Paying good deeds forward (Evelyn). on Pecari Commons

Tatiana Vorontsova

August 27, 2018 2:10 PM

Paying good deeds forward (Evelyn). by Tatiana Vorontsova

It still lacked a samovar, sadly, and sometimes there were strange people, but Tatiana had become gradually more comfortable with the Pecari common room. She did her homework in her own room, where it was quieter and she could concentrate without the background noise of English, but it was not uncommon for her to sit in the common room to read, when she had time and something she wanted to read.

At the beginning of the year, books to read, at least, were not a problem. She had received several new ones, in her own language, for her birthday in July, and had saved them for school – little portals she could slip back through to catch a glimpse of home when English was just too much – along with bringing other favorites she had already owned along with her. It was one of the new ones she had in her hand this afternoon, but before she could find a comfortable chair at a sufficient remove from the rest of the population, she saw one of the first year girls and paused, remembering how kind Ingrid had been to her in her first year, when she had still felt all overwhelmed and lonely and isolated in a new place.

Putting her book under her arm, she approached the girl. “Hello,” she said. “I can sit?” she asked, pointing to an empty chair. “You are first year, yes? I am Tatiana. Your necklace is pretty.”

The necklace was clearly less valuable than any of Tatiana’s own jewelry, including the string of amber beads, one suspended from the others as a pendant, and several enamel bracelets she was wearing today, but Tatiana made the compliment sincerely. The lipsticks she had observed on the girl were bizarre and intriguing – Mama would never allow Tatiana to even wear lipsticks in a natural color, never mind all that – but at least she was colorful, not drab. Not having money was no reason, in her mind, to be drab.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Paying good deeds forward (Evelyn). 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 1 5

Evelyn Stones

August 27, 2018 2:59 PM

I am the lucky recipient of too much kindness here. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn enjoyed her homework. At home, she'd had the chance to read more than she had the chance to do anything else, and so working on her homework at Sonora was a pleasant reprieve from doing all of the other emotional labor of formal schooling. She always took longer than she needed to, trying to make sure she read up on everything before she wrote. She was sure Ness would approve of this tendency and was considering how nice it would be to sit in the library and study in silence with the Aladren when an older student approached.

"I am!" Evelyn said, noting the girl's accent. She was beautiful, too, which made her compliment on Evelyn's necklace seem way kinder than it probably was. When pretty people thought you were pretty, it always felt good. When people with incredible jewelry said they liked your jewelry, it was wonderful. "Feel free to sit. I love your necklaces as well! Yours are much nicer than mine."

She was careful to enunciate without speaking too slow or over-pronouncing her words. It seemed rude to think this girl wasn't any good at English when she was obviously passing all her classes just fine. She noticed the book in her arms and thought it was... Russian maybe?

"What is your book about?" she ventured. "I love to read. I can't read any other languages, though." She frowned at the thought. It would have been much easier to read up on mythology and lore of other countries if she could read the native texts. Still, she enjoyed immersing herself in books more than most other things, particularly if she was doing so from twenty some odd feet up a tree.

22 Evelyn Stones I am the lucky recipient of too much kindness here. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

August 28, 2018 12:45 AM

Too much? Would you like me to cut back? by Tatiana Vorontsova

Tatiana smiled, pleased, at the compliment on her jewelry. “Thank you very much,” she said, touching the one she was wearing today. Metal clinked against metal as the bracelets on her wrist slid down and collided with each other. The golden edges of her bracelets had a brighter sparkle than the softer sheen of the yellow ovals which comprised her necklace.

Her book was also noticed, and Tatiana offered it for inspection, even though she had understood the other girl saying that she did not read ‘other’ languages and she thought it was safe to assume, based on her speech, that the language she did read was English. “I read Russian, English,” she said, with some pride in her voice. “My sister – she is first year too. She can read Russian, English, and French,” she added with even more pride. She knew Katya had learned some German too but she didn’t think her sister was as strong with that as with her other languages.

