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.

Some eagle eyed viewers may have noted Anna is now eleven, but the story code age has not been revised upwards, that's because we do meet a few more younger models, it may even need to be revised downwards. I'm re-reading this myself for this posting, so please give me a little leeway if the codes don't always keep up with the narrative.

If or when readers from the old days find this story, please drop me a line, Chris can pass forward your email to me without attaching it to your comments posted about the story.

Okay here are Chapters 51 to 55

Chapter 51

Monday at school Sofia was the centre of attention, not only was her arm in plaster, but in a lovely shade of pink, it didn't stay that way for long with many of her friends signing the cast with messages of good will. Several were of course written in English, as a lot of her closest friends were the brightest scholars. Although she joked about breaking the wrong arm, everyone knew being right handed it would have made school, and life in general that much harder if it had been her right arm.

It had been a fairly clean break of the bones in her forearm, and she would be in a cast for about eight weeks, so she was upset about missing out on the Valentines theme video that Marta had been working on with her, she was also going to miss any photo shoots while stuck in a plaster. The bad news mounted up, as this was meant to be a return into the studio after a break of several weeks, mainly due to the growing pains which she had experienced with her rapid growth spurt. Now she'd miss the video, and then even after the cast was removed she was told her arm would look skinny and anaemic until she built up her strength again.

After lunch she was in a much better mood, word came that Marta wanted to meet up in an empty classroom, two Studio girls were standing watch outside so they wouldn't be disturbed while talking about Studio stuff, which was usually a subject they avoided in any place they might possibly be overheard.

Marta's weekend had included riding on Sunday morning, and a brainstorming session in the afternoon, when Anna and Irisha had helped flesh out a new sketch for an English video, turning disaster into triumph; well hopefully, they just had to to find a second girl, and really she needed to be tall for the sketch to look right. A few names came up and Marta would speak to them after seeing what Sofia thought about the idea.

Sofia was amazed Marta had come to her rescue with such a brilliant plan, and at such short notice, she told Marta of the girl most likely to help with the sketch, knowing the girl had been hoping to be included soon in their English video scheme.

Marta's sketch would involve a friend of the injured girl coming round to help Sofia safely take a shower, and as a joke would be wearing a nurses uniform. So of course the nurse would help Sofia to undress, put a plastic wrap over her cast and assist in the bathroom, then they would suddenly 'discover' that the nurses uniform got translucent when wet, then she would end up taking it off to help her patient. As they went over the improvised sketch more ideas were thrown into the ring, giving Marta additional lines to follow.

Marta had been looking forward to this afternoon's visit to the Studio with mixed feelings, for she wasn't certain if her regrowth was sufficient for the waxing for which she now had a provisional booking. Regardless of whether that happened, she also needed to find the venue for their shower scene, as they would need a large enough bathroom and shower, and she needed to sort out a uniform, and some other supplies.

The other major event to happen in school was that several of the studio girls stopped to pass the time of day with one very happy smiling ten year old, as it was mainly due to this newcomer they had decided that they were unlikely to stay under the radar forever.

For a while it was generally known they had been recognised as a loosely affiliated group, even though nobody could guess what these girls had in common. They wouldn't come out and say anything, but if anyone were to start asking questions the obvious reply was that they were a sort of academic study group, sharing an interest in foreign languages.

Irisha being the most advanced English speaker had been glad to lend a hand on Sunday, for Sofia had been a very good mentor helping Irisha to catch up on her school work when she had first arrived. An unexpected bonus from her work that day was when Marta gave her the Valentines sketch that Sofia could no longer use, so this would be her first solo outing in front of a video camera.

Marta was skipping one of her after school activities once again, she had missed chess club a few times, and now it was the traditional dance group for the second or third time, but she had a busy schedule and something had to give. She took a pain pill as soon as she got home then sorted what she wanted to place in her Studio backpack, before going to take a shower, and sort out fresh clothes for her ride to the Studio.

Ivan was pleased, worried that Sofia's earnings would suffer as her residuals tailed off due to her lack of newer material. Tanya had been puzzled about Marta's request until she understood why she needed a sample of the cast material so she could colour match some cloth sticky tape. Next visit was to the costume department to see about a nurses uniform that would perform it's magic as required in their sketch, they also had some white cloth tape that could be coloured to match Sofia's cast.

With all her other issues covered Marta now had to face Galina, or parts of her had to face Galina, after-all this new growth wasn't going to remove itself.

Marta had laundered her salon T-shirt, and that was her only cover as she lay there on the treatment table awaiting Galina's verdict, - damn it, it was long enough. Well at least the hairs as they regrew were much finer than the stubble that would have resulted from just shaving, and Karl loved it, something Galina had teased her about on Saturday. The other thing was due to the timing he wouldn't actually be visiting that area when it had reached maximum growth, just prior to having it waxed away.

Of course she insisted he shaved properly, not that his face had the stronger growth of an older man, but Valya had told her stories of getting scratched thighs when Alex thought designer stubble might look good, Valya soon disabused him of that notion. Letting her mind wander didn't last past the first wax strip, it still hurt, maybe a bit less, she would see how she felt when it was over.

None of her classmates, or any of the Studio set knew so far, other than her sister, for last Wednesday had been the first day of her period, so claiming to the Gym teacher that she had felt worse than she did, she got a pass to visit the library. That had worked out well as it had coincided perfectly with Uliana's timetable, and allowed their meeting. But come next Gym class in two days time, her 'new look' would no doubt cause comments.

It would be fun to have the bottle to say her boyfriend liked it that way, but she felt more inclined to have some conservative replies to hand, like it gave her the freedom to wear a more daring swimsuit, and also because it felt more hygienic. If anyone were to mention her boyfriend, she would remain silent, and present an enigmatic smile.

Anna was up to date with all her studies, and had been trying to get a little guitar practice in most nights, even if it was only twenty minutes at a time, in fact it was better that way as it hurt her finger tips if she played too much, but that had improved over the weeks as her skin became inured to the strings. New year and Christmas had been wonderful this year, as the family hadn't the constraints they faced in the past, but with so much to do it was a break getting back to school.

She was pleased they had made the massive effort over those weeks to shake down the TTMF, as they had all learned so much when faced with native speakers. Dmitri had some posh name for it 'immersion therapy', but it was now well established, with the number of regular girls steadily increasing, and they were continuing to have the odd novice join in as it made the members laugh. They mostly sorted out the scheduling themselves in their own chat zone, but Alina settled any disputes, asking girls to move to the alternative shifts once the three standard ones were covered. Another outcome was that Svetlana now had extra teaching assistants for each class, which pushed forwards all those pupils that were not models.

Those boys taking English were lapping it up, having some of the school's 'top totty' lean over their desk to check their pronunciation or vowel sounds, the older girls knew the boys were checking out their boobs. From what she had heard, the boys taking English might be considered nerds by some of the less academic boys in school, but at least they could be trained, as they didn't spend all their time posturing or showing off, and now two of the older models had started dating boys they had been mentoring.

Anna still had a growing interest in guys, and in the pleasurable feelings she now knew her body was capable of, but her thoughts when she played weren't focused on any one male, she just got carried away with the intensity of it, though sometimes she felt guilty about the faces that ran through her imagination. There were definitely no boys of her age or even a year older that she thought of in 'that way', but there were a few in Marta's year that were quite handsome, though she doubted they knew she even existed.

The men she most often thought of were of course unavailable, like the hunky Alex, and it went without saying John, she also had a thing for one of the designers in the costume department, though she knew that was totally silly. She had heard a couple of the other models talk about him and use the phrase that he “played for the other side”, she had idly wondered if they were worried he was in competition with them for boyfriends. Through her research she knew that some people liked doing sex with both guys and girls, in fact she had seen so many things on the internet that she couldn't have guessed even existed.

She had seen some girl-girl stuff, and it looked kind of exciting, especially the kissing, and girls were all soft and loving, whereas some of the video clips of men having sex looked rough, like they didn't think about the girl they were with at all, just poke, poke, poke.

It had been a shock catching Marta doing anal sex with Karl, but watching them he had been so nice, and slow, and gentle, worried he was hurting her, he even made her cum, and Marta had said she hadn't thought that would happen. She'd just been curious what it would be like, as the closest thing to doing it without actually doing it. They were both still following up the long list of websites, there were just so many, and it was so easy to get side tracked, but without knowing English and Russian so many links would be useless to them, as they were the most active ones.

Geography had now become a more interesting lesson at school, made a real topic by their contacts around the globe, and one girl had set up a world map at home with pins showing places their members lived. Those from America might say which State they lived in, or name some large nearby town, and in the UK, the country was divided into regions called counties, which were like states but much smaller. This year they would be doing a health class, which according to those older girls who had done it previously said it was pretty useless, but some woman came in from a big company to promote their products, and give out a few free samples and leaflets, but it was nothing they didn't know already.

Maths used to be her worst subject, but again having real examples made it far easier to understand, like the percentages she earned modelling and stuff they did on the house, so now with help from Marta she had cracked equations, and was near the top of her class. Music and Art were two of her favourite lessons, and she had separate guitar tuition, but that was in the music room twice a week during lunchtime, rather than after school. With all the videos, she had been surprised only two other models had signed up for the drama club that ran after school on Mondays, but she had missed that some weeks because she had been too busy.

It had been fun going out to a pizza restaurant on Saturday with Uliana and her mum, as mostly she had only ever had it delivered previously while they had been staying in the apartment waiting for the house to be ready. She could see the difficulty Valechka was having with the idea of spending so much on a meal out, then realising how much cash she had in her bag. Ivan had people in the admin department who helped new families deal with the changes, and how to cope, and not do anything silly. Seeing Uliana at school today had brought to mind one of her dad's favourite sayings, 'she looked like a dog with two tails' but not really like a dog obviously, because Uliana was really quite pretty.

They hadn't spent as much time as she would have liked at the stables that weekend, but they had done some interesting lessons in the indoor arena, well to Anna it looked like a large empty barn. They had to ride around poles laid on the floor, and other obstacles, to gain finer control of the horses movements, and to improve their confidence. Afterwards she had helped the stable girls with the tack and grooming, which made her realise that she still had much to learn even about the most basic stuff.

Gramps and Nana Olga seemed in much better health this winter, and they saw them nearly as much as when they used to be neighbours. The boys had done several sleep-overs, although she and Marta had only done it twice over the holidays as it was so little trouble, what with them having the extra bedroom with the two sets of bunk beds, and Nana Olga loved to fuss over them. Mum had arranged for one of the salon ladies to make regular visits to do Nana Olga's hair at home, she had even got Gramps in the chair once, though he didn't have that much hair to cut.

It was good that they were out meeting people and making new friends so quickly, and Gramps was so happy he was able to do something useful, and he liked to go across the city to visit Yaroslaw and the others at the Squat. Due to his visits Nana Olga had heard of the plan to possibly reopen the café, and was keen to help as she had once worked as a cook, in fact she had helped mum with the last few baking jobs for the catering company, something which she had really enjoyed doing.

On Friday when Anna saw Uliana at break-time the girl seemed so agitated Anna thought she was going to wet herself, when she calmed down enough to speak Anna guessing the subject pulled her across the playground away from others who might overhear.

“Okay, we should be safe enough here, tell me – but very quietly, you don't want everyone knowing your business.”

“Yesterday in the post when I got in from school it was addressed to mum but we don't get much post and I had to sit there looking at it for hours till she got home I didn't know for sure but I thought it might be from, well you know, and it was, and it was a thing about payment for being there on Saturday and it was like so so much and I thought it was a mistake and,..”

“STOP, breathe,.. and again, now slow down.”

“Em, well it was a LOT, and mum has a bank account for work, but this was another bank that they said was like opened in her name just for privacy, well you know.”

“Yes, I know.”

“We sat and read the letter over and over cause we wanted to make sure what it said, and that was just for doing it, you know, on Saturday, and how the set went on their thingy on Tuesday, and by the end of next week we would know how many people had, well you know.”

Anna smiled fondly at the normally articulate if quiet girl, who had been shocked to the point of loosing the ability to form a coherent sentence – you know!

“I know it's a shock, but you need to calm down, this will change your life and your whole outlook in so many ways, it happened to me and many others, it doesn't make all your problems go away, it just changes them. If you're popular and get three sets under your belt, then I can see that you might think of moving from where you live now. Also if your mum wanted to think about looking for a new job, she would have the breathing space to do that, maybe even take up some training course to gain some useful qualifications to do something she likes, because I got the impression she doesn't like her current job.”

At that point the bell sounded and they each needed to get to their next class, but the brief talk had helped Uliana regain her normal composure, though she would probably have to sit down when the first actual sales statement arrived.

