Ivan's golden geese, get some well deserved recognition, and we see the first stages of the rise of an Empire.

The receptionist told the girls Ivan wanted to see them, but Valya needed to head off as she had an afternoon booking with one of her other models. Ivan warmly greeted the girls, when they arrived at his office, saying he had seen some of the rushes at Oksana's workstation, but he had left her to get on with the edit, as he didn't want to distract her.

With the digital media the process was much quicker than splicing film, or even editing old VHS tapes, and he expected the job would be complete later that afternoon.

He then told the girls his thoughts on the royalties, "I am proposing that for this range of videos where we have a scriptwriter producing a plot and dialogue, they should receive a 10% share of the royalties, and for this particular shoot a 50% share for Anna, as it was her concept, and it will probably be her name attached that will be the main selling point. That means you would get a 40% share Lisa, I want to know your feelings on this before I speak to your families about the arrangement."

Lisa spoke up immediately, saying how she was more than happy with 40% as she had only been expecting a third or less, when she become involved with this programme, and working with Anna could only improve her profile on the web site. Marta said she was also happy with her share as she was hoping to go on and write for each of the models that learned English.

Typically Anna made everyone laugh when she said she was happy just to have a job.

Ivan said he was glad they weren't going to bicker over over the arrangements, and he was confident that sales would ensure they were going to achieve the highest bonus scale due to the volume of demand when it was released. He said they had been planning for a release date on Friday, but he thought he might bring it forward to as soon as it was ready, if Dmitri had the resources in place to prevent the site from collapsing under the strain.

He was surprised when Marta asked if he was moving the date forward because he was in trouble with the directors, he replied honestly that it was the motivation behind his thinking, but once they saw the numbers from a second English video production, they would shut up and leave him alone to direct the output of the studio.

Marta asked if this was a good time to introduce another idea, at his raised eyebrows, she announced it was only a little one this time. Given the nod, she explained how reading the magazines she had thought they could theme either photo sets, or videos to suit some of the holidays celebrated in the US. Saying how it was getting too late for Labour Day, they could still think about Columbus Day, Halloween, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.

The phone rang, it was the receptionist to say Lisa's mum had come to fetch her.

She was hugged by the sisters, and Ivan took her hand, saying he would phone her parents later that evening, and with a wave she was off.

Ivan asked the girls to stay, calling Tanya for tea and pastries, "In the fairytale there was only one golden goose, but I have two, and they are sitting in front of me. Anna you keep breaking new ground, and setting new sales records, 'Cup Cakes' has been out for just over two weeks, and sales are not tapering off in the typical way we have seen on our other videos, as praise on the forum has even encouraged clients to buy your video who have never bought videos on our site before. Unless your popularity fades any time soon you will receive payment at the highest rate for all your photo sets and videos."

"Marta all of the ideas and suggestions you have raised so far have tightened up our operation and pointed the way ahead, over the next six months all our competitors will fall so far behind they won't even be playing in the same league. You are smart and have the Midas touch, if you study hard at a decent University I can see you being a success in any career or business venture you decide upon. Very shortly I am sure you will be earning as much per year as our highest paid models."

They spoke for a while longer, then went via their own office before heading home, Marta didn't see Karl about, but earlier that day he had been to see Dmitri seeking advice.

Karl considered himself a slow starter when it came to girls, partly due to his being a swat at school and also because of his nerdish interests and hobbies. Leaving school to join a company that would provide on the job training, and ensure he could pursue his education further, to obtain recognised qualifications was a dream come true. He was still trying to figure out how he had managed to get a date with a girl that smart and good looking, and though young, proved so mature for her age.

Thinking about all the possible guys he could ask for advice, he settled on Dmitri, as he seemed to have social skills the other men in the department lacked. After some beating around the bush he admitted how he was inexperienced with girls, and didn't want to say or do anything that would upset Marta,

Dmitri didn't think himself an expert,but handed out some sage advice about ignoring peer pressure, listening to what Marta had to say, and to ask her opinions, and he wasn't to be too concerned when he didn't understand her behaviour, no mere male could, as females were mercurial by nature.

One last item he passed on was to never reveal to anyone about his progress, regarding intimate aspects of their relationship. Girlfriends always found out regardless whether the details were true or not, and he would find himself dumped. A wrathful ex-girlfriend would be sure to tell every girl she knew about a guy that showed her such little respect on such personal matters. Therefore it would be hard finding a replacement girlfriend within that social circle.

