Maija stood in front of the green door with the sign "9-D" on it. Uncertainly, she opened the heavy door and entered the classroom. She looked around, seeing many healthy, big-boned boys and girls, who stared at her with no lesser curiosity. Without saying a word, she sat down at an empty desk at the end of the classroom. She heard whispers and giggles. Blushing and wishing she could disappear, she just sat there and waited. A couple of minutes afterwards, the bell rang and a stern-looking, fat woman in glasses came to the class. At that very moment, the talking and laughing stopped at once. The teacher introduced the class to some new material, which was completely unfamiliar to Maija. It seemed that here the schools were much more advanced. Anyway she tried to concentrate and spent two lessons without any break between them, taking notes together with the rest of the class. The teacher was looking at her with suspicion. She decided that it would be better to ignore it for now.
Finally, the bell rang again. The boys and girls left the classroom in a one big gang, some of them turning back to take another look at Maija and to giggle. She shrugged and kept sitting at her desk alone. It was so unlike she was used to - it was probably impossible to find a person in this whole huge building, especially when not knowing the location of the classes. And it was all so foreign. "Everyone look at me as if I am some kind of a weird animal," - she thought. - "At home, it would never happen." She looked over the notes that she took mindlessly, and realized that she positively didn"t understand any of them.
Apart from that, she was hungry. She got up and went out to the big hallway, looking around. She looked carefully at the groups of students that were going all in the same direction. Realizing that they were probably heading towards the cafeteria, she followed them downstairs.
The atmosphere in the cafeteria was quite cold and gloomy. Lots of pupils sitting together and talking between them, everyone busy and in a rush. Maija looked through the menu - it didn"t look like she could really get something nutricious here, but she was ready to settle for something hot to drink and to warm up her freezing hands. Carrying her sandwich and cup of coffee on a tray, she sat down at a lonely table in the corner, just like in the class.
She finished eating quite quickly and was sipping her coffee slowly. It tasted awful but at least it was still hot. Thinking of it, she was sure she asked for some sugar with her coffee. Maybe she was misunderstood.
For an unknown reason, her heart began to pound as she noticed a careless smile and a pair of clear eyes of the boy who was sitting at the other side of the cafeteria with some friends from his class. She thought of waving hello to Martin, maybe even getting up and joining him at his table and finding out what class he is in, and maybe even asking him for a brief guidance around the school - just to avoid the possibility of getting lost in all those hallways and doors. But suddenly she felt so embarassed, not even quite understanding why - she realized that she would rather drink a cup of coffee with 3 spoons of coffee-powder and no sugar at all, then go over to his table and say right in front of his friends - "Hi! Remember me?" - suddenly it was not simple at all. She buried her eyes in her half-empty cup, almost hiding under the table. She heard voices of laughter, steps of heavy feet - and soon the bell rang and it was time to go to the class again.
The second pair of lessons didn"t go any better than the first one. Maija decided to concentrate on the studied material that she didn"t understand too well anyway, and to ignore all the curious looks that were dedicated to her but it was quite difficult. Young boys and girls are often mean. Maija felt quite defensless and only wished that the day would be over quickly so she could go and meet Papa in the café across the road. For the first time, she realized that there is something so foreign about her, that makes her completely different from the people around her. She opened her big dark eyes and stared at the teacher, trying hard not to notice anything else around her.
Luckily the last pair of lessons didn"t go so slow. The material that was given was harder than anything else, and Maija felt that she might as well try to read Chinese, but at least the rest of the class focused on the lesson and forgot about the little strange girl at the back of the class. Finally, the day was over. Maija picked up her things and went out of the classroom. After wandering around a bit, she found her way back to the school entrance and went out.
It was raining terribly again. She hurried to cross the road and to enter the small café. She hoped Papa would be there already but apparently he was stuck in traffic. The café was crowded with people who were hiding from the rain. There was no empty table to sit at. In fact, there didn"t seem to be any room at all. Finally, after seraching with her eyes for a couple of minutes, she noticed a young woman of around twenty-five, sitting alone at a table for too. Maija stepped over to the table.
"May I join you at the table?" - she asked shyly. - "if someone isn"t sitting here already, of course."
"Why, go ahead." - the young woman smiled encouragingly. Maija breathed deeply with relief and sat down. - "You are from the school across the road, aren"t you?"
"Yes," - the girl replied. - "I"m waiting for my father to come and pick me up - it"s raining cats and dogs outside."
"Ah, and I"m waiting for my little brother, to pick him up as well. He goes to the same school as you. You probably know him."
"That"s not likely." - Maija shook her head. - "It was my first day at school. I don"t know anyone from there yet."
"I wonder what happened to that little devil," - said the young woman, looking at her watch impatiently. - "the studies were finished a while ago already, weren"t they? Probably one of his teachers asked him to stay after classes again, to have one more "serious conversation". Not that it helps. My brother is a good boy, and a talented one, but he can be a difficult person sometimes. When our mom and his father divorced - "
Maija"s inner self raised an eyebrow to that strange form of speaking but she didn’t say a word.
"Oh," - the woman caught the look on Maija"s face. - "excuse me for bringing you into the details, after all you don"t know me at all - but me and my brother have different fathers. Our mom was married twice. And twice she divorced. Her separation with my brother"s father affected the little guy. And then I moved out. And he"s growing up, you know, and it"s a confusing time. So I try to be with him whenever time allows. I just wonder where he might be!" - she raised her voice a little bit at the last phrase she said.
"Why, I"m here," - Maija heard a cheerful voice behind her back and a chill ran down her spine. She turned her face to the boy who stood behind her, trying not to become too blush.
"Hi," - she said uncertainly, for an unknown reason feeling as if she sat naked in the middle of the crowded café.
"Oh, Maija," - he smiled happily. - "You"ve already met my sister, Luna. I"m sorry I was late," - he said to his sister. - "I just didn"t want to cross the road in the pouring rain."
"So you do know each other," - said Luna to Maija in a triumphatic tone. - "And I thought it was your first day at school."
"We met yesterday." - explained Martin. - "At the old park, you see. Maija came to the North only a couple of days ago and now she lives at the house across the road. She"s the daughter of professor Vlad, could you believe it?"
"What a surprise!" - Luna gasped. - "We have known professor Vlad for years, but we had no idea that he had any children at all. I wonder how he never told us anything about you, Maija. Well we can question him a bit about it when he comes to pick you up." - she added, smiling.
"Shame we"re going shopping now and not home." - Martin said. - "You could have come home with us. Well anyway I suppose I"m going to see you around a lot." - he said with a tone of hope in his voice. - "I wonder why I didn"t see you at school. I thought we were supposed to be in the same grade, or at least that you are in one of the 8-th too."
"I"m in 9-D. And I - I haven’t seen you at all, in fact." - she said, blushing like a tomato.
"I wouldn"t guess you"re in the 9-th." - admitted Hanna. - "You look younger than Mart. How old are you?"
"I was fourteen on the seventeenth of July." - said Maija. - "I know I look younger. Everyone in my class look as if they were a couple of years older than me."
"And I"m only going to have my birthday on the fourteenth of November." - said Martin, his ears burning. - "That"s in a week."
Maija heard the familiar steps of a big-boned, heavy-set man behind her. She turned around and smiled at her father.
"Hello, Papa." - she said. - "See, I"m already familiar with our neighbours."
"So I see, so I see." - he replied, smiling widely at Luna and Martin. - "How are you doing, Luna? And you, little guy, how is school? It"s nice that you"ve been keeping a company for Maija while I was stuck in that damn traffic. You"ll see as you begin driving, Luna - you haven"t seen jams like that for a long time,I assure you."
"It was our pleasure," - replied Luna, smiling back at him. - "We"d be happy if you and Maija visited us a bit more often than you always did - especially on weekends when I usually spend time with mom and Mart."
"I promise, Lu." - Vlad raised his right hand, roaring with unexplicable laughter. - "No, I mean it. It"s a word of a scout this time. Well, I"m taking Maija home. See you soon!"
"Have a nice day - see you soon," - said Maija, throwing a sight at Martin. He smiled back, and Maija went out of the café with her father"s arm on her shoulder.
"I"m sorry you had to wait outside for a long time, sonny." - said Vlad as they went out. Maija looked around, not realizing whom he was speaking to. To her surprise, she saw Tommy standing outside, by the window.
"No problem, professor." - said Tommy. - "I saw that you ran into your neighbours." - his eyes sparkled suspiciously for a brief moment.
"Let"s get into the car, kids." - said Vlad, opening the car"s door. - "The last thing we should be doing is stand here and freeze."
Like on the way to school, Maija was at the back seat alone. Tommy was looking at the mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of her expression. Vlad was concentrating on the road. The traffic jams were awful indeed. It took almost an hour for him to drive out of an extremely busy street. He didn"t get nervous like the other drivers, though - he just looked at the grey asphalt and whistled a cheerful tune. Finally, they were home. Vlad stopped the car.
"Bye, Tommy." - he said. The boy muttered something that could be considered as "thank you, professor, have a nice day". He was definitely not in the mood. Vlad and Maija entered the living room, where it was almost as cold and unpleasant as outside. Turning on the electrical oven, the professor asked:
"How was your first day at school, Mai?"
"Just fine, papa," - she replied. - "They are obviously much more advanced here than back at home. I could hardly understand anything of what we have studied today. And I can"t say that I"m too keen on the population of my class either."
"Well, if those are the only problems, we"ll work them out." - Vlad assured her. - "You will read all the material you need, you will take a couple of extra lessons - and your problems with the studies will be solved. And you will make some new friends pretty soon. You don"t know that, my little girl, but you have something that attracts attention to you. Soon, everyone who gave you peculiar looks today will treat you so nicely that you will be surprised. You better tell me another thing, dear - what happened between you and Tommy? Did you have some kind of misunderstanding? You avoided looking at him on our way home. And he didn"t talk at all."
"It was nothing important, papa." - she said, annoyed. - "As you said, a misunderstanding and nothing more. I don"t know what this boy is looking for. It seems that he wants to watch every move that I make. We don"t get along so well together."
"Ah, Mai." - Vlad shook his head. - "Don"t push him away. You are going through a difficult period right now. Tommy can help you. I don"t approve his walking aroud the old park at night and his hanging around with his gang. But if you, for example, invite him to stay with us, help you do your homework and drink some tea, I"m sure he won"t go hanging out anywhere. He can help you fit in, get around the school, meet all the kids on the block. And besides, human attention isn"t a thing to be mistreated like this. Don"t underestimate him, dear."
"Yes, but I don"t have to like his company, do I?" - the girl said rather sternly. - "If you wish, papa, you can invite him to drink tea with us all the evenings, and I promise I will be nice to him. But that doesn’t mean I want to invite him myself."
After saying that last phrase, Maija went upstairs to her room, and spent about two hours trying to work out something of the homework that she was given. Afterwards, she went to her father"s working room, disappointed of herself. Together, they worked out part of the material that she needed. Completely exhausted, she went to bed and closed her eyes. She smiled to herself and her smile was full of hope and happiness.