Chapter 13. How Unlucky

  Tanya wanted to throw herself onto the bed and wail. But she was able to hold herself back, after all she was a mature grown adult in mind, if not in body.

  Tanya proceeded to move the two suitcases that were currently covering the majority of her bed out of the way.

  All the while trying to forget the misunderstanding that had occurred due to the obvious lack of intelligence of her young roommate.

  Honestly, what made her think that she of all people was on her period? Tanya hadn’t ever even had a period and it wasn’t likely to start anytime soon. Why had that little idiot gone and blabbed to the Matron without even consulting her first.

  Putting the whole thing out of her mind, Tanya finished putting her stuff away and donned her hoodie. Taking the time to roll up the sleeves. Moving to the door she passed Visha on her way in and explained that she was heading to the computer and would be back shortly.

  Making her way downstairs Tanya passed a number of girls who gave her strange sympathetic looks as they passed by. Just more firewood to lay at the feet of that idiot. She thought.

  Arriving at the office with the computer, Tanya immediately began reading the rules posted on the side of the computer tower. After getting an understanding she signed both hers and Visha’s name for a timeslot later that evening and left the room.

  Checking on the laundry room and noticing it being unoccupied she made her way back to her room to grab her soiled clothes.

  At the threshold of her door, she called out to her buddy.

  “Visha, grab your clo… Put that down!”

  Tanya entered her room to the scene of Visha holding up a piece of very light and very frilly underwear. She seemed to be trying to communicate with the other two girls about it. But Tanya could see the girls flushed faces and they kept glancing away from the lacy garment.

  Visha, on the other hand just looked confused.

  Running her hand down her face, Tanya made her way over, and reaching down gathered the rest of the so-called underwear that Visha had brought along. Snatching the last piece from Visha’s hands, Tanya balled them up and threw them in the trash by the door.

  Ignoring the look of betrayal on her adjutant’s face. Tanya apologized to their two roommates and tried to explain that Visha had just grabbed whatever when they had made their escape.

  Ignoring their disbelieving faces.

  Tanya turned back to Visha, who had her hand raised, like she wanted to ask a question.

  “Yes, Serebryakov?”

  “Aren’t we supposed to sort the trash when we throw it away.”

  Tanya blinked slowly.

  “You just earned laundry duty.”

  “No! Tanya I’m sorry. It was only a little joke. What happened to your sense of humor?”

  Visha pleaded. Her face the picture of mock regret, and sadness.

  “It died, or did you forget.”

  Tanya walked over to the closet and began gathering up her dirty clothes, including her flight suit. Spreading out her uniform she began removing her rank insignia and other medals placing them on the bedside table.

  Visha joined her, bumping her with her hip playfully. Tanya bumped her back letting her know she wasn’t truly angry.

  Grabbing up their gear they headed to the laundry room, and began to stuff their clothes into one of the commercial sized laundry machines there. Visha was intrigued by the whole process. Tanya patiently explained what all the buttons did, as well as the steps need to be taken next.

  Tanya wasted no time moving to the computer while they waited for their laundry to be finished. She immediately tried logging into a few of her old email accounts and was pleased to see that all except the one he had at the company were still active.

  Next, she tried a few of her financial accounts only to find that they had either been closed or had the account login and password changed.

  After that she began researching everything she could about the immigration process for refugees in Visha’s situation. As well as the laws about getting herself legally recognized as a naturalized citizen.

  Tanya had checked and there were no posted rules about a limit to the number of pages one could print out. So, naturally she began printing dozens of pages on both subjects of her research.

  Looking around the office she found where the extra reams were kept in one of the cupboards. Pulling more paper out she began feeding the printer. When suddenly she heard a strange sound followed by some theme music.

  Turning around she stared open mouthed at the online game ad that was now playing onscreen. Visha’s guilty face looked back at her, caught red handed still holding the mouse.

  “Lieutenant, what are you doing?”

  “I’m sorry, I saw how you operated it earlier, and I thought it couldn’t be that much more difficult than the mana detection equipment we used to use.

  “So, I moved the little thingy you used to move the little arrow around. I was just getting a feel for it. Honest I wasn’t going to do anything but then this picture just popped up and it looked so cute so I clicked on it like I saw you do.

  “And now it’s playing this recording you see over and over. Did, did I screw up your work?”

  Tanya ran her hand over her face again, and moved over to close the pop-up window.

