The Exchange Student
by Lubrican
Chapters : Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Epilogue
Chapter Three
Back in the kitchen, Ruth washed, while Nadia stood beside
him and rinsed and dried the dishes.
Their shoulders touched as they worked.
"I like it here," said Nadia.
"I'm glad," said Ruth, who felt silly for
being as glad as he was.
"There are still many things I don't
understand. What did your mother mean
when she told your father to put a leash on it?"
"Oh ... that," said Ruth. "She was just telling him to be patient
and wait."
"No, she said to take if for a walk. What is it?
Do you have a pet I haven't met yet?"
"No, she didn't mean a pet."
"What did she mean? Why did you lecture her for saying it?"
"I didn't lecture her," said Ruth,
grinning. "Kids don't lecture
adults in America."
"It sounded like a lecture to me," said
Nadia. "It was a very short one,
but it sounded like a lecture."
"He was trying to get her to go to the bedroom
with him," said Ruth.
"Like now," she said.
Right on cue Molly's voice could be heard escaping
the bedroom in a long moan. Nadia
brightened.
"Oh!
They are having sex again!"
"Yes," groaned Ruth.
"You must tell me what it all meant then,"
insisted Nadia.
Ruth started to feel his chest tighten, but then he
reminded himself that she wasn't making fun of him, and she didn't find talking
about things sexual disturbing or embarrassing.
He marveled that she was so well adjusted, and that gave him the courage
to try to be the same way.
"Okay," he said. "Whenever Dad says he needs to talk to
her alone, in the bedroom, it means he wants to have sex."
"Yes," she said.
"And when she said to put a leash on it, she
meant his ... um ... penis."
"His hui ... his how you say ... dick?"
"Yes."
"How can he take his dick for a walk? Does she mean to go away with it?"
"Well ... yeah, sort of. I mean she might have been telling him to go
... um ... do something about it."
He realized immediately it was stupid to hint at things, since she had
no clue as to such things. "There
is this way of touching yourself that is a little bit like sex."
"Jacking off!" said Nadia proudly. It was one of the phrases she'd learned from
a friend.
"Yes," said Ruth, who felt his own penis
start stiffening after she said it.
"So to take his cock for a walk means he should
go jack off."
"Or just wait until later."
"Like now," she said.
Ruth looked at the hallway to his parents'
room. "Yeah."
"When I hear them in there, and I remember what
we saw that first day ... it makes me want to take it for a walk," said
Nadia as she dried the dish Ruth had just handed her. He almost dropped the one in his hands at that moment.
"Oh," he said.
"Do you like to jack off?" she asked. "I like it very much."
"Ummm, yeah, I guess I like it a lot too."
"Back home, the grandmas all say jacking off is
terrible and will make horrible things happen, but I have done it many times,
and nothing terrible has happened to me.
Look at me now! I'm in America,
and I have a new friend. Boyfriend, even! She grinned at him."
"We need to talk about that. You can't keep telling people I'm your
boyfriend."
"Why not?"
"Because people will think we kiss and
stuff."
"So if I call you my boyfriend, I have to kiss
you?"
"Well, of course not. I'd never make you do anything you didn't
want to do. But other people will expect
you to hold my hand, and kiss me."
"I don't mind doing those things," she
said.
His penis finished firming up, and notified him that
it was time to strike and take the spoils of war. He tried to ignore it.
"I wouldn't mind doing them either," he
said. "But people will also think
we have sex."
"Like your parents," she said.
"Yes."
"Hmmmmm.
I'd have to think about that.
Like I said, I don't believe I'm ready for that yet."
"No, no, no, I don't mean we have to have
sex. I'm saying that people will think we do."
"So who cares what they think, if it is not
true?"
"They'll expect us to go out on dates."
"What is this date?"
He tried to explain it, and she said it sounded like
fun.
"I don't think my parents would approve of the
boyfriend idea," he sighed.
"If they found out they'd ground me for a month."
"What is this ground?"
When he explained that, she laughed.
"When I came here, I expected Americans to
frown and be mean. I've heard so many
stories about Americans. But I think
most of them were lies, because everyone I've met is so nice, and no one
frowns. I do not believe your parents
would punish you for taking me on a date, if that was something that was good
for me, or useful to me."
"You have a lot to learn," he said.
"Of course I do. I just got here."
"Let's get finished and I'll get out a picture
puzzle."
Then, of course, he had to explain what that was.