Irisha had learnt the script that had originally been destined for the unfortunate Sofia, and then made a few changes of her own, and had already recorded it in less than a week.

At this time of year many models in the city were aware of how the weekend visitors from outlying districts could sometimes cancel at the last moment due to colds or odd transport issues. Red eyes and a runny nose didn't make very attractive photo-sets, so they were always aware modelling opportunities could occur unexpectedly, and it wouldn't take long to find somebody willing to fill in at short notice.

It was due to these situations that a new practice emerged that when any out of towners who were on the TTMF caught colds, they would swap schedules with a city girl via their own chat zone. The city girl taking the studio slot, and giving the country girl her slot on the TTMF rota, as despite having a cold she would still be able to type, and get paid for taking part on the forum, to in part make up for loosing out, and delaying her next Studio visit.

The autonomy the girls developed in this respect helped them all out, and avoided wasting studio bookings, and was just another example of how their entire network was moving forwards and growing year on year. The city based girls, and that included practically all of those models that were among the most popular, normally had weekday shoots, and what with the addition of the 'banking' shoots, the Studio was busy on most weekdays from mid afternoon through to eight or nine at night. Slowly Anna was building up a portfolio of sets that she hoped would provide an income long after she finished posing for the camera.

By the last weekend in January Sofia and Oxana were set to record the 'Assisted Shower' video, and the Studio had found the perfect venue. It wasn't said who the house belonged to, but it was in the hills just outside the city, and whoever lived there would not return for the duration of the filming.

Anna had via the chat zone asked many girls to send in brief messages signed with their 'stage names' and somehow wizards at the Studio had turned them into transfers which could be applied to Sofia's cast. A whole circus turned up to help with the production, with Marta as director, Anna being her assistant were keen to see if this bold production would work as planned. While Sofia was in make-up Anna applied the dyed cloth tape over the length of her cast, covering the real names of friends and classmates, giving them a fresh surface to apply the transfers with the working names of many popular Studio models.

The final result was as haphazard as the original, but was now filled with many names the members would recognise. Sofia's modelling name was Zina, and Oxana went by Vika and now they were both ready for their English video debut.

Both Oksana and Vladimir were going to run video cameras, and they had a total of four between them, two were the type they normally used, and the other two were smaller and fitted to the ends of booms to use in the shower, so they could film the girls without the need to get in with them. They had decided it would be necessary to have a lot of cutting between cameras, so the final result would rely heavily on editing. This gave the girls lots of freedom with regard to any mistakes they made, as it was to be a cut and paste job.

With both Irisha and Svetlana as coaches, the girls had mostly mastered the vocabulary of the script, and were told not to worry, as the audience comments on their own forum and in talking to the girls on the TTMF had shown how much they enjoyed the 'cute accents' and mispronounced words.

They went through several dry runs, in that they didn't turn the water on yet for their shower scene, while the operators wanted to practice with the boom cameras in the actual location to resolve any problems. When Anna raised the issue of how much splashing might occur once the shower was running, she was volunteered to use the shower while they did another test, as they couldn't risk getting the actors hair wet. Being a good sport she stripped down to have a quick shower while Oksana and Vladimir found out the best places to position their cameras.

When at last they were ready Oxana in her role as Vika the nurse put on her long winter coat and stepped outside the front door of the house.

“And Action!”

Ding-Dong.

“I hope that is Vika at the door, she has promised to help me shower, and I feel so stinky.”

The girls greeted one another, with Zina giving her visitor an awkward one armed hug due to her cast being in a sling.

“You must be a good friend to hug me, with me needing a wash so badly.”

“Your my BFF, so I'm glad to help, look I've even dressed for the part.”

The BFF (best friends forever) was something they had picked up as teen speak from the many magazines, and at that point Vika removed her coat to reveal the white nurses uniform that she was wearing. The girls then had a few more lines of banter about the joke uniform, while the cameras followed as they walked off set, the later edit would go to the next scene in the bathroom.

The palatial bathroom was ideal for their purpose, and the cameras were rolling as the girls were seen to enter from the hallway outside. As all the models had some fantasy bio anyway, it was fun to play on this by having a make believe accident that appeared less mundane than the real cause.

“It was such bad luck to have a skiing accident Zina.”

“At least it was the last day of my vacation, so I didn't miss all the excitement.”

Vika began to help her friend undress, undoing the buttons on the sleeveless knit top, then helping with the T-shirt below that had the left sleeve ripped off making a larger arm hole. The dialogue had less jokes or double entendres than previous scripts, but with the older girls in a two handed play, they were expecting it would have a more sensual aspect.

Before entering the bathroom Oxana had helped her friend by playing with her nipples so they would appear more prominent in the coming scene, and as one camera zoomed in on Zina to show them through the thin T-shirt the action continued.

“I cant manage a bra and this shirt rubs on me so much.”

As the T-shirt came off her perky B-cup breasts jiggled into view, and she moved about to entice the audience with her firm youthful body, then shaking out her hair prolonging the moment. Vika then knelt on the floor to help remove Zina's jeans, hands on the girls hips and thighs as they inched lower revealing a lacy pair of red panties, as the second camera focused on the cleavage displayed by Vika's saucy uniform.

Zina in an effort to balance as her jeans were being removed, placed her right hand on top of Vika's head pushing the girl's face close to the red lace panel in front of her, then back on two feet the scrap of red followed the jeans to the floor. Vika held them up in full view, asking where she could buy some, with a few more lines on the subject of frilly the underwear.

In preparation for the shower Zina sat in a chair supporting the cast with her good arm as Vika for the moment removed the sling. Shot from two angles the girls talked of all their friends from the Studio who had signed the cast, calling for zoom shots as they pointed out the messages, and showing her breasts so they would fill the frame. Vika moving the cast about as she wrapped it in clear kitchen film brushed against her friends breasts to perform her task. The modern cast was in fact fully waterproofed, but why spoil the fun, but this was in truth to stop their fake top layer from peeling away.

The narrow sling that supported the cast nestled between her twin peaks as she moved across to the shower area. The bathroom being ultra modern didn't have a traditional shower enclosure, as this corner was a fully tiled wet room which was ideal for this scene. They had so far cut the action a few times and done a few repeat lines, but now was the time to switch to the cameras on the booms as it would allow for some interesting angles.

They checked all the 'girly' bathing products were in place on the rack in the shower, then once again Oksana called action.

Zina turned on the water adjusting the flow and temperature, a second lever could divert the water to either the massive overhead rose or the hand held spray that could fit on a slider rail on the wall. The scene would start with the standard rail mounted shower fitting as the second one wouldn't come into play until later.

Vladimir couldn't understand the dialogue on these new English videos, and consequently had been getting fewer jobs, or as now, was rated as second unit camera, and he had as a result taken up tuition to learn the damn language, but it had been slow progress so far. The models seemed to have no trouble, sucking it up like a sponge, and the main woman who taught them had given him some help. She was quite attractive, but at thirty-six was ten years his junior, and didn't view him in the same light as he viewed her, still as a rich working man he was not short of opportunities, so he didn't bother pursuing a lost cause.

He kept the action centred on the angled view screen of his camera, thinking the new use of stick figure storyboards was a smart idea, and the practice runs first made for a much smoother take. Watching the two nubile fourteen year old's he couldn't imagine how any red blooded male could say they were too young to be making this type of entertainment, if this weren't his job, he would pay good money to see a video like this.

With the shower hose fixed on the rail Vika had Zina back into the spray as she washed the girl's hair, running her hands through the soapy tresses, then rinsing it through, and applying conditioner, before moving on to soap her torso. Zina stood there luxuriating in the pleasure of being pampered, as slowly the water splashing off her body made patches of Vika's outfit become see-through.

As the two girls moved apart Zina turned so her friend could wash her font, and it was now after both cameras had been following the encroaching transparency of the nurses uniform that suddenly Zina 'noticed' the flaw in Vika's costume. Vika at first pretended to be shocked at this issue but the girls laughed about it as they improvised a little on the original script.

Zina now reached for the lever that diverted the water flow, for a second the sound of water ceased then a crashing cascade burst from the shower rose high above which had previously been kept out of shot up to this point. Aware this was about to happen Vladimir had drawn back for a longer shot that captured the moment the spray emerged and both girls were drenched by this new waterfall tumbling down upon them.

Vika at first stood arms wide, then as if resigned to her fate began to unbutton the useless garment which she had worn to play the part while aiding her friend. With the discarded dress thrown to one side, her matching white lacy bra and panties were now on show, and they soon joined the dress on the floor. The next part did not take much acting as Vika again got on with her duties as nurse, for Zina was ticklish and washing under her arms and down her sides caused squirming and laughter.

When Vika's hands had completed the tour of Zina's body the audience were left in no doubt she was cleaner, and without question their own site members would willingly don a nurses uniform or indeed any other garb if it meant they could lay their hands on Zina.

They had discussed this at length beforehand, and to stay within their usual limits, Vika was never actually seen washing Zina's breasts or pussy, as teasingly the cameras were always just in the 'wrong' position, leaving the viewer to wonder if she did or didn't.

This so far had been the most sensual video this division of the network had produced, and it was far nearer to the output of the Studio that featured pairs or threesomes of girls from fourteen to eighteen, and on viewing the completed sketch later the man in charge of the other Studio gave both girls an open invitation to work for him at any time. He also mentioned as both Studios were part of the same network there would be no conflict of interest in working for both, even at the same time, and that his offer had been cleared with Ivan. To maintain credibility the girls would use the same names they did now, as a good many members paid for access to more than one of the network's banner titles.

Job done the shower was quickly switched back to the more gentle shower hose, that was quieter so the dialogue could be heard. They stopped to catch some infill shots, close-ups of soap suds sliding softly over subtle sweeping curves of the sublime sylphs.

The cameras then caught snatches of the girls getting dried, but only brief glimpses, that they would fade and cut, to pass over that phase quickly, and move on to Zina's body as it was anointed with moisturiser. Again they cut and shifted camera angles for fun, showing Zina's expression just as Vika's hands were approaching her intimate areas. Both girls kept breaking out with laughter, so they had required several takes to capture the footage they wanted.

They did have a few cheeky lines towards the end, with Zina thanking Vika for helping her, then in the closing scene the girls stood side by side Vika's right arm around her friend as they waved and blew kisses to the camera. At that point just when the audience would expect the video to end Zina turned to face Vika....

“Hey, would you like to come skiing with me next season!”

“Cut that's a wrap.”

This was followed by clapping and applause, as the two stars stood hugging one another.

Chapter 52

Vignettes of some main players, a revelation, and a shock!

Oksana dropped the sisters home by five o'clock that afternoon, and wanted to head straight to the Studio to start work on editing all the rushes, keen to have a result she planned working late, and as long as it took on Sunday, in order to show Ivan on Monday.

Anna had been daydreaming on the journey back, something had struck her about today's filming, and at first it had been just a tickle at the back of her mind, but now she had put the pieces together, but the lingering uncertainty remained. She didn't really know about these things, it was only what she had seen on the net, the forums, and backwaters she had explored. She would talk to Marta, she might have an answer.

Walking through the bathroom, she entered Marta's room to find her sister checking through her wardrobe, hooking out summer outfits that would be a little small this year, that is if summer ever arrived. Many of the models donated their old clothes to a charity that sold them on to buy clothes for the street people. At first it had sounded an odd way to operate, but one set of their clothes would clothe one person, but by selling these high quality items as second hand, it would pay for several serviceable outfits that did not have brand labels, so it made good sense.

“Marta, about the shoot today with Sofia and Oxana, I was thinking about them on the way back, and, well I,.. What I mean is they seemed like good friends, but I don't hang out with them very often, so I don't really know them that well. What I'm trying to say is they seem close, do you think that they are like 'special' friends.”

Marta had her back to her sister as she was sorting the clothing, so Anna didn't see the grin appear as Marta listened to her younger sister struggle to ask what was on her mind.

She turned to face Anna and asked why she thought the two girls might be close, noting that Anna had observed their touches off set, and the looks passing between them, and how there was no hesitation in the shower about close contact as if it hadn't been the first time they had bathed together.

“Well you're right and wrong, I mix with them more, and we share some classes, but it's just a crush, both like boys, but they are scratching each others itch for the moment.”

“So does that mean that they're part time lesbians, or more like bisexual?”

“No, I think really you could say they were straight, they want to go out with guys, they're still just looking for the right ones. In the meantime they help one another out when they get horny.”

Anna wanted to go by dictionary definitions, but Marta tried to explain it wasn't always that clear cut.

