take it off.
"Likely story. Off."
"She isn't lying, she has an issue with her heart," Mason piped up behind me, a redheaded kid that had taken to me almost immediately. He had tried to make skin-to-skin contact to see if we were mates, but Lissa had made a joke about my mate burn being on my fingers and he deflated a little.
She rolled her eyes and slapped the test on my desk, muttering about me as we walked back to the table. I cracked the lid on my water bottle and took a long drink of my water. It was the hottest class in the school and this class was the hardest one for me to sit through.
As I wrote the test, I started to feel dizzy because of the heat. My head nodded to the side at one point and I shift in my chair, standing up enough to tuck my leg under myself, but it was enough of a change to make my heart rate change.
My watch beeped a few times loudly, making a few heads rise up at the noise. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down, but I could tell it wasn't going to calm on it's own.
"Hathaway! Watch on my desk now! You are disrupting the class," Ms. Kirova snapped from the desk.
I grimaced and gripped the edge of the desk. I was starting to feel faint. I started to stand up slowly, but it made it worse and I stumbled.
"Now, Hathaway!" Ms. Kirova snapped. I blinked and took a few deep breaths through my mouth, but it wasn't helping. Everything swayed on its axis and I felt myself start to fall, a chair and desk scraping before hands gripped under my arms, catching me and laying me on the floor.
"Rose!?" Christian asked, his face looming over mine.
"It's hard to breath," I gasped, while Kirova snarked over top of me.
"Will you shut up and get help?!" Christian snapped. I heard her shoes on the floor as Christian moved around me, lifting my feet and setting them in his lap, trying to elevate them.
"Micha, pass me her water bottle," Christian asked and reached for my wrist, turning it so he could look at my monitor.
"Fuck, I don't think I've ever seen a heart rate so high," Christian whispered, worry on his face but he was trying to keep calm, "Other than the difficulty breathing, anything else?"
"Dizzy, hot. I've never had it this hard to breathe before," I whispered, trying not to talk too much.
"I told her to bring me her watch, but she became defiant and put on this big production," Kirova said as she came back into the room, another set of footsteps following her.
"She's not faking, you idiot. She has a medical condition, and you were wanting to confiscate her monitor," Christian snapped, "She's having issues breathing. I think we need to call an ambulance. I know that the dizziness is normal, but I remember Lissa saying that breathing was bad."
Someone crouched beside me and touched my arm.
"Rose?"
I looked to the side and gripped his arm.
"You need to call my dad," I gasped, "This isn't right. I think I'm going to faint."
Dean Belikov nodded and took his phone out of his pocket and dialled before lifting it to his ear. I knew that it would hurt him, but I kept digging my hand into his arm while fisting my other one. Clenching my fists sometimes helped, and it helped me focus on something other than how dizzy I felt.
I couldn't pay much attention to what Dean Belikov was saying, but my eyes kept drooping. There was a sharp tap against my cheek and my eyes sprung open.
"Don't close your eyes," Christian stated and I blinked a few times. "Did you eat today other than lunch? Drink water this morning?"
I thought back over my morning and shrugged. "I think so. But I got my period and it's been really bad."
Christian nodded and looked at my monitor again.
"It's coming down, but not by much," he said to Dean Belikov. He nodded as he hung up the phone before dialling another number.
"I need an ambulance at St. Vladimir's Academy. I have a student have a tachycardic episode. Her heart rate is one hundred and ten while laying down. She's experiencing difficulty breathing," Dean Belikov explained. I closed my eyes for a moment and realized it was a bad idea.
I felt surprisingly refreshed when I opened my eyes. I knew I was in the hospital as soon as I opened my eyes. I could feel the cannula in my arm and the scratchy sheets against my skin. But even with the discomfort of the cannula, I could feel the coolness running through my veins.
I yawned and sniffed, shifting in the bed. There was movement beside me and I turned my head.
"Hi," I said gently, not wanting to startle him.
Dean Belikov lifted his head and smile softly. "Hi. How are you feeling?"
I shrugged. "I'm okay. Tired but not at the same time," I said, reaching for the water cup on the table. Dean Belikov picked it up and handed it to me. I nodded and took a sip.
"How long have I been here?"
"A couple of hours. I accompanied you to the hospital. We couldn't reach your father until recently. He's on his way back from his meeting. I said I would stay with you and make sure you got home okay."
"Thanks, Dean Belikov," I said quietly but he shook his head.
"Dimitri," he corrected, "When it's you and I, you can call me Dimitri."
I smiled softly, liking the way his name rolled off his tongue.
"Dimitri," I repeated softly.
Dimitri nodded and his brows pinched. "Does that happen often? The episodes?"
"I get dizzy at least once a day. The symptoms vary from day to day. I've gotten used to some of them, but the difficulty breathing doesn't happen often. I usually just have an increased heart rate and some dizziness," I explained.
"That must be difficult."
I nodded. "It can be," I said as I looked up at the IV bag.
"How many times have they changed this?"
"I think twice," Dimitri said, "Why?"
I nodded and pushed the nurse's call button. "Hydration therapy. People with POTS need to stay hydrated. It's why Christian was asking if I ate or drank anything today."
Dimitri nodded and pursed his lips as the nurse came in. One I recognized.
"Hey darling, how are you feeling?" Jolene asked as she came in, looking at my vitals and then at my IV bag.
"I'm okay. Can I go home?" I asked.
Jolene was one of the nurses at the hospital I went to for testing, and she was one of the only ones who wouldn't blow my veins. I had done I.V. therapy with her before too.
"That depends. How are you getting home, and how are you feeling?"
"I don't feel dizzy, and my heart rate is clearly normal. And Dimitri is going to drive me home," I explained. Jolene looked at Dimitri and raised a brow before nodding, walking out of the room as she wrote something on my chart. I smiled at Dimitri and sighed as I leaned back against the bed.