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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