spirt kissed

chapter 11 (kat)

I absolutely hated this. It felt like my first week here. Only worse, I didn't have Steve.

Lunch sucked the most. I felt like I had nowhere to go. Roman went back to his friends, my friends. And Maddie was with Asher, meaning Steve was around. And people in this school tried their best to stay away from me, former strigoi and all that.

I was pacing back and forth outside of Stan's classroom. Debating if I should go in. I wasn't in the mood to get lectured. Would he lecture me? I haven't talked to him since that day in Lazar's office. It's been almost two weeks now. I haven't made my jokes, I just sat in the back quiet.

I took a deep breath, I opened the door and walked in, "Hey Stan, I brought-" I looked up and saw him, "Steve."

"Katerina." Stan appeared behind him.

"I... I'm sorry, I thought you would be with Maddie. I should go."

"No, no it's fine, I was about to head out." He grabbed his jacket. He walked past me, our arms touched for a brief moment. He walked out of the room.

Stan was actually smiling, "So what do you have for me?"

"Huh?"

"You have something on your face, right there, under your lip. What is that? Is that drool?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Ha very funny." I sat next to him and handed him his chicken sandwich.

"If I knew you were gonna come in today, I would have waited for you."

"I was out there for like ten minutes debating if I should walk in."

"Why?"

I sorta laughed, I guess I thought it was funny that I was ever going to say this out loud, "I'm scared and I really messed up. I lied, it wasn't just a petty crush, I... I fell in love with him."

"I know." he took a bite of his sandwich, "When we were watching the testimony and that lawyer asked him about you, he was ready to tell the whole world he was in love with you. You fought for him the way he fights for you. Stop being stupid." I was in shock that he said that. After a bit of silence he said, "The people here are stupid. No one thought it was weird that your mother had a mental breakdown and dropped out as soon as your father turned strigoi."

"How long have you known?"

"With your parents? Ever since the ski trip, your father was so jealous of Adrian Ivanskov. If you didn't suspect anything by then, you were a blind idiot." He knew that's not what I meant. "Ever since your suspension, the way he looked at you, his demeanor, it changed. And then that whole thing with Veronica Devin. The only reason no one took it seriously was, why would Dimitri Belikov's spy fall in love with his daughter, it's like asking for a death sentence."

I took a big bite of my sandwich, "He hates me."

"He's hurt, he'll get over it."

The bell rang. I finished my sandwich and got up. I walked towards the door, "Alto!" he looked back at me, "Thank you."

The rest of the school day was boring. The classes here are over. We were all counting down the seconds until we were out of this hell hole for the summer.

After the last school bell rang. We all practically ran out. I went over to my room to grab my stuff. I was going back to court for a few days, before our trip to Russia. I just had a small bag filled with things I want in my room back at home and a few things I want to take to Russia.

I was looking at my pictures and I found one I forgot I even had. A picture of Roman. I came here with the intention to bring him back to me, but now he's one of the people I hate the most.