Disaster Strikes

While Marta was next door Anna quickly searched the cases then went into the bathroom, after packing Anna had filled every spare inch of each case with soft toilet rolls, which she now put away leaving one out, next she placed a pretty basket she had brought on the self and preceded to arrange assorted feminine hygiene items as she would a flower display.

Looking at the basket,made her think about her own body, and the changes that were slowly happening, until now periods were just something you had when you were older, growing up, a rite of passage into womanhood, like she knew her mum had them, but with her big sister starting, it made it more real. She knew Marta would share anything about this new experience, and as her own were probably some years away yet, there was no need to dwell on it now.

With the family gathered in the main room they maintained the subterfuge that Anna had gone to Kiev with her mum to visit an old friend of mummy's, for you couldn't be sure what they might repeat outside the home. Ella made the obligatory enquiry as to if the boys had been good, then handing Greg a book from the zoo, told him they could lay on mummy and daddy's bed and he could read it to Peter, they had thought it best to spread out their gifts one at a time. Anna and her mum then related tales of their adventure they had not covered in their nightly phone calls, then Anna asked her sister if she would help her learn English, getting out the books she had been given.

Supper ran late that night, and not long after the boys were in bed, Ella claimed to be tired and pulled Igor off to bed, it was so fake the girls could hardly contain their giggles.

Now they were alone, they discussed Marta's recent event, and how she had managed to save one of her new pairs of panties just in time, Anna then retrieved a small wrapped gift for her sister, two matching bra and panty sets.

Marta declared she had the best ever sister, also laughing about the arrangement in the bathroom complete with little instruction leaflets. At this point she wanted to know more about the modelling sessions themselves, something that had only been skimmed over when they had all been sitting around the table. Anna went on to give a blow by blow account leaving nothing out, not even the Vaseline, or all the information and advice Valya had given her, and then on to how she had even got closer to mum by the end of the trip.

Marta was amazed that Anna had been given a computer of her own, but Anna insisted the computer was for them to share. She got that out next, set it on the table, and plugged in the lead to top up the battery, she handed Marta the password to read out as she typed in the letters and symbols, a little note popped up on the screen with instructions for how to look at the downloaded website and the full size picture directories. The notes were simple to follow, and when they got to the site log on screen John had made her user name, her ID badge number, and the password was the same number backwards twice.

Marta had of course never seen any pictures from the modelling agency, so Anna said she would try to give her a tour of the site just as John had done for her.

Now it was Marta who watched spellbound, as they first saw the introduction page with the faces of the more popular models dressed in their colourful costumes, Anna told her the next bit was funny with the teasing pictures of the girls with their nipples and pussies hidden behind shiny stars.

Anna moved on to the page that had five choices in order to move on, - Meet the Models - Pictures - Videos - What's New - and Members Forum, Anna clicked on 'What's New'.

On this screen 'Natasha' was one of the two featured girls, Anna showed her the sheet of paper translating what it said on the screen.

Natasha - 10 years old, lives on the Black sea coast, she has a dog and two cats, she likes western pop music, dancing and horse riding. Her dream job is to be a vet when she grows up. So far the lovely Natasha has one photo set for your delight - but if you like her as much as we do we'll be sure to invite her back.

Anna went back to click on 'Meet the Models' - explaining the details she had been told, and about why some girls also had a little winking star because those girls had videos.

Scrolling down they found 'Natasha's' picture with the flashing sign which apparently said - 'New Model added this Month'.

She clicked through to a page topped with the same photo and stuff from the 'What's New' page with other other text about set number one, then three medium sized images from the set. By now Marta sat goggle eyed, here were pictures that showed her sister in every tiny detail, they had shared a bath since Anna was old enough to crawl, but somehow this seemed even more personal. Pointing out one picture Anna said she thought of it as her signature image, saying she had done similar poses at her audition and then again in set number two, then she scrolled through line after line of little thumbnails,

She then told Marta about the 'Members Forum' page, when they clicked through Anna soon realized that when John had loaded this onto the computer her web page must have been running for nearly a whole day, when she had last looked at this forum her page had only been running for about three hours.

Anna showed Marta how it looked like lots of text conversations going on at once, between lots of people in different languages, but mostly in English.

They found they had to hit the page down button over twenty times before they got to the page where 'Natasha' was first mentioned, Marta said they should slowly scroll through once and read any Russian entries, then start again at the earliest English entries and work forwards using the dictionary to get a clue as to the other entries about 'Natasha'.

Her next idea was to make a list of the names of all the models talked about in the forum and give each girl a tick when they saw her name.

They were still at it at about one in the morning, when their mum woke up in need of the bathroom, there followed a half hearted telling off and the girls quickly got ready for bed.