After a week, Bob and Molly finally fucked
themselves out for a while and began to take a more active role in Nadia and
Ruth's evenings. Television was
interesting, because there was so much innuendo, slang and non-verbal
communication going on. It was good that
they had a DVR system, because they needed to stop and explain things to her
often, replaying sequences as well. But
she was a quick learner.
Part of that quick learning was identifying, through
some arcane talent she had, which things to ask Bob and Molly about, or ask
about in their presence, and which things to ask only Ruth about. Part of that talent was developed when, one
night after the TV had been turned off, and shortly before bedtime, she asked a
question to the room in general.
"Today, a boy named Todd talked to me. He called me a baby and said Ruth is a wimp. He said he could make me squeal if I let him.
What did he mean?"
Bob looked up from his paper, alarmed. Molly held the book she was reading with one
hand, and covered her mouth with the other.
Ruth made a growling sound in his throat. "Todd Bunsen?" he said.
"I don't remember his last name. I didn't like him very much. He seemed icky."
"Icky?" asked Molly. "Where did you learn that word?"
"Melody Simpson taught it to me," said
Nadia. "She says that sometimes there
are icky men watching the games."
"Who's Melody Simpson?" asked Bob.
"Cheerleader," said Ruth, frowning.
"Ahhhh," said Bob. "Icky indeed."
"So what does this mean ... to make me
squeal? I think this has something to do
with sex, yes?"
That was when she learned that it was much easier to
talk to Ruth alone about things sexual.
While the parents indulged in sex frequently ... and loudly ... they
didn't seem to be willing to talk about it as freely as Ruth was.
It was also how Bob and Molly found out Ruth was
being characterized as Nadia's boyfriend.
They blamed it on Ruth, of course.
When she finally understood why they were yelling at him, she clapped
her hands until she got silence.
"No, no.
Ruth did not say this. I am the
one who said this. I did not ask him
first."
"Why would you say something like that?"
asked Molly.
"Because of these icky boys, who try to hit on
me," she said. "If I tell them
I have a boyfriend, then they don't hit on me so much. And who could I say was this boyfriend? It had to be Ruth. It has been very helpful to me. Please do not be angry with him and ground him."
"Well I'll be damned," said Bob. "She's both gorgeous and smart as
a whip." He put the paper down. "Dear? I think we need to discuss this privately, in
the bedroom."
Nadia laughed, and then clapped her hand over her
mouth and looked away. Both adults
stared at her.
"Please," sighed Ruth. "Just go on. I'll explain later."
He hoped they'd forget, and the time for that explanation would never come.
Suppertime was almost always
interesting, because Nadia was popular with everybody, including the
jerks. And she often brought home a new
word or phrase she didn't understand. She
had developed a kind of radar about when to ask what something meant, right
then and there, and when to save it to ask her host family.
It was one such evening when she asked "What is
a rod?"
"A rod?"
Bob usually answered the technical questions. "Usually it is a piece of metal that is
long and thin. A rod often connects two
other things together," he said.
She looked confused.
"A boy at school told me his rod is ten inches long. He looked very proud. Why would he be so proud of something like
this?"
Molly choked on the spinach she had been eating and
coughed. Bob took time out to pat her on
the back. Ruth, having some experience
at this sort of thing by now, said "He was bragging about being very
manly. He thought that would impress you."
"Manly?
How could a long thin thing impress -" She stopped and blinked. "Oh.
Now I think I understand. He was
not talking about something made of metal."
"Right," said Ruth. "And he was also lying."
"Lying?"
"Nobody's ... um rod ... is ten inches
long."
"I don't think we need to teach her how long
things are and are not, Ruth," said Bob.
His wife started coughing again.
It sounded suspiciously like she was trying not to laugh by coughing
intentionally.
After that, based on this talent she had of
discerning when something might have to do with sex, she approached Ruth privately,
usually just before bedtime. One such
night she approached him.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," said Ruth. He was used to it now, and rarely got
embarrassed any more.
"Why would someone think you were
imaginary?"
"Imaginary?"
"A boy named Dennis said I should put you in
the dump and he would show me what a real man could do."
"He wants to have sex with you," said
Ruth. "He doesn't think I'm
imaginary. He just thinks he's a better
man than I am."
"Why would he think that? You're a fine man."
"Thank you," said Ruth, feeling the
familiar tingle in his loins. Nadia was
always good for a fantasy, but especially when she said things like that about
him.
