N.B. Spellings (if correct) are in UK English. All the characters in this story are fictitious, any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The author neither condones or endorses any of the activities detailed in this story, which could well be illegal in certain jurisdictions. I'm adding (for legal reasons) that apparently if you're under-age you mustn't read this, so if that's the case go away and grow up.

Author's Note.

Unlike the first time this story was posted, I'm not desperately scratching away with my Quill in order to keep a few chapters ahead of my readers, for those who stay the course it's 86 chapters long, and I've recently had former readers bug me for those last six, but I thought with a total repost more people could follow the entire adventure, only this time to it's conclusion.

Chapter 06

They were up rather early the next morning despite how long they had been up the day before, caught the metro to Hidropark island on the river, now in daylight they could see many of the city beaches, where volleyball seemed popular, in the parks the pools were rapidly crowding with young children, and sunbathers were laying out on the grass.

There were street vendors selling shashlyk from stalls, tempted by the aroma, they bought one to share, Valya informing them in English they were called Shish-kebabs, she took them all over the city alternating from trolleybus to Metro depending on what there was to see between destinations.

On Valya's guided tour they went down an 87 meter long escalator into the Metro then on to a station 107 meters deep, later she took them to see St Michael's Cathedral in the Upper Town, where they rode down the funicular railway with scenic views of the river and the left bank on the way down although it only took a few minutes. Here they wandered around the grid-like streets of Podil, the area which she told them was once the merchant's quarter, but was now becoming known for it's restaurants.

They continued their stroll where there were street performers, and vendors selling Kvas from big yellow and blue tanks a malt like drink brewed from bread, which they did not often see in their home town, but as it had so little alcohol it was considered acceptable for children to drink it.

The whirlwind tour had taken them all over the city, to see all the important cathedrals and museums, and more statues than they could count, but there had just been so much, they had not had the time to look inside any of the museums, or to visit the outdoor museum of Folk Architecture, which had interested Marta, who had wanted to see all the old rural wooden buildings that had been saved from around the countryside.

They had bought various maps, one of which Marta marked in pencil during the course of the day with little notes around the edge, longer jottings went in her notebook about each place they went, they also picked up guide books, gifts, and souvenirs of their day out.

Due to their snacking on street food at various times during the day, they settled for a light supper, a brief phone call home, followed by an early bath, then bed.

In the morning Valya awoke to the slamming of the bathroom door and loud sobbing, she slipped on her robe and went to find out what was happening, Anna was outside the bath-room door biting her lower lip looking indecisive about knocking on the door, when she looked up to see Valya standing there.

Quietly Valya asked what had upset Marta, that she was locked in the bathroom wailing.

It turned out she woke to find her period had started, and there was blood on the bed-sheet and duvet cover.

“OK no problem, will you go and strip the bed, take off the duvet cover, and put them in the washing machine, it's hiding in one of the kitchen cupboards, I'll run it later. While you sort that I'll see if I can get Marta to let me in and talk to her.”

Valya tapped gently on the door, “Marta honey, I know you're embarrassed, but you aren't in any trouble, will you let me in so we can talk? After a brief wait the door opened.

Marta was standing there crying and sniffling, wrapped in one of the bathrobes which she hugged tightly closed, Valya went in closing the door behind her.

“You're not the first girl this has happened to, when I was your age, I was caught out more than once, I'm sure if you asked many girls or women, they would have accident stories, there are far worse places it could have been. That may not make you feel any better, but I just want you to realize, it's not such a big issue okay.”

“This is only your second period?” Marta nodded and sniffled, Valya handed her some tissues, “Blow, now did you find a pad or tampon?” another nod, “Well for us girls puberty can be pretty rough, with all the funny moods, and the spots that pop up just when you get a hot date, and for a lot of girls for the first few years, they don't even know when their little visitor might turn up, at least it appears you could be regular right from the start, you don't know how lucky that is.”

“It takes a while to learn your own body's signals, I'm reasonably regular, but I wear a pad at night for a day or two before I'm due just in case. Now wash your face and come and get some breakfast, Anna's got a busy morning, I'm sure she would appreciate the support of her manager.”

Marta's night clothes were included in the wash, and Valya added detergent and selected the correct wash cycle. Anna queried how there was a cupboard of cleaning materials in the apartment but no food, and was told people who stayed there mostly ate out, so food would go bad, and secondly when there were guests a women came in each day to clean the place up – or did she think it cleaned itself?

Marta was a little subdued at first during breakfast until Anna's humorous behaviour lifted her mood, at which point she asked if it were possible for her to visit Dmitri again to talk about learning English, then she suggested they take the laptop with them today, to see if John would be kind enough to update the web pages, even it were only Anna's last two sets, but she also wanted to check out what other girls had done as well.

When they got to the Studio Valya collected her supplies, then set out her table in studio one, while the girls looked over the set design, which looked even better than the sketches they had seen on Monday. The backdrop painting was of a rustic log cabin set in pine woods, with real woven stick fence panels, hanging vines with other plants and flowers, with dead leaves scattered over a sand and grass floor, again they were both made of the soft fur fabric.

The hairdresser turned up and Anna went to her chair, Marta asked if it she could go and see Dmitri, Valya phoned him, and said it was fine to go now, but no more than an hour.

She arrived to find him talking to someone so she held back, but he saw her and beckoned her over. “Ivan, let me introduce you to one of my new language students, Marta, she and her sister Anna,” he said pointing to the photo, “are very keen to learn English.”

“We meet at last, you are a bright and resourceful girl, showing up those people who can't even write a simple contract document, and looking out for your sister, what made you want to learn English?”

“Well the website is in English because of your members, so if Anna and I practice so she could do videos and talk in English then they could understand what she was saying.”

“That was very perceptive of you, to see how that could make videos of your sister more appealing to our customers, I think two of our models tried a single sentence introduction, but they didn't learn English, they were just reading phonetically from a card.”

“Well we've been using phrase books, and word games, and we listen to English radio broadcasts, and we have some dual-language restaurant menus, but Dmitri kindly said he would help with grammar and pronunciation.”

“Could you say something for me in English.”

Marta had practised, and expanded her piece from Monday.

“Hello my name is Marta, I'm thirteen years old, I like to do folk dancing and play chess.”

Dmitri praised her pronunciation, stating she must have practised since Monday, and Ivan told her when he had spoken to personnel about her badge, he had meant it as a friendly joke, but he wanted to apologise as it appeared that Marta really was Anna's Personal Manager, and must have been looking after her sister's career development since she first started. He went on to say that everyone he had spoken to that had met the sisters were impressed with how professional and easy they were to work with.

“I was talking to John before I came here, it was about Anna. It turns out he was having trouble with set three from Monday. We normally have set sizes from seventy-five up to a maximum of a hundred and twenty images at a standard set price, the smallest set is fifty, but we sell those sets at a lower price. His dilemma was that he got her set down to a hundred and sixty really good shots, and didn't want to reduce the set any further.

That is why I came to speak with Dmitri and next I was going to sales, to discuss if they thought we could release a 'super set' of Natasha at a higher price.”

“Haven't you done sets this big before?”

“No, this would be a first, as you can imagine, we couldn't split the set in two, customers wouldn't go for that.”

Marta did a quick calculation in her head, “So if you could charge thirty percent more for the 'super set' will Anna earn more from the sales?”

“If the sales team agree with Dmitri and John that members would pay extra for the bigger set, then if we sold a comparable number of downloads Anna would earn thirty percent more at her current rate. With the way her existing sets are selling she could soon hit sales that move her to a higher percentage slice of each sale as well, that would bring her just one stage below our most popular current models.”

Marta had another idea,“If the sales team agree about a big set selling for more would there be a flashing frame thing to tell members, on the 'What's New' page, and something on the 'Meet the Models' page to tell everyone? Maybe there could also be a note to look out for a video coming soon.”

“Well I'm sure your sister has the best manager bar none, and if you were a bit older, I can tell you one or two people could worry about you taking their job not least those in admin or sales.”

They talked some more then Marta saw the time, apologising that she had to go as she had promised Valya she wouldn't be gone more than an hour, and was expected back at studio one for the shoot.

On her return to the studio she found they were nearly ready to start shooting, Valya who was just cleaning up after completing her task quietly suggested Marta might like to take a bathroom break before the shooting started.

When she came back she studied Anna's transformation, her hair had been swept up on her head and must have been held in place with hair spray, poking out were two cute black furry cat-like pointy ears. Her long sleeve top left only her fingers showing, and covered her from her neck to just below her bottom when she was standing up, and included a long curly tail, the whole outfit looking like a cat's dark fur.

She had on leg-warmers in the same fur that fitted from knee to ankle, her last item being a small black thong, Marta watched at first as the shoot began, with Anna pretending to be some sort of feral cat. As things progressed she fell into conversation with Valya about her talk with Ivan and Dmitri, pleased, but at the same time anxious to see if she could come up with an idea for a video that would help her sister achieve what she wanted.

Once Marta got started she told Valya about the research they had been doing concerning all of the models featured on the company's website, so that Anna could improve skills as a model. She fell silent, thoughtful for a moment before she continued, “This Studio has other types of web-sites, ones where the girls don't take their clothes off, there must be other companies as well that do different types of photos and videos of girls, how would I find out what their stuff is like?”

“It looks like they are about to take five, maybe John has some answers, photographers in the modelling business seem to stay in contact more than any other people involved in the industry.”

John was a mine of information, telling them through his dealings with the sales people and through talking with other photographers, he thought there were somewhere between fifteen to twenty-five similar companies across the Ukraine, Russia and Romania, some of them having up to ten or more website brand names, each varying in content to cover the different tastes across the market.

Marta said it would be useful to see the content of some of those sites so that Anna could become a better model, and John jokingly replied if she improved any more she would warrant her own personal website. This led to talk of the 'Natasha super set', which as it turned out Anna was the only one unaware of this possible new development.

Anna wanted to know why this set was so large, and John said he always edited a set the same way, he removed shots if they were out of focus, and ones with poor composition, he then found ones where he had hit the shutter at the wrong moment, he also threw one out if a pair of images were too similar, then he started over again being more ruthless the next time around. On the last set he could find no more pictures he was willing to remove.

Before he returned to capture Anna in all her glory Marta asked about a site update and about getting pictures from other sites, John said to visit Dmitri, so Valya phoned him.

“Back again so soon, I must have started using the right aftershave or deodorant.”

Marta got to the point about a site update and about her talk with John about researching their competitors websites in order to get a broader view of the market, Dmitri seeing she was in full manager mode stopped joking and got down to business.