“Okay, here's a bad example but I think it shows my point, suppose you wanted to read only books about horses, but you'd run out of interesting ones, you keep checking in the shop but nothing turns up, but you still want something to read. You see some book on another topic, and are a bit curious, and it gives you some reading material, but when the next good book on horses turns up you'll return to read that instead.”

“I sort of see what you mean, I think,.. they are horny, and I suppose it's much safer with another girl, cause they cant get you pregnant, and they might have long tongues …. like Karl!”

At that point Anna ran for her own room laughing, as the top Marta hurled fell well short.

Becoming a grown-up was confusing, just when you thought you knew all the rules, the do's and don'ts, stuff started to get blurred around the edges, and other rules didn't apply any more. These days she felt very in-between, she wasn't a little girl, but then not yet a woman, well not even a teenager yet, but then there was the Studio, another thing that made her life so different from many other girls. This had caused changes that had been so far beyond the realms of her imagination, just a year ago, if someone had told her she would have her own room in a big house, and all the other stuff, she would have thought they had been sniffing glue.

It had been bitterly cold out today, and the forecast was for snow, so she would give the stables a miss on Sunday, after all it would be decadent to go every weekend, that was a new word she had come across, strange to think she could ever use it to describe aspects of her own life. Sunday would be a good opportunity to get in some fingering practice, for she wanted to go for the next grade level exam for her guitar, besides she would have needed to be back in time for the TTMF anyway.

Another girl was off to see a sick relative, and they'd done a quick swap, making up some silly excuse for the forum schedule, but doing a two, to five o'clock stint would give her a European, or in fact mostly a UK audience, with maybe a few east coast Americans taking part, as it would be early morning for them. She had done this shift before a few times, and what Svetlana said was true, the spellings were different, harder, and the way they 'spoke' was different, in their sentences, but she couldn't pin it down easily, it just was.

Greg and Peter wanted her to play Monopoly with them this evening, but she would insist they play by the clock, rather than let the game drag on, when that happened they got bored and arguments started. It was a very decadent game, she had used that word again, having piles of money, and properties on every street was the capitalist way, and it seemed crazy that they had done that themselves for real just a short time ago.

That week Anna reflected back on her TTMF session, getting past what was actually said, she thought it was the way they used language, and she had needed to use her dictionary a number of times for new words. She had ordered a UK version Ukrainian/English one, as the other that she had was a US version, and it didn't help if you were trying to look up the wrong spelling. She liked the UK members as they liked her humour, and they had a lot of word play that they used, so the double entendres went down well.

She had logged on to the Studio network to check on new releases, especially those with a Valentines theme, and she liked to keep an eye on her competition. The total number of videos the Studio made each month had not risen by much, but they were getting better all the time. The one from Saturday was already on the site, but they never downloaded videos as it took a while to do, and they only had to ask and someone would burn them a copy, Oksana had dropped off the final edit, and it had been very good.

They got a tiny slice from all the English video productions as it was their idea, and the slice was a bit bigger when Marta was involved in the script or production, so they would benefit from the success of this latest release, and it was proving very popular. On their members forum there had been rave reviews, as it seemed they all dreamed of being in a shower with two teenage girls, and most of what they said was both rude and graphic.

The Platinum members were more restrained, even if they held the same ideas, but it was not often they needed reminding to behave, they just became more clever in the way they said things, and the girls were more tolerant when they skirted the rules. She had been round at Irisha's place when she had been 'on duty' and watched her friend play word games with the members, sort of flirting with them. Irisha had pointed out stuff she would have missed, and it would have gone over the heads of many of the other girls too.

Irisha was now officially going out with Taras, after all the messing about, obviously he didn't know about her job, just thinking that her mum was well paid, but like all guys he had his pride, and was now happy he could afford to take her out on dates. There'd been one sticky moment when he had taken her to see a film, after coming out of the cinema, she hadn't been paying attention to where they were going, and found they were in the square where she had met Marta.

Irisha said she had started to shake and wanted to run, but he had thought she was cold, and wrapped his arms around her to warm her up, and suggested they find somewhere warm to get a bite to eat. They had passed the burger place, and she had said she didn't want to eat in that one, so they'd found somewhere else. Anna had gripped Irisha's hand, to calm her friend, telling her it was the past, it was best to leave it there and move on.

As the girls chat zone being their own personal space that was adult free, it had become a very popular meeting place, and they had badgered Dmitri to make some changes to the way it was configured. It now had separate meeting places for different interests, that he called SIG's, or special interest groups, and it was also possible for two or more girls to split off from a main discussion to start their own private chat room. One group that was started by Marta, was a writing circle where girls met to exchange ideas, and collaborate on script plots or themes for photo sets.

Over at the Squat the women there had done much of the work themselves to restore the café, only calling on the men for the grunt work, and it now made feeding all those that lived there so much easier. A week after they had the place up and running the signage outside was replaced, and they opened for businesses. They suspected it was the cold as much as anything else that drew in the customers from the remaining local companies, as the local factories and offices were poorly heated if at all.

They kept the menu simple, only offering two or sometimes three main dishes, hot filling food, almost always a big cauldron of borsch, and Holubtsi were popular, and the residents got to eat whatever the kitchen had left at the end of the day, supplemented with a few treats for variety. They also got to eat a hot meal before setting off to work each day, plus a lunch box to keep them going, which cut down on expenses. The scale of the operation made the economics viable, in that they never wasted any food, and they could buy their groceries at wholesale prices, and everybody at the Squat gained from these benefits.

The women ran it as a business, and with the local trade, plus a weekly charge to all of the residents for three meals a day, they were able to earn a quite reasonable wage, and enjoy bed and board while staying warm all through the winter.

Prior to opening the café Igor had handbills printed, and Taras and his crew had offered to distribute them for the ladies in exchange for a weeks free laundry, that was the women's other little earner. The MMC group still thought of themselves by that title although they were now in a way independent, with Taras still taking charge like he always had, but now and then Marta would visit taking an interest in their welfare. The awful winter weather was for the first time their friend keeping them busy, as they kept abreast of their snow clearing contracts by keeping an ear out for snow reports on the local radio station.

They were thankful that Gramps let them store shovels, brooms and bags of grit in a small shed in his garden so they didn't have to lug them across town each time, so in payment, his was the first path that got cleared after each snowfall.

Their clients had noted the efforts the boys made often getting up to travel the first trains of the morning to perform their duties, enabling their rich clients to drive off with ease each day. This had landed them a few more jobs, and some handsome tips, a few houses even had the staff bring out hot drinks when it had been really cold. Taras had been told more than once it had been their reliability that the customers appreciated most of all.

Not for one moment did Taras or the others miss the territorial disputes or fights with other street kids, in truth he wished he could help some of them the way Marta had done for him and his gang, but the jam would only spread so thin. He knew by the time spring turned up there would be a few less familiar faces on the street, he wondered if anyone really knew or even cared how many died each winter, or come to that throughout all the rest of the year.

They had all been able to save up some cash, but they were too young to have bank accounts, so the old man with the gammy leg who ran the place banked it for them, then kept a ledger, so they could pay in or get money out when they needed something. Saving was a novelty, in the past you ate straight away, or spent the few coins you had, before someone bigger took it away. Now they looked beyond the scale of one day at a time.

The latest news of Marta's love life was that some days after school she rode a different train, one that would take her to the nearest station to Karl's place, and Anna lapped up the details of the encounters, never growing tired of the insight it gave about the way boys behaved. She was learning about boys vicariously through Marta, Karl knew he was often the subject of her little experiments, her surprises to find out his reactions to some myth, or kink, and she knew first to note junior's response, before asking him directly.

It had surprised Anna to find Marta was going round to Karl's place today straight from school, as she knew her sister's calender, and they shared a bathroom, so it wasn't like she didn't know it was the first day of Marta's period. In fact she had even mentioned her cramps were worse than normal this time, so it's not like Karl would be 'eating at the Y' she just loved the expressions some of the older girls came out with, anyway she would find out later the reason for their meeting.

They had made good use of his place over the past weeks, though she hadn't stocked the family bathroom with her stuff, she did keep a small wash-bag in his room, complete with a toothbrush. Both their mums had talked, and Karl had been given the green light from his mum, but it hadn't been till after the new year they put this alternate venue to use.

She had called him at lunchtime, and asked if she could come over that afternoon, she could almost hear the mental processes at work, and was sure he must keep track of her calender, from the times she wouldn't let him play, although she always took care of his needs, and now he was becoming more sensitive to her moods.

Not only did he follow the clues but his calender was marked with X's as he had seen that was common on some teen girl advice websites. He had discovered how regular she was, and that was supposed to be unusual for the first few years, which lead to a little further research. He now knew the method doctors employed to regulate the length of a girl's menstrual cycle, and Marta, or more likely her mum thought it best that he didn't know.

When she turned up she was a bit sheepish about her call earlier, apologising that the playground was closed till next week, and how soothing his tummy massage had been a couple of months back. She followed him to his room and insisted she give him a bj first so he would be relaxed and mellow when he helped her out. Karl couldn't argue with her logic, and besides it would be awfully bad manners to turn down a blow job.

She borrowed a pillow to kneel on while he sat on the edge of the bed, Marta insisting he loose trousers and boxer shorts first, because she liked to see her target, but also in case she spilled any of his spunk. Despite her ready smile, he could see as soon as she turned up she was feeling some discomfort, but nevertheless she gave a sterling performance, not rushing, and leaving him with that euphoria that comes from a good strong orgasm.

She had swallowed it all down, as she normally did, he was sure any spills in the past had been deliberate in order to gauge his reactions. When he recovered his wits, he arranged the pillows back on his bed, then sat back inviting Marta to sit between his legs and lay back against him. Having taken off her top and her bra, she positioned herself, loosening the waistband of her skirt for Karl to begin.

He set to work but the cloth of the skirt was proving a nuisance, and he asked her to take it off, Marta hesitated but stood to remove it, blushing red before resuming her place in front of Karl. He had seen the raised outline under her panties, and had been surprised as he was sure he'd seen boxes of tampons in her bathroom, and as she had said no subject was off limits he asked about it.

Marta made a little squeal, and covered her face with her hands, but he could see how red her little ears were. He kissed one ear, and reminded her she said they could discuss any topic so they could learn about one another.

“This is silly, you know I'm on my period, because your giving me a nice massage to help with the cramps, but it's not something a girl usually likes to broadcast. My sister and my best friend might know, and I suppose really as my boyfriend you should know too, so you can forgive me if I'm a bit grumpy or off with you, but this is another one of those odd conversations I wasn't expecting.”

“It's a milestone in a girl's life, it means your not a child any more, you get 'the talk', and you read up about it, but until your body makes that change it's hard to grasp. Sometimes I feel weepy or get in bad mood over nothing, I know it's my hormones messing with my head, and try to keep a lid on it, but it still happens, not too bad, I've seen other girls who have a much worse time than me.”

“Oh yes! That's nice rub there some more, yes keep doing that,.. Now where was I, yes well periods aren't very nice, and sort of messy, and we get paranoid, or well I do anyway, the last thing a girl wants is to have an accident in public. So in answer to your question it's sort of belt and braces, cause on the first day or two it's sort of heavy, then it kind of tapers off.”

“This is totally weird talking about this, but when I know it's coming I wear a night-time pad, it's like stuffing a pillow in my panties, but you're supposed change a tampon after four hours or there's a possibility you can get sick, so it's best not to use them overnight, but I use them most of the time during the day. But like today is day one, and the panty liner is just back-up in case of leaks. I'm glad your sitting behind me, this would be even harder face to face.”

“So in the daytime do you use tampons throughout your period?”

“They aren't so good for the really light days at the end, so then I just use pads or liners, I still cant believe we are talking about this, this is more like some conversation in the girls toilets or in health class.”

“Well, I'm a nerd, and my curiosity has been satisfied, I now know a bit more about my girlfriend, and how to help her, and about her problems. So would you like to book in for a massage every month?”

“Oh, yes please, these cramps seem to have been getting worse of late.”

“Maybe you should try a different prescription.”

“How do you mean, a different prescription” As a chill ran through her body.

“Another brand of pill might help, you should go visit your doctor.”

There were several moments of silence as he continued to gently massage the areas that seemed to bring her the most relief. Marta scooted forwards and turned to face Karl.

“You... you know, how?”

“I kind of put two and two together, when I was looking up massage for period pain relief, it was saying about how common it was for girls to have irregular periods for the first few years, and how taking the pill sorted that out. Also there was an article about how you need to find the right type of pill, the one that best suited you, with the least side effects.”

