HA YOU GUYS THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH VA 5EVER

It couldn't be the truth that my alarm clock had been going off since five forty. That was a lie. It couldn't be true.

If it really happened to be the time the clock on my side table displayed, I was truly fucked. In fact, the clock was still blaring. To add to all the noises, my phone began to start screaming out a song—my ringtone.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" I slapped the snooze on my alarm clock and then raced across the room to my phone to get my phone. "Hello!" I shouted into it as I answered.

"Um, hey," came a confused voice. "I kinda noticed that you haven't called me or anything and there's only about," there was a pause, "little less than fifteen minutes till school begins."

Christian Ozera. Christian was my next-door neighbor. Everyday I basically get a ride from him to school. Well, him or his stepbrother Eddie. Eddie is perhaps a slightly better driver. For instance, he doesn't get road rage.

"You there?" he asked calmly. That was something that I loved as well as loathed about Christian. He was so quite. Sometimes, I appreciated it. However, sometimes I wanted to throw something at him. Like a brick. I like noise. The only time I don't is when it's either; a, I have a headache, b, it's that time of month, or c, I'm ranting about some bitch who stole my shit.

That's not most of the time, I don't think.

"Y—yeah. Dude," I slapped my forehead with my hand. "Would it be too far out of your way to come and pick me up?" I asked, but just after speaking did I realize that it was. No matter what he said, yes or no, it was too far. The trip there was at least twenty minutes since there was pretty much always traffic after seven thirty. And school started at eight. It was seven forty eight, I realized as I looked back over to the clock.

"Rose—"

"Forget it," I cut him off. "I'm going to have to walk. I'll see you in first period," I said.

I could almost see Christian chewing the insides of his cheeks, the way he always does when he's thinking something over. "Okay, Rose."

"Bye," I said before hanging up. Before I actually did, I heard him say something about not being too late. Oh please, I didn't just live at least five miles away. This would take sometime.

I began to get dressed and by the time I had been properly dressed, make up applied, and grabbed a bite to eat, it was eight o' one. "Well fuck me sideways," I murmured to myself. I always laughed when I thought about how that could be humanly possible.

Nah, on second thought I wouldn't like to think about that.

I was wearing dark washed ripped skinny jeggings with a dark green crop top that had a marijuana leaf outlined in white with the words 'why don't we just get hitched?' in smoke letters. Ha. Weed jokes. But it was too cold out to just wear that. I had on a thin, black crew neck sweater over it and on top of that was a light washed jean jacket. I finished off the look with my tan Sperrys shoes.

My make up today consisted of mascara and sexy eyeliner wings. I had on a bit of Chap Stick since it was so cold that my lips had begun to get chapped. What could I say? It was the early January. Gets as cold as a witch's tit around here in Montana.

I pulled out my phone and stuck my earphones into my ears. If I was going to be walking five miles, I might as well listen to something.

Seven minutes into my walk, I heard a loud commotion. Screaming? A siren? I pulled out my left earphone out and looked behind me. Nope, it was a car horn. And, that driver looked oddly familiar. It was a young man in a very sleek, expensive looking car. Oh god, this could only be one person.

Ivashkov.

Noooope. Not today.

He drove up beside me and rolled down the window. "Rose!" he called. I stopped and pretended that I didn't recognize him at first. Blow to the ego: numero uno.

"Oh, is that you, Adrian?" I asked. He looked confused at first, almost like he wasn't sure for a moment that it was me. "Oh hi," I said, glancing at my phone, noting the time. Eight ten.

"Rose… Wow, you look really good," he said. I couldn't wonder why he said that; I was wearing winter clothes. No one can rock winter clothes.

"Um, thanks," I said with a small flirtatious giggle. "What's up? Why aren't you at school?" I asked. He hopped out of his car and slammed the door behind him. He walked up over to me and smiled that gorgeous smile of his.

"I don't have a first period," he said. I nodded. "But, Ms. Hathaway, I could ask you the same exact question," he said in that smooth voice of his.

I smiled. "Yeah, that's the thing—the reason why I'm walking this morning. I had an alarm clock malfunction this morning," I said with a nervous chuckle. No, you lying shit, you were a fat log in bed this morning. "My bike got stolen a couple months ago, and no sort of public transportation around here," I said with a smile.