As they settled down Anna asked why Marta had a pad in her panties, instead of the tampons, which she said she had been using, leading to a discussion on safe use and how long a girl could wear one. As they snuggled down together Anna's last thoughts of the day were how she seemed to be learning new stuff all the time recently.

For the girls the next day started far too early, only to be told, not to stay up so late.

Other than a brief visit across the hall with her mum to take some small gifts, Anna spent a lot of time with Marta over the next two weeks studying the English books, then trying to read entries in the forum for practice. Anna had another bright idea to help them, tuning the radio to an English speaking station to help them pronounce this foreign tongue.

Unlike in the west most workers in the Ukraine were paid on a weekly basis, and so it was for Anna's modelling agency, there had been a cash sign up payment, a little over a week after the two photo shoots a cheque arrived for the shoot fees as in the contract, now they had also received two cheques associated with the downloads of set one for each week.

The letter with the second payment stated 'Natasha' downloads had passed a break-point, meaning her fees on those sales would be at a higher percentage rate.

Igor being a cautious man had taken advise about opening a new bank account, it was with a different bank than his company used to pay him, just in case the bank staff might speak to his employers.

Anna had known that Marta was more fluent than her in Russian, which is one of the reasons she had asked they learn English together, partly because she liked doing things with her big sister and partly that her greater language skills would push Anna harder.

They had also been learning to use other programs that were installed, using one to make up a table of the models showing how many times their names showed up on the forum, and adding information on their set details.

It was while Marta was entering details of the number of videos a model had done that Anna suddenly slapped herself on the forehead saying how stupid she felt. When Marta asked what the problem was, Anna explained when they looked on the website she had shown Marta the same as she had been shown, they had also looked at other models, they had even checked out the high res picture directories, but she had never clicked on the Video tab on the site. Both girls groaned at having missed what was right in front of them.

Their mum had gone out with the boys, so now was an ideal time, they found the tab clicked and there was a gallery of well known faces, Anna just clicked on the first one, that opened to a page showing that the girl had three videos, with their rudimentary English and the aid of a dictionary they they thought two were videos of photo shoots, and the other said something about a lake. Anna clicked on the first file name. Nothing happened. Then the laptop made a few short noises and a new window opened, then a video started with sound, the girl was on a set with a backdrop painted as an enormous bowl of fruit, with some pop melody as a back-ground, as the girl moved through different poses you could see the flash of the infill lights.

You could hear a woman's voice giving the girl directions, "That's Sandra" shouted Anna, "she's the one that took my first pictures at the audition" The video continued and the girl only took part of the costume off not that it mattered because all girlie bits were on show.

"Well now you've seen a real photo shoot like I've done only I didn't have music."

The second video was similar to the first, just a different set and costume, the third one was filmed outside, a lake surrounded by pine forest, no live sound only a music track as the girl takes off a summer dress, plays on the sandy bank then takes off her panties to play in the water, splashing water near, but not at the camera.

They listed each video they watched making notes as they went, if they had any really good or bad points, after a while unless a video showed merit they skimmed through them.

It was just before their mum was due back Anna got her second idea, Marta joking that she would blow a fuse with two ideas in one day.

Anna told Marta that she had been studying sets done by the most popular models but for some time had not found any good tips, her new idea was to study the worst girls to see why they did badly - then make sure she didn't do things like them, Marta agreed.

As the boys spent a lot of their time in the apartment during the summer holidays, the girls and their parents had taken to using the term 'project' when referring to anything to do with the modelling agency or web site. So when Ella returned she asked if the girls were still doing project work to which Anna told her, "Of course we are Marta is my manager, we've written down lots of ideas for the next set" Marta was pleased her sister appreciated her help, but they were both enjoying themselves, and she had been helping Anna brush up on her Russian, and their progress with English was slowly improving.

After lunch the girls sat at the table with their brothers and played a game the boys were really starting to enjoy. An increasing number of objects were placed on the table and they took turns asking one another to pass this or that object in English, they were now trying to make longer phrases using the words they knew, such as the size or colour of an item.

The boys of course were just learning to speak English whereas the girls were trying to read the language as well, which was very hard as it used a different alphabet, when young Peter started to get get restless, they took the boys out to the local park to play ball, as they did on most fine days so their mother could have a little time to herself.

Seventeen days after their return from Kiev their supper was disturbed twice by the phone ringing, Igor answered, listening to the caller and giving brief replies, he had not long sat down when it rang again, as the boys had finished eating, he motioned for Ella to take them off to the bedroom to read. Anna had heard her dad thank Ivan during the first call, and now it seemed he was talking with Valya and taking down notes.

After the call he asked Marta to go and read with the boys and send her mum back saying he knew Anna would tell her all the ongoing news later.