Technically, Tatiana could also sort of read French, but she had acquired more of it organically in interacting with Dorian than from books and lessons, like Katya had. Her French was not polished and was often mixed with Russian, English, and even the odd word of Chinese, when she was speaking to Dorian. Katya could read French stories, and while her spoken grammar was not perfect, she could speak it without a lot of dipping into other languages as she went.

“This book is about - dachniki,” she said. “I am sorry, I don’t know English for that. Summer town. Do you go to summer towns?” she asked, having gathered that some people did not. It seemed peculiar to her – at home, even working families had a small dacha, which they rented out throughout the year and visited for their summer holidays; even Anton Petrovich and his daughters had one – but westerners often did.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Too much? Would you like me to cut back? 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 29, 2018 11:22 PM

By no means! I would just like to be deserving of it. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn's eyes lit up as Tatiana spoke. "That's incredible!" she announced, admiring the older student in a new way. "You can think of the world with two sets of words and ideas." Evelyn thought it was wonderful that Tatiana's sister could speak three languages but didn't want to sound like she thought that was any better than two, so she didn't comment on that. "I would imagine that makes school harder sometimes, because you have to think of all the words twice and figure out which ones you'd like to use, but I think that means you're much smarter than everybody else. I wish I knew more than just English." She half frowned at the thought but perked up quickly.

Hearing Tatiana actually use a Russian word was thrilling and Evelyn was inspired then and there to find a way to learn more languages than just English. She thought it a bit odd that she hadn't before, considering her love of Hinduism and other world lores. She had picked up a few words here and there but nothing she could pronounce accurately and no semblance of fluency by any means.

"I'm not sure exactly. My family stays in the same place all year, although we used to go on vacation and visit other towns for short periods of time in the summer." She smiled a bit, remembering those happier times in the distant past. "I grew up near the ocean so we didn't ever have to go far to find some beautiful scenery."

Taking a moment to consider, she decided she was most curious about this word-- dachniki, which was not pronounced correctly even in her thoughts-- and this book. "Is it a story book? Or is it informational?"

22 Evelyn Stones By no means! I would just like to be deserving of it. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

August 30, 2018 9:53 AM

You don't seem to have done anything not to deserve it. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Tatiana was not entirely sure what the first year meant, but she realized it was complimentary and could not help but look pleased.

“It is hard,” she admitted of languages. “English is not as good as Russian. At home, we are all Russian. English – only my teacher at home speaks good English.” Well, Anton Petrovich, his daughters, and Nadezhda, but talking about Anton Petrovich’s daughters seemed unnecessary and she couldn’t remember the English word for governess off the top of her head. She didn’t think in English very much, even though Anton Petrovich wanted her to do so when she wrote English responses, and so she could not really claim the full compliment Evelyn had offered her, but she enjoyed it just the same.

At home, she heard about how she was smart all the time, even though Grisha, as the eldest son, was better educated and Katya, being Katya, had acquired more languages and sat still and didn’t backchat Mama and could sew. Here, though, it was a rarer thing. Once in a while she might get a margin note saying a teacher thought it seemed like she had a good thought in a paper, but the limitations of language kept her from being a favorite and she suspected some of them thought she was not very smart. Dorian thought she was smart, though – or at least recognized that the quirks of her English didn’t make her stupid, though it got harder each year to deny that he clearly thought of Jehan as the superior between them. For the most part Tatiana liked Jehan, but sometimes, when she thought about that, or was lonely and couldn’t find anyone, it was hard not to resent a little….

She was distracted by Evelyn talking about the ocean. “Ocean – I like it, too,” she said enthusiastically. “I live at a cold ocean, but we go to a warm – “ ah, what was the suffix she wanted “-ing one in summer.”

She looked again at her book when asked about it. “Story book,” said Tatiana. “What kind you like?”

16 Tatiana Vorontsova You don't seem to have done anything not to deserve it. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 30, 2018 12:42 PM

I'm glad you think so. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn was surprised at first to hear that Tatiana thought English was 'not as good as Russian' but then figured she had the right to think that. She also wasn't sure whether she meant the language itself was inferior, or her proficiency in it was. In either case, Evelyn decided not to pursue it. Tatiana seemed friendly and she doubted the girl would intentionally try to say something unkind. Besides, she seemed so thoughtful that it was hard to think this was the first time she'd had this conversation. Perhaps there were some uncomfortable memories associated. Evelyn thought it best to maintain a different topic.

