Chapter IV

The Meeting

Brringg! Brringg!!
I groaned out loud and my right hand shot out towards the bedside table to shut the alarm off. Eight in the morning. Great. It was so not the time for me to get up. The sunlight streamed through the thin layer of curtains and I groaned one more time. I was hoping that my alarm would be four hours earlier, then I could go back to sleep. Unfortunately, the sun was out, so that meant that it was time to wake up.

I closed my eyes and counted until ten, then opened them. I got out of bed and pulled the curtains back so that sunlight shined brightly through my window. I went inside the bathroom, and turned on the water.

*Fifteen minutes later*

I emerged out of the bathroom in a pair of skinny jeans and a grey tank top with words saying ‘Don’t Mess With Me’. I put on my favourite black high top shoe with pink streaks on it, grabbed my books then headed out of my room.

Since Natalie and Nikolai were Morois’, they stayed on the other side of the senior girls’ dorm. Morois’ and dhampirs were separated for classes and sleeping conditions. I had no idea why we were separated for sleeping conditions, but I knew why our classes were separated.

See, the difference between a Moroi and a dhampir is quite big. Since dhampirs are created from Moroi and human, they inherit better skills. Dhampir children are trained to be guardians, to protect the Moroi from Strigoi threats. When dhampirs complete their training, which is 20 years old, they will be assigned to a royal Moroi. A royal Moroi is like a royal family. They are the ones that rule and set the rules. All together, there are seven royal families. They are the Petrovs’, Ostrovskys’, Ivashkovs’, Romanvos’, Tsaraveichs’, Alexandrovs’, and Vladmirs’. Every seven years, a voting is held to vote which royal family will rule. Natalie is a Petrov, but she’ll not be the heir because she has an older brother.

So, Moroi are like ‘normal teenagers’ whereas dhampirs are like ‘in-training agents’ or something like that anyway. Moroi are involved in politics, are full vampires, and have magic and compulsion whereas dhampirs are not involved in politics, are half vampires, and usually do not have magic and compulsion. So far, I only know of five dhampirs in history of who had magic, and they were all murdered for their power.

When I arrived at Natalie’s door, I banged on it twice.

“Hey Nat! I’m ready. Let’s go.” I called out to her.

I heard shuffling of footsteps and I shrugged as it was pretty normal for Nat to be late. Ever since the start of this year she always seemed to be waking up later. After two or three minutes passed, the door opened and she appeared.

“Hey.” I said, grinning.
“Hey. Sorry I’m late.” She said, giving me a sheepish smile.
“No problem. After half a year, I got used to it.” I smirked.

On the way down, Natalie was chattering excitedly about our new hottie teacher. I took part in it, remembering to leave out the part about him staring at me. As we neared the cafeteria, I could hear the loud buzzing noises of students talking. It was always like this, every single day without fail. Sometimes, there’d be fights too, which some of them I have been involved in.

I opened the door and walked in with Nat and the buzzing noises lowered immediately. By now, she and me were kinda used to it. It usually happens every time we walked into the cafeteria, or even classrooms. I guess its probably because we’re always wreaking havoc across the school. We sniggered quietly to ourselves and walked towards where Nikolai, Jesse and Lachlan sat. It was our usual table since they were the only ones who could act as themselves around me and her.

“Hey guys.” I said, smiling at all of them as I slid into the seat next to my boyfriend Jesse.

I felt my heart give a flop as I stared into his chocolate brown eyes. At that moment, I forgot everything, even the hot instructor. My boyfriend was so hot it was practically intoxicating.

“Hey Rose.” He said, putting his arm around me to pull me closer.
“Hey yourself sexy,” I replied, grinning as I gave him a light kiss on his cheek.

I settled into his warm embrace while Nat sat in between Nikolai and me.

“Whoa! Look at the lovebirds. So sweet.....” Lachlan said, smirking at Jesse and me.
“Oh shut up Lachlan.” Nikolai said, punching him playfully.
“What?!” He said, grinning widely. “It is sweet. Now, you can’t hit a guy for telling the truth, can you?” He asked Nikolai, as he made a move to flick her nose lightly.
“Hey! Watch what you’re doing!” She said, ducking so that it hit Natalie on the cheek instead.
“Lachlan!” Natalie cried out, turning to regard him with a questioning look.
“Oh, oops.” He said, his eyes widening. “Sorry Nat.” He smiled sheepishly.

Natalie continued staring at him, but her lips were pressed together as if trying not to laugh out loud.

“Aw, come on. Don’t look at me like that. As a matter of fact, blame Nikolai! It was her fault for ducking!” He said, holding Nikolai as a shield.
“Be a man Lachlan,” Nikolai laughed, trying to squirm out of his grasp.
“You guys. I just woke up you know. Can’t you all try and make peace until third period?” I asked, smiling angelically at them.

