Rumor Has It

I decided that I’d get up earlier than usual the next morning. Lissa and Christian were at it again and I didn’t want my mind to continuously slip into that while I was sleeping. It was a lot easier to block out their escapades when I was awake. For that, I was thankful.

I even beat Dimitri to the gym. Victory for me! Two rare occurrences for me within half an hour of each other. My moment just didn’t last long. And that’s when the gym doors opened. I half-expected Dimitri to be angry like he had the morning before.

Only he wasn’t. He was happier than I’d ever seen him.

I looked over the few people—an elderly woman, a middle aged woman, and a little boy—that were accompanying him. They shared some of the same features that he did and I assumed that this had to be some of his family. Looking at the boy startled me. He was like a miniature clone of Dimitri and I became highly curious. Could he have…? No. I doubt it.

Their conversation dimmed when they had acknowledged that I had been there. Dimitri smiled a little wider. “Good morning, Rose.”

I nodded, confused. “Morning.”

In a few steps, he was standing next to me, one hand on my shoulder. He first addressed his family. “This is my student, Rose Hathaway.” They greeted me with smiles; the boy’s voice carried cheerfully. I also noticed that the elderly woman had a knowing glint in her eye. I glanced up at him, but he was already introducing them. “Rose, this is my grandmother, Yeva. My mother, Olena. And my nephew, Paul.”

I grinned, partly because I was trying to make a good first impression and partly because I was laughing at how ignorant I had been. A thought occurred to me then. “What about your sisters? Where are they?”

His mother smiled and answered for him. “They’re home since they couldn’t make it. Sonya and Karolina are in no condition to fly. Viktoria is at St. Basil’s. I’d rather not take her out of her classes, no matter how much she would love to see her brother. All three of them would love to see their brother, though.”

That left me wondering about Paul for a moment. He was around ten and should be in school too. I didn’t question it aloud though. Maybe they did things differently where they’re from. Or, as crazy as it seemed to me, his grandmother liked to spoil him. I could just be so accustomed to parents taking the route that mine did and have little to do with their children and leave them to be raised by the academy.

I was envious. They had an entire family. They were there for each other all the time.

A far cry from what I had.

Or didn’t have, for that matter.

Dimitri removed his hand from my shoulder. “We have a training session soon,” he said stating the obvious. For a second, I thought he was telling me and I nearly said something, but then I remember his family… “You can stay and watch if you’d like. Or you can walk around the campus.”

“Oh, Dimka,” Olena exclaimed, “I’m sorry. We don’t want to keep you from doing your job.” Her eyes flickered to me and she almost seemed to be amused. “We’ll just walk around. Good luck with your training, Rose.”

“It was a pleasure meeting you.” Ah, I was turning out to be Dimitri clone—as far as manners went. I smiled, watching Olena take hold of her grandson’s hand.

Paul whined, “I want to stay and watch Uncle Dimka!”

“Paul, don’t—”

Dimitri calmly waved a hand. “It’s alright if he stays and watches.”

His mother eyed him warily, but sighed in defeat. “Alright.” She released Paul’s hand and crouched down to be at his eye level. “Behave for your uncle. And don’t get in the way. You could get hurt.”

Paul impishly grinned. “I’ll be good.”

I couldn’t help but laugh when Dimitri’s mother and grandmother left the gym.

Dimitri raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” I rubbed my cheek after my laughing fit. “Your nephew just reminds me—”

He smiled. “Of yourself?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”
…

“Whoo!” Paul shouted as soon as the morning training was over. He ran from the chair that he, more or less, felt he was sentenced to for the past hour and up to his uncle’s side.

I nearly went into a fit of laughter. I was growing fonder of the kid by the second.

Dimitri couldn’t keep the instructor role that he had slipped into some time during that hour. He smiled. “I hope that you didn’t get too bored.”

The boy shook his head. “Not at all.”

“Good.” Dimitri ruffled his nephew’s hair. I blinked, surprised that he was in such high spirits and had a different side to him that I’d never seen before. Then again, this hidden side came from actually getting along with his family. He looked at me, clearly amused about something. “What?”

I shrugged. “I’ve just never seen you so laid back.”

“It’s difficult not to be laid back at the moment.”

“I see.” A question lingered on the tip of my tongue for a moment. I didn’t want to be rude, but I couldn’t help myself. In true Rosemarie Hathaway fashion, I asked, “Why were your mother and grandmother so comfortable around me?”

“Oh, you noticed?” He retied his hair at the nape of his neck. “They’re always kind, even to people that they don’t know. But,” he continued, “they’ve heard a lot about you and they feel like they know you already, despite they just met you.”

“They’ve heard a lot about me?” My heart fluttered.

He nodded in confirmation. “Yes. And Yeva, well, she knows.”

“What? How?”

“That’s the way she is,” he said with a shrug.

Something about how he said it told me that he wasn’t telling me everything, but I didn’t press the matter. He would have elaborated if it matter. “Ah, I better—Oh, before I forget…” I gnawed on my bottom lip.

“Yes?”

“When I saw you yesterday, you looked p—” I caught myself, remembering that Paul was still there, watching our conversation like a ping pong match. “You looked angry.”

“I had just gotten out of a meeting with the headmistress and Guardian Petrov.”

“Oh?” I frowned.

“They aren’t oblivious to what you all talk about.”

“And?”

“And they asked questions.”

