The Exchange Student

The Exchange Student

by Robert Lubrican

zbookstore Edition

Copyright 2012 Robert Lubrican

Second edition 2025

License Notes

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Table of Contents

Prologue, One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six

Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Epilogue | Afterword

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Foreword

Publishing books in the 'coming of age' genre with erotic content in America is difficult, in terms of the rules that all the major publishers have adopted. Those rules include the requirement that no character may be allowed to engage in sexual behavior while under the age of 18. What this means, in effect, is that publishers (and the special interest groups that demand this policy) want to hold forth (or believe, or pretend or whatever) that nobody has sex until after they are 18. The average reader is intelligent enough to know how foolish this is, in the twenty-first century. But, as they say, “Them’s the rules” and if you want to read this story, you have to be told that all characters are over the age of 18, regardless of how silly that may make them look. We are lucky, in America, however, that those special interests cannot control your mind. They’d like to, but they can’t. So you have the freedom to substitute, in your mind and imagination, more believable ages. And, if you'd like to see the original, uncensored version of the book, instructions for that are at the end of this book.

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Prologue

 

Cynthia Green picked up the next piece of paper and began to process it. Cynthia was thirty-two and thought quite often about how her life hadn't gone the way it was supposed to. After she had finished high school she passed up college, quite sure that her good attitude and willingness to work hard would get her a job, and the promotions she already deserved. She did get a job, but it was an entry-level clerk position in the building that housed the school board. It was minimum wage, but she could put up with that until someone noticed she should be an administrator. Almost two decades later, she'd gotten one promotion and had maxed out her earning potential. Time and again she was told she wasn't qualified for higher paying jobs, which required a college degree. Her arguments that she was fully capable of doing the work fell on deaf ears, though.

Which was why, these days, she was somewhat less concerned about things than she should have been. On the form she had just picked up was the name "Ruth Cummins." The next information was gender. There was a sloppy checkmark closer to the "m" box than the "f" box but the name said it all. She processed the form, matching that name with one from the female list the Russians had sent. With a flourishing signature she completed the form and tossed it in a basket. It would be picked up by the girl who had her old job, and mailed, extending a formal invitation for a Russian girl to come spend a year with an American family, as an exchange student at the Consolidated High School in Victorville, Kansas.

Three weeks later, Cynthia Green's Russian counterpart took the information and prepared travel documents for Nadia Valovitski, an eighteen-year-old student in a small town in central Russia. Looking at the American form she idly identified the American name on it as a Biblical name. She spent a few seconds wondering why Russians so rarely gave their children Biblical names, even though a large number of them were involved with the Christian religion in one form or another. Wondering about things like that made the day seem to go past faster. She walked the form to her supervisor and handed it to her.

Neither of them could know that Cynthia Green's casual identification of the American student as a female, based on the name, Ruth ... was incorrect.

 

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Chapter One

 

Nadia's dream of going to America to study had finally come true. She had been assigned a family in a small town named Victorville, Kansas, where she would be roommates with an American girl her age named Ruth. She had studied all the information she could find about Kansas, though she was not able to find anything in the books in Russia about any place called Victorville. She knew the town was very small, but she didn't mind that. She came from Koda, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, which was a small river village. She knew how to live in a small town.

Nadia had had to work to help support her family since she was about eight, after her father was sent to Afghanistan and never came back. She was pretty sure she wouldn't have to work in America and she looked forward to being able to concentrate on improving her English and making good grades in her year of American high school. It was important that she make good grades. If she did, it would help her in her attempts to get a seat at the university when she got back.

Truth be told, there was one other thing Nadia hoped would happen. She hoped to make some friends too, starting with Ruth. Her grandmother had said that girls were the same the world over, and she hoped that was so. And everyone knew that American girls were smarter and more worldly than any other, which was also good. There were so many things Nadia wanted to know that her mother and grandmother wouldn't talk about. All they ever said was, "You'll understand and know what to do when the time is right."

Of course it went without saying that she hoped to finally find out what America was really like. She had been told all sorts of things about America. One old grandmother, her face hidden in a hood, had whispered that sometimes Americans ate their babies. She didn't believe that, but she also didn't really know what to expect.

Her mother spoke of how there would be odd customs, and how Nadia should always follow whatever traditions her host family followed. After all, she would be living with them for an entire year, which could be torture if they became disappointed with her. The last advice her mother gave her just before she boarded the boat that would take her to the city where the airplanes were, was, "Do whatever it takes to make your host family happy, no matter how strange it may seem." So, on the long plane flight to America, Nadia prepared herself to go along with American customs, even though she might not understand them.

She prepared herself to leave Russian ways behind. She tried to convince herself that an inquisitive smile would be the best way to get people to explain things. Then she could think of nothing except what the world looked like from high in the air. She couldn't believe the huge metal tube she was in could stay in the air. But going over the glistening ocean got boring after a while and she was able to think about America again. By the time her flight landed she had practiced her smile until her face hurt. She was sure she was prepared for her first day in America.

What she was not prepared for was that Ruth, her new roommate, turned out to be a boy.

Of course it was actually an understandable mistake. What boy anywhere in the world would be named "Ruth"? His father had always been a bit of a maverick and people who knew him were aware of that. Still, when he proudly introduced his new son, there was the inevitable question: "Where the hell did that come from?" He had explained that so many times that he could explain it in thirty seconds, assuming someone could understand very rapid speech. And, truth be told, people got used to it pretty easily. He'd been in the same school system his whole life and by now nobody thought about it as an odd name. He simply was Ruth, to them.

And so Ruth's household was approved for a female exchange student, even though Ruth Cummins was in no way female. As for the Cummins family, the only information they had received was that "N. Valovitski, age 17, flight 3205, Moscow to KCI" would be arriving at Kansas City International Airport at 5:00 PM on the 4th.

So, Bob Cummins and his son Ruth were standing by the exit ramp where flight 3205 had just parked and were waiting for "N. Valovitski", who they thought was a boy. They had made a sign with that name on it, which Ruth was holding up as high as he could. Bob and Ruth had made a bet that each of them would be the first to recognize their Russian visitor.

Neither won.

Both, however, did notice the gorgeous platinum blond girl with the high, Slavic cheekbones and the breasts that were a baby's dream bounce out of the door. Both had a quick and silent fantasy about climbing aboard this girl's naked body and planting their engorged pricks deep in her undoubtedly bald pussy. She was Playboy material.

Both were a little surprised that the vision of loveliness looked around and then fixed her eyes on them. Both were a lot surprised when she began walking toward them. And both were speechless when she stopped in front of them, looking up at the sign and said in very careful but accented English, the phrase she'd worked so hard to memorize: "Hello, I'm Nadia Valovitski. Where is Ruth?"

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It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had gone wrong. Bob figured it out first, but couldn't believe that such a mistake had actually happened. He didn't know how the original designation of "Ruth Cummins" had been switched from male to female but the rest of it, after that point, was pretty well explained by it.

Bob showed the girl the address on his driver's license and compared that to the paperwork she had with her. It took some time, but with patience and several tries, enough communication took place such that Bob, Ruth and Nadia all understood that she had not made a mistake, and they had not made a mistake (or tried to kidnap her) and that some phone calls were going to have to be made to straighten everything out.

Finally Nadia looked at the two men and said, "Okay ... so I go with you?"

Of course, to be honest, neither Bob nor Ruth minded. Nadia was such a blatantly beautiful girl and her accent was so sexy, to say nothing of her knockout body, that they loved being around her. And, as far as Nadia was concerned, if all American men were as good looking and nice as the two she'd met so far she was going to have a hard time keeping her legs closed. She was a virgin, but only barely. She had an uncle in Russia who, when she turned fourteen and bulged in all the right places, taught her how good it felt for those places to be touched by a man. He'd progressed to preparing to suck on her distended little clitty, at which point she would happily have done anything he told her to when her mother had discovered what was happening. After some screaming the uncle had left, never to be seen again. But he had awakened something in Nadia that was never quite put back to sleep. She hadn't had time for boys in her drive to get the grades necessary to become an exchange student. She was a habitual masturbator and had hoped that her new roommate would be too. The internet in Russia hadn't had any information about the masturbation habits of Americans. But all that would have to be dealt with later. Now, they had to figure out what to do.