“OK, power-up your laptop and I will update or replace the various files, but of course you realize how unethical it would be for me to have content from most of our rivals” he said giving her a wink, as he placed a stack of CD's on the desk, “I must get round to throwing these old disks out, or maybe they might disappear when I'm not looking.”

Marta returned to studio one and for some reason the laptop bag was a lot bulkier.

She was greeted by the sight of her sister wearing only leggings and cats ears kissing John goodbye as he was leaving to review the photo shoot they had just finished.

Anna hopped up on her chair to have her feline makeover removed, as Marta was about to start on her hair, Valya said to leave it as they had used so much spray to hold it in place, it would be better to go back to the salon after lunch to get a quick wash and blow dry.

Anna queried going to lunch with such an odd hair style, but was told much stranger sights had been seen in there, besides after lunch the salon would have finished doing the girls who were modelling that afternoon.

Lunchtime they each tried a different dish, Marta had the Holubtsi with the tomato sauce, Valya went for the clear Borsch, and Anna the Varenyky, which she said were good but not as good as the ones mum made. Between bites Marta told them in hushed tones of the CD's that had 'accidentally' ended up in her bag, and how she was itching to discover their contents as soon as they returned to the apartment.

Fortunately there were typed labels in each CD case, with site and set names, which would help when they started to make their notes about the photo collections, not sure where to start, they chose one at random, and started at the first folder, a girl in ordinary clothes, in an ordinary apartment, well a little bigger than where they lived, undressed slowly and posed for the camera.

No costume or set, it was poorly lit, and the girls hair looked greasy, Valya commented on how shoddy it was, with lousy production values and a low budget, there followed many sets by the same company that were no better. The girls were nice enough, but they had put no effort into their appearance, in fact some were in need of a bath.

Marta never the less made notes on all these points, then they skipped through the rest of the folders from that company, only checking one or two images in each just to be sure they missed nothing of interest. “One down” said Anna, ejecting the disk and replacing it leaving the box open so her sister could copy the details as they ran through the folders.

After the third disk Marta called for a halt to review the notes on the sites they had so far scanned, trying to condense in her mind what they had observed. She started a fresh page and made a list of brief points to clarify her jumbled notes on the previous pages.

“This is what I have so far, one - some companies don't use studio space, two - alternative venues are smart apartments, or the apartment where the girl lives, or outdoor locations.”

Anna wanted to know why she thought some girls had been photographed in their own homes, and Marta said how one of the down market companies had about a dozen girls each shot in different properties but a few of the girls with two sets were in the same place twice plus there were items in the background that showed a girl of that age lived there.

“On to three – outfits that have studios, either produce artistic fantasy backgrounds like the ones you do, or sort of abstract or simple painted scenes, or lastly just a plain backcloth. Four – clothes, same as above, full fantasy, smart Sunday best, or again plain ordinary. That's all my thoughts for now, but I can see Valya's point about production values, I'm just pleased you're with a really top outfit, I doubt if those other girls would have been treated as nicely, or had as much fun.”

Valya noting how intent the girls were with their research, suggested they have a takeaway meal delivered, removing several menus from a kitchen drawer for them to choose from.

Excited by another first, they decided to order pizzas, they were not even sure if there were any takeaway places still left open in their home town, at least not near them.

Continuing with their task they found sets with two and three girls together, they found one company that did sets where the girls were naked throughout each set, there were a lot of sets of girls washing either in a bath or shower, but most surprising were the ones where girls were seen peeing on the toilet.

They stopped to eat when a man in a motorbike helmet turned up with their supper, being all sticky afterwards they needed to wash up before returning to the computer. Not long after eating Valya got a call from Ivan, she told the girls he would like to see them in the morning, seeing worried looks, she said he was pleased with them, both of them.

All three gathered around the screen to proceed, and found a large set of a girl shaving off all the pubic hair around her pussy, with many detailed close-ups showing how thorough she had been. This prompted a question from Marta as to why would the girl shave it off having only just grown it, at school girls were proud of their hair as a sign of womanhood.

“In this case it gives the photo set a reason to focus so much on her pussy, but in everyday life some girls like to shave because it makes them feel cleaner down there, or they want to wear small panties or bikinis without hair showing, or sometimes because their husband or boyfriend likes it.”

“You may have seen I shave, well actually I don't, I have my pubes waxed, it hurts like hell, but it lasts longer, and my boyfriend likes it a lot. From the looks you two are giving me I can see I may have to expand on the basic sex-ed talk, when I spoke about a guy putting his penis inside a girl, there are also other interesting things to do that won't get you pregnant.”

“When you start dating, you learn about boys and about yourself, you may have seen older teens kissing and perhaps petting, and then they argue, split-up and a week later they are going out with someone else. It is a big step for a girl to go 'all the way' but if she really likes a boy, and wants to do more they can touch and rub each others private places.”

“If a couple's feelings are really strong, she could stroke his penis until he ejaculates, that means the sperm - male seed spurts out, or she could take his penis in her mouth and suck him off.” at this point she had a wide eyed audience.

“Any boy who wanted his girlfriend to do that – it's called a blow job, should be prepared to reciprocate as well, which means licking her down there until she feels good, that is called, cunnilingus, and being hairless certainly helps encourage them.” she said winking.

The sex-ed class continued for the rest of the evening, interspersed with both silly and insightful questions from both girls, by the time they went to bed that night they felt they must be the best informed girls from their neighbourhood.

Chapter 07

In the morning the girls found that Valya had popped out earlier to the local bakers and brought back some Pampushki fruit-filled baked rolls for a breakfast treat. Marta wanted to know what time they were supposed to meet with Ivan, and was told he was happy to see them at any time that morning. On the way to the Studio Marta asked if they could first visit Dmitri before their meeting with Ivan, because she had a few 'homework' questions.

When they got to Dmitri's office Marta explained to him she needed to find some research material on the lives of young teenage American girls, about their interests, hobbies, and the way they spoke, in that they would use different words or terms than adults.

“If I understand you, you're trying to relate to American teenagers because you see Anna as a substitute in that role for our main target audience, very interesting.” he sat silent for a moment stroking his beard. “The International School here in the city; check out all the nearby shops, at least a few of them will stock magazines for the American girls studying there, let's see if I can look up the titles of some popular ones on the internet.”

They left with a print out of the top ten U.S. teen-magazine titles.

Ivan had his own office with a desk, a conference table, and a small coffee table with comfy chairs, where he asked his three visitors to sit with him, while Tanya his secretary brought them fruit juice and a coffee for Valya.

“Well I am honoured, to be visited by our fastest rising star, her genius manager, and her make-up artist and mentor. First I want to talk about the 'Natasha super set', everyone tentatively agreed, so Dmitri spiked the members forum with a rumour in order to get some feedback, and already the response is so encouraging we will be releasing the set as soon as we get the nod from the sales team on the timing.”

“The next issue is the lovely Marta, we want you to join us.” At which point she turned quite red and started stammering saying she wasn't as pretty as Anna and couldn't do what her sister did, until a smiling Ivan held up his hands and asked her to stop.

“Marta despite what you may think, you are an attractive girl, though in this case I was thinking more about your management skills, you are the first person to logically and systematically do research on improving the appeal our models to our target audience, therefore I want you to carry on with what you've been doing.”

“You are too young to work on the admin staff here, but as our teen model consultant there will be an additional fee tagged on to what we send Anna, also I will be writing a memo to all staff that you are our research consultant and they are to offer any help and assistance. I spoke with your parents last night and they agreed if you were happy doing this then they were content for you to continue, as participating would allow you two girls to remain close, I know you speak to them every evening so I called your mum in the afternoon just asking them to phone me after they had spoken to you as I wanted to tell Marta about this myself.”

“How will I get paid, I'm not doing sets like Anna, I'm sort of having ideas?”

“Yes but they are very insightful ideas, such as the models speaking in English, rather than reciting a single line from a card, and the work you have been doing on what makes our models successful or not. We will trial your ideas with your sister, which will reflect in her earnings, then if they work, get other models to follow that lead, and we will pay you a percentage based on all of those sales, does that seem fair?”

They talked for a little longer, then Ivan's secretary interrupted to remind him of his next appointment. Before he left he asked if the girls would stay on another day to observe a video shoot the next morning, so that they could think about it prior to their next visit. The girls called home about staying another day in Kiev, but the conversation was stilted due to the fact Nana Olga was there helping get lunch ready.

They rode the Metro, getting off at the nearest station to the International School, where they then started to check out every shop and kiosk in the area that sold foreign papers or magazines looking for any of the titles on their list. The fourth place they visited had one on the list which they brought, and he advised them of a shop to try that was used by a lot of the students. The shop had four of the titles on their list which they added to their haul, Valya then placed a regular order for them to save those for her from now on.

Marta said she had only needed a one off selection for her research.

“That may be so, but if I have new teenage magazines laying around my make-up table in the studio each week, don't you think we might have some models who would like to try reading them? You're not the only smarty pants around here.” Valya smugly replied.

Marta agreed not only were they good for subject research, but the contents and the words used were aimed at girls their age so they should be useful for learning English.

Between the three of them on the way back to the Studio they tried reading a couple of the magazines, but even with their combined efforts they didn't know enough words to string a complete sentence together. Hence another visit to Dmitri, who was as always pleased to see them. He knew what Marta was trying to do, so he said he would translate the index in the front of each one so that she could then decide which articles could be of use to her.

After translating the indexes of all five magazines, they had an initial list of those they wanted to read, - Ten ways to keep your boyfriend, Cheerleader try-outs, Summer skin-care, The perfect sleepover, Bikini beach tips, Monthly mood swings, Dealing with dad's,

Summer camp capers, The Beauty pageant circuit, Step-family issues, and Claire's problem page, and in fact all of the other problem pages. Dmitri made a phone call, arranging to borrow someone's audio typist for the project, telling them he would have some of the articles done today which they could transfer to their laptop, and if they hadn't finished by lunchtime tomorrow, he would put them on CD in order to post it to them.

“Americans seem so unlike us, I was nearly tempted to get some of their newspapers as well for a better picture of how they see things, but that would have been too much to ask.”

“So the only reason you didn't get them was the extra effort of translation?” at Marta's nod, Dmitri wrote down a couple of website addresses, “There's a spare office over there, you will find those newspapers are available already translated online, I'll log in for you.”

The girls sat down to read the papers and make notes, Valya went off to do some work, and Dmitri started to transcribe the articles to the typist who had turned up at his office.

