Who: Anastasia and Alyssa What: New friends! When: After the cure Where: A diner near Irvine General Rating: G. Nothing naughty. Status: Complete!
After something like two and a half weeks in the hospital, Anya was freed to go by the intern supervisor. She’d arranged everything for school - extra credit was always good - and now she was en route to a small restaurant that served hamburgers and french fries with cheese and other things she’d dreamed of. She’d discovered cheese fries on her third day in America, and she figured after two and a half weeks in hospital, she could indulge.
Anya went into the restaurant, sitting at the counter and ordering as soon as someone looked at her. She could even hear her stomach growling now.
Alyssa was behind the pretty brunette in the queue, and she grinned when she heard the girl’s stomach growl. “It’s a good thing you’re ahead of me in the queue,” she beamed. “But oh, I think we’re all feeling this way. Mum and I were getting sick of cereal and soy milk.”
Anya turned around to see the redhead, smiling shamefacedly. “I have not had good food in two weeks,” she explained. “I have work at the hospital and was just now let out. I have to go back to help with more things, but I just had to get a hamburger!”
“Oh, I’m going there too as soon as I eat. I wasn’t stuck there during the quarantine, but I’m helping out today and until school starts.” She figured it was the least she could do; she’d been lucky enough not to get ill.
“Oh really? The Irvine General?” Anya cocked her head. “It’s very good of you. I cannot speak for all, but I am very tired!” She laughed. “My name is Anya, what is your name?”
“I’m Alyssa, it’s nice to meet you.” She offered Anya her hand, smiling brightly. “I’m no good at any medical things, but I figured there’s something I can do. Typing, laundry, things like that. Just to help get it back on its feet.” She smiled brightly as she put her own order in, her own stomach growling at the smell of meat cooking and fryer grease.
“I am pre-medical student. I came here from Russia to study. The hospitals here have a very good reputation, and I want to learn from the best.” Anya shook her hand, smiling. “You don’t sound as though you are from here. Excuse my English, it is not perfect.”
“That’s fantastic! And no, I’m from England.” She shook her head at the girl’s apology. “Your English is fantastic. I speak French and a bit of Portuguese, but nothing close to how well you speak English.” She beamed at the girl. “Would you like to eat together?”
“Certainly.” Anya smiled. “Thank you, I work hard on it. We can sit together.” She pointed to the counter chair next to where she’d sat. “Have you been in California for a long time?”
“You’re fantastic.” Alyssa got her food and moved to sit next to Anya, sipping her soda. “I’ve only been here a couple of months. My mother and I moved here for her work.” She’d just gotten sick of never seeing her mother, and if she’d stayed at boarding school, she’d have seen her even less.
“Oh, you have your mother with you. That is good.” Anya missed hers sometimes, but sometimes not. “I am here by myself. I do not mind, most of the time. My sisters and I are grown, so it is best to try and live in different places without each other.”
Alyssa smiled sadly at that. She could tell that Anya was a little homesick, a little lonesome. “You should come over sometime for dinner. Now that Mum and I live together again - I used to go to boarding school - she insists on making me dinner every night.” She grinned at her new friend.
Anya blinked. “That would be most kind. If you know it would not be rude.” She smiled. “Customs are different here; I offended someone in the hospital by asking if she was married when her boyfriend kissed her good-bye. She said it was ‘none of my damn business’, I think.”
“Oh, it wouldn’t be.” But Alyssa wrinkled her nose. “That’s rude of her. It’s not like you know everything in her life and it’s not like trying to get to know her is rude.” She folded her arms, grumpy that someone had treated someone so obviously kind as rudely as they had.
Anya shrugged. “In Russia it is considered polite to ask.” She chuckled, then lit up as her food arrived. “Pardon me, but there won’t be much speaking now for a while!”
That made Alyssa laugh. She’d been holding off on eating her own food until Anya got hers. Nibbling happily, she tried to not devour the food, to eat daintily, but hell with it. She was starving.
Normally she tried to be polite, but the hamburger was something approaching heaven. Anya made a happy noise and kept eating. “I dreamt of this,” she murmured in between bites, smiling. “The hospital food was not so good.”
“It wasn’t outside of the hospital either,” Alyssa smiled. “We were down to cereal and fake milk. Mum was threatening to go drive to a stockyard and make her own hamburger meat.”
Anya blinked. “Food shortages, here? I would never think so.” She wiped her mouth, still talking between bites. “It used to happen in Russia when I was small. The Communism fell and all of a sudden there was no anything. But that isn’t since I was a tiny girl. America is too rich, I thought.”
“Because of the quarantine. Nobody was allowed in or out.” Alyssa shrugged. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible either, but if no movement can happen, then no goods can come in.”
That was a fair point. “This does make sense. But at least now maybe things are go back to normal.” Anya took a sip of the water she’d been given. “What do you do here usually? Are you in school?”
“I’ve just gotten here, I don’t think I have a ‘usually’ yet!” Alyssa sipped her milkshake, grinning a bit at the sensation. “I’m finishing up my last year of secondary school, and then it’s off to uni. I came here because Mum did.”
