A/N: Hi everyone.

I'm so proud that I finally completed the first chapter of my very first story. I had been playing with the plot for a while and now I have something to work with. I hope you all enjoy it ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from VA. They belong to the amazing Richelle Mead. The plot however belongs to me.

Full Summary: At St. Vladimir and Fyodor Academy rivalry is huge. Moroi and dhampirs students cannot stand each other, pulling pranks against each other is part of their rivalry tradition. So what happens when Rose is inivited to be part of the dhampir gang who pulls these pranks on the Moroi? Especially when her best friend Lissa is a Royal Moroi. And what about when Dimitri leader of the dhampir gangs starts to have a romantic interest on her? Love or friendship which will she choose? READ TO FIND OUT...

The Winner Takes It All

And So the Rivalry Begins...

Rose POV:

"Hathaway!" growled Dimitri Belikov in front of me.

The other four seniors standing next to him snickered in low tones at my dumbfounded expression while my arms stiffened around the box full of bags of blood. Okay, so it wasn't real blood. Dimitri's friends Denis and Lev prepared ten batches of corn syrup mixed with red food coloring, and filled up the empty and stolen medical blood bags. The idea was to make it look like real blood so we could pull off the prank on the Moroi students of St. Vlads Academy.

But my eyes had trailed off to my best friend Lissa's bedroom window the moment Artur, another senior, started picking the lock of the back door to the kitchen. I couldn't help but wonder if Lissa was on a airplane back to Montana. School starts in two more days and almost every Moroi student was either returning to campus tonight or tomorrow morning. I completely spaced out in those minutes that I forgot about what I was doing until Dimitri's voice snapped me back to reality. He didn't looked a bit pleased with me right now. I blinked.

"What?" was the only thing that came out of my mind. That earned me more snickering laughter from the seniors and a couple of stifled giggles from the six juniors which of course three of them are my supposedly friends.

Hmph! some friends. I narrowed my eyes at them, mentally duct-tapping their mouths.

"I swear Hathaway, if you can't listen then maybe you are not fit to carry on my torch." he snatched the box from my arms and grumbled something else that I didn't catch as he stepped inside. The rest of us followed with no questions asked.

Mason and Eddie joked among themselves as they too carried boxes. Meredith and Viktoria pointed flashlights to illuminate the path. I walked next to Viktoria watching my step along the way. Behind me, Denis, Lev, Artur, and Tamara followed in silence. Everyone was on duty mode if this prank was going to be pulled correctly.

The kitchen was completely dark and empty. Of course it would be. It was a little after midnight. The only light we were receiving was from the moon shining through the small windows and from the flashlights.

Dimitri led us all to the freezer where the blood and other food was kept. The cold air immediately hit my entire body as I stepped in. My skin shivered and I rubbed my arms. The medium size room was just as dark as the kitchen except there was isles of shelves stacked with boxes and bags of ice. We didn't stopped to browse around to see what was inside the boxes. Instead we headed to the shelves labeled 'Hearty Welcome Back Treats'.

Within minutes we stacked those shelves with the fake blood bags in the same spot where the real blood would usually be placed. This was part of the plan. We all knew for a fact that tomorrow when all of the Moroi students arrive to campus, around noon sign up tables for elective classes, clubs, and other extra curricular activities would be lined up in the main hall. They had all these options to sign up before classes start. There was also the fact that the lunch ladies would set up a table for 'snacks only' and these bags of blood were poured in paper cups for the students. It was the academy's way of 'Welcoming back' its students.

Oh, what a surprise they were going to get when they realized that their drinks are nothing more than corn syrup and food coloring. My face twisted in disgust at the thought of Lissa spitting out her drink, if she doesn't throw up first.

It wasn't my intention to humiliate her or involve her in any way in this rivalry. But this was what it was. A rivalry between St. Vlads and Fyodor Academy. Moroi versus Dhampir. It's been like that for a decade. The saddest part was nobody really knows how it started.

The story we were told by our kind began ten years ago when St. Vlads still welcomed both Moroi and dhampir. I was probably six or seven years old at the time. I don't really know what happened. Anything that didn't involve food or games was no concern of mine then. But as the story goes a Moroi girl, a royal actually, told her parents that she was being harassed and almost raped by these two male novices. The parents were outraged and gather all of the royal families to rally the St. Vlads committee. Apparently royals didn't want their children taking their education under the same roof as dhampirs. That it was dangerous environment. The parents demanded that we should be separated. Some even offered to pay for a new school for the novices.

The dhampir community was outraged by this accusation. They no longer wanted their children to be taking their education with blood sucking creatures but declined the offered to let the Royals pay for a new school. Instead, the dhampir community raised the money on their own and had the school built at the other end of the forest from St. Vlads. It was still critical that Guardians stayed closed to a Moroi school. Not that it matter much, some of the best Guardians were assigned to St. Vlads for safety. Anyway, the new school was named Fyodor after Anna Fyodor the guardian of Vladimir and it was equipped with all of the facilities and instructors needed to train novices.

Everyone should have been happy, right?

Wrong. A week before Fyodor was open, the Feeder's wing at St. Vlads was burned down. The Moroi community blamed the dhampirs for this incident. That it was some sort of revenge for kicking out the novices from the academy. The dhampir community blamed the Moroi. That it was some conspiracy planned by the Royals. Whatever the reason was it caused a huge commotion between both community. And not just within the adults but also within the children. Pranks were pulled between both academies as in some sort of payback thing. Nobody really remembers who started but it went on for a while.