Mid afternoon a teenage lad, who turned out to be the office junior, tapped on the open door to ask if they wanted tea or coffee he also left a plate of biscuits. When he left Anna teased her sister that the boy was flirting with her, Marta coloured up denying any such thing, but was secretly pleased an older boy would even notice her. She had taken great care to practice what Valya had taught her, pleased that using only a very minimal amount of make-up concealed the marks on her face, giving her a new found confidence.

They found they could go back through the archives of the papers, this allowed them to trace stories that unfolded over time, they were surprised to find that corruption and crime were just as much a problem in the States as in their own country. What disgusted Marta was the level of hypocrisy she found, the editorial comment was all holier-than-thou, but there were so many salacious stories that seemed to focus on every prurient detail, that she was amazed they could take themselves seriously.

Marta finally decided all Americans were mad after finding two particular news stories, one about the rising level of teenage pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases then a separate one about how the church leaders were demanding that sex education should not be allowed for children under the age of eighteen, horse and stable door came to mind. Another noticeable trait was the high divorce rate, and how they all re-married lots of times from how often there was mention of ex-wives or husbands, till it appeared most kids had at least one more step parents.

Before they left for the evening Dmitri transferred all the articles on to their laptop that had so far been translated. On the way back to the apartment, Valya took them to a reasonably modest restaurant that served well cooked local regional dishes, in order that they could spend an uninterrupted evening looking through the material Dmitri had prepared for them.

Letters from the problem pages made it apparent there was a great disparity in the level of sexual knowledge between readers, from an eleven year old with a long history of boyfriends, to a girl of fifteen worried about her first kiss. One recurring theme concerned a person's social status, the 'elite crowd' or those who played sport, with some sort of unwritten rule that the cheerleaders would only date boys on a school sports team.

The hypocrisy was also notable in the teens contempt for anyone who spent time studying, but then on the other hand everybody wanted to go the best college, not through any real interest to learn about their chosen subject, but just about getting the highest paid job. At college there were various sororities, and it was essential to join the right one, purely for social reasons, not for any academic purpose.

There was much agonising about their various rights-of-passage, especially a dance referred to as 'the school prom' where enormous sums were spent on a dress, and many girls expected to loose their virginity after this event if the letters were to be believed.

Though they'd spoken briefly to their mum earlier that day, they called their parents for their nightly chat, they spoke of the agreement with Ivan regarding Marta, and their dad said they had received the first cheque for set two downloads, to go with the three others they had for sales on set one. He said how proud and pleased they were that their two girls could work together, then Anna said they'd soon get paid the studio fees for the two shoots she'd done this week. They said their good night's then the girls got ready for bed.

At home the girls could only bath once a week or use the feeble shower every other day, due to the expense, and the decrepit nature of their old water heater, of course now their financial circumstances had changed, if not the water heater, but while in the apartment they took every opportunity to use the splendid bathroom with it's copious hot water.

In the morning they were introduced to Vladimir, one of the three people who shot videos at the Studio. They met in the canteen for coffee before heading over to studio two which still had the magnolia painted backdrop. Marta asked a lot of questions about what would be happening, and who the model would be so that she could look the girl up on the laptop before they arrived on set.

Sasha at thirteen was in the top five models at the agency, and had four previous videos and eleven photo sets having worked for just over three and a half years. They reviewed her work in date order, seeing how her first set looked marginal at best, but from set two onwards she seemed to blossom and show her self-assurance. Two of her videos were recordings of photo sets done in the studio, and two were outdoor shoots, one by a sandy lakeside the other in a woodland glade, both with music rather than the natural sounds.

Although this was her second visit to the studios Anna had not had any dealings with the other models, the only times she had seen them was in the canteen, and then they were eating or talking with the people on their table, and it seemed rude to interrupt.

Valya assured them they would like Sasha, she had worked with the girl three times in the past, she was not as academically minded as Anna or Marta, she was more interested in sports and art. They were surprised that Sasha greeted them by name when they arrived, she was especially enthusiastic about the two sets of Anna's she had so far seen, and invited them to come and meet her mother Ludmilla, and her make-up artist, Carina.

The girl made an instant friend in Marta when she asked when her first set would be due out, then Marta had to explain she was not as outgoing as her younger sister, and was only here doing research work, to help improve the way the agency presented their models, by trying to better understand their target audience.

Sasha's naturally wavy fair hair had a simple centre parting kept off her face by two flower hair clips, her make-up was complete and she was wearing a robe, explaining the costume was a little warm and tight, therefore she would put it on at the last moment when Sandra and Vladimir were ready for her. Anna said how much she had liked Sandra who had been there at her audition and had been very nice to her, to which Sasha said she had tried four other people but now had all her sets photographed by Sandra.

Sandra showed up and came over to talk with them until Vladimir arrived, then they both went and did lighting and equipment checks, he then came over to tell them how they tried to video the shoot in one unbroken take, and although the mike was directional could they please cut the talk during the shoot, he would answer any questions they had later.

Marta watched as Sasha got dressed, first fancy white and orange lace panties, a short jacket that looked to be made from lace and orange leather, and flared trousers made of the same orange stretch fabric, she had noticed the tall girl's breasts were a little smaller than her own, but they both had about the same amount of wispy pubic hair, she also saw the girl had a number of red spots on her bum.

Sasha went over to the set and spoke to Vladimir, who then called Carina over to join the discussion, she then sat near the edge of the set.

“OK quite on set,” said Vladimir, “when you're ready Sasha.”

Sasha moved about the set posing, with the flash of the in fill lights synchronized with the stills camera, and the odd comment of instruction or encouragement from Sandra, while Vladimir followed the action with his tripod mounted video camera. Sasha sat on the floor leaning back against a 'rock' releasing the zip and started to push down her trousers at which point Carina crept in from the edge of the set to pull them down obviously out of range of the video which at that moment focused on her upper body.

When Carina retreated Sasha leaned forward with the camera following her as she pushed them from her ankles, then tossed them off set, from then on the whole process continued smoothly through to it's conclusion, when Sandra called it a wrap.

Sasha thanked Sandra and Vladimir, then wandered back to put on her robe while Carina raided the fridge to find everyone a drink.

When they had all settled down Vladimir asked if Marta had any questions for him, but she asked if he would first explain to her why they did things the way they had.

“Well the costume was a last minute change, there was some damage to the one that we had planned to use, so that's why the trousers were a poor fit. The video would look awful if the model struggled to undress, hence the off camera assistance, on film it will look like she just kicked them off while the camera was looking at her face. In videos of a studio set photo session, we use a fixed point from where we pan and zoom, so the stills and video people don't trip over one another.”

“Sasha doesn't need any direction from Sandra, but she makes a few comments really just for the video, some other models are more relaxed with music playing, but the videos are fairly new for this Studio, a bit over two years. I didn't shoot the videos with the girls doing an English intro, but I saw them and it did look a bit staged, but surely it would be hard for you girls to learn such a foreign sounding language.”

“Anna and I have been at it for nearly four weeks, we have learned quite a few words but we can only put together the odd simple sentence as the pronunciation and the rules for grammar are so different, Dmitri has helped a lot, but we do not know anyone in our home town that speaks English.”

“I volunteered to do the audition pictures in your town because I have a cousin that lives there,” Sandra informed them, “I could give her a ring, maybe she would know someone locally who can teach English.”

Moments later the cousin was able to help and looked up a number for them, Sandra then phoned the prospective teacher, explaining her cousin had given her the number and did she want to take on two new students, at the woman's eager reply, Sandra handed the phone to Marta.

The woman had been grateful to think she was going to be giving lessons for a couple of hours a week, but was ecstatic to find Marta and Anna wanted intensive tuition every day until they both had basic conversational English, they both took down the others details agreeing to meet the following afternoon before hanging up. Though Marta didn't know it at the time, the teacher was in a desperate situation with too few pupils left to cover her bills, this call had arrived just in time to prevent her becoming destitute.

They continued to discuss using English in videos, and Sasha professed she would be willing to give it a try if Anna's first video was a hit, they then went on to the technical and practical aspects of making videos in the various locations that Marta had so far reviewed.

When Marta had run out of questions Sandra and Vladimir left, and as soon as Carina had finished cleaning off Sasha's make up, she quickly dressed and all six of them went off to the canteen for lunch together, apart from the fact three adults sat at one table with three girls at another, talking about the same things pubescent girls talk about the world over.

After lunch they popped in to chat and say their farewells to Ivan, then John, and finally Dmitri, who gave them a few more books and a CD.

They took the Metro to the apartment, packed the last of their things in their cases and ordered a cab to take them to the station in time for the four o'clock train, shortly before boarding they called their mum, then each girl gave Valya a brief hug and they were on their way home.

Chapter 08

Their father was at the station to welcome them on their return, after hugs and kisses he picked up the cases and started towards the bus stop, telling them on the way that Nana Olga knew about the modelling, she had seen a letter head sticking out of an envelope, she just didn't know any details, so they would stay with the story of a foreign clothing catalogue, which is why of course they had no copies of the pictures.

Their mum's ankle was now a lot better, and the boys were pleased to see them, and of course grateful for the souvenirs the girls had brought them back. Greg was encouraged to take Peter into the bedroom to read for a while so that mum and dad could have a chat with the girls about their week away. Their parents were delighted that Anna's career had taken off so well, already having her contract extended, and now with the bonus of Marta being employed to do research for the Studio, things had never looked so promising.

When the conversation wound down they went to fetch the boys, they were curled up asleep on their parents bed, and hardly stirred as they were undressed and tucked into their own bed.

In the morning Marta and Anna went across the hall to visit their neighbours, thank them for helping their mum, and tell modified stories about Anna's modelling work, like trying on lots of European clothing with dozens of other kids for hours each day, before they left they gave the couple some gifts they had bought for them.

After their lunch they went to meet Svetlana, the woman who taught English, taking some of their books with them to show her, the apartment was similar to their own except that it had two bedrooms and the kitchen was separate from the main room. They took off their shoes when they entered and they were led to the table, Svetlana said she would go and make tea then they could have a chat about the lessons.

As soon as she left the room Marta whispered to Anna, “Svetlana must be having a very hard time,” Anna wanted to know why Marta thought that, “Well those dark shadows on the wall, it looks like she has sold some pictures that have been there a long time, and that nice oak display cabinet where most people would show their best china is empty.”

She went on to make several other astute observations, before Svetlana returned with the tea in quite plain cheap cups as if proving Marta's point.

Svetlana was curious as to why they wanted to learn English, so they stuck to the story about doing work on European clothing catalogues, so they met some English people and sometimes people from the American branch of the company, and they wanted to impress them in the hope that they could get to work abroad.

“Could you say anything for me in English?”