“Are you mad at me for not telling you?”

“When I worked it out I knew it was something that would have been arranged with your mum, for like the doctors appointment, so I guessed you would know it wasn't just to make your cycle regular. From there my dear Watson it was logical that your mum would not want you to tell me you were taking the pill, she was probably concerned I might then pressure you to take a step your not ready for yet.”

Marta sat there biting her lip, he knew and he didn't say anything, was willing to wait even though he knew she was safe.

Karl found his arms full of crying girl as she launched herself at him, between sniffles he heard the word sorry and didn't catch much else, so he just held her rubbing her back until she had calmed down.

After she had left, he couldn't believe what he had said, that if she was still debating the issue in her head she wasn't ready yet, and he wasn't in any hurry because she was such a brilliant girlfriend, this had earned him a second blow-job, which proved in a way he had been absolutely correct.

Well it was good there were no secrets between them, and his next priority this coming weekend, would be to find a nice Valentines gift for next week, his mum had hinted how much girls appreciated a well thought out card and gift on important occasions, and the fourteenth would come under that category. He still had the receipt from the jewellery store for Marta's earrings, so hopefully from the details they might do a matching pendent, and he could put their photos inside.

Marta had a very long conversation with her mum, the fact he had known, guessed some time back, but he had made no hint of his discovery, hadn't pressured her in any way, just let her set the pace, happy with the status quo. Ella had thought from early on that Karl had a way about him, that set him apart, studious like Marta, and hard working, it would be hard to find many boys you could say that about. This latest development raised him up in her estimation, for she knew well enough that most thinking in teen boys occurred below the waist. She had heard from Igor after the house sale of how seriously Karl took his relationship with Marta, seeing it as a long term commitment, from this latest event it seemed he still held the same view.

Karl had paid vastly over the odds, for the florist's to guarantee that the flowers would be delivered before she left for school in the morning, and he had cycled round late the night before to slip the card through her door to ensure she saw it on the mat when she got up. It would be nice to think of her smiling all day at school, to be able to say she had a nice caring thoughtful boyfriend. As it happened they normally got their post delivered quite early, but Karl's envelope stood out because it didn't have a written address or stamp, just Marta's name.

Marta had two cards, familiar with the writing on both, so she knew the second one was from her dad, but Anna had two cards as well, one obviously from their dad, but the other, unsigned was a mystery. Anna was puzzled, as she had no clue who it could be, as they both looked for any clues, and studied the message 'Love you – be my Valentine'.

Ella of course had cards from the boys and her husband, but she too wondered about who had sent Anna the card. Breakfast and their musings were interrupted by the door bell.

Marta being on her feet went to see who could be calling this early, finding out it was a delivery driver almost hidden behind a vast floral display, it took both the girls and their mum to arrange the flowers in her largest vase, as predicted Marta went to school smiling.

Eve had received several cards, but she was a terrible flirt at school even if everyone knew it was harmless fun, whereas Anna saved her more flirtatious behaviour for in front of the camera, so the single mystery card other than Marta's forest of flowers, was their main topic of conversation. Several names were put forwards, but all were rejected as none had shown any overt interest, and she didn't have any creepy stalkers, so they were no closer to an answer when they arrived at school.

There is a well known song by the Police, with Sting on vocals; the teacher as subject of schoolgirl fantasy, and each year many of the male staff felt some trepidation about cards that would mysteriously show up on their desks. At one time people turned a blind eye to any indiscretions, but the times and attitudes were changing, therefore regardless of any girl's maturity, it was down to her age and staff codes of conduct. Even upping grades for some small favour was slipping into legend, as the risk of loosing your post, or worse, was now a real fear for many male teachers.

After Marta's first class, girls were discussing cards or gifts they had received, and one of the wealthier girls dismissed Marta's vast array of flowers as an exaggeration, but having taken several pictures with her phone, she was able to show they were not imaginary at all. This caused much comment from the others in her class, as much for the phone as the flowers themselves. As a rule the Studio girls didn't flaunt their money, dressing nicely but not flashy like those from rich families, and they didn't make calls at every opportunity like those other girls either, but Marta wouldn't sit there and be called a liar.

The boys in Marta's year at school were still fairly gauche, and immature compared to the girls of their own age, and few had the wit to impress their female classmates with a nice card or any gift to gain their attention. Boys a year or two older viewed fourteen year old's as fair game, so more than a few cards had come from that direction.

In Anna's year there was much giggling and whispered comments, but somewhat fewer cards than received by the older girls; and boys of that age Anna thought were as clueless as her younger brothers, so she was still none the wiser as to the source of her own card. Word had spread on the grapevine down to Anna's friends about the enormous bouquet her big sister had received, and it got bigger with the telling, as if she had enough flowers to start her own shop.

Irisha was unconcerned, as the post to their block didn't arrive till long after she'd left for school in the morning, though she was pleased to find a card had arrived when she got home that afternoon. Opening the card she stared for a moment - then started to cry.

Chapter 53

Shocks and relationships... and another surprise!

Irisha sat holding the card for a long time, she guessed someone else had written out the address on the envelope, but she looked back at the card, each letter had been neatly formed just like in kindergarten, thinking how much effort this must have cost him. It was not something that had come up in conversation, but somehow he had found the courage to confide in someone at the Squat, then to seek their help in order to send the card.

She hadn't picked up any clues when they had been out, but now looking back, when they had been to see the film she thought he was just being gallant to let her choose, and when they ate he had not actually studied the menu, having seen what others were eating he would say this or that dish looked good. Now it was plain for her to see, Taras was unable to read or write, the card showed clearly the unpractised hand, like a child copying the words laid out by his teacher.

Aside from the sudden shock it was the thought that he held her in such regard he would lay himself open to ridicule in order to say how he felt about her, being in his position she wondered if she could have done the same. Marta had come into their lives and changed them both, but Taras as the leader of his small band of brothers looked out for them, were the rest also saddled with illiteracy, if so their lives would be blighted as they grew older.

She needed to talk to Marta, but Marta's number was engaged and she didn't really want to leave a message, Anna was likewise phoning someone, last of all she called their home number. Ella answered, and could sense her distress, and before long she had poured out her concerns about Taras, and about all his mates how their life on the streets had caused them to miss part or even all of their schooling, as they each had different sad tales about how they'd come to their current situation.

It was a load off her mind having spoken to Ella, she had so totally understood, had even thanked Irisha for bringing it up, previously everyone had been so busy that it was not a topic anyone had raised. She had agreed for the boys to get on they needed to learn new skills, reading was central, after that they could learn for themselves. At least she would be able to sleep now, knowing people were prepared to help and to think only five months ago she didn't have a friend in the world, and worse, scared her mum was about to die.

Taras had got the hint she expected a card, in the fact she had told him not to waste any money on buying her a present, it would be more fun instead to spend time together over the following weekend. Up to now he had always got away with it, he knew the alphabet, and a few simple words, so he blagged it, as none of the others could read either. Now in the Squat he knew most of the men there could read some, and he thought all the women could, as they wrote out a new menu each day on a blackboard.

He had helped out the ladies right from when they had first started up the café, flattening out the big catering tins to go for scrap, and loading up the kitchen peelings that Melenki took round to Gramps for compost, doing odd jobs to keep in their good books, and now he had to make a big ask, hoping they wouldn't laugh.

Kejan being the oldest was in charge, she ran the café and didn't stand for any messing about, but she did treat people fairly, she was a good role model for how to lead a team, so he respected her for that. He waited for the right moment, until she went down the corridor to the store room, telling the others he would go and help her in case she needed anything heavy. There was no point in hesitating and he had blurted it out, she hadn't made fun of him, just said to get the card, or she would get one, then they would sort it out quietly together in her little office where no one need know.

He had tried the joined up letters but it looked really awful, not like the flowing script she had written on the blank practice sheets, it was easier as individual letters that he was more familiar with seeing every day, even if they did cause him such a problem. He nearly didn't post it, he wasn't sure which would be worse, but as it slid through the the hole in the post box, it was done, now she would know, and there was no going back. How would a smart girl like that react when she found out she had such a dumb stupid boyfriend?

A lot of work had been done on the Squat since late November when they'd moved in, Luka the old man ran the place, with Kejan and her women running the café and laundry, so conditions were improving all the time. There had even been talk of having a phone installed, as at present messages to anyone living there had to be relayed either through Melenki, or Gramps, who would then need to turn up in person to pass on the news.

Taras expected to be in a state of limbo until the weekend when they had next planned to meet, so the message from Melenki the next day was quite unexpected.

“Hey Taras I've got a message from Irisha for you, she said she loved the card, and she would be round to sort out your little problem on Saturday.”

This caused a chorus of whoops and jeers from his gang, any ribald comments they kept to themselves as their were some women present in the room. Taras was startled at the quick response, and the way she thought his little problem could be sorted out, she had in her answer acknowledged that she knew of his difficulty, and the fact she thought in some way she could help him. He was grateful on two counts, one, that he still had a girlfriend, and that she had been subtle in her reply, rather than spelling it out for his friends to hear.

Anna was the first to hear about Irisha's call, then phoned her friend back with an idea for a plan of action, soon many of the local models had been called to enlist their help, and all of them were seeking out primary school books younger siblings had outgrown to form the basis for a library. The little army that had been mobilised soon divided the tasks between them, visiting book stores and stationers to organise the supplies they would need.

Residents at the Squat were surprised by the sudden invasion on Saturday when Marta and Anna turned up with a bunch of their friends, to commandeer the last unused office space. Anyone not expected out on a job was roped in help bring in the furniture and their supplies, including several bookcases, then a delivery arrived from the girls favourite book store, which gave a clue as to what was happening.

Igor also made a brief appearance delivering the combined efforts of the collection made by all the models. As the organised mayhem began to resolve itself, trays of hot drinks were brought up from the café, and Anna got up to speak. It had been decided this would be best, rather than Irisha open the subject, and throw the spotlight onto any one person in the audience.

She made a very nice well thought out speech saying how she and her friends thought now would be an ideal time to help the MMC gang, and those among the adults who had missed out on the opportunities to attend any form of sustained schooling.

Anna was quick to say that they expected to find many residents would have some trouble reading through no fault of their own, and they were there to help get them get started. Once they got over that first hurdle she expected the more literate and numerate in their midst to help bring on those who had received less in the way of formal education.

Now the problem had been aired, it was no longer an individual issue for each person, as the elephant in the room had been laid bare. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, and Taras now saw that his situation was not as bad as most of his younger friends who didn't even know their alphabet, so at least he had a head start. Irisha had sorted out his little problem without making him feel foolish, and had included everyone who needed help in learning to read.

Now with the materials and resources available it would soon become self-sustaining with those who could read mentoring those on the lower rungs of the educational ladder. Anna may have stood at the front that day but Taras knew who had started the ball rolling and he thanked Irisha, saying how ashamed he had felt, that he had to seek help even to fill in a simple card, and his bigger shame at thinking she would give up on him because of his illiteracy. Irisha wasn't sure she could ever raise the subject of her shame, but at least she could assist in helping to erase one issue that blighted the life of Taras and his friends.

Igor had been happy to help his daughters and their friends in their latest scheme, for he was all too well aware of the pitfalls of a poor education, which was why he had always drummed it in to his kids how important it was. With such vast numbers of homeless and unemployed it was necessary to have a good education, and as many qualifications as you could muster in order to gain an advantage. As much as he had struggled, he continued to persevere trying to master learning English, seeing his daughters as an inspiration.

Each new achievement, grade, or school report from his children was a source of joy, and he let them know how proud he was concerning their progress. He thought about the new computer skills he had been learning, it was like changing up from a spanner to a torque wrench, now he could apply the correct resources to each job at hand without any wasted effort, which gave him an edge over all the other managers.

Though the girls had started it, within a few weeks the women of the Squat took over the role of teaching, and as none of the residents, men or boys wanted to get on their wrong side, they knuckled down to the tasks they were set. There would be less snow falls as the month progressed, and by mid March the snow would be gone as the weather began to show an upturn, and hopefully by then other types of work would become more prevalent.

Karl's insight had caused Marta to have a long conversation with her mum, then there had been the Valentines day surprises less than a week later, Marta loved the flowers, and was bowled over to receive a pendent as well, it had both their pictures inside. That week she ensured he knew just how much she liked the gift, on two consecutive afternoons.

The next important item on her agenda was another visit to the health centre on Saturday of the following weekend with her mum, as asked she had kept a record of her cycle, and any related issues to ensure she had the most suitable type of pill. Reviewing the notes she had made and talking of the increasing incidence of cramps she had experienced. The doctor was fairly confident she knew now which brand of pill would reduce the discomfort her current prescription had been causing, then wrote Marta a new one for the alternate product, with advice about the changeover. She was glad this visit hadn't entailed another examination.

