97 visitors and only 12 reviews? Only 12.3% of you cared to review? (At the time I'm typing this, at least.) If you like it, let me know! This is the last chapter before the sequel, which I won't make you wait a month for.

Usual disclaimers apply.

When I first learned, back in Kindergarten, about seniors and graduating and leaving St. Vlad's for good, I was already pretty close to Lissa. At the time up until she found out about Dimitri and me, I had daydreams about the two of us getting ready the night before, talking and laughing and crying, trying to get over the fact we may never see each other. When Lissa shadow-kissed me, I dropped the crying part, since I figured I'd be her guardian.

On Friday night, the night before one of the biggest, most important events, I was sitting by myself on my bed, sulking and wishing things had turned out even a little more differently. That I'd had the immaturity to tell Lissa about Dimitri had swear her to secrecy. That somehow she could have taken it more easily.

That after everything, I'd be sitting in my room, missing all of the parties the seniors were throwing.

The rest of the school still had a week left, but they knew none of the seniors would concentrate, so they pretty much let us off for two weeks. One for graduation practice (no regular classes), one for when everyone else would be sitting in class.

So yes, the great Rose Hathaway, the girl that was the party, was alone by herself.

It depressed me to think about myself in third person.

It depressed me about what was currently running through my head.

Exhausted from having to listen to my teachers yell at me and my classmates for the last time, my hand sore from signing yearbooks, something two Moroi girls put together on the side and gave to the entire graduating class, our teachers, and the guardians that patrolled the upper campus, and just tired from everything that had happened that school year, I went to bed early. At least I'd look like I'd gotten a good night's sleep instead of partying all night.

Going with the growing trend of change, Kirova and the staff decided to make our graduation much more human-high-school-style. Which meant gowns, caps, and ordered outfits, since they wanted a uniform look. The ordered outfits were something the academies all over the world did since, well, they could order a hundred plus outfits pretty cheaply.

So when I showed up to the meeting place all the seniors had to go before we walked into the gym, I was actually surprised at uniform we looked, but how different everyone looked at the same time. The girls had black, knee-length dresses and red gowns and caps, while the guys were forced to wear a tuxedo with black gowns and caps. The only difference was that the guys looked like war-veteran penguins instead of regular penguins. I tried not to laugh at Eddie as I walked past him to my spot halfway down the line of seniors, my cap having slid nearly off my head.

"Not funny, Rose," Eddie hissed as I bit my lower lip when I passed him.

"Is too," I shot back under my breath, and glided right past him.

My black heels were killing my feet by the time we started walking. It was slow and boring, but somehow I got through it because I found myself sitting in the folding chair I had been sitting in for the past week. I didn't have to look behind me to know that my mother was in the audience somewhere.

There were no extra-curricular awards to hand out; we didn't have after-school stuff. They did, however, hand out awards that you'd normally find in a yearbook - Best Dressed, Most Sarcastic, Most Likely To Become President, things like that.

I ended up getting two awards, making me feel like I did something that year - Most Sarcastic (with, surprise of the century, Christian) and Most Likely To Beat Someone Up, the latter getting a laugh out of my classmates as Alberta put the medal around my neck with a grim smile on her face. She was no doubt recalling the memory of when we stood in this very same spot and I threw a fit over being assigned to Christian for field experience.

Eddie got Most Likely To Succeed, which was ironic since he was our class's "valedictorian," another thing Kirova and the staff decided to add into our graduation to make it feel less old and monotonous.

Christian got Most Sarcastic and Best Social Comeback, an award that somebody created for him since he had started making friends with people outside our little circle. Sure, it was only one or two people, but it was enough for everyone to notice.

Lissa recieved Best Dressed, Sweetest Smile, Friendliest Personality, and Most Likely To Succeed (along side Eddie).

After everyone recieved their awards, Eddie got up to deliver his speech he had to write.

"It's only a couple sentences long," He had told me on Wednesday. "I'm not good at writing speeches, so they're going to have to deal with a minute long speech. Besides, I just want to know who my assignment is. Nobody's going to remember what I say anyway."

Looking up Eddie, his gown zipper tight at the top, one black sash running straight down either side of the zipper, he just looked ready to take on the world.

