Just a few hours later I was woken up by a knock on my bedroom window. I pulled the curtain open and looked out with a one eye open. To my surprise I saw Ira all bouncy and giddy.
The sun had barely showed up for work, it probably didn't pass the office threshold yet, my loopy mind was still swimming in the dream's wild scenarios as I was putting my robe on. With my eyes taking turns, alternating the job of looking at where we were heading, I quietly made it down the hallway trying not to hit objects, and let Ira in. We tipped toed to the kitchen, where I was still yawning widely while putting the samovar on to make some tea for us while Ira begun sharing her story in loud whisper.
"Guess who showed up early this morning banging on windows?" She asked excitedly. I paused and looked at her with a deadpan expression and answered while trying not to laugh:
"You? Was that a trick question?"
"No! MYYYYY window!" she didn't take the bait.
"Well, who else could it be besides Vasya?" I mused, knowing he's away.
"Exactly!"
"What?" I was hooked now, my focus zoomed in on her story, while I threw some tea leaves in the small kettle pot, poured hot water into it and put it on top of the samovar to mature while I got the teacups.
"Yeah! He showed up at my window about an hour ago, on his way home." She was so excited, almost breaking whisper barrier into the regular speech. As I got the cups, I saw some leftover cookies and put them on the table as well.
"No way! Why was he heading home so early?" I asked while pouring some chifir from the small teapot into my cup and passing it to Ira. As I was adding hot water from the samovar to my cup she replied.
"Apparently some girl didn't feel good last night, and the person she was with didn't feel like going back with her. So, Vasya volunteered since he missed me." She said with a grin.
"No…way…. Are you saying… Crap!" I spilled the water. As I got a rag and cleaned up my mess, Ira was spilling the beans while filling her cup with water, apparently satisfied with the result, and done with the guessing game.
"You guessed it. It's Veronica!" she said smugly, while adding sugar to her cup.
"Well, it doesn't mean much, Lana said she was on her period, could have been a bad cramp?" I mused.
"Ok. But why didn't her beloved boyfriend join her return home?" She poked a big hole in my line of thought.
"Well, yeah, probably a fight?" I said while munching on a stale cookie.
"Told you, he just wanted to get some, and she didn't put out." She was all giddy.
"I don't think he would start a fight over that, must-have been something else that spooked her." I mused.
"Why'd you think so?" She asked curious, dipping her cooking in her teacup to soften it.
"He took it well when I said no, and he was way too horny at that time." I answered bluntly.
"Ohh, I wonder if it was another woman that entered the picture." She mused.
"Don't know, don't care." Was my reply, raveling in other's misfortune did not make me feel better.
"So… How was Anton?" Ira deftly changed the subject.
"Great kisser." I answered with a big smile.
"And?"
"And dancer?" That was about as much as I had on him in my mind.
"Anyway," she saw my lack of enthusiasm and continued "so, I can't hang out tonight, we made plans with Vasya."
"Sure, no worries. Will you go to the club?"
"Maybe, we didn't agree on anything specific. Will you be there?" She asked.
"Probably… if the weather is good, I might come out with Seta." I mused, honestly with the heavy clouds floating outside I'll probably spend the evening under a warm blanket.
"Well, I gotta run home before my parents wake up." She jumped up.
"Sure, may the luck be with you." I giggled, now that I noticed that she still had her nightgown under the oversized jacket.
"Tanks for the tea." She said flying out of my house.
I felt like a tornado just passed through, finished my tea and went back to bed. When I woke up again, the weather was wet and miserable. That firmly finalized my decision to stay home with a good book.
The next day the weather was still gloomy, but at least no rain fell on my way to school. Veronica looked as gloomy as the weather, but still discussing the great farewell letter she got. Luckily, I got in by the end of the performance, and thanks to my friend smirking and eye rolling in the back I knew what it was all about, and didn't fall in to a random chit-chat trap by asking questions.
"I cried when I read it, to think he thought you are too precious for him!" With the last piece of adieu Vira went back to her seat as the teacher was entering. By the end of the day no one was even listening, and for some reason the girls tried to get me to believe in the story the most. Apparently, there was a letter available for public reading where Victor declared his deep feelings for Vera, but he needed time to find himself et cetera, et cetera. However, the letter was burned since she promised him to do so after reading it. 'Just smile and nod, smile and nod' I mentally told myself.
Having have met the guy before it was hard story to swallow. But I pretended to believe it, while counting my blessings. The rumor mill will be buzzing through the town today. A terrifying thought popped into my mind that this could have easily been me, getting dumped right after bragging to everyone about my perfect love story. After which I was considering myself quite lucky to have kept the whole ordeal among few close friends. As time passed, my relationship with Vera got much closer, there was some sort of unspoken comradery brewing between us.
Sadly, another letter that Mary's mom received told us that we will not be seeing our friend this summer, she might be able to visit for a short weekend at most. It was bitter sweet news, one side we will be missing our friend during last high school summer. But on another we were very proud of her. All her hard work was recognized and she was summoned to our old capital Oblast for a summer workshop training. It seemed she showed aptitude for combat magic and medical healing arts. So, if she succeeds, she will have a free ride to study in the empire's capital.
It was not a small feat to be recognized by the empire. After our small country was conquered and absorbed into the Tsarske Empire the best place to evolve your magic was the capital city of Stolitza. Since major magic skills came from training and learning from masters, the higher the concentration of higher tier magicians the better the opportunity for growth. On the other hand, since the empire's capital pulled outstanding individuals in, there were fewer strong people to be found on the outskirts. This kind of stifled local growth, by making it harder to develop magic skills locally. And I had a low-key suspicion that the process was put in place to reduce and prevent future rebellions after conquests and integration of lands into the empire. But it would not be smart to talk about this outloud.