Having such an amazing service available to the models and their families was something they had been grateful for, as the crumbling and overworked State healthcare system was a nightmare, even for a simple thing like Sofia's broken arm, she could have been waiting around all day. Sofia had been collected quickly in a private ambulance, triaged there and then and been given pain medication straight away, so they envisaged no complications.

Anna's recent interest in geography lead her to look more closely at aspects of their own country, and how it could relate to the Studio, in the same way Marta was always viewing things. The Ukraine had always been known as Russia's bread basket, because wheat and other cereal crops did well in their rich soil, they also grew a fairly wide variety of fruit and vegetables, but Anna was looking at other regions. The mountains and limestone uplands were very scenic, there were also lots of forest areas with pretty lakes, and it went without saying the many coastal locations that Anna thought would make lovely backgrounds for summer pictures in the coming year.

She knew the Studio had done outside shoots for some girls living in remote areas, but to make best use of resources, and to make it fun, a photographer and make-up artist could take three or four girls out for a location shoot, rather than one at a time as they'd often done in the past. All that would be needed was a little planning to make it work. This and a few other ideas were among the items she and her sister planned to put forward to Ivan when Marta got back from her morning appointment.

With the growing popularity and success of the various website brands within their Studio network, they could now afford to be more experimental, opening new specialised niched web titles, and allowing a greater movement of models between those various sites to find where the girls felt most comfortable. Most of the girls at Ivan's branch of the network felt at home where they were, but they gained a few recruits from the softer panty flashing website who had gained the confidence and will to move onwards.

Some of their older girls did a few trial shoots with the more daring site that specialised in multi-girl sets in the fourteen to eighteen age bracket, and for a while would work for both sites before finally moving to their sister Studio with the raunchier style of presentation.

Alina had joined the sisters in Ivan's office, as she did most of the leg work to discover if the ideas from their think tank produced a favourable response from their members, and was now a regular visitor. The nervous tension of her very first visit long forgotten, as the results from the research they did pointed the way for many future productions.

Looking ahead in the calender their audience wouldn't know of Women's day on the 8th of March, that honoured all women, whereas they did have Mother's day in May, but the next themed sets would be for March the 17th, St Patrick's day. The ideas were for costumes of elves, sprites, and leprechauns with a predominantly green colour scheme, and having an Irish flavour, that is if their designers could fathom that one out.

For April Fool's Day, Alina was looking for classic inspiration from drama, myth and legend for costume ideas, but felt it would be better served in video rather than stills sets, and several writers were working on skits for that date. Victory Day on May the 9th was likewise another date to bypass their audience, May Day celebrations were universally common so being about the same time as Mother's day that would entail a lot of flowery type themes.

They got as far as Easter, when variations of bunny costumes, Easter bonnets and giant eggs would be the major aspects of set and costume design. Work on several festivals or holidays would continue on a rolling basis as they got closer to the relevant dates, but the writing circle were now coming forwards with a steady stream of new material that gave the costume and set designers plenty to work with.

Each Ukrainian city had its City Day, the day when the city was founded, and Kiev Day was usually celebrated during the last weekend of May, but the idea of any photo-set to reflect this was vetoed, as they didn't want their members to focus on the location of one of the main hubs of their Studio network, thinking it was generally better to remain nebulous.

After the meeting Alina wanted to show Marta some breakdowns of the various trends she had been following by the use of statistical analysis, at which point Anna bowed out from fears she would get bored to death, going to visit numerous friends around the complex, and just generally being nosey. She spent a pleasant half hour in the costume department, then walked around the scenery workshop to see what they were currently working on, but only four guys were covering that day. On her way back she stopped in to say hello to the scheduling manager, although she didn't know him as well as many other people in the building, she was curious to see which models were working that day in case there were any about which she spoke to on a regular basis.

The two nine year old girls that Marta had thrown together were working in studio three that afternoon, and Carina was doing make-up for them, but with a photographer that Anna didn't know very well. The two models careers individually had been mediocre, but as a twosome they had proved very popular indeed, to the point where they now only worked as a team for both photos, and on video, though they had yet to learn sufficient English to make worthwhile videos in the new series.

She called through to the studio, where the phones just had a small blinking light rather than a loud ring tone that would be distracting. Carina answered and told her the set was just winding up, saying to come over and say hello. The cute pair had now finished, being so pleased to meet one of the Goose sisters, looking up to Anna, in that by association she had boosted their careers, and in the fact she was taller. Admittedly she had grown over, the past year, but also these two girls were also short for their age, and like peas in a pod, other than their hair colour.

The two respective mothers were also happy to meet Anna, they had both turned up as the two girls came from towns that were on different rail lines into the city, so they only really got together on set, but phoned each other all the time. Both girls would be getting computers to help with learning English, and Anna told them of how the models met and talked together in their own special chat room.

Finally with make-up removed, and dressed again in their street clothes, three models and two mums went off to the canteen for refreshments. Knowing it would truly make their day Anna phoned Marta to say there were two girls in the canteen who'd love to meet her.

Marta shortly joined their table, the mothers if not their daughter's had expected Anna's sister to be much older, but were none the less pleased with the results of the upturn that had occurred. Marta deflected the praise saying that it was her colleague Alina who had seen the potential of placing the two girls together. Then she went on to say how all the top models were concentrating upon their education, and especially learning English, the mums were even more pleased, sure this pronouncement would have a profound effect on their awestruck youngsters.

The following day Irisha had invited Taras round to fit in some additional coaching, as her mum was working all day Sunday at the Studio, though she expected they would end up necking on the sofa. Lessons at the Squat had only started the previous weekend, though they all saw the value of learning, and Taras wanted to keep the respect of the others in leading by example. He swallowed his pride, if reading books meant for five year old's is what it took, then that is what he would do.

The alphabet, and the words might be different, but it was still pretty much, 'The cat sat on the mat' style of reader as in primary schools the world over. Taras found it very hard to concentrate on the pages with the hot pixie sat so close to him, but she had stated they couldn't move on to anything 'more interesting' until he finished the work she had set out for that day.

Life on the streets had been hard, but despite any bluster or his leadership of a small gang this was his first real friend of the opposite gender, and he was trying his hardest not to screw-up. The attraction had been from the first day he saw her at Marta's house project, but it had been a slow and tentative relationship, if that was the right word, as they hadn't got much past kissing, and although he had brushed his hand over her tits, she had been wearing a lot of clothes at the time.

Irisha had during the past months been coaching many of her classmates in English, and was now going through the process in her own language, but at least this student was familiar with all the words, they just had to be linked to the symbols written on the page. He was doing fairly well, and she encouraged him with the odd kiss, that of course led to more kissing until the books were forgotten.

The soft modern sofa was new and comfortable, and soon they were leaning over then laying down hands from both parties roaming about, clasping each other closer, with the heat rising and pulses quickening. Without conscious thought his hand slid up her side to find the swelling flesh under the light jumper she was wearing, suddenly she went rigid, stock still, next thing she had bolted for the bathroom.

Shit what had he done! Had he pushed things too far or too fast, he hadn't squeezed her, he didn't think he had done anything that might hurt her, and now he didn't know what to do. He sat there confused and stunned wondering how to deal with this turn of events, he didn't have anyone who had ever given him advice about girls so he was flying blind.

She seemed to have been in there a long time, and he couldn't be sure if she was waiting for him to leave, so he just sat there feeling helpless.

Irisha felt so foolish, she had got herself into this, he wasn't mean to her, and he showed her respect. She thought their friendship was moving slowly forwards at a pace she could handle, and then she just freaked out. The touch on her breast for an instant brought a flashback of one of the punters groping her as if checking out fruit in the market, he had been so rough with her she had been bruised for days afterwards. She sat there crying, would it never go away?

Tap, tap, tap.

“Irisha are you okay? I'm sorry if I did something to upset you. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, please come out.”

“Are you crying? Please don't cry. I'm sorry if I rushed you, I'll keep my hands to myself, I won't do anything you don't want me to do.”

The silence remained apart from the odd muffled sob or sniff so he tried once more.

“I know I don't deserve to have a girlfriend as smart and beautiful as you, but please give me another chance.”

He waited a while longer, then as he was about to give up and leave he heard the click of the lock, and the bathroom door opened.

His favourite pixie emerged, eyes red and puffy clutching some tissues.

It wasn't fair that he thought he was to blame she should put that right at least, then he could find a girl that wasn't damaged goods.

“Taras please sit down, it wasn't your fault, it was all down to me.”

He couldn't work out what she meant, but he sat back on the sofa to find out what this was about, and if he could make amends for whatever had caused this upset.

“I'm sure you'll make someone a great boyfriend, but I'm not the girl you think I am.” She put up her hand to stall his interruption.

“I thought I could do it, but I'm not ready for a boyfriend, it's too hard to explain, but you can find someone better than me.”

“Please Irisha don't say that, I don't want to find someone else, I couldn't find someone better than you, you're kind and pretty and cute, that's the girl I think you are. So unless you're going to tell me you're a boy, what's the problem?”

He looked so concerned, pleading, and she could see he was sincere, so against the advice she was given to leave the past where it belonged she told him...

One other thing of note happened that Sunday, Anna fell in love!

Chapter 54

“He's gorgeous, tall and strong and intelligent, you've got to meet him.”

Marta thought it was too early for Anna to be making decisions like that, but her mind seemed set, it had been love at first sight. Marta blamed herself, she should have gone with Anna on Sunday, but she had heard all the details, several times, how they had gazed into one another's eyes, how they had shared an apple, and then gone for a canter around the paddock. The thing was he wasn't even available, but Anna had heard the rumour that he was about to get the heave-ho.

Marta couldn't help wondering how their parents would take the news, it's not like they wouldn't find out, it was more a matter of timing, and Anna having laid her claim was plugged into the local grapevine, keen for the latest news concerning her handsome stud.

Well stud was in reality a misnomer, as he was actually a young bay gelding with a white blaze and two front socks, and Marta hadn't recalled seeing this horse before herself, but then it didn't belong to the stable as part of their string, but was one of several privately owned horses that were stabled at the riding school. Anna had heard through one of the staff how fees from the owners had been consistently late, and they were now becoming concerned as to whether the owners would catch up with these outstanding payments.

If matters weren't resolved, legal action could follow, or the horse could be sold to pay off the debts that were slowly mounting up, and no doubt someone at the stables had viewed Anna as a potential buyer who could be the solution to their current problem.

Anna was busy planning, and had heard about 'her horse' from one of the instructors, and went to meet him, and he was beautiful, the perfect horse for her. Speaking to the stable girls who she had befriended, she found out the background story of the owner, a fifteen year old daddy's girl, who was once a regular, but she hadn't been riding for over nine weeks now. Rumours were her family was in some sort of financial trouble, and it was expected there would be a showdown by the end of March.

Having learned from both her sister and father, Anna was doing research, looking through her last few copies of the equestrian magazine that she subscribed to. It seemed that the horse market was doing just as badly as the housing market, in most sectors there were more sellers than buyers, and prices were low. She might be able to get her own horse for quite a small sum, even possibly little more than paying the outstanding bills, then she would just need to meet his ongoing stable fees.

For some time Anna hadn't bothered to keep track of their Studio statements, but she had asked Marta who did follow the numbers, and it was plain her TTMF earnings alone could cover stable costs, vet insurance, and all the other bills with ease, maybe even twice over. This was now an established regular income, unlike the more lumpy though considerably larger payments her photo-sets, and videos generated, and that was without considering any of the bonus commissions she made for work on projects with the other models.

Anna liked the thought of the TTMF funding her horse, as it was a topic her fans on the forum often asked about, and she had created the fiction she owned a horse called Trigger like the famous horse in the old western movies, but later on she found there was another famous horse called Silver, and that's what she would call her real horse. He wouldn't mind if she changed his current name, and talking her dad round if things went to plan should be a walkover.

Anna would be taking part in the St Patrick's day Irish bonanza, having sourced some very cute pointed pixie ears from a specialist theatrical company as part of her make-up to go with her costume. Several girls would also be launching themed photo sets leading up to that date, and there would be one model doing an English video, but trying to give it an Irish accent was a step to far, it would have a Ukrainian one like all the others.

The rich green dress for Anna's set was made out of many layers of a wispy see-through net type fabric, with a high zigzag hemline with plenty of leg. There would be a lot of body make-up starting at her feet in greens and browns, but fading as it reached her thighs, then just faint steaks of colour up her torso, so it would look like she had grown right out of the ground itself.

