"Welcome to Russian. I am your teacher, Oleg Vangersoff." A tall man wearing the smallest pair of glasses imaginable told them after they had taken their assigned seats.

Tilly chanced a look around the class. It appeared she was the only one to have understood him as he had spoken in Russian.

"Great. Another year of dunces." He added when no one said hello back. He switched to using a clipped version of English.

"I am here to try and force some Russian into those heads of yours."

"Why do we have to learn Russian?" one of Tilly's classmates asked him.

"It's a handy language skill to have." Oleg replied before continuing: "I am going to start by teaching you about male and female genders. Do any of you know anything about this?"

"I thought this was Russian, not sex ed." Carl whispered to Tilly earning a rare smile.

"None of you know the first thing about this?" Oleg asked again.

Tilly put her hand in the air.

"Yes, Miss... Grace." Oleg said to her, scanning his seating plan for her name.

"Words that are female end differently to words that are male."

"Correct. Do you know what these endings are?"

"Female words end in ov, male words end in off."

"Wrong. It's actually the other way around." He said smirking at Tilly. If there was one thing she hated-it was people smirking at her.

Carl looked at Tilly to see how she handled being wrong and saw the smile playing at her face.

"Before you call us all dunces again in Russian thinking that none of us would understand I suggest you check your records for flawless and fluent Russian speakers."

Oleg turned red in the face. He had never in his life been shown up by a student before.

"If you speak fluent Russian why are you in my class?"

"Clearly the principle thought I'd learn something, but it's clear to me that it's going to be the other way around." Tilly said to him not missing a beat.

"Go wait out in the hall." Oleg demanded.

Tilly slammed her textbook shut and walked out of the stunned class. Carl was starting to realise that there was more to Tilly than meets the eye.

"I want you all to read through page 19. Then I want you to complete the activity on page 20." Oleg told the rest of the class before heading out of the door to discipline Tilly.

"I don't want to hear why you were insolent to a member of staff. I am taking you to the principal and having you removed from my class immediately." He told her in a threatening voice.

"I don't want to know why you are trying to threaten me, but I will tell you this. I will be in your class for the rest of the year." Tilly replied. She knew she was about to find out where the line was.

She followed Oleg to the principal's office and waited outside while he told him what happened. When Tilly was called into the room she stood in front of the principal to attention.

"Tilly. Why are you being hauled into my office on the first day?"

"Because Oleg here tried to embarrass me so I told the class he called us all dunces in Russian and he didn't like it."

"Give me one reason I shouldn't remove you from the class?"

"Because my partner doesn't speak Russian. If you remove me you will have to remove him too and Russian is more beneficial than Bavarian."

"Please give us a minute Oleg."

Oleg looked at the principal like his Christmases had come at once as he left the room to return to his class.

"Tilly. You can't go around calling your teachers idiots."

"I didn't call him an idiot. We walked into the class, he said hello in Russian and when no one answered he called us all dunces!" Tilly told him, raising her voice in exasperation.

"I don't want to know. What I want to know is that you are going to go back to his class and not cause trouble."

"I won't if he doesn't treat me like an idiot." Tilly promised.

"There will be no punishment this time, but I will start handing them out if you force my hand. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Are there any more rules you plan to break today?"

"I'm ordering in my dinner."

"Why?" out of all the rules he was expecting Tilly to break, the one regarding food was low on his list.

"I broke a table with a sausage at breakfast."

"Alright. You and your partner may order in. Do not gloat or tell anyone about it. I will have words with the kitchen."

"Thankyou."

"I do not want to see you back in my office. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Please go back to your class."

Keeping her head down Tilly scuttled back to her class. She opened the door, sneaked in and slid back into her seat.

"What the hell happened?" Carl whispered, noticing the look of loathing Oleg was giving Tilly.

"I'll tell you later." Tilly replied opening her textbook and silently working through the tasks they had been given.

When the bell rang to signify the end of the class, not only had Tilly caught up to everyone, she had overtaken them.

"I want this exercise completed by tomorrow." Oleg announced before he stormed from the room.

After lunch Tilly took the long way round to get to the arena for her first physical class. She looked around to make sure she was alone before pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialling a number.

A woman answered on the third ring.

"Hey gorgeous. What's up?"

"My Russian teacher hates me."

"Who do you have?"

"Oleg."

"He's a tool. Just keep your head down and don't open your mouth and you'll be fine."

"Too late. He sent me to the principal."

"Wow girl. It took us a whole week for that!"

Tilly laughed.

"What if he marks my work down because I was stupid?"

"Don't worry. Alex oversees all scores. His Russian is better than Oleg's. You'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"I taught you well. Now get your ass to class!"

"Yes Ma'am!" Tilly said and even though the woman on the other end couldn't see Tilly stood to attention and marched towards the arena, snapping her phone shut in the process.