Authors note: Thank you for the advice (heaven knows I need it). I am too lazy to re-do the first chapter but I will try to make shorter paragraphs from now on, and maybe add a little originality to the story (that is a big maybe though, I'm not exactly the next Charles Dickens as you can probably tell by now, not that anyone has ever won a Pulitzer for a piece of fan fiction). Anyway, thanks for the patience, on with the story….
"Door, room, bed, dresser, shirt, pants, socks, sheets, blankets…." Lana had been drilling Vladimir on these English words for weeks since he had decided to come to Eden but unpacking provided an excellent opportunity for a refresher course. Unfortunately Vladimir was not in the mood, groggy from the flight and nervous someone would overhear the strange lesson, he mumbled the words under his breath. Lana had finally given up and began explaining his schedule to Vlad in Russian when there came a knock on the door.
"Come in" Lana shouted. She felt a little strange inviting someone into her cousin's room but he wasn't about to answer it himself. In walked a clean cut man of about 35, in a suit and tie. "Hi, I'm coach Orion." he said as he extended his hand toward Vlad. "I'll be the varsity hockey coach this year, you must be Vladimir Petrovich. It's a pleasure to meet you." Vlad shook hands timidly and gave Svetlana a pleading look.
Lana sighed, he knew how to say "nice to meet you" he should understand what was going on. Reluctantly, she translated everything Orion had said and was disappointed when Vlad merely smiled and nodded at his future coach.
"And you must be Svetlana," Orion continued in his stern, matter-of-fact manner, "It's nice to meet you as well. " Still upset with Vlad she smiled and shook his hand. "Tell him that the first day of try-outs is Wednesday, there will be a meeting for all those interested on Tuesday, and I hope he enjoys it here," Orion concluded. He then nodded to Vlad and marched out of the door to make his rounds with the other hockey players moving in.
Next door, several of the ducks were recounting their summer adventures to one another in the room Russ and Luis shared. Russ talked about all of the times he was hassled by police officer for no good reason (accidentally breaking windows with stray street-hockey pucks did not, in his mind, constitute a good reason.) Charlie claimed he had spent most of the summer "bulking up" in the gym, although despite some slight definition in his arms, he looked about the same as before. Adam was forced to explain his dark tan and light hair, bleached even lighter from the sun. He had taken a little cruise around the world he tried his best to be modest about. Perhaps the biggest change amongst the ducks was Fulton's bald head, covered as usual with a bandana. He had lost a bet, and a great deal of his pride upon returning to Eden where his teammates found it entertaining to name the lumps on his skull. "I think we should call this one Mt. Bash" Portman proclaimed pointing to a particularly large protrusion in the back. Besides this, and the fact that most of the ducks planned to be moving up to the team varsity this year, not much had changed.
When it was Luis's turn to share his summer experience he made up a story about some girl named Lorena and mentioned very little about his domestic situation, which had been dramatically altered by the death of his Uncle Jose in a factory accident. With five more people to squeeze into the apartment and five more mouths to feed, Luis would hardly describe his summer as a vacation. After finishing his BS romance piece, he added another lie about how he was supposed to call his mom as soon as he got to school. He couldn't stand to listen to anymore stories about camps and beaches and so he walked down the hall toward the pay phone.
Meanwhile, a frustrated Lana hurried out the next door to unpack her own things. It was almost ten o'clock, she had class tomorrow, and she had spent most of the afternoon trying to show Vladimir around enough so that he would be able to find her in the morning for breakfast and make it to all of his classes. Now she had to find her own room, unpack, and get ready for class. Luis's stride, fast by nature, matched hers in intensity, and the resulting collision, as both headed out their doors in opposite directions, was quite impressive.