"The ocean where I live is cold, too," Evelyn said, excited for a mutually exciting topic. "But probably not as cold as Russia, I think." She frowned, realizing how little she knew about Russia. "Do you mean you visit the ocean because it's warm in the summer? Or you go someplace with a warmer ocean in the summer?" Evelyn asked. "A lot of people where I grew up would come down to Arizona or California during the winters because it's warmer and they didn't like the cold."

Tatiana's question about books made her think as she realized she wasn't exactly sure what she preferred. She supposed most of the books she read weren't a 'story' books per se, but they certainly told their own stories anyway.

"I like to read about other people's stories," Evelyn decided, sitting back in her chair as she contemplated this, her homework long forgotten. "I like to read about things that have really happened, so they're stories I guess, but they are also informational. What about you?"

22 Evelyn Stones I'm glad you think so. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

August 30, 2018 5:26 PM

For whatever my opinion's worth. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Bah, she had gotten the word wrong again. She knew it as soon as she heard Evelyn say the one she had wanted. At least, she thought, she could understand the question and the form within it now….

“Go to where it is warmer,” said Tatiana. “Sorry. We do that – in the summer we go away, some of the time. At home, we are not so far from – big ice, ice that’s always there, in winter, in summer. Ocean is always cold at home.”

Once, Grisha and his friend had dared each other to take a sleigh and go so far out of the village that they could see the glacier for themselves. Tatiana, overhearing, had promptly taken advantage of the opportunity to blackmail them into letting her come along with them, much to Grisha’s amusement – at least until his friend, less amused, had started muttering about how Grisha ought to teach Tatiana some manners, at which point Grisha had cheerfully informed him he could shut up or he could get knocked in the head right out of the sleigh. So they had gone, and to everyone’s surprise, and Tatiana’s fascinated delight, there had been a boat sailing about near them, a boat which appeared to be full of Magly. They had huddled on top of the highest point they could find, peering down through viewing lenses at the boat, wondering what made it go – a thing Tatiana had still not figured out. When she had gone to Juneau with Papa to figure things out about School, she had seen peculiar little boats with what looked like wings, but she assumed those were purely decorative, and anyway, the Magly could not fly and such little wings would not have held the boat up even if they had been able to flap and the boats had had Featherlight charms on them and nothing at all inside them.

“Me? I like skazka, povest’ - stories. You like what we name istoriya. My sister Katerina likes also. I will introduce you and her sometime,” decided Tatiana. “Or do you know Katerina now?”

16 Tatiana Vorontsova For whatever my opinion's worth. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 30, 2018 10:24 PM

Quite a lot, I should imagine. by Evelyn Stones

"Glaciers!" Evelyn offered, excited. "That's the big ice that stays on the water all the time. I've only seen them in pictures, that must be amazing."

And humbling. One reason Evelyn loved the ocean was because everyone-- even her father-- was small and powerless in the face of that great expanse of water. And water was so important to drink. Something that can be good for people is also very dangerous for them and that's why it was so important to be good to each other. People and water were both important and both very dangerous.

Glaciers were much bigger than people and they still seemed so small on the ocean. If that wasn't a humbling experience, what in the world could be? She thought the older student would either not understand and think Evelyn was crazy, or understand very well and begin a conversation Evelyn wasn't sure she was ready to have just yet.

In any case, Tatiana continued and she didn't have to worry about it for long.

It was a bit hard to follow her when she used Russian words, not least of all because Evelyn wasn't sure where one word stopped and the next began. She wanted to try out pronouncing the type of book Tatiana said Evelyn liked but she was sure it would be terrible so she just smiled. She had a brief moment where she wondered how people approach books differently when their languages labeled them differently. Again though, the topic changed before Evelyn found herself utterly stuck in her mental rabbit hole.

"I haven't met her yet I don't think," Evelyn replied about Katerina. She was pretty sure she would have remembered. Then she thought of the girl with the Hat Full of Secrets at orientation and wondered whether she and Ness had managed to stumble upon this very kind Pecari's little sister. "Does she wear gloves often?" Evelyn asked, deciding that does she keep all her secrets in a big hat? would be inappropriate. "I think I remember her from orientation!"

22 Evelyn Stones Quite a lot, I should imagine. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

September 09, 2018 8:38 PM

I imagine there are those who would disagree. by Tatiana Vorontsova

“Glash-sheer,” repeated Tatiana, committing the new word to memory when Evelyn provided the specific term for the big ice in English. “We say lednik. Thank you.”

She was pleased to hear that Katya had made an impression on the other first years. “Katerina wears gloves outside, yes,” said Tatiana. “Gloves and hat. These keep the sun away.”

Mama would be upset if they got too much sun and it ruined their complexions – they would look like babushkas, their skin withering like leather, if they burned in the sun, or so said Mama. Tatiana had turned lightly brown before when she didn’t take care – indeed, she’d done so fairly often – and she didn’t think she looked like leather, but Mama scolded her and said that it would build on itself until she looked like a babushka at thirty – an age Mama seemed to think was much too young to look like a babushka at. Tatiana supposed it was a good point – babushkas should be much older – but it still seemed like an age impossibly far away from the one she was at right now.

“Katya has hair like this,” said Tatiana, pointing to the amber beads on her necklace. “Blond. Not like mine. She is very good at many things.” She said this with open pride. Katya was not daring, was a bit dull sometimes, but she excelled at all the Accomplishments which a young lady was supposed to have and Tatiana wanted all her classmates to know this about her. Mama held Anya up to Tatiana as an example more often, as Anya was older, but she often compared Katya favorably to Anya at the same time. Tatiana did not think she could really benefit from Katya’s example, she was too impatient, but perhaps the other first years still could.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova I imagine there are those who would disagree. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 10, 2018 2:05 AM

Then they are not important. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn listened with a sort of silent awe as Tatiana spoke of her sister. That she used a nickname, Katya, was surprising enough, but that she spoke of her so kindly really got to Evelyn. She tried to ignore the jealousy that bubbled in her stomach as she wondered how different her life would've been if she'd had a loving big sister. But that was selfish and she knew that wasn't a good thing to be.

"Are you two close?" Evelyn asked, hoping that she could at least learn a little bit about what family looked like to other people. "Like do you get along well?"

What would it be like to have a friend at home all the time? Someone she could hang out with and play with and just... be with. She wouldn't have to be alone, that's for sure. But maybe it would be worse. What if she had a sister who was amazing and talented and Evelyn was still just...Evelyn? Or worse, what if her sister was just like her and then there were two of them at home being miserable and wishing they could fly away? Evelyn shook her head, sickened by the idea.

"I can't imagine having a sister," she admitted, wrinkling her nose. "My house already feels very full with just me and my parents."

22 Evelyn Stones Then they are not important. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

September 10, 2018 7:17 PM

That's a bit of a broad statement. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Are you two close?

Tatiana was more or less accustomed to the times when two words sounded or looked the same but meant nothing like the same thing in English, but sometimes individual words still caught her up short. ‘Close’ was one of these. She knew it meant two things, but the one she could remember at this moment was the one that referred to a state of a door which was not open. Close the door, that was an imperative sentence…and there was something else it meant, but….

Like do you get along well?

Ah, there it was. Tatiana nodded. “We like the other,” she said.

She stared in some perplexity, however, when Evelyn said her house was full with just her and her parents. Tatiana’s house was full, she knew – when there were six children, her parents, and a couple of live-in members of staff in residence. If she just lived alone with Mama and Papa, there would be so much room that their voices would bounce off the ceilings all the time, and anyway – how would she ever be educated, if Mama and Papa were the only people around? In the village they had a little school for simple reading and writing and figuring, but that was for people who would grow up to work in shops or as staff – that education would not even suit a governess. That was why Anton Petrovich gave his daughters lessons himself, even though this was yet more work on top of teaching the Vorontsov children. Of course, Mama taught them to sew – well, tried to, in Tatiana’s own case – and read the great Russian literary classics aloud to them, and Papa would teach Grisha and Alyosha business things that it was apparently not proper for Tatiana to know because she was a girl, but she couldn’t imagine her parents having enough time to educate them all in everything properly themselves….