Karl thanked him, and as he was about to go Dmitri had one last comment, "The corollary of that situation is, if you part with a girl on good terms, she is likely to tell her single friends about your virtues as a boyfriend."

Intellectually Karl was aware of the transient nature of teen relationships, though he didn't want to think about it, but when the time came he hoped that both he and Marta would remain friends. It was someone moaning about their caffeine fix that roused him from his introspective mood, to get on with the afternoon tea and coffee round.

With little ears at the dinning room table, the girls kept most of their news for later, but were eager for details from their father about his first day at his new employment.

Igor said how the the firm hadn't got enough managers for the number of men out working on various sites, so for the first week he would shadow two managers, then take on one of the teams from each man to start with. Ella and the boys had been out shopping for clothes ready for the new school term, which gave the girls an idea what they wanted to do tomorrow on the last day before the start of term.

Shortly after the meal, Marta got a call from Karl, to say how much he had enjoyed her company on Sunday, and how he had been sad to miss her today at work. He went on to say how he expected she would be busy, starting at a new school this week, and that he would be thinking about her, then asking what she might like to do if she had any time on Friday night, or over the next weekend.

After the call she was in a very good mood, and Anna sensing how Marta felt, did not tease her sister about Karl, it was great that he had thought to thank her for going out with him, and to show concern about her busy week ahead.

Marta and Anna were clothes shopping, the previous evening after the boys went up, they had talked of the day's filming, other than mention of the cheerleader theme, they stuck to details of the set dressing, and technical aspects out of sensitivity to their father. He had spoken to Ivan on the phone before they brought him up to date, and of their plans for hitting the shops. Igor went out to find an ATM, and brought them back a pile of cash for their planned blitz of the stores.

Passing a store window they saw a display of laptops, and went in, as they looked at the various specs, they realised they didn't have the knowledge to make an informed decision as to which would be the best choice, but they knew a man that did.

Marta called Dmitri, "Hi, we are in a computer store looking at laptops, we thought we would get one each for school work, and keep the other one for the 'business' files we were working on, but we need some advice."

He said he was glad they called as they didn't want to waste they're time and money buying I.T. kit at retail prices, and to pop in to see him later that afternoon, probably about teatime as there was a young man mooning around the office. Marta smiled at this, saying she would see him later.

A shop assistant who had seen the girls looking at high end laptops hadn't bothered to go over as he couldn't see a sale in it, had he been quicker, before Marta had thought to seek advice, he could have secured a possible deposit for two nice sales.

The café they stopped at for lunch was near the International School and some American students sat at the next table. They found it amusing the way these girls mangled the local tongue with an atrocious accent as they placed a food order, but then a while back their efforts could have been no better. Now their skills allowed them to follow most of the conversation on the adjoining table when the students reverted to their native language.

They hit a couple more stores, then stopped by at the house to drop off all their shopping, before going to the studio. They took their back-packs with them as that was where they kept their ID badges and various studio notebooks, and also their current laptop which was on this occasion in Anna's pack.

The receptionist saw them as they approached the building and made a swift call, then engaged the girls in conversation to delay them for a while, until Marta politely said they must go and see Dmitri.

The girls were astonished by their greeting on entering the IT department, party-poppers going off and cheering from those assembled, which included Ivan, Tanya, Oksana, John, Sandra and Valya. Stunned they stood there draped in bits of streamer, Ivan came to stand between them putting his arms over each girls shoulder.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our golden girls", followed by more cheering, "Late yesterday, our second English video production was released. The IT department put on line additional facilities to handle extra traffic, and to raise awareness Dmitri seeded the forum yesterday morning, his online persona having gained much credibility, our clients were eager to see, and listen to this second masterpiece"

"With the forum buzzing moments after the release, site traffic increased to the point that we would have crashed if not for the forward planning, and despite the additional capacity we are still running below an optimal speed, but we are coping. Voices on high who were doubtful of the merit of producing videos in English will now have to eat their own words" Ivan's pun was greeted with a mixture of groans and laughter.

"In conclusion when I was told earlier today two young ladies were looking to buy laptops for their school studies, I thought the directors owed them this much, so I spoke to the 'geeks' here in a language they understood and told them - make it so."

