N.B. Spellings (if correct) are in UK English. All the characters in this story are fictitious, any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The author neither condones or endorses any of the activities detailed in this story, which could well be illegal in certain jurisdictions. I'm adding (for legal reasons) that apparently if you're under-age you mustn't read this, so if that's the case go away and grow up.

Author's Note.

Unlike the first time this story was posted, I'm not desperately scratching away with my Quill in order to keep a few chapters ahead of my readers, for those who stay the course it's 86 chapters long, and I've recently had former readers bug me for those last six, but I thought with a total repost more people could follow the entire adventure, only this time to it's conclusion.

If or when readers from the old days find this story, please drop me a line, Chris can pass forward your email to me without attaching it to your comments posted about the story.

Okay here are Chapters 31 to 35

Chapter 31

For a moment she was frozen, the boys looked up and Greg asked what the matter was, she fobbed him off saying she had pressed the wrong key but she had fixed the problem now, and to carry on playing with Peter as she was still busy.

As she scrolled down the page each new image with it's few lines of text was revealed, it was pictures of the stuff Valya had told them about, the different ways that grown ups did sex together, only it wasn't just grown ups!

There were pictures of naked girls, some were touching themselves, girls with other girls, girls with boys, and men with girls, some of them were even younger than she was, but many looked more like Marta's age. They were kissing and licking and sucking and the other word she wasn't supposed to use, what was the proper term – yes they were having sexual intercourse. Lots of the men had erections, she had remembered that word cause Marta had talked about Karl's big one, and she was also aware John often had one.

A few girls looked sad, but most seemed to be having fun. Some of the men had their heads chopped off, so they weren't any good at taking pictures, and some other men and a few of the girls had blobs covering their faces just like the shiny stars covering the girls nipples and pussy's, as she had seen on the introduction page of her own Studio web-site.

Some of the images showed the men's juice that had squirted out as Valya had told them, men sure liked to cover the girls in the pictures, some had it on their face and in their hair, others it was on their boobs or on their tummy and pussy, and one girl had some up her back and all over her bum. It looked as if these men liked to have the girls suck them, as a lot of pictures showed that, and the girls had the juice in their mouth. Anna made a note of this text file for it looked like there were thirty or forty web-sites, she wanted to see all of them, and she was sure Marta would want to see them too.

Anna studied some of the text accompanying the images, most were in English but a few were in Russian, she was ready with her dictionaries for any new words, she translated the first few, 'Hand-job from my niece', '10yo Kelly's first blow job', Vicky loves cum', the list carried on but not all of them made sense, maybe Marta could help later in case she had made a mistake in translation. Anna had been restless, and feeling a little warm as she had been surfing, she now became aware her panties were decidedly damp, perhaps it would be a good idea after shutting down the computer, to pop upstairs and change her underwear before supper.

Before closing down she decided to copy all the text files on to her computer, that way she could then add notes about each site when she browsed it, which she couldn't do with the disk, then she took all the Studio and work related disks upstairs to her bedroom.

Grabbing some fresh panties she went into the bathroom she shared with her sister to check her underwear, yes there was a definite wet patch, and it had soaked right through the gusset, it didn't look whitish or creamy like Marta's often did, but it wasn't pee either. Sniffing the area and testing it with her fingers confirmed her findings, just as Marta had told her, that a girl's vagina got wetter and slippery, as her body changed, she must have reacted to the things she had been looking at. She was growing-up and getting wet like the older girls in the images on disk, Anna was conflicted by this, to her mind there was no point in being 'wet and ready' if you weren't 'doing it', if she had the choice she would rather her boobs got a move on, as they were taking their own sweet time as if in limbo.

For an instant Anna was almost tempted to throw the panties at the wall to see if that trick worked, but instead tossed them into the hamper. She felt between her legs, slick would be the word she would use to describe her current condition, and it was pleasant to rub back and forth over her little bump, sure that without the wetness it would be less enjoyable. Having heard of the joys of masturbation from Marta she had given it a cursory try now and then, but this time she was beginning to feel something start to build up, as if slowly cresting a hill to arrive at some wonderful new vista,... and then suddenly an explosion of sound from running feet in the hallway. “Anna mum says supper's ready.”

“Er,.. Thanks Greg, just washing up, I'll be right down.”

Damn she thought, quickly doing as she had said, she was just starting to get somewhere, she would pursue this activity more when she wasn't likely to be interrupted, in the mean time she stepped into the fresh underwear and hurried down to supper.

There was plenty to talk about that evening at the table, the boys were upset that a man came and took most of the pies and cakes away after their mum had been baking all day, but they were placated to find she had put aside some of their favourites. Igor was very pleased with how smoothly work had progressed on their first day on site, and so far they hadn't uncovered any nasty surprises, by the end of the first week he thought they would have a fair idea whether they could keep to schedule. Marta spoke of her relief at seeing her team turn up that morning, they had worked diligently all day, Yaroslaw had also been impressed with their enthusiasm, he'd expected them to mess about and be ill disciplined.

Anna told them of the numerous phone calls she had made in order to track down the four most eligible candidates for specialist painting jobs, and she had also spoken to Valya who through the grapevine had heard Irisha and her mum were doing well, saying that now their phone service was restored how they wanted to talk with Marta. Shortly after their meal Marta went up to her room to call Irisha, she hardly had time to think of the poor girl with the week having been so hectic and exciting. Irisha was very emotional in thanking Marta for all she had done for them and apologising for her rudeness when they had first met, then she spoke of how much had changed in the past week.

Reading between the lines it appeared that the building supervisor to whom they paid the rent had not been happy they had settled their arrears, and Irisha suspected he was going to extort payment in kind from her, rather than her mum, she was also sure the mean old pervert would have wanted more than just the odd blow job. Now without the burdens of debt and the with her mum's health returning she had been able to focus on the things going on around her, and she suspected this man was abusing other girls in their building.

Being concerned Marta asked if she felt she was in danger from this man, Irisha said he now had no hold over them, but she still feared for some of the other young residents.

Moving on they talked for some time, Irisha wanting to learn more about modelling at the Studio and about the models forum that Igor was so passionate about. Marta explained that with Irisha being a polyglot, she could play a central role in cross translation, though a majority of their membership spoke English there was still a significant number of people who spoke other western European languages. The call ended with Marta inviting Irisha to meet up the next day so they could talk some more.

After the call she went to the study where their house project was the focus of attention. Their mum and the boys were going to see a dinosaur exhibition with Victor and his mum the following day, so Anna would also be joining them on site, her little sister keen to see it for real, as so far she had only seen the pictures. Marta spoke of her conversation with Irisha, telling her dad of the creepy building supervisor, on Monday when speaking to Ivan she also told him about it too, and he said he would look into moving Irisha and her mum to another building when Irisha started work at the Studio.

What with news about Irisha, and staying up late working on the exciting ideas for the house project, Anna's other exciting new interest was temporarily sidelined at bed time, as they hoped to make an early start the next day.

Igor always tried to treat others fairly, at least other working people like himself, the rich could look out for themselves, although his family now had more money than he had ever dreamed of, he still mostly thought of himself as a part of the working poor. He knew the sort of hand to mouth existence that the people working on this project normally endured, so the deal he'd come up with was that everybody got paid on a day by day basis seeing as the work schedule would be piecemeal and erratic. Knowing the men, especially those with no other employment might want to string the job out to increase the time they were employed, he stressed that a good bonus would be paid out when he got the house sold.

Most economists would recognise a production triangle of 'Quality', 'Speed', and 'Price', you can only have two of the values on one side of the equation, in a quick low price build quality will be compromised, a quality job can be had at a reasonable price providing you are prepared to wait, but a quick, quality job would normally carry a high price premium.

With the dire state of the economy things were not normal, first Igor had stacked the deck in his favour, then he had abundant cheap labour, good contacts, and friends in the supply trade, if he couldn't get a quality job completed on time then nobody could.

Early the next morning Igor turned up on site with his two daughters to find work already in progress, one of the changes on site was that several wives had turned up to run the kitchen, so Ella's original good will gesture of the big pot of Borsch to start things off, had now been taken over. Also the women were offering to do laundry, as those workers from out of town and those men who'd been unemployed had little in the way of spare clothing, they had hoped to earn a little additional cash for this service, though Igor saw the morale boost this would offer and placed the ladies on his payroll. He also stumped up the cash for the necessary groceries to feed the workers on site, with their needs well catered for men would be able to concentrate on the job at hand with one less expense or distraction.

While Igor was making arrangements with the ladies in the kitchen, Marta gave her sister the grand tour, returning downstairs they went to the kitchen to get some tea, during this break speaking to the women, Marta saw one of them was rinsing out a bunch of green sweatshirts. Upon her enquiry she found the reason none of her team were getting their laundry done at home – they didn't have one, the bags they each carried with them held all that they owned. They were orphans or runaways from abusive homes, and were all living in the basement of a building, using the crawl spaces and sleeping in voids near the heating pipes during the harsh winter, both sisters were shocked at these revelations.

The Ukraine since gaining it's relatively recent independence from Russia had been in a constant state of financial hardship, many were homeless and destitute, the majority of those with jobs lead a very frugal existence, above these was a tiny class of people with managerial positions who were comparatively well off, then far above all the other citizens there were the wealthy elite. Igor's family with it's multiple sources of income now found themselves in that small faction of people who were not hurting for cash, though having achieved that position, were now fighting tooth and claw to establish a little security, for they had come so close to heading in the other direction as they were all to well aware.

Marta was in a quandary, she hadn't realised this group of lads were part of the homeless destitute underclass, she had imagined they had families, that they could return home at the end of each day and contribute to the family pot, but now she found they had nothing.

She was no longer sure if she had done a good thing, how would they survive after this job was over, would they go on to gain the local follow on jobs as she had envisioned?

Now she knew she was out of her depth, it would be so awful if the small glimpse of hope should be snatched away from these boys, and it would be her fault.

The arrival of four men from the Studio interrupted her ruminations on the fate of her team, she and Anna greeted them, offering refreshments before heading to the room off the entrance hall that had been set up as the command centre with all the notes and drawings. One of the men had worked on Greg's airport mural, while the others they knew by sight having seen them about the complex. First they pointed out the magazine photos that showed a two tone exterior that had the block-work features subtly highlighted with a third colour, then they went on to cover the three Trompe l'oeil deceptions they'd planned, lastly they inquired about the possibility of adding the odd marble or stonework feature.

They toured the exterior of the house, then reviewed the locations inside where they could add a little wow factor to the character of the building, when Igor came over to join them they talked about time scales and money, then offering their opinions on the best outside colour scheme. When Igor told them of the deal he'd made to buy quality exterior paint, he said there was either white or a limited choice of colours, now having the experts on hand he was told to buy all white, as professional tints could be purchased to make up the colours that they actually wanted.

That invaluable advice alone that these experts had offered, would more than justify the money he was willing to pay for their artistic endeavours, and he adjusted his shopping list for Yuri, asking the studio craftsmen to add any supplies they required. As the men were leaving Marta smiled at the animated conversations between them, thrilled that examples of their workmanship would have a far less ephemeral existence than their usual painted back-drops found in the Studio.

Anna wanted to hang about with their dad, so Marta went to find Yaroslaw, he was getting on well with the lads, saying how they could do the fetching and carrying that sometimes caused his old joints to complain. She asked if she could 'borrow' the team for a short chat and she would send them straight back when she had finished, in reality she was not sure what to say to them. There was a gazebo and various other garden features, but she sat at a circular stone seat set far enough from the house that they could talk privately.

When they assembled Marta saw one of the younger boys had a black eye, asking about it the boy wouldn't answer and looked down embarrassed as they all seemed uncomfortable, turning to Taras she asked if he knew what happened. He did know, it had been him that had hit Oleg, when he found him about to buy some glue, as the eldest he felt responsible looking out the others, he'd seen many times how kids got stupid and befuddled by glue sniffing, then it was all down hill, most of them ended up dead.

The reality of life on the streets hit Marta like the wakeup call Oleg had received, the talk lasted longer than she had expected, learning the truth of how harsh life could be, it was dog eat dog which was why these lads stuck together, as it was harder to survive alone.

When Marta voiced her concerns about how she felt obligated to live up to the promises she'd made, finding out the boys were just happy to eat every day, the fact they could eat on site meant they could save their money to buy boots that would make the winter much easier to bear. Though she couldn't persuade the boys to take up temporary residence like the out of town workers, they saw the sense in getting the rest of their clothes laundered, and although the thought of a hot bath appealed Taras pointed out they had no towels, so she said she would make sure some were provided for all the workers.

Irisha followed the directions Marta had given her, the grand houses seemed intimidating she had never been to this area before, the house on the corner plot was like an ant hill, the number of people swarming around, busy, joking together, but she couldn't see Marta, and was nervous to enter the grounds without seeing her new friend. One of the men saw the pretty waif standing at the gate watching the scene, he guessed she might be there to see one of Igor's daughter's, so he went to find one of them, rather than go over to the skittish looking girl and scare her away.

Anna had seen her sister earnestly talking with her work team, so thought it best that she go and fetch Irisha, whose demeanour changed on finding that there were several women about, even if in the kitchen for the most part. With hot drinks in hand Anna lead Irisha across the garden to the gazebo where they could talk privately. The girl's skin had lost the unhealthy pallor in evidence when they had met a week before, but she still had a way to go, from the look of her hair Anna suspected the ladies of the salon had been at work.

Since the previous weekend Irisha begun to wonder what she'd let herself in for, signing up to become a model had never been been on her career options, but then neither had walking the streets at thirteen. Talking with Marta's younger sister she was hearing from the horse's mouth how modelling was from the inside, and it was plain Anna loved to get in front of the camera, be it for stills shoots, or for the videos. Both sisters had given their word that they wouldn't blab about what she had been doing in the square the evening she and Marta had met, and with all the help she'd received from them and from Ivan she wanted to do a good job.

Hearing from Irisha how anxious she was not to let Ivan down, as he'd provided her mum with the best medical care, she had a real desire to be worthy of the faith everyone had placed in her. Anna reached into her backpack one of the two that were ever present, this being the bag she took to the Studio, and pulled out an A4 envelope which she handed over, stating it might be of some help. Irisha looked at the title then read down the page.

Anna's FAQ for new models

Hello if you are new to modelling, welcome to the sisterhood of photographic models.

There are lots of new things to learn, it can be a bit scary turning up for your first shoot so I have made a list of the stuff that I have learned that might help other new models.

• I'm worried about my first photo session. - Don't be frightened, this is an adventure and you are the star of the show, have fun.
• How do you learn all the things a model needs to know? - All the people around you are there to help, and will be happy to answer your questions.
• Do I need to be super thin? - Unlike magazine fashion models, we are still growing up and must eat properly, and eat healthy food, and it doesn't matter that we come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
• Apart from my diet do I need to do anything else? - To look good and stay healthy you must look after yourself, do some exercise, take care of your teeth, and listen to the advice from your doctor.
• Do I need any special food or vitamins? - The canteen staff, and the modelling coach have information sheets on nutrition that they give out.
• How do I learn about hair and skin care? - Listen to the make up artist you work with, and also the salon staff as they will have good tips for your hair and skin care.
• I'm worried that the top models will all ignore me, because they know more about modelling. - The other models you meet were all new girls once, they will be pleased help you with any advice.
• What happens if I don't get on with the photographer? - We all find we get on with some people better than others, so you will have a chance to work with different photographers to find who you feel most comfortable with.
• I'm worried about some aspect of my body. - Don't be shy we've all got the same bits (more or less) and it is the photographer's job to capture us in all the stages we go through as we grow up.
• I'm nervous I might not be good enough. - Be confident on set and have fun, you must be the right girl for the job or you wouldn't have been chosen.
• What happens if I freeze in front of the camera? - Listen to your photographer's advice and directions to help you shoot a good set.
• Pictures where they ask you to smile often look fake, what should I do? - Tell jokes and think about funny things on set, it makes for great pictures.
• I'm worried about those intimate shots. - If you wash really, really carefully you will feel fresh, and there will be no problems however close the close up.
• Is there anything I need to do before a photo shoot? - Yes, it is best to wear loose clothes without underwear on the way to a shoot because bras, panties, and some elasticated clothing leave marks on your skin that take time to fade out and will spoil the pictures. But don't forget to take some underwear with you to wear on your way home.
• Any final tips? - Don't forget to thank the staff that work with you, they are the ones who will help make you a star.

“That makes it sound so easy, I can't think of any other questions right now, but I'm sure when I do the first set it will be quite scary.”

“No, what you were doing before was scary, and dangerous, modelling is a walk in the park, it makes me feel tingly and alive, Sandra took my first pictures, at the audition, but now John shoots all my stills sets and we laugh all the time. Oksana is the lady who I've done the videos with, I like her too, but of course we don't tell jokes while filming and I need to concentrate to get the dialogue right, though it's becoming much easier the more I practice using English.”

“How many models are there Anna?”

“Well at the school I go to there are nine of us, at the other school in the city popular with the models there's more than twice that, then there are a few more scattered about who just go to schools nearer to where they live.”

“So there are between forty to fifty models on the web-site?”

“Gosh no, I thought you meant girls living in the city, there's hundreds and hundreds of girls right across the country just on our web-site, but there's a whole network of sites in the group, so it must be over a thousand girls, Marta would know more about it than me.

Then of course there are at least thirty other companies in eastern Europe and some also run several web-sites so who can say how many models there are.

Having done the tour she sort of knew it wasn't a small operation, but she was stunned to find so many young girls were able to gain an income from taking their clothes off in front of the camera, from the sort of earnings that Ivan had spoken of, it had seemed too good to be true, but maybe not. Language was her strong suit rather than maths, nevertheless it didn't take a maths whiz to see if there were that many girls then there must be literally millions of men out there who were willing to pay for these images.

Irisha was fascinated hearing about Anna's experiences, about the members forum, and the models forum, which the Studio wanted to launch as soon as a sufficient number of girls had learned to communicate with the people from their vast foreign membership who were willing to sign up to participate in this additional feature the Studio was to host.

Marta came looking for them as she had heard about Irisha's arrival, and lunch was being dished up in the kitchen, they could smell the enticing aroma once they stepped inside, as on reaching the source the workers were all lined up to be served, though seeing the girls insisted they skip the line. In other circumstances Irisha may've felt guilty but it was plain there was plenty to go round, while the doctor had insisted she eat at least three good meals a day, something she'd missed out on until a week ago. At the end of the serving line the ladies ran there was even a box of bread rolls and another filled with fresh fruit.

The dinning room had chairs set out by long folding tables so they could eat in comfort, Marta lead them to a half full table where five teenage boys were sitting there in matching shirts, they introduced themselves and were surprisingly polite. From the conversation at their table, it seemed they were working outside on the grounds surrounding the large house and planned to start trimming the hedges that skirted the pavement that afternoon.

Irisha said little, and listened a lot, her earlier chat with Anna could hardly be continued in their current company, but at last she asked Marta why she had wanted them to meet on a building site.

“Em, because my dad's working here, we can talk about that later.”

Irisha wondered if she had put her foot in it, Marta came across as so self assured, but just now she had hesitated almost at a loss for words. Whatever the reason Marta said they would talk after lunch, so she would wait and see.

Irisha expected her eyes to bug out like some cartoon character, as she heard later that the house was an investment project funded by their Studio earnings, it was fortunate they were sitting back in the gazebo or she would fallen over with the shock, she looked over at the house then back to the two girls, Anna shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

Looking back at the enormous house she thought back to her nightmare, three nights sucking the cocks of unwashed strangers for a pittance, as opposed to 'plan B' flashing your body in front of a friendly photographer in a nice warm safe studio – No contest!

Irisha had looked pale for a while, Marta said it was shock, and maybe they should get her a hot sweet tea, but she recovered soon enough hugging them both before leaving.

This was Anna's first real chance to speak to her sister alone, but there were still lots of people scurrying about so she just said there was something very important she wanted to show her later in her room, about a discovery she had made the day before.

Marta was now curious about whatever had aroused her sister's interest, but if it had to wait for a more private location it must be a private matter and she would have to wait, in the mean time she went looking for her dad.

“Daddy can we talk for a moment?”

With a barely suppressed grin and a raised eyebrow he asked what she was after this time, where in truth he now found great pleasure in being able to fulfill any request made by his kids, to make up for all those times in the past when that had not been possible.

Typically her request was not for herself but for others, her team needed work boots, with more rain expected and the increasing likely-hood of hard frosts if the weather turned.

Igor was well aware the job would be completed long before there was any serious risk of frost, October was only half over and it was a relatively dry month, which gave them the last weather window of the year, as a golden opportunity to nail this project.

He had heard the talk on site, Marta's team were all homeless kids, and now she felt even more responsible, so he said they ought to get them some jackets as well, nothing that looked fancy or matching as they might get stolen. Marta hugged her dad thanking him burying her face in his broad chest to hide the fact she was crying.

The little shudders and the fact his shirt was getting wet were clues enough for Igor, he also knew from Ella that his little girl was now a young lady, so he should be more patient in regard to any sudden emotional changes. If she was anything like her mother, Ella used to get a bit weepy when she was younger and approaching that time of the month, so he found a long hug always tended to make her feel better.

She always liked the way her dad smelled, it was a smell she identified in her mind with the word manly, after a holding her dad for a bit he gave her a light slap on her bum, and said he'd better go to see what everyone was doing. Marta gave her dad one last squeeze then run off to the nearest bathroom to wash her face, looking about the room she then decided to check the other bathrooms and toilets throughout the house. Calling in next at the kitchen Marta spoke to the oldest lady who seemed to be in charge to discover what arrangements her father had made. Typically for a man he'd thought of the food and drink, but missed the other necessary details, so Marta gave the woman enough cash for a stack of toilet rolls, soap, cleaning supplies, and also towels, as the men staying there, and her team would need a bath or shower.

It was disappointing that she wouldn't see Karl, but he had to be at work that morning and had course work, and revision he needed to catch up with during the afternoon, Marta really wanted to spend more time alone with him. It was okay yesterday seeing him, but it wasn't boyfriend girlfriend time, as there was no opportunity to be together in private.

Going outside she found Anna and her dad looking up at the men in baskets on the end of the long articulated cherry-picker arms, one was checking and cleaning the gutters, and another was cleaning the paintwork of the upper story windows. Igor was pleased to have this equipment on loan as it was quicker to do the jobs this way than it would be by using either ladders or scaffolding. In each direction you looked there were people busy working with some aspect of the renovation, Marta could now see her own team working their way along the hedging that fronted the property, barrow loads of clippings wheeled back to the garden to dry out by the bonfire before being shovelled on.

Anna was full of questions for her dad, as she had seen less than her sister of the practical work he had done in the past, and was curious about the progress that might occur during the coming week, because it was unlikely they would visit until the following weekend.

Marta's memory of the men her father used to work with in his old job was different from the current scene, the jovial banter between the men as they got stuck in, not a scowling face in sight, even their language was moderated, she wondered if that was due to the ladies on site or because of her and her sister.

Anna tagged along when Marta went to see her crew before heading home, to say how pleased everyone was with their work, and that they should see either Yaroslaw or Melenki during the week for instructions, and check with them when they saw an opportunity to try the local car washing scheme. She didn't mention the boots or jackets as that would hopefully come up as a surprise later in the week.

At home the boys were full of stories about the giant dinosaur skeletons, about dinosaur models they had seen, and all the other displays at the science museum, having been out most of the day their mum used one of her standby meals from the freezer to feed her hungry hoard. Later just as Anna thought she could get Marta off on her own Karl called, so her plans were thwarted waiting impatiently for her sister's attention.

As soon as Marta was free Anna hustled her off to her bedroom, even going so far as to hang the 'Do not disturb' sign she had made in art class on the outside of her door.

Anna fired up the secure 'Studio work' laptop as she began to tell Marta about the text files she had found on the last disk, the one Marta hadn't viewed yet. She found the folder where she had transferred the files, going through them in the same order, web-sites for security nerds like Boris, the list of thirty or more back-doors into teen sites like they had seen on disk, saying how Marta could follow any updates for her research, and she pasted a few sites into the browser for Marta to see.

They skipped over the listings about big boobs, bums and stockings, but skimmed through a few of the web-sites that listed further web-sites, but they went on to check on some of the nudist sites, to confirm there was a bias towards pictures featuring girls from school age up to about mid-teens then tailing off dramatically for any woman over twenty-five. Women older than that only appeared if they were incidental to younger girls in the same photographs. Anna noted that her sister was checking out the men and teenage boys, so began to tease her about it, asking how they compared with Karl.

When at last they could tear themselves away from the nudists frolicking about on the beaches and other beautiful locations, Anna grinned saying how the next folder had some very naughty stuff in it, they were web-sites that were called bulletin boards, and she hadn't got around to viewing any of the other remaining folders, so she didn't know what sort of stuff they held yet.

Anna loaded the first URL into her browser, the one she had previously viewed, waiting to see her sister's reaction to the images it revealed. She watched Marta's face, wide eyed as she took in the scenes of sexual abandon, Marta took over scrolling down, and clicking to each new page, her lips moving silently as she read the various captions beside each of the images, till at last their eyes met.

“Oh my god, this is,... this is,.. well I don't know, this must be real pornography, but there are boys and girls there younger than us, from the pictures they must know more than we do about sex. If the words next to the pictures are true then this stuff is about incest, I think all that is illegal, that must be why some of them are hiding their faces so people don't recognise them.”

They followed right through to the last page, then loaded the next site, then the next, Marta was beginning to see patterns, different types of material and sources, forming ideas that would lead to a new database in order to make sense of this variety of new imagery. Thinking they had run out of shock, they opened a file from the next folder to find they hadn't even started, bug eyed they saw that dogs weren't man's best friend at all, if anything they were in competition, ladies and even some teenage girls seemed very friendly with their dogs, some were even playing with other animals.

Both girls had been squirming in their seats for some time, and it was getting late, Anna told her sister about how wet she had got the first time she had viewed these web-sites, and how she was again feeling tingly and wet. She told Marta about her abortive attempt at masturbation and how the call to supper had spoiled things as she was beginning to experience new and intense feelings, a sort of expectation that something was about to happen, then shyly admitted she was also fearful she could be about to wet herself.

Marta was most sympathetic, saying it looked like she would be able to orgasm next time, and how she thought she was going to wet herself her first time, so it was best to go and pee beforehand, so if she did loose control only a little pee might escape.

The girls hugged then went through their nightly bathroom routine before going to bed each with the same goal in mind. If anyone had been listening there were gasps whimpers and drawn out breaths from both bedrooms, and Anna reached the goal she'd sought for the very first time. In the satisfying afterglow Anna had found a new favourite pastime, though she still wished her boobs would get a move on.

Chapter 32

Monday morning Ella noticed how both her daughters were very perky, putting it down to having their father to themselves all the previous day, spending her day with Magda and the boys had been tiring but enjoyable, and she found Eve had now joined in the practice sessions for the forum effort all the girls were so keen about. Returning from dropping the boys to school she received a call from the catering company about the function she had baked for that weekend, though there may have been leftovers after the event Ella's cakes and pies were not among them, her produce had been the first to disappear, doubtlessly more orders were sure to follow.

Igor had arranged to have Monday off, as he knew there would be a lot to organise in the first few days, he called in at an outlet selling work-wear and spoke to the manager, a little later that morning as arranged a panel truck arrived at the building site. In small groups the workers were sent over to the truck to be fitted out with free work-wear and boots, for which they were all very grateful.

Igor saw it as a good investment, warm comfortable loyal workers wouldn't let him down, besides the supplier had almost bitten his hand off for such a massive sale, and he got a great discount. In the overall cost of the refurbishment part of the project it was small beer, and his daughters would pleased to known that these people would be warm this winter even if they couldn't find any more work for those guys who had previously been unemployed.

The night before he had called in to see Yuri, and given him a list of his needs, which had been delivered before Igor even got to site, he phoned to thank his friend and was making calls all day long to ensure the men on site had the required materials for the week ahead.

By lunchtime Marta had made up her mind, moving to a quite spot in the school grounds where she could see if anyone approached, she called the Studio asking to speak to Ivan. She told him how Irisha was nervous and doubtful about her abilities, and her fears of letting them down after all the help they had given, so she suggested the Studio might call her in for a practice shoot to allay her concerns, and see how she faired in front of the camera. Talking for some time about the girl and her mother, Ivan said something about their address being in a rough neighbourhood, and Marta let slip Irisha's comments on the building supervisor, so Ivan said they would have to assist getting the girl relocated ASAP.

On Wednesday Marta was pleasantly surprised to hear from Irisha, having hoped that their revelations about the house on Sunday hadn't caused any distance to grow between them. The girl seemed very upbeat, as her mum was now much recovered, and she herself had a booking for an initial practice photo session the following evening. Marta asked for more details, like what time she was due in make-up finding out Yana her mum was obviously going to be there. Marta had chess club but she could easily reach the Studio in time so she inquired if Irisha would like for herself and Anna to come along to lend their support.

She admitted she would feel more comfortable having someone her own age there for this shoot, and if Anna were free as well, she would be grateful to have an expert model on hand to give her advice. The topic remained on modelling for a time as Marta spoke of her research on the subject, and her experiences viewing her sister's photo and video shoots.

Eventually Marta got the feeling Irisha was holding back on something as she if she were hesitant to raise a new subject, so Marta pushed to find out what it was.

“Well it's kind of strange, the building supervisor I told you about, he always used to be hanging about leering at girls who live in the block, I know several found him quite creepy. The thing is I saw him yesterday walking all hunched over and limping, when he saw me, he turned and hurried off the other way, but that isn't the only weird thing, it's not just me, some other girls I spoke to said the same thing. It's as if he's suddenly become like frighted or even allergic to young girls, it's just really strange behaviour, I'm wondering if maybe some girl's dad beat him up.”

Marta had her own theory, she knew of two other men aware of Irisha's local pervert, she was also sure neither one would admit to any involvement in influencing the nasty creep to mend his ways. She thought both her suspects would find this man's coercive behaviour towards his victims abhorrent, although probably neither would have taken part, they both had contacts who would. Marta said nothing about her suspicions, instead merely saying it was a relief girls in her neighbourhood had one less problem in their lives to worry about.

Marta hated any kind of bullying, but whoever had taught this man a lesson had only been handing him his just desserts.

Telling Anna and her mum about Irisha's debut photo shoot the next evening, Anna was only too ready to lend her support, and their mum said she would make up sufficient snacks for all of them just in case anyone got peckish during the session. Anna said she would go commando in case Irisha got cold feet, so she could demonstrate by example, but her mum and sister said she was turning into an exhibitionist, or nudist, or both.

Marta was feeling a bit yucky as her period had started, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to continue the new area of research with Anna that had begun on Sunday evening, they had been working their way through the list of web-sites giving each a star rating by adding little asterisks adjacent to the URL, along with brief notes. It was now apparent to the pair, about their relative naivety regarding the interest people had in all things sexual, the diversity of their behaviour, and the manifest fetishes that were evident.

Somewhere in their investigations Marta had seen a comment to the effect that you could think of any weird or peculiar thing, then look it up on the internet, and you would soon discover news groups or bulletin boards of people having that interest regardless of how strange or sick it might be. The girls were now convinced this was the case, as there had been some leads they didn't wish to pursue. They packed in early as the following evening would be busy, and Marta wanted an early night cuddled up to a hot water bottle.

At school the following day one of the girls from a wealthy family was complaining at the unfairness at her parents demands that she cut down on the use of her mobile phone due to the size of her bill. Neither Marta or Anna had really considered the running costs of the phones they used, as they were part of the business and the Studio paid, thinking about it most of their calls were Studio related, though she would check with Ivan that they hadn't been excessive in their use. Chess club was a bust, Marta was off her game and felt she would have been better off leaving school at the same time as her sister that day.

At home Anna, Greg and Peter were in full flow singing along to some English pop songs causing Marta to complain the words were right, but someone was off key, from there the topic turned to Anna's guitar lessons, which were going reasonably well, to the point she had thought of buying her own instrument. Eventually it was time to go, for they wanted to be at the Studio in plenty of time to meet up with Irisha and her mum Yana.

The difference in Yana, in less than two weeks was stunning, like a new woman, her skin, her posture, and even her voice had improved since she had rid herself of the cough she'd had, with good food and under the care of a doctor. They could even see a improvements in Irisha since they had seen her at the weekend, the salon ladies soon added a touch of glamour, fussing with her hair and applying nail varnish to hands and feet, but advising she remove it from her fingernails, rather than go to school like that. Then they gave her a bottle of the removal product in case she finished after they'd left, Marta pulled her sister aside suggesting the area where Irisha lived, the painted nails might give the impression she was a working girl, Anna agreed that would be a very bad thing right now.

“I might have guessed you two would show up; here to nurture your new discovery?”

Anna introduced Valya to Irisha and Yana, telling them she was the best make-up artist and mentor for new models in the entire Studio, then as they walked to the set they would be using, Anna asked who would be snapping the pictures. Both sisters noted a look of apprehension cross Irisha's face when she heard that a man would be behind the camera, but Anna just jumped up and down, as if she had won a jackpot.

“Wow, you're lucky, that's my winning team, John is so much fun, I usually spend the whole shoot laughing, and he always takes nice pictures of me, though you mustn't tell him I said that, cause I like to wind him up – it's my job.”

In studio six Valya's table was already set out and nearby were four mobile hanging rails as might be seen in dress shops, holding a vast choice of outfits, there were also several boxes holding mix and match accessories. Irisha's eyes lit upon the the bright colourful garments, running her hands over the variety of fabrics marvelling at the fine textures.

Raising her gaze from the rails of clothes, Irisha looked around the studio, in front there was just a couch, a table and some large bean bags, not a full-on set, more of a neutral background for the practice session this was meant to be.

A look passed between the sisters, they could see Irisha was on the verge of panic, each grabbing a hand they hurried off to the bathroom closing the door behind them.

Valya noting Yana's concern for her daughter brushed it off saying first time nerves were very common, and how the girls would sort things out, but when John arrived ten minuets later they had yet to emerge. With the introductions the three adults talked, each of them surreptitiously watching the door, none willing to voice their fears, then the latch seemed unnaturally loud when it did open, the tense adults waited.

The girls stepped out Anna as spokesman, Marta hanging back held Irisha's hand.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, our new model Irisha wants to use Laura as her professional name, and we talked about doing this practice shoot, we kind of,.... well the idea was we would go on together, so I could sort of help out,.. if that's okay?”

When John and Valya agreed that would be fine, Anna quickly undressed then walked over to get two robes that were hanging on the hooks, then casually strolled back handing one to Irisha, not bothering to wear her own yet. Anna winked at her friend saying it was okay to get undressed as it was only girls present, apart from John and he didn't really count.

The spluttering and false threats from John, and the laughter from the others dissipated the tension, gathering her resolve Irisha undressed, took hold of the robe, but moved over to the make-up table before donning it.

John let out a sigh of relief, there would be a test shoot after-all, Marta came over to quietly give her take on the situation, she had seen two girl sets on other sites, even some where the girls were of different ages, it was her thought they might be able to create a viable set from this screen test. John admitted it wasn't their normal modus operandi, but what was, when she or Anna were involved, besides they now had a double handed video shoot as a prime example, and that had sold like hot cakes.

Back at the table Valya did Anna first talking through the process, saying how she would do just a light generic make-up for each of them to highlight their best features, though on real sets they had designs to work from to compliment the particular outfit and theme.

Her long talk with the sisters had eased her mind, this session was simply to familiarise herself with the process of shooting a set, they expected it to be rough and ready, a time to iron out any issues, to learn about all this new stuff, Anna had said even on a real shoot they made various mistakes, but it didn't matter, they just weeded out those pictures that for some reason didn't turn out right.

She was amazed the lengths everyone would go to in order to help her, just so she could practice being a model, Anna said they would look through the pictures another day so she could learn why some poses were better than others. When Valya was finished Irisha stared at the girl in the mirror, what had happened to that sad girl with the drawn worried face, instead the elfin girl looking back had such striking features, her eyes looked so big, sparkling. “Don't you start crying, quick dab your eyes, or I'll have to redo your make-up.”

The friendly admonishment from Valya made her smile, it looked good on the girl in the mirror, it was something she should do more often. Anna took her hand together they sorted through one box that had an awesome selection of underwear, with Anna's help she chose a matching bra and panty set as the beginning of her ensemble, all the costume rails had now been moved over to flank the set, so it now looked more like a posh catwalk models changing room. Anna lead her around the set talking about the sorts of poses, and demonstrating how she transitioned through a series of moves so the photographer could capture the images that looked best from their viewpoint.

Whispering in the background John and Marta held back, waiting for the right moment to enter the proceedings, John had discovered the sisters had preplanned how they might deal with assisting Irisha, but the girl was clueless to their schemes.

“Okay girls listen up”, - ( Raspberry from Anna then giggles), “Thank-you for your show of respect, let's get this show on the road, this is just a practice Irisha so you can get used to how we operate on set, and so you can learn and ask questions. For instance I could get Anna to demonstrate a sequence of poses, then you could take a turn, or we could have you posing in a similar fashion next to one another, basically we can just wing it and have fun along the way. What I think we'll do is just let you try out whichever costumes you feel like, don't be to concerned about me clicking away, you cant go too far wrong following Anna's lead on set, apart from how badly she abuses me that is.”

Soon the girls were holding up one garment after another either for themselves or for each other, putting them on and moving about the set, Anna in teacher mode, with Irisha intent on learning all she could. It was interesting to hear of why some clothing worked better with some models and not with others, and how to make use of the accessories and props on the set, soon Anna removed her panties saying how they wouldn't look right with the outfit she'd picked off the rail. Grasping the nettle Irisha lost her underwear, well that wasn't too bad, then Anna explained about how you teased the audience at the start of a set, by nearly showing them what they wanted to see, usually taking the undies off slowly allowing the photographer to get dozens of pictures of them coming off.

Anna then rooted out a bra though she didn't yet have the filling, in order to demonstrate the way she had seen older girls disrobe, and then went on to show the various poses to adopt when removing your panties, with a deep breath Irisha tried to emulate Anna's bold and sexy performance, with encouragement and pointers from John.

Marta was lurking about behind John so she could view the performance from his view-point, while over at the table Valya was reassuring Yana that her daughter was doing well, as usually girls doing an audition wouldn't have an experienced model like Anna to assist them. She went on to tell Yana how Anna was a force of nature, irrepressible, although she was a relative newcomer herself, she had a natural stage presence, a born performer, and her daughter would benefit from Anna's instruction.

On set it was going well, Anna had got Irisha to loosen up from seeing the easygoing relationship she had with John and the banter between them had a calming effect, Anna having been right about the laughter, it had seemed unbelievable to Irisha that she could be cavorting about the set mostly naked and having so much fun, waggling her bum at the man holding the camera.

Anna began to pout, complaining about being starved, and in need of a drink, saying John was a mean slave-driver, so he called a halt so the girls could have a break, Irisha copied Anna's lead draping the robe over her seat then sitting there in a see through top similar to the one Anna was currently wearing, astounded by her own bold actions, but recalling Anna's words, if you could face walking the streets this was a walk in the park.

Marta had already began setting out their impromptu picnic when she heard her sister's mock complaints, telling Yana that her mum had packed for an army, not knowing how many would be at the shoot, encouraging the woman to dig in and help herself.

When everyone was sat around with drinks in hand Anna asked John for the chocolate, the joke was then explained to the newcomers, as to why John never had any.

Irisha wanted to know how this test shoot differed from the real thing, and was told of the more elaborate sets as she had seen in the pictures, and how normally an overall theme would dominate, linking the costume to the background. Valya went on to say about how the outfits were often individually tailored for the model, whereas today the wardrobe girls had just supplied a bunch of random outfits in mixed sizes as Ivan hadn't got anyone to check Irisha's measurements. Anna said that a set flowed in one direction, from a dressed model through to a naked one, not like this practice shoot, swinging back and forth while they tried on and discarded various clothes, though it was helpful to rehearse undressing for the camera.

At one point Marta slipped off to the toilet, on her return she made a discrete nod towards Anna, who in turn made a visit prior to continuing the set. Valya being unaware that Anna would show up, or join in, hadn't made her usual arrangements in the bathroom, but the girls were prepared, so Anna applied a little of her special make-up contained in a spare tin from the batch they had produced, ready for part two where her pussy flashing would become more evident.

As the session recommenced, John could see the merit of the plan Marta had outlined, the contrast in development between the two girls three years apart, Anna with the smallest of breast buds, boyish hips, and a bald slit, beside a girl with perky large A possibly B size tits, slightly more curves, and with an immature dusting of pubic hair above somewhat fuller lips that were more prominent. Had Ivan's golden geese laid down the foundations for another bumper commission, it was his responsibility to capture, edit and then arrange the material in order to form a cohesive set.

This would be a challenging task, but one he relished, because it would be interesting when he presented the proofs to Ivan as a made up set, as opposed to the expected audition series, and this new girl should have a nice surprise if he pulled it off in the way of percentage payments. He and Anna enjoyed their usual repartee, her goading him, and getting Irisha to join in, at the same time as she directed the action on stage, though John did try to maintain a semblance of order to ensure he didn't miss those shots highlighting the counterpoint between these two girls.

John hoped this wasn't too far outside the realm of their standard fair, although it could be transferred to another site within the group, his personal preference would be for Ivan agreeing to expand the remit of styles on their own site. Of course he was being selfish, in that he didn't want to loose Anna, or this new girl with the haunting elfin features who also held some promise, though she did look a bit on the thin side.

Irisha discovered Anna was right, she was having fun, playing dress-up, trying on beautiful clothes, flirting, showing off, it gave her a sense of empowerment, returned something to her life, or perhaps now including a spark that had been missing. Anna was outrageous as she whispered in her ear setting up new poses together, John must be getting a better view than the doctor she had visited.

If the real photo shoots were like this, she would look forward to coming into the studio, to think she had been worried a male photographer might be horrid or creepy, but he was fun, and kind, and respectful towards them, apart from that he was buff. Anna told her how he usually got a woody while they were working, then about what his wife said, that she didn't mind him getting hungry at work providing he came home to eat. Irisha had gasped, to think this ten year old could come out with these comments, Anna just blew her away, never knowing what the girl might say, or what stunt she would suggest next.

Without John having to ask Anna was setting up more shots where he could capture each girl separately, for whatever the outcome he would need an audition portfolio of Irisha to show around to the designers, for them to produce themed sets that would best suit her.

The two girls were now essentially naked in pussy pelmet skirts with large thin chiffon squares as wraps, that were totally transparent, Anna was talking of developing a personal style, then finding maybe one or two signature poses that showed off your best assets.

“You go and stand by John so I can show you my special pose, see what I mean, I don't have any boobs yet, but my bum isn't bad, so I look over my shoulder and wink at the audience, but you should flaunt your boobs in some way and make the pose yours.”

Returning to the stage they did Anna's pose side by side, then standing Irisha worked with her two advisers trying out various ideas, till John tried shooting from a lower angle so the view was looking up her slim torso with her elfin face at tilted at an angle between her nice pert breasts.

Marta had been following events, and could see they were winding down, just a few more minuets and John would call time, this had been a long session and she had watched the frame counter on John's camera, far higher than any normal shoot. When they had talked he said there would be a high percentage of discards if he were to make anything from the day's shoot. She wondered if this had been a silly idea, was it one scheme too many, self doubt crept in, then thought back to the things she'd read, about how the hormones at this time of the month messed with your head, in all she didn't know what to believe.

She looked up to see them standing side by side naked Irisha's arm round Anna's shoulder and Anna with an arm around Irisha's waist as they both waved at the camera and blew kisses, then for good measure taking a bow. Marta smiled it could work.

Both girls thanked John for his efforts as he started to pack up then Anna approached.

“I just wanted to say today John, you were really really ….. Average!”

John made a growling noise, and made as if to grab her, with squeals and giggles his two models ran over to the make-up table, Anna making a bathroom visit first, to clean up the additional make-up she had applied herself earlier.

During the shoot Yana had learned much from Valya, the unbelievable number of girls involved in the modelling business, and confirmation that the earnings Ivan had spoken of had not been inflated, in fact if anything they had been underplayed. Yana felt shame that she had let her little girl down, though it had been through no fault of her own, getting sick could happen to anyone, but it was a harsh unfeeling world, she wanted to work, not be reliant on her daughter. She had no training and scant education, her job as a waitress did not pay well and tips were rare, but it paid the bills, just.

Now she was regaining her health, she wanted to again look for work, but if they moved to a different tenement block, how much time would she spend travelling to and fro, she still had more questions than answers. Apart from Ivan and the doctor, Valya was the first adult she'd had a meaningful conversation with for ages, that was until Valya interrupted her to make a phone call.

She smiled broadly as she ended the call. “You were a waitress, so you wouldn't mind going back to work, as say a kitchen assistant?”

“Really, you know of a job, surely dozens of people must have applied already?”

“It's not vacant - yet, but it will be, one of the girls in the canteen here is starting a family, her husband has a good secure job so she's leaving in another two weeks, as it's starting to get uncomfortable standing for most of her shift.”

“But when they advertise, what chance do I stand, many people will have so much more experience I've only ever waited table, don't get me wrong I would love such a job but,...”

“Yana have you thought how some small minded people might view our Studio, how you yourself may have viewed the Studio before seeing it, this job won't be advertised, they never are, all our vacancies are filled by word of mouth. You're already on the inside, and you've signed a confidentiality agreement, about the only way you wouldn't get the job is if you fail to show up to speak with the catering manager.”

“What would Ivan say, will he think I'm greedy if I go to work in the canteen when he has already given my daughter a chance to work here?”

“Ivan will be pleased for you, he despises those parents who treat their child as a meal ticket, these girls don't have an indefinite modelling career, each family must have some form of financial back up, you need to save a chunk of Irisha's earnings for a rainy day.

Despite the company policy to encourage parents to be responsible some won't listen, the smart one's invest, buy into a business, start one of their own, or get themselves some useful new job skills. It's crazy but once you have a job, it doesn't seem too hard to find another job, but once someone becomes unemployed it seems impossible to find work.”

At that point her daughter ran over, giving her a hug.

“Oh mum it was so much fun, I was being silly thinking it might be hard or embarrassing, John made it so easy, and Anna gave me so much help, I can't wait to do a real set now I know what to do. I want to start working here as soon as I can cause Ivan was really kind to help us out without even knowing if I could be a model, and I really want to do the forum thing the girls have been telling me about.”

The words kept spilling out, Irisha gushing with enthusiasm, to the point Valya jokingly told the girl to take a breath, then to sit, so she could remove her make-up. Yana basked in her daughter's delight, soaking it up, better than any medicine she had taken, happy that her Irisha had found the modelling practice so enjoyable. It wasn't the time to tell her of her own news, besides she wanted it confirmed, a solid job offer before speaking about it, having recently had a long string of disappointments in their lives. While the girl was sitting still Valya gave her a brief 101 regarding skin care, and then demonstrated how to remove her nail polish.

When Anna took the chair, Irisha got dressed, seeing the fresh underwear come from her mothers bag, Anna suggested she get herself a backpack for her visits to the Studio, to hold her pass together with spare clothing and other stuff she would need. The remainder of their conversation was about Irisha's desire to get on with her career as a model, and to become involved in the forum where she could use her language skills.

When they were done Anna offered to help Valya, but was told to go, as she would soon get cleared away, walking back towards reception they saw three other studios were still busy as indicated by the “In use” lamp over the doors.

They said their goodbyes in reception, as the mother and daughter left hand in hand for the nearby Metro station, while the sisters awaited the cab they had called, now alone they talked of the shoot, Anna asking Marta if John thought they could make something of the session, or if the idea had been overambitious. Anna was frustrated to find she would need to be patient and wait for John to sort and review the results, he hadn't even been able to tell Marta when he would have the time to begin that task.

Unknown to the girls John was in the image editing suite anxious to know the answers himself, pleased for once to be totally involved with one of Marta's little ideas, by two in the morning it was complete, one audition portfolio for Irisha/Laura and one new style photo shoot. He checked through it one more time to confirm in his own mind that this worked, the order he felt was important, not in the sequence they had been taken, but now organised into a pleasing coherent succession of images slowly ramping up to a fine culmination as the two girls bowed to their audience.

Neither lack of sleep, or complaints from his wife stopped John from turning up early the next day, he had called Tanya, and Ivan would come round to visit him soon.

Ivan was keen to know how this new recruit had faired in front of the camera, watching as John paged through the images of her audition shoot, unaware that some of the cropping was to present the girl without Anna being in the frame. He nodded his head in approval, thankful that she came across well on camera, for he wanted to be honest and run the new forum linked with the girls that the members actually saw on screen.

Ivan thanked John for coaxing such a good audition portfolio from the girl, and was about to get up and leave when John said he had a new style two girl photo-set he would like Ivan's opinion on, so the man sat back down.

“It's a reasonable size set, eighty-seven images.”

He then brought up the other folder, pressing a few keys he sat back as it ran in slide show mode, John's attention flicking between the screen and Ivan, but wearing his poker face, Ivan gave away no discernible clues to whether or not he approved of this deviation from their usual productions. The slide show ran it's course through to the finale, the two men grinned and looked at one another, at last Ivan spoke.

“Don't tell me, I've just been Goosed!”

Chapter 33

As Anna sat trying to pay attention in class, she began to wonder if some wicked wizard had squeezed some extra hours into the day, it was going that slowly, her dad had been mean all week, not telling them anything about the progress at the house. He said they could see it before supper if their homework was up to date, if not they would have to wait until Saturday. It's not as if they could sneak over to take a look with all the people working there, she was thankful it had been a busy week or the waiting would have been even worse.

Finally came the sound of last bell, and she hurried off to meet Eve and Marta for the journey home, the subjects of their conversation limited until getting off the train, though by then they'd caught up on how well the forum practice had been progressing. Eve also mentioned how pleased her father was regarding sales this week, because their father had placed orders for both his company, and for the house he was working on. Anna said they were expecting to visit the house a bit later, and said over the weekend if she wasn't busy Eve should come with them and see it for herself.

At home their mum said Igor was at the 'house site' already, and they could walk or cycle round there to join him, little ears catching that, were disappointed to learn they could not go cycling with their sisters, as it meant going on the roads. Now seeing as almost all their clothes were new they changed into their least fancy jeans, and each wore one of the spare MMC sweatshirts for their site visit. Anna was happy to get out on her bike, as she hadn't ridden hers as often as her sister, but the house was only a relatively short distance away. They pulled up short when they saw Marta's team were out washing a car in front of a nearby house, talking briefly before they went to catch up with their dad.

Even before they turned into the driveway the changes were apparent from the neatly trimmed hedges surrounding the property, and the gates which looked freshly painted, unlike most construction sites they had seen, this one was well laid out and tidy. The drive was now nicely edged with stones as a fringe to finely manicured lawns and shrubbery, the scene wouldn't look out of place in any of the property magazines they had looked at.

It wasn't only their environs that were smart, all the workers greeting them appeared to be wearing new work clothing and boots. The genuine warmth of their reception had been quite unexpected, until one of the men thanked them, saying he had overheard their father say that his daughters wanted to arrange suitable protective gear for all of the staff. The two sisters were overcome and a little embarrassed by their enthusiastic welcome, as if they were popular TV personalities, insisting the idea was mostly down to their father.

On seeing him they tried remonstrating, but he told them no good deed went unpunished, then gathered them under his arms asking if they'd come to fetch him home for supper, or if they were there to see the first week's progress. After his little tease they first circled the outside of the house, from one corner viewpoint they could see there was only one face of the building left to paint, highlighting the stark contrast between old and new.

The broken panes now replaced, the windows sparkled, the woodwork of the frames now repaired and freshly painted, the architectural details of block-work around windows and on the corners of the house had been picked out in a lighter shade than the final colour of the walls, with the joints carefully outlined in a thin pencil line of a third colour, to add to the overall effect. That job had been done by one of the studio guys as it was more in the remit of an artist than a regular painter. It was apparent that work on the gardens was still ongoing, but if the areas completed so far were anything to go by, then the finished result would be stunning.

Inside work was under-way, dust-sheets had been hung across a number of the doors due to the mess created as various surfaces were prepared for paint or varnish, with their aim to complete the majority of that messy process to lay the dust first. At the three locations where they intended to employ their special Trompe l'oeil effects, small clear plastic tents had been constructed to keep those areas clean for the artists to work in. That afternoon one of the painters had turned up with a photographer to take a few shots of areas of the gardens that had been restored to their former grandeur for use in these illusions, and he was eager to see the effect when they projected those images onto the old doorways.

Igor pointed out one bedroom that was currently used as a dormitory for the workers who had travelled to be there, then as work progressed the men would move on to another room. There were minor changes being made to plumbing and electrical services, though nothing to cause overall delays in their programme, the only major refit would be in the kitchen, and that would begin the following week when better temporary cooking facilities had been set up elsewhere to feed the workers. The girls were amused to see the women on site had claimed the toilet nearest the kitchen as their own, taping a gender label onto the door, like the others in the house it was clean, but it had nicer smelling soap.

By now there were also nice smells coming from the kitchen, as preparations for serving the evening meal were well advanced, making the girls feel hungry to get home for their own meal. At supper most talk was about the house project, the sisters at one time saying how the men on site thought they were solely responsible for all their new clothing, their dad chipped in that it had been Marta's initial idea, he'd just widened the scope a little bit.

He said their altruism, whether inspired by empathy or a desire to spread the joy of their own good fortune, was a noble deed that would help many people in the coming winter, but there was also a principle called philanthropic self-interest, whereby you could benefit from the things you gave away. This started a whole new topic of philosophical discussion on the rights and wrongs of the society in which they lived, broadening the girls hitherto simplistic views about the real world.

Returning from lofty subjects to the here and now, the boys wanted to know more about the house thing their older siblings and father were involved with, angling to visit the site. “No boys you come and see the final result, you'll enjoy that more”, Marta thought that was an odd thing for her father to say, sure that the boys would be fascinated by the the machinery, especially the articulated arms of the cherry pickers that enabled such quick and easy access up the outside walls, but assumed he was worried for the boys safety.

In truth Igor's thoughts were on his secondary project, the previous owner having been a fool, checking into the costs, it hadn't proved that expensive dividing the property into two separate plots, and as the results of most legal necessities had been completed during the recent purchase, it had been relatively simple to perform the few additional steps required. As yet he'd not even confided in Ella the final outcome of the scheme he had in mind, so far the only person aware of this bonus the project had thrown up was Melenki, who was rapidly becoming his trusted right hand man.

Between them during the past week they had been alternating, so one of them had been at the site each day, he had also spoken to Stepan to arrange for Melenki to take unpaid additional leave from work, now paid by Igor to run his project, saying this would prove the point that the guy was due a promotion to site foreman. Igor had also demonstrated his firm grasp and control of all the projects at work that he was running, showing Stepan the planning work he was able to do on and off site using his new laptop.

Many local industries were slow to catch up with the advances often apparent in western Europe, and with the current climate capital expenditure on computer equipment was not seen by most businesses as a vital need at the time, so Stepan was impressed that Igor would fund this move off his own back.

The girls were conflicted as to how they should spend their weekend wishing they could be in two places at once, but having convinced themselves that the house project was going well they thought they would start by visiting the Studio in the morning then play it by ear. The receptionist smiled saying how everyone wanted to see them, laughing at their expressions saying that they should start with Ivan, then work their way down.

They received a warm welcome from Ivan, as he joked that his favourite two geese had arrived to brighten up his day. He told them of the eighty-seven image set that John had made up from their Thursday shoot, the two girl set featuring Natasha with their newest model 'Laura' had been loaded onto the web-site the previous day.

Anna asked if he knew what had become of the feline set she had done back at the end of June, so Ivan checked through the calender of her release dates, after her third set, the super sized one, her cup cake video had come out about four weeks later, followed by the cheerleader try-out video two weeks after that, postponing the release of any photo sets.

They held out for a month before the feline set hit the site in the last week of September due to the clamour from members for more photos, it was felt yesterday by the sales department that the members were ready for another set from Natasha, so the two girl set featuring Natasha with the new model 'Laura' had been loaded onto their web-site the previous day just twenty four days since her previous offering. He was in little doubt that Anna would easily exceed the usual set limit achieved by most models, averaging one set per month so far, with no sign of fade due to overexposure, and with two ground-breaking videos under her belt.

Marta hadn't been aware that her sister didn't know about the issue date of the feline set, but Anna rarely looked at the earnings statements, just living for the moment, happy with the fact that there were any earnings accruing in their account.

He asked whether the girls would like to be the ones to call Irisha with regard to the good news, stating there would be a sixty-forty split in Anna's favour as she was the established model. In reality the differential would seem considerably more with Irisha's percentage worked out at the normal model starting rate, whereas Anna was now paid at the models highest scale percentage rate across all of her photo or video releases.

This reminded Marta of the cost of mobile phone calls which she asked Ivan about, he said he was pleased that she was mindful of the expense, but he had seen no evidence that the girls abused the benefit of having their own phones, in fact he was rather surprised they didn't use them more frequently.

Both girls put their ears to Marta's phone as she made the call, they greeted Irisha asking how she was and enquiring about her mum, pleased to find they were both well, though Irisha was a little troubled she hadn't had any feedback concerning her audition shoot.

To placate the girl's fears Marta replied, “They liked it a lot, in fact that's what we're calling about, normally there is no fee for an audition shoot, whereas for set shoots you do get a shoot fee, then you get sales payments. The good news is you're getting a set fee, as John put together a set from the pictures of you and Anna, that was uploaded yesterday.”

They heard a yell, then calls as Irisha shouted for her mum to come to the phone, soon there was a four way conversation as they passed on the information as to what they could expect, and that if Irisha came in they could check together on how the sales were doing. Excited that her first set had been created from what she had believed to be a test shoot had been an amazing surprise, and they would both be coming over to the Studio. Marta was relieved by the result, seeing as they'd no doubt see John later when Irisha showed up, they decided to call upon Dmitri next, to see what he wanted to talk about.

He was keen to tell them of the progress on the 'model forum', they had done most of the debugging with Anna's help, now they had completed the multiple model and user phase of in house testing, if only on a small scale, and everything worked as planned. They now had eighteen girls who'd trialled the system, with a few more who would be joining in as they became more proficient, so now they were starting to look at timing issues.

The forum would be mainly about a real time experience, of their membership interacting with the models who were on line at any particular moment. Whereas in Europe there was only a one or two hour time difference, their main customer base in the USA would prove problematical as they were spread across four time zones. Dmitri showed them a map of world time zones to illustrate the difficulty this posed, in Kiev they were at GMT plus two hours, but the US Eastern time zone was GMT minus five hours, making a seven hour differential, for the Pacific region it would be ten hours.

He told them that a majority of their members were active between 8pm and midnight by their own time zone, one o'clock through to seven am was the quietest time, and then it picked up over the course of the day. He showed them a chart he had made marked up using a 24 hour clock to show when they could best reach their audience.

Girls online between 06:00 to 08:00 in the Ukraine would have a New York audience between 23:00 to 01:00 and west coast members from 20:00 through to 22:00. They then looked down the chart, a time slot of 17:00 to 20:00 which would be convenient for many of the girls would catch the east coast from 15:00 to 18:00 but four hours earlier in the Pacific time zone, a second three hour time band had been pencilled in for those girls prepared to stay up late. This chart didn't take into account that there were also regional time shifts at differing times of the year.

Ever practical Marta pointed out various models living in more rural farming areas might be used to rising really early in the morning, that for once would give them an advantage of having their own audience at a popular time with their members. Her thoughts being it could raise their profile, and thereby increase demand for their work, which Dmitri agreed was a viable proposition, and worth pointing out to Ivan. The only downside was whether those girls would have access to the internet, although speed requirements would not be an issue for the purpose of using the forum, it being entirely text based.

Now the girls could see the scheduling difficulties in black and white, they talked about how those taking part would need to have at least semi-regular weekday and weekend time slots that they could tell the members about. Marta asked if they could have another page on the forum where the girls could post the times they expected to take part in the coming week, and where they could leave a few notes if they thought they were going to miss their expected programme.

Anna joking, put on a 'newsreader' voice, “Your favourite TV soap, sorry I'll just read that again, your favourite model Natasha will be appearing an hour later than advertised this Saturday due to a shopping appointment with her sister.” Despite Anna's jovial take on the situation, it was agreed that was precisely the type of solution they needed to inform their subscribers using this new service. The ring tone of Marta's phone halted their discussion, Irisha and her mum had arrived, the receptionist had calling to locate where they were in the complex, Anna overhearing the conversation indicated to Marta that she'd fetch them.

Anna found herself in a fierce hug when she greeted Irisha, looking past the girl, it looked as if her smiling mother was in emotional turmoil unable to express her feelings at that moment. When at last Irisha let go, Anna reminded them to put their badges on, then said they'd go and see Marta and Dmitri, but Yana excused herself saying there was someone else she needed to see in the building first about some paperwork, but to tell Marta she would pay back the money she had given them, as soon as they got paid by the Studio.

Yana watched her daughter go off with the younger girl before turning back towards the receptionist to ask the name of the catering manager, and for directions to the canteen, she had been there on a previous visit but she had been too stunned at the time to take in any details. When Valya had called the woman on Thursday, the message had been to call in at the canteen next time she was passing, in all the attempts to find a job since loosing her place as a waitress, she had never even got close to an interview before.

Margarita was waiting when she entered the canteen, obviously called by the receptionist that Yana was coming. She was made welcome, given a tour of the kitchen facilities, and even introduced to the lady that would soon be leaving to have her first baby. The friendly unhurried and un-harassed atmosphere was in total contrast to her previous employment, where the owner looked at a toilet break as an infringement, as you were there to work.

Everything Valya told her was true, she didn't have to try for the job, it really was hers for the asking, she knew people where she lived who'd give their soul for such a wonderful job, peeling some vegetables, plating up the cooked food, you even got free meals, and tea breaks whenever the canteen was quiet, it was quite unbelievable. She was so happy to accept the job she hadn't even asked about the pay, and that turned out to be much better than she could have hoped for. With her wages alone it would be possible to think of moving to a better neighbourhood, more similar to the area where they had lived a few years ago when times hadn't been so bad.

With another chair pulled up beside Dmitri's desk, they reviewed the points covered prior to Irisha's arrival, then thought about organising a rota, ideally they didn't want too many girls on at one time, say between two and four, so each could take part but not get too tired from answering questions and typing all the time. Obviously the morning shift before school had the best match with their target audience, the afternoon shift being the most convenient for their girls, it caught their State-side members between breakfast time and lunch dependent on time zone, while their later shift would generally find mid-morning to mid-afternoon subscribers, again dependent upon where they lived.

With three shifts a day over seven days, with three girls per shift, would be sixty-three turns at the forum divided by their current eighteen girls, meaning each would only have to join in three or four times a week. They each took apiece of scrap paper to work it out, using numbers one through to eighteen instead of all the girls names, but it proved harder than they expected. They didn't think it fair to keep the same days, as they would all want some free time at weekends, and a girl wouldn't want to do a late shift if she was doing an early one the day before or the day afterwards. Also it would be good for the girls to line up in different combinations, and on different shifts, so they could talk with far more of their fans.

Eventually they had a workable pattern, although with just a few more girls the system would become less cumbersome, and it would be easier for the girls to trade spots if they needed to do other stuff, like a photo shoot, or if it clashed with their social lives.

In all it wasn't a bad compromise, and they suspected it would take a while to shake down the system and have it running in a way that best suited the girls and the members.

They still hadn't got a start date, and Irisha needed some practice time, although she could use a typewriter, she had little experience of computers, so Marta suggested Irisha visit them at home for some practice sessions until she was given her own laptop.

That last comment got Marta a double take, Irisha couldn't believe she would be given a computer to take part in the forum, until it was pointed out how impractical it would be for girls to come into the Studio to take part. Now their focus was away from the desktop and their scribbled notes, Irisha noticed 'Natasha's' wall of fame, which was now back in it's original form, the bowdlerised version now stored in a filing cabinet.

As Alina was now at her desk Marta wanted to go and talk to her about some current research issues, so Anna took Irisha over to see the office that she shared with her sister. She showed Irisha their book collection and the amusing awards that had been presented to them, going on to tell her how the sports shop Dmitri used was the place they had got the MMC shirts and caps for Marta's work crew. It was all just crazy, two schoolgirls, one of them younger than she was, with their own plush office space having a large desk for them both with fancy computer stuff and another table set up with a beautiful chessboard, and enough spare cash to go around buying up mansions!

Her head was still in a whirl when Marta came back to say that John was working in studio four, so they should go and get an early lunch, by which time he should be finished and able to show them Thursday's results.

They found Yana sitting at a table in the canteen sipping a coffee, joining her Irisha then gabbed non stop about her interesting morning, before winding down to ask about if her mum had been in to see Ivan.

“No” she said with a wide grin, and holding up an envelope in one hand, “The girls in the canteen were busy preparing for the lunchtime rush, so I thought I'd sit here out of their way, after all in two weeks time they will be my co-workers.” Irisha's loud squeal turned a few heads, and brought a few of the women out from the kitchen, giving Yana the chance to introduce her daughter to her new colleagues.

When they sat back down, Irisha started to thank Marta, for getting her mum a job just as she'd promised, but when Marta denied responsibility, Yana told them of Valya's hand in the affair, even so it had still been Marta that had introduced them. Over lunch Yana said her first priority now would be to think about moving, she just needed to earn enough for a security deposit for whatever place they moved to, after she had paid Marta back.

The sisters looked at one another both saying “Ivan” at the same time, then told the story of their move into the city, and the help they had received from the Studio.

At Yana's protestations that the Studio had already done enough, Anna explained how the Studio was like family, and they were always helping the people who worked there, and also how they all tried to help one another.

In Ivan's office Marta told him of their earlier talk about relocation, and he agreed to help as both mother and daughter would now want to be closer to the Studio, so he would get Tanya to call the property agent immediately, and as the Studio would act as guarantors no deposit would be needed. Seeing the gleam in Anna's eye he warned her off, stating Valya had told him how mean she had been to the man. When Yana asked why they were being offered so much help, Ivan put his arm round Marta's shoulder in an avuncular way saying his golden goose had chosen them – and she was never wrong.

The group of four then went to the image editing suite to see John, who scrounged up a few more chairs for his guests, so they could all view 'Laura's' debut set, first up was the audition portfolio. Irisha was wide eyed, it was different from seeing herself naked in the narrow blotchy mirror on the back of the wardrobe door, for starters she had no need to crane her neck for an all round view. It was unreal seeing herself in the role of a model, who at school would ever believe that, not that she meant to tell them anyway.

She hadn't realised she had been staring, open mouth until Anna gave her a gentle shake,

“Weird isn't it? Seeing yourself in a new way.”

She had a moment of profound understanding regarding her two new friends, they both empathised with her, Marta in respect of what she herself might have become, and Anna for who she was now.

Her mouth felt dry.

John then slowly went through the set he had made with the both of them, listening to him and Marta doing a running appraisal, a study in 'compare and contrast' made it sound like a literary exam. She could follow the merit of their debate, in that the juxtaposition of images showing the progression of development made an interesting picture. Not all of the images featured them both, they appeared individually in several photographs which John suggested made the set stronger.

They cycled through twice, and John said there were eighty-seven images in the set, he then asked if anyone was curious about their sales figures, he quickly navigated to a new screen, apparently each girl had her own download data page, but this one was for work featuring more than one girl, and titled combined sets, this section had been added since Anna's cheer leader try-outs video, as it had been realised this might herald a new trend.

The set number had their model names, followed by boxes that had slowly rising numbers, John explained the various parts, one box showed the number of different people who had visited the page, another showed how many times the page had been visited, so from those numbers they could determine some people had viewed the page more than once. The percentage box was about how many of those visitors paid to download the set, it would make tracking a challenge with the set displayed on the home page of each girl.

John said he suspected now Anna had done both a two girl video and a photo set that they would become a popular addition on the site with others wanting a go. John and the sisters talked of site hits, conversion rates and so on leaving Irisha puzzled, she was only curious to know if people had liked the photo set.

“You've done well” said John as he pointed to the total sales box which showed numbers moving in fits and starts, which Irisha couldn't read from her seat, so Anna checked the counter reading off, “twenty-six thousand six hundred and fifteen, - twenty one, thirty nine.”

Anna looking at Irisha then turning to John said, “If you're going to invite young ladies up to your suite to see the download numbers, you will have to start keeping smelling salts in your desk drawer to revive them.” They all laughed at her daft antics, then Marta started to figure out the model fee on a scrap of paper, passing it to Yana, saying that it was her daughters download earnings so far today.

Yana did pass out!

When she had regained her senses, John raided the nearest fridge to find everybody a cool refreshing drink, after Irisha retrieved the paper from the floor she looked somewhat pale herself. “Are you sure all of this is my share? Shit, this is way more than mum used to make in three months.”

“Well no, there have been some more downloads since I worked that out, plus I forgot to add in your modelling fee for posing, but the best part is as you're sleeping tonight while dreaming about your new life – the downloads will mount up and you'll still keep earning more money!

Chapter 34

(Warning advisory, parts of this chapter contains some factual information, those unwilling to know the truth should look away now.)

The tableau round John's workstation was disturbed by the ringing of Anna's phone, this time it was Tanya looking for Irisha and her mum, as Ivan had given her the task of going with them on a property hunt, starting in about twenty minuets when the guy was due to show up from the agency, to give them a tour of available apartments.

The newcomers were staggered at the pace things were changing in their lives, but Anna assured them this was how it was in the fast lane, exciting, so hang on and enjoy the ride. John had to leave as he had two more shoots to cover that afternoon, so the girls decided to see what was happening over at the house, their arrival was well timed, coinciding with the start on one of their artistic illusions. The windows had been covered in one of the downstairs reception rooms to intensify the image of the slide projected onto the wall, with the studio artist tracing the outlines to form a sketch of the scene he was to paint.

The image settled on was of the gazebo in the garden, which could just be seen from a window in the room, but it was not possible to view the image, and the real view at the same time from any place in the room adding to the illusion. In a rather odd case of life imitating art, the Studio guy was going to paint the gazebo as if it had been restored, then the builders would work on the real structure and match it to his painting.

The second illusion to be painted in another downstairs room was also within a bricked up doorway, being based on a photograph from a park near Kiev, with a tree lined walkway leading down to a lake.

The third scene was at the end of an upstairs hallway, which the artist was going to make up from scratch using the girls idea for an amusing trick. Not wishing to get underfoot of all the busy workers inside the house they went outside to check on the grounds, and to see where Marta's crew were now being employed.

Taras and the rest of the lads were outside clearing around the gazebo in readiness for the carpenters and painters, so when they were free to determine what repairs were needed, it would be easier to work on the structure. As if they hadn't already voiced their gratitude to Marta before, they were even more exuberant now about the additional clothing and boots, that would make the coming winter far less daunting. Taras bashfully admitted that the drama lessons had helped when introducing themselves to people in the neighbouring houses, and word was slowly spreading outwards as they gained local work cleaning cars and doing some basic gardening.

Marta was keen to hear from Taras about the customers they had gained, and if there had been any problems about payments, but it was all good, as many paid extra as the team were polite and efficient, they often got over the agreed sum. First checking to see where the other lads were Taras lowered his voice and asked if their friend Irisha would be over to visit the site this weekend. The girls were amused that the brash streetwise older boy seemed to colour up when asking about their new friend.

Marta said that they expected to see more of her as she would shortly be moving nearer to this side of the city, and asked if they should tell Irisha he was interested.

“No! I mean, well er, she wouldn't look at me twice, she's like rich and cute, and I'm just one more homeless guy with nothing to offer, I just thought she was really cute and pretty and stuff. Don't say anything, I was out of line, I wouldn't want to upset her or anything.”

Marta sensed the boys genuine feeling not to cause their friend any distress, pleased he would take into consideration how the girl might react to his interest in her.

“Never say never, but Irisha has had a difficult time recently, with her mum being ill and the fact they are moving. That's partly due to having an old pervert that lives in the same block as them, so she has been stressed lately, she might not be ready for a 'boyfriend' at the moment, but I'm sure some new friends would help.” Taras got back to work smiling.

Anna suggested as there was nothing they could do to help on site that afternoon, they should go home to continue their research, Marta agreeing they set off for home, thinking about the interesting things they may discover, and about the time she would get to spend with Karl the following day.

They had three hours before supper, so they immediately fired up their secure Studio laptop to begin surfing, trying out a few more URLs they had not yet seen, which lead them on to following links to other boards and discussion forums. They were surprised to find pornography was a fairly modern concept only really coming into being during the mid 1800's before that anything with sexual nudity had been labelled as erotic art. This caused Marta to look at the linguistic etymology of some other sexual terms, till she found some interesting stuff about censorship.

Before the mid 1800's erotic art had been limited to those who were rich and powerful, able to afford paintings or carvings, but the advent of photography had changed things, causing those in power, that being church and State to take a hand either condemning or often banning what had up until then, been their own private domain. They found out how sexual mores, thoughts on marriage, and the age of consent had all changed, varied both over the course of time, and globally, as for instance with homosexuals, as they had once been jailed or even hung, nowadays in some regions it was not only legal but they could actually get married if they wanted to.

As their delving continued they came to the subject of child pornography, and found that it was an even more modern concept, originating from the mid 1970's, before that nobody had thought to make it an issue. Denmark up to that time had laws that strictly prohibited sexual censorship of any kind in the publishing industry, so one of the largest producers of adult magazines and 8mm films registered in that country, based there over the course of several years. They continued to publish pornographic material of almost any description without restriction, and did so in vast quantities to keep pace with demand, much of their output being sent all over the world, to satisfy foreign markets.

The article said it included normal sex acts between adults, sexual acts between adults and animals, sex between adults and children and sexual acts between children and other children. The company was still in existence, though nowadays they didn't make the stuff with kids as the laws changed due to outside pressures, but many of the thirty or more regular magazine titles from the past were now rare, highly sought after collectors items. From what they had seen it looked like the pages from those early magazines had been scanned, for they had seen several of the titles talked about in forums and bulletin boards.

Another article they saw was written by an academic, claiming how in the current climate of paranoia, it was now almost impossible to write any learned papers on the subject of adult-child sexual relations. He had years of research on loving consensual relationships, which proved more harm than good was caused by the law stepping in to split up these happy people, but though his peers respected his work, nobody would stand up to openly support him. He said it was like trying to post anti-smoking research in former times, years ago tobacco companies would pressure people to dry up your funding, thus make it hard for you to find an academic post. Now it was misguided religious right wingers, that were forcing the issue, not content with laws on a subject, they were also condemning any valid research that might prove them wrong. He saw official publication of his work was unlikely in the near future, unless the moral pendulum again started to keep pace with reality.

Anna was curious about the age of consent so they looked up information as to how that currently varied across the globe, they knew in their own country it was supposed to be 15 but nobody took it seriously, but they were shocked to find the lowest age of twelve was set in Vatican city. Marta made jokes about all the bishops and cardinals chasing all the poor choirboys around after prayers. (Not revised till 2013 up to 18)

Anna wondered why there were always news stories about catholic priests forcing orphans or choirboys to do stuff with them. Marta said she thought it was because they were made to stay celibate, which was very unnatural and they must find it too difficult, so they did it with youngsters they thought they could control, then sometimes they got found out. Apparently hundreds of years ago before TV or newspapers, many priests and lots of the popes had mistresses, and even had children by them, but they were way too powerful for anybody to say anything about it, and they could hush it up by threatening people.

Having seen enough about stupid hypocritical religious people Anna chose the next URL from the list pasting it into the browser, this site had lots of stuff about the culture of Japan. It didn't take long looking at the site and chasing some of the links, before the girls came to realise that the Japanese were obsessed with what they called 'Lolita complex' an almost reverent worship of young teen and pre-teen girls. The more popular Idols were treated like legendary superstars from the movies, and earned enormous sums of money.

These people were totally preoccupied with youth and beauty, but they had strange laws on censorship, for any pictures where girls were naked a leaf or even a sticking plaster was adhered between the girl's legs to cover her pussy, or the picture was made blurry or pixelated to hide the view. Anna laughed that this was crazy, saying if you had gone to the trouble of taking naked pictures it was silly to add a leaf, they might just as well do all the pictures with swimsuits, gym kit, or schoolgirl outfits which all seemed to be very popular.

One link lead them to an article stating how the Japanese legislature was being pressured to ban practically any material other than girls seen in the most conservative of swimwear. The crux of the issue was that it was radical right wing christian fundamentalists from the USA that were spearheading the move, despite the fact the indigenous Japanese religious culture was mostly Shinto or Buddhist, noted for their peaceful live and let live attitudes, never trying to force their views upon others with different beliefs.

They took a break from their surfing for supper, where the main subject was progress on the house, after the boys left the table to go and watch TV, Ella and Igor got an update of Studio news, about how they had looked into the more practical issues of running the new Forum with the various world time zones. Then there was the news of Yana's new job, the result of the combined photo shoot, and about the pair of them off on a property hunt that afternoon with Tanya. Later when Marta was on the phone to Karl, Anna called Irisha to enquire if they had found anywhere they wanted to move into.

The girl's excitement was evident from the moment she answered the call, telling Anna of the apartments they had viewed, any of which she would have loved to live in, but Tanya had insisted they needed to see a selection, and to consider the local amenities that each location had to offer. Without Tanya's guidance they would have been happy to accept just about anything, as all were several steps upwards from where they now lived, which by most western standards would be regarded as an awful slum tenement building ready for demolition. The happy outcome was there had been a unit available in the twin building adjacent to one block where the Studio had several apartments for out of town visitors.

Anna said how on her first visits to the city she had stayed in one of them, and how she fell in love with the bathroom, with the endless hot water and warmed stone floors. Their unit was on the seventh floor with views over the little park area where she had first met Ivan, and they were pleased that it had a smart working lift, unlike where they lived now.

It did of course have a convenient Metro link for the Studio, and the other good news was that Tanya said Ivan had the necessary influence to get her a place at the same school that Anna and Marta attended. This lead Anna to talk about the school and about the other models who went there, saying what good fun they would have together, and how Irisha would have a ready made network of girls there that would befriend her.

They had lots to talk about, and eventually Anna suggested that Irisha come over to visit the following day for a Forum practice, as sessions were arranged for several hours each day during the weekends.

As Irisha's train approached her destination she reflected how often she had walked in the recent past not having even the cost of a Metro ticket in her pocket, but now she didn't need to worry about travelling by train or even by cab. Anna had described the route from the station to her house, but Irisha was grateful to find her waiting on the street outside to lead the way, though it was fairly simple to find just as she had said it would be.

On the walk Anna pointed out the park where her brothers played football and where they occasionally cycled, and the road where Eve lived, a model who went to the same school.

Looking around Irisha loved all the beautiful houses, and found out from Anna the house that they were working on was not too many streets away, but higher up the slope of the valley with better views, though you couldn't actually see the river. It seemed crazy that she was hanging out with a new friend that lived in a five bedroomed house, she knew of larger families in her building that had the same size units she and her mother currently lived in, and this wasn't at all uncommon.

Ella, Anna's mum hugged her real tight, welcoming her to their home, even after releasing her she still held her hand leading her through to the kitchen. It was embarrassing that this woman must know about what she had been doing when Marta had found her, but it was as if she didn't care, instead just talking of what lay ahead for girls who joined the Studio. At the table she was offered a tempting selection of Ella's home made cakes, while she made them some tea, out in the garden she could see two boys playing on a climbing frame, they must be Anna's younger brothers. When Irisha said it looked like the boys were enjoying themselves, Ella replied how thankful she was that all her children could now look forward to a better future filled with wonderful exciting opportunities.

They both gave her a tour of the house, it had so many rooms, and everyone had their own bedroom, the boys rooms were magnificent she couldn't think of any other word, they were beyond anything she had ever seen before. Few enough people ever painted a room or put up new wallpaper, but hand painted murals reminded her of the backdrop scenery used in the studio, this lead on to the story of when the family had moved to Kiev.

When the girls were alone in Anna's room, Anna told her more about the changes in her life, and how it really was true their dad was only a week away from loosing his job just at the time they had the chance to come to Kiev. She heard of how the family dare not show any sign they had a new form of income in their old town, or they would've been robbed, then when they moved here, they had hardly any clothes that fitted with their new life and the neighbourhood where they now lived. Smiling she said that Irisha would have to join them when they next went out clothes shopping, saying it was a shock, but a nice one, to go out and buy new stuff, rather than haggle for old second-hand tat at the market stalls.

Anna started up the laptop which she had seen before on the day she first met Ivan, Anna explained it had lots of security stuff on it that meant they could easily take part in the Forum from anywhere they could get an internet connection, but that no one could see any Studio related things without the extra plug-in thingy and the special password.

Soon they were taking part with four other girls and five pretend members, with Irisha starting her entries with the name Laura so everyone could tell who was typing from Anna's laptop. When Irisha spoke about the other girls poor use of grammar or spelling it was pointed out how their teacher who was also helping the Studio said the members wouldn't mind as they didn't expect perfection, and how they also liked the girl's accents on the videos that the Studio made.

Irisha thought it ironic that although she was the eldest, and had 'practical' experience of men, it was the younger girl that was her mentor, first in the artistry of posing on the set of a photo shoot, and now in how to talk to their artificial audience, using a language that Irisha was supposedly more proficient in using. Ivan had said Anna was one of the top three girls at the Studio, and with the effort she put in, plus her boundless enthusiasm, it was hardly surprising that was the case, so it would be difficult finding a better role model.

She met the boys when they all sat down for a tasty lunch, far easier when you had more choice than bread, cabbage and potatoes, at least they were both now eating properly at home. The brothers were a revelation, never having any siblings herself, noisy and curious darting from one subject to the next, but when they found their sister's new friend was another person who spoke English, they had someone else to play with, for to them it was still more of a game, not a subject taught in school. They ended up entertaining the boys for an hour after lunch, then Ella took them out to go round to play with Victor while she and Magda got together for a chat.

Wanting a break from the Forum, Anna showed her the picture galleries of girls from other web-sites, in most cases the difference between these others, and that of their own Studio was quite stark. To think she might have been grateful to work at one of those lesser sites if the offer had been there, but it was obvious that she had landed on her feet, ending up with the premium brand operator. For a laugh Anna had called someone at the Studio that morning to get an update on their joint photo set, the numbers had been going up right through the night, Marta was right, she was earning money while fast asleep.

In another humorous vein, Anna played an older video from the studio where a girl just gave a very stilted English introduction, which was probably learned by rote, this had been the spark causing the sisters to consider making videos with a complete English dialogue.

As their conversation continued Anna spoke of all the research they had done, then spoke of their recent trawl through the net using a list of web sites, and all the crazy stuff they'd discovered which had really opened their eyes. Anna began skipping through a selection of the sites she had seen since she began this new line of enquiry, until she suddenly realised the image on the screen could be upsetting to her guest.

“Oh, sorry I didn't think about that!”

“It's okay, it's not your fault, though that girl seems to be enjoying it, how old do you think she is, ten, eleven? Look another picture of the same girl, she's smiling, and in that shot licking her lips. Wow who'd have thought.”

“Was it really horrible for you? No you don't have to answer, I just find all this stuff so confusing, sort of scary and I don't know, exciting as well, is it gross?”

“I hated it, every one, and I hated myself, there didn't seem any option, so many people are out there begging, I tried that, but it's like I became invisible, then I saw these older girls doing it one evening. I spoke to one, she seemed so blasé about it, or maybe she just didn't care any more, she gave me a few tips then said fuck off and find your own spot.”

“I was so scared that first time, took me totally by surprise when it spurted in my mouth, then I started heaving and threw up all over the place, not that I'd eaten much to chuck up, but by then I couldn't think of any other way I could bring home some cash because mum was so ill, I really thought she might die.”

Anna passed across a box of tissues her eyes were wet too.

Irisha continued, “It must be the context, I mean lots of girls do that with their boyfriends, I know some of the girls at school do, they say you have to put out a bit or they dump you for some other girl who will. Well I never had a real boyfriend, I was trying to study hard at school, but then when mum got sick it was so frightening. Anyway what I meant was if it was someone who I cared about, not some awful smelly stranger, it would probably be different and I might even get to like it – but don't bet any money on that.”

By now the two girls were grinning as they continued with their surfing, Anna picking up on some new links, as they talked about the images, and read some accompanying text, with each of them having questions or comments. Eventually they got to the Japanese web-sites that Anna and Marta had been looking at the previous day, carrying on trying out links they couldn't read till they came to an article in English on the subject of 'Enjo kosai' or compensated dating where schoolgirls as young as thirteen or fourteen were accepting money to go out with older men. It was all very up front, with the girls posting adds on local chat forums stating what they would or wouldn't do, and 'suggesting' what they considered to be a suitable cash 'present' for spending time with them. Most girls offered a minimum of kissing and groping, going on to hand relief or blow jobs, full blown sex, or even in some cases anal sex.

“Maybe I would have done better in Japan.” Quipped Irisha.

Another spin off from the sites they were looking at were other articles about shops that sold girls worn underwear in little plastic bags which often included the girl's photo, and were priced on how stained the items were, both girls were fascinated by this and Anna went on to tell the joke about throwing your panties at the wall to see if they stuck, so you could prove it had been an exciting night out. They had thought that shop was the limit, but then they found another entry about vending machines with the same goods.

The next discovery they made were several web-sites aimed at the Japanese which they could see from the text, but featuring schoolgirls of a European appearance, causing Anna's interest to be perked up. Many of the girls were in uniform or gym kit as they had been with girls from their own nation, there didn't seem to be any nudes, but there were some where the girls were wearing some strange sorts of clothing. Delving on they found this was called fetish wear, something they needed to look up to find out what it was all about, although after reading it, it still made little sense to either of them.

The girls began speculating if each country had there own special likes when it came to nudity or porn, but one thing that was plain to see, in each region there was a very strong interest in young teen or pre-teen girls, that was with clothes or without, though giggling they felt without was the preference.

They heard the front door, and ran downstairs to greet Marta who had returned from a mystery trip with Karl, who had taken her to a horse riding stables near the edge of the city. As they sat in the kitchen she told them about her wonderful surprise, although Karl unfortunately found he didn't enjoy the experience, complaining how it banged against his sensitive 'boy parts', that set them all off laughing. They had then gone on to a late lunch and cruised the shops before he had to head back home to study.

Irisha went to get something from her bag, after finding their new apartment the day before she and her mother had done a little shopping of their own, while Yana had been dumbfounded by the shop Irisha had chosen to visit until she heard why her daughter was there and what she was looking for.

She had expected both sisters to be home, but on hearing Marta was out had held back on revealing the small box, preferring to wait until both sisters were there. Nervously she handed the girls a gift wrapped box about 20cm high and 4cm square apologising that it was a silly gift but they would understand it held a special meaning.

With the paper removed the box had the name of the store where Marta had got her MMC sweatshirts from, inside was a sports trophy similar to their joke awards from Dmitri.

Lifting out the cup it was pre-engraved, obviously for a swimming club - Lifesavers Award.

Below the shop had added the names Marta and Anna.

The three girls hugged, tears all round as the sisters said they would treasure the gift and that it would take pride of place in their cabinet, true to their word on a later visit to the sports shop Marta bought a plinth for the cup so it stood above the other two.

Chapter 35

The week of Anna's eleventh birthday.

The following week the girls were busy at school, not really taking note of the calender, though all around them other work was in progress. Yana and her mum were moving in straight away with Ivan pulling the strings, and the house refurbishment was progressing faster than Igor's best estimates, so he pushed forwards with his hidden agenda.

He had overheard comments the girls made regarding the neighbouring bungalow that appeared to be empty, not correcting their assumption that it belonged to another person, in fact it would belong to them, when the big house was sold to settle up with the bank, but for legal reasons his name would show on the paperwork. He only had men working in there during the week, and had told them it involved a surprise for the girls, therefore he didn't want anyone on site to talk about it.

Igor had spoken to Svetlana, and via her, and the lady that looked after her apartment in their old town, had arranged for Gramps to be ready for his call on Monday morning.

Ring,... ring.

“Hello, Igor is that you? Is everyone well, is there some problem?”

“Gramps you worry too much, we're all fine, better than fine, are you and Olga okay?”

“You don't need to go fretting about us old folk we're fine, that holiday you arranged for us was really wonderful, hardly a day goes past we don't relive our visit with you, and our trip to the coast, something we'll always treasure. The kids haven't forgotten us either, as letters and pictures and drawings turning up in the post all the time, telling us about the house thing, and how they enjoy their new lives in the big city.”

“So how are you coping? I hear things in the town are not too good.”

“We get by, still no luck getting an allotment, though from what I hear, others come along and steal your vegetables before they're half grown anyway.”

“So if I could help you out with a small secure vegetable plot, and a little easy part time work you might be interested?”

“Don't play the joker winding up an old man, there's nowhere near to me I could grow the odd cabbage without some blighter stealing it, and jobs of any sort are rarer than hens teeth. Anyway getting back to the real world you've got a whole batch of birthdays coming up soon, that was poor timing on your part, mind you February and March can get a might chilly.” he said with a chuckle.

“That's part of the reason I wanted to talk with you, I have a number of irons in the fire, one thing you can help me with will make this the best birthday any of the kids have ever had, as we've never been able to truly celebrate their birthdays, or get presents for them like we wanted to, so this year I want to give them what they really want most of all, but I need yours and Olga's help.”

“You know how we love those kids as if they were our own grandchildren, if it's within our power to help you make their birthdays special you just tell me.”

“Okay great, but it's not that straight forward so bear with me, you've heard all about the little investment scheme in letters from both Ella and the girls, but they don't have the full story. Getting the right property was key, but when it turned up it came with a bonus, this nice little bungalow on the same plot, just a fifteen minuet walk from our house, now I'm thinking when the big house is sold there's an opportunity. The new rich owner only needs to call the local caretaker living in the little house nearby about any kind of maintenance problem, then that man contacts the right person from the list I've given him.

It's not a difficult job, or too demanding, but I'd need someone I could rely on, who could take care of that little house maybe grow a few flowers and some cabbages in the small garden, maybe even have some young visitors pop round for a game of chess or the odd tall story. I'm sure Ella and I would love our best friends to live a whole lot closer as well, what do you say Gramps, will you do this for us?”

Igor could hear sniffling sounds at the other end, he was feeling a little choked up himself, this would be the perfect outcome, he'd said nothing to the family on the off-chance that Gramps and Olga might be too set in their ways to consider moving to the city, but he had to give this his best shot. He waited, not trying to hurry his old friend, not that it sounded like he was ready to speak just yet anyway.

“Em, Igor, (sniff) I'm at a loss what to say,.. You can't imagine how much we would love to be closer to you all, but don't you need to sell the bungalow, I thought this was for the kids future, a nest egg for them.”

“Gramps that bungalow was always a spare part, the reason the big house didn't sell, now it is separate, held in trust for the kids, within the current market I couldn't sell it however hard if I tried, I doubt I could give the place away, the only possibility of giving the place any value is to put two old codgers in it and watch my children's faces when they find out. Look I haven't even told Ella because I knew the disappointment would be too much if you were unable to come, but face it - what reasons do you have to stay where you are?”

“I won't take charity.”

“I know that, same rent as you pay now, only it would be going towards the kids future.”

“When?”