There was something about this thought which wasn’t right, something like when one tried to sew but a stitch somehow got tangled, but Tatiana didn’t think she had time to pull at it right now. It would be rude to sit here silently long enough to understand Evelyn, think out her thought, think of a response, and then make sure the response was in decent English. She had to skip to responding.

“I have three sister,” she said, holding up three fingers. “And two brother.” One finger dropped. “And Mama and Papa.” She lowered the two fingers and then raised them again to indicate she was talking about a different pair of people, not her two brothers. “It was sad to be alone when Katya was not here,” she offered. "But I have friends here. You will too."

16 Tatiana Vorontsova That's a bit of a broad statement. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 12, 2018 2:40 AM

We decide who matters, might as well throw a wide net. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn thought Tatiana's face was particularly interesting to watch. It wasn't that the older Pecari was necessarily transparent, but she certainly wasn't hard to read either. Evelyn wondered what her own eyes looked like when she was thinking or speaking but contented herself with paying attention to Tatiana's instead. Really, she was just honored to be the focus of this girl's attention at all.

"That's good," Evelyn smiled, relieved. She liked learning of happy families, even if they did make her stomach twist.

When Tatiana proceeded to count off her family members in words and on her fingers, Evelyn wondered which one of them was meant to benefit. Her mind spun with questions about Russia and Russian and Cyrillic and the culture that Tatiana had grown up in that was so clearly different from Evelyn's. Tatiana seemed like the sort of person who talked a lot about what her neighbors were doing, not because she was trying to gossip but because she had things to embroider and needed to know how to best plot her social interactions that week.

"Your family is huge," Evelyn said, her mind boggling. "How do your parents have time to pay attention to all of you?"

That was rude. She didn't mean to ask it but she couldn't get attention from both her parents when there was just the one of her and she just needed to know how six children could all be loved. It seemed a bit unfair but Evelyn was getting used to that. Like Tatiana said: at least she'd have friends. "I've made a couple I think," Evelyn said, thinking hesitantly of Ness and then of Malikhi. She wasn't even sure what to think of her social engagements recently. "I'm glad that you've found people to be friends with," she added, smiling and desperately hoping the older student would suddenly be inspired to invite Evelyn along to hang out sometime with them. It seemed unlikely and Evelyn certainly wasn't desperate to find people to spend time with, but she thought it would be nice to get to meet some older students. They weren't really that much older anyway, and they seemed so... put together. "What sorts of things do you do with your friends?"

22 Evelyn Stones We decide who matters, might as well throw a wide net. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

September 12, 2018 6:56 PM

Over those who do count or those who don't? by Tatiana Vorontsova

Tatiana shrugged, not sure what to make of the question about her parents. She knew she understood all the words in the sentence, that wasn’t the problem, it was just…She didn’t know exactly what it was.

“We go-to-visit Mama after we breakfast every morning,” she said instead, deciding to simply describe her parents instead of trying to figure out some unanswerable ‘how’. “Then we have lessons, this is with Nadezhda or Anton Petrovich, and – “ her vocabulary failed her as she tried to figure out how to express the concept of sitting around the samovar to someone who most likely didn’t even know what a samovar was. “At night we see Mama and Papa for a while, after eating, before bed. Maybe sometimes we go on a walk with Papa, or if it rains we can sit in Mama’s room, in day, if we are quiet. And in summer, to dacha we go and there we eat all the time with Mama and Papa, if there is no party.”

On such occasions, only the older ones ate with Mama and Papa, as they were considered nearly adults. With the exception of Anya’s sixteenth ball, Tatiana and Katya were left upstairs with Nadezhda on such occasions, away from the temptation to stay up late or try foods that were too rich for them. It could be frustrating sometimes, being young! But at least no-one ever spoke about marriage.

“We talk about words,” said Tatiana when asked what she did with her friends. “And he cha - drink tea, and go dance – and work in class, and color pictures.” A new occupation of Vladya’s, but pleasant enough that Tatiana saw no reason not to count it as a thing to do with friends. “You have friends? You like the other firsts?”

