richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

"Kind of late for that." Lissa's eyes were locked firmly on the stone walkway below.
"She was wrong.”
"She's right," Lissa exclaimed. "My parents…and Andre…they would have hated me for what I
did.”
"No, they wouldn't have." Natalie spoke in a gentle voice.
"It was stupid to run away. Irresponsible.”
"So what? You made a mistake. I make mistakes all the time. The other day, I was doing this
assignment in science, and it was for chapter ten, and I'd actually read chapter elev—" Natalie
stopped herself and, in a remarkable show of restraint, got herself back on track. "People
change. We're always changing, right? You aren't the same as you were then. I'm not the same
as I was then.”
Actually, Natalie seemed exactly the same to me, but that didn't bother me so much anymore.
She'd grown on me.
"Besides," she added, "was running away really a mistake? You must have done it for a reason.
You must have gotten something out of it, right? There was a lot of bad stuff going on with
you, wasn't there? With your parents and your brother. I mean, maybe it was the right thing to
do.”
Lissa hid a smile. Both of us were pretty sure Natalie was trying to find out why we had left—
just like everyone else in the school. She sort of sucked at being sneaky.
"I don't know if it was, no," Lissa answered. "I was weak. Andre wouldn't have run away. He
was so good. Good at everything. Good at getting along with people and all that royal crap.”
"You're good at that too.”
"I guess. But I don't like it. I mean, I like people…but most of what they do is so fake. That's
what I don't like.”