Adrian cocked both eyebrows. "I wouldn't mind giving you a ride," he smiled. His black lip ring shone in the light. Although it was definitely overcast and looked just about to rain, there was a gleam.

Adrian really was pretty good looking. Not to sound like a pompous bitch, but it was no surprise that he was into me. He had made it quite clear. And I had nothing against him, besides occasionally trying to make the seemingly endless amount of pride in this guy diminish a bit. It's just what I do.

But honestly, there's nothing really wrong with him. Besides his constant smoking and heavy drinking habit, he was great. Sexy, too. He had honey brown coloured hair and the inch above his ear was shaved. He wore a casual comfy looking black beanie and his hair was, like usual, styled to look like he didn't care.

We all know he does.

He wore a white tee with a graphic on the front with an unbuttoned black and red plaid flannel and dark washed jeans. On top of it all was a leather jacket that I really had to say looked great on him. For shoes he had on new but purposely made to look worn vanilla coloured Vans.

And he was just my type.

"Just get in, Rose. I'm headed over to Starbucks, I could drop you off on the way," he said kindly. I smiled.

"That would be great," I said, smiling in return. We headed over to his car, but hurried when we saw a cop coming our way since Adrian had intelligently parked in the bike lane with red on the curb as well.

As we got in, I noticed first the strong scent of axe. Although I thought the smell was pretty obnoxious and even a little douchebag-y, it was in fact an attractive smell. Adrian had left the engine running, so he put his car in gear and revved forward—only to get stopped a moment later by a red light.

The car jolted, but I caught myself. As I was pushing my hair out of my face, I glanced over. There was a little coffee container with a camouflage design on the outside. It was cute. I picked it up and swished it around; there was a liquid in it.

"Oh—uh, I don't know about that…" he said, quickly taking into account what I was doing. I cocked a brow.

"What?"

"Take a whiff," he said, a smile cracking his lips apart. I did, bringing it to my nose and taking in the scent. I yanked it back and coughed.

"Wow, that's strong," I said, my eyes tearing up a little.

Vodka. Russian vodka.

I had only had in a couple times—I could count the times on one hand. There was a reason I didn't have it as much as I drank beer or other vodkas like Skyy or Absolut. Russian vodka was disgusting. But the effects were at least ten times stronger.

He grasped it, grabbing my hand in the act, and pulled it from me. He took a swig, but I could tell it was hard for him to digest as much as he just did. He made a little noise, and I giggled.

"Show off," I murmured. He began laughing loudly.

"What? You think I can go through an entire day sober?" he asked, taking a sidelong glance at me. The light turned green and he charged forward.

"Yeah, what's wrong with being sober all day?" I asked with a small laugh. "I'm sober right now. As you can probably tell," I added.

He smiled. "I can. And, if I were to do that, I'm afraid I'd be awfully boring."

"I dare you," I said, a smile creeping onto my lips.

He chuckled. "Maybe." He looked over at me; he was still smiling. "Maybe. Not soon, I would go crazy if I just stopped tomorrow."

"Fine," I said softly. "Enjoy it while you can."

xXx

When I got to school, I was a half hour late. My teacher, Ms Karp, looked disappointed, but apologized and came up with a lame excuse. I sat down in my seat—it was art class. I sat next to Christian, and after putting my bag down I looked over at him and smiled.

"You got here a lot faster than I had expected," he said skeptically. "What did you do? Run? Have you joined the track team behind my back?"

"No," I said and laughed. "Not in a million years would I ever betray you like that," I continued to say, still laughing.

He stared at me.

"Oh, yeah. So funny thing," I paused and bit my lip. Adrian was so sweet. "I ran into Adrian."

"Ivashkov?" Christian asked, his jaw dropping a little.

"Yeah," I said. "He saw me walking and got out of his car to talk to me. He offered me a ride since he didn't have a first period, and well, I got a ride," I said with an ear-to-ear smile.

"You like him?" he asked next.

I felt taken aback. I hadn't really thought about it like that. Did I like him? He certainly was cool and funny and gorgeous, but… I wasn't so sure.

