Restoring the Timeline

Hello My Name is ...

The day had barely started and already Rose was wishing for the end of it. It was St Varvara's Day. It was like a second Halloween, an excuse for the school to reuse Halloween decorations and costumes and celebrate; only Rose was in no mood to be celebrating. She had been on her best behaviour of late, hard not to after all that had happened.

Not even two months back at the Academy and so much has happened. Unravelled the plot that was close to driving her best friend insane and had driven one of their teachers to become strigoi. Rescued Lissa after she was kidnapped by the private guardians of a man she trusted, viewed as family. He'd been about to torture her to get her to heal him, to risk her sanity and life, to spare him from deaths clutches a little longer. Thankfully that was no longer an issue and hopefully it stays that way, no confirmation of his death had reached them yet. Neither girl realised yet that Abe had made sure the man would never be a threat to them again, though he hoped to keep the secrets the despicable man revealed to himself. It would break the girls to learn the truths he now held. Abe had even considered having Oksana compel him to forget, but he felt he owed the family who had taken care of his little girl the truth, even if he would be the only one to know it.

Once the man had been discovered and locked up, his daughter turned strigoi. Rose suspected Victor somehow knew a way to control Natalie, despite her turned state, but he was transferred before she could get her answers. If only she realised then the trouble such answers could cause. Natalie had been her first kill and she was still healing mentally from it. Everyone had told her that making your first kill is the hardest, but she had it harder still. She was not yet promised, near unheard of, and it had been someone she knew, common enough, a child, again rare. It was doing some psychological damage, especially since she could hear Lissa's errant thoughts.

Rose had a great support system to cope which was good. Not only had Dimitri been keeping a close eye on her, but her friends have joined their general training sessions and her dad and his guardians were there for her to talk to as needed too. Seems her father had guardians from all walks of life and many had been in similar situations. While it pleased her greatly to learn that her father was happy to stick it to the royals by taking care of the guardians they were so easily disposing, it angered her too. Queen Tatiana has asked the novices and senior Moroi to think of possible solutions to the issue of declining guardian numbers. From what she'd learned through her father's people, the biggest issue seems to be the Moroi themselves, particularly those in charge of distributing and receiving of guardians. Rose already planned to put down more than a few dot points that would highlight that fact, though instead of elaborating in detail, she would put her name to it. She was determined to make them come to her for more details, to show they would take suggestions seriously and demonstrate that she would never be a nameless piece of paper on something so important.

Anyway, back to why this day already sucked. Barely out the door and already she is being hounded. "Hey, Rose, would you like to—"

"No."

"Rose, did you see that the scav—"

"No."

"I don't know if anyone's asked you yet—"

"No."

"Rose, you're doing this with us, right?" This last request had come from Mason Ashford, so out of respect for their friendship and his puppy dog eyes, Rose actually let him finish his question before she turned him down.

"No." He fell into step with Rose as she continued walking toward their first class of the day.

"Why not? Did you already join someone else's team?"

"I didn't join anyone's team," Rose said. "I'm not doing it this year."

"Seriously? Why not? Have you seen what's up for grabs?" Abe's people were walking close enough to hear but far enough that she shouldn't make them as her shadows. That was until she came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the field, pivoting so she faced him. She had missed breakfast, and low blood sugar always made her grumpy, something she certainly had in common with both parents, though neither would admit it.