You would think after a couple of years these silly pranks would burned out. But they didn't. Every year they got worst and worst and worst.

Unfortunately this never cycle was tearing Lissa and me. She being a royal and me a dhampir our friendship wasn't acceptable. Especially within our circle of friends. Which sucked. Lissa and I have been best friends since kindergarten. Things haven't been great since we had been separated in the third grade. We rarely spoke to each other during the school year. Only through a few phone calls a week, emails. That sort of thing. It wasn't the same thing as hanging out in real person but at least we would spend a lot of time together during holidays and vacations.

I am afraid that this year might change, though. As a junior and as one of the best novices in my class I am eligible to be a candidate to carry on the torch that the seniors will leave behind. If I prove to be a worthy leader that is. I would need Dimitri's consent to be in charge next year. He'll search for certain qualities in junior novices especially when you are given the chance to participate in pranks like I am doing. He'll then passed on the leadership to the right person the week of graduation and it would be that person's responsibility to come up with pranks to pull on St. Vlads next year. In other words, I have a slight chance of being that leader. Something I am not looking forward to because St. Vlads has a similar ritual to ours. Worst part of it all is that Lissa is also an eligible candidate to be leader of her kind. Next year we would become enemies and hate each other. Something I'm dreading to happened.

"Is that all of them?" I heard Dimitri asking Denis.

Denis nodded. I glanced over and the boxes had been emptied. It looks like everything was all set for tomorrow.

A little voice in my head told me to warn Lissa with an email later as we left the freezer to the kitchen and outside.

"Too bad we won't be able to their faces when they drink the corn syrup." Denis laughed along with Lev.

"What matters is that we're getting back at them." Tamara muttered behind them. "We're pulling the first prank of the year."

"Yah!" Denis and Lev high five each other.

"SHHH!" Dimitri growled which made everyone cringe. "We're not out of the woods yet. Be quiet until we jump the fence and we're far from here. The last thing we need is to get caught."

"It will be all for nothing." Artur explained.

Everyone nodded and continued walking.

I couldn't help but noticed that Dimitri was walking next to me. From the corner of my eye I could see his intense posture which meant he was on the alert. Probably keeping eye out that for any Guardians who were patrolling the academy. It was either that or he was still mad at me from what happened earlier. Normally, I would eased him up into small talk which would eventually end up in some sort of teasing. It was the type of relationship I had with him ever since his Viktoria became one of my best friends in the fifth grade. Drimiti had taken up this role of playing the big brother in my life somewhere along the line since we'd known each other. Even though I don't see him as brother anymore. I haven't for a while actually. I like-like him. Not that I would say anything about my stupid crush since I wasn't sure about how he felt about me. For all I could know, I'm just probably a little sister to him.

As I let my shoulders drop in defeat my face smacked onto Deni's back. I guess it happens when you don't pay attention where you're walking. My body bounced back and I almost fell on my butt if it wasn't for Dimitri who quickly reached for my wrist and steady my balance.

"Geh Hathaway are you spacing out on us again? How is possible that you passed to junior year if you don't pay attention?" Denis mocked.

I glared up at him. He was embarrassing me in front of everyone. In front of Dimitri! I wasn't going to let it go on.

"I'm smarter than you think, Denis." I gave him a smug look just to show him off. Shrugging my shoulders, I continued on, "You're just never going to know how. A girl gotta have secrets."

Yup that did. Denis frowned. Mason and Eddie laughed at him. Everyone did. I heard Dimitri chuckling beside me which thrilled me to have made him laugh. I smiled brightly at my accomplished for the day. At least I wasn't a total failure after all.

"Come on guys. We have to keep moving." Dimitri said.

We cross the court quickly without running into any Guardians. When we reached brick fence Dimitri and Denis climbed up first since they were the two tallest guys in the group. Then they lend everyone a hand and help us up climb up the wall.

My intention was to reach for Denis hand when it was my turn but he totally ignored me and reached for Viktoria instead. He did that on purpose!

I send him another glare and turned to lock gazes with Dimitri.

A small smile could be found in those perfect lips as he stared right back at me. Did he know how nervous he made me feel each time we lock gazes like that? Or was he messing with me?

I decided not worry about it and reached out for some assistance. His long fingers wrapping around my wrists sending a hot flash to my face. I knew he was just grabbing me to pull me up but a part of wished that it would mean something more.

I avoided as much as eye contact as possible so he wouldn't see me blushing. When I reached the top of the wall I moved to the side of Dimitri so I could take a final glance at Lissa's window. It was obvious that she wasn't there and I just couldn't help but feel a little sad. I missed her. I wished I could have gone to her room and tell her all about Dimitri.

That wasn't going to happened anytime soon.

After tomorrow the rivalry will begin. The Moroi will hate us for pulling such a horrible prank on them and they would find a way to get back at us.

Boy, was I not looking forward to that.

Rivalry isn't a pretty thing.

A/N: That everyone concludes the introduction. At least for now. I do plan to add other POVs in the story as story the develops. I sort of have to since I have to switch between Moroi and Dhampirs ;D

Anyway, don't forget to review and let me know what you think of the story so far. I'll really appreciate it when you.