Pride Of A Slave

chapter one

We threw our graduation caps up into the air cheering loudly. Graduation day, I was one of many but I was the only white graduation robe among all the royal blues. It upset a lot of the families, but I didn't care, I had worked relentlessly to be part of this group. I had not slept a full eight hours since before I turned thirteen, my scores were the result of blood, sweat, and tears, many, many tears.

We filed out of the arena, and I waved up to the third platform to my friend standing with the other white coats. She smiled weakly and waved quickly before dropping her head and shuffling out in the quiet way we were supposed to. As we walked out I began to get rammed violently in the shoulder as the very tall blue coated girls walked passed. Normally when they rammed me, they made sure there were no marks, but I guess since it was graduation they assumed that it would be alright to leave bruises.

"Cattle...slave...disgusting." I sighed at the names and shook my head feeling a bit sad that they were so narrow minded.

A large warm arm landed across my small shoulders and I looked up in the familiar honey brown eyes I had known since I could toddle, "I cant believe you actually lived through the speeches."

I scoffed, "Come now Ryder, the speeches weren't that dull."

A cool breeze stopped next to me and another tall blue coat leaned down, "He meant that they didn't try and kill you for being down there." I rolled my eyes but smiled into the other pair of eyes I had known my whole life, these eyes an deep blue.

"You guys knew I was told to be down there, I earned being down there, I earned the damn coat too." I grumbled and the two smiled and Ryder squeezed my arms and Dimitri patted the top of my head.

"You know the laws, its been this way for far too long." Dimitri was always the voice of cool, calm, reasoning.

Ryder squeezed my shoulders, "Don't worry Sera, that was a big step to have a human down there with us."

"Yes, and a white coat as well, you are breaking the boundaries you spoke often of rebelling against, it is just not in the grand fashion you had hoped." Dimitri grabbed my hand and squeezed it briefly before we were surrounded by very angry amber and blue eyed parents.

"This is ridiculous, a slave, sitting with our children, as if she were an equal."

I looked down from their faces as I was expected to, biting my tongue so hard that I nearly drew blood. Ryder's arm left my shoulders and he growled, "Things are changing you stupid old geezers, there are humans doing amazing things now, including politics."

There was an audible gasp, "The rest of the world will realize how stupid they are being allowing their slaves to have power, but that will not happen here."

Dimitri cleared his throat, "So sure are we?"

"Your father and mother will hear of this insolence to your elders. I don't care who you two are and who you will be, you need to learn your place, and especially that creatures place." I looked at the richly clothed legs of the speaker. He was saying what everyone there was thinking.

I reached out and grabbed both the hot hand of Ryder and the cold hand of Dimitri knowing they were both about to spring forward, the gasp around the circle was loud and all the noise stopped. I dropped my hands quickly, but the damage was already done. I had broken a very basic law, I was not allowed to touch them of my own accord. Dimitri and Ryder both laced their fingers through mine and we walked out of the group, the two shoving ahead of me, making a break in the crowd so I could get through as safely as possible.

"Ah, the heat of youth, I cannot wait until it cools." I dared to look up to a very mature looking man.

He was the aged image of his son, they both had black hair that was shock straight, the same pronounced jaw and chin, long slender throat, lean, lithe body, that stood a good six foot nine. Dimitri's nose was his mother's as well as his lips, he had a narrow straight nose that made his face look far more severe than he truly was and below the incriminating nose was a pair of the fullest, pale pink lips that had ever graced a vampire. The older man's hair was slicked back with grey at his temples, while Dimitri left his hair to fall into the side of his face, touching the edges of his lips.