Marta used, the phrase she had spoken to Ivan a few days before.

“Hello my name is Marta, I'm thirteen years old, I like to do folk dancing and play chess.”

She then looked at Anna

“Hello my name is Anna, I'm ten years old, I like to read and sing.”

“You both speak with more of a British sounding accent than an American one, which is quite charming, where did you pick that up?”

Anna said how they listened to a British radio station at home, and one of the people who had helped them and given them the books had spent some time in England.

After chatting about how she liked to teach using real situations, she nervously asked if their parents were prepared to pay for the amount for intense tuition the girls wanted and perhaps they might like to spread out the lessons. Marta realized that the woman was thinking she could get by for a long time with only one or two days paid work per week, worried about not knowing where her next pupil might be coming from.

“Our parents aren't paying we are, cash up front each week, I don't mean to be rude, but how many hours of tuition are you teaching at the moment?”

“Marta I will be honest with you I am only teaching five one hour lessons each week, one by one people have been dropping out with the state of the economy, business people are losing their jobs and people who were thinking of travelling are now saving their funds.”

Marta looked at Anna as if there were some unspoken communication between them, and then turned to Svetlana, “I have an idea, or maybe two, that will help you if you can teach us to speak English in a reasonably short time, then I think we can find you several other girls that also want to learn on an intensive course. The second idea, this looks to be a two bedroom apartment,” at which Svetlana nodded, “two or three girls could take lessons, then you could use the spare bedroom to earn additional income from bed and board. These other girls would need to travel so that would solve both their teaching and accommodation, also they would be able to learn from the moment they got up until the time they went to bed.”

Svetlana was feeling a little giddy, from what had yesterday seemed like a small glimmer of hope, now there was the possibility of a wonderful opportunity to teach what could amount to several eager new students, with the bonus of renting her spare bedroom for which she'd had no takers locally, when she had tried advertising to get a lodger.

Marta asked what rates she normally charged, and Svetlana was more than happy agreeing to an hourly fee half way between her individual and group rates for each girl.

Anna retrieved an envelope containing most of the cash they had taken away with them and not spent, counting out an amount that should take them well past the first week, joking that Svetlana would need to stock up on tea, juice, and pastries for her pupils.

With business taken care of, it was only early afternoon, so they got down to work right away, with both girls making notes in fresh exercise books they had bought just for these lessons, by the time it came to leave for supper, they'd set a time to return the next day.

As the days passed they increased their vocabulary, writing down each word with it's English spelling followed by it's phonetic equivalent, and as their grammar improved they would apply it in conversations at the meal table, they then moved on to learn relevant words and phrases needed in the kitchen. When they later moved to the bathroom a red faced Marta learned how to ask for feminine hygiene products, then Anna was asked to try to find the right words to ask the chemist for medicine to stop diarrhoea. This was a cause of much laughter when Svetlana explained what Anna had said on her first few attempts.

They also went sightseeing in their own town, in order to think about what phrases they would need in the equivalent situation speaking in English, with Svetlana using role play to get the girls to push themselves, they included using buses, eating out, and then visiting various places of interest as a tourist would.

When it got to the point where the girls were starting to feel confident, Marta suggested they include topics such as sport and leisure activities, by now having learned the basic grammar it was a matter of increasing their vocabulary. Listening to the radio at home they found they could now follow the news stories or plays, despite the gaps in their knowledge, they found it was getting easier to understand providing the person they were listening to was not talking too quickly.

At first when Svetlana's other pupils turned up for lessons Marta and Anna went to the spare bedroom to work on exercises she had set for them, but as Marta pointed out she was being paid by all of them for that time perhaps some of these students would like to stay a little longer to take part in group conversations, which proved useful and popular with all concerned.

Marta had been keeping in touch with Ivan, Valya, and Dmitri to keep them informed on how they were progressing and to put forward new ideas. Her conversations with Dmitri much to his delight were now mostly in English, and from Valya she had found out many of the girls had shown an interest in the teen magazines, and about learning to read them. Ivan was impressed with their progress, and was bowled over about her idea for girls going to live with a language tutor for a short intensive course of lessons, saying he would start talking about it with some of the parents.

The second Friday after their return from Kiev, set three, the company's first ever super sized set had been released twenty-five days after the Anna's previous offering, and they were tentatively awaiting the first week's sales figures, as Dmitri had said the anticipation in the forum was high, but would they put their money where their mouth was.

Although Marta had told Svetlana some other girls were interested in taking an intensive English course with her and staying as lodgers, she was shocked when she was handed a letter complete with an initial payment for three girls to join her in a week's time subject to her agreement. She had to sit down and wipe her eyes as she noted the daily rate they were offering to pay for each girls tuition, and when she saw the rate they included for meals and accommodation on top, she was sure they could have found an hotel for less.

Asking Marta if there was some mistake, she was told the company she was dealing with were more familiar with paying city prices, so when Marta had dealt with them, she had talked Svetlana's prices up a little knowing how pleased they had been with how well she and her sister had advanced. Of course the letterhead showed the bland name of the holding company giving no clue as to the real nature of the business, something Marta had suggested they do when necessary, after their own close call at home.

Svetlana phoned the company on the number provided, which elicited a response from the switchboard using the holding company name, which they then informed Ivan before transferring her call. Ivan spoke with Svetlana using the ruse of a producer of European clothing catalogues, an idea that had peculated throughout the company, saying how useful it was when the girls could understand and talk to their foreign clients.

On Friday the girls for the first time finished early, stating they had a relative coming to visit, where in fact they intended to sit near the phone while the boys were having supper across the hall with Nana Olga that day. Anna was having trouble sitting still, in fact they were all a little anxious, when at last it did ring, it was Marta that grabbed it but waited a few more rings before lifting the receiver, ready with a pen and pad.

“Hello.”

“Hello Ivan.”

“Oh, Hello Marta, the numbers are in for the first week.”

“Yes?”

“It's the fastest rising set ever, we used your idea on the 'Meet the Models' and the 'What's New' pages, and Dmitri spiked the members forum, you should see the comments.”

“The way things are going we should be able to read most of them ourselves now.”

“Funny that's what Dmitri was saying, let me speak to your father.”

Ivan went on to speak with Igor and Anna, telling them how there had also been a boost in the other sets this past week, indicating Anna would rise to earning the top percentage rate if not on this set, then definitely on the next one.

Igor hugged his wife and daughters explaining how they had now received fourteen cheques, four were the posing fees for the sets so far, six payments for set one, and four with regard to set two, and there was a note with each of the last three about bonus earnings from the work that Marta had done. He related the story of how when he visited the bank that they used to deposit the modelling cheques, they knew his name and called him sir, but in the bank he had used for seventeen years they made him feel like a nobody.

They all hugged one another again before Ella went next door to collect her boys.

After the first six weeks sales on any set, the company called any further sales residuals, and these were only totalled on a monthly basis and added to whatever other payments that were due around that time, so set one sales were about to become an intermittent footnote on the paperwork with other future payments.

Meanwhile Marta was still busy thinking, Anna's last set had been promoted on two pages of the website, and Dmitri had been responsible for starting a rumour on the members forum, but no one had mentioned the idea of the models talking on the forum, or maybe having their own 'talk to my fans page', yes as an idea this was her best yet.

She decided to let it bubble in the back of her mind for the time being.

The following day Svetlana used as a learning experience, shopping for new bed clothes, towels, and tableware, testing if the girls could make the same transactions in English, as she prepared for her next set of pupils. When they stopped at a small coffee shop for a drink and a cake, Marta saw a man on the next table reading, the book was a well known play, which gave Marta yet another idea.

It was Anna shaking her arm, that roused Marta from her thoughts, writing Anna a script for a video, not learning it line for line, but a framework to work by, ad-libbing as she went in order that it looked fresh, Anna had learned enough to do this. Marta now set about what questions she needed to ask Svetlana next.

By the time they had returned and put the purchases away, Marta was ready with her notebook, asking if Svetlana could help them learn about the differences of American society and culture. She talked for a while on the subject, even about how the English and Americans using the same word didn't always mean the same thing. Football in Europe was different to American football, which was a little bit like European rugby only they kept stopping so the TV stations could show adverts, and everyone wore silly padding.

She didn't think the Americans played rugby because it was too rough, and they always called football played everywhere else soccer.

She told them lots of other silly stories about American sports and it's rituals, but the one that made them laugh most was the 'World series' for baseball, in most countries around the world it was called rounders, a game only played by school children, but the thing was almost no adults aside from Americans played the game, so they had no one else to beat.

Another amusing thing was how Svetlana also thought many of the Bible thumping types in church on Sunday had been the same people ogling teenage cheerleaders in short skirts at sports events the day before. They went home that evening with a number of books she had loaned them covering sports, entertainment and culture.

That night Marta told Anna her idea for writing basic plot outlines with some practice text with a few phrases she could use during the shoot. Next they tried to think of a scenario or two where they could develop a plot involving Anna getting undressed, their first storyline would be a girl going to bed, but right at the end after she had been naked for a while she could put on a short nightdress.

The next idea was sorting through her bags after shopping, trying on all the underwear or swimsuits, and pretending to talk to someone out of camera shot, Anna came up with a scene they could shoot in the apartment in Kiev, where she could read a recipe in the kitchen, and spill some on her clothes as she progressed, ending up naked of course, then Marta said she had a couple of others in her head that she still needed to work on.

On Sunday Marta had told Svetlana she would not be in till late on Monday but Anna would be there early as usual. First thing on Monday she called Dmitri asking if there were any cooking articles or recipes in the magazines he had or the ones Valya had brought since they were last there, also items about shopping, fashion, or cheerleaders explaining it was research for some video plot lines.

He said he would gather them up and check, then call her back, next she spoke to Ivan about the video ideas she was working on and hinted about a following idea she was still working on would really blow his socks off, if she could figure out the details.

Ivan asked if she and Anna could be ready to do a video shoot next week, thinking it was possible they decided to discuss it again later in the week and talk to her parents, as the call ended Ivan smiled to himself, sure the little minx wasn't making any idle boasts.

Marta was still agitated, thoughts going round and around in her head, she phoned back this time asking to speak to one of the fashion designers she had met, after receiving his congratulations about her position, she enquired if they had ever done a cheerleaders outfit because she didn't remember seeing one on the site. He was sure they hadn't so Marta asked if he could get together with Dmitri who was looking up some pictures for her, and design something for Anna to wear in a video they might be shooting next week.

He couldn't say no as she had asked him so nicely.

