Ari heard the door open, but paid it little mind. She was too busy trying to find something that would help her. She had been trying to learn two languages on her own and it was proving to be nearly impossible. She had almost considered asking Rebekah teach her French in order to surprise Gaspard, but figured that contacting the fabulous Frenchwoman was something she wanted to avoid until she was legally of age to avoid Gaspard’s family finding out too much. Rebekah seemed to be good about being willing to keep their secret, but she didn’t want to push that good fortune.

She picked up one of the Spanish books, turning it over to look at the different options that the book could provide and heard the backhanded comment that only Azalea could provide to come poor unsuspecting female. Some poor idiot who probably thought that Azalea was honest, and meant it and would go around to the entire school to let them know that The Azalea Kinderman said something nice to her. Ari knew better. She knew better than to trust Azalea, but Ari didn’t trust anyone really. She saw some of the worse of people, and her entire life just proved that.

Ari knew that the world was a cruel place, much better than the airheads who walked around this place. People like her roommate Layla who drove Ari up a wall completely. Ari hated her roommate who thought that the entire world should just bend over for her because she had a good attitude. She was an idiot who Ari would lock out of their shared dorm room if she could. Knowing that Lea tortured her sister as much as Ari wanted to, made any interactions between them so much better.

Ari set the book back and turned to look at Azalea, leaning against the wall and smiled at her. She knew that Lea felt a certain way about her because of how Dante was always falling over himself to try to get with her. She could never understand why Azalea was still with someone who was such a slut, but supposed it was their relationship. If it worked for them, then who was Ari to judge? She was the one dating someone ten years her senior.

“Not too bad, looking for a way to learn Spanish, and failing miserably. What about you?”

Ari knew that Azalea felt some sort of way about her because of Dante, which was something that Ari would never understand. She thought it was stupid that she stayed with someone who was unable to stay faithful to her. When she even thought that Gaspard was talking to some other woman, she was ready to walk away from him. She couldn’t imagine what kind of low self-esteem that Azalea had to have in order to put up with such absolute bullshit from someone who was nowhere near worth it. Ari just supposed she set higher standards for herself than other people. She didn’t run around sleeping with different people, she didn’t associate with people just to tear them down; she spent her time with her music, her select friends who she actually cared about and her lover. That was all she really needed in the world.

She set the book back and looked at Lea when she mentioned a book for her father,
“What kind of things does he like to read?” She asked, trying to think of the various titles that Gaspard had recently bought for himself in a fit of shopping spree. She turned and walked to the new release section, looking for any familiar title that currently littered her bedroom floor. She picked up a few of them and tucked them into the crook of her arm, recognizing some of the titles that Gaspard swore were wonderful reads.

“How is your winter break going so far?” She asked, collecting about three books that might be good. Most people assumed she spent most of her time in the library because she hated everyone in the school and preferred being alone. That wasn’t true. She preferred hiding in the deepest stacks with Gaspard. Pulling him closer to herself and kissing him with everything in her body to just get a fix of love from her man before going back into the world and pretending that nothing was different between them.

She found a few more books that she thought that her father would like and placed them all into a basket for Lea. She still had to find some things for herself, but knew that she would have plenty of time to kill in the bookstore. Gaspard had some work to do in the library, and she figured it would be good to find him a gift while she was at the store. After tracking down that signed copy of The Great Gatsby, she was sure that she would have to step up her game to find a better present for him. Ari smiled to herself, thinking about the love and devotion that they shared, how Gaspard made sure she knew that he would only love her. That no matter what happened in their lives, they would be there together. That sort of devotion and dedication to a partner seemed to be in such short supply lately, she couldn’t imagine what kind of a relationship wouldn’t have it. Gaspard had spoiled her completely, and she knew that no other person in the world could be as dedicated to their partner as Gaspard was to Arianna.
“All of these are pretty fantastic. Chavalier, the librarian, was my guardian over the summer and he spoke highly of all of them.” She handed over the basket and gave Azalea a genuine smile, hoping that she found something perfect.