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Over those who do count or those who don't? 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 21, 2018 4:09 PM

Both, I think. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn wasn't sure what she thought of Tatiana's explanation. It seemed odd to have to visit a parent, and she wasn't sure if Tatiana's idea of 'party' was quite the same as her own. Tatiana herself seemed a bit at odds with the discussion of family, too, and Evelyn decided to leave the topic there. Another time, when it felt less rude to do so, maybe she'd ask for clarification. For now, she chocked it up to cultural differences, and maybe class differences, and left it.

"That sounds wonderful," Evelyn said, thinking of dancing and coloring with friends. She wasn't sure those would be particularly likely hobbies to take up with either Ness or Malikhi but there was no real reason why not. Other than the fact that they apparently hated each other. Other than that.

"I do," Evelyn smiled, enjoying the fact that she finally had friends. "Most of them. I think some of them are a bit... odd." She thought of Ness' roommates and wrinkled her nose. 'Odd' seemed like an understatement but 'terrifying' was a bit harsh. "I'm not sure they like each other though. I wish my friends got along like yours do," she admitted. "I can't figure out why they don't like each other though. If two people like me, and I like both of them, shouldn't they like each other?"

It was, if she was honest, the reason she was sitting alone in the Common Room to do homework. Ness couldn't join her in Pecari, a fact that still felt like a sore point for Evelyn, and Malikhi was unlikely to find the patience to do homework in this busier of locations. She wasn't strictly avoiding either of them, but it was nice to have a place that she could just work and be left alone. Now that she was not being left alone, though, she found that she rather appreciated that as well. Tatiana was nice and pretty and older and Evelyn would like to be her when she was a little bit more grown up. She didn't know if she'd ever be as pretty, but she could hope. She wondered if Tatiana would be interested in teaching her about how to look pretty.

"Do you... do you and your friends talk about jewelry and hair and stuff? And makeup?" Evelyn's eyes were rounded as they searched Tatiana's face and she wished she looked a little less naive. She blushed and looked down. "I'd love to do that stuff better."

22 Evelyn Stones Both, I think. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

September 24, 2018 5:19 PM

That works. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Tatiana thought she understood the gist of Evelyn’s problem, though the philosophical angle was one she’d find it difficult to discuss even in her own language. In English…she had no idea if she could say anything at all, but she had been asked a direct question, so she had to try.

“People have – this and that,” she said. “Me and one friend – we are not good in English. Him and another – they read same books. We all – trade language. See?”

Tatiana loved to read – in Russian. In English and French, however, it was a trial, and one she undertook somewhat reluctantly. This was yet one more way in which her placid, diligent sister was superior to her – Katya read English only slightly worse than Russian. She did not think much that was very interesting about things they had both read in Russian, at least to Tatiana’s mind, but she could read very clearly in two languages and could manage in two more, with a substantial effort. Tatiana fiddled with her necklace, momentarily uncomfortable at the thought – Papa had always called Tatiana his umnaya doch’, clever daughter, but she herself had often wondered if the only reason Katya didn’t receive the designation instead was because she was simply so quiet that Papa tended to overlook her in the chaos of the family – leaving her just as malen’kaya, little one. Papa was a big man in the village, even in the wider world, and at home, Grishka and Lyoshka obviously took up most of his attention because they were boys. The only way one flower in the garden of daughters (this was Papa’s term; when people felt sorry for him for having four daughters, he laughed and said who would want only saplings for the family tree in the garden when he could also have a gaggle of beautiful flowers?) could get his attention was to be sick or loud. Katya was rarely either.

Jewelry and hair were terms she understood; makeup confused her – since Mama didn’t allow her or her sisters to wear it, she had never learned the English word for it – and so she ignored it, assuming it was something else that she and the boys did not talk about. “No,” she said. “Friends are all boys – they have no jewelry. Yours is pretty, and your hair,” she added. Evelyn had possibly the fairest hair Tatiana had ever seen; it was much more interesting than her own, rather boring, light brown waves.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova That works. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5