Dmitri phoned back having found a number of articles for her, saying he would translate them and scan the pictures to send to her, she then asked about the material relating to cheerleaders, and how he could expect a visitor later to view the pictures, after thanking him she got ready to go to Svetlana's. Her tummy was feeling a little odd, realizing the implication she checked her diary and did some counting, probably due tomorrow, but she went to the bathroom to fit a panty liner just in case and made sure she had supplies and tissues in her bag, never wanting to be caught out after her previous night-time accident and the horror stories Valya had told them.

The day went well, and Marta wrote out quite a lot of lines she wanted to use in the video scenarios but with some subtle differences so as not to rouse any questions, she could change a word here or there later. The good thing was that Svetlana had checked her efforts for grammatical errors and if she had used the correct tense.

They left in time that day to take their brothers to the park for an hour before supper, and while the boys played Marta updated her sister on her ideas about developing the video plots, and showed her the lines she had been working on earlier and where the changes were needed. Together they re-wrote the amended lines in a new exercise book, Marta had labelled her 'video plot book' and by the time they had to get back to eat, they had a completed script for their first video and a basic outline and phrases for a second.

Early that evening just after supper the boys were sent off to read, as this was becoming a frequent habit in order that the others could talk of the 'project' without interruptions, and Marta updated her parents about her morning phone calls, and that they might be going to Kiev next week. Ella jokingly asked which 'they' that was going to be, admitting although she had enjoyed her visit, if the Studio were willing to allow the two girls to go, she would be happy, as it would be easier if she were to stay behind to run the home.

The next morning Marta woke to find her period had started, glad she had chosen to wear a night-time pad, she was also relieved that apart from feeling uncomfortable she did not suffer the pains, sharp cramps, headaches and mood swings she had heard of from other girls in her class who called it their monthly curse. Having seen the cheap rough sanitary products most girls used, it made her thankful she had a choice, and could afford to use more comfortable branded items, but such were the recent changes in her life.

She vowed to herself she would never take for granted the value of money, as life was so hard for most people, and she knew they had to make the best of the opportunities that were now open to her and her sister.

By the end of the week everything was slotting into place, Svetlana was ready for her new students the following week, Marta had written a lot of material for the videos, Anna had the phrases all learned, and best of all she had firmed up her plans about the forum and about Anna's link from the 'Meet the girls' page, the only problem was their lack of a connection to the internet, apart from when they visited the Studio.

The three girls who had volunteered first for the English course, had been briefed on what was expected of them, and what to say if asked any questions about the company, so they were well prepared. They were travelling to the Studio over the weekend from their home towns, then someone from the Studio would go with them on the train to meet up with Svetlana at the local station.

One useful outcome of Marta's ruse about the European clothing catalogue, was that one of the first things they had been taught were what each item of clothing was called, along with any alternative names an item might be known by.

On Monday morning Marta mused that as they were heading towards the studios, three girls from the Studio were passing by in the other direction, now all she needed was for Dmitri to come good on the last few items she had recently called him about.

Valya was waiting at the station, and phoned their mum to say they had arrived safely, then it was straight off to the studios, the bags could wait until they got to the apartment later. Dmitri had found all the things Marta had asked for, the first was a set of video clips with cheerleaders doing their routines and chants, which she and Anna took away to the spare office to watch.

After they had selected which parts were useful, Marta left Anna to practice in front of the screen, and went back to talk with Dmitri. “Dmitri, you're one of the tame geeks who knows all the technical stuff, do you know how the forum works, and how members join in writing things?”

When Dmitri admitted he did she continued, “Do you think you could help me with my next idea I want to tell Ivan about?” Go on he said, “Well the members like to talk to each other about the models, so I thought they would like it if they could talk with the models. If Anna had her own forum type page, they could leave messages or comments and she could reply to them, the only thing is she could only do it from here. Then my idea to fill the blank bits, was to have all the models take turns, so you could say this model will be here at that time and this other model would be here at this other time.”

She looked at Dmitri waiting for a reply, but he just sat there.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you did something right, I was just stunned, it is just such a good idea I don't know why no one suggested it before, whatever Ivan is paying you he needs to multiply it by ten and that would still be a bargain, but you haven't told him yet.”

“How did you know that?”

“If he knew about it, the whole I.T. Department would already be working on it and sales would be promoting it, let's go see the man, as I want to see his face when you tell him.”

Chapter 09

When they got to Ivan's office his secretary said he was in a meeting with a man from the set building shop, Dmitri just grabbed Marta's hand and barged into the office anyway, he apologised to the construction guy saying he could visit Ivan later, pushing the man out of Ivan's office.

“Sorry about that, but what Marta is about to tell you is going to rock your world.”

Marta now realized just how important Dmitri thought her idea was, so she clearly and carefully repeated the idea just as she had earlier, at the same time watching Dmitri watch Ivan for his reaction.

Ivan's first reaction after a short pause, was to call his secretary for tea and cakes, when she came in he told her he wasn't taking any calls until further notice but he may be having some more staff in, so be prepared with more tea, coffee, and sticky pastries.

“Well Marta I knew you were working on something big, but I didn't see that one coming, of course up until now I doubt if anyone had thought of the forum as anything other than a talking shop for members, it was only recently that sales started to make use of what they were talking about. Until you and Anna started learning English I think there were only six or seven of us on the staff who could speak English that well.”

“This is a really clever idea, something that the members will love, so I need to address all the people who can help launch this project, we need to get it right first time, but we will need to wait until there are a sufficient number of girls to join in, maybe just weekends or twice a week to start with then build up from there.”

Dmitri joined in,”We need an introduction page to tell the members how they are expected to behave, no smutty language or questions that might be inappropriate, or they will not be allowed to speak to the girls, we will have to work up a set of rules.”

“You could tell them that not many of us have learned how to speak English, which is why the forum is starting slowly, some guys might want to help sponsor their favourite model to take English lessons,” both men looked at Marta amazed at yet another gem of an idea,

“Of course they will be able to see when a new girl joins she will be slow and sometimes use the wrong word, but each girl will get better with practice.”

Ivan was busy scribbling down a list of names, he then called in his secretary, telling her to call all those people for a lunchtime meeting in the big conference room, order a deluxe buffet lunch with plenty to spare in case more people turned up, and he also wanted all the white-boards she could round up, and to see if she could find Anna and Valya as well.

They sat for a while longer kicking around points they wanted to expand on in the coming meeting, when Ivan halted the discussion to ask Marta a question, “Marta am I right that there are six in your family?” at her nod he called his secretary back to contact a few local property agents and get details of nearby five bedroom apartments or houses.

Marta wondered about the sudden change of topic, until he started on about their family moving to Kiev as soon as possible, and how he would speak to her parents tonight.

The next thing she knew Ivan, Dmitri and the secretary were leaning over her and helping her up from the floor, she had fainted, she had never done that before, Tanya the secretary helped her to the ladies room, where she freshened up and washed her face, then applied a little make-up, before returning. She was still trying to come to grips with the fact Ivan meant that her family should be living in a house with five bedrooms!

It was only with Anna's contract extension, Marta's job, and then Anna's recent super set that their father had started to consider a move, but he was thinking maybe next year, this would be a shock, they better be sitting down tonight when Ivan called.

She saw Anna heading for Ivan's office, so she grabbed her sister and returned to the ladies toilet, where she updated her on what had been happening since she'd spoken to Dmitri and Ivan that morning, hand in hand they walked back to Ivan's office, only to be redirected by Tanya to the conference room, where some of the people had started to assemble for the hastily arranged meeting.

The level of conversation dropped in the room when the caterers arrived with trays full of sandwiches, snacks, pastries, individual creamy desserts, and a large bowl of fresh fruit.

More staff came in to set down plates and silverware, and soft drinks, it seemed the room had it's own tea urn and coffee machine at the far end of the side table. Valya sneaked up behind them and put her arms around both girls, squeezing them, and asking what Marta had done to get Ivan in such a lather, “You'll have to wait and see like everyone else.” said Ivan who had in turn approached silently behind Valya.

Some while later Ivan tapped a glass to gain everybody's attention, “Ladies and gentlemen if you are all fed and watered please come and sit at the table, Marta and Anna up this end please.” Marta took hold of Valya's hand to join them near the end of the large oval table.

Ivan apologised for any inconvenience he may have caused by calling a meeting at such short notice but soon everyone would realize what the fuss was about, he then asked a stunned Marta to present her idea.

Marta felt Anna and Valya who were sitting either side, each squeeze a hand.

She had never spoken in a meeting bigger than the school chess club, but she got to her feet and started hesitantly, cleared her throat, and tried to pretend she was a member of the debating club instead, to be sure everyone could hear about her proposal.

She guessed it was going well, they paid attention, didn't talk over her as adults did some-times and they gasped in all the right places, when she finished her presentation she sat down to cheers and applause from her audience, but the only thing she was aware of was the look of adoration from her younger sister who had a tears in her eyes, so she leaned over to give her a hug, and slipped her a tissue.

Ivan thanked Marta for her fluent and concise summary of her idea, and told the gathering of the broad scope of ideas Marta was responsible for, and how she and Anna had spent nearly every spare moment in recent weeks learning English in order that Anna would be able to meaningfully address their clients in a new range of videos.

Ivan then asked if there were any questions before they got down to brain storming, when he had those sorted, he called on four people to go to the white boards, where each person wrote a heading, Business, Technical, Presentation, and Sales, saying he expected some issues would show on two or more boards.

What followed started out quite orderly, but soon became a stream of comments and suggestions all overlapping one another with the white board attendants busily writing or rubbing out as the meeting progressed, fortunately Tanya came round topping up drinks for everybody.

Two hours later a fag and bathroom break was called, Marta asked Ivan if she, Anna and Valya could slip away as they had no way to help with the topics that were now being dealt with, and she wanted to talk with her sister about the video.

Ivan thought that would be a good use of their time, telling them not to work too hard, as he would see them later and take the three of them out that evening.

The first thing Marta did was phone home, she found the boys were at a friends home so her mother could speak freely, she told her mum that it would be a good night for the boys to have supper and sleep over at Nana Olga's, and no there weren't any problems, and they would get a nice phone call later, and they might want to sit down to listen, and no she wasn't going to say what it was about, and yes that was Anna laughing.

All three went to the spare office near Dmitri's work area where Anna had been practising earlier, then Marta asked to see the routine she had worked out for her video.

Anna started stepping about with high kicks as she began her chant.

“T - I - G - E - R - S, go tigers go,” at the same time waving imaginary pompoms, turning she then bent over and shook her bum at her audience of two, then resumed her chant.