The word was that set one had done so well, that the downloads had now started to slow down to the point that the sales department had released set two after just nineteen days because of interest shown in 'Natasha' on the members forum.

Anna had for-filled the terms of her initial contract for two sets within the first six months, so they were offering to extend the contract with a better starting percentage on each of her new sets, a letter with copies of the contract should be there tomorrow. They also wanted Anna to return to the studio in a weeks time so they could shoot two more sets as they liked to have a minimum of at least one unreleased set of each of their models once they had proved themselves.

The call from Valya was to confirm she would be working with Anna and leaving her mobile and home phone numbers in case Anna had any questions, her mother hugged her as she saw her face colour a little at Valya's message.

Later that night Marta said they needed to make the best use of their time planning for Anna's visit so that she could impress them even more, they would spend all of the next day looking at the sets of the least popular models, Marta said they should look for girls that had done only one or two sets, that had been with the agency for more than a year, those were the ones who had probably not had their contracts renewed.

Marta said they would be able find those girls quickly from the model information table they had already set up, then they should spend the rest of the time to check the remaining videos, so that Anna would already know what to do if they asked her to do one.

When in the morning they told their mother about their 'project' plans she told them they could use her bedroom to avoid little eyes and ears.

They soon had a list of five models with only one set that was more than a year old, and two more with only two sets, by early afternoon they had figured out why the girls had failed as models, their smiles looked forced, their postures looked awkward, and they agreed the girls some-how seemed uncomfortable in front of the camera.

That evening Marta read the boys stories in the bedroom while Anna sat with her parents and looked through the new contract documents, which they signed in order to return one copy the following day.

They now had five days to study the videos, each time they felt like a break they would go and play with Greg and Peter or take them outside for some fresh air. Among the videos they had found, there were recordings of girls during studio photo shoots, there were also a number of outdoor shoots like the first one they had seen but in many different locations, riverbanks, lake sides, forests, hillsides, and down at the coast. Anna was excited at the next location they found, it appeared to be one of the company apartments, not the one she had stayed in but one very similar, it featured a girl in the kitchen, only wearing a brief top with no panties drinking juice, and eating ice-cream, and spilling it on herself as an excuse to take that off as well.

They found other girls in various apartments, most naked, or nearly so, doing house work, laying about reading, dancing, or using a bed as a trampoline. Then they found one that made Anna squeal out loud, "That's my bathroom, the place that we stayed" they watched as a girl filled the bath, fussed around with all the soaps and cosmetics on the counter-top, then a number of shots as she bent over to add bubble-bath in the tub. Later shots showed the bubbles running down her wet skin, which she then rinsed off, finally wrapping herself in one of the big fluffy towels.

Singing it's praises Anna was saying you can see why I wanted to bring that bath room home with me, there were no rough scratchy places in that bath.

In the next type of video they encountered, the girls were talking as they went about what ever they were doing, and in some the girls were singing along to some song playing in the background, then they found two videos where the girls started the video by talking to the camera - IN ENGLISH. They replayed those parts over and over until Marta said she had worked out what the first girl had said, "Hello my name is Katya, I am thirteen years old, I am going to dance for you."

"Of course" Anna said, "All those girls speaking in Ukrainian or in Russian, to the guys buying the videos it would be the same as us listening to Chinese, that girl Katya is saying something they can understand, that is what I need to do. Let's look her up in our table."

They found that the girl was not the most popular by the number of photo sets, but she had made six videos, and she had only been with the studio for just over eighteen months, it turned out the other girl had only two photo sets and two videos, and from the dates had been with the studio five months, they watched all of them.

On Saturday afternoon disaster struck, the whole family were in the park together when Ella stumbled on some rough ground and twisted her ankle, that night after the girls had put the youngsters to bed, they waited apprehensively for their parents to return from the hospital. Their mum came home on crutches, unable to place any weight on her foot which was all bandaged up, there was no way she would be able to make the trip to Kiev on Monday and she had been advised by the doctor to rest.

They moved the discussion to the bedroom to avoid disturbing the boys, Anna at first saying she could travel by herself, but her dad saying she was too young, and the studio had rules saying she had to be accompanied. Anna then said her dad could go with her, but he said he could not get the time off work without notice, and if he just upped and went they would sack him, and it was too soon to burn their bridges.

Marta stepped in to say she would go with her sister, the argument was then about them both being too young, and back to the rules saying she had to be accompanied, Marta then asking if it said how old the person had to be who came with the model, and so it raged on, until Ella called a halt as her pain medicine was making her sleepy.

Back in the main room Anna thanked her sister, but said the situation looked hopeless, and she didn't know if they would mess up the contract if she missed a shoot. Marta told her to get the paperwork out and bring it to the table as she wanted to check something out.

