Igor Yevtishenkov - School Stories in English and Russian

«Evening, Peter’, she began in her Russian way. She was nervous for sure. There were too many mistypings in her second email. He smiled; she usually made a lot of thumbos when texting, too. «I have a very unusual question to you. You see, I have a very close friend. She lives in Saint Petersburg. We have been close since childhood. It’s a very long story. But now she is in trouble. She has a boy-friend in the UK. They met at Malta last year. And unfortunately, she fell in love. But he does not reply to her emails anymore. That guy even changed his Skype account and she cannot call him now. So, she wrote him a verse. Could you be so kind to have a look at her version that I also tried to correct a little bit, please? Please, do not comment and no jokes. It is a sensitive matter.»

Peter smiled. He was obviously flattered. Mary’s words gave him quite a thrill. He no longer thought why Mary kept this a secret though girls usually adored to gossip about such stories. He felt the inspiration overwhelming him. Here, he began to read:

Peter fell into deep thought and entered his own world where time stood still. Even though there were very many mistakes in the verse, it touched him. He was typing and thinking, and noticed nothing around him. His father knocked at his door twice and even half-opened it, but Peter did not turn around. «Hard worker as I am’ – thought Dad and went back to his room. Peter meanwhile kept on doing his unusual «homework». Finally, he was through. He relaxed and read the lines from the very beginning:

Peter was satisfied. It sounded good and Mary’s friend’s guy is likely to be surprised. Undoubtedly. That’s what they wanted and they’ll get it. Email disappeared from the screen and dropped into Mary’s incoming box in the north suburbs of Moscow. She started when the speaker beeped loudly, and clicked the envelope icon with a trembling hand. As she was reading it brought tears to her eyes. She was looking at a young boy’s picture in her hands and whispered his name. It was the guy she met at Malta the year before. She could see nothing but his face and was quietly crying.

But Peter couldn’t see it. He was far away. His throat was soaring. He wanted to drink. So, he rushed to the kitchen. Mum and Dad waited for him over there.

«Sonny, you look a little odd’, said Mom.

«Yes, I am’, Peter agreed and smiled.

«Was your homework so interesting?», wondered Dad with a witty smile. «I opened your door twice but you even did not react.»

«Oh, yes, it was. You’re right’, Peter said with a happy smile.

«I told you’, he nodded to Mum. «He is clever and can adjust to any circumstances.»

«Sure, you did’, smiled Mum. «Like father like son.»

«Come on, honey, do not exaggerate’, said Dad. «Nowadays they have completely different homework. They know so much. It’s fantastic. I do envy them. And their homework must be also interesting.»

«Oh, yes, it is’, Peter confirmed candidly. «I wish I could have it always as much interesting as tonight!»

All three sat around the table and began to talk merrily about their family matters. Everyone was happy in his own way. The homework was done.

The mild and tender autumn wind hasn’t yet turned into a penetrating and icy one. Air petted face and touched it as carefully and softly as if it was afraid of frightening it. Every next morning seemed to be nicer and more charming than the previous one, and Andrey Ivanovich was fascinated with «the golden days’ of that autumn. At the very least in the mornings on his way from home to the local school he has just begun to work for as an English teacher. As soon as he stepped across the school’s threshold his mood has changed dramatically. Two months have passed and more or less the pupils got used to him and his requirements. But, half of them didn’t want to learn, no matter what he did.

Young Larisa Ivlev burst into blossom much earlier than any of the other eighth form girls. Meeting her in the street, all ’made up’ in an abundance of «paint and feathers’, he’d hardly recognize her as one of his pupils. Now, dressed up in some fashionable but cheap clothes like a young starlet she raised her brows high and her hair almost hid them. Her eyes, wide-open, were naive and sincere. If he hadn’t known this girl before, he’d say she was a Virgin Mary’s sister or her sister-in-law at the very least. She zipped her jacket down a little so that zip-fastener stopped fifteen centimeters below collarbones. Until she stood straight, it was OK. Meanwhile Larisa leaned forward and planted her elbows on the desk. Her chin rested cosily in her palms. He was sitting at the desk and filling in the class register. The girls and the boys stopped chatting and watched her out of the corner of their eyes; heads forward, idiotic look on their faces, hoodies and headsets in the ears. He shook his head thinking his view was one-sided.

«Andrey Ivanovich,» she half-whispered half-curred in a seductive voice. «You know, I have to admit…» she made a short pause like a good actress and went on, «I haven’t done my home work, unfortunately.» The last word was pronounced with so low and mourning voice that it took him all his power to stop laughing. He pulled himself up, anyway, and looked up.