Anya nodded. “I begin my first year at university here,” she said. “I may spend the whole time here or I may go back to Russia after a year. I do not know.”
“Well, even if you go back in a year, I hope you have the nicest year possible here.” Alyssa grinned, offering the girl a sip of her milkshake.
Anya smiled. “Is nice of you to say. I don’t mean to ignore, that would not be polite. Just I have been so hungry!” She did feel a little better now. “Have you been ever to Russia? I have not seen England, but I would like to.”
“I’d like to see Russia. Never been, but I’ve always wanted to. I’ve seen pictures, and it’s the most gorgeous place in the world, I think.” She wanted to go in winter, too, but she was sure that would make her seem mad.
“I think so, obviously.” Anya couldn’t help but puff up a bit. “It is a hard place, but I am proud of it.” She cocked her head to one side, curious, but not sure if it was rude. “Forgive me if it’s impolite, but you do not seem like England is a happy place for you.” There was something in the way she talked about it.
“It... “ Alyssa blinked to think of her words before she spoke them. “My father left my mother when I was young, and a few years later I went to boarding school. I liked it there well enough, but I think my life is starting here and now. When I go to uni, I’ll choose the course of my life and then I can find my home.”
Anya felt awkward. “I’m sorry to pry. That maybe is ‘none of my damn business.’” She smiled a little, hoping the girl Alyssa would laugh. “I just want for people to be happy. It’s why I do the pre-medicine.”
“We’re friends now, so I don’t mind telling you about myself.” Alyssa smiled brightly. “It doesn’t hurt, and I’m glad to be finding out where I want to be.” She didn’t know what she wanted to do yet at all.
“This makes sense.” Anya sipped more of her water. “I was guided by my aunt, who is a nurse, and I have family nearby. This means my home feels safe to me. But I am lucky. I hope you find the same!” She smiled. “Are you having an idea what you want to study?”
“Not yet. Mum works in energy, she’s heading up some wind power projects here. I’m not much of a science person in terms of engineering. I like biology well enough, but not enough to do it for life.” Really, she just wanted to play footy and marry someone cute. Was that bad?
“I only know I wanted pre-medicine because I helped my aunt take care of my cousin when he was sick.” Anya explained. “My cousin has hemophilia, I think it is in English? His blood clots badly.” She couldn’t help but laugh. “I felt bad being so fascinated when Aleksei was in such pain!”
“Oh, like the czars!” Alyssa had paid attention in her World History courses, yes she had. “That always sounded scary.”
“Yes, not unlike.” Hemophilia was unfortunately common. “Now we can treat it, of course, but the sufferer still hurts. Aleksei is now twenty, and he’ll be alive a long time.” Anya smiled. “When he cuts himself he mostly just swears.”
“Well, that’s a blessing, that he doesn’t have to live in fear of moving or doing anything.” Alyssa shook her head. “Though I doubt it can be cured. It’s a difference in genetics, yeah? Not anything contracted?” Aleksei was a cute name.
“Right.” Anya finished the last of her burger. “It is a blood disease, passed from the mother. My aunt being a nurse, she researched it all and can help treat it now. It turned out good for us all.” She smiled. “Have you brothers or sisters, may I ask?”
Alyssa shook her head. “My father left when I was four. Mum said she’d wanted other kids, but she didn’t really know what to do when he left. It just never happened for her.” Alyssa was used to being alone, really. She had been most of her life. “How many do you have?”
“I’m sorry.” Anya blushed. “I bring up awkward things. I have three elder sisters, and they look after me sometimes.”
“Not on purpose, there’s no way you could know.” Alyssa smiled. “You’re the baby of the family? That sounds like it’d be nice. Do you have any awful nicknames?” The redhead giggled as she ate a fry.
Anya nodded, smiling a little. “They mostly call me shvibzik, which is the Russian word for imp. I play the pranks at home.” She chuckled.
That made Alyssa crack up. “Like what?”
“Oh, nothing very much. I swapped salt for sugar in Tatiana’s baking one time. Once I jump out and scared Papa after he was coming back from a meeting.” Anya grinned a little shamefacedly. “Silly things.”
“That’s cute.” Alyssa wished her childhood had been so funny. It had been when she’d gotten a little older and made a few friends that were fun. “If you ever play any on me, I’m sorry if I scream!”
Anya laughed. “I try not to do things like that to those not my family. They will get angry at me.” She looked down at the plate, which was now clear. “I should likely go home. But perhaps we can go to get coffee sometimes, if I give my number?”
“I’d like that a lot.” Alyssa fished around in her purse for her cell phone, handing it to Anya so she could put her number in it. “I don’t have many friends yet, and you’re great company.”
Anya added her number, giving the other girl her phone so she could do the same. “I always like new people. Thank you!” She got up out of her seat, smiling. “Maybe I see you at the hospital as well.”
Alyssa added her number, giving her phone back and standing up to hug her new friend. “That’d be fantastic. I’ll see you around, no matter what.”
Anya nodded, letting herself be hugged. “Good! I will look out for you, Alyssa.” She went to pay, smiling at the turn of events.