“Tigers, Tigers, make that play, Tigers, Tigers, make our day,” the performance continued with similar inane shouts and provocative movements, until Anna ended in a bow.

Her audience of two gave a short ovation, both agreeing it was a good imitation of the type of demonstrations they had seen in the video clips, but Anna sensed her big sister was in some way unsatisfied with her effort, and asked what she had done wrong.

“You didn't do anything wrong, in fact you were brilliant, I'm just unsure if this is the right subject for your first video, we will use it, I even asked the costume department to make you an outfit,” Anna was impressed by Marta's boldness, “but I think we should look to do one of the other options for your first shoot.”

Marta got out her 'video plot book' and the three of them looked at the various script ideas and plot outlines, until Valya suggested they do the cookery one, as it was more 'innocent' and a real domestic setting would give the audience something they could relate to.

They went over to Dmitri's work area to sort through the stacks of magazines, even finding a few new titles Valya had added to her subscription list. They eventually settled on baking something, either brownies or cup cakes, finally deciding on the cup-cakes as Marta said they provided more interesting opportunities, and wrote a list of all the ingredients they would need, saying they should get extra to do a practice run before the filming.

Valya said they should go and drop the cases at the apartment and then they could check what they needed to buy for the shoot, so they set off taking the magazine with them.

The kitchen really was useless, a few side plates, cereal bowls, cups, glasses and cutlery, that was all that was there, so they made a list of what they would need. Measuring jugs, scales, bake-ware, utensils, oven gloves and apron, and that was before they even got to the ingredients they would require to make the cakes. Valya took them to a shop where they were able to get all the cookware including extra cup cake baking trays in order that Anna could show her audience 'some I made earlier'.

Then they shopped for the eggs flour, butter and such that were needed, Marta thought they should include jam and squirty cream for it's artistic potential, and coloured sprinkles, and sugared candy shapes, just because she could.

They had just finished putting everything away in the kitchen when Ivan called to say he would be round at half past six, then he would call their parents before they went out to supper.

By the time he arrived all three were ready wearing their stylish new dresses, ready for an evening out, and Ivan complimented them saying how lucky he was to have such pretty dining companions.

He handed the girls a folder containing several glossy brochures, each displaying photos of luxurious new apartment buildings, both inside and out, there were also details of two houses among the information and each set of details even had a map showing where in the city they were. Ivan and Valya stood there grinning as the two girls shuffled through the property brochures spread across the table as they marvelled at features of each one.

“Anna could you imagine living in that house, the views down over the city, and a garden where Greg an Peter could play, and mum could grow flowers, don't pinch me I'm worried I might wake up and find this is all just a dream.”

“It's no dream girls, I want you to move here as soon as it can be arranged, so let's call your folks and see how they feel about coming to live in Kiev.” with that he picked up the phone and called, speaking to their dad who had been awaiting the 'nice call' that he and Ella had been speculating about since his return from work that day.

Ivan explained how both girls had become such valuable assets to the Studio it would be far easier for everyone if the family were to live nearby, and how he had already found some properties that the girls were reading about as a new family home, by the end of the call it had been arranged for them to travel to Kiev on Friday evening with the boys so they could spend the weekend viewing the prospective properties.

Igor and Ella were beyond stunned at the latest news, especially as Igor had come home that evening with news of troublesome rumours of job cuts at the company where he worked, now more than ever it seemed that Anna's little dream of helping her family through hard times with hopes of building a small nest egg were exceeded many-fold.

During their meal that evening Ivan answered many of their questions about their parents impending visit this coming weekend, how they would be staying in another apartment in the same building, and how he would have someone from the property agents show them a range of places available that they could lease. When Marta expressed her worries about city prices Ivan assured them this would not be a problem as the earnings of either one of them, would justify the lifestyle they were about to become accustomed to, and still allow a nest egg for their future.

Then the girls were concerned about the boys schooling and also for their own, at which point Ivan said their brothers school would depend on where they decided to live but for them, as they could use the transport system by themselves, they might like to go to one of the two schools favoured by some of the other models who had moved into the city.

When they voiced concerns about how they would fit in at a new school, Ivan said when they had chosen where to live he would call together some of the models who lived in the city to tell them about the schools, and they would share a common bond with some of the girls at whichever school they preferred. He also reminded the girls he had promised to introduce their father to several local businesses, so he was bound to quickly find a job.

After a day so full of excitement and upheaval they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow, none of their usual night-time chats. The next morning Valya crept about so as not to wake them, so they could have a lie-in.

When the girls did rouse themselves, Marta was worried they may be late, but Valya told them the Studio would be in turmoil for a while just working out how to deal with her last idea, and maybe they could just work from the apartment today. After breakfast Marta and Anna started on a list of things they wanted to do that week, before the rest of the family turned up.

Anna wrote the list while Marta organised their thoughts, “We need to do a practice run on the cakes, while we work out what we will do on the video, and we should visit Vladimir and the props department for any additional ideas, and I want to find out if Dmitri can let us know how to read the members forum to see what they are saying about you, and it would be neat if we could get a preview of the properties, and we need to learn more about using the internet.” Valya then jokingly asked what they would do after lunch.

They went through a dry run on the cake making, Anna just getting all the packets, and things, pretending to make the cakes while Marta and Valya added suggestions about what improvements they could think of at each stage. At eleven o'clock Anna tried the real thing, wearing an old skirt and tee shirt so they could test out the effects they were trying to achieve. They proved two things, that Anna could be as messy as required for the video and secondly that the cakes were perfectly edible.

They did go to the Studio after lunch, dropping off a few cakes, then asked Tanya, Ivan's secretary to call the property agent she had spoken with, to see if they were available that afternoon to show some prospective clients around the properties, listing the ones that they were most interested in seeing. With this in mind they had washed and changed after their baking adventure that morning, now looking the part of girls who might live in that sort of property.

The agent had to wait while the receptionist called the office to tell them he was there for their tour of the homes they wanted to view. After the initial introductions he more or less ignored the girls when they had been settled into the back of the car, and spent his time trying to ingratiate himself with Valya as he drove them towards the nearest location.

Meanwhile in the back of the car the girls looked at one another and had one of their near silent conversations, coming to an agreement with few words spoken. The first apartment was in a beautiful park like location, with an elevator to the sixth floor, where they quickly discovered there were only two apartments at each level. Marta winked at Valya as she and Anna set off looking around while the man gave Valya the full on 'sales' talk.

The girls went from room to room, taking in the air of spaciousness, and the views presented from three sides of the building, and noted from the one full bathroom plus the addition of a guest toilet, this was at the lower end of the specified listings.

The man wore a tolerant, but vaguely annoyed expression to be interrupted from his spiel by the girls returning, and Anna's announcement she didn't think it was suitable, Valya was straight onto the girls game, “Yes Miss Anna I'll get him to show you something else.”

He now realized he had been wrong footed, he had done a lot of business with the people at that office complex, so he didn't dare treat this as a practical joke, but how was he meant to deal with a school aged client, and she wasn't even the eldest of the two kids.

Thinking he had better try and redeem himself he asked if they had seen the listings he had sent, and if they favoured any one in particular, so he could show those, or any he had that were similar, at the same time he was desperately trying to remember the name of the other girl who he thought was probably 'Miss Anna's' older sister.

Marta produced the folder that Tanya had placed the brochures in, and pulled out the ones they had liked best, handing them over with a few comments about the preferred aspects of some of them. Now feeling he had regained some ground he sorted through the selection, to determine a route, then asked more questions in the hope he could hastily close the transaction.

By the time he shut the door on the third property the girls had given him some idea of what they liked or disliked about each one, and true to his trade he had held the better prospects till last in order to make them stand out from the crowd.

The next offering was a two story house facing a park where children were playing, his having caught references to younger brothers thought this ticked many of their boxes.

The girls liked it but were disappointed with the small rear garden, while they were upstairs inspecting the bedrooms, there was a squeal of brakes followed by shouting.

They rushed to the window in time to see a driver telling off some lads for chasing into the road after their ball. “To dangerous for the boys!” they said in unison.

By the sixth property he was beginning to wonder if he was in the right job. A five bed, two story house with great views, as there was an area of open grass parkland in front, but it had no play equipment. It wasn't in the original listings, so he had driven them back to his office to collect the keys in the vain hope they would either bite or go elsewhere.

Marta and Anna checked the road, no through traffic as the road ended 200 metres further on, master bedroom with en-suite, two bedrooms with a shared bathroom between them, theirs, and a communal bathroom for the boys to use, there was even a further toilet off the entrance hall. The ground floor had a lounge, a study, dining room, and a great family kitchen which was easily big enough to eat in, and in addition there was a built in garage for a car they didn't have, although their dad could drive.

They gave the house a thorough inspection, checking all the built-in wardrobes, each of the bathrooms, the kitchen fittings and appliances, even the garage come workshop, then they moved to check the outside of the house and look at the gardens, noting that there was room for the boys to play ball. As the man looked on he couldn't help thinking the older girl, from her remarks appeared to know what she was doing, not knowing that in previous summers she had at times helped her father who was a maintenance man.

“This is my first property deal,” the ten year old said to him, which didn't come as any surprise, “my sister normally handles business matters, but I would like my family to see the house on Saturday before we conclude our transactions, as they will be arriving by train, do you have a minibus for bringing them here or to other places on Saturday?”

He was able to assure her that would be possible, then Anna asked if he could show them the local amenities, already having checked the location of the nearby school that would not require the boys to cross any main roads. There was a small parade of shops a short walk away, a very nice park with a play area and a swimming pool within a short bus ride.

Marta suggested they needed to buy a local map, but the man said he had one they could have, with a deal in view, he could buy a new one from his commission. They thanked him for his patience, and agreed a meeting time for Saturday morning at the apartment block where they were staying, although the girls were keen on the last house they had viewed, they said if he thought of anything similar, they could also view those with the family.

That evening Valya gave them another new experience, they went out for a Chinese meal, which they all thoroughly enjoyed. On Wednesday morning it was decided they would visit Dmitri, though busy working on Marta's 'talk to the models forum' he was happy to set up the computer in the spare office so they could access the members forum, only it wasn't a spare office any longer, it now bore a new nameplate.

Marta – Development Consultant & Natasha's manager.

“Mum and dad will shit themselves when they see that”, Marta slapped her hand over her mouth and turned red when she realized she had spoken out loud, everyone else just laughed and congratulated her. The office desk had two nice chairs, with a computer linked to the main network server, with their own user-names and passwords, also there were all the cables to set up their laptop. There was now also a separate table they could use for meetings with six chairs.