«That’s really a very deplorable fact,» he copied her intonation. «My condolences… But let me ask, Ms. Ivlev why did you fail to do it?» he exuded charm.

«Oh, that was a very sad story. But in short, I was at a hospital.»

«Sorry. And how long did it take you?» He was as kind and caring as her own father couldn’t be at that moment.

«Half a day. Why are you questioning about that? Did you see me somewhere?», she smiled with a silly smile many young girls used to thinking it makes them look more irresistible and intriguing.

«No, I didn’t. So, you were back in the afternoon, weren’t you?», he raised his brows and she let hers down.

«Yes, I was. I don’t remember exactly… But you’re right. Sort of.»

«Did you have dinner yesterday or did you miss it because of this unpleasant visit, Ms. Ivlev?», he asked with sympathy.

«Yes, I did. No problem,» she leaned her head down to a shoulder a little bit.

«Did you have your supper as well?», he kept asking.

«Yes, I did, Andrey Ivanovich. What are you implying? That I should be on a diet?», she pushed out her lower lip and gave a disgusted laugh.

«No, not at all. But let me ask you the last question. Did you get to bed on time?»

«Oh, now I see what you’re getting at,» she smiled openly. «Yes, I did. Alone and happy. I dreamt wonderful dreams,» she began to whisper again. «And I even dreamt about you. Imagine that..?»

«I’d rather not,» he narrowed his eyes and whispered in return. «I can’t find any excuse for you being so unprepared, Ms. Ivlev. «I don’t want to hear about your nice, long dreams. If you had time for sleep, you had plenty of time to do your homework beforehand. Give me your assignment book, please.»

«Maybe we can talk about English in another way? Why don’t you call me Larisa?», she did not give up. She threw back her shoulders and a thin line between two sides of her zip opened up much wider than necessary. She arched her back and looked at him, raised her shoe-heel up waving it as a banner over her skirt-tightened buttocks.

«Hardly we can’, he said sharply and moved his head forward as if he wanted to look into her eyes deeper.

«Why are you looking at me like that?», she was embarrassed, obviously. She blushed but came back fast. The girl had too far gone to be brought back that easily. «What can you see in my eyes, Andrey Ivanovich?»

«Nothing, unfortunately. However, let me have another look,» he furrowed his brow, looking like he really wanted to find something good in there. Then a previously unseen taste for sarcasm overcame him. «Yes, I can. I can see the back of your skull and nothing else. Do I make myself clear, Ms. Ivlev?»

«You are humiliating me!», she yielded. «You are traumatizing my soul!.. You are trying to psyche me out!…

«Wow! You know such words! It’s praiseworthy,» he smiled.

«I’m telling my mother and our form mistress!»

«It’s up to you. You may report to the Prime Minister or the President, if you like, but your assignment book should be on my desk right now. This morning I saw you smoking with your classmates around the corner. One of them was Alex from the tenth form. He swigged from a bottle of beer.»

«So what? It’s none of your business!», she spoke out of turn. He just gave a «who-cares’ kind of shrug.

«Sure. However it confirms the fact you weren’t short of time yesterday, or today. You should either get up earlier or go to bed later. And you’d be better off studying than smoking, you know. So, there’s no excuse. No mitigating circumstances.» At that moment the headteacher came up to the door and asked to talk to him. He went out. The girls and boys didn’t think he was close to the door, so, they couldn’t hear him coming back after his talk with the headteacher. But he could hear them.

«He must be crazy. He talks too much. I know what to do myself. He’d be better off not teaching me. You smoke, you don’t study, you can’t read. Who cares what I do? I’m not his daughter. What the hell does he want?», this girl was bursting with anger.

«Maybe he’s a sort of do-gooder?», another one asked.

«What? Bollocks! Tell it to my old aunt Fanny! There are no saints in this world, my mother says. And she really knows such kind of things, believe me!», she couldn’t calm down.

«Of course, she does! We’ve heard all about her. She’s living with her nephew now, right?», the latter one said with a poisonous tone.

«I’ll kill you, you bitch!», the first girl screamed.

«Spare yourself, stupid. Kill your Mom first and kiss my arse!», the other girl seemed so self confident. Andrey Ivanovich guessed who was who. Then the bell rang.

«Hey, you, both, stop that! Right, what’s the next lesson?», someone else stepped in to interrupt.

«Biology.»

«Shit. We’ve got to hurry. Come on, let’s get out of here!»

A dozen of pupils swept away from the class and disappeared down the stairs. Andrey Ivanovich looked at the quiet classroom and began to prepare to the next lesson. The sixth form was supposed to be there in ten minutes.