"I'll take your long pause as a… yes?" Christian asked with a smirk.

I shrugged. "Not sure," I said. "I'll have to get back to you on that one," I said smugly. We both laughed—well I laughed and he quietly chuckled. It was rare to ever see him burst out laughing.

"Um…" came someone awkwardly behind me. I turned around and looked up to see a tall girl standing behind me. It was… Lissa Dragomir?

"Oh," Christian said. "I didn't think you'd make it to class on time so I gave your seat to her," he said sheepishly.

I had always known Lissa Dragomir. Once, a long, long time ago, we were friends. Maybe even best friends. She was great, funny, and so cute. I pretty much was in love with her.

Yeah, then came freshman year of high school.

It was hard for me during that time. My mom had lost her job, my dad was nowhere to be found, and school had really upped its game.

I was invited to my first kick back party from a friend. He was cute and I was definitely excited to attend this thing. I had invited Lissa, but I had not expected her to freak out the way she did. She went off on me about drugs and alcohol and unprotected sex. We both knew I was going to either smoke or drink, but talking about unprotected sex was as random as sharks being best friends with bears. I didn't know what to say, but I went to the party anyway. It was fun—way fun. I had smoked for the first time and drank a little, and made out with a guy, Jesse. I got back to school the following Monday, and nearly everyone was talking about me. Apparently, Jesse had had a crush on me for a while, and teamed up with Lissa, the two had spread enough rumors about me to kill a whale.

I would never forget the accusing people talking about me the second I walked past them. The worst part was whatever they talked about was nothing I would even consider doing. Nevertheless, I confronted Lissa about it. Once again, I was bitched out. I called her a 'fucking prude-ass bitch' and she called me a 'lying, slutty whore'.

And that was all, folks.

I was done. After that remark, I just kind of just thought to myself, 'I'm out.'

And I was, we hadn't talked since, and I didn't even mind.

I didn't really know what to say to Christian. I just picked up my backpack and got up. I walked to the back of the classroom to a nearly empty table. There were two girls chatting who I didn't really know and a big looking guy. I sat down across from him and dropped my shit. Ms Karp walked over to me and handed me a piece of paper and some charcoal pencils. Our job for the day was to draw something—anything—as long as it was in the room and not an electronic. I pulled out my phone and plugged my earphones in and began listening to some Imagine Dragons.

I looked around the room, but my eyes were drawn towards the guy across from me. He had his head down. I didn't really get a good look at his face before the bell rang. I boredly slid the paper and pencil shit into my bag and stood up. The guy didn't stand up, but continued to draw. I decided I had no more fucks to give about this guy and left.

My school has this weird thing with the periods. There's first period, right, and then there's second. Second period is from 8,55 until 12,42. Yeah it's a little long. Then comes lunch and then third period. It's just a little thing that my private school in Missoula, Montana does. In second period, it's called core, there is English and history, math, and science. Third period is usually another extra-curricular class, for example PE, or a language. In my case, I'm taking honors 4 Russian.

I headed towards my class. It was a big classroom, there were at least thirty-five kids in it, and that may not sound like a lot, but it is around here. Remember, I live in the middle of almost nowhere.

I entered the class and almost jumped out of my skin. At the door waiting to jump out and scare me was my best friend, Avery Lazar.

"Dumb bitch," I said, holding a hand over my heart while she howled.

"Your fucking face, Rose! Your fucking face…!" she screamed.

This class didn't have a teacher. Well, I mean, of course it had a teacher. Since the beginning of the year in mid-September, the class has always been unassigned a teacher. It's just been substitute after substitute. Because of this, not many kids decided to even come to class.

Namely, Adrian.

I would be surprised if he showed up today. It might have been tough getting out of Starbucks, since you know, it requires walking, and pushing a door open without loosing control of all body functions and spilling coffee everywhere.

I chuckled at the thought of Adrian being a big pile of… Well, Adrian.

Avery and I walked to the back and presided our usual seats, in the back next to the heater.

The bell rang, and probably only a quarter of the students were here already. I had one earphone in and, despite the fact that we don't have a real teacher for this class, we still had a ton of homework for each period during core and the grades still count. I began working on my math homework, hoping that the sub would be new and wouldn't know the class norms.

