"Grandpa", I yelled as soon as I opened the door, "I'm in! I'm part of the Army!"

Grandpa ran out of kitchen and hugged me tightly. "I knew it, Rose. I never doubted in my little solider", he said gently.

I smiled. I'm so happy right now. Everything is just the way I want. I felt like little girl again, happy because I finally can reach lightswich in the kitchen, and grandpa congratulating me on my achievement.

"Did Abigail get in?", grandpa asked, pulling apart from our hug.

"Yes, she did", I grinned at him.

"Great, call her and tell her te be here at 7", grandpa said, smiling at me.

"Why?", I asked, confused.

"Do you really think that this will go without celebration?", he said excidetly to me, "We can atleast have a little dinner with our friends."

I laughed, "I will call her, you can call George and Sofia".

"Of course, sweetie", he said, "Now go rest, you must be tiered".

"Yeah, I really am, call me if you need any help with dinner.", I told him and went upstairs.

I got in the shower and felt myself relaxing. Unlike most people, I like cold showers, it always puts me in better mood. I still couldn't get over the fact that I'm in the Army. And I'm not alone, my best friend is with me. Could this get any better? I got out of the shower and put some comfortable clothes on. I remembered grandpa told me to call Abigail and grabbed my phone and texted her.

To Abigail: My place at seven, grandpa is making dinner
From Abigail: Yaaaaas, I love Michael's cooking

I laughed at Abigail's excitment and put my phone on my bedside table. Tiredness came over me and I fell asleep.

I woke up from a strange dream I've already had before a couple of times. I'm just going through a narrow hallway that I'm pretty sure I've never seen in my life. It's quite strange.

As I slowly opened my eyes I saw Oscar asleep next to me. He likes to sneak in grandpa's or mine room and sleep with us. For a couple of minutes I just laid in my bed, petting Oscar. Then I took my phone and saw that it's already six and I should probbably get ready for the dinner. I put on a simple maroon dress that was thight around my waist and then fell loosley around my hips. I don't wear dresses that much, but I know that grandpa must have been making food for tonight all day, so I can at least look pretty.

I went downstairs and helped grandpa set up the table. When we finished, the table was packed with many different kinds of meat, pies and salads and he even made a dessert.

"Gradpa, you shouldn't have bothered this much", I told him as I came over to kiss him on the cheek, "You must be tiered".

"I'm never tiered for you, sweetie.", he replied gently.

After some time, George and Sofia arrived and they both congratulated me. We waited for Abigail some more, because she was, as always, late.

She arrived with her wide smile on her face. You could see how relived she was that we finally passed the test. In the past week Abigail was trying to look cheerful, but it was obvious she was very nervous, just like me. I'm happy to have my old best friend back, always smiling and joking. She hugged me and we sat down at the table.

"This is so delicious", said Abigail with her mouth full of tasty food grandpa made.

Grandpa chukled and I could see how pleased he was with him self.

"So are we going to hear detalis?", asked George, looking from Abigail to me.

"About the test?", I said.

He started to replay but Abigail cut him of, "Of course it's about the Test", she said matter of factly, "We'll tell you all about it".

We went on for good 15 minutes about our testing, about three parts of the Test, which one we liked the best, how we felt, how Abigail almost tripped over when she was called in and how I freaked out when my name was called out first.

"You two are very brave, I dont think I would have wanted to be in the Army even if I had the chance when I was young.", said Sofia slowly.

"Why not?", grandpa asked her before I could.

"Well, first of all, you'll have to fight forgin species, but it's good that you'll know how to protect yourselves", she smiled at Abigail and I and then her expression turned into a more serious one, "But the worst thing is, you'll have to work with Melorians. Plase be careful girls, don't let any boy's pretty face fool you."

I knew she was going to mention that eventually, but I still felt very awkward. Older people were alwas full of stories about Melorian's cruelty. I've been listening to them my entire life, about the way RH's were brutally killed if they were in any kind of relationship with Melorians or if simply did something Melorians don't like. I know that Sofia's aunt was one of those people who fell in love with a Melorian and ended up killed.

