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 the high quality items as second hand, it would pay for several serviceable outfits that did not have brand labels, so it made 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, and noted Anna had observed the touches off set, and the looks, 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.

"OK, 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 return to read that instead."

"I sort of see what you mean, I think,.. they are horny, and I suppose it's 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 round 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 for the TTMF anyway.

Another girl was off to see a sick relative, and they had 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 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 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 the 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 how 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.

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 had 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 found somewhere else. Anna had gripped Irisha's hand, to calm her friend, telling her that was the past, and it was best to leave it there and move on.

With 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, and a lunch box to keep them going, and cut down on expenses. The scale of the operation made the economics viable, in that they never wasted food, and they could buy their groceries at wholesale prices, and everyone at the Squat gained from this benefit.

The women ran it as a business, and with the local trade, plus a weekly charge to all 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 Igor had handbills printed, and Taras and his crew had offered to distribute them for the ladies in exchange for a weeks free laundry, which 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 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 gamy leg who ran the place banked it for them, and 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 his 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 loved the expressions some of the older girls came out with, anyway she would find out later the reason for the 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, though 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 web sites. He had discovered how regular she was, and that was supposed to unusual for the first few years, which lead to a little more 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 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 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, and 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, and loosened 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 had 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, so you can forgive me if I'm a bit grumpy or off with you, but this is another 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 a 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 wouldn't want you to tell me you were taking the pill, she was probably concerned I would 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 as she was such a brilliant girlfriend, this had earned him a second blow-job, which proved in a way he was right.

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, and 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 caring thoughtful boyfriend. As it happened they normally got their post delivered quite early, but Karl's envelope stood out as it didn't have an 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, and found it was a delivery driver almost hidden behind a vast floral display, it took both girls and their mother to arrange the flowers in her largest vase, and 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 the main topic of conversation. Several names were put forwards, but they were all 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, regardless of a 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 wealthy 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 the class, as much for the phone as the flowers. 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 any nice card or 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 left for school in the morning, but she was pleased to find a card when she got home that afternoon. Opening the card she stared for a moment - then started to cry.

To be continued in Chapter 53.

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Hope you enjoyed the eagle eyed revelations in this chapter, but what do you expect from a nerd boyfriend? Could Anna's interest in sex be moving beyond theory and onanism? Finally what has caused Irisha to cry?

In reply to one of the comments left by a reader, my ego is not that large that I write my own reviews, if I did they would all be glowing. On the odd occasion when I add a note for readers in the review column I sign it with my usual nom-de-plume. SQ