Fairy-tales and myths loomed heavy in many of the Studio sets, and this would fit in well in this themed holiday for this Irish Saint, as there were a lot of Americans claiming to be of Irish descent. In their research they found a mythology of leprechauns and little people was very strong in the Irish culture, and many of the studio's models had ideal bodies to play these slim fantasy creatures.

The evening Anna got to do her set, they called-up the cab before they even arrived home from school, so he waited while they changed and swapped backpacks for the trip to the Studio. Valya worked on the ears in the salon so the stylist could work the hair around them afterwards, and then they headed to the studio to continue the transformation.

Standing on a low table she wiggled as her legs were painted, the body steaks were worse catching some of her ticklish spots, making her jump and laugh, so it was just as well they wanted the colours blurred and random. Anna loved performing what with her drama class, music, and modelling, causing Marta to say it proved she was an exhibitionist. Preparing for the shoot had raised her adrenaline levels, and with the sort of mood she had been in to start with, it didn't take long in the bathroom to accomplish a little liquid gloss where it mattered most.

Anna nearly brought herself off, but realised staying horny through the set would give her show more of an edge than if she had temporarily satisfied her need, but checking in the mirror found her vulva was looking a little more red and prominent than she had intended. Slightly embarrassed she delayed leaving the bathroom until she was called to the set.

John was set-up and ready to go when Marta called for her sister to hurry up, the green outfit suited her, and with the body paint and a faint flush to her skin tones he was looking forwards to another successful encounter.

The backcloth was painted to show a rural scene, of a country lane winding off into distant hills, with patches of green fields and woods. In the foreground was the edge of a stone cottage, and they had a rustic bench seat and an old fashioned spinning wheel as props in front of the building. The lumpy 'grass' was dressed with both real and fake plants, and to complete the illusion the construction guys had built a wishing well, furnished with a little thatched roof.

Anna moved with confidence about the set, turning the big handle on the well to ensure John caught her bending over to catch a glimpse of her undies tautly stretched across her bottom as she moved the crank. She imbued a sense of lively movement even into the still images that John was shooting as she scrambled about including all the various props in her poses. Then bending over the wall to look down into the well, the growing patch of dampness could be seen clearly for the first time, then raising one leg it looked as if she were almost about to fall in.

At this point they took a break for refreshments and catch up on each others news, which of course lead to word of the horse Anna wanted to get. John told them his wife had ear marked his next bonus commission to refit their kitchen, but wasn't too upset as she was a very good cook. Anna had to tease him that's why he was so fat, though that wasn't the case as being in his mid twenties he was fit and healthy. Marta suggested he call Melenki to see if the IMC builders wanted to quote for the job, as he had already seen their level of workmanship when he'd photographed the house project.

Back on set Anna braced herself for the next bit of the shoot. Supposedly having emerged from the well she needed to be wet, and Marta was happy to oblige by throwing a few cupfuls of water over her until they achieved the desired results. She stood there arms akimbo as she dripped on the set as John captured the image from different angles.

Next he recorded the slow removal of her dress, to see a drips running down her skin, making her little nubs stand out due to the sudden shock of the cold water, that Marta had said would be warm. Anna would be swearing payback if it wasn't for the fact she knew it had made for better pictures. With the dress gone the panties had remained dry, other than the natural wetness that could be seen as a long darker oval in the close-ups.

The white panties were quite fulsome at the back, and high on the hips, but cut to scoop down lower at the front, where an iron on transfer of a leprechaun had been placed on the fabric just over the mound above the camel toe formed by her pussy. John making sure to have plenty of shots, thought that the members would be envious of that very lucky leprechaun, wishing they could be in the same place.

Anna then sat astride the base of the spinning wheel as she played with the mechanism as if she had some clue as to how it worked, then with exquisite slowness she removed her panties to roll and play on the floor. As she peeked through the plants, small gauze figures of fairies could be seen hiding amongst the leaves, an idea of Marta's having read of the Cottingly fairies, a famous hoax by some young English girls nearly a century before.

As John caught Anna's signature pose, he also zoomed in for a couple of shots, and the filigree strands of wetness could be clearly seen clinging between the small gap formed by the lips of her tightly defined purse, with the small hood of her clitoris looking larger on this shoot than it had appeared in the past. As her knees settled further apart on the soft flooring material the red interior he had briefly glimpsed during the set glistened in the bright studio lighting as the gap became wider.

Not for the first time John thought his wife was again to be the beneficiary of a hot studio set, and it would be something they would laugh over when he got home, between hectic bouts of feverish sweaty sex all over their apartment.

Being a Friday they had the weekend to look forward to, so Ann was somewhat more hyper than normal after a photo session, being impatient to get all the additional make-up removed from her body, but she would still need to soak in the bath when she got home. She had seen some pictures on one of the news-groups of a girl getting off by using the cascade of water from a bath tap aimed straight at her pussy, and from Anna's interrupted play earlier this was something she wanted to try out as soon as she got back.

With their bath tap mounted half way down the bath she thought this would be even better as she could sit sideways in the bath and then slide her shoulders up or down the opposite side to get the best position. She had shown Marta the pictures she'd saved, and suspected that her older sister would also be trying out this experiment.

As if to make a good day even better in the quiet of the reception area waiting for the taxi to take them home Anna heard the faint bleep of her phone indicating she had a message from a missed call. It turned out to be the manager at the stables to tell her that a certain party was looking to sell their horse, as they could no longer afford the upkeep, and so far they had found nobody willing to buy. The owner had placed adds that had garnered no response, and approaching the riding school had been disappointed to find they did not want or need any more mounts at this time, so the field was clear for Anna.

Anna could hardly sit still on their journey home, and ran in to hug her father as soon as she had taken off her shoes and hung up her coat. Igor knew something was afoot, even though his daughters were not shy of showing their affection, he knew Anna was about to come out with a good one.

“Okay munchkin, what are you after?”

“Daddy as if, you know I'm just pleased to see you.”

“So this has nothing to do with the call we had earlier from the manager at the stables?”

“Arr, you know then?”

“Know? I hear you've even planned to change his name.”

“I could pick him up for a song, as the owner is behind on several weeks stabling fees, and they cant find anyone to buy him, please daddy. The costs will easily be...”

At that point Anna noting the boys were listening, couldn't actually say how the costs would be easily covered, so ran out of steam.

“So would you like me to give you a lift in the morning?”

Her squeal of joy, was followed by her thanking her father repeatedly, and it was only the smell of one of her favourite dishes on the table that reminded her she had not yet had supper. The rest of the family had not long eaten, unsure what time the girls would turn up that evening, and as the two sisters sat to eat, Marta grinned hearing the plans for the new tack and accessories Anna wanted to buy for Silver. Although Marta enjoyed riding almost as much as her sister, she was happy enough to ride horses owned by the stable, but her thoughts drifted to the idea of one day riding an entirely different mount. It was an inevitable step that was as exciting as it was scary, and she was sure by the turn of the year she would no longer be a virgin.

Irisha was in shock that she still had a boyfriend, last weekend she was certain that once he knew she would be treated like a leper, instead he reached out hesitating to put his arm around her, then he just held both her hands in his as she related her sad sordid tale.

Reaching the end of her story she knew there were secrets that weren't hers to tell, so the heroine remained the same, but the ending changed, with just her mum being offered a job at a nearby business Marta knew about.

Taras didn't criticise the choice she had made saying it was about the only way women or girls survived on the streets, he even knew of some boys who had taken that option, but it could be a very dangerous existence, and he was glad Marta came along when she did.

Having been on the streets since he was a small boy he had a different outlook, staring up from the bottom of the pond, he was more pragmatic about survival, and saw no reason for shame. He was even sympathetic that she would need time to heal, and that coming to enjoy any type of physical relationship wouldn't happen overnight.

That day they had spent a long time talking, him of his life growing up as part of the vast underclass surviving between one meal and the next on guile and wits, and the occasional handouts from one or other of the charities that tried their best. Each member of his gang had similar stories, either becoming orphans through drugs, drink or sickness, or choosing to leave due to violence or abuse. With neither the family networks, or any State help they often had no choices, and life could be hard, brutal, and short.

Only the smart and the wary survived, and he knew that many of those girls fell prey to pimps or just vanished completely, with stories about being shipped off to brothels abroad with little hope of escape. Irisha came to realise she had come so close to being sucked into that world of vice, and not having the street smarts to avoid what could well have been her fate. She and her mother never spoke together of that time when their lives had reached such a low ebb, her mother not knowing just how low, only focusing on today and on their future, making plans for the things they wanted to do, and dreaming it was now possible.

Thinking about Taras she came to the conclusion he was a whole lot smarter than he first appeared, true he didn't have school or book learning, but he read people and situations. Since hearing her story he had been very caring, either by holding her hand or putting an arm around her more like a protective big brother than a boyfriend, reinforcing the point that it was her choice what they did together. He didn't even try kissing her as he'd done before, it was as if he wanted to regrow their relationship again from day one at her pace.

Friday evening in the Squat, and Taras was sitting in the 'classroom' whereas this time last year he would have been busking near one of the clubs or theatres in the hope of a few coins, or the remains of a discarded takeaway, and keeping an eye open for the police. Now he sat with a full belly, teasing the words off the page of a book meant for kids of five or six, but he had a dogged determination to prove to himself, even if to no one else that he could do this. He had to keep dragging his mind back to the task at hand, rather than think about seeing Irisha tomorrow.

It had been like a slap in the face to discover what had caused her to suddenly freak out, but it must have taken a hell of a lot of guts to fess up like she did. The one thing he would never admit to, was he almost ended up selling himself that way, just a few lucky breaks at the right time took him on another path. He didn't tell her the half of how bad it could be, he knew, he'd seen it, girls taking all sorts of dirty mixed up drugs just to escape from the hell of their lives, and the bridge jumpers who had had simply had enough.

It had been lucky that she had survived three nights on the street without attracting the attentions of a pimp, and even greater luck that Marta stepped in to help. Taras believed to an extent you could make your own luck, learning to play that beat up harmonica gave him the small edge over others who just had their hands out, the lads dancing along as well upped the odds just a bit, in that they would earn a few coins. Now if he could get reading and writing cracked that would up his luck quite a bit more.

As soon as the office opened Anna wanted her dad to phone the stables, but Igor replied if things were how she said then 'Sliver' wouldn't be going anywhere, being careful not to upset her by mentioning the meat trade, for if all else failed the owners could take up that option. Many butchers would ask no questions.

Despite the constant stream of chatter on the way to the riding school, Igor couldn't help grinning at the joy this would bring Anna, to have her very own horse, and he was sure no other girls her age would be paying for one with money they had earned for themselves.

The stable's manager had phoned the owner to say a prospective buyer was coming in, and to bring in the relevant papers in case a sale could be negotiated. The moment Igor set eyes on the owner he formed an instant dislike of the man who was standing there in his expensive designer suit, selling off just another 'asset' regardless that it had been his daughter's most cherished pet, fortunately the girl herself wasn't here to see it.

As they dickered over the price, Anna cut in to say it was too expensive and she would have the other horse instead, that one was a much more reasonable price. Both her father and the stable manager knew there were no other local horses for sale at that time, but the man facing them didn't, caving in to the pressure as this was the only interest that had been shown in the damned animal.

When the figure was settled upon, Igor knew how things stood, asking how much was owed on stabling fees, then wrote two cheques, much to the previous owners disgust, so the back fees were paid off directly and the man just walked off in a huff with the balance.

The manager thanked Igor, saying it was doubtful if they would have been reimbursed, without him taking that stance on their behalf. Igor then got dragged across the yard to the stable blocks to be introduced to Silver, whose friendship was easily bought with an apple. Even as a man more at home with a toolbox and a set of drawings he had to admit this was a fine looking animal, but more important to him was the joy in Anna's heart, and the smile on her face.

Anna wanted to stay and ride her new horse, and would call the cab company to get a ride home, so Igor went back to the office to make arrangements regarding the ongoing costs of keeping the horse at the stables. The manager cut Igor a very reasonable deal as Anna still had time to run on the riding and tuition gift which he had brought for both the girls, membership was part of the deal in the stabling fee for horse owners, so Marta could make up her own mind about continuing her membership when the time came.

Having seen the other stalls at the stable, as he was walking back to his car Igor phoned Melenki to explain what he wanted, giving the approximate size and confirming the plaque should be carved with the name 'Sliver'.

Chapter 55

Four of the models are roped in to help find some new photographers for the Studio.

