Chapter seven

          I spent the next few days getting used to the large mansion that was my home now, there were lots of changes from when I was in the orphanage. The first was that I got my own room which for some reason was painted a ghastly shade of bright pink. Inside was a canopy bed of the same color and a wardrobe full of clothing that actually fit me, Andrei later told me that he had asked about what size clothing I wore and sent one of the maids shopping, which brings me to another point, we had eight maids. We even have a butler. The butler was a fit looking man in his mid thirties that also doubled as a bodyguard.

        I spent most of the day exploring the house and watching television. There was no television in the orphanage because old Ms Blatova believed that television rotted young children's minds, the only form of entertainment allowed indoors were board games, books , and if  Ms Blatova wasn't around Veronica would take out her radio and we would listen to some music. Now that I have been introduced to the TV I was thoroughly hooked and spent the day feeding my new addiction.

        My new parents were both usually busy in the day. Andrei, who now got really cross if I don't call him father or daddy, spent most of his day and some of his nights at a clinic he had opened after finishing his internship and becoming a doctor and Marina, who I called mother so that she wouldn't get suspicious, spent her day working at what I assume was Fairweather Tec although I doubt that she spent her days in meetings and doing paper work. However we might spend the day we all ate dinner together. Dad( after much nagging on his part I relented and started calling him that, the first time I did it I thought he was going to cry) was the epitome of the loving caring father always doting on his daughter. Mother also pretended to be loving, and because I had gotten the hang of my power I didn't have to look at the monster underneath her façade, I could pretend she was a loving mother and that we were a happy family.

            A few days after this routine had been established dad said something that that brought my blissful days of vegging out in front of the TV to an end,

           "Sophia I have enrolled you into the future hope academy, you will love it there, it was were I went when I was a kid. Anyways you'll be starting in two days. Kazimir ( that's the name of our butler) will drive you there."

           "Two days?"

           "Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. All the kids there will also be new so it will be a great opportunity to make friends."

          "But I'm not ready dad, I don't have any books or even the uniform."

          "The books are in a bag at the back of your wardrobe and the uniform is being delivered here tomorrow, as I said earlier relax , everything will be fine. For a smart girl like you school is going to be a piece of cake."

            For some reason his words didn't reassure me.

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         Kazimir drove me to the front of a large ornate looking yet very solid iron gate with the logo of the school boldly showing at the center. An armed security guard came and checked both my newly issued school ID and Kazimir's ID against a list he had in his hands . He only let us through after carefully scrutinizing the pictures on our IDs to our faces.

        Once inside I was finally able to see what the high fence and iron gates were hiding, it was a vast and carefully maintained campus. There was a lot of free space covered in grass, many different gardens with benches to sit, and a playground for children. The actual school was only a two story building but it consisted of ten separate buildings that were very wide, and when I first got in I thought that it was a small town not a school.

        After Kazimir dropped me off at the building that was indicated in the brochure that came with the uniform a woman waiting at the door welcomed me and showed me to the room where there would be 'a little meet and greet' as she put it. Once inside I saw that I was one of the only people wearing the uniform which confused me greatly, aren't all the children here students? Didn't they get their uniforms? I decided to forget about the uniforms, instead I  did what my father told me to do and tried to mingle with the kids around me.

         All of them seemed to have formed small groups so I drifted from one group to the other but I could barely understand what they were saying. I knew they were talking Russian but I just couldn't fathom what they were talking about.

         Finally I gave up and just stood by the wall alone waiting for the whole thing to end so I could go back home. As I stood there wondering how I was going to survive thirteen years here, a boy in a black T-shirt that was bigger than all of the kids in the room approached me,

        "They wouldn't talk to you either, huh?"

        "No they talked to me , I just couldn't understand what they were saying. They kept saying things like they liked my guchi, what the hell is a guchi?"

         He pointed at the label on my jacket which said 'Gucci' , "it's the name of your jacket. Don't you even know what brand of clothing you are wearing?"

        I looked at him with a perplexed expression," It's strong, it's comfortable and it looks nice. Why the hell would I care what is on the label of my jacket."

        For a second there was absolute silence in the room. For some reason everybody had heard what I had said and were staring at me.

        The boy suddenly burst into loud laughter attracting their attention and breaking the tension, "You are absolutely right. I like the way you think, by the way my name is Sergei Mikailov."

        "My name is Sophia Belikova , nice to meet you."

        And that was how I met one of my dearest friends.