Obviously, she had to stay with them until the appropriate offices and people could be notified, and the screw-up could be un-screwed. It being Friday evening, that meant she'd have to spend the weekend at Ruth's house. Then, Monday, they'd find out where she was really supposed to be.

To be perfectly honest, Nadia was just as happy to go with the flow herself. She wanted to make new friends, even if it was only for a short time. And both the cute boy and his handsome father, she decided, would be the first friends she made. This would make a great story to tell her grandchildren, some day.

She was amazed at how happy and relaxed all the people she saw looked, even though they were hurrying here and there in the airport. When they left it she gazed out the windows of the car and marveled at how spread out everything was in Kansas City. It was so big it never seemed to end. Neither of the men knew what to say to a foreign girl, so they said nothing. Nadia, being used to people staying silent, had a wonderful time just looking at everything. It was all so new and big and modern that it took her breath away. Then they took her through the plains of Kansas and she marveled again at how much it looked like the Ukraine. Finally they arrived at little Victorville and she fell in love with the town immediately. There was a little town square with old cottonwood trees surrounding it and old buildings all around.

"Will I get to see any wild Indians?" she asked, leaning forward between the bucket seats. Ruth started to laugh, but stopped himself.

"Those are just stories from the past now," he said, turning in his seat to look back at her. His eyes dropped from her eyes and fell to her cleavage. It was very nice cleavage. Ruth was shy for a boy, which was one reason his parents had volunteered for the exchange program. They hoped he would come out of his shell a little with a new friend he could teach all about America.

Nadia saw his eyes drop and she knew where he was looking. For some reason than bothering her it reassured her. The men back home in Russia looked at her exactly the same way, but they often pinched her bottom or made lewd suggestions about what they could do for ten minutes. Knowing that American men were like Russian men in some ways made her feel less like she was in a strange country. But Ruth made no rude suggestions. Instead he averted his eyes and went on. "There are still Indian tribes, and many of them live in places called reservations, but they dress like us now and have regular jobs and all that. Maybe we can drive through one of them while you're here, so you can see."

They drove on through the town and into the country again. The Cummins farm was a subsistence family farming operation, raising a few cattle, hogs, chickens and three horses. They owned 2000 acres of tillable land, but rented that out to a wheat farmer. The old farm house was almost invisible inside its sheltering ring of Cottonwoods and Cedar trees. She was ecstatic to see that they had a swimming pool in the back of the house. She rarely got to swim outdoors in Russia. A nice looking woman with a lean body, dressed in jeans and a T shirt was standing on the back porch. She watched as the three got out of the car with Nadia's carry-on and walked toward the house.

"Well, here comes trouble," she said with a smile. "Let me guess ... you must be N. Valovitski." She ran an appraising eye up and down Nadia's brick shithouse body and laughed. She turned to Ruth. "Well, I guess the next words out of your mouth are going to be ‘Look what I found Mom ... can I keep her?’"

Ruth blushed furiously. Nadia understood the words, but not the meaning. Her obviously puzzled look brought the woman's attention back to her. She stuck out a calloused hand and said, "I'm Molly Cummins. Welcome to our home."

Nadia reached out and took the hand firmly, shaking it violently up and down. "I am Nadia and I'm very happy to meet you," she said in her well-practiced voice. "There has been a mistake I think," she went on, proud that she could form the sentence.

Molly heard the accent and the melodious alto voice and knew instantly that interesting things were going to happen around this girl. She glanced at her son, who had a slack-jawed look on his face as he stared at the beautiful girl. Then she glanced at her husband and saw the look on his face. She'd seen that look on his face before, when her sister had come to visit one time, just before she'd walked in on them fucking like rabbits in the barn. She hadn't minded then, really, as long as it was only her sister. She and her sister had shared boys before and some fun once in a while too. And, as she looked at this delicious slice of Russian girl/woman, she thought she might enjoy tasting a little Russian pussy juice too. She couldn't blame her boys for their reaction. The girl was gorgeous.

"We couldn't just leave her at the airport," said her husband.

"Of course not," said his wife, smiling. "Nadia, you are welcome to stay with us as long as it takes to get things straightened out." Then, as she ushered them all inside to the kitchen, where she'd prepared a welcoming banquet, she whispered to her husband, "Behave yourself dear. I'll fuck you silly tonight ... I promise."

He grinned sheepishly and whispered back, "You'd better."

After dinner Ruth took Nadia to show her the spare bedroom, where she'd be sleeping for the weekend, and then took her out and showed her the farm. She was impressed with everything, but most of all she was impressed with Ruth. He was intelligent and fun to be with, even if he was so shy he didn't seem to be able to look at her. When he did look at her she clearly saw the desire in his eyes and it made her stomach feel fluttery. When she'd seen the last barn and collected the last egg, the two teens headed back into the house. They were on the back porch with the kitchen door open when they heard a scream of pain.

"That's my mother's voice!" said Ruth. "Something's wrong!"

Nadia started to run forward, but Ruth stopped her. "Bad people may have broken in while we were gone. We have to be careful." He went to the counter and got a big butcher knife. He handed that to Nadia and then went to the pantry, returning with a ball bat. "Careful now," he whispered. The two youths crept through the house toward the sound, which had altered to a series of moans. The sounds were coming from the spare room.

"Fuck!" came a shout in Molly's voice. "You bastard" she shouted again.

Ruth was very worried now. He tried to peek around the door.

"Take that you horny bitch!" came a deep male voice.

Ruth and Nadia charged into the room to save Molly. What they found was a very naked Molly under the equally naked body of her husband. He happened to be in the act of fucking her brains out. Neither of them saw the two kids.

Molly had subsided to moaning again. "Oh, you bastard, you're killing me!" she barked again. Then, in a more normal voice she went on "You haven't been like this in years. And all because of that luscious Russian beauty. You had to take me on her bed, didn't you? You're probably thinking about her right now you prick!"

"No!" he grunted back "Maybe a little ... Oh man you feel good Molly ... Okay, yes, I admit it. But you know I love you, baby. It's just a little fantasy. I just can't help it, baby," he cried out.

"You just keep going like you are, Bob," Molly urged him. "Just love me good and I'll forgive you."

Both teens had stopped just inside the door. They looked comical, she with a huge knife in her hand and he with the bat. They could clearly see Bob's big thick cock pistoning in and out of Molly's pussy. She was straining up against him as he rodded her out. Just then Bob slammed in hard and froze there. His butt cheeks did a funny little flex thing and Molly rasped "Shoot it in me, big boy... shoot in her, you bastard ... you pervert!"

Ruth looked at Nadia. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide. She was staring at the sight before her. He looked back just in time to see his father pull out and then slide back in, grunting. He did it again and a ring of thick white built up around his cock where it entered his mother. He was obviously cumming in her. Nadia grabbed his hand and dragged him backwards, into the hall. She was breathing heavily.

"They are having the sex ... yes?" she said breathlessly.

"Um, yeah, they are." he said back.

"And he is wishing to be having the sex with me, yes?" she said.

Ruth didn't know quite how to answer that. Any man would like to have sex with Nadia. He decided to stick to the truth. "Well, any man would like to have sex with you."

"Why is this?" she went on, pulling him down the hall toward his room.

"Well, because you're beautiful ... and sexy." said Ruth, amazed at the conversation he was having.

"So you wish to be having sex with me too?" she said.

"Uh no, of course not!" said Ruth valiantly.

"Why not?" she said, trying to understand. " Are you the ..." She struggled for the right word, and then finally remembered it. "homo - sexual?"

"No!" he whispered forcefully. "It's just that ... well ... of course I want to have sex with you, but I can't admit that I want to have sex with you. It's not polite to just tell somebody you want to have sex with them."

"Oh," she said. "This is very confusing. Why can't you say what you want?" Nadia was remembering her uncle's words as her drove her crazy with his fingers. He told her exactly what he wanted to do to her.

Ruth stared at her. There was a cultural difference working here. He lost some of his shyness, realizing that with this girl he could be completely frank and honest and she wouldn't be upset. She wouldn't take offense; at least until she learned more about American culture. He pulled her farther away from the room where noisy sex was going on.

"Okay, here's how it works. When a man sees a beautiful woman, he's interested in sex. It's that way everywhere ... Russia too, right?" She nodded. "But in America a man is supposed to court the woman ... take her on dates ... buy her presents ... stuff like that. Then, after they've done all that he can try to have sex with her. Maybe she'll let him, and maybe she won't. Isn't it like that in Russia too?"

Nadia frowned. "It is like that some. We too go on dates, but that is just to have fun. If a man wants to have sex with a woman he just says so and she decides yes or not. Or her parents decide yes or not. Why would you say you do not want to have sex with me, if you do want to have sex with me?"

"Well, I was just trying to be polite. I mean we don't just ask like that here. I'm sorry if I did something wrong." Ruth didn't know how to proceed. "And we weren't supposed to see them doing that. They were playing a game ... having a fantasy ... make believe ... you understand?"

She smiled. "Yes, I know of the fantasy. I do many times when I please myself. So your Papa would like to have the sex with me, but he plays the game with your Mama. And she plays the game too, yes?"

Ruth smiled with relief. "Yes, it's just a game. You don't have to be afraid of him. He won't try anything with you, I promise."

"Oh." she said again. "That's too bad. He has a very nice ... how you say? ... chlen … um …" She put her extended finger into the circle of fingers on the other hand, moved it in and out a few times and then pulled the finger out and held it out to him. "I don't know the American word," she said.

"Oh!" said Ruth. "It's called an … um … cock.

"Cock? Cock. Okay. He has a nice cock. He might be fun to have the sex with."

Ruth was astounded. "So you've had the .. I mean sex before?"

"No, not really. My uncle touched me and wanted to have the - how you say - blow job with me, but that was all."

Now Ruth didn't know what to say. He felt his own prick start stiffening as he saw in his mind's eye this beautiful girl with her lips wrapped around a man's erection. "Did you want to give him a blow job?" he asked, without really thinking about it first.

"He said it would feel very good and that I would love it when he put his tongue on my piz'da ... how you say ... poosy? But them my mama found us and made him stop. She was very angry."

"His tongue ... on your poosy ... oh! Pussy!" Ruth finally figured out that for her, "blow job" simply meant oral sex. That brought another series of interesting images to his head. "Well, here in America you need to be a little careful about saying you want to have sex. If you do that there will be ten boys and fifteen men lined up all wanting to help you with that."

She laughed, but that conversation actually defined their relationship, in a way. After that they could and did talk about anything. Much to Nadia's delight, within the next 48 hours, she learned that her English was much better than she had hoped for, and that learning more wasn't as hard as she had feared it would be. All in all, she felt like her foray into being an exchange student was going very well indeed.

The following Monday Molly called the exchange program office and explained the situation. She was eventually routed to a woman named Amanda.

"I see," she said when Molly explained. "We have a problem here," she added.

"I would have thought that was obvious," said Molly.

"No, what I mean is that the Russians are very touchy about this program and any deviation from what they've agreed to is a really big deal. Two years ago a host family helped a young man get his driver's license and you'd have thought world war three had been started."

"What? Why?"

"Because there's a standard clause in all the Russian exchange student agreements that says the Russian youths will not be allowed to drive a car. Apparently they think we teach them bad habits. The point is that they pitched a hissy and almost called all their students home that year."

"Well what does that mean?"

"What it means is there is no other approved family to send her to. If you don't let her stay with you, as originally agreed, all we can do is send her back home. Do you have a separate room for her?"

"You mean keep her?"

"Well, you wanted an exchange student. Is it so horrible that it's a girl instead of a boy?"

"Of course not," said Molly. "But won't the Russians be upset that she's with the wrong family?"

"She's with the family they approved. How can they be upset?"

Molly thought about what great sex she'd had already as a result of this luscious girl showing up. That wasn't a good reason to keep her, but it was a consideration. Nadia, herself, had already settled in and seemed completely at ease with her new family. And she really was a delightful girl. Molly had never had a daughter, and suddenly the thought of having one seemed appealing.

"I'll talk to her and see what she wants to do," said Molly.

"If you don't call me back, I'll assume everything is copacetic," said Amanda.

Chapter Two

 

"Please let me stay!" Nadia pleaded. "I promise to be good girl."

"Of course you will," said Molly, hugging Nadia. "But are you sure you don't mind living with a boy instead of a girl?"

"No, I don't mind, really!" said Nadia. "I like Ruth. I like you. Mr. Cummins is very handsome. Please let me stay."

Molly stepped back. "It's fine with me, dear. But I think we should talk to your parents, and make sure all this is okay with them too."

"I have only my mother," said Nadia. "She doesn't speak any English, but I can talk to her for you."

"Well, then, let's give her a call and see how she feels about all this."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Americans have gotten used to a communications system in which you pick up a device, often handheld, press some numbers, and then expect to be talking to someone within a few seconds. There are relatively few Americans alive who remember hand-crank telephones that connected to a central switchboard, where a human operator made connections that allowed people to speak to each other. A few more people remember having a phone number with only four or five digits, which was part of a local network where four or five phones were on one circuit. These party lines, as they were called, required that four families share one line. If you picked up the phone at any given moment the line might be in use and you could listen in on the conversation. It wasn't acceptable to do that ... but you could if you wanted to. In those days, use of the line sometimes involved negotiation with others on the party line. If someone was using it and you needed to make a call, for example, you might interrupt their conversation, explaining why you needed the line and, perhaps, promising to only use it for a stated amount of time. If the other party agreed, they would hang up and let you make your call. If not ... well, there wasn't much you could do except make a nuisance out of yourself by either interrupting the conversation repeatedly, or just joining in.

That was the phone system of yesteryear. Unless you live in rural Russia, where things haven't changed much since World War Two. Governments may come and go, but improvements in rural Russia are never much of a priority with any of them.

Molly had sent Ruth to school, like normal, and Bob was off doing farming things. So it was, to Molly, an incredibly complicated project to call Nadia's mother. It actually took twenty minutes, during which Nadia rattled off words, phrases and sometimes emotional outbursts in Russian, as she talked to a number of people who were required to make the connections necessary for Nadia to reach her mother.

Her mother's reaction, when she finally came on the line was frantic.

"What's wrong?" she wailed.

"Nothing, Mama," said Nadia. "I got here and everything is fine, except that they sent me to the wrong family."

"Have they turned you out?" she asked, tragedy in her voice.

"No, Mama, they are wonderful people. They just sent me to partner with a boy instead of a girl."

"A boy?" There was a long silence. "Is he handsome?"

"Mama!" laughed Nadia. "Why would you ask me that?"

"Worse things could happen, my little pumpkin, than that you married a nice American boy."

"You're being silly, Mama," said Nadia. "I like him. I like his mama and papa too, but it is silly to speak of marriage. I came here to go to school so I can get a seat at the university."

"They have universities in America, no?"

"You don't want me to come home?" Nadia's voice had a catch in it.

"Don't be silly, golubushka. You know I love you more than life itself. But if you had a rich American husband, I could come live with you in my old age." She cackled, showing she had no real mercenary intent.

"So it's all right if I stay with them?"

"Do you want to?"

"Yes, very much."

"Then you must do so. And remember to do whatever they say and make me proud."

"I will, mama. Thank you, mama. I love you very much."

"Are you really happy with this thing so far?"

"I am very happy, mama."

"Good then. Stay with this boy and learn many things. And try to get him to ask for marriage before you get with child, rather than after."

Nadia was speechless until her mother cackled again, signifying she had made a joke.

She heard the clicks of the connection being broken and hung up the phone in America. She turned to Molly, who was leaning forward, her eyebrows raised.

"Well?" she said.

"Mama says I should try to get a rich American man to marry me so she can come live with me in her old age," said Nadia, smiling wanly.

Molly looked at the beautiful young woman, who had already made an impact in America.

"She was just joking," said Nadia. "She approves of me staying here."

"Wonderful," said Molly. "I'm so glad. I just know we're going to have a wonderful time together."

"Me too," said Nadia, and she flowed into Molly's arms for another hug.

Both women noticed the softness of their breasts, pressed together. It was a warm, exciting feeling, and both women's core temperature raised a degree and a half as they reacted to each other's embrace in a firmly positive manner.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Later that night, after an emotional supper at which the rest of the family was brought up to date, Ruth and Nadia sat on opposite ends of the couch in the living room. The TV was on, but muted at the moment. Nadia's mother had a television set, but it was big and bulky and did not have a remote control. She had been delighted when Ruth taught her what all the buttons on the remote did. Bob and Molly were again "doing something in the bedroom." They didn't know it, but Molly had shared with Bob that Nadia thought he was handsome and now she was reaping the benefits of that.

"Are you really glad to be staying?" asked Ruth, who couldn't believe his luck.

"Yes," she said. "I had been looking forward to having a new girlfriend, but I think you will do."

"That's a word we probably need to talk about," said Ruth. "In America 'girlfriend' has several different meanings. Girls who are friends call each other girlfriend. But when a boy and a girl are involved, then 'girlfriend' means there is romance involved. It means they don't have romance with others."

"It's the same in my country," said Nadia. "What is the name of your girlfriend?"

"Oh, I don't have one," said Ruth, blushing.

"Why not?" asked the beautiful blond across the couch from him.

"Girls don't find me interesting, I guess," he said.

"That's silly. I think you're very interesting."

"Well, you just got here. I'm sure you'll see guys in school that you'll find more ... um ... interesting. Most of the girls like jocks and popular guys."

"Jocks?" Nadia tilted her head.

"Athletes," said Ruth. "Football players and such."

"Ahhhh," she said. "Like rugby in Russia, no?"

"Something like that," he said.

"And these football players ... they are cuter than you?"

Ruth blushed again. "Well sure," he said. "They have muscles and are taller and handsomer and stuff."

"Then I cannot wait to see them," she said. "You are very cute, so they must be amazing."

"Me?" Ruth was speechless.

"The girls here must be very stupid if they turn up their noses at you," she said.

Ruth swallowed. He felt the heat in his face, but he also felt really good.

"Thanks," he said. There was a momentary sound, the suggestion of a soft wail, from the direction of Bob and Molly's bedroom,

"You're welcome. Your parents have sex a lot, yes?" Nadia looked in the direction of the bedroom.

"I guess," said Ruth, uncomfortably.

"And you have had sex too?" Now she looked at him.

"No," he gasped. "Like I said, girls don't much go for me."

"Stupid girls," she said. "If I was going to have sex, I would choose you."

"Wow," said Ruth.

"I think we are too young for that, though. There is much education to get finished before I have time to think about having sex. I don't want to have babies until after I go to the university. What do you think?"

"Um ... well ... I think that most of the kids you meet won't think that way."

"Many of the kids back home are like that. All they think about is getting drunk and having sex. I think they are stupid."

"Well we have that kind here too," he said. "I'll try to warn you when one of them hits on you."

"Hits me?"

"No. When someone hits on you. In that sense it means they try to get you to like them and have sex with them."

"Seduces," she supplied.

"Not exactly. Some guys will just walk up to you and start giving you compliments or just say they want to hook up. That means they want to have sex with you."

"I thought you said that wasn't proper to do in America," she complained. "This is very confusing."

"It isn't proper," sighed Ruth. "Most adults won't do that. But some stupid jocks will, especially to a pretty girl like you. Lots of guys will try to hit on you because you're so gorgeous."

"You're very sweet," she said. "I am plain, but you try to make me feel good."

He goggled. "You are not plain, Nadia. You are very beautiful."

"So, you are giving me compliments. Are you hitting on me, Ruth?" She smiled.

He blushed again. "No. I don't know how to do that."

She blinked slowly, and stared at him. "I think you do," she finally said. "If the other boys are better at this hitting on me thing than you are, I'm going to have to be very careful."

"Wow," he sighed. He was so off kilter that he didn't even notice that he adjusted his erection so it was less uncomfortable in his pants.

She watched what his hand did, and then stood up.

"Very careful," she repeated, a half smile on her face. "I must go to bed now. We have school tomorrow, yes?"

"Yes," said Ruth, who was suddenly also interested in getting to bed ... where it would be dark ... and private.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

School being just a massive bureaucracy these days, nobody on the staff paid any attention to the fact that a female exchange student was staying in the home of a male native student. Blanks were filled out and boxes checked. Had there been any boxes that could not be checked, there might have been a problem, but basically the system perked along based on its own momentum.

