Ok, so pretty much, imagine that whatever is not labeled as in English, it's in Russian when in Dimitri's point of view. Ok, maybe I'm too lazy to label stuff, but use your imagination on what's Russian and what's not, ok? I don't know Russian and I'm honestly not going to really try, because I'd fail epically and think too much about it.

Chapter 2: Dimitri

DPOV

"I have the letters that I discussed with you before. I want all of you to read through them. If there are any words that you don't understand, please ask me."

I left one letter on my desk, because I knew that there would be an extra letter. After that I randomly passed out the letters to each of my students. "If you can, please write a response by the end of class, if any of you need extra time, come ask me."

I sat back at my desk and looked at the letter. The hand writing was the same on all of the envelopes, which made me believe the teacher wrote them.

I opened mine up and read over it:

Dear Penpal,

I'm Rose. I'm not really sure if I should mention my last name or not. I'm 17 in highschool, but I turn 18 in a few months. I'm pretty excited to turn 18. My teacher, Mrs. Petrov, said that you were in Russia. That's pretty cool. I don't know any Russsian.

I'm a senior and today is actually my first day of school. I'm working on college applications which is really stressful. I'm not really sure what to write my personal essay on. What's the college system over there? Well, I can't really think of anything else to write about, so have a nice day, or night, or whatever.

Sincerely,

Rose

It was cute, honestly. She seemed sort of shy and wasn't sure what to write. It was interesting to see her semi messy handwriting and the way they formed their sentences. Here, we learn British English, not American.

I knew I was going to have to write a letter to one of the students, which seemed to me like it would be very annoying and take up too much of my time, but obviously these other students weren't as focused into this assignment, there wasn't as much to benefit from it as there was for us. However, seeing the letter made me interested, and I started to write back.

Dear Rose,

Hello, my name is Dimitri, and yes, I do not believe it would be very appropriate if we were to exchange last names. I think it's very nice that you are turning 18 in the near future. This is also our last year of secondary school, which is similar to that of a senior in the United States. If you would like, I'd like to teach you some phrases in Russian if you would help me with my English writing. What do you think of it? Also, for us, we have already chosen our career, so we choose our classes based on what we plan on doing in the future, many have decided to do something in language, which is why we are taking English.

I hope you also have a wonderful day and I hope to hear from you soon.

Best Wishes,

Dimitri

I hadn't told anyone in the class that I would be writing a letter, because I wanted to be posing as a student. My English was a bit off, which was fine because I didn't want to seem perfect in it. Hopefully she wouldn't have other students ask who I was. It didn't really matter to me, but one thing I hope for is to have my students as well as the students in America be able to open up to someone since they have no idea who they are. You never know that kinds of friends you can make. I doubted I'd stay in touch with a high school girl, but I know what it's like to have that one person always supporting you.

Many of the students handed their letters in by the time class was over, but I allowed another day to read it over and write it, it wasn't graded so that may cause some of them to be sloppy, but hopefully the Americans will catch some mistakes.

The rest of the day was relatively relaxing, except for the few students who didn't turn in their assignments, which forced me to call them out in front of the whole class. Although it may be embarrassing, it was the best way for them to feel the consequences of their actions.

After teaching I went to my mother's house to have dinner.

"Oh! Dimka! You're here! Babushka has been saying some weird stuff and we all just want to eat now."

I rolled my eyes and hugged my sister Karolina as I walked into the door. "How are Paul and Zoya?"

"Oh, you know, annoying as ever. I've been letting them bathe together and Zoya keeps getting curious, you know how babies are." I laughed at her comment.

"Is Sonya here yet?"

"Yah, but she's in the bathroom, you know how I was when I was pregnant with my first child."

"Yes, I remember, I still have a scar from when you threw that shoe at me."

She just laughed and led me into the living room. "Uncle Dimka!" yelled Paul once he saw me and then jumped off the couch to latch onto my leg. "I missed you so much, where have you been? Did you bring me any toys?" I see his true colors showing once he said that.

"Sorry Paul, no presents tonight."

His smiled faltered a bit, but once I bent down to pick him up he was all giggles again. "That's ok, I still love you Uncle Dimka." Zoya had finally made her way over to me as well and I picked her up.

"Where's Viktoria?"

"She's out at the moment, said she's come back in time for dinner."

I gave Karolina a look and she just shrugged her shoulder. "Oh, c'mon Dimka, like you didn't go out."

"Yes, but it's different with her." Karolina didn't say anything after that. "Where's Babushka?"

"She's in the kitchen talking with Mama." I nodded and walked with the kids in my arms into the kitchen.

"Oh! Dimka, you made it! The food is almost ready, I made some of your favorites."

My babushka scoffed and said, "Ugh, you spoil the boy too much."

"I do not! Dimka, don't listen to her."

I just laughed at the normal bickering. "I'm sure no matter what you cook, I'd love it Mama."

"See, now you're just flattering me." I walked over and kissed both women on the cheek before I heard my sister Sonya coming from downstairs.

"Sonya, how are you?" I said and kissed her on the cheek. "Here, let's talk in the living room."

We moved to the living room and Sonya sat down on the couch before asking how I was doing. I set the kids down so they could play a little and Karolina sat down with Sonya on the couch. There was a single chair couch angled to be slightly in front of the main couch which is where I sat down. "I'm doing fine, it's the same really what with school back in session."

"Any really annoying students?"

"No, not too many, though I'm sure they'll show their true colors after another month of school, just like we would." This made them laugh again.

"So, Dimka, how about any women…" I rolled my eyes at Karolinas attempt to see into my nonexistent love life.

"There's no women besides you guys. Besides, I think you all are enough for me."

Karolina was about to say something else when Viktoria walked through the door. "Viktoria!" I yelled, happy for the distraction.

"Dimka!" She yelled back and ran into my arms. I hugged her for a moment and she said, "It's so nice to see you! I feel like I never see you anymore!"

"Well, you don't take my English class, so I never see you around campus, you should be stopping my class during the break so we can talk."

She rolled her eyes. "Please, that would be so weird to hang out with my teacher older brother."

I rolled my eyes dramatically back at her. "I see; you don't think I'm cool."

"Well, duh."

"Ok! Dinner is ready!" My mama yelled and we all filled into the dining room to start eating.

It was nice to be able to sit there and spend time with my family. As I was eating, I still had that cute letter in the back of my head…

Hope you guys like it!