Marta scanned through the pages of typing until she found the section she was looking for.

"The model must on all studio photographic or video production shoots be accompanied by a family member or a person designated by them to ensure the model's well being."

"A family member, it doesn't say how old they have to be, Valya said to call if you have any questions, that is a question, you told me she has been a good friend to you, so let's give her a call in the morning, if this doesn't work she may have another idea."

Anna hugged her sister, "I may not be the best model yet, but I do have the best manager."

Sunday morning Marta got the boys up, and sent them off to the bathroom, then on their return knocked on her parents door, at her dads call to come in she stuck her head in the door stating they needed to look after the boys for ten minutes, as she and Anna had some-thing to do, without waiting for an answer she pushed the boys in and closed the door.

Anna was concerned it might be too early, but Marta said it was an emergency and Valya would understand. They had decided to try the home number first, after just a few rings a sleepy voice answered the phone.

"Hello."

"Hello am I speaking with Valya?"

"Yes, who is that?"

"My name is Marta, we haven't met, but you were recently so kind to my little sister Anna when she worked at your studios" The 'little' had got Marta a friendly poke in the ribs.

"Yes she is so precocious, I enjoyed working with her, and I liked your mum too, but I'm sure you didn't ring me so early on a Sunday morning without a good reason."

"Yes you're right, mum badly twisted her ankle yesterday, and has been told she must rest it, so I was wondering, if it would be OK for me to accompany Anna instead?"

"I'm sorry to hear about you mum, give her my regards, I hope she is up and about soon.

I thought your mum said you were thirteen, and I'm sure the studio rules say that the models have to be accompanied by someone over eighteen."

"That's what my dad said as well but I was looking through the papers from the studio and I'll read out what it says 'The model must on all studio photographic or video production shoots be accompanied by a family member or a person designated by them to ensure the model's well being' so it doesn't say how old they have to be, my dad can't come because of work and I don't want to let her down, please help us."

Valya was moved by the girl's dedication to help her younger sister, they may be from a impoverished little provincial town but the one thing neither girl lacked was spirit or drive.

"OK I'll tell you what I'll do, in an hour or so I will phone my boss Ivan, explain the problem to him, and the fact we would have trouble trying to pull in another model to use the studio time, then I will offer to look after the two of you, that's the best I can come up with."

The phone call ended with a chorus of thanks from Anna and Marta.

They ran to their parents room to give them the news, but of course the boys were there, so they made vague remarks about how their friend Valya was going to help with their 'project' and she would phone back later in the morning and that she sent mum her best wishes to get better soon.

About an hour later the boys once again found themselves with their favourite elderly neighbours, as the rest of the family anxiously awaited a call from Kiev, and somehow the girls had failed to mention they had discussed last nights plan; the one that their father had vetoed.

The phone at last rang and Igor answered, finding Ivan on the other end, the conversation seemed mostly one sided, but their was mention of how someone at the studio was going to be in trouble about poorly worded contracts, from what followed you would think the studio had raised the idea of the sisters coming together. Before Igor had a chance to object he was being asked to confirm he was happy for Valya to be their chaperone from the moment they stepped off the train to the moment they got back on, and of course she would stay over in the apartment with them.

And so as they say it was a done deal. The girls high fived.

Now the situation was resolved they had to get organised, and Marta said as she was Ann's manager she had a plan, they would say the girls were off visiting a relative of a school friend in Kiev, and they would ask if Nana Olga could spend some time each day at their apartment for a while to help mum out with the boys until she was back on her feet.

Ella liked the idea of some female company other than pubescent girls asking awkward questions for a change, and besides Olga doted on the boys.

Igor was man enough to know when he was beaten, the females in his life just seemed to get their own way, so he said he would go and talk to Olga and Gramps, then take the boys to the river and back to tire them out.

Marta and Anna sorted the clothes they would need for a four day stay, then added the laptop and their English books dividing the load between the two cases, then Ella spoke to Marta about her calender, saying she should always have some pads with her as a girl's cycle could be irregular when she first started, but if she later became like her mum she could set her watch by it.

Later that afternoon, while Ella was reading to Greg and Peter, Igor called the girls into the bedroom, where he spent a long time basically telling them to be well behaved and to look after each other, then he handed each of them a tidy pile of small denomination notes, telling them never to carry all their money in their bags, or in one pocket, or to pull out more money than they were about to spend, but if someone tried to rob them give up the money, money could be replaced but he only had two daughters.

The next morning he saw them to the station before he went to work, they were to catch the five o'clock train to Kiev that on this occasion was only ten minutes late, and so began Marta's first great adventure and Anna's second.

To be continued in chapter 5