I could tell that it was irritating him. I was just curious as to what happened. “What’d they say after all that?”

“Rose…”

“What?” I was close to throwing my hands in the air. “This has as much to do with me that it does you. I want to know.”

He sighed. He knew I had a point. “They’ll be making appearances at our training until the field experience next week.”

“That’s all?”

“What did you expect?” he deadpanned. “They don’t actually believe what’s being said.”

“I expected to be dragged by the ear to Kirova’s office and for her to believe it. She’d believe anything that would lead to me being kicked out of this place.” My eyebrows furrowed. “And don’t say it’s not true.”

“But it’s not, Rose. Believe it or not, but Headmistress Kirova has seen the change in you.” I went to say something, but, as usual, he prevented me from speaking my mind. “Whatever you did before you went on ‘vacation’ for two years to make the poor woman dislike you is beyond me, but that doesn’t take away from her acknowledging your potential and dedication. She wouldn’t expel you unless she found it absolutely necessary. You’re her most promising student.”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that her speaking or you?”

He was wearing a lopsided grin. I just wanted to melt. “Both.”

Paul began tugging on my arm then. I looked down at him curiously. “Yes?”

He grinned mischievously. “Before we left, Aunt Vikki said that you and Uncle Dimka are getting married.”

“Why’d she say that?” Dimitri asked, almost indifferent. Maybe he was just immune to anything his kid sister said. Or it could be how gullible nephew was. I couldn’t tell.

“‘Cause Grandmother saw it.”

“Paul!”

And so, I watched a Russian verbal ping pong match. I had no clue what was being said between the uncle and his nephew, but it was still entertaining.
…

I may have been ecstatic after my training with Dimitri and surprisingly meeting some of his family, but my mood dropped significantly when I reached my first class of the day. I had nearly forgotten that my mother was back at the academy and would be helping in novice classes. I silently cursed. I didn’t need her killing my good mood. We may have gotten along right after the Spokane incident, but that didn’t make us terribly close. Just closer than we used to be.

I stomped over to Eddie and crossed my arms. Yeah, I was acting like a five year old, but I really did not want to see her.

He laughed. “What’s gotten you in a grumpy mood?”

“My mother.”

He scanned the room, eyes stopping when he spotted the petite figure of Janine Hathaway. “What’d she do?”

“She’s here,” I hissed.

He laughed again. “She’s not as awful as you make her out to be, Rose.”

“I know.”

“Then why do you hate her?”

“I don’t.” I blinked. “I just don’t want her ruining my good mood.”

“Well, why are you in a good mood?”

If I didn’t like Eddie, I probably would have punched him by that time. I lied, “Just am.”

“Right.” He slowly nodded as he watched the last of the novices file into the room. “It’s none of my business, so I won’t ask.”

That’s why I liked Eddie so much. He knew when to stop.

I smiled and playfully punched him in the arm. His eyebrows shot up in confusion. “Yeah?”

“How’s your day been?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ve only been up for a little. Not all of us have to get up at the crack of dusk for training with a Russian guardian.”

I snorted. “No, but that training has brought me to the top of the class.”

“In that case,” he pondered, “I may wake up earlier than usual once so that I can see why that is. It’s not fair that you get to have all the glory.”

“But it is,” I said smugly. “You were here for two years that I wasn’t. I caught up and then some in just a couple months. I deserve the glory, Mister Castile.”

“Someone has an ego today.” He said this while smiling, so it was obvious that he was still playing along. “Well, larger than usual.”

I rolled my eyes and shoved him, laughing. “Shut up.”

Janine finally spoke up then. “Everyone, pair off! We’re starting with…”
…

That had to be the longest combat class I’d ever had. It seemed to be a classic Janine Hathaway thing: Go over the basics. That’s all that we did that day. Had this been a couple months ago, I would have thought that she was being elementary about it all to teach me a lesson. Now that I had gotten to kind of know her, I think she was just seeing where exactly we were when it came to combat. So I guess it made sense.

My mother pulled me aside after class.

I sighed, thinking I probably did something wrong. So, I rambled… “Sorry for whatever mistake that I made. I’ll do be—”

“What are you talking about?”

“I figured you would give me a critique on how I did. Am I wrong?”

Her face was stoic again. “Yes and no.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was—am congratulating you on doing well today. Training with Guardian Belikov has really helped.”

In more ways than one, I silently added. I was grinning goofily. “Well, thanks.”

She nodded curtly. “I also wanted to discuss what’s been going on around here.”

“Wha—Oh, that.”

“Yes, that.” She let her guardian mask slip for the first time she’d been back here. She was worried, concerned, confused. I really couldn’t tell what all she felt. I thought she was the type to tell me to ignore what others said. “It has gotten serious. Have you done anything about it?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ve been doing my best to ignore it. It’s just difficult when they change something about it every few days. I don’t even know how it started.” I figured telling her that I had suspicions as to who started the rumors would just lead her to lecture me about not jumping to conclusions.

A line creased in her forehead, her eyebrows raised and a frown set on her mouth. “If you need to talk about it—”

“I’ll be fine,” I interjected. “Something else will get their attention soon and the whole Guardian Belikov and Rose Hathaway stuff will be old gossip.” Or so I hope. “I’m a big kid now, Mom, don’t worry about me.”

Her frown deepened. “Rose—”

“Really, I’ll be fine.”

She placed her hand on my shoulder for a moment and then she walked away without saying another word.