Kate was already at the gym when the first bell rang, dressed in the gym clothes that she had rather than the Academy's, a shiny sheet of sweat clear on her features as she stood besides Dimitri, who was also already in gym clothes and looking down at Kate while he spoke to her.

Whatever he was saying had Kate's full atention, but then again she had the attention of every Dhampir Novice that entered the gym for their first class of the night, no one had seen her at dinner the previous night, but then again neither had they seen the Princess, so this was the first time that anyone was actually  seeing Kate.

"Stop imagining me naked if you want to have children." Kate growled at them once she felt like she'd been gawked at more than enough, her glare not once faltering, a few snorts and snickers broke the awed silence.

Her attitude had Dimitri biting back a chuckle, having understood in the two training sessions that they'd had, that Kate hated being the center of attention, she prefered working in the shadows. And what amused him even more was the fact that despite the snorts and snickers, was that every male Novice had their cheeks flushed, which meant that they had indeed been picturing her naked.

A guy with red hair that stuck up everywhere and a smattering of freckles, nice-looking, but then again all Dhampirs were nice looking although not exactly what Kate would usually consider hot, walked slightly forward and inquired.

"I'm leading today's session. Who might you be newbie?"

Kate looked him up and down, dressed in Academy gym clothes, like the other people in the gym and unlike Kate, before replying with a challanging smirk"The girl who's gonna kick your ass and end your ability to have children if you piss her off."

"Oh yeah?" he retorted, even if he was pleasantly surprised with the reply that Kate gave him, he didn't know kate but evey Novice had had the whole day to assume and imagine who Kate was, as a Dhampir and as someone that Lissa would befriend.

"You're kind of new here so you're not used to the rythim of the training sessions, so I'd imagine it's hard to kick Mason's ass." another boy chuckled, coming forth to stand next to his friend.

"You know nothing of me, I'd advice you not to make assumptions." Kate sneered, her forest eyes shining dangerously.

"Then let's see how you do, gear up and we'll fight." the boy taunted.

"I don't need to gear up when I can kick your cocky ass." The brunette retorted, all the novices began to laugh, even the one that had challenged her, but not the one with red hair, no, he stepped away, almost as if he knew that Kate would do next.

The human closed the distance between her and the laughing boy, turned sideways and karate kicked him on the face, knocking him onto the ground, a groan left the boy's lips as he connected with the mattress and all the laughing ceased.

"If you think you can take me down, came at me now or forever hold your silence." The Alastair girl commented snarkily, leaving Dimitri to shake his head and walked off, muttering in Russian.

"Помните, они не стригои. (Remember, they are not Strigoi.)"

But Kate merely smirked at him, a smirk that Dimitri was slowly growing to understand mean all or nothing.

The class started, two students, a boy and a girl charged in her direction, their movements fast but their and their technique almost perfect, and of course, Kate didn't hold back. She went into Guardian mode as Lissa had called it, blocking and attacking effortlessly, almost as if she'd been training all her life, even though she had only had gone to the lessons she signed up to and even then it was only once a week.

But Dimitri could see the teachings he'd given her during their two private lessons, slowly be incorporated into her movements.

And just like that, Katherine was one of the Novices, they were an easygoing bunch, less focused on pedigree and politics than the Moroi students. They welcomed her as if she'd been there for years and only just returned from a holiday and it felt like a strange camraderie that Kate had never been privy to before.

When the fighting session ended, the twelve students that had dared try and take down Kate were slightly sore and already tired, but none the less everyone wanted to know where the two had been, which showed Kate that Lissa had apparantely become a legend.

Kate, unfortunately for them, couldn't tell them why the Princess had left, of course, so she offered up a lot of taunts and wouldn't-you-like-to-knows that served just as well.

The adult Guardian, Dimitri, who was overseeing the training gently reminded the red-haired boy of his duties, although he couldn't verbally admit that he was more than pleasantly surprised with how welcoming everyone had been to Kate, although he too had received that treatment when he arrived at the Academy.

Grinning the red haired boy barked out orders to everyone, explaining what exercises to start with, and it came to no surprise that the brunette girl didn't know any of them, maybe she knew how to do them but not by the name that he had used.

"Mason Ashford." he introduced himself, extending his hand to the girl.

"Kate Alastair." she replied, shaking his hand, both their eyes flashing bright red for less than a second as Kate flashed through his memories, something she rarely did, but if she wanted to understand who he truly was and know everything that she had to know she had to do it.

"Come on, Alastair," he said, taking the brunette's arm, completely unfazed with what had just happened "You can be my partner. Let's see what you've been doing all this time." he teased as if they had been best friends since childhood.

And so an hour later, he had his answer.

"Who the hell taught you how to move like that?" he inquired rubbing his now extremely sore chest.

"No one, I practice in every area so no area is missed." Kate replied, her breath still even and normal, an extremely thin layer of sweat cloaking her features but she wasn't sweating buckets like everyone else. Her eyes did move up to catch Dimitri looking at her, and she flashed him a small ghost of a smirk, knowing that while no one really taught her everything, Dimitri had aided her the previous night and earlier that night.

She extended a hand and helped Mason up from the mat he'd been knocked down on, about fifty times.

"Don't hate me?" The brunette inquired tauntingly as he rubbing a spot on his thigh that was going to have a wicked bruise the next day.

"I'd hate me more if you held back." he confessed making the brunette beam at him.

"True, holding back never did anyone any favours." Kate agreed, staggering along as the class put the equipment back.

"You actually did great today." Mason stated, looking at Kate's profile, as if commiting her features to his memory.

"What?" Kate frowned, it was sad to say but since she lost her mother and brother she has never received compliments, well other than the ones Dimitri had given her when training but even then they weren't personal compliments, they were educational ones.

"You just had my ass handed to me." The red haired complimented once more, seeing as anyone rarely ever handed him his ass, flashing the brunette another smile, which quickly faded to something more serious. "Don't take this the wrong way, I mean, you really are a great warrior, but there's no way you'll be able to take your trials in the spring..." he started

"They're making me take extra practice sessions," Kate cut him off, explained "I'll be ready. And even without the extra sessions I would be ready, I'm always ready for exams, no matter the nature." she added, flexing her fingers as she followed Mason outside of the gym.

"Extra sessions with who?" Mason inquired, curiosity cloaking his words.

"That Russian guy. Dimitri." The brunette shrugged, which made Mason stop walking and stare at her, inquiring bewildered.

"You're putting in extra time with Belikov?"

"Yeah, so what?" Alastair frowned, not understanding the shock that was displayed on Mason's face.

"So the man is a god and he's anti-social." Mason nearly cried, before quickly looking around to make sure no one, especially Dimitri, heard him.

"Exaggerate much? Unless you have a crush on him." Katherine taunted, a small smile growing on her lips as she looked at Mason's flustered state.

"No, yes, I mean-I'm serious, he's all quiet and antisocial usually, but when he fights...wow. You're going to be dead when he's done with you." Mason said flustered, a small blush rising to his cheeks, a bubbly laugh escaped the brunette's lips at the boy's flustered state making him blush even harder and pat his sweatyshoulder before walking away, pulling her schedule from her back pocket.

"I've already trained with him twice." Kate told Mason, watching as the ginger boy looked confused, she noticed his eyes scanning her body for injuries, no doubt wondering if she was injured or not.

"Don't worry, I also got my ass handed to me." She told him with a calm smile, to which Mason chuckled, the blush slowly fading from his cheeks.