Ivan sat looking through the portfolios on the table, each displaying work from some of the finest graduates from around the country. With the help of his existing photographic team he had now reduced the selection down to six candidates to fill the two new posts.

Though the Studio operated all year round, the school term and half term breaks were short in comparison to the summer break, due to the historical reasons of the country's high dependence on agriculture. Running from the last week of May through to the end of August, in those three months they would create a high percentage of the sets of the girls living furthest from the studio, who would only make two or three brief visits during the remainder of the year.

In previous years the photographic team had been rushed off their feet during that time, then over the rest of the year with a quieter schedule, would edit down sets taken over the summer to spread out their workload. Now with more of their time gainfully employed in capturing additional material for banking sets for future release, and with all the extra models they now on their books, it was necessary to take on more staff across the board.

Studios one through to four had the latest lighting rigs, and the kit from five and six that were not too far behind would be replaced, and that older kit might move on to seven and eight or be updated, the two studios only previously being used for experimental work, or for shoots that might be messy. This would bring more of their capacity into regular use. Other divisions of the Studio network had been growing over the past six months, but it was with a sense of pride Ivan knew his Studio was the leading the pack, the others were just following along in his wake.

This reflection on the current state of affairs wasn't solving which candidates to choose. Each of these people, or at least their families had invested heavily in their education to reach this point, and they were now pursuing every possible job lead. He had to find the right people, the ones with the artistic bent that would suit their Studio output, that would flourish in this atmosphere, and with this subject matter. He wanted these posts filled by this time next week, so that the selected photographers had time to settle in before the summer splurge when the place would become a madhouse.

Not wishing for the upset unsuccessful candidates to learn more about the Studio than necessary, a commercial Studio on the other side of the city had been rented so that they could test out these final prospects in realistic conditions. A couple of their earliest models who had since retired would be showing up, the girls now aged eighteen and twenty, had gone on to find jobs in the media industry, and were happy to take a little time off from their jobs to help out and pocket some extra cash. Ivan chose Anna, as he was sure Marta would also have some insight or comments when it came down to the final cull.

The plan was for each prospective candidate to be tasked with taking several glamour sets including nude shots, each time with progressively younger girls to see how they reacted to that situation. It was doubtful even if they were uncomfortable about the situation that they'd say anything, though by the time the decision was made it would be a mute point.

They had decided to seek fresh blood, in that the Studio network as a whole had already vacuumed up the best of the photographic talents available who had been working around the country. Rather than take on less talented staff, they would trawl through the best newcomers, and bring them on within their own Studio.

When Anna had got the call from Ivan she'd immediately agreed to help, although it would just be a nice one off fee for working the whole of the next weekend, but that in itself was the main problem, it being the whole weekend, and she wouldn't get to go and visit Silver. She could always visit after school one day in the week, she might not have time to ride him but at least he wouldn't forget her. She could see how important Ivan thought this job would be, choosing a couple of new photographers, and with John there to supervise the shoots, so she would feel totally safe.

There would be three older models, two of whom didn't work at the Studio any more, but she had seen their photo sets, and Oxana who she had worked with recently, so Anna was to be the youngest girl there. Ivan wanted all the girls to fill in a form after each shoot to say how well the photographer did, adding notes on what they thought about each one, to help decide who would be the best additions for their Studio.

They wanted to get the get all the sets done over the weekend, three photographers each day, starting at eight in the morning with the oldest model, who would do her own make-up before she came in, so Anna wouldn't need to be there till ten-thirty for Valya to get her ready for an eleven o'clock set for the first candidate. There would be a lot of down time with her next calls being from three to four, then from seven to eight o'clock, so they would take revision work for school, and current work they were doing for future scripts.

Marta and Anna looked over the timetable that Ivan had directed them to on their network server, each girl would do about a forty-five minute set, then in the ten to fifteen minute breaks between sets. This format would be repeated for each girl in turn, keeping each photographer under pressure for about four hours, if there were no clear winners, they would be called back in the week to see how they coped with editing the pictures they had taken over the weekend.

Getting the right staff was as much about how well they related with the models, as well as their artistic flair and technical competence. Without the former, the models would not give their best, so it was imperative the girls felt at ease, or all the photographer's other skills would be wasted.

Anna and Marta cooked up another idea then phoned Ivan back to check if it was feasible, dependent on the rental Studio having an internet connection. After a little negotiation with girls on the weekend for early afternoon in Europe / early morning in EST zone, and the early evening in Europe / mid-day in the USA slot, a new schedule was devised for those slots on both days. They quickly updated the timetable which members referred to, showing who was on the TTMF.

It would be a change from all the regular themes, talking live to two current models either side of actual photo shoots, and talking with two retired models, with the aid of the newer girls acting as translators. Shortly after posting the changes Marta got a call from Alina, as to how this issue had already become the subject of discussion on the members Forum, as she kept that constantly displayed on one of her three desk screens in order to follow any current trends.

When the sisters arrived on Saturday they found Valya with the two older models set up in an adjacent room to the actual photographic studio, so they could peek out to follow the progress on set. They weren't doing any fancy hair designs, and Valya was only applying a minimal amount of make-up for each of the models. Once Anna was done they peered out from the shadows at the back to see the first victim working with Oxana.

Back in the make-up room the older girls were saying how nervous this guy had been, but as each successive model had become younger they thought he was going to wet himself, and when the age had dropped from eighteen to a girl of fourteen who definitely looked under age he had began to look worried, checking with John if he was supposed to be taking the same type of shots as with the two previous models.

While Marta hooked-up and tested the link for their Studio laptop that they would be using later in the day, Anna looked through the costumes she would be using on set. There was a curtained off dressing area to one side of the set where the models could perform rapid changes of costume during their appearance. Anna had a generic schoolgirl uniform with a short pleated skirt, another outfit consisted of skin tight shorts and a thin tube top, then a very skimpy two piece bathing costume, and finally a see-through nightie and panties, that she could remove for some nude shots for the last part of her set.

Her instructions were to be professional, but to be neither overly helpful or obstructive, in order to see how well each candidate was able to give out instructions to the girls they were working with. Anna wondered how this guy would react to find his next model was to be even younger than the girl currently on set, as she looked out to see the session was coming to a close.

When Oxana came in she greeted the new comers, thanking them for the work they had done on the shower video, saying how grateful she and Sofia were, of course they knew that from seeing Sofia at school during the week, but by some quirk Oxana hadn't bumped into either of the sisters during that week at school. Without yet having seen the other five contenders Oxana was sure the current guy out front didn't have what it took to work at the Studio, and joked that Anna would be the last straw, and frighten him away.

When John came in to join them he had a similar view, but said they should give each one a fair crack of the whip, and it would also give the girls practice for what to expect over the rest of the weekend. While he took some refreshments out to the set, Anna got into the schoolgirl outfit, and Valya took the rest of her costumes out to the dressing area.

When the two men on set were ready, John called for Valya to send out the next model, as they had a schedule to keep. Anna grinned at what was to come, stepping into the brightly lit area, the surprised photographer nearly dropped the camera he was holding, not a good move as it belonged to the Studio, and was worth as much as a top luxury car. Anna witnessed the hushed conversation between the two men as she walked up to the central area to start her turn in front of the camera.

After his little discussion with John, the newly graduated photographer still looked rather flustered by the continually diminishing age of each consecutive model, but his discomfort brought out Anna's natural smile as she saw the humour in the situation. He introduced himself, and for a lark Anna who had been told to chose any random name told him she was called Marta, and watched as John tried not to laugh.

Each applicant had been chosen due to being in the top ten percent of the graduates from their collage or university, and for having a reasonable set of figure studies within their submitted portfolios. They had all received the same instructions for the practical part of their interviews, in that they would turn up at an appointed time, use the digital camera equipment provided in a professional studio environment, and photograph four models.

The prospective employer wanted each model photographed in a range of outfits that the girls would wear, ending in semi-naked, and naked shots of each, that could be described as being glamorous, or sensual in nature. The first two girls might be what they were expecting, and would help them get used to the setting and equipment, so that when the younger models turned up on set they would be in the right frame of mind, and it would be down to their skill and professionalism to handle the situation.

Anna missed the sense of connection she felt when it was John behind the lens, but tried her best to be accommodating even though she didn't think this recent ex-student was giving her the courtesy of treating her as a professional model. Communication had been awkward and stilted, with Anna doubting the pictures so far would even rate to go in a clothing catalogue, hoping with the first costume change he might manage to see the fun loving character that John seemed to find when looking through the camera.

Anna was quick to change in the dressing area, checking her hair and outfit in the full length mirror before reappearing on stage. The shorts and top in a tight stretchy fabric could have been painted on, and Anna had been careful to ensure she had pulled the shorts up to form a distinctive camel toe that left nothing to the imagination. Anna fully understood the importance of her role in this process, if the candidate couldn't appreciate and display the emerging sensuality of the Studio's many younger models then they had no place at the Studio.

With the first two models he thought this mysterious job interview could be for one of the classier top-self men's magazines, with glamorous young women on location in penthouse apartments, or exotic tropical islands. The previous model had knocked that idea sideways and now this confident young girl was on set in a very provocative getup for a girl of her age. She couldn't be more than ten or eleven years old, yet with her self-assured manner he felt she was at home in front of a camera.

His confidence had waned with that last girl, therefore if he didn't concentrate, and pull something out of the bag this job was going south fast. He couldn't even imagine how many others they would be interviewing for the post, but he knew many of his fellow classmates who had the language skills were looking to find work abroad.

The brief had stressed the type of shots they wanted, and the guy overseeing the shoot had confirmed that point when this latest girl had turned up, so he would try and ignore her age and treat her the same as the first two girls, in the hope he could redeem himself.

Anna noted the change when he started to put more of an effort into the set, explaining the moves he wanted, being positive, perhaps now at last realising he was dealing with an experienced model. John looking on, couldn't decide if fear or desperation had prompted this guy's urge to connect with his final model, or if it was Anna herself who had inspired a sudden surge of creativity, as she did when he was behind the lens. Checking on the time John suggested they move to the next costume.

She was amused by the bikini, three white triangles of fabric none of them big enough to hide a businesses card, held together with thin cords which she tied in bows. It was a bit difficult to stop the lower triangle from disappearing between her pussy lips, and it could only be worn by a girl who was either naturally hairless like herself, or totally waxed.

He had another shock when she emerged wearing the tiniest bikini he had ever seen in real life, any girls he had seen on the beach with that much confidence would either go topless or didn't bother wearing a suit at all. After running through a gamut of poses, he asked the girl how many changes she had left, on finding she had one more costume left, he decided to go for broke, first suggesting she untie the top, then with some promising shots in the can, he asked her to toy with the bows of the remaining part of her suit.

She knew what she was doing as she slowly pulled out the thin cords, teasing the knots, and the audience, just as he would expect from a seasoned glamour model, un-fazed by his instruction to run the now free scrap of material back and forth between her legs.

Now concentrating on the job in hand, it was almost a disappointment to be interrupted, and be told it was time for the final change. Within seconds she was back, her previously naked sylph like body draped in a brief wispy gossamer thin nightie, but clearly without any panties, that gave her a more erotically charged appearance than when she'd been naked just a few moments before. He had her spin round, flaring out the fabric, raising the hem, to catch shots of both her cute tight butt, and her tiny smooth girl cleft, then going on to have her laze about on the sofa, chairs and other props around the set.

This girl seemed so carefree, sharing her sensuality, not withholding it, and rationing it out as it appeared so often with older women. This brought back a time in his youth, when he had first taken up a camera, finding the joy in each special moment he was able to record. Then it was over, where had the time gone, he wished he could reset the clock, just as he was beginning to find his mojo it was time to leave.

All to soon he had gathered up his belongings, and was ushered out onto the street, with cash to cover his expenses, and those fateful words – “We'll let you know.”

After saying goodbye to prospect number one John spoke to the receptionist to find their second photographer had already turned up and was waiting in a meeting room down the corridor. Rather than hang around for three hours the oldest of the four models had been shopping, having eaten while she was out, but bringing back lunch and snacks for all the others. John talked with man number two, showed him the studio and equipment, then made sure he was clear about the brief for the shoot, and that there would be four models over the course of the next four hour marathon.

The pressure to produce the goods over an extended shooting schedule, was a real world test, as although at the Studio sets weren't packed quite so tight, back to back, they could be working long hours at certain times of the year. Once the first set was under way John ducked out to meet with Valya and the girls to talk of their first round, and grab a bite to eat but still keeping an eye on proceedings, poking his head round the door now and then.

