Scrabble Babble



Mariana and Alexandria stood back and watched as Luka gave his mother a hug. He stepped back and his mother hurriedly began speaking in Luka's native tongue. She stopped when she noticed the girls watching. Stepping forward she hugged Mariana and then moved over to hug Alexandria.

She looked back to Luka and said something. He smiled and pointed at Alexandria saying, "Alexandria," then pointing at Mariana he said, "Mariana."

She looked back to Luka and said something. He replied in Croatian and then repeated what he said in English. "Yes, mom; your grandchildren."

He walked over and stood by the twins saying, "Girls this is my mother. Your new grandma. She knows a little English, but not a lot."

When he stopped talking his mother motioned to them and said something to Luka before walking forward.

"What did she say?" Alexandria asked Luka.

"She said come. Let's get home and get some food for you and the beautiful twins," Luka smiled at Alexandria.



Luka's mom was at the stove, making some soup for lunch. "There's a beach just a block away you two can go to. Or you can spend time here. Apparently my cousin will be coming. He knows English. We can play games or something later tonight. Apparently Alexei is bringing a game over."

Mariana looked up from the book she had started reading on the plane. "Okay."

"What book are you reading Ana?" Luka asked.

"Oh, just a book," she said as she looked back at it.

Luka chuckled as his mother came over, bringing two bowls of soup with spoons in them. She set a bowl down in front of both of the twins and went back to bring two more bowls over. She put them on the table and grabbed four glasses and a pitcher of water.

Mariana and Alexandria ate silently, watching Luka and his mother as they chatted while they ate, catching up on old times. Mariana leaned over to Alexandria and whispered, "Wanna go to the beach after lunch?"

Alexandria smiled, "Yeah!"

When they finished they hesitantly interrupted Luka and asked if they could go to the beach. He smiled, telling them to have a good time."



They were walking down to the beach. Ana in her baby blue bathing suit, a baby blue shirt over her top, and a yellow parasol tied around her waist. She was carrying a towel, a bottle of water and some sun screen. She stopped suddenly to remove a rock from her black sandals before running to catch up with Alexandria.

Alexandria was wearing a blue bathing suit beneath her shirt and shorts. Opening her bottle of water she took a quick drink before closing it back up.

Mariana pushed her sunglasses down on her nose a little and peered over the rim. "Is that the place?" she asked pointing to a rather empty parking lot.

Alexandria looked. "I think so."

They walked through the parking and found behind a cluster of trees beautiful sparkling blue water. They stepped into the hot, golden sand. It spilled into their sandals and they both laughed, loving the feel of it. They missed summer!

Walking down they set their towels down and sat down on them. Taking off the clothes they didn't want on they began putting sun screen on their arms, legs, back, neck and face.

They both lie down, shutting their eyes, enjoying the sun as it beat down onto them. They lay like that for five minutes before a male voice greeted them in Croatian. They looked up and Mariana said, "Oh! We don't speak Croatian."

The two teenage boys before them smiled and said, "You speak English?"

Mariana nodded, "Yeah."

"Americans?"

Mariana nodded again, "Yeah."

"We live in America. We're on vacation with our dad," Alexandria told them.

This time they nodded, "Ah. We're studying English in school."

Mariana smiled at the one who was staring intently at Alexandria. The two twins had always been equally protective of each other. "So, aren't you supposed to be in school now?"

The other one smiled at her and she realized he hadn't looked away for awhile. "We have a day off."

"Oh, not skipping, huh?" she asked.

He smiled. "No. We don't skip."

She smiled at him. "Oh, my boyfriend and I skip all the time."

"Your boyfriend?" he asked, obviously disappointed.

She nodded. "Yeah."

"How long have you been boyfriend and girlfriend?" he asked her.

Alexandria laughed. "Forever! Those two were meant to be together!"

The boy looked away sheepishly, "Oh, okay."

The other boy, though, continued staring at Alexandria. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Alexandria shook her head, "No."

The boy smiled at her. "I'm Sergei."

Alexandria smiled back. "I'm Alexandria. And this is my sister, Mariana. We're twins."

"Oh," the boy said, obviously not interested in Ana. Ana stifled a laugh.

"Al, I'm gonna go back. I'm hot," she said.

Alexandria looked over at her. "Okay, I think I'll stay here for awhile."

Mariana nodded. "See ya when you get back."

Putting her shirt back on she picked up her towel, her water and the sun screen. Slipping her feet into her sandals she left leaving Alexandria alone with the two boys. Sergei's friend quickly moved on to a new girl that he spotted, making Alexandria realize just how horny he was. She hoped that Sergei wasn't like that.

"So, how old are you?" he asked her.

"I'm sixteen," she answered. "You?"

"I'm seventeen," he said. "What did you say you were doing in Croatia again?"

"My dad, well, my adoptive father, is Croatian. He felt that after all Ana and I have been through, we deserve a vacation," she answered.

"And just what did you and your sister go through?" he asked her.

"My sister was stabbed by our real father and then he was killed in a bar fight," Alexandria told him calmly.

His eyes widened and he said, "You're okay, right?"

Alexandria smiled, "Yeah! It was Ana who was stabbed."

"But he didn't hurt you did he?" Sergei asked.

Alexandria shook her head, "No."

Sergei smiled again, "Good."