A tall, beefy man instead walked in. I glanced up before looking back down at my paper—hang on. I did a double take and looked back up at the guy. It was the same guy from Ms Karp's art class. If he was a new student, why was he walking up to the front and placing some papers down on the desk…?

Why is he writing on the whiteboard?

Mr. Belikov he wrote out in fancy cursive longhand. It looked good, way different from mine anyway.

Oh, I realized.

"New sub," Avery whispered to me with an excited giggle. I mentally thanked the lords from above for sending in a substitute teacher.

I put my other earphone in and continued to finish up my math. I was nearly done; I had probably six or seven more problems to do. I ended up getting pretty wrapped up in what I was doing. I was really slapping my music when I noticed a large fist on my desk.

I jumped back in alarm. "What the fuck!?" I instinctively said. I ripped out my earphones and looked up at the intruder.

"Mr. Belakoff?" I asked in a low, confused voice.

He stood before me, maybe six foot six or six foot seven, but shit—this man was a giant. He leaned down so that he was eyelevel with me.

"It's Mr. Belikov," he corrected in a very Russian accent, it was so thick that I thought I was going to have trouble understanding what he was going to say next. He held out his large, calloused looking hand. "Phone," he said simply.

I stared at him for the longest time before I actually said something. "What?" I said in a loud, puzzled voice. I sounded like an idiot.

"Hand me your phone, there is no usage of electronics in this classroom," he said, still holding out his hands. His voice was a lot huskier, although easier to understand now.

Well shit. He was going to make this difficult. Or maybe that would be me. "Um, no, I don't think so, Mr. Belikov," I said his name with a perfect Russian accent. "You're a sub. You can't take anything away from me. You can't even give me a detention," I said in a bored tone. Well if I did something really bad, that would be a different story. I placed both my earphones back in and picked my pencil up. I ignored him—or at least tried to before it was literally ripped away from me. My earphones were violently pulled out of my ears and I looked up to see Mr. Belikov winding them up over my beautiful, not to mention expensive iPhone.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" I asked, my voice raising a couple octaves. Avery behind me began to snicker to herself.

"There is no cursing in my class," he said as he began to walk away from my desk. I glared daggers into his back, and almost as if he could feel them, he turned around and stared straight at me.

"Uhm, Mr. Belacock or whatever," began Avery beside me, "sorry to burst your bubble, but this isn't your class. We don't have an official teacher," she said informatively.

Turning to face my friend and me, he stood still and erect. "You do now. I can tell you once and for all that I am your teacher, and if you have any problem understanding this, you can either talk to me or the headmistress Kirova," he said, returning to his desk. I looked around. Was anybody else seeing this?

To my surprise, no one else had phones out or earphones in. Nobody even had their backpacks on their desks. Each and every bag was placed under a desk and there was a stack of phones on Mr. Belikov's desk. Everyone was facing forward, and absolutely no one was talking.

"I'm going to call role and then I'm going to go over some rules. Judging by the look of this classroom, most people decide to skip?" he said more to himself than to us. He picked up a clipboard with the role sheet and skimmed it. Even though I was pissed he had taken my phone, my property, away from me, I didn't have it in me to yell across the room at him.

Just then a couple of people began to walk in. First was Sydney, the sub aide. Or now, I guess she would be called an actual teacher's aide. She nodded to Mr. Belikov and presided her seat next to him in a little desk next to his.

"Teacher's aide," she said, and he nodded.

Next, Jesse Zeklos, Mason Ashford, and Eddie and Christian Ozera came in. They were all laughing and chuckling at something. Not a moment after them entered Lissa, Mia, and Jill. Tasha Ozera, Christian's cousin came in last, looking pissed. Well today will be fun, won't it? None of the three prudes made eye contact with anyone and Tasha and the boys went and sat near the windows on the right side of the classroom, precisely four seats in front of Avery and I.

"And who are you?" Dimitri asked in a not so nice tone. The students just stared at him. "State who you are," he said, this time in a more demanding voice.