They stopped talking for the moment and turned to me. When they saw my smile, Lachlan scoffed, obviously unimpressed.
I stopped smiling and raised my eyebrows. “What? Not innocent enough?” I asked.
“As if anyone would believe you are actually innocent Rose.” Lachlan snickered.

I pretended to be taken aback and stuck my tongue out at him, even though it was a pretty childish thing to do. Luckily, they dropped the topic they were arguing about, and went on talking about their vacations. Since Jesse was early today, he’d bought me breakfast. He got me a cheese sandwich and a can of soda. Mmmmm. I was so hungry. I began to eat, half listening to the conversation at the table. As Lachlan and I were the only dhampirs among them, we were the only ones eating. Dhampirs ate human food and didn’t drink blood since we don’t have fangs to bite.

For the Moroi, royal or not, went to a place called The Feeding Room to feed. They could go there anytime and as often as they wanted, as long as it wasn’t during classes or lunch breaks. In the room, there were willing humans who gave their blood for vampires to drink. It is known that a vampire bite gives out endorphins, which makes the receiver of the bite go high. So usually ‘the feeders’ (it’s a term for willing humans) are addicts because they are addicted to the bite. They were well taken care of and didn’t have to worry much about anything.

Just as Lachlan and I finished our breakfast, the bell rang. Whoo. Time for first period. Everyone stood up and began to disperse.

Jesse stood up with me, and pulled me into a kiss. I kissed him back for awhile, but then pulled away before I got too into it. Even though me and him were dating, we have never made out in public before.

“See ya later babe.” He said, giving me one final light kiss before he departed with Natalie and Nikolai.

I watched him go, and felt my heart gave a small lurch. I was definitely going to miss him, even though we were only going to be separated for about a quarter day.

“Hey, Rosalie! Come on, we’re gonna be late for class,” Lachlan called out to me, breaking me away from my reverie.
“Oh yeah?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him as I caught up to him.
“Of course.” He said, as though it was obvious. “You know how Morton gets when you’re like a minute late.”
“Oh?” I said, pretending to be surprised. “Then you better start thinking of an excuse for being late!” I said as I pushed him and then started running.
Since I caught him in surprise, he didn’t have time to duck, and therefore staggered a few steps back.
“Rose! I’m going to get you for this!” He shouted.

I laughed to myself, and it echoed of the walls. Even though Lachlan was a guy, I could run faster than him so I didn’t have to worry about him catching up to me.

Unfortunately I was so mixed up in my little prank that I didn’t see where I was going, and suddenly WHAM! I banged into someone, or probably something real hard and I fell to the floor.

My books and stationeries went flying everywhere and scattered all over the floor. “Crap!” I said to myself as I began to get up.

A hand shot out from nowhere and I blinked in surprised. I looked up and saw a guy with dark hair, green eyes and I immediately knew whom that was. I sucked in air and stared at him. It would be the first time that I actually saw him away from crowds of people. Since I knew I’d probably never get the chance to touch his hand, I took this opportunity and took his offered hand.

He pulled me up easily as though I weighed nothing, then immediately released my hand. His hand was big compared to mine. And warm too. “Um, thanks Mr..uh..” I said, unsure what his last name was.
“Ozera. Mr. Ozera.” He said, his voice deep and dripping like honey.
“Thanks Mr. Ozera.” I repeated again, trying to get a hold of myself. I had no idea why I was acting this way. I had turned down a lot of hot guys and I definitely didn’t act this way around guys or my boyfriend. So why was I so tongue-tied when I’m with this teacher?

His lips twitched as if trying not to smile and nodded his head. “No, problem.” He smiled.
When he did, I saw that his right cheek had a dimple on it. So cute. I sighed in my head. After a pause he added, “You can call me Christian or Guardian Ozera if you want. Mr. Ozera sounds too formal and too old.” He said, cracking a small smile.

So, he was a guardian. That would explain his extremely fit physique. “Okay.” I said as I turned away from him and began to pick up my stuff.

I expected him to walk away, but I didn’t hear footsteps retreating. When I finished, I turned back to him and he was looking at me.

I began to feel self-conscious, and reflexively touched my face. “What? Is there something on my face Guardian Ozera?”
“No, nothing. I just thought you would’ve introduced yourself.” He said, shrugging.
“Oh.” I said, suddenly feeling stupid. Of course it was normal to introduce yourself after someone did, but I totally forgot. “I’m Rosalie.” I told him, as I started edging away.
“Nice to meet you Rosalie.” He said in his deep voice.
My name sounded so different when he said it compared to when other people did. “But you can call me Rose. Only my aunt calls me Rosalie.” I told him.
“Alright then.” He said. “Shouldn’t you be getting to class?” He asked after a pause.

Oh crap! Slavic history! “Right!” I said, getting back to reality. “I’ll see you at dueling then Guardian Ozera.” I said, as I walked away quickly, dreading what Mr. Morton will say when I get to class.