A Soviet's Struggle

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The SUV backed into the tight parking spot. It's make - an Audi; the model - a dark blue chrome finish A2. Shifting the stick shift, Brittney put the SUV into first and pulled the parking brake. The car buckled slightly, giving in and coming to a complete stop. The Siamese smiled, looking to her passenger on her left, Xiao, who looked visibly shook.

"Oh come on now, that parking job was fine!" Brittney spat, letting go of the steering wheel and unbuckling her seatbelt.

"Sure. I just don't get why you drive a stick shift! Especially with how short you are!"

"I'm 5'9"!"

"That's short!"

Xiao rounded the front side of the car, looking down at the fussed siamese. Their heights were vast, with Xiao being 6'2" - the average female animalloid mammalian height. Whereas Xiao barely needed to shift her seat, Brittney needed to pull her seat almost all the way up. Someone so short, but so competent in driving scared the feline, mainly because shorter girls tended to be gremlins in disguise.

Brittney fished for her keys, pressing the lock on her FOB. "Well, at least I'm not almost at the threshold to be legally declared a midget. Akari is 5'5"."

"Akari doesn't drive." Xiao smugly stated, walking ahead of Brittney and to the entrance for the surgery wing of the hospital.

The siamese rolled her eyes, tailing her felidae friend. They were doing Silsina a solid, picking up Mariya from her operation. It was about 3 weeks after the initial scheduling, giving the sisters enough time to prepare, financially, for the upcoming bill. Mariya had been in the hospital's care for about 4 days, as they wanted to document and study the phenomenon with her throat, and if it saw any growth returned. They gave Silsina the green light this morning, where she politely asked the two women to pick up their friend, as she was busy working for Nikolai to get the payback ready as soon as possible.

The two walked into the waiting room, approaching the front desk in front of the doors. Behind it, sat a middle aged woman, in her late 40's, behind a sneeze guard. She didn't notice the college-goers right away, filing paperwork in a cabinet underneath the desk. Xiao, using her knuckle, knocked on the glass, leaning against it like a bad bitch. The woman looked up, at a confident asian tabby cat, and a calm and collected european siamese. Her eyes went wide for a moment, then she cleared her throat and sat in her swivel chair, scooting herself into the desk.

"I'm sorry, how can I help you folks today?" She asked, scanning the two felidae up and down. Brittney cleared her throat, stepping forward and cleaning on the counter, laying on her crossed arms. "We're here to pick up a patient? Her name is Mariya... oh blast, how do you pronounce her last name?"

Brittney looked to Xiao, who raised her eyebrows at the sudden call to her knowledge.

"Oh, uh, 'Romanova,' I believe." The tabby said, looking at the clerk at the desk.

"Okay, and how do you spell that?"

The two felines looked at each other, perplexed. Neither of them had a clue how to actually spell her name. They knew it was spelt in a unique way, Silsina told them that. They thought for a moment, Xiao responding with a sharp breath, catching the clerk's attention. "Um, we actually have absolutely no clue."

The clerk blinked, taking a deep breath and resetting herself. "Okay," she said, "That's fine. Do you know her birthday, by chance?"

"July 4th, 1983!" Xiao chimed immediately, Brittney looking at her companion acutely. Brittney didn't know her birthday, and Silsina didn't tell them. Sure, the two hung out once in a while outside of class because of their similar majors, but it shocked her nonetheless. Xiao turned, looking into Brittney's confused bright blue eyes as the clerk typed away at the computer, printing documents linked to Mariya: