Chapter 2: Manhandle Them! Manhandle Them!

"Get back to your seats!" Laika shouted at the exiting audience in the lobby. "This is a musical emergency. Please get back to your seats!"

Even before the concert's conclusion, a number of the audiences were already on their way out of the theater. The hour was already late. Those whose quarters reside either at the bow or stern of the school ship must catch up with Pravda's last trains in the lower decks or face the risk of walking in the chilly autumn night.

Laika knows this. She bloody damned knows this, but if it means hundreds of students should have to walk seven kilometers in either direction just so she did not end up in Siberia, then it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

"Oh, bloody hell, man!" She screamed at the security student manning the exits. "Close the damned door!"

Startled, the student-conscript bolted up the large mahogany doors of the theater, locking everyone inside.

Some audiences watched this and tried to protest. Still, Laika ordered another group of student-conscripts to help her with controlling them.

"Security, escort everyone back to their seats, and if anyone tries to resist, go break their legs." She ordered, pointing to additional security to help maintain the crowd. "That's right, manhandle them! Manhandle them!"

This earned her terrified faces from the gathered audience, especially from the first-years.

Laika suddenly realized she might have overstepped her authority and quickly tried to amend it.

She never saw herself as anyone to be feared at. She feared people in authority, but she felt uncomfortable forcefully ordering others, even as the stage director.

Of course, having the threat of being sent to Siberia quickly made her appreciate the benefits of wielding authoritarian rule.

"As I said, we currently have a musical emergency," she started, modulating her voice to a softer and calmer tone. She also clasped her hands together as she smiled reassuringly. "If you all, please just go back to your seats, then nobody will get killed. No, I mean, nobody will be sent to Siberia."

She clenched her jaw tightly while showing off her most insincere smile in her entire life.

Still confused, the audiences began to comply, and one by one, they returned to the concert hall.

"That's right, let's just all calmly go back to our seats and- GO BACK TO YOUR SEATS! DO NOT DEFY ME!" She shouted at a bunch of first-years that wanted to sneak away on a side exit.

==0==0==0==

"So Natalia-senpai suddenly announced that instead of an exhibition match between the first-years and their seniors," Faina recounted as she took another bite from her tomato. "She decided that the match will now be between us second-years and them third-years."

As was the usual case every evening, Pravda's Central Committee members met in the dining room of Katyusha's dacha for dinner. With the exception of Katyusha wearing a white uniform, everyone inside wore their usual uniforms consisting of a red shirt underneath a dark-grey jacket and black skirts. A visiting student from another school could be forgiven for failing to recognize them as students occupying the highest school ranks. Like everything in Pravda, this was an emulation of the values of comradeship and equality promoted by the bygone times of the Soviet Era.

Everyone was equal under the premiership of the General Secretary.

"Katyusha was not present on this match," Katyusha clarified to both Alina and Nina, who were still not enrolled in Pravda when this story happened. "Nonna and I were sent away to do some administrative work while Natalia and the third-years attempted to humiliate us with a match."

The two seated first-year members of the Central Committee nodded, giving off wide smiles even though they have heard this story a hundred times.

Nina adjusted her ushanka hat's ear flaps, which covered much of her mocha-brown hair braided into two pigtails. Though her ushanka's ear flaps made her warm the cold, it did make it harder for her to hear her third-year senpai speak. Even inside the dining room, she kept on wearing her ushanka, and nobody seemed to question her about it. She often wondered why that was the case. Perhaps she was simply too uninteresting of a person not to be asked even though she was the successor of Katyusha?

On the subject of uninteresting persons, Alina elbowed her to stop messing around with her hat and just sit still and listen.

Unlike Nina, Alina wasn't much of an eccentric as to wear an ushanka indoors. However, they did share a lot of similarities, such as having short brown hair and quite a deficiency in the height department.

Faina stood up and pointed a finger towards the little General Secretary while finishing off her tomato. "Yep… T-That's… That's right. This left only Laura and me to lead the team."

"The third-years were literally asking for a severe beating," Laura chimed in, her lips forming a mischievous grin. "We trained our asses off for two months by actual Russian tankers from the actual Russian Army. No way in hell could some happy-go-lucky seniors beat us to submission."

Third-year student, and First Minister of Foreign School Affairs, Faina, stood on the other side of the table from Nina and Alina. She had sharp emerald eyes and long silky raven-black hair tied into a ponytail. She also had a mole beneath her left eye, which she considered a lucky charm for tank gunners like her.

Right beside Faina sat Laura, a fellow third-year student and First Minister of Senshado. She had short wavy black hair and almond-brown eyes. She had her arms crossed as she listened to her friend recounting their tale. She never got tired of listening to this story, even though she heard it countless times.

"Oh, our senpais were overconfident alright," Faina concurred to her fellow third-year. "They think we couldn't beat them simply because we were their kouhais."

Laura sat up straight and puffed up her chest with smug satisfaction. "But we showed them in the most humiliating fashion."

"Didn't even take us thirty seconds to shoot Natalia-senpai's flag tank!" Faina laughed as she mimicked, aiming the sights of a tank gun. "Boom! Flag shot!"

The two third-year members of the Central Committee cackled, almost maniacally, at their recounting of the story.

"And don't forget Natalia-senpai crying inside her tank!" Laura slammed a hand on the table. "She didn't even want to leave!"

"What a baby!" Faina added, wiping tears from her eyes.

This got overly forced laughter from the two first-years, while this got a chuckle from Katyusha.

"So uh, what happened to Natalia-senpai?" Nina asked.

The room immediately turned silent.

Laura and Faina stopped laughing. They stared at the ushanka-wearing first-year with expressionless faces before they lowered their gaze to look down on the floor.

For her part, Alina wanted to strangle her fellow loader for asking such a question but chose instead to slowly lean away from Nina.

"You want to know what happened to Natalia?" Katyusha asked, her voice low and threatening. "You really want to go there?"

Alina buried her face on her palm as her fellow first-year turned ashen white. Katyusha glared at her Deputy Premier, who seemed to shrink even further.

For what seemed like an eternity, the tension inside the room thickened. Nobody dared to break the silence.

"Nina is incredibly short without her ushanka."

Before Nina or anyone could react, Nonna entered the room and immediately yanked the first-year's ushanka from her head.

Katyusha barked out heaves of laughter after watching her Deputy Premier squealing at Nonna's sudden attack. Nina desperately tried taking back her ushanka, but Nonna only raised her hat higher and out of reach from her.

"Hey! Give it back! Please give it back!"

This also got bouts of laughter from the rest of the Central Committee members after witnessing their little General Secretary's hysterical cackling.

For her part, the head of the NKVD let out a guarded smile as she continued to tease the Katyusha's Deputy Premier. She only gave back Nina's ushanka when she saw her eyes starting to get watery.

Nonna's prank completely wiped out the tense atmosphere a few seconds before, and now everyone was laughing at Nina's expense.

This continued for half a minute or so before everyone calmed down, though Katyusha and her fellow third-years were still smirking.

"Oh, look at the time!" Faina announced as she checked on her watch. "We should be going ho-"

"Time for another batch of paperwork," Katyusha interrupted. "Who's with me?"

Faina pursed her lips and said nothing. The question was rhetorical, and only an idiot would decline the little General Secretary's offer. She gave Laura a quick glance, which seemed utterly resigned to working late yet again.

Still, that didn't stop the First Minister of Senshado from brown-nosing. "I do! Nothing beats a late evening than more paperwork to finish."

Laura gave a sharp glance at Faina and the two first-years, who all raised their hands to volunteer.

"Of course, Comrade Katyusha," Alina smiled. "We'd be happy to help!"


A/N:

I do wonder what Katyusha did to Natalia? ^^

Until next time!


Revision History:

- Originally published on February 10, 2021