Being friends with Melorians wasn't forbbiden, but never in my life have I heard about that. RHs and Melorians simply never mixed in that way. We are two entirely different worlds and we don't have any contact with each other. We never went to the same places, our schools, hospitals, churches, even shops, bakeries and night clubs were separated by invisible line no one wanted to cross. But Sofia was right, now we'll have to work together.

I thought of Jace for a second, he seemed normal, just like any other teenager. But that ring on his hand with Melorian's symbol on it, made him so different from us. I wanted to say that he was nice to me and didn't tell anyone about my little trip around Castrum, but decided it was better if I stayed quiet. I don't want grandpa to think I'm making friends with Melorians, I know he doesn't like them.

"I would rather die alone then be with one of them.", said Abigail stubbornly.

We continued our dinner and then had a delicious dessert. Abigail and I never minded being in the company of older people so we stayed with them until Sofia and George decided to go home. After Abigail asked her parents to stay over at my place we helped grandpa clean up and then went upstairs to my room. I gave her clothes for sleeping and we both laid down in my bed as we alredy did a tousend times before.

"I siriously can't belive we are part of the fucking Army", said Abigail and I could tell she was grinning even though her face was only illuminated by the moonlight.

"Yeah, me neither. I'm so relived.", I told her looking up at the dark ceeling. "Was that blond boy there when you came in?", I asked her, curious to know who was he. He seemed to young to be in any charge, yet others seemed to respect him like he was someone important.

"Yes, why?", she asked, confused by my sudden question.

"Yesterday, when I went looking for you", I decided to tell her, "I kinda took a wrong turn and then went on exploring Castrum a litle bit."

"What!?", Abigail sat up in my bed, "You went without me!?"

I laughed, "I wasn't planning to do that. But I didn't see much anyways, don't worry."

She chuckled and laid back down next to me, "So what doeas that arrogant jerk has to do with that?"

"How do you know he's arrogant?", I asked her, laughing at Abigail's hate at first sight.

"All Melorians are arrogant and", she made a dramatic pause, "he laughed when he saw how I almost tripped while getting into that sports hall."

Mental image of Abigail cursing herself for doing that and cursing Jace for laughing at her popped up in my mind and for some reason I found it very funny.

"Dont change the subject, what about him?", asked Abigail impatiently.

"Well, when I went upstairs I found a big door and heard voices from the other side and decided to go back, but then bumped at him."

"Arrogant jerk?", she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, he seemed arrogant to me then too, but he just told me not to go where I'm not supposed to and didn't tell anyone about it", I told Abigail, "so I guess he's not that much of a jerk."

"I still can't belive you went without me, bitch", in the darkness I could see half of her face illuminated by moonlight, looking fake offended.

I almost pushed her out of bed for that. We went on talking for some more time until sleep came to us.

***

When we came tommorow for the first training I was very excited. I passed the Test, so now I finnaly can relax and give my best in the Army. After we changed, we followed Willam upstairs and went inside another sports hall, but bigger then the one from yesterday. I tried to remember path to this place, but Castrum seemed like a big maze to me.

When we came inside we saw four people in the corner of the room. One of them was Jace. Next to him stood a boy and two girls who all looked around his age. As soon as we got near them Jace's dark green gaze met mine for a second, but he wasn't smirking this time. He looked serious, like a warrior.

We stood around them and awkwardly waited for them to say something. Then William spoke up with his deep voice and got our attention.

"Welcome to the Army", he said, "with comming to this world, every Melorian has a duty to be part of the Army and serve Annunaki by protecting planet Earth. For 500 hundred years we were the only ones who had this privilege, but now, times have changed.", he droped his gaze a little bit when he said that. In what ways have the times changed?, "We need more people in the Army now and you are the best we could find in Eom. Besides fighting, you will be trained for many other things, like tending wounded, for example. But when the time comes, you will all have to be ready to protect planet Earth with your life.", he looked towards four people on his left, "These will be your tutors. Jace, Trystan, Stacey and Emma."

Stacy, the girl with icy blond hair, somehow looked familiar to me. I don't know where I could have seen her, I didn't have much contact with Melorians in my life. She was tall and had bright blue eyes. She reminds me more of a super model then a worrior.

"They are a year older then you, so we hope you will get along well.", William continued, "Here we have to put all of our differences aside and forget every conflict our races had in the past, because we are here for the same reason.", he finished his speach, smiled softly to Jace and left. He never smiled at us.