"He's jealous.
Remember, I said people will think we kiss and have sex and all
that. He wishes he could be me, so he
could kiss you and have sex with you, and he thinks that by saying he's better
than me, you might dump me - break up with me - stop being my girlfriend - and start going with him."
"He's an idiot, then," said Nadia.
"I agree," said Ruth, grinning.
"I'm going to my room now," she said.
Nadia was like that.
She might be reading a book, or putting together a puzzle - she loved
them - and suddenly she'd ask a question.
Then, once her curiosity was taken care of, she'd go back to whatever
she had been doing.
Ruth had no idea that her mind churned
on the things she learned, long after she left his presence.
The fact was that she spent a lot of
time with others than her host family.
Ruth was only in one of her classes.
She often stayed late after school at the request of this or that club,
which wanted to ask her questions about life in Russia. The cheerleaders basically adopted her as an
unofficial member of the squad. Even
adults at the school tried to spend time talking to her, both because she was
fun to be around, and because she was interesting.
So Nadia, over time, had many boys to
compare Ruth to, and many men and women to compare her host parents to. And, as it turned out, the Cummins family did
pretty well in the comparison.
Ruth, especially, fared well. That was because, other than Ruth, almost no
one tried to just be her friend. It
wasn't because no one wanted to be friends with her. It was just that they didn't know how to do
that, and didn't want to look foolish to this exotic, beautiful girl with the
enticing accent. The boys who talked to her broke down into two basic
groups. She didn't think of it that way
on a conscious level, but that's really the way it was. There were the boys who were just curious
about her, or even a little afraid of her, and the ones who hit on her.
It should have been no surprise,
therefore, that she preferred to spend time with Ruth, over all the others.
There were still moments of humor,
involving the parents. One such was
after Nadia learned to address people by saying things like "What's
up?" and "What's the good word?"
While she'd been scared half to death about coming to America, once
she'd been there for a while, at least in tiny Victorville, she wasn't shy at
all. She was very outgoing, and the fact
that someone was a stranger to her didn't keep her from speaking. As a result, she spoke to people that, had
she known them better, she might have passed by.
She had been invited to join the
cheerleading squad, and had stayed after school one day to see what that
meant. When she got home it was time for
supper, and everyone was already in the kitchen, where they ate most of their
meals. Bob said, "What's the good
word, Nadia?" in welcome, and she brightly said "Legs is the good
word. Spread the good word!" She
beamed, until she found her host family staring at her with horror. It turned out a boy had heard her greet
someone and had coached her to always say what she had just said to them.
It was funny after a while, but only
because Nadia thought it was funny, instead of being embarrassed. Bob took her aside and taught her a phrase to
say to this boy, the next time she saw him.
He even explained, very carefully, exactly what it meant, so she'd
understand exactly what she was saying.
It involved the words "limp dick" and she was warned to use it
only once, and not in hearing of any adults.
But mostly, her questions were reserved
for Ruth. The routine in the Cummins
house was to limit television time, and spend the evening hours either reading,
playing games or doing something physical, like walking or running. Bedtime for Ruth and Nadia was firmly set at
ten on school nights, but it was on the honor system. Molly and Bob did stay up that late,
occasionally, but not often. On Friday and
Saturday nights, the youngsters could stay up as late as they liked.
It was, in fact on a Saturday night that
Nadia asked "When may I go to this mall I have heard so much about?"
"That is over in Salina," said
Molly. "It's an hour
away. But Ruth could take you to the
WalMart in Great Bend if you need anything in particular. That's only half an hour from here."
"Ruth can take me?"
"Drive you."
"In the car? Ruth can drive the car?"
"Well sure," said Ruth. I've been driving for over a year. Don't you drive?"
"No, and she's not going to
learn," said Molly firmly, remembering the story the woman at the Exchange
Student office had told her.
"Cars are very expensive in
Russia," said Nadia, looking at Ruth like he was something special. "I'm very impressed that you get to
drive one."
"Just about everybody drives around
here," said Ruth, feeling heat suffuse his face. This girl made him so nervous sometimes,
especially when she said things like that.
"Based on what you've told me so
far, I suspect once you get to WalMart, you're going to want to spend some time
there, so why don't you wait and go next
Saturday," said Molly.
"I will wait," said Nadia firmly. "I am looking forward to watching Ruth drive a car, but I will wait."
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