She smiled when Lea mentioned something about her family and figured it was a perfect time to mention the wonderful gift she had gotten from Ian,
“That’s nice, I actually spent Christmas with the Madigans, and Ian even gave me adoption papers as a gift. I’m officially Ari Madigan now.” She smiled and looked over the various titles, searching for something to teach her a language or just something to give to Paul as a gift for helping her out when Dante was a complete ass to her over it.
“I’ll be moving into the house over the weekend.” She smiled, knowing that it was going to be hard when she would have to see Dante walking around in his pajamas, or just knowing that he was asleep down the hall from her, but there was no part of Ari that wanted to be with Dante. She would just have to worry about him trying to do something with her.

“So it’s been a pretty fantastic break, I’m glad you’re having a good time with your family too.” Even with how much she was fighting with Dante now, they would have to forgive each other soon. He would have to accept that she was his sister now, and she would have to understand that he was a selfish little whore who was used to girls diving right into his bed. She really couldn’t blame him, she supposed every other female in his life just jumped right into bed with him and he got too used to it. No one had told him no before, and the novelty of it just was too much.
“Are you and Dante planning on going to the Winter Dance together?”

Ari knew that people thought it was strange that she spent her time with the professors more than other students. She preferred spending time with the people who she saw as her older brothers than the people who thought that she was some alien creature who needed to be avoided. She would spend her time with Professors King, Faust and Hartley, though for much different reasons then when she would spend time with Gaspard. Orion was like her protective big brother, who kept an eye on her while she was working at the Inn. Even went so far as to grab some drunken idiot and slam his head into a wall for some guy grabbing her backside. Booker and Scott were her comedic idiots. They would make her laugh and drag her out to the city when they wanted to make her become part of the world. They would take her to concerts, museums, everywhere. Ari knew about Booker’s relationship with Tori, and they both knew about her and Gaspard.

When Lea looked genuinely happy that she was adopted, she knew the only reason why. All Azalea cared about was if Dante could sleep with her or not. All she cared about was if Dante would still try to seduce her and Ari thought that she was an idiot for even believing she would want a pathetic boy when she had a man waiting for her.
“Thank you, I’m really excited about it. I even slapped your sad-sack boyfriend over it when he tried to talk me out of it.” She knew that Lea would be angry when she found out that Dante wanted to fight the adoption, but Ari would do anything to keep him from messing with her more.

“Thanks for the offer; I’ve got Maddie coming over too to help me out. She’s excited to get her hands on a blank canvas to help me decorate too.” She knew that the two girls hated each other, and was actually surprised that they survived the last seven years living together without killing each other. Ari loved spending time with Maddie, even if the blonde tried to pry into her past a little too much, and tried to take her shopping far too often for Ari’s taste. The last time she went shopping for anything, she dragged her best friend Caine Pryce with her and forced him to partake in her picking out underwear for Gaspard while he tried to get her to admit who she was shopping for.

Ari shook her head at the question about her going to the ball,
“Nah, can’t rationalize spending that much money on a dress that I’ll only wear once.” She had been adopted by the Madigan’s, but still refused to accept money or help from them. She would stay at Salem as often as possible to keep from adding any stress to Ian. She kept her job cleaning Gaspard’s apartment, and even started a game of hiding money around Ian’s office so he would find it and assume it was something that he misplaced.
“It’s a masquerade, so I’m sure you and Dante will have a good time.” She wouldn’t want to go shopping, but that was only because she hated shopping with anyone. It was nothing against Azalea.

“I slapped him because he dragged me into his room, locked me in, and then said some pretty awful things.” She had been so uncomfortable being in his bedroom, with the way he was looking at her, she knew it was a rash thing but she just wanted to get away from him.
“I’m probably going to write to him, ask him to meet me somewhere so we can make up. That’s what siblings are supposed to do right?” The closest thing she had to siblings before the Madigans were the faculty members of Salem, and she had never fought with any of them. Maybe with Booker’s obnoxious girlfriend, but that was really it.

“Thanks for the offer though, but I know you two don’t really like each other and I would really prefer not to get blood on the carpets.” She smiled to try to lighten the mood,
“If you want to come over, I think that would be okay. I mean if you want?” She knew that Azalea was there a lot because she was Dante’s girlfriend, and maybe now that Ari was Dante’s sister, she wouldn’t be a threat to Azalea anymore. Soon Dante would understand that legally he couldn’t chase after her and would move on to someone else. Or, novel idea, maybe actually stay with the woman he claimed to love and stop being a whore.

