richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

"Yes," I said, smiling. "It certainly was.”
"I wish I looked like you," she added with a sigh.
Their eyes fell on me. Technically, I was half-Moroi, but my looks were human. I'd blended in
well with humans during our time away, so much so that I'd barely thought about my
appearance at all. Here, among the slim and small-chested Moroi girls, certain features—
meaning my larger breasts and more defined hips—stood out. I knew I was pretty, but to Moroi
boys, my body was more than just pretty: it was sexy in a risqué way. Dhampirs were an exotic
conquest, a novelty all Moroi guys wanted to "try.”
It was ironic that dhampirs had such an allure here, because slender Moroi girls looked very
much like the super-skinny runway models so popular in the human world. Most humans could
never reach that "ideal" skinniness, just as Moroi girls could never look like me. Everyone
wanted what she couldn't have.
Lissa and I got to sit together in our shared afternoon classes but didn't do much talking. The
stares she'd mentioned certainly did follow us, but I found that the more I talked to people, the
more they warmed up. Slowly, gradually, they seemed to remember who we were, and the
novelty—though not the intrigue—of our crazy stunt wore off.
Or maybe I should say, they remembered who I was. Because I was the only one talking. Lissa
stared straight ahead, listening but neither acknowledging nor participating in my attempts at
conversation. I could feel anxiety and sadness pouring out of her.
"All right," I told her when classes finally ended. We stood outside the school, and I was fully
aware that in doing so, I was already breaking the terms of my agreement with Kirova. "We're
not staying here," I told her, looking around the campus uneasily. I'm going to find a way to get
us out.”
"You think we could really do it a second time?" Lissa asked quietly.