"Alright, since I know we're all dying to get out of this hot gymnasium, the students want to know who's paired up with who, and the novices want to go ahead and get their promise marks, I'm going to keep this short. Unlike that last sentence," Eddie added, and the seniors and some parents laughed politely. I snorted. Eddie trying to make jokes was funny.

"This has been an eventful year. Probably the most eventful year of my life I'll ever have, since I hope to be placed with somebody who will be living in the Royal Court or in a cabin in the middle of the woods on some island nobody has ever heard of before.

"To give you a small recap of what happened this year, we can start with the return of two runaway students, Lissa Dragomir and Rose Hathaway. I don't know about you, but I thought they were as good as dead when they took off in freshman year." Eddie looked at Lissa, and then at me.

"Optimist!" I shouted when he looked at me, and while the guardians glared at me for being a disruption even before I was graduated, I got the senior body as a whole to laugh.

"And that's why Rose is the sarcastic one," Eddie laughed. He smiled and went back to what he had planned out.

"Nothing too great happened for a while until the administration felt that one of the safest places for Moroi students to live was unsafe. So they took us to a ski lodge, where a group of us got ourselves kidnapped by a pack of Strigoi. Not everyone in our group made it out alive; a moment of silence for the late Mason Ashford if you will," Eddie said, and I could hear his voice fighting to stay even. After a moment, he looked back up at the audience.

"February came around and so did field experience. All went according to plan with the occasional bump in the road until the massive Strigoi attack occured. Many senior novices and a handful of Moroi fire-users helped the guardians that were called in to help in the battle, a battle that will be remembered throughout history. Could everyone give a round of applause to Rose Hathaway, who successfully convinced the adults that a rescue team was a good idea, and in turn saved seven lives," Eddie announced, and motioned for me to stand up.

Loud applause ensued. There were several cheers from the audience and more from the seniors. As I turned for a full circle so everyone could see me, I saw my mother standing up at the top of the bleachers, clapping, only the slightest bit of negativity on her face. Eddie hadn't mentioned that five guardians and one Moroi were killed that day; he had just pointed out the good. Only a small group of us would ever know what really happened.

After the applause died down, Eddie continued on.

"And since nothing could ever top that, we arrive to today, a very special day. We are adults today, guardians and Moroi alike. Every novice that you see here today will be assigned to a Moroi, since we have surprisingly even numbers between the two groups. After I step down, Guardian Petrov will announce the assignments. You were notified if your assigned guardian attended a different school than St. Vladimir's Academy. But before I go, remember that Strigoi need to be killed and that Rose Hathaway can beat you up now and not get detention for it. Peace out homies!" Eddie yelled, his ending very uncharacteristic and surprising.

I, along with the rest of my class, jumped up in cheering, those near him clapping him on the back and congratulating him fiercely. After a few minutes, we were still cheering and Alberta was up on stage still trying to get us to be quiet.

"Guardian Petrov asked for SILENCE!" Dimitri shouted, somehow being louder than all of the cheering, and getting everyone to shut up in a second. Several Moroi looked frightened by Dimitri's outburst, and I sat down quickly, knowing that would be the next thing Dimitri shouted for.

"Thank you, Guardian Belikov," Alberta said, looking down at her clipboard, at Dimitri, and then at us.

"Your assignments," Alberta started, and everyone grew deathly quiet. "Will come after you recieve your diplomas."

A somewhat audible groan came from the seniors. It was quickly shut down with one glare from Dimitri from his new post next to the podium.

Alberta went through calling everyone's names and we walked up, one by one, and recieved that little piece of paper that gave us freedom from St. Vladimir's for good. Alberta would call the person's name, hand the diploma (sitting neatly in a little book that didn't have any pages) to Dimitri, who would hand it to Kirova, who would give it to which ever senior was called up. Kirova was standing a little in front of the podium (there was a little makeshift stage that the podium and speaker stood on), so we didn't have to climb any stairs or anything.

When Alberta called my name, I walked up, only briefly looking at Dimitri. His face was composed in that way all guardians held their faces, but his eyes said that not only was he glad I was no longer his student, he was just glad I made it out of school period. I nearly laughed, but I choked it back down my throat and happily shook Kirova's hand.

"You made it," Kirova said quietly.

"Do I get detention after this?" I asked jokingly, which made Kirova smile.

