a cactus and a lily find a common pot to grow - trixya

Chapter 2: part 1 - a cactus and a lily find a common pot to grow

As weird as it might sound, Katya is a morning person.

She wakes up at 5 o'clock sharp every morning, has a smoke in the balcony and makes herself some breakfast. Today she's not exactly in a good mood if you consider what she's had to deal with yesterday, but she decides to make pancakes anyway. It's an ancient Russian proverb that "if everything is going to shit, just make some pancakes and it shall be fine". It does sound prettier in Russian. She also thinks of her roommate, Adore (no, that's not her real name), who came home at five and worked hard all night long. Anyone who works at night deserves to wake up to pancakes, so she leaves some in the fridge along with a post-it note that says "made with love, care and cocaine because we are out of flour" with a little heart under it. She hops into the shower at seven, doesn't wash her hair, and fifteen minutes later she's struggling to put her tights on. By seven thirty she is 10 miles above the speed limit with one hand on the wheel and trying to apply her lipstick with the other, but she makes it to school just in time – breaking about 15 traffic laws on her way there.

Katya always thinks that walking into school is like a breath of fresh air and she breathes in deep every time. She hasn't lived a life that allowed her to take many deep breaths, and since she moved to Alverton, Massachusetts she's been taking in all the air she can. She loves every little thing about this tiny, Christian and bigoted town, from Alverton High to Dame of the Night Gentlemen's Club, which is right around the corner from her place. Those are, by the way, the two places she spends most of her time at.
Yesterday, after Principal Charles gave her and Trixie the news that they will be working together this semester, Katya freaked the fuck out. Not only did she call her boss an uncultured swine but she also assaulted her "project partner" verbally and, judging by her facial expressions, there has been some psychological damage as well. She could not breathe or think straight, she just hopped into her car and drove to the strip club, where she knows the girls will always meet her with sympathetic smiles and some kind words to protect her from the big, bad world. These words tend to vary between cunt, bitch, fuck, damn, shit and ass. Feels just like home.

The Dame of the Night is Katya's go-to place for bad days, it's almost a ritual. Not many people are lucky enough to leave prostitution behind, and even fewer people are fortunate enough to have such a non-traumatizing experience with their time in sex work, which happens to be her situation. When she arrived in Boston five years ago and could barely say a word of English, the first person to take her in and help her get a grip on life was a fat hooker called Ginger. But misfortunes happen and there's nothing you can do about the fucked up shit that may come to you in life, especially when the fucked up shit is your best friend overdosing at a cheap motel right outside the city.

After losing Ginger, she moved to Alverton because she wanted to get away. She thought that maybe if she hid well enough, whatever was responsible for the passing of her dearest friend would never find her again. There she met Bianca, an old acquaintance of Ginger, and also the owner of the club. "Clown pimp", the nickname that was given to her by the girls, is tough and mean, but deep inside - very deep - she is a good person. She took Katya under her wing just like a mother would.

"Listen up, bitch, I'm not gonna say this again", she had whispered while wiping away the tears from Katya's cheek. She had a tendency to cry whenever she spent too long with Bianca, I mean, everybody does, but her reasons were different. "I'm giving you this job but that does not mean you get to be here forever. You're gonna get your money, you're gonna get an education and you're gonna find something better to do. There is something better for you out there, bitch, you best believe me." And that's what she did. She worked hard, saved up and took online classes at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, graduated with honors and made all the girls around her proud. The day she left the Dame was the day she first saw Bianca cry, but if you ask her she'll just tell you to fuck off.