Of course it wasn't that way with the students themselves. They noticed this mismatching of genders instantly, and instantly Ruth became a celebrity. Then Nadia did something that made him practically a legend.

She actually thought it out before she did it and she did it for very good reasons, though with only the minimal conversation of the night before as her basis. She did it because she thought it might give her more control over her situation. What she did, when Ruth introduced her to a group of his friends, was say "I'm so happy to be here and meet all of my boyfriend's friends."

"Ruth is your boyfriend?" asked Thomas Finkle, a somewhat geeky kid wearing glasses who was a wizard when it came to math.

"Of course," said Nadia. "I think he is cute."

She thought that would hold the hustlers at bay. She knew of such men and boys in Russia and assumed those were the types of men Ruth had been talking about when he named them jocks. And, based on what Ruth had said, the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship sounded the same as what she was familiar with, in terms of couples being less exposed to the efforts of the hustlers. So she thought that naming Ruth as her boyfriend would help insulate her from approach until she knew a little more about the social landscape. And he'd said he didn't already have a girlfriend, so she wouldn’t be hurting anything by the ruse.

"Holy shit!" sighed Nathan Crosby, who was the top debater on the forensics team. "Ruth Cummins has a hot Russian girlfriend!"

"And she's living with him!" moaned David Koonce, president of the computer programming club.

"Wait!" said Ruth, his eyes wide.

But it was too late. His three friends had already turned and were speeding away from him like photons from the sun on their way to illuminate something that wasn't actually as it appeared to be.

There was a frenzied conversation between Ruth and Nadia, but it took place much too quickly and with much too little true communication before bells started ringing and they had to go to their classes. All Nadia knew for sure was that Ruth was sure no one would believe he was her boyfriend.

She thought she could handle that.

By the end of the day Nadia had made a whole raft of new friends, among them the entire cheerleading squad, all of whom salivated at the thought of enticing this gorgeous, mysterious, sexy, interesting foreign girl to join the squad. She also had extensive experience with being hit on, though she still wasn't used to it. American boys were a lot pushier than most of their Russian counterparts. Still, she found that if she said "Ruth is my boyfriend" often enough, that eventually discouraged most of them. Several said things she didn't understand and she had tons and tons of things to ask Ruth about after school.

There was no time, though, for idle chit chat. Molly had decided Nadia needed to be included in chores and a list had been made that rotated the chores between Ruth and Nadia. There was also homework, which Nadia needed significant help with. When it turned out that Ruth wasn't equipped to help her because he had the same questions, Bob stepped in and did some tutoring. Shortly after that was finished, he said he needed to speak to Molly alone in the bedroom.

"Not now, you goof," she laughed. "I'm fixing supper."

"Put it on simmer," he said, darting a glance at the two kids who were doing their homework at the kitchen table. "This will only take a minute."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," she teased. "Put a leash on it, buster, and take it for a little walk or something. You can wait until later tonight."

"Mom! Dad!" barked Ruth. "I can't believe you're talking like that in front of us!"

"Oh, pipe down, junior. You're all grown up now," said Bob. He turned to his wife. "You're gonna pay for this, darling wife," he growled.

"Good," she said. "Now go check and see if we got any mail."

After homework it was time to set the table and then they ate while Nadia tried to tell them about her first day in American school. It was fascinating for both the Americans and the Russian at the table as they communicated and learned things about each other.

After supper, the chore Ruth and Nadia shared was washing the dishes. It was done by hand in the Cummins household because the dishwasher was old and didn't work well. Molly preferred hand-washed dishes anyway and it was a good way to slow the day down, if it had been hectic. The adults headed toward their bedroom as Molly said, "Your father has something to discuss with me. You two get the dishes done and then you can watch an hour of TV. After that you can read, or go for a walk or play a board game or whatever until it's bedtime."

With that, Molly followed Bob, who was already in the bedroom, already naked, and proudly displaying his bone to her when she walked in the door.

"What if she had been with me when I came in here?" asked Molly, trying to sound scandalized.

"Then she'd have gotten a lesson in sexual education," said Bob, stroking his erection slowly. "Now get over here, woman. You've made me wait too long already."

 

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.