Mia spoke up first. "I'm Mia Rinaldi, this is Jill and Lissa Dragomir," she said in an annoying, spoilt brat kind of voice. Jill and Lissa were half sisters. Turns out Lissa's dad had an affair with Jill's single mother about two months after he fucked Lissa's mom. I definitely felt bad for the two (or maybe just the fact that the humiliating story got around the school). They didn't exactly like each other, but put up with each other as most siblings do.

"The rest of you?" Mr. Belikov asked after writing down those names.

"Tasha," Tasha said, looking interested in the teacher. Fuck, not even cute, Tasha.

Tasha was definitely defined as a straight up bloody cunt. It's vulgar and aggressive, I know, but shit, once you get to know her, you'll be trying to crawl up your mom's own cunt to try and get away from her. The revelation is as true as it is fucked up, trust me.

The boys each sounded off their names, and once Belikov had finished writing it all down, he looked at each of them. "You each have detention after school today. It's important to be punctual every day."

The girls first started screaming in alarm, save for Tasha, and the boys kind of just shrugged. I took off my jacket and hung it on the back of the chair. Today was definitely going to be interesting.

"Mason Ashford?"

Mason looked up. "Here!" he called.

"Lisa Dragomir?"

"It's Lissa," Lissa corrected in an annoyed tone.

"Jill Dragomir?"

The line up went on.

"Rosemarie Hathaway?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's Rose," I corrected. Belikov looked up and met eyes with me, as if looking me over. I had now shed both my jean jacket and crewneck so I was now only in my cute green crop top. He seemed to be looking at me for the first time, and perhaps as someone more than a student—as a person.

As he did this, I took the opportunity to look at him as well. He had tanned skin and dark hair that went just a couple inches shy of his shoulders with chocolaty eyes to match. He had no facial hair; he was cleanly shaven, and because he had been close to me to take away my phone, I had noticed that he smelled heavenly.

He was wearing a blue button down shirt overlapped by a gray v-neck sweater. He wore black slacks with a black leather belt. The more I looked at him, I realized, the more I began to become fond of him.

To my surprise, he was frankly pretty fucking hot.

"Right," he said, making a double take of me, then returning his eyes to his clipboard. "Adrian Ivashkov?"

"Present!" Adrian said as he walked through the door, hitting both his hands on the top of the frame of the door as he entered. He met eyes with me and winked. Oh god, I thought, this was not going to go well. I looked over at the teacher who had a look that said something along the lines of 'what the fuck do you think you're doing, you little ass'. Adrian walked down the aisle and pulled up a chair to Avery's and my desk. He placed the same camouflage coffee container on my desk and then pulled out his phone. I wondered briefly if it still had the Russian vodka in it. He slipped me a pack of Marlboro red and I thanked him, making sure that Mr. Belikov hadn't seen.

"Adrian. Where is your seat?" he asked tiredly.

"Next to Rose," he said, not looking up from his phone.

I bumped his elbow. "Dude, he's pissed; he's going to take that from you," I whispered. Adrian quickly understood. After all, this guy wasn't the first strict sub we've had. He stuffed the device into his pants pocket and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Please sit in an actual seat before I make assigned seats," Belikov said, narrowing his eyes at Adrian. Shit, this guy was pretty passionate about being an asshole.

He finished up through the names and then put the clipboard down, almost a second before an office aide came in to collect the roll. He smiled at her and I began to feel a little testy.

"I'm going to go over some rules," he said. He placed one hand on his desk as he pulled out a piece of paper. "Most of these are pretty obvious; arrive on time; no eating or drinking; no yelling or running; no doing homework in class unless I assign you to." He looked up to the ceiling as if to try and remember anything else. "You must come to me first if you need anything. You are allowed to go to the bathroom if I give you permission or if it's a convenient time.

"Dress code is applied to this class; i.e. no super short shorts or shirts, girls," he said, looking directly at me. I had stripped both jackets and was only in my crop top/ tank top. It was cute, and no matter what he told me, I was not going to change it or put another shirt on. And please, he acted like I was the only girl wearing something like this. "All hats must be off, and if you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly fond of phones and other electronic devices. So turn them off and store them until class is over."

I scoffed. "Are we allowed to breathe?"

His head shot up like a bullet. "What was that, Rose?" he asked.

I ignored him and ran a hand through my hair, deciding to put it up into a ponytail. He merely glared at me and I did the same.

