Settling Slowly

Chapter 5 - Zoya

"Sorry I'm late!" I babbled when I got to Costa the next afternoon.

The place was packed and it was lucky I hadn't had my drink knocked out of my hands on the way to the table because there were some kids running around; their parents too busy having a quiet argument to do anything about them.

"Good job Grigory isn't here," Ali joked.

I stuck my tongue out at him. He tucked long, Spanish hair behind his ears and took a bite of his tea cake. I sat in the remaining seat between James and Fiona, and Jill was sat opposite.

"So what are you guys going over?" I asked.

"Grammar," James said and showed me his book.

His notes were in tables and different colours, the writing immaculate and everything had been drawn with a ruler. I stopped making any such attempts with my school work the moment I realised that the teachers no longer marked our books. I got my phone out and took a photo of it.

He raised a grey eyebrow at me. "Isn't that cheating?"

I shrugged. "What Grigory doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, have you seen my notes?"

I opened my book up to the notes from last night and he shook his head at me. My writing was terrible, the words not even on the lines sometimes and the bits I'd bothered to highlight were wonky.

"No wonder you took the photo," Fiona said with a chuckle. "I hate to think what your writing is going to be like after uni. You're not going to be a teacher are you?"

"No. My writing is terrible enough as it is."

"Weirdly, Grigory's is pretty good. For a teacher I mean."

I scoffed. "I tried to read a post-it note on his fridge once. Trust me he's making a huge effort. It either had something to do with giving Sergey some money or killing him. Though maybe he juast has to make more of an effort with English."

"Sergey?" Jill asked.

"His cousin, he lives this side of town."

"Did you ever figure out what it said?" Ali asked.

"No, but I'm going for killing him. Sergey is great, but he's just... He failed at buying a point of milk once. The co-op is a two minute walk from his house. Got back with Haribo, fizzy laces, Dolly-Mix, chocolate raisins and a swede, but no milk. So Lexie, his girlfriend, sent him back and he got red milk instead of green milk so she went herself in the end because that trip had taken him half an hour."

"Seriously?" Ali asked.

"You know, the first trip would be understandable if not for the swede," James mused.

"I know, right?" I said. "Then there was their first date. He forgot all about it. Good job I was there to tell him to get ready."

"You were at his house when he was about to go on a date?" Jill asked with a frown.

"Oh, no. They're neighbours and their bedroom windows are opposite each other. Lexie had thrown her clothes everywhere and I'd sent her to grab a shower whilst I found something for her to wear. I looked out the window and saw Sergey doing German homework I think it was," I explained. "Then he got the film time wrong when booking the tickets and they had to leave early."

"Tell me he's got better since?"

I smiled a little. "He sets reminders on his phone."

"How old is he?" Jill asked.

"Eighteen."

"Wow," they all said.

"I know."