They had brought in with them the laptop, phrase book, and dictionary, hoping they would be able to look at the forum, Valya left them alone to look at it, as her knowledge of English was quite limited compared to the girls. Paging back through the history of the forum they were now able to read many of the posts about about 'Natasha', some of the crude and earthy remarks caused Anna to blush, but Marta pointed out though her fans had made naughty comments, none of the people had anything negative to say about her.

To get a more balanced view they also read posts about other models, and Marta noted the amount of comment about any particular model generally rose and fell in line with the release dates of their photo sets or videos, and she wanted to explore at some time if the number of posts about a model was reflected in sales figures.

Chapter 10

Mid morning young Karl who was the office junior, tapped on the open door to ask if they wanted some tea and biscuits, when he left Anna observed how he had remembered the way Marta liked her tea, earning a friendly poke in the ribs, but despite her sisters teasing, she realized he had also gone to the trouble of providing her favourite biscuits as well, and he was courteous unlike the way other older boys often behaved.

While having their break the subject of Svetlana came up, wondering how her new pupils were getting on, so Marta said she would call to check all the girls were behaving themselves and working hard. Anna was beginning to realize it wasn't just her sister's great ideas, but also she was becoming more decisive, while the people around them treated her with respect and listened to what she had to say without regard to her age.

They went to see Tanya who gave them a brief lesson about the office phone system, then she printed off a directory of numbers, both internal and external that the girls might need, saying to call her if they had any other queries.

Svetlana was surprised and happy to hear from them, telling them how after one of the girls had phoned home last night it was as if someone had lit a fire under them, and they almost seemed desperate to learn English. Marta asked the names of her pupils in case she knew any of them, and she was interested as to who it was that had phoned home. After chatting a little longer, and assuring Svetlana they were continuing to practice they rang off.

Marta then called Tanya to ask if Ludmilla, Sasha's mum had been in during the past two days, on getting a negative answer she then asked if Ivan was free for a short while so she could speak to him. Tanya's reply made it plain he was always available to see Marta.

They were shown straight in and Marta asked Ivan if any of the models or their parents had been told about the forum idea, he said it was under wraps for the time being, all the people at the meeting had been asked to keep it quiet.

“You have a leak, I was just talking to Svetlana and she told me after Sasha called home last night how the girls had suddenly become much more keen to study, of course she didn't know why but I think we might have a guess, only Tanya said Ludmilla hadn't been in over the past two days.”

“We didn't need to keep this a secret, but other than those people currently working on the project, it would be a distraction until we have the bugs ironed out, after all the girls already have a motivation to learn the language, hang about while I call personnel.”

A short conversation with the personnel department established that Ludmilla had a cousin working in the I.T. Section, so Ivan said he would reprimand them about it, but no heads would roll. As the girls left he once again marvelled at Marta's ability to see things and make connections that others were blind to.

On the way back to her office Marta stopped by to ask Dmitri who would be a good person to talk to in the sales department, he smiled knowing this was probably the seed of one of her smart ideas, and gave her an appraisal of the various characters he dealt with there.

Marta chose to phone Alina, who Dmitri said was young, smart, but undervalued which she hoped would change if the girl had time for a little research, when Alina found out who was calling she said she would be there right away. Once you got past the exterior, Alina was twenty-one, plain, a little overweight, and had acne, but she was very good at English which is how she got the job, and she was eager to make a career in sales or marketing.

Marta was keen to know how the sales department currently used the forum, and was told that they mostly looked to see how each set was received after it was released, but she had recently seen Dmitri's clever rumour campaign about Natasha's super set so was full of praise at the way he had increased customer interest.

Marta wanted to know if it would cause any problems doing some research on an idea she had, going on to explain that it would be interesting to find out on a name count basis, or in terms of column length devoted to each model, if there were any relation to sales.

Her idea being if it were so, had they missed out on promoting a model in the past or spent time doing more sets of a model only to find poor sales.

Alina immediately saw the gist of Marta's line of thought and said she would start working on the history logs of the forum and sales numbers, saying how there would be no hassle from her boss when he was informed it was a 'Marta' project. Anna noted that her sister made a few whispered comments as Marta showed Alina out.

“What was the whispering about?”

Marta explained she had told Alina how Valya had helped with her complexion, and how she would be pleased to offer her advice if she went to see her.

“After she's been to see Valya, I will speak to her about how Dmitri could be a big help in her research, she might even need to visit him twice a day.” Marta said with a smile.

Anna said how she shouldn't play chess with people, but Marta insisted she was merely clearing some space on the board, whatever happened next was down to the pieces.

By lunchtime Anna wanted a break from the forum, it was nice that they liked her, but at the same time some were a bit graphic in what they would like to do with her, a subject they had been discussing, as Marta had explained she had been having feelings about boys that she had found confusing of late in that they were both scary and exciting.

Marta wondered if they needed to speak with the admin department or the studio manager to find out where Vladimir was that afternoon, and if he might have time to advise them on the shoot they were planning. They stopped at admin first as it was closest, the guy that had been short with Anna before saw them come in and rushed over to them.

Before they could even speak he was apologising for his lack of helpfulness when they were last here, but he was new to the department, it also seemed that the reputation of both girls was in the ascendant. He apologised again that he didn't know where Vladimir would be but offered to phone the studio manager or take them to his office, they thanked him but said they knew where that was, and would call in as it was on their route to the props department anyway.

The studio booking manager was able to tell them Vladimir was not in today as he was at a location shoot to the south of the city. Marta explained how they were looking for advice on shooting a video in the kitchen of the apartment where they were staying.

“Oksana is the one you need to talk to, she has used the apartments to shoot a number of videos, apparently it's all in the balance between natural light, and fill-in lighting, I'm told a video camera can't cope over such a wide lighting difference the way that our eyes can.

I'll give her a ring, she's not due in studio three for another hour or so.”

As luck would have it Oksana was at their next port of call discussing the props she would need for some up-coming shoots, so they went over to speak to her and Andreas, the man who ran the props department. When Marta explained about the cup-cake shoot, Oksana immediately wanted to know if someone had been assigned to shoot it, and on finding out that nobody had, she asked to do it, as she had heard from John how easy it had been working with Anna.

Talking about the run through they had done, Oksana came up with some ideas and asked Andreas for a few items they could use, she got really excited when she found out Anna was going to talk in English during the shoot as she spoke English herself. She then asked what apartment they were using, then referred to a small notebook, saying how the light would be better in the morning for the kitchen of that particular unit.

Marta said how they had been so busy since they had arrived they hadn't even thought about a day, or time for shooting the video, but that they were both engaged in some research at present and it would be easier to concentrate if they had cleared up some of the things they were working on, so would Oksana be available on Friday morning.

Glad to have that settled they headed back to Marta's office, but ended up talking to Dmitri who gave them a preliminary copy of the rules they had so far worked out for members who wanted to access the 'speak to the models forum'. He asked them to look it over and give him any feedback on changes they thought might be of benefit.

Taking it to 'their office' as Marta insisted, Anna's professional name was on the door too.

Rules for members to observe using the - 'Talk to the Models Forum'

General notes.

There has been a recent desire to learn English among some of our models, and we hope that as they become proficient more of them will take part in the forum. We consider this could be an educational experience for the girls to converse with their fans from all around the world. A code of conduct is necessary to ensure that no comments that may be considered in any way offensive or of an inappropriate nature appear on the forum.

1. Please bear in mind the age of our models, and that English is new to them.
2. Members should at all times be well-mannered and polite.
3. Do not use swear words, slang, derogatory terms, or any sexual terms or innuendo.
4. Please keep your exchanges brief, because the girls are reading, what is to them a foreign language, also to give others a chance to join in.
5. Do not criticize the girls in open forum, but constructive comments are welcome.
6. You may not ask questions about a models home or school location.
7. You may not ask to meet, phone or write letters to the models.
8. You should not ask questions of a personal nature, nor about their home life.
9. It is permissible to talk of a models hobbies, interests or ambitions.
10. It is also permissible to make suggestions for future photo or video shoots.

Please note that the forum administrator or any of the models have the authority to ban any member temporarily or permanently for infractions of the rules and guidelines.

After talking it over they decided it covered the issues that had concerned them about what they had observed in the member to member forum, then Anna noted that look on Marta's face that meant she was thinking something through. Marta said they needed to go and talk to Dmitri about training.

Marta wanted to know if it were possible to set up a practice forum just inside the office, so that two or three people could talk to a model, and she could talk back just as the real one worked. Dmitri said they ran 'in-house' tests on the systems before they were rolled out in order to find any bugs, so yes it would actually help him if some people played with it for a while.

She went on to say how the models needed to try it first if only for their keyboard skills, and some of the staff who wrote in English could pretend to be members, then they should break the rules in different ways to see how the girls handled the various situations. Dmitri said he would look at the software options so that the girls could have a 'kill' button to temporarily or permanently bump people off the forum for braking the rules.

“When the beta software version is ready for testing, Anna can be our first guinea-pig, and I will arrange our English speaking staff to play the part of members, to trial the system, and of course see how Anna deals with the perverts.” he said winking at a blushing Anna.

The girls went to their office to polish up the cup-cake shoot, both in terms of the actions with respect to tips they had been given, and also improving the dialogue to match the new additions, from there they went on to look at some of their other scripts.

They were so engaged in the discussion of changing panties, for one script where Anna is supposed to be trying everything on in her underwear drawer, that a red faced Karl had to knock a few times on the open door before they realised they had a visitor, there was an awkward moment of silence, before Anna invited him in.

“Sorry about that Karl, Marta, my sister, manager, and all round genius, just likes to make sure of every last detail, it's that chess brain of hers.” he then told them how normally he had little contact with the models being in the I.T. Department, which led to a discussion on how he didn't make drinks for the whole admin section, just the geeks.

He was a trainee learning how to write computer code, they found out he had landed the job because he was an avid gamer and chess player.

They chatted for a while longer as he served their tea, and before he left Anna said he should play chess against Marta as her club didn't get to meet over the summer, as soon as he was out the door she received a poke in the ribs.

Marta looked at her sister, “Wasn't it you that said how I shouldn't play chess with people, and now you set me up!”

“I'm not playing chess with people, I'm getting people to play chess, you both like chess, perfectly harmless for a first date.”

“He's like sixteen, I'm too young for him, he wouldn't think about me in that way.”

“So you didn't notice him looking at you, or that he was trying to hide the fact he was hard by standing so close to his tea trolley, besides you're mature for your age you should have a boyfriend. Lots of girls have older boyfriends, and if you only get together at the office he will have to behave himself, and not do octopus impressions.”

