On top of the world

Locker Room Buddies

When Alena and I entered the locker room, we saw Katya talking the guys' ears off, but it appeared that only Javi and Nam could fully understand her while Yuzu, who was desperately trying to follow along, sat there with a blank, uncomfortable look.

"Ah, estás aquí finalmente!" Javi said as we burst in. "Now our fiesta de almuerzo is complete!"

Alena and I smiled and sat between Javi and Katya. 

"This is our VIP locker room, which is usually occupied by us," Javi explained. "Sometimes, other elite skaters who train here part time come in here as well, but most of them are back in their home countries to train during the summer. So now it's just us three Musketeers." Everyone chuckled.

"I told them I'm going to start training with Brian full-time after this summer, so they're going to let me be a VIP member here too!" Katya said.

Alena and I opened our lunch boxes. Alena had a lunch box with the Twilight characters Bella, Edward, and Jacob on it.

"Ehh, Alena...have you actually watched that movie?" I asked her in Russian, gesturing to her lunch bag.

"Da, why do you ask?"

"Well, didn't you parents think it might be a little...mature for you?"

"Ah please, it's rated PG-13. I'm nearly 10 already, so there's no need to baby me. And we skipped through all the gushy romantic scenes, if you were wondering." Alena shrugged, but then she leaned in conspiratorially. "I watched those scenes on YouTube in my own time." She giggled.

I sighed softly. It was apparent that my parents were nowhere near as liberal as hers. When I was Alena's age and I saw my teenage aunt reading one of the books in that series a few years ago, my mom said I shouldn't read it because it was too mature. And even now, if my parents sensed that a heated makeout sesh was about to happen onscreen, they would fast forward or tell me and my siblings to avert our eyes. I guess that's what to expect with such Orthodox Christian parents.

While I was thinking all this, I noticed the three guys in the room staring blankly at us. Then it occurred to me that they had no idea what Alena and I were saying.

"Oh shoot! Sorry," I hastily apologized to them. Nam and Yuzu shrugged, but Javi looked even more impressed with me, if that was even possible. My idol, this impressed with me? I'm on top of the world! 

"You are trilingual?!" he uttered in complete amazement.

"Sí, I speak English, Russian, and Ukrainian fluently. I'm still working on Spanish though," I told him.

"Wow," Yuzuru said. That seems to be the first word he has uttered since we were properly introduced to each other by Javi earlier.

Yuzuru indirectly reminded me of my prototype translator app. "Hey Kat, try out my app with Yuzuru." I handed my phone to her.

"App?" the guys asked.

"My friend from school and I worked together to develop this prototype of a translator app that can basically do the work of a translator. There are still a couple bugs that need to be sorted out, but it functions all right," I told them.

"Chica, you are so smart!" Javi exclaimed. "Computer whiz, multi-linguist, excellent skater..." He was counting off on his fingers. I dipped my head in appreciation, but I also needed to hide the blush creeping into my cheeks.

While we all listened on to Katya and Yuzuru's translated conversation (and I provided Russian commentary for Alena), I looked around at everyone's lunches. Javi was eating a seafood paella. Nam must be eating something really spicy because my nostrils were burning and my eyes were tearing slightly despite being at least 15 feet away from him. Yuzuru had a really cute bento box with bear shaped sushi and seaweed wraps. His mother or father must be an artisan chef.