She had a conversation with Paul after everything that happened and they agreed that one day Dante would end up ruining someone’s life by getting them pregnant before meaning to. She hoped that it would be Azalea, so maybe he would see that she meant more to him than his one-offs and it would calm him down. It had been nice to spend some time with Paul Madigan, especially when he walked her home. Ever since he moved to New York City for his MMA career, they hadn’t been able to spend much time together.
“We could watch movies, listen to music.” That was pretty much the extent of her possessions in the world, that and her books, but she was pretty sure from all of her movie knowledge that two girls typically didn’t sit around and read at sleepovers.

“That’s a really sweet offer, Azalea, I mean it, but I just don’t think there is anyone I would want to go with. I will probably end up just curled up with a book or a movie.” Completely true, but assuming Gaspard didn’t have to go as part of the faculty, she would just want to curl up in his arms and read passages from her book out loud to him. She had gotten him to read passages from R. Kelly the other day and with his French accent and being very serious about it all, she still giggled when she thought about it all.
“If I change my mind, I might take you up on that offer.”

Of course she didn’t want to go with anyone other than her boyfriend, but since that was pretty much frowned up at the school, she would have to go with a friend. Most of her friends were already pairing off, or going with their significant others so if she did go, it would probably be alone.
“Do you have a dress picked out?” She was sure that Azalea would look nice in whatever she picked out, people didn’t become Queen Bee of the school (or a MassHole as Maddie referred to her) without knowing how to highlight certain assets.

Ari wasn’t sure if Azalea was blind, or just insane. There was no part of Ari that would ever degrade herself enough to want to be with Dante. If she wanted him, she could have had him a long time ago. She preferred men who knew how to treat her properly. There was no one in the world better than Gaspard and she almost felt bad for the rest of the female population of both America and France. He easily could have picked anyone else in the world, and he decided to be with her. She was sure that anyone at the school would think that she was insane for dating someone so much older than her, but there was no one else in the world for her. There was no one else who could understand her past, who could still look at her like she was perfection after everything he knew about her. She had enough of her life to worry about, she had to worry about making a relationship with the school librarian work, she had to worry about selling her music to Seattle Style Beat Down, and potentially touring with them. She had to worry about people finding out about Gaspard and trying to take them away from each other. It made her sick to think about all of the things that she could lose, if someone decided that she wasn’t supposed to be with the man she was in love with.

Eventually she would have to accept that Azalea could be part of her family. She could end up getting herself pregnant on purpose, so he would marry her and stop sleeping around. As if it would really stop him. If anything, her being pregnant would probably scare the crap out of Dante and he would try to find someone else to be with, as usual. She wished that Azalea had more self-respect, but doubted that would ever happen. There were some women who thought that being with a man was everything in the world, and Arianna thought they were idiots. She preferred hanging around with boys for that exact reason. Maddie being the only exception, but seeing her with her boyfriend Damian was rather adorable. They had absolute dedication to each other, not even different schools could change it.
“Well you know where to find me if you change your mind.”

She would probably just curl up in her new bed, with one of her books and her cats Sid and Nancy. Sip on some wonderful tea that Gaspard gave her so she would always think about him. Leave the dances for the Maddies and the Azaleas of the school. Girls who needed time in a crowded room to prove that they had good memories of the school. Arianna had a lifetime of memories in Salem. Summers when she would build forts with Satagori, summers where she would sort through potions with King, or winter breaks when she would listen to Hedlund rant about Nordic history for hours. Most importantly, she found the love of her life inside of that school, and she would always be grateful for the memories, but also the future. The future that she was awarded because of Salem and all of the opportunities she was granted because of the Madigan’s.

“Well the dance is a masquerade right? Almost makes it that much more fun to find a proper dress, cause then you have to find a matching mask.” Sure she would love to be able to blend in with the crowd, maybe even dance with Gaspard at the dance. Both of them disguised under their masks so no one else in the world could possibly know it was them dancing together. A student and a librarian in a fevered embrace while the entire school watched, wondering who they were. Another good reason that if she did, by some head trauma or aneurism, decide to go to the dance, she would want to keep her dress hidden from the world. The last thing she needed was for Azalea to lose track of Dante, and storm up to Ari and Gaspard and rip his mask off to attempt to reveal Dante, but have it expose their affair.

Ari picked out a book of studying French and looked it over,
“Any plans for this summer?” She sucked at small talk, and was proving it right now.