Charlotte

Chapter 5

I hadn't dreamed about my mother since I was fifteen; she hadn't even been a part of my life since I was twelve. God knows where my father is, so I was sent to live in foster home after fosterhome until I graduated highschool last summer. It was one of the many things Rose and I bonded over. She too had a shitty mom who abandoned her, and a father who never bothered to show up. Except, eventually, she found her parental figures in the Dragomirs. I was left to my own devises going from one shitty situation for the next. A paycheck, a maid, a punching bag, but never a daughter. 

It doesn't affect me as much as it used to, especially in the last year, so to wake up this morning from a dream...a memory...already had me in a somber mood. There was sunlight coming through the window, and I was confused by the incessant beeping, until I remembered I had an alarm set for four P.M so that I could go train with Rose and Dimitri. I roll over and slam my hand down on the little button to turn the alarm off, then moan into my pillow. "This sucks," I mumble to myself, then force myself out of my warm bed to stand on the coarse light brown carpet. My entire upper body was sore, which made me want to be out of my bed that much less.

Our things had been shipped in last night from Portland, so at least now I had my own clothes. I was relieved to find my boxes in the living room, still sealed up, and happily threw on my own basketball shorts and a red t-shirt. I also found out that I didn't have to wear the uniform if I didn't want to, as it was optional, so I threw in a pair of comfy pants and a shirt in my black bag and went out into the living room. It was dark due to the thick, black out curtains on the windows, and it was empty. There were no sounds coming from Dimitri's room, so I assumed he was already gone. Did the poor guy ever get to sleep? 

Despite my suspicions, when I found my way to the gym (I got lost twice and had to be escorted by a very annoyed Dhampir), Dimitri looked wide awake and ready to go. He nodded to me in acknowledgement when I walked through the doors and I approached him. "Morning," I greeted. 

"Good morning...how did you sleep?" 

"Decent, I guess. I'm sore." 

He smirks. "Don't worry, it'll get easier. I still expect you to try and keep up with Rose." 

I roll my eyes, trying to ignore how good he looked in sweatpants and a charcoal grey wife beater. His arms were huge, like...I wasn't going to be able to get my hands around them huge. The doors opened behind me before I could formulate a response, and in comes Rose, tying her hair up into a high pony tale. 

"You're late," Dimitri says deadpan. Rose flips him the bird, making him frown, and in that moment, I really wished she was somebody else. "We are going out to the track. We'll start off with eight laps." 

"Eight?" Rose exclaims. "It's too early for this," she grumbles, but turns anyway to head outside. 

I struggled, and Dimitri ended up jogging next to me as some sort of encouragement near lap four, but I made it eventually. He didn't let me walk, no matter how much I begged, but as firm as he was with me, he didn't let Rose get away with holding back. She wasn't allowed to fall back, if Dimitri got to close to her, he would mock attack her, winding her further. 

Rose, Lissa, and even Mason checked in on me between classes and stopped to talk to me when we passed each other in the hallways. It was a nice change from yesterday, and I knew Rose was doing her best to make up it. At lunch, though, Rose grabbed ahold of Lissa and began ripping into her. 

"Christian Ozera? Are you serious? Lissa, how stupid are you? Why the hell did you tell him I let you feed off of me? You can't trust him! If that got out...do you know how much it would kill our social lives? We would have no chance to recover!"