"Also, I expect an answer from my students when I ask a question. So, Rose?"

Prick. "Nothing. I said nothing." He decided not to press it then.

"Then, thanks to your friendly classmate, Rosemarie," he said, smiling, knowing that he was pissing me off. I began to snarl. "I'm going to assign a seating chart," he said, the smile still there. Wow, maybe he did take joy in watching others suffer. This dude was weird.

Almost everyone in the class turned their heads around and glared daggers at me. I shrugged. "I'm not the one assigning the seats, he is," I whispered, totally annoyed, to myself.

Avery laughed under her breath. "Well, at least I might get to sit next to Jesse or Eddie," she said happily.

Much to both of our surprise, she did. Jesse was situated on one side of her and Eddie on the other. However, they were unfortunately sitting in the front. Adrian also sat in the front, a couple seats away from the trio. Avery looked excited out of her mind and had already begun flirting with Jesse. I shuddered a little. Jesse was attractive, don't get me wrong, but the kid gave me the creeps.

He assembled everyone else across the room. Most friends were seated together as he didn't know exactly who talked to who yet, but then there was me. There was one last seat open in the back corner of the room, and I was ecstatic that he had left the best seat for last.

"Rosemarie, your seat is going to be," he paused for emphasis, "right here."

He held his hand over the teachers' desk. I kind of just, well, stared at him for a while.

He raised his brows at me. "Hathaway?"

"Hang on, you want me to sit here?" I asked, pointing at his desk.

He nodded. "Yes, I feel it is the most proper place for me to keep an eye on you," he said with a smirk. Sue me, but holy shit was I feeling a little fainty.

My cheeks flared up. "What the fuck?" I said loudly.

"Ah, thank you for helping me out to add to the rules list. No swearing in class either." His smirk only grew.

I slammed my backpack onto his desk and pulled the chair out—wait, fuck yeah—it had a swirly chair!

"Also, no backpacks on desks," he said, and glanced around the room. People moaned and groaned as they pulled their bag off their desk. I didn't.

xXx

"Now that the logistics are finished, is there anything any of you would like to know about me? Any questions for the future of this class, anything?" he asked. I began by raising my hand, although I was behind him. Not surprisingly, he didn't see me.

"What kind of music do you listen to?" asked a girl in the middle of the classroom who looked a pretty awestruck by him. It was Camille Conta. Tall. Blond. Bimbo. You bet she's interested.

"I like jazz, mm," he paused to think, "although I've always been listening to lots of rock—80's rock," he admitted almost sheepishly. "And mostly lots of Russian songs." He looked into the crowd of people raising their hands. Surprisingly, he chose someone in the front—Adrian.

"What's your name?" he asked.

Mr. Belikov looked confused. "Mr. Belikov," he answered.

Adrian slapped his head. "No," he said, chuckling to himself. "What's your first name?" he asked.

He paused to think. "Mister. Mister Belikov." People in the back began to smirk and laugh.

Since I was at his desk, I felt curious and began to look through his papers. I skimmed a note from the principal; nada. I peered through some more of his work until—at last.

"Dimitri?" I read.

Dimitri turned around and looked at me. "How did you—" he saw the paper in my hands and looked up to glare at me with a playful smirk on his lips. People around the classroom had already begun to whisper his name around. "Perhaps, but to all of you, I'm Mr. Belikov."

"Okay, sure thing, Dimitri," I replied smartly. Before he could say anything, I continued. "I do have a question, though, if you wouldn't mind answering."

He turned to the class before moving out of the way so that I could project my question. "Go on," he said.

"How old are you?" I asked, a smile on my lips.

Dimitri rolled his eyes. I was glad to see that he was loosening up to us—to me. He turned to the class. "Miss Rosemarie wonders how old I am," he paused and smiled an absolutely breathtaking smile. He leaned back and sat slightly on his desk, and just by this I could tell through his slacks that he did indeed have an incredible ass. "I am twenty-four."

Gasps were heard all around the room along with people repeating what he just said. "Twenty-four?" I said to myself. If he was truly only twenty-four, then he was only…

Six years older than me.