"I can no longer give you detention, Miss Hathaway, since you are no longer a student," Kirova said, and let go of the diploma and my hand. Before walking back to my seat, I flashed a smile at her, turned to the audience and my classmates, and riased both hands in the air, one a fist, the other holding a diploma. I let out a loud whoop, pumped my fist in the air, and then walked back to my seat, a happy grin on my face.

When I got back to my seat, I opened up the little book and looked at the diploma. My full name was written in script, and underneath were the words that said I was done with school. Sweet, sweet freedom.

I zoned out until Alberta announced that she would be reading off the assignments.

"If you are a Royal, you will have a second guardian, who is sitting in the bleachers at this time. They will meet you after the graduated novices recieve their promise marks." Alberta cleared her throat and read aloud from the page.

"I will call out the list of Moroi names, going in alphabetical order. After a name is read, the name of your assigned guardian will be called out. If you are to recieve two guardians, the second assigned guardian's name will be read."

Alberta went about reading the assignments, and I tuned out for a little bit until she called Lissa's name. While Lissa and I may not have been extremely close at the moment, we still wanted to be assigned to each other.

"Vasilisa Dragomir. Your assigned guardians are Sofya Levitsky and Rosemarie Hathaway."

Victory! I grinned excitedly, and Lissa turned around and smiled at me, sending You're my guardian! through the bond to me. I gave her a thumbs up and she turned back around.

Sofya Levitsky must have been the older guardian that had been reassigned to Lissa. It only made sense.

I tuned out, keeping an ear open for Eddie or Christian's name.

"Christian Ozera. Your assigned guardians are Jeremy Arcos and Edison Castile."

The four of us would be together after graduation, just like the field experience. Life could hardly get better.

Alberta went through the rest of the names, and I was starting to get restless. Just when Alberta finished up the assignments, she waved the applause away.

"We also have some staffing changes. Guardian Alto will be transferring to The Academy at St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, Russia. We wish him a fairwell in his endeavor as he moves on to share his experiences and knowledge with others. Taking his place is Guardian Lior, a recent graduate from St. Josephine's Academy in Washington D.C., an all-dhampir school emphasizing on how to properly respond to Strigoi attacks, before, during, and after the attack. Guardian Lior, could you please stand?" Alberta asked, and everyone gave the woman who stood up a round of applause.

"Our other staffing change is with Guardian Belikov," Alberta said, and I could feel several pairs of eyes on me from some of the seniors. I was curious as to what the change was. Dimitri had told me he would try to get a job in the Royal Court, but he hadn't spoke of it since then.

"Guardian Belikov, along with Guardian Novosi, who was unable to attend today and is a graduate of St. Charlotta Academy in Moscow, Russia, will become the new guardian to Adrian Ivashkov, the great-nephew of Our Majesty, Queen Tatiana. Mister Ivashkov spent the past several months here at the academy for academic and research purposes. Now that those purposes have been fulfilled, he will make his way back to the Royal Court this summer, which is where Guardian Belikov and Guardian Novosi will follow him and take up their new positions. Taking his place is Guardian Stolin, a renowned and former guardian of Andrew Ozera. We are glad to have him join our guardian ranks and he is also coming to us out of retirement. Guardian Stolin, could you please stand?" Alberta asked, and a man in no later than his mid-fifties stood up. He was met wih a round of applause.

"That is all. Would the graduating senior class of 2009 please stand?" Alberta asked. Everyone who held a diploma stood up, cheering, and Alberta shouted over the crowd, "Please move into the cafeteria for the promise mark ceremony and light refreshments afterwards!"

I fished through the crowd of seniors and found Lissa. She threw her arms around my neck, obviously happy to have me as her guardian.

"I can't believe they let us be together!" She shouted. It was deafening where we were.

"You doubted them?" I shouted back, pulling back and nodded to Christian and Eddie who had found each other and then us.

"No, but still....Anyway, let's go make you a real guardian, Rose!" Lissa yelled, and grabbed Christian's hand. The four of us flowed with the crowd to the doors.

After everyone was seated in the cafeteria and the novices were lined up in alphabetical order in the first two rows, Dimitri came to the stage. Alberta was no where to be seen.

"Guardian Petrov asked me to fill in for her since she is currently dealing with some personal issues at the moment. For those of you who don't know, I am Guardian Belikov," Dimitri said, his eyes sweeping over the first two rows. "When I call your name, novices, please come up to the stage and sit on the stool. After your promise mark has been added to your neck, I will announce your new title and you may be seated back in your original seat."

