richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

Jesse's nervous look turned to one of terror. He might have been taller than me, but we both
knew who would win if I turned violent. Ralf, however, gave me a cocky smile.
"We didn't do anything you didn't want us to do." His smiled turned cruel. "And don't even
think about laying a hand on us. You start a fight, and Kirova'll kick you out to go live with the
other blood whores.”
The rest of the students were holding their breaths, waiting to see what we'd do. I don't know
how Mr. Nagy could have been oblivious to the drama occurring in his class.
I wanted to punch both of them, hit them so hard that it'd make Dimitri's brawl with Jesse look
like a pat on the back. I wanted to wipe that smirk off Ralf's face.
But asshole or not, he was right. If I touched them, Kirova would expel me in the blink of an
eye. And if I got kicked out, Lissa would be alone. Taking a deep breath, I made one of the
hardest decisions of my life.
I walked away.
The rest of the day was miserable. In backing down from the fight, I opened myself up to
mockery from everyone else. The rumors and whispers grew louder. People stared at me
openly. People laughed. Lissa kept trying to talk to me, to console me, but I ignored even her. I
went through the rest of my classes like a zombie, and then I headed off to practice with Dimitri
as fast I could. He gave me a puzzled look but didn't ask any questions.
Alone in my room later on, I cried for the first time in years.
Once I got that out of my system, I was about to put on my pajamas when I heard a knock at my
door. Dimitri. He studied my face and then glanced away, obviously aware I'd been crying. I
could tell, too, that the rumors had finally reached him. He knew.
"Are you okay?”
"It doesn't matter if I am, remember?" I looked up at him. "Is Lissa okay? This'll be hard on
her.”