Well technically seven, but it was January and my birthday was in April, only a couple months away. But the way I acted (and actually what I told people) I was eighteen. Most of the kids in this class were already eighteen, though.

More questions were asked, stupid ones, funny ones that made Dimitri blush, and again some more stupid time-wasting questions.

Yes, the day was going by nicely.

xXx

The moment the break bell rung, I made eyes at Adrian and we were out of that classroom. We had a fifteen-minute break and we were going to go to the courtyard for a smoke. Adrian on one hand was a hardcore smoker; I, on the other hand, only smoked sometimes. I wasn't addicted and I was proud of that, but I liked the feeling of relaxation when I took a hit.

I grabbed a jacket, as did Adrian, and we bolted for the door. As soon as we were out the door, he was already pulling out a pack. Once we arrived, I took a seat on the bench under the magnolia tree. It was so beautiful. The sky was still overcast and didn't show any signs that it was going to let up anytime today.

"I love cloudy days," I mused. "Overcast, foggy, I love it."

Adrian looked over as he was furiously trying to light his cig. He smiled when it finally caught and took a long first drag. He turned to me and blew it on my face. I moaned in annoyance and blew it away.

He lifted his arm and draped it around my shoulders as he took a seat down next to me on the bench. I picked a flower from the tree and examined it. It was fluffy and pink. I decided I liked it.

"I love it when it's overcast. Some days I just don't want to see the sun, you know," Adrian said before lifting his hand to his mouth and taking another drag. I nodded. "Hopefully it will keep snowing."

There was a bit of snow on the ground, less than an inch of it. "Hopefully there won't be a summer this year," I added.

"That would be… amazing." He turned to look down at me. "You and I are a lot alike, you know," he said, smiling.

"You bet," I said, pulling the cigarette from his hold and taking a drag. I breathed out through my nose.

I looked away from the flower and Adrian to the classroom across the quad. Dimitri. He was surrounded by a hoard of girls my age and younger. "Yuck."

Adrian noticed this too, I guess, because he shook his head.

"He is just sucking up the attention. Fucking prick teacher," I mumbled.

"How much you want to bet at least two of the girls in our class will be pregnant by, hmm, let's say May? June?" he said.

I laughed. "Um, since he's a teacher, I'm pretty sure he's smart enough to use protection, especially if he doesn't want to get caught impregnating a teenager, nonetheless his own student," I said.

"Yeah, if I were him, I'd wear two condoms on one of these."

I seriously could not even say anything to that. He just clearly was an idiot. There would be no point in explaining it to him either.

"What do you think of him?" I asked.

He shrugged. "He seems pretty stick-up-his-ass strict, but, you know what that means, right?"

I shook my head no.

"He's going to be so much fun fucking with." Just then Dimitri looked over at us. Well, he didn't pay as much attention to Adrian as me. We made eye contact and I gave a seductive smile. Adrian smoked calmly next to me, oblivious to this. "Seems like a hardcore Russian guy right, but shit—"

"Adrian, is there a no smoking policy here?" I asked. Dimitri's calm gaze at me turned pissed. Like raging, fuming pissed. "Adrian?"

He scoffed. "I'm pretty sure every school has a no smoking policy," he took another drag, uncaring.

"Russian danger approaching at ten o'clock," I warned. Dimitri had begun to walk over here as soon as his eyes left mine and found Adrian smoking. Adrian snapped out of it and dropped his cig and stamped it out. He hid the rest of his pack in his pocket.

"Were you just smoking?" Dimitri asked. Great, he was giving us the benefit of the doubt.

"I don't know what you are talking about, sir," Adrian said.

Dimitri gave us bored eyes. "You both are busted," he paused and turned around as if to survey the area. "But I won't report you to the principal if you give me one." He looked a little ashen, although his cheeks were blushed. This definitely was not his ideal situation, I could guess enough.

There was an obvious pause as Adrian and I absorbed what he just said.

"So we're not in trouble?" Adrian asked.

"Hang on," I said. "Is this a trap?"

Dimitri looked me in the eye, and in that moment, I could tell it wasn't. He wanted a cigarette. He was embarrassed and shy about smoking, I supposed.

I looked over at Adrian and nudged his shoulder. Adrian reluctantly reached into his back pocket and pulled out one and held it out to our teacher. Saying it like that made it sound like this situation was wrong.