I watched as Dimitri called up each novice's name and then after a few minutes, announced them as a guardian. I gave a little set of claps to Eddie when Dimitri announced him as "Guardian Castile" thus erasing the old Eddie Castile, high school novice.

"Rosemarie Hathaway," Dimitri called, and I got up on slightly shaky legs. I had already been marked - three tattoos for the Strigoi I had killed, two for the Spokane incident and one for the attack back in February - so I didn't understand my nervousness.

The tattooer smiled at me - she was a woman, dhampir as well - and she tattooed the guardian promise mark onto my neck. When she finished, she pulled away, nodded at Dimitri, and stepped back so I could stand up.

"Guardian Hathaway," Dimitri announced, and only he and I could hear the excitement in his voice. It was official. Our student-relationship was over, and we could be as public as we wanted. Or, at least, until the ceremony was over.

When it was over, I picked through the crowd and found Dimitri, who was standing off to the side of yet another make-shift stage.

"Hey you," I said, tapping his back.

"Oh," Dimitri said, turning around and snapping a cell phone shut. "Hi Rose."

"Was I interrupting something?" I asked, looking at the cell phone.

"No. I just finished with Alberta," Dimitri said. He pocketed the cell phone.

"Everything alright?" I questioned, wondering if he'd tell me what was wrong considering we were co-workers now.

"Alberta's mother is in the hospital. Nothing too severe," Dimitri said, looking at me carefully. After what seemed some deliberation, he gathered me into a tight hug.

"Congratulations, Roza," He whispered in my ear, and I swear, if Dimitri hadn't been holding me, I would have crumbled to the ground.

"Thanks," I said, and he kissed the top of my head. "You didn't tell me that you got assigned to Adrian!" I pulled away and pretended to punch him in the arm. He feined hurt and grabbed his bicep.

"I wanted it to be a surprise for you," Dimitri said, looking me straight in the eyes. I broke the eye contact and leaned into him.

"Well, Comrade, it worked," I admitted, and I laughed on the inside when I felt Dimitri stiffen a little at what I called him.

"You do realize," Dimitri murmured, his lips kissing at random places in my hair, "That if we live together, you have to stop call me that or I might just run off and join the circus."

"What?" I stood up straight, excitement boiling in my stomach.

Dimitri chuckled. "You'll learn about the new living arrangements and how the Royal Court is reworking how the Moroi are guarded when you and Lissa get there in two weeks."

"Oh yeah, after our thank-God-we're-done-with-school vacation to the Bahamas," I said. It was a trip a bunch of senior dhampirs and some senior Moroi set up as a celebration after we graduated.

"I'll miss you," Dimitri said quietly, and he pulled me up to him. Our lips crashed together fiercely and I enjoyed the moment. While I'd be in the Bahamas with a bunch of friends for two weeks unsupervised, Dimitri wasn't coming along. There were more dhampirs than Moroi going, so we were able to convince Alberta to let us do it. The Moroi that were going were paying for the trip since they had pretty much unlimited bank accounts.

"I'll miss you, too," I whispered when we pulled away.

"Your mother's coming," Dimitri said. My feet met the floor and turned to face my mother.

"Congratulations," Janine said, and in a rare act of warmth, hugged me. Surprised, I hugged her back.

"Thanks, Mom," I said. "I guess were technically co-workers now." I let out a nervous giggle. It was weird to think of my mother and I as equals when she had always been above me.

"Not the term I would use, but yes, I guess so. And I already talked with Guardian Levitsky. She seems like she'll be a good influence on you."

"Guardian Levitsky?" I asked, unsure of the last name. I was going to have to learn a lot of people's last names.

"That would be me." A woman came up behind my mother, Lissa next to her. She was about my height and had light brown hair that seemed naturally stick-straight. It fell just past her ears.

"Sofya!" Dimitri said, and moved to hug her.

"Dimitri!" Sofya said. She seemed to be mocking him, but it wasn't in a mean way.

"Keeping Kenny in business?" Dimitri asked, which caused a loud peal of laughter to come from Sofya's lips.

"Kenny wishes I kept him in business! It's actually all those fathers finally coming back because they've retired and are too old to do anything other than to sit around and complain about our human government."