To more cheering they were each presented a new laptop, after the audience had dissipated, Dmitri said he would demonstrate to Anna the software that had been loaded and perhaps Karl could do the same for Marta, which caused the two teens to blush, but they were quick to head off to Marta's office while Anna sat with Dmitri. Anna soon picked up the basics of how to run the various additional programmes loaded on her new laptop, how to access the help files, and how best to organise the documents she created.

The girls thanked all the geeks for setting up their laptops, then went off to see Ivan.

Tanya told them he had left for a meeting with one of the directors, the man who had been one of the biggest detractors of the scheme, and laughingly told them how effusively he had apologised to Ivan, almost choking on humble pie.

Calling in at the imaging department they found Oksana and John together looking at the Natasha stats page, as they all watched together, Anna explained the various counters to her sister, just as she had been shown by John three months previously. Oksana made a comment about the high conversion rate, then explained how an unprecedented 92% of the people looking at the sample page were purchasing their video.

Anna could see the sales counter was moving slower than she remembered from last time but it was moving at a steady rate, not in fits and starts, John said how it was a larger file size than a set of stills, and the servers loading the files to their clients were working at full capacity. The software now in place gave a message saying they were currently busy due to demand and to try again soon. Oksana gave the girls a disk saying she had burnt them a copy of 'Cheerleader try-out' so they could watch the final edit at home.

They only watched the video through once that evening, before preparing for school the next day, on advice from the their fellow students they had each purchased a new back-pack for their school books and supplies. These were in bright fashionable colours, unlike the ones they used for studio visits, to avoid any possibility of arriving at school with the wrong note books, and scripts they didn't feel their teachers would appreciate.

The girls arrived early, not being too certain how busy the trains would be on the route they needed to get to school. They were met by Eve, who shared the same class assignments as Anna, and they found Marta would be in most of the same classes as Marina, another of the girls they had met the previous Wednesday.

An assembly was held to welcome both new and returning students, the headmaster, and a few other staff members read out various notices about changes, or regarding events on the school calender. Finally before they were dismissed the headmaster announced that the school had secured the part time services of an English teacher, and any students wishing to take lessons should fill in an application form available from the office.

Places were limited this term, but when it had been determined how many students were interested, a schedule would be arranged, and the successful students would have their timetables revised for these classes. He failed to mention that the businessman who had been responsible for sponsoring this had given him a list of girls that he 'suggested' would benefit from attending said classes. He thought it wise to listen to a generous benefactor.

During the course of the day it turned out that each of the girls on the list applied to take English lessons, as did some of the other students who could see how this might improve their future career prospects.

Between classes when Anna and Eve had a chance to get to know one another, they discovered they lived on nearby streets, but Eve had got a ride in to school with her dad that morning, otherwise they would have been on the same train. Eve also had a seven year old brother going to the school Greg and Peter had just started, and the girls thought it funny their mums might meet at the school gate and not know of the connection.

Marina had introduced Marta to her classmates, and before long she realised one of the boys was trying to chat her up, although she was flattered by the attention she politely said that she already had a boyfriend, but that didn't mean she couldn't have friends who were boys, if they were aware she was spoken for. She was pleased her new found confidence had allowed her to tactfully handle the situation, which previously, before Valya's help and advice she couldn't even have imagined arising.

After school they rode back on the Metro with Eve, and they walked together most of the way home, Eve turning off at a road opposite the nearby park, they arranged to meet at that junction the following morning.

The main topic at the dinner table that evening was the children's respective schools, and how much nicer, and better equipped they were than those they had attended beforehand.

Greg and Peter said how they were going to write to Nana Olga and Gramps, which they did about twice a week, Anna feeling a little guilty said perhaps a letter from her or Marta was a little overdue, and they both resolved to put pen to paper.

During the next two days the girls settled into their new school, and were glad to find that although they had a set of friends there from the studio, it was quite informal, meaning they socialised and interacted in various other groups. Marta could pursue her interest in folk dancing, and chess through the school, and Anna appropriately joined the drama club, and now as music lessons were on her curriculum she was thinking about learning to play something, but was unsure if she would try for guitar or take up keyboard tuition.

Ella was also starting to integrate into the local community via her contact with other mums at the school gate, when dropping off and picking up the boys. Magda had introduced Ella to several others, and she was invited to coffee mornings, and told of outings they some times arranged both with and without the kids.