“The place is nearly ready, Olga will love the kitchen, in the garden there's some lovely shady trees to sit under next summer, I know it's real short notice Anna's birthday is too close, but how about moving in on the Sunday before Marta's birthday, and what say we make it a big birthday surprise.”

The two men talked for a while more, it remained unspoken that Olga would say yes in a heart-beat, next they agreed times Gramps would be beside the phone later in the week to settle the remaining details of the move, Igor stating he would arrange the truck with a crew to shift all their belongings.

Igor had sat in his vehicle to make the call, he looked out at this impossible dream that it was taking shape in front of him, rubbing his eyes he got out to go find Melenki, happy he could tell the one person who had been aware of his crazy plans, that the old couple were coming. His trusted workmate clasped Igor's shoulders beaming, sharing in the moment, knowing how much he had longed for this outcome, then they hustled off to check how the work was progressing in the smaller house.

Of course small was relative, this was spacious compared to where Gramps and Olga lived now, they even had a second bedroom, and it was so well built, they would be really snug in winter and cool in the summer, plus they would not have two flights of stairs to climb to reach their front door. Now it had been confirmed he could go ahead and order all the new appliances, basic but good quality, Olga would not want automatic this or that, just things she could use and understand.

News soon spread round the site how the cottage was for the young girls beloved adopted grandparents, and that it was to be the girls birthday surprise, though several men wished they could do the same for their kin, they were realistic but glad to be helping a man who had the compassion to aid an elderly couple, he had also been very good to all of them.

Officially it was day eighteen of the build; paid for, and papers signed on a Thursday, work started on Friday the ink hardly dry on the contract, so lunch time would be the third big site meeting. Igor liked it this way, get stuck in first thing Monday, see what issues needed to be sorted out, then discuss them after lunch all together in one place. Several men had given him the thumbs up so he knew the latest news was widespread, he went on to tell them the rest of his idea.

“Listen up, you all seem to have heard by now that Gramps is moving in with his wife Olga, no don't ask, I've never found out what his first name is.”

This was met with laughter.

“So the deal is some of you guys are earning extra cash while you use up the holiday time from your day jobs, but others of you are not so lucky, finding this your first job in a while. The plan is I want Gramps to act as a middleman who can contact you if any maintenance jobs need doing here, or if any other work shows up, so list all your names, along with your skills and how he can get in contact with you. For the moment that is as much hope as I can offer, but if we can successfully sell this house within a reasonable time there will be a bonus all round as I promised, so if another project turns up I will call on you again.”

Across the city a morose building supervisor watched as that woman who had been sick and her cute pixie of a daughter moved out, he was pissed off, to think he nearly had her, now they were off, his string of bad luck began with a late night visit a week ago when he got done over good and proper, it was made plain that he'd upset someone important. They had made no bones about it, the pain and his bruised swollen nuts were to reinforce the message, he wasn't to touch any young girls - ever, or any of the vulnerable young mums in the block. He was left in no doubt they had informers who were watching him, and would know if he so much as leered at another young girl, saying he wouldn't like it if they had to come back.

He didn't need to be told that, he had worked it out for himself, now he'd lost his power, word spread, they knew he was scared shitless to be seen in the same corridor or landing as any of the kids who lived here. As if mocking him young girls would answer the door when he went to collect rent money, knowing he would back off, so now he only knocked when the kids were in school. He was no longer feared, those in arrears just said to come back next week, and he dare not collect payment in kind, for him the endless run of tight young pussy had dried up.

Irisha knew if Marta wasn't a fairy-godmother she was certainly the next best thing, two men from the Studio with a van had helped move their scant belongings to their amazing new home, and Tanya had called to speak to her mum. It was just crazy that there were phones everywhere even one in the bathroom, but the news was they now had a bank account which both her mum's earnings, and her own modelling fees could be paid into. Her mum didn't have a bank before, what was the point if you had bugger all to put in there, though the initial sign on fee, and the cash Marta had loaned her the night they met was the most cash she had ever seen. She and her mum had been worried in case anyone found out they had that much cash on them, but now living here she felt safe, it was a very smart neighbourhood.

She was looking forwards to shopping for new clothes, and starting at a new school, but for the moment she was content to run what few spare clothes they had through the nice washing machine. Before they had used the bath to do the laundry or back when they had been flush a trip to the laundromat, now in their posh kitchen it had all shiny new stuff.

If it hadn't been for Tanya they would've been well happy to take the first place they had been shown, but she said they had to see at least four or five, as Ivan wanted them to be sure to get the move right. Of course that had wise advice, the first two apartments they had seen were unfurnished, and they didn't own a stick of furniture that would have stood the move without falling apart. They saw this place and one other which the property man had called fully loaded, as they were totally furnished even down to bed linens and place settings in the kitchen, like he said, just add the groceries.

Their old old place was one room and a bathroom, sharing a broken down sofa bed with her mum, now they each had a whole bedroom to themselves, how luxurious was that? Irisha wasn't going to miss her old school either, Anna had told her about the school she would be attending from next week, but even without the heads up, she knew it would be hard to find one that was much worse than the one she had left behind. She liked learning new stuff, and she really had an ear for languages, but basically her old school was filled with people who had lost all hope and didn't care, that covered the pupils and staff alike.

Hope now seemed like a blinding light in their lives, a new experience for both of them, she wondered if her mum would find a boyfriend now her health was improving day by day, maybe she would find a boyfriend herself, where did that thought come from, she wasn't sure if she could ever be comfortable with a guy, but no that was the past, she had to look forwards and move on.

That evening it was all Igor could do to stop himself telling Ella the news, he had to hold back at least till he spoke again with Gramps tomorrow, what they did need to discuss was the rash of upcoming birthdays. This Friday it would be Anna's eleventh, then a week and a half later on the Monday it was Marta's fourteenth, then his two sons before November was out, and this year was the first time they would really be able to push the boat out, blow the expense it didn't matter, whatever they wanted, they could have. The thing was he knew that they wouldn't ask, always before they had such little expectation of any shop brought gifts, but from now on things were going to change, he'd get Ella to look for clues as to what the kids might like.

Ella knew exactly what to get both girls, having heard from Anna how excited she had been about Marta's account of her trip to the stables with Karl, it was their main topic of conversation Sunday afternoon, and Anna said she was dying to have a go herself when Marta went again, then laughing, said that Karl was not so keen for a return visit. Popping downstairs she returned with a brochure from the riding stables with a list of prices for the various packages on offer.

Unlike some of their rivals, they had an indoor arena so people could ride or take lessons throughout the year regardless of the weather. They opted to get both girls a six month membership with full tuition, after that they could decide for themselves if they had the bug and wished to continue. They shared a joke about the irony of it, that 'Natasha's' bio stated how much she loved horse riding, oddly now real life had a chance to match that fiction. They held fire on any gift ideas just yet for the boys, for they still had a few more weeks to resolve that particular issue.

Collecting the boys from school the next day they detoured via the local shop which sold newspapers, magazines and sweets, where she treated them to a chocolate bar each, then said they should choose a card each for Anna's birthday on Friday. They'd probably do hand made cards as well from tradition, but it was fun to get real cards as well because nowadays they could. As they left the store Greg asked a question.

“Mummy now we're not poor any more can we get Anna a nice present too?”

“Mummmm! Your squashing us.”

Ella released the boys from her tight hug, wiping her eyes she said that would be a lovely idea, asking what they thought she might like. They talked about it all the way home coming up with some funny things, it wasn't until they were sitting in the kitchen for their after school milk and snack that Peter plucked Anna's sheet music off the sideboard and suggested they get her a guitar. Yes that would be perfect, the school were reluctant to allow pupils to take instruments home, and to have her own to practice on as and when she pleased would be wonderful, tomorrow they would visit the music store.

Through Valya, Igor spoke to one of the costume department ladies at the Studio who had helped make up the curtains in their house, he recognised the woman when she turned up on site. He showed her around, telling her of the old couple who would soon be moving in, and the joy it would bring his family when the surprise was revealed, so naturally she wanted to help, swiftly measuring all the windows and showing Igor some samples she had brought along with her. Igor held his hands up in surrender, saying how he'd defer to her judgement on the subject, he would just pay all the bills, and see she and her helpers were well paid for their time.

He oversaw the progress wanting to ensure the heating system was up to date, and they would have a plentiful supply of hot water, he had also arranged for two sets of bunk-beds to go in the spare bedroom so that his kids could sleep over in pairs or en-mass which he knew Olga would love. This would be easy with them living so close, a simple pleasure the boys had sorely missed and something the girls enjoyed too although they'd less readily admit how they'd had fun during the few occasions they had stayed over.

With another box ticked, he left to visit one of the sites belonging to his 'day job' pleased he was able to juggle so many balls at once with the aid of Melenki and his laptop, they were a much more efficient team now he had given the guy a mobile phone, there was less unnecessary running about. Though his boss Stepan had supported him he knew the man was concerned Igor may have overstretched himself, but rising to these challenges he was proving Stepan's fears were unfounded. Despite currently only working a four day week for his boss, he was running more than his fair share of maintenance projects, and running them within time and on budget.

At the Studio additional laptops were being prepared for models who were training up to join the Forum, the decision made to hold off a little longer, rather than to struggle with only eighteen girls. Twenty-one was the minimum they really needed, and given just a few more weeks they would have a starting line up of twenty-five girls, three of those with good language skills lived in other parts of the country but they'd run tests proving the links held up to the required data rate. When the Forum was launched a few of the girls would still be slow or hesitant, but that would merely demonstrate the voracity to those taking part that they were conversing for real with the young models who were learning English, whose images on the web site they so admired.

The family had all spoken of their plans when Anna was studying in her room, so during breakfast on Friday morning she got cards from everyone, with a tease there may be a gift or two when they had supper that evening. When Igor got home early, Anna showed off all the cards that had arrived from numerous friends at the Studio and those from girls at school, but he could sense pent up excitement at the thought of a birthday with real gifts.

Igor asked if they thought they should hand them out now, the boys rushed off returning with their gift, covered in colourful wrapping paper and complete with a bow, it was plain from the shape what it was. Tears streamed down her face as she hugged her younger siblings, with care she removed the paper, then opened the case to reveal the beautifully polished finish of a new acoustic guitar. She strummed a few cords, then tried one of her practice pieces, a children's song, so the boys joined in with the words.

Marta had agonised over what to buy her sister, but seeing it in a department store when she was seeking inspiration left her in no doubt, they had missed out on so much growing up, knowing what rich children had, but those things were mere dreams, though not any more. At nearly one point four meters high it was totally over the top, Marta struggled in with the amorphous shaped bundle to the laughter of everyone watching. Anna was wide eyed as the gift lay on the floor awaiting her attention.

It was squidgy, tearing at the paper brown fur was revealed, she squealed it couldn't be, a childhood memory, sisters looking in a store window when they were younger than the boys, a large bear she knew she couldn't have, now years later a giant teddy bear of her own, when standing she was only a centimetre or two taller. Three of them stood there embracing Anna, Marta and Mr Bear, Anna hardly able to speak but it really didn't matter.

They danced about the room until they bumped into a sofa where the girls sat with the bear sitting between them, Anna had never had a birthday like this, she wanted the rest of the family to have such wonderful birthdays, and News Years gifts, and everything.

Igor didn't think he could speak without breaking down, he nudged Ella giving her the two envelopes, Ella said she had a gift she and their father had chosen, going on to say that they thought both their daughters might enjoy the same present, and as Marta's birthday was not that far off they had decided to hand out both their gifts today.

There were more girlish squeals as they discovered their equestrian gift, six months of horse riding with tuition, when Igor had gone there to check out the centre and collect the gift certificates he had also arranged for the girls to be rigged out with the proper clothing and safety hats when they came for their first visit, or in Marta's case her second.

Ella spoke up again telling the boys to run up and get changed, she had left out what they were to wear in their rooms, then she said the girls should get changed too as they were going to dine out at the girls favourite restaurant, not that they were gourmets dining out every night. They had eaten out now and then, but this could only mean that posh place overlooking the river that held special memories for them.

As they ascended the stairs Anna said they should have invited Karl, as Marta didn't get to see him as often as she would like, and they would miss one of their Friday evenings out. Smiling Marta said he was coming, but not until they were due to leave. Marta had gone into town with Karl on Tuesday, he had left work early to join her, and it was him that had carried the gift back, then smuggled Mr Bear into the house when she had distracted Anna on their return.

That day both Anna and Marta had a new lesson in etiquette, at their old school friends might've wished you a happy birthday, that was as much as it would be acknowledged, in their new school it was about the same, apart from the Studio girls who discreetly gave out cards to one another. Although most of the pupils at their school were from a more affluent area, endemic poverty around them discouraged overt displays of ones wealth.

They had a wonderful evening even Karl gave her a present, a scarf and gloves obviously helped by Marta, with an MPV from the cab company taking them there and back Igor was free to toast his youngest daughter on this happy occasion. Anna was curious if Hollywood film stars felt like she did that evening or if they ever got used to having everything they could possibly want. The only way the evening could have been better was if Nana Olga and Gramps could have been here to share it with them, but they had sent her a nice card with a message that a present the girls could share would be arriving about the time of Marta's birthday. She hoped they hadn't spend too much on a present for them, but she looked forwards to seeing them again over Christmas, she wished it could be more often...