"Everyone's?" Dimitri's eyes lit up a little.

"Even yours, though there's word he may only stay for a little while. Apparently he's got business elsewhere, somewhere farther down the Lena River. There were stories that he stayed in Georgia for a little while, but why the hell would he do that?" Sofya's Russian accent was much more noticeable than Dimitri's. From the sounds of their conversation, I got the impression Sofya and Dimitri grew up together.

"Markha?" Dimitri mused.

"I don't know. But we can catch up later. You must be Roza," Sofya said, looking at me and then hugging me. It was really friendly and made me like Sofya even more.

"Ya-ya," Dimitri muttered warningly but Sofya shushed him.

"Half his emails are about you. The other half are him being homesick."

Dimitri rolled his eyes.

"What? It's my responsibility to annoy the hell out of you, dear brother of mine," Sofya said lightly. She turned to Lissa and me. "Back when we were in fourth grade, everyone made up their own families, and Dimka and I ended up being siblings. Mikhail was our mother and father, remember?"

That got Dimitri to laugh heartily. "Yes, I do. We had an odd amount of girls, so one of our friends had to play the role of being the mother and the father. I remember Mikhail protested against it."

"And then we told him that the real Mikhail wouldn't have liked complainers?" Sofya said. The two of them laughed at the memory. Dimitri was right. It seemed like there was a lot of love in the communes.

"If you'll excuse me, I have some cake to eat and some people to win over. I'll talk to you ladies later," Sofya said, kissing Lissa and I on the cheek.

"It's a sign of being close to someone where we come from," Dimitri explained when Sofya left.

"You two were really close," Lissa noted. My mother muttered herself excused and left the three of us to ourselves.

"Like you and Rose," Dimitri agreed. "Except our mothers would have the two of us play together since before we could walk. They shared a business, so it was Sofya, my sisters, and then me." He chuckled.

"We'll see you later, then," Lissa said, grabbing my elbow. She started to lead me away.

"I'll talk to you later," I told Dimitri as Lissa led me away to the cake table.

"Sofya's really awesome. She'll be sitting in for some of our classes when we go in the fall," Lissa explained when she came back with cake for both of us.

"When we go?" I asked, unsure of this whole thing.

"Yeah," Lissa said, eating a bite of cake. "Tatiana said you can go with me. Of course, you have to take the same classes, but you still get a free college education."

"I thought my torture was over," I whined in between mouthfuls.

"Don't worry. I've heard college is nothing like high school. People like you actually like school after it," Lissa explained.

"Me? Liking school?" I asked in disbelief. "That's insanity."

"There's much more freedom in college than in high school," Lissa said off-hand.

"Freedom. We have that now, don't we?" I asked, finishing my cake. My diploma was tucked under my arm.

"Lots and lots of it," Lissa said. We walked out of the cafeteria and towards the quad.

"Strange, isn't it?" I mused aloud.

"What?"

"We won't be coming back here in the fall. We'll never be coming back here, unless our kids go here or something."

"We're no longer students," Lissa agreed, stopping in the middle of the quad. I stopped next to her, the both of us looking at the moon. Lissa took off her cap.

"What are you doing?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I've seen it in movies," Lissa said as I took my cap off. Grinning, she tossed it up in the air, and I did the same. They landed in front of us, Lissa's just a little bit closer to us than mine.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"What?" Lissa put her cap back on.

"Why are you being so nice and friendly to me?" I was interested in why the sudden change in her.

"It's our graduation day. Tomorrow, I go back to my hot and cold feelings towards you. But I'm starting to wrap my head around the idea of you and Dimitri. I might even accpet it one day. I have to; you and Dimitri make each other happy. Really, genuinely happy. So much that it makes me jealous sometimes." Lissa sat down on one of the benches near us.

"You? Jealous of me?" Disbelief rang clear in my voice.

Lissa nodded. "Only sometimes. But then I remind myself that I have Christian and he makes me feel the same way. We all end up one big happy family. Pun intended."

"Nice," I laughed. I sat down next to her, my feelings turning serious. "Do you think Dimitri and I will get married?"

"If you don't, you can always be godparents," Lissa said, putting an arm around my shoulders. I rested my head on one of hers.

"Thanks," I said quietly. "It feels good to be done with this place, doesn't it?"

"Very," Lissa said, equally as quiet, "Very good."

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