Some men in Igor's position, may have felt emasculated, in what was a somewhat macho culture, to have his daughters become the main family breadwinners, but he was above all a practical man, and in any situation knew you had to work with what was available to find a solution. Anna's joining the studio had come at a time when prospects were looking glum, and as things turned out, it was not a moment too soon. Marta was now also receiving a stream of regular cheques, financial worries were thankfully a thing of the past.

Though the state of the economy as a whole was depressing, the city seemed vibrant, and the company he was working for had full order books, and long term contracts with a wide range of solid customers. If the studio were to disappear tomorrow he felt safe in the fact his new job would pay the bills, and money saved in the bank from the girls earnings were a cushion for unexpected expenses. All his children were learning English, even he and Ella were starting to pick it up from listening to the kids, and hearing it on the radio or TV, and he could now proudly look to a future where all four kids would have the opportunity to take up a university education.

Another person with a lot of settling-in to do was Svetlana, who had now arranged lesson timetables at both schools, and arranged a common set of text books she would use for all her school based pupils. Schools needed to work towards passing exams, but her pupils in her extra-curricular studio work needed a wider knowledge, to manage the language at a conversational level. At each school she had four different classes who each had two lessons per week, and she had told them all they could expect to work hard, and have a mass of homework, slackers wouldn't be tolerated, they could revert to their old timetable.

Ella's time used to be taken up with shopping for fresh food most days, checking the prices to get the best value, with a limited budget to fill their larder and small refrigerator.

In her new kitchen there was a large refrigerator and a large freezer that she was slowly filling up, some meals she cooked in double size quantities, in order to freeze some for any days when she might be short of time to cook from scratch.

It was still a novelty opening her purse to find adequate amounts of cash rather than find a paltry few coins, now shopping meant buying what the family wanted, not just what they needed to exist. She didn't waste money, but items once thought of as a treat for high days and holidays were no longer indulgences, and she could now cook meals that previously she would have thought of as extravagant. She loved cooking something new for her family, and watching them enjoy the meals she had prepared for them.

Her initial ideas of growing her own vegetables, had been tempered to instead having a herb garden for her kitchen, with perhaps a few tomatoes and salad greens next year, so they would be really fresh. She was also planning what flowers to add to the existing borders of the garden, not wishing to take up any of the lawn where her boys loved to play.

At the studio for the first two or three weekends after school started, there was usually very little activity as most of their models would be busy getting settled in for the new school term, and staff who had been working throughout most of the hectic summer would be taking well deserved breaks. Each of the models would have built up their portfolio, in order that they had some unreleased sets ready for distribution over the next few months, until they were able to get back into the studio.

For those girls that enjoyed the work and flourished in front of the camera, most of their shoots were during the long summer break, with further shoots at Christmas and Easter, with additional work during half terms or snatched weekends here and there. It was hardest for the girls that lived furthest away from Kiev, but if they proved popular and they gained a following, then the studio made an effort one way or another to ensure that it was possible for them to have a lucrative career.

At the studio, other than the administration and IT departments, there was now little more than a skeleton crew, and most of those were doing all those catch-up jobs and house keeping functions that had been delayed over the summer, maintenance, checking over the supplies, and deciding which of the older costumes or sets could be disposed of.

Ivan after talking to Dmitri, made some new proposals to the directors, who owned several other studios, each with it's own style of output. At the start of the school break this year he had been out to some of the talent scouting auditions himself, which is when Anna had been discovered. In that sweep they also picked up some new girls for one of the other studios in the group that did the softest range of output, as had been shown to the girls and their parents in the red album having just a few up-skirt type panty shots.

He didn't have many dealings with that studio, but the joint scouting expeditions they ran together were worthwhile, and sometimes the models wanted to move on to join his studio once they had gained some confidence and experience.

One of the new topics that Ivan brought to the meeting was the technical issues of dealing with the peaks and troughs in web traffic, as shown in the recent high demand for his star model. The scheme was to have one large server farm to handle the traffic for all the web sites hosted at the various studios, as the up-scaling would have many cost and technical benefits, with the greater capacity, each studio would have a faster delivery, and the multiple peaks from the various sources would even out.

Ivan was on a roll, he had even distributed transcribed print-outs from the client forum which raved about the English videos, and talk about their latest announcement that a new forum would be starting later in the year, where there would be participation from some of the models from the site. After a vigorous debate he was able to answer all of their queries and quell any fears about the proposed changes, which lead to a unanimous vote for each of the items on Ivan's agenda.

To be continued in chapter 19

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