richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

Ouch. I spent the rest of that horrible class—in my seat, thankfully—replaying those last words
in my mind. The senior-year field experience was the best part of a novice's education. We'd
have no classes for half a semester. Instead, we'd each be assigned a Moroi student to guard and
follow around. The adult guardians would monitor us and test us with staged attacks and other
threats. How a novice passed that field experience was almost as important as all the rest of her
grades combined. It could influence which Moroi she got assigned to after graduation.
And me? There was only one Moroi I wanted.
Two classes later, I finally earned my lunch escape. As I stumbled across campus toward the
commons, Dimitri fell into step beside me, not looking particularly godlike—unless you
counted his godly good looks.
"I suppose you saw what happened in Stan's class?" I asked, not bothering with titles.
"Yes.”
"And you don't think that was unfair?”
"Was he right? Do you think you were fully prepared to protect Vasilisa?”
I looked down at the ground. "I kept her alive," I mumbled.
"How did you do fighting against your classmates today?”
The question was mean. I didn't answer and knew I didn't need to. I'd had another training class
after Stan's, and no doubt Dimitri had watched me get beat up there too.
"If you can't fight them—”
"Yeah, yeah, I know," I snapped.
He slowed his long stride to match my pain-filled one. "You're strong and fast by nature. You
just need to keep yourself trained. Didn't you play any sports while you were gone?”