The girls knew there would be long boring bits up until two o'clock when the first TTMF session was due to start, so Anna had shown the two eldest models how the forum worked, translating some of the earlier sessions from the archive logs. By the time it was Oxana's turn to go on set, the first two models were of the opinion that the current bloke was technically competent, but artistically uninspiring to the point where they wondered how he had got this far in the cut, thinking he had maybe stolen someone else's portfolio.

Oxana left the room to a chorus of, “Go break an arm”, which was a current joke at the Studio having replaced the standard theatrical epithet of breaking a leg, since Sofia's little mishap which had lead to a very successful video sketch that she had shared with Oxana.

'Natasha' signed on and greeted her anxiously waiting audience, getting numerous replies from those wanting to take part. She followed on by talking of two retired guest models that were sitting in, and how she would be translating the conversation, as English was not a language with which they were familiar. Fortunately many of the Platinum members were familiar with the girls in question, and were delighted to have the opportunity to ask them about various old sets, and about their lives after modelling.

A good many questions skirted the bounds of what was normally deemed acceptable, but they nevertheless had fun talking about the time they had spent modelling, then how it had given them the self-assurance that had helped in the careers they had since taken up. When at last Anna broached the subject of that weekend's event, interest was high among those on line, with innumerable offers from members who would love to come and snap pictures of models past and present. From there the debate was self-sustaining, after the first member had offered to do this 'hard job for no pay', from there on in it was people saying how much they'd be prepared to pay the Studio in order to secure the coveted job.

Keeping an eye on the time Anna drew in the girls who were going to hold the fort for an hour while she was due on set, and they fielded the members questions while Valya redid her make-up, then she slipped back into the schoolgirl outfit for her second set of the day.

Oxana arrived, and expressed a different view than the older girls, in that victim number two did show some promise, in that they had got on quite well, and if that had been a real set she felt they would have produced some usable material. After a short break Oxana would be joining in on the forum, but she would page back first to find out what had been happening while she had been out on the set.

Jakiv looked up, startled at the latest model he was due to photograph, he thought the previous girl had been pushing the boundaries for the scope of the brief he'd been given but this girl couldn't be older than eleven at most. He was quite good at estimating how old girls were, because they were his favourite subjects, his ideal job would be on a nudist beach at a resort popular with adolescent girls. Since he first picked up a camera younger girls had been his main focus, but in the portfolio he submitted he had needed to show a wider range of content in order to approach the job market.

If truth be told, he found this girl the best yet, as girls in that transitional phase held a magical fascination in his view, although heroes of his like Hamilton and Sturges had been vilified of late due to the age of the models they usually chose to photograph. He was of the opinion that it was a criminal waste not to capture the metamorphosis from girl into woman, an amazing stage in a girl's life that should be recorded in detail. Being realistic he never expected to get a job as a fashion photographer on a teen magazine, or any other post that would lead to him taking pictures of his favourite sort on any regular basis.

John had noticed how this latest guy had made a greater effort with Oxana, and now after having been introduced to Anna, who was still using her sister's name as a wind-up, he was trying to find a rapport with her, and checking that his model was comfortable with the type of pictures he had been tasked to produce.

Anna felt straight off this set would go better than the last, the tentative way he'd asked if she was happy to pose for the type of pictures called for, then asking about her hobbies, and the things that made her smile. She couldn't help thinking this was how she imagined John to have been when he was just starting out, having the conversation to draw out the model, and form the bond that seemed to work between them.

Jakiv had been unfazed by the first two models, it was fairly easy to find older teenagers at college willing to pose for figure studies or for glamour type pictorials, always needing some extra cash. Other than a few girlfriends when he was younger, he hadn't often had the opportunity to photograph girls at the most interesting stages of their development, so he had been rather pleased about that last girl, and this one was even more intriguing.

It seemed even at her young age she was really at home in front of the camera, no hint of shyness, or reticence to take on any revealing pose, though so far it hadn't gone beyond opening up her school blouse, and flashing her panties, but he imagined there would be no difficulties in progressing further. In less than five minutes she was off to change, and came back in shorts so tight her little cleft was highlighted, and a tube top of a plain thin stretch fabric, that clung to the triple A contours of her chest.

Jakiv was inspired to have the girl do some tumbling about in a tomboy manner, to get a variety of shots, and so her hair became wild and untamed, a sort of feral child look that should have some appeal. Now she was looking more dishevelled he asked her to pull the top down a little lower on each shot until her little peaks made an appearance, the stretch material on the lower slopes pushing them up to look maybe larger than they were. Soon the top was round her waist as a belt, then going down over her slim hips, so he had her lay down and pull the band of fabric slowly down her thighs, then over her shapely calfs. Holding up the discarded garment he did some close ups of her face looking through the circle of cloth, coaxing her to try different expressions for him to capture.

He was about to suggest inching the shorts down a little when time was called for the next outfit change. Anna liked the bikini, but any resort where it would be acceptable to wear it, would probably be somewhere which permitted naked sunbathing anyway. As she adjusted the three small triangles, she rubbed the lower one backwards and forwards several times trying to get some of her wetness to soak into the thin material, wanting to make a show for this guy that was trying so hard.

Having got this girl topless with the last costume, Jakiv soon had her playing with the ties, and the top was soon hanging loose to display her nascent breasts again. With her back to the camera, only the T shaped cord that disappeared between her butt cheeks, and the two white bows at her waist broke the delightful aspect of soft girlish pink skin.

Anna was enjoying this session as this new guy was much easier to work with, and he was polite in the way he was concerned he was not asking Anna to go past the type of pose that she would feel comfortable with, of course he would be unaware that this was within the range of her normal modelling work. As she slowly pulled the long cord that made up the bow on her left hip, he asked if she could tilt her head, and pull the cord with her teeth instead. Anna could see the loop get smaller as she raised her head, smiling round the cord gripped in her teeth as she winked at the camera, accompanied by the sound of rapid fire shutter release as the knot at last slipped free.

Jakiv had come to the conclusion that this girl was no stranger to the camera, nor to being naked for the camera, although she was at that awkward age where girls often got body conscious, either leading to flirtatious behaviour or excessive shyness, but here was a girl just comfortable in her own skin. She was a little extrovert, bubbly and joking, easy to talk to as they worked together, and he could see how a job working with young models like her would be a dream come true. He had given up trying to guess the true nature of the mystery job this try-out interview was for, he'd just give it his best shot, at the worse case they had paid his expenses and travel costs for the day, he'd have some fond memories of a great shoot, even if he didn't have any prints to take away from his day's work.

As she went to change for the last time, he took a moment to look around him at all the equipment in the studio, the camera he was using must be phenomenally expensive, and linked via a cord to all the computer equipment that was recording the image each time he pressed the shutter. It looked to be hooked up to some sort of modem and telephone cord, so maybe they were being sent directly to the company that was looking to hire some new photographic talent. The best kit he had was a single Russian SLR camera, with a couple of east German lenses, along with supporting him through college he owed his parents big time if he could ever get a job to repay them for the sacrifices they had made.

Before going back 'on stage' Anna peeked out to see her current photographer looking around the set at all the equipment, which she knew from talking to John and the others that it could easily cost hundreds of times more than any cameras owned by those college graduates that they would be seeing this weekend.

Despite her age he couldn't help thinking that this girl in a way looked sexy in the thin nightie she now wore, he was sure it was a theme his photographic heroes tried to display in their images of girls growing into their new bodies, and the new emotions that went with that. He wouldn't ask her to take off the flimsy garment, as even through several draped folds it still did little to obscure the girl it covered, instead it merely emphasized her budding sensuality.

John looked on as the second contender started to talk Anna through the poses of the last part of her set, though at first he hadn't rated the guy very highly, he'd shown a lot more promise with both Oxana and Anna. At first John had thought it was down to some initial nervousness, but now he was sure that Jakiv just related better to these younger models. That being the case, it could be they had found a likely prospect for a new member of the team, but there were still four more people to test before the weekend was through.

Jakiv was getting on so well that he lost track of time, being disappointed to hear John say it was nearly time to pack up. He was glad to find this girl was happy to try a few more adventurous shots to finish their session, and he thanked her sincerely, saying how much he had enjoyed working with her.

Rather than change back into the schoolgirl uniform, and risk getting it all creased while working on the forum, Anna just donned a robe to wear until her next photo call. Back in the make-up room the girls were crowded round the laptop where Oxana was taking turns with a few other models from around the country who were 'talking' with the members.

Between bouts of typing and translating they talked about the chap who'd just left, and how much better he seemed to work with girls within the usual age range of the Studio as they waited for the arrival of the last candidate of the day.

Jakiv shook hands with John as he prepared for his long journey home, hoping that he'd made a favourable enough impression, for if the job really did entail taking photographs of girls like the ones he had seen today he would be in Nirvana. Of the few interviews he had been to so far, this had been the most intense, submitting a portfolio was quite normal but then there had been a really long and fairly odd questionnaire, and today a long session in the studio with four girls from nineteen or twenty right down to a pre-teen model.

John collected today's last applicant from the waiting room, all of them had arrived early as had been anticipated, with jobs so thin on the ground it was essential to make a good first impression. This guy had an aura of confidence, but the next four hours would test his mettle, and hopefully they would find out if any of this weekend's crop really had what it took to join their Studio team.

As it was just past four in the afternoon it was still an hour short of one of the regular slots on the TTMF schedule, though members had been forewarned of the changes to the normal timetable. It was convenient for their live European audience, and east coast USA, but others would catch up later by following the the history of the current conversations taking place. On an additional Studio laptop that had been brought in, Anna now caught up with what had been happening while she was on set, pleased to note that members still had an interest in those girls that had retired from the site, thinking that if the banking scheme had been in place earlier the older girls could've by now been reaping the benefit.

The older of the two was now out on set meeting their last candidate of the day, and Anna got ready to take a turn at the keyboard to talk about her latest session, and say what she had thought of the second photographer with whom she'd spent the last hour. It seemed a good few of the people online were keen to know just what sort of relationship existed between models and their photographers, with a distinctive undercurrent of naughtiness.

Anna chided those making veiled suggestions, stating how important it was that the model felt both safe and confident that they could work well as a team to make images that their audience would appreciate. One person mentioned how her vocabulary would be more on par with an older girl in his own country, and that was without taking into account she was using a foreign language. This started a debate on how highly the models rated having a good education, as they wanted to go on to university when they left school so they could later find good jobs when they grew up.

Oxana finished her set a little early, then at last it was Anna's turn, she went reluctantly, for each of the other girls hadn't had anything nice to say about number three. She could feel it herself from the moment they were introduced, as if she wanted to wash with soap and hot water from shaking hands with the guy. She had changed into her first outfit back in the make-up room shortly before it was her turn, as she had taken the outfit back with her earlier, and now she felt a sense of unease that was hard to define, but she couldn't see the point of spending the next hour on set with a person who made all of the girls so uncomfortable.

After the first ten minutes she caught Johns attention, he could tell Anna wasn't happy, so he called her off to one side where they had a brief whispered conversation.

“John I know it sounds odd, but the others said they didn't like this guy, I feel the same way, so is there any point in going on, if four out of four models feel he isn't the sort of person they would be happy to pose for?”

He thought he had sensed a bit of an atmosphere, but wondered if he was projecting his own bias against the latest applicant. With the overwhelming opinion he could see it was pointless to continue with the charade and would call it a day, suggesting that the guy might look to pursue another branch of photography. Of course the reply he got back was to blame it on the snotty attitude of the girls saying he didn't think were experienced or behaving in a professional way. John was well aware of who the professionals were, and he couldn't see this guy ever becoming one in a field where interpersonal skills were vital.

John hung about near the front of the building as he watched the young man stalk-off towards the station, to head back to wherever he hailed from. John realised he was partly at fault for not bringing the session to a close earlier, as he should have noted the lack of rapport, though he had been studying the shots coming up on the monitor. In retrospect it was likely that the better shots were due to the girls trying harder regardless of how they felt about the guy holding the camera.

The two older models would have left for the day, each having filled out a sheet on the last photographer, but instead they had become involved in the Forum, as they had found it fun to take part. When John returned they talked about the first two candidates of that day, and it was agreed that Jakiv the second guy was pleasant to work with, and John said he had captured some good images that showed promise. They were undecided about the first applicant, but he had not yet been ruled out completely, it would very much depend on the talent of tomorrow's crop of hopeful contenders.

At last they all said their farewells to the Forum participants, as it was decided they would eat out together after such a long day's graft, with John feeling very lucky to have six nice female dinning companions; best of all the Studio would pay!

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For the next installment of the A New Model is Discovered franchize, see Chapters 56 through 60.

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