Mariana was lying on the couch, reading one of the romance novels she had bought at the airport in Chicago. As she was getting to one of the juicy parts she heard someone approaching. She quickly set the book down on her stomach so that whoever was approaching couldn't see what she was reading. But, when she saw it was Luka's mother she just smiled and brought the book back up as she passed the couch, glancing at the words in the book.



Alexandria laughed as Sergei splashed her with water. They were running through the lake, splashing each other.

Putting her hand in the water she pushed it towards him with all the force she could muster. A large wave hit Sergei, sending him backwards. He fell into the water as Alexandria danced around him. He reached an arm out and tripped her. She fell back, laughing hard. Sergei crawled over so that he was looking down on her beautiful face.

They were in the shallow end of the lake, but the water was deep enough that every once in awhile the wind would send a ripple of water over Alexandria's. Sergei leaned forward and very slowly kissed Alexandria on her lips.

She smiled and kissed him back. Sergei stood up and gently picked her up. Carrying her to a secluded part behind a patch of trees he continued kissing her. He moved his hands so that they were at the strap of her bathing suit and started to push the straps down.

Alexandria pushed his hand away, "No, Sergei. I don't want to do that."

"Come on Al," he whispered.

"No one but my sister calls me Al," Alexandria said pulling away. "And no one but her will ever call me Al."

"Sorry, Alexandria. But, please, come on!" he whispered a little more harshly.

"No, Sergei," she whispered.

But Sergei harshly pulled her towards him. Pushing the straps of her bathing suit down he pushed his mouth against hers so that she couldn't scream.



Mariana was lying on the couch, still reading, when she suddenly sat up. Luka, who was sitting in a chair only a few feet away looked up and said, "What's wrong Ana?"

Mariana shook her head, "I-I-I don't know," she looked at her watch. "But if Alexandria doesn't get back soon I'm gonna go back and look for her."



Alexandria blinked back tears as she walked from the patch of trees back to where her beach towel was lying. She quickly picked it up, slipping her feet into her sandals as she also got her water bottle.

Walking back towards the street Sergei ran up to her. "Alexandria, I'm sorry."

"Back off bastard!" she yelled as she turned around.

"Bastard?" he questioned.

"Yeah. It's a term people use for men when they hate them," she said before turning around and calling over her shoulder, "So like I said, back off bastard!"



When Mariana heard the door open she quickly looked up. "Al, you all right?"

Alexandria pasted a fake smile on her face, "Of course I am."

Luka, looking satisfied that she was safe, looked back down at his newspaper. Alexandria had gotten pretty good at lying, spending as much time as she had helping her sister explain to teachers about her "clumsiness."

But one person always saw through her lies: Mariana.

And Mariana followed her back to the room the two were sharing. "You sure you're all right Al? What happened?"

Alexandria looked up and smiled, "Nothing, Mariana. He just wasn't as great of a guy as I thought he was."



From his distance Sergei watched as Alexandria walked into Mrs. Kovac's house. So, Luka moved to America after his wife and children died, and now he adopted new children. Does that mean he has a new wife too? Is Luka forgetting about my cousin?



Alexei came over that night after supper. He brought the game Scrabble with him. "I got it from a friend who visited America," he told Luka.

Luka looked over to the girls, "Want to play a game of Scrabble with my mom and Alexei and I?"

Mariana shook her head, "No, I suck at Scrabble."

Alexandria nodded. "Yeah, me too."

Alexei smiled at the twins, "You two can be on a team."

Mariana sighed, "All right."

Slowly Mariana and Alexandria walked over to the table and sat down. They started playing an English/Croatian scrabble game. Mariana and Alexandria fell behind quickly.

In the middle of the game Luka's mother looked stumped staring hard at the tiles in front of her. Then she looked up at Mariana, smiled and grabbed two tiles placing them around an E tile on the board. The word she spelled out was sex.

Mariana tried as best she could to stifle a giggle. Alexei stared at it, trying not to laugh himself. Mrs. Kovac asked Luka something and he replied in Croatian. She smiled and then said something back to him.

Luka looked over to Mariana and said, "So, Ana, what book did you say you were reading again?"

"Oh, just a book my friend said was good," she answered, trying to cover up the genre of her book.

"Okay. I was just wondering," he said as he looked at his tiles. It was his turn to go now. "My mom said she saw it in your book." Mariana looked away, embarrassed, her face growing red as she laughed.

Alexandria was thankful that no one saw her beet red face.



A few days later Alexandria and Mariana were in their room unpacking. Mariana put the camera on the desk and said, "I can't wait to develop these pictures! That trip was so much fun! Grandma and Alexei are great!"

"Yeah they are," Alexandria tried to say with as much enthusiasm as Mariana.

Mariana stopped unpacking to look at Alexandria. "Are you sure you're okay? Did you have fun in Croatia?"

Alexandria nodded. "Yeah, I did. Except for one part of the trip."

She tried to keep unpacking but Mariana walked over and stopped her. Grabbing her arms she made her sister stare into her eyes. "Al, what happened on the beach?"

Alexandria unsuccessfully tried to keep the tears from flowing down her face.

"Sergei raped me."



Coming Soon: Trouble Maker…How does Mariana react to Alexandria's news? And who else does Alexandria tell?