"Okay, so now that Will finished with his history lesson, we can finnaly start", said Jace and smiled. He has a beautiful smile.

First three days in the Army went by fast, and I decided that I liked it. Even though we weren't yet doing anything like learning how to fight, it was still interesting. We were running very much and doing all different kinds of workouts I didn't even know existed. I guess they want us to get stronger first and then start with learning things we will really need. We spent around three hours on trainings every day, and I always felt exhausted afterwards. I met many new people and they seemed okay, except for this guy Jordan, he seems too cocky.

And I finnaly, I remembered from where does Stacy seem fimilar. About a year ago, Abigail made me wear heels for the first time when we were celebrating her 16th birthday. When we were outside of Spectrum, a club in which, of course, only Regular Humas go, a group of girls walked past us. They all wore expensive clothes and just got out of the car, so we guessed they were Melorians. As they were walking past us a tall blond girl, which I now know is Stacy, "accidentally" pushed me very hard and I fell. She just said "Oops!", and giggled with her friends. So that's how my first night ever to wear heels started, thanks to her. Bitch.

On Thursday, after training, Max came up to Abigail and I asking us if we wanted to come to his party this Friday. "My parents aren't home so I decided that we should celabrate getting into Army.", he said looking at both of us excitedly.

"Sure, we'll be there, right?", I said and looked at Abigail. She was grinning, I know she loves house parties.

"Of course we will, text me the adress", she said looking at Max, "Who else will be there?"

"Couple of people from Army", he said and started naming them, "There will be more people from my Basic School, but don't worry, you'll like them".

"Hope so", said Abigail, "see you tommorow".

I waved at Max and Drew who just came up behind him. They both seem very nice and I think Abigail and I will defintly be friends with them.

"Drew is so checking you out", Abigail said suddenly as we exited the training room.

"What?", I asked her, perplexed.

"It's sometimes really annoying how oblivious you are to any guys attention", she said and I rolled my eyes at her. I thought of Drew. He is cute, but I don't even know him and I think I like him this way, as just friends.

***

On Friday something very unexpected happened. When we finished training and started getting out of the sports hall I was walking very slowly because I think that every single muscle in my body is sore. I'm glad that we don't have trainings on weekends so I can rest. As I was a little behind the crowd aI heard a familiar voice coming from behind me.

"Hey", said Jace and I turned around, "Rose, right?"

I was very suprised that he wanted to talk to me. He, Trystan, Stacy and Emma mostly talked to us only about the training. "Yeah", I said.

"I see that you're very fast", he said standing in front of me, "Did you train any sport before you joined the Army?"

This question was so random and I was very confused. "Um...no", I said, looking from his blond curles to his eyes the colour of the rainforest outside of the city, "I just like to jog".

He suddenly grinned at me, " That's what I wanted to hear", he said, "Do you know any place where I can jog thats not crowded with too many people?", he saw a confused look an my face so he continued, "Park is nice but I don't like bumping into people."

"Yeah, I do, but not in the south part of the city", I told him because I guess he lives there, all Melorians do.

"Never mind", he just shrugged.

"Near my house, there's this forest that goes all the way to the end of the city territory. I always jog there and I don't think I've ever seen anyone", I told him.

"Great", he looked pleased with what I said, "Would you maybe like to show me the place sometime? Of course only if you want, you don't have to."

I was very suprised and I don't know was it in a good way or bad. A Melorian asked me for a favour. It wasn't an order, it was a suggestion.

"Sure, when do you want to go?", I don't think it would be a good idea to reject him, but anyways, he seems nice to me, so I can just show him around a little bit.

"Um...sunday? 8 AM?", he asked.

"Okay", I said and explained him where to meet me, careful that it's not too near my house, because I don't think grandpa would like this idea.

"See you", he smiled at me, "and thank you."

"No problem, bye", I told him and smiled at him too.

I turned around and walked to the door of the dressing room. I felt like he was still watching me, but I didn't turn around to see if I am right. Inside I saw Abigail talking to Max, probably about the party and she didn't even notice I didn't come in with her.

This is definitly going to be an interesting weekend.