Both girls laughed at Anna's description of how they had seen many girls swatting off the groping hands of boys they saw at school. “Marta you're the clever one you work it out, he's a gamer, so might not mix much with girls, but he's also a trainee geek therefore he wants to make something of himself, he's polite, and I'm sure he's interested in you.”

Marta seemed to loose concentration on the video plots they had been working on and suggested they look at the latest picture sets to go on line, then they went on to view the members forum in real time to follow the current threads, to see what comments were being made on recent releases. Marta pointed out that after nearly three weeks, Anna's super set was still a subject of discussion, then they picked up on a comment about an up-coming video release. Navigating the site, they found the 'What's New' page and saw an announcement about 'Natasha' planning to do a video in the near future.

They ran out to see Dmitri, after checking through his system he told them that the page had only been updated in the last fifteen minutes, he then logged into the members forum to see there was now a stream of speculation about what kind of production they could expect from her first video.

With a gleam in his eye Dmitri used his 'member persona' to seed the debate with the rumour that 'Natasha' had been taking English lessons, this caused him to be flamed by a number of the people joining in. He then went on to say a friend of a friend knew some-one who worked at the Studio, and they could apologise later when he was proved right.

They all sat there grinning as the discourse rapidly continued scrolling down the screen. Marta looked about the room as the text was now moving too fast for her to follow, and asked Dmitri about the different sized screens, he went on to say how the newest, largest screens were dished out according to seniority because they were expensive but they still had some less demanding jobs for the smaller ones, though he couldn't help thinking that was not an empty question, another of Marta's ideas was probably on a slow boil.

He could almost see the change of gears as she then asked if there was in place any data-base about the models, with regard to if they had any computer experience or if they could type, or about any other skills they might put to use making videos. Dmitri posted a quick memo to Ivan informing him of another Marta idea, warning him he thought some more were bubbling away in the background. As Marta read his note, he got a poke too.

Valya showed up a little later so they grabbed their things including the laptop and headed off to the apartment, where they caught up with how each others day had gone, with Anna talking about how she thought Karl was interested in Marta, and how she had nearly set up a chess match between them. After Valya had watched the spectrum of emotions play across Marta's face as her sister tried to embarrass her, she called Andreas who was still at the Studio and asked if he had a chess set, on finding he did, she asked if he could loan it to Marta until further notice.

Before either girl could comment Valya told them about a shoot happening at a beautiful lakeside location tomorrow morning, and if they would like to come along they should go to the shops now so they could put together a picnic, without giving her a chance to say what any alternative plan might be they were dragging her out the door.

The goodies they came back with were meant to feed three youngsters and two adults, but Valya was sure they had sufficient to pig out all day and still have leftovers, after loading the fridge and cupboard she took them across the hall to the other unit the Studio used to hunt out a picnic basket that was kept there. The mirror image apartment was the one their family would be using when they arrived on Friday, and Anna said she would like to get some flowers to welcome her mum, Valya asked if she had any favourites and when the girls told her she made another call.

“The fresh blooms will be delivered and arranged Friday afternoon, you two just need to write your mum a note.”

In a slightly sulky tone Anna said she had been going to buy her mum flowers, Valya said although she or Marta hadn't gone to the shop themselves, the flowers were from them, as there would have been no flowers if she hadn't suggested it, which made her feel a lot better.

Rather than go out again they sorted through the take-away menus in the kitchen drawer and eventually decided on pizza. The next morning they were up very early in order to get ready and pack the picnic basket, and a few other things they would need for the day out, Valya also reminded them there were no bathrooms where they were going for the shoot, so unless they really wanted to go and poop in the woods like a bear, they best go now.

When the Sandra called up to say she had arrived, they were ready and went straight down to find an enormous SUV parked up outside, they quickly loaded up as Sandra wanted to head out before the morning traffic built up. They crossed the river and were soon out of the city and heading up into the hills towards their destination with no problems as most of the vehicles they had seen were heading towards Kiev.

The girls sitting together in the back seat were left to make their own introductions, Marta and Anna recognised the girl by her site name from photo and video sets, but found her real name was Katharine, though she preferred they call her Kat. She had her twelfth birthday a few weeks ago and had been with the Studio for nearly two and a half years, with a good steady output over that time, this would be her fourth location shoot so far.

It turned out that Kat was local, living in Kiev and had been spotted and recruited by a staff member from the Studio, but now her family had moved to another part of town, which led to a conversation about the area where they had seen the house they liked, and about the two local schools favoured by girls working at the Studio. They worked out if they went to the same school they would be in three consecutive year groups, due to where their birthdays fell in the course of the school calender.

Kat brought up the subject of Marta's English speaking video idea, saying how she liked languages, as with most Ukrainians, Russian was her second language, and she spoke Rumanian and a little French, and how she would have gone on the intense English course starting this week, if it had not been for the shoot she was booked for today. She went on to say how she had been to every major book store in town for study aids in order to get a head start for when she could take lessons.

This started an impromptu lesson as Anna and Marta began teaching Kat odd words and short phrases, then naming their items of clothing as well as various items in the car, which made the journey seem to fly by.

They branched off onto a minor road and continued for another twenty minutes before pulling up beside a locked gate to a track that lead off into a woodland area they had been skirting for a while. Sandra handed Valya a key to open the gate, she drove through and waited for Valya to lock the gate behind them before proceeding along the rough track between the trees, eventually coming to a beautiful open area beside a small lake.

Sandra had parked in a well shaded area and laid out a large ground sheet, she then got everyone to help unload all of her equipment onto it, four aluminium boxes, a few tripods, some strange disk shaped zip-up bags, and sundry other bits of kit, by comparison all Valya needed was her compact location make-up box.

Marta offered to help Sandra set up, meanwhile Kat was sitting in the load area of the SUV with her legs dangling out the back as Valya worked on her make-up, it was previously decided to leave her shoulder length hair to hang free and natural for this type of shoot.

Anna and Kat continued their conversation from earlier about learning English, until Anna asked why Kat hadn't got a chaperone, it turned out that as Valya was already playing that roll for two girls, Ivan thought she could do it just as well for three. Anna said she should she get paid twice for today for being a chaperone and doing make-up, but Valya said that as the make-up staff worked so closely with the girls, like the photographers, they got a bonus based on how well the sales went for the girls they worked with.

Anna then worried that Valya had been spending too much time looking after Marta and herself, and if it would mess up Valya's work and bonuses she could make with other girls.

Valya laughed and said how she was doing very nicely looking after, and mentoring two of the Studio's hottest rising new stars, besides she had fitted in a studio shoot of one of her other girls yesterday, and working with Kat today meant she had enough girls that had steady or emerging careers to balance out the girls who were less successful or fading.

Marta was asking questions about the various items as she helped unpack the equipment to help Sandra set up for the shoot, and what differed from the way that they worked in the studio environment. Sandra noted from the perceptive remarks and questions why this girl had caused such a stir among all the people she had dealt with back at the Studio.

“Marta, Valya tells me your family are coming to Kiev at the weekend with a view to moving here, if you do, I think you should talk to Ivan about you visiting every department for a few days each to see how they run, and what they do. Professional internet web studios like ours are a fairly new type of business venture, but you seem to see ideas and possibilities with a fresh eye, so the better informed you are, the more I think you will improve the way that we operate.”

Marta thought about the suggestion for a moment, she had observed studio photo and video sessions, and had the hasty tour around, but apart from a longer visit with the costume design people, most of her experience of what went on was from her association with Dmitri from the perspective of the technical geeks, and she could see the merit of Sandra's suggestion in how that would give a better understanding of the operation.

Within half an hour of their arrival they were ready to start, Sandra explained how she wanted to use the sun, and some of the effects of light through the trees to affect the final outcome of the shots she was trying to achieve. In order to do this they would move to various locations she showed them on a map of the area she had drawn, complete with times that they should be there to make use of the natural lighting.

The map showed several spots each with notes about the relative positions of the model to the camera, and the use of in-fill flash or about using reflectors. While Kat went back to the car and slipped out of the dress she had travelled in, found some panties and sandals in her bag of accessories, and got a blouse and skirt from a hanging garment bag, the others moved equipment to the first spot on the map directed by Sandra.

Sandra asked Marta and Anna to each open one of the disk shaped zip-up bags, and laughed as the reflectors popped out. They were silver coloured cloth disks with a springy wire edge that kept them taught, but they were twisted into a figure eight then folded in half to fit in their storage bags, then they sprang free like a jack-in-the-box when the girls released them, much to the amusement of those who looked on.

As the session began Sandra directed Marta and Anna how to hold the disks to provide the in fill light she needed at various times as she took her photographs, at the next site she had Anna use a reflector, while Marta held a remote control flash unit that was triggered by the camera. Both girls soon realised what was needed and required less input from Sandra, who aimed most her comments to Kat, and they adjusted as necessary.

They moved from one site to the next as indicated by Sandra's prearranged agenda until after the last shoreline shots, the next location indicted was in a shallow part of the lake that caught the sun and was very nice for bathing by this time of the year.

Kat was naked by now having divested herself of her few garments over the course of the shoot, and now Sandra and Valya removed their dresses to reveal they were both wearing bikinis underneath.

“Hey, that's not fair,” Marta complained, “we haven't got any bathing costumes with us.”

Valya said how she had thought all the youngsters would be happy to go natural, though she and Sandra weren't allowed to be naked with the models on shoot due to Studio rules.

Anna shrugged and stripped off to get in the lake, and after a pause, Marta also undressed to enjoy the water and the sunbathing, but thinking how she and her sister could now throw out their old ratty bathing suits and get some new ones.

The reflectors weren't needed in the lake as the water did that for them, they just had to stay out of shot, as Sandra moved around Marta asked if she ever cropped the images that she had taken, and when she found that it was quite common with location shoots asked if they could try something out.

Marta explained what her idea was, and how she was not certain of the exact angles, but she positioned Kat and Sandra, then she and Anna splashed water as high as they could as Sandra clicked away, and Kat revelled in the spray. As a rainbow is dependent on the relative positions of sun, water droplets, and viewer, they had to await the results but Sandra assured them she had been able to capture some promising shots.

With the work for the day complete, a blanket was laid out in an area of dappled shade where they all enjoyed the picnic, and talked about the issues of location shooting.

Marta wanted to know how they found places like this, and was told they had a location scout whose job it was to find them, but this particular place was actually owned by one of the original investors who had started up the Studio, and there were also a couple of other spots in this private estate that she had used before.

To be continued....

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For the next installment of the A New Model is Discovered franchize, see Chapters 11 through 15.

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