Was it ever right?

Dimitri pulled out a cool black and silver lighter and lit it. He closed the lid and slipped it back into his pocket.

"Your punishment is after school detention."

Adrian and I both began to resist and argue but he put his hand up in front of our faces and we both stopped. "I'm not even turning you guys in. Especially you, Rose, you're not even eighteen yet. Do you understand what kind of trouble you could get into doing this?"

I gaped. "How the hell did you know…?"

He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the throng of girls he was talking to prior to coming over here. "They told me you two come over to here to smoke and make out everyday. Then one of them said 'Rose isn't even eighteen yet', and then I had had enough of them so I left."

I tried to check and see who was actually there. Christian had Lissa on his lap in a secluded area making out next to a pillar, Sydney looked like she would rather be dead and in a coffin than be over there as she was looking boredly at her phone screen, and then Tasha, Mia, and Jill appeared to be talking shit. Avery was nowhere in sight. I never understood why Sydney never sat with Adrian and I. She seemed really nice and funny, but just always looked so bored all the time. And of course I had caught the way she looks at him during class.

"So what's it going to be?" I asked.

Dimitri caught on quickly. "After school detention for two hours."

"Can't," Adrian said, leaning back on the bench. It was only then that I realized we had both just been sitting ramrod straight up. "I have crew right after school for two and a half hours."

"Then serve tomorrow," Dimitri said impishly, sucking on the cigarette, already coming to the end of it. He dropped it on the ground and stepped on it, then kicked it into the grass.

"Crew tomorrow, too." Adrian chuckled. "I have crew everyday but Sundays."

"Well, then, you're going to have to alert them that you'll have to serve detention after school tomorrow when you're at practice today." He turned to me. "Rose, you'll have to be on your own today then."

I frowned. He better not make me clean anything. After all, I took two or three hits on a cigarette. I didn't graffiti a huge dick on his classroom. Not yet at least…

"Wait, what do you mean on your own? Aren't Lissa and Jill and Tasha and Christian and people having detention today too?" I asked, suddenly not so excited about fucking up his room.

"What did I tell you?" Dimitri asked me, taking a drag. The smoke slowly seeped out of his mouth as he spoke next. "I'm not turning you to study hall. That's where they're going since I notified Kirova. You both are just going to be confined to my room for two hours." He shrugged. "Not so bad."

I groaned. I was stuck.

Just then, the bell rang. Adrian put his stuff away, as did Dimitri, sliding his cool lighter into his pocket. He coughed quickly. "Yes, let's go."

xXx

Dimitri surprisingly allowed me to do my homework. He didn't believe in strict punishments like scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush or giving lectures for the detention.

"You're an okay teacher, I guess," I muttered as Dimitri walked past my desk (his desk). I couldn't help but notice the tight slacks made his ass look like a million bucks.

"You're an okay student, I guess," Dimitri mocked and smirked at me. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever," I said, looking down at my homework. I hadn't noticed I was doodling along the side of the paper. "Why're you here?"

Dimitri looked up from a few papers on the desk he was sitting at. It was a student's desk and he practically dwarfed it. I had to cough to supress my laughter.

"I mean like… What made you want to be a teacher at this school?"

The twenty-four year old shrugged. "I enjoy teaching. I was at the top of my class in Russia, but…" he looked down at his hands. "My grandmother died and I knew I had to make a living for my sisters and single mother back home. I'm a citizen and all—" he held his hand out for me to not misunderstand him, "but my sisters and mother are not. It's difficult to explain…"

I shrugged, trying to play it off. "Do you live alone?"

Holy shit, was I flirting?

"I—I do," he stammered, cocking a brow at me. "I have a cat…?"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. "That's cute. I guess."

"I guess," Dimitri returned, smiling at me.

Was it so wrong that an innocent smile made me want to absolutely jump across the table and kiss him?

i wrote this in march but i guess i forgot... to post...? yeah my bad. it's been a while since i've been into straight couples LOL

so when's this va movie coming out? who the hell is JUICED to see it?

review and let me know if i should do more? i haven't read the books in so long x.x this is a little bit of a tease SORRY