"Irena! Thank you!" She hugged her friend. If Lilly was any more excited, Irena thought, she'd jump out of her skin. The excitement was electric and very infectious.
"Thank Yuri when you see him," A smile creeped onto of Irena's lips, hugging Lilly tightly for a moment and then letting go. "We'll be on the plane in about two weeks, after we finish finals. Think you'll be able to get good grades?"
"Perform well!" She corrected. "And yeah, I'll be able to focus." Sometimes it was easy to forget Lilly was a music major.
The conversation ended with Lilly looking at her watch and grabbing her backpack, heading to class and stating her goodbyes as she walked out of the dorm. Irena went to her laptop to study and Lilly went to her class.
Irena knew the two weeks would pass quickly. English was a common language spoken at the competitions, so Irena asked Lilly teach her some basic terms and questions when she wasn't studying or otherwise occupied. In return, Irena shared some of the stories from childhood with Yuri. She got to laugh about kitten, and heard the story behind her little piggy nickname.
She even tells Lilly about Victor one night before they fall asleep. She had known Victor from the stories Yuri shared with her. She also knew him from the few times she met him during her childhood. Victor had long hair then, and she embarrassingly confused him for a her the first time she saw him. Yuri had kicked her almost immediately in the back, and made her apologize. Which she did. "He's already won a gold medal!" Yuri had spat at her.
Finals were difficult, but Irena stayed focused and studied hard. The last few weeks of class, she spent half of her time in the library and the other half in the local coffee shop she loved so much. She made decent grades, and finished the semester on a positive note. Art history, a required course, was her most difficult class. She had spent many a night with flash cards.
Lilly had done the same, performing amazingly at the recital that served as her semester final two nights before they were to head to Spain. She played a score that was a Celtic arrangement on her fiddle – she knew better than to call it a violin when it was used for this type of music. The green dress and her tamed long black hair flowed as she performed, Irena recalled. Helping her get her hair under control was worth it.
"That was beautiful!" Irena had told her, handing her a single rose to celebrate her performance. Because she was far from home, Lilly's family – mostly her brother - had requested she provide Lilly with such as well as record the whole thing. Irena didn't need to be told to know to keep that information to herself, however.
"I know," Came Lilly's prompt response. Lilly's brow was a little damp from sweat and the movement from the performance, and her nose was sniffing the rose. "Thank you, it reminds me of home a bit."
"You're welcome."
As the friends walked back to their dorm from the music hall, happy the semester was now officially over, they made plans for the next day. They had one day to pack for the week they planned to spend with Yuri. There were going to fly to Spain, and then fly back to Russia with Yuri and his coach in tow. That was the plan, anyway.
They packed enough clothes for two weeks, snacks, and Lilly even brought her fiddle. "Because music is my life," was the response Irena received when she bothered to ask.
"Does that make numbers and coffee my life?" Lilly asked, to no response. They finished packing the next day, and were quickly on their way to the airport the next morning.
Yuri alerted them just before they boarded the plane that they would get there during practice. They would have to get a taxi from the airport to the rink or the hotel. They had, without any fanfare, decided unanimously to go to the rink to watch Yuri practice. Irena and Lilly both were oozing excitement, and couldn't wait to see Kitten.
"He's going to kill us," Irena giggled as she got in the taxi.
"I want to prank him with the fact that I know Russian," Lilly giggled as well. "He won't expect it at all."
"No! We thank him first," Irena was full-on laughing now. As she looked out of the taxi window, she took in the beautiful architecture of Spain. Her heart was filled. It had been longer than she would admit since she'd seen a blue non-gray sky.
