A/N: *drumroll* Ladies and gentlemen, I present my First Ever Fanfic, written before I even knew what fic was! I transcribed it exactly from my handwritten English paper (including the disclaimer). This is fanfic in the loosest sense of the word, a borrowing of characters only. I have been looking for this story for years (please tell me I'm not the only type A who cringes every time she sees the "comma and" at the top of a profile when the author has written for only two fandoms) and finally found it when going through my file cabinet last night. This was written in 1989, five weeks to the day after the Berlin Wall fell, and is not politically correct in any sense. Don't blast me for that unless you're old enough to remember what the Cold War was like.
"But what if our neighbors really are Russians?" she persisted. "What are we going to do about it?"
"What makes you think they're Russian, Trixie?" her father asked wearily.
"Well," she began, trying to remember everything, "they speak with a strange accent, they are always eager to eat in the cafeteria," she made a face, "they act like they've never heard of McDonald's, or renting any movie you want to watch at home, or the Constitution, and they're almost experts on Communism and Russian history. Besides," she added, "they look Russian."
"What do Russians look like?" Trixie's brother Mart asked sarcastically.
"The neighbors," Trixie and Honey Wheeler, her best friend, answered promptly.
"Go ask 'em, Trixie," piper her little brother Bobby.
"Maybe I will," Trixie said thoughtfully. "Maybe I will." Then, before her family could protest, she ran out of the room. Honey followed.
"Oh, Trixie," she said, plopping down on Trixie's bed, "you didn't mean what you said about going to visit them did you?" Her hazel eyes were huge.
"Not exactly," Trixie assured her friend. "But there's no harm in being friendly is there?"
The next day, instead of sitting with their friends, Trixie and Honey sat with Cristine and her brother Peter.
"Hi!" Trixie said. "Mind if we join you?"
"Not at all," Peter said pleasantly.
"So, where did you move from?" Honey asked politely.
"We moved all the way from the Soviet Union," Cristine explained. "Finally, after years of waiting, we were able to get out."
Honey kicked Trixie under the table to keep her from blurting something out.
"It must be strange living here," Trixie said sympathetically. "If we can do anything at all to help, just let us know."
Cristine and Peter smiled gratefully.
Embarrassed, Honey walked briskly over to her friends.
"Well?" Trixie's older brother Brian asked expectantly. He and Jim Frayne, Honey's adopted brother, had been filled in by Mart.
"They're transfers," Honey said shortly. "Legal transfers, not illegal like Trixie thought."
"I'm sorry," Trixie said sheepishly. "I guess I just didn't consider that possibility."
"Well, you were concerned about it, and you found out. You did what you thought was right." Jim smiled encouragingly at her. "That's all we can ask."
Credit for Trixie, Brian, Mart, Jim, Honey, Trixie's father, and their personalities goes to Julie Cambell and Kathryn Kenny.