Mystical Changes ~ Vampire Academy Fanfiction

19

When I finished I took a deep breath. I glanced at Dimitri again, he was smiling now. I could see how proud he was of me, not only for retaining his teaching, but for passing it on in another great teachable moment. "Well, I hope you all remember the important lesson you were just taught." Dimitri took over. "As they are some very wise words that Rose has learned and cherished. Now, you're all going to run ten laps. We are going to record your times, and this is going to be happening at the start of every lesson. Truth be told, you should have been doing this alongside your trainings the entire time you've been in physical classes." We had them line up and start at the same time. I had a clip board with everyone's names on a sheet as well as ten lap columns beside their names. Dimitri has a stop watch, running the timer. As each student came through I ticked off their laps, for the tenth lap I wrote down their finish time.

After they were all done we carted them back into the gym to start their actual training for the day. Much to Dimitri's annoyance (like always, I'm a fragile flower you know...) we did a demonstration for the students. We detailed what we wanted them to work on in their pairs, and showed them how we would go about it. After that they all dispersed to their sparring mats. "I'm really not comfortable with you participating in demonstrations hun." He said as he placed his hand on the small of my back. "Would you relax already. For one. I can handle myself. Two. We both know what we are doing, we know the limits. Three. I know that nothing is going to happen. So, please just relax, I enjoy doing this stuff, and they enjoy the demonstrations. I'm not as fragile as you think." After I finished talking I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek then scurried off to watch the students work, before he could counter my argument... I stopped by the mat of two girls, trying to remember their names...

"Very good you two, ah... Alice?" I said as I looked at the girl on the left, she just nodded. "Yus!" I said with a grin. "Don't worry, one day I'll remember all your names." I said awkwardly. "Right, Alice. You need to keep your arms up, you're leaving yourself too open." I showed her how to keep her arms then I turned to the other girl. This time I could not remember her name... Damn pregnancy brain, I'm normally really good with names. And you'd think the girls names would be easier, seeing as there is only seven of them in this class. "Annika." She said when I didn't speak. "Right, sorry. Pregnancy brain, it's a real thing. Okay, you're doing pretty good too, you just need to watch your stance. If you stand how you were just before." I said as I walked onto the mat. "When you stand like that, you aren't sturdy enough on your feet, making you vulnerable." As I said that, in one swift motion I dropped her to the ground.

Earning me a dirty look from Dimitri for participating with the students. He trusts himself sparring with me, but most definitely not the students. "See." I said as I helped her back up. "You need to have you stance like this, it distributes your weight evenly and gives you the best balance." I showed her then had her replicate the stance. I nudged her a couple of times to prove my point. "See, it's a lot harder to take you down now. That's what you want. If you're easy to take down, you're as good as dead." I said bluntly. With that I moved onto the next set of students. Serafima was following me around, I had to tell her off when I was working with Annika, as she got protective over me. I stopped by arguably the best students in this class. Their names I did remember. "Hi Miss Hathaway." The boy on the right smiled as I approached them. "Hello Mikhail." I smiled back, kindly. I have no doubts that some of the boys we teach have a crush on me. Both sets of eyes glowed as they looked at me, they looked like they were worshipping something... honestly.

"Hi Miss Hathaway." Added the other one. "Hello Nicholai. Right, show me what you were doing." I said, getting them back on track. They both got a bit flushed then went back to their sparring positions. They ran through what we'd instructed for everyone to work on. Honestly I always struggled trying to fault these two. "Very good, you just both need to work on the strength behind those kicks. Otherwise, very good." They both beamed as I praised their work. With that I turned and moved on to the next pair. I glanced at Dimitri as I walked away from the boys, only he didn't notice. He was watching Mikhail and Nicholai, and my pregnancy brain swore I seen a bit of a glare going on. I glanced back behind me, both boys were watching me walk away instead of sparring. As soon as I made eye contact they both blushed a glorious shade of red and fumbled to start sparring together again. I just shook my head and laughed as I turned back around.

I walked up to the next pair rubbing my ever so quickly growing belly. "Very good you two, but you're both hesitating too much. Hesitation kills." I said with a flat tone. I don't think my teachers were very often this blunt when I was a student. But after everything I've been through, I can't not be blunt with them. I am here to teach them how to survive, not sugar coat things. The real world is nothing like what I was taught at school, and honestly schools need to do better. We're sending young guardians out there, completely unaware of what they are walking in to. They need to be taught as real as possible. As I was watching them spar, I had an absolutely ridiculous idea. Without saying a word I walked away from the students and went over to Dimitri, pulling him off to the side. Out of ear shot of the students. "What's wrong?" He asked, I could tell the look on my face was so serious.

"I have an idea. You're going to think it's so stupid, and such a risk. But I think it will really help to prepare them for the world that is out there. What all these little guardians get taught prepares them in no way for what is actually out there. I want to do better. They need to actually be taught how to survive, and what they will face out there. We can't keep sending kid out there blind." I was so worked up, I was talking really quickly. Dimitri was just trying to follow what I was saying. "So, what is your idea then? What do you think will actually prepare them?" He asked, genuinely intrigued. "No one will ever okay this, but maybe we can pull rank to make it happen. I honestly with all my being think it will help!" I said, getting a little excited. Dimitri just stood there waiting for me to speak. "We bring a strigoi in for the students. An alive one." I was getting so worked up, I knew this would be good!