  “No, Visha, you didn’t mess my work up, but you need to be careful when using this machine. If you click on the wrong thing, you can find yourself in some real serious trouble ok. I’ll teach you how to use it when we have a little more breathing room, but for now just watch and learn what you can. I’ll talk you through what I’m doing as I go.”

  As soon as Tanya clicked to close the pop-up window, rapidly three more appeared in its place. With the one front and center being a very graphic image of two people copulating. Thinking fast, Tanya rapidly mashed the Alt-F4 buttons until everything had cleared from the screen, including her research.

  “Wha, what was that?”

  “That, Visha is why we don’t go clicking on random things we see pop up on the computer. Got it.”

  “Yes Ma’am!”

  Jeez, what rotten luck. Tanya thought. As she restored her closed pages and began printing.

  ~

  The two made their way back upstairs, their arms loaded with pages of documents. Each feeling a sense of Deja-Vue about the situation. Tanya couldn’t recall how many times she had walked side by side like this with Visha to deliver combat reports and other paperwork. Although, she guessed they hadn’t been this loaded down since turning in all those leave requests during one of their few downtimes as a kampfgruppe.

  They had left their clothes hanging up to dry in the laundry room, since Tanya couldn’t trust the dryer not to ruin their flight suits and uniforms.

  Entering their room and nodding to their two roommates, Tanya placed her stack of papers on the desk near the window. Visha followed suit before turning to her with a what now look.

  Grabbing the first article in the stack on immigration laws, Tanya kicked off her slippers and flopped onto her bed.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Hand me that pencil, then feel free to hit the hay. I’m going to stay up reading this for a while before I knock off.”

  Visha handed her the pencil and promptly climbed up into her on bed on the upper bunk, surreptitiously sliding her computation jewel under her pillow. After settling in, Visha’s thoughts began running rampantly through her head.

  So many things had happened in the last twenty-four hours. To think it had been less than a full day since coming to this world and already so much had happened. She was safe, bunked with her best friend, and for once it felt like her stomach was full. She had so many questions, her mind felt like it was going to melt.

  A few minutes later.

  “Visha, you’re shaking the bed.”

  Visha just realized that she had been wiggling around anxiously under the covers.

  “Sorry, ma’am, I mean Tanya…”

  Minutes passed.

  “Hey Tanya?”

  “What is it, Visha?”

  “Have you felt the pajamas, Their so comfortable and soft. It’s nice to wear something that’s not that scratchy wool to sleep. It makes me want to wiggle around in them. The blanket too. Don’t you think they’re really comfortable Tanya?”

  “Yes lieutenant, their very soft. Now go to bed.”

  Tanya having lost her concentration, turned off the lamp she had been using and lay down.

  “Tanya?”

  “Visha?”

  “Goodnight, Colonel Degurechaff.”

  “Goodnight, Lieutenant Serebryakov.”

  ~

  The next morning.

  Tanya and Visha had been awake the previous day for nearly a full twenty-four hours. And while that was nothing new for the two war veterans, they still found themselves cherishing the peaceful night’s sleep they had just gotten.

  Tanya was surprised that she woke up to the sound of one of the other girls getting out of bed. She thought for sure either her or Serebryakov would be the first ones up.

  Deciding that despite how warm and comfortable she might feel, and no matter how much she deserved to lay in bed and rest all day. There was work to be done. So, she got up.

  First things first, she had to clear up a misunderstanding from yesterday. Regretting her inability to distribute corporal punishment, she decided to talk to the little idiot about last night.

  Rolling out of bed Tanya started getting dressed in one of the provided shirts and sweatpants. She had to stop herself as she automatically reached out to attach her silver wings assault badge. Shaking her head she thumped the bunk with her fist, where Visha was still softly snoring, waking her.

  Now dressed she turned to the object of her ire. Who sat sleepily brushing her hair on her bed.

  “Miss Hakurei Reimu, a word please.”

  The girl looked up stunned, for a moment and rubbed at her eye with one hand, knocking herself in the forehead with the brush that was still in said hand.

  "Oh, miss Kaizaki," she said, covering her mouth as she yawned. "What can I do for you?

  “Well, it’s about last night. Somehow during our conversation, I must have given you the impression that I was menstruating, or on my period as they say. I just wanted to clear up this misunderstanding. I am not menstruating.”

  “Really? You know it ok if you are, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, we’ll all support you.”

  “Honestly, miss Hakurei, I am not on my period, I’ve never even had a period, so stop!”

  “Ok! Sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just you brought it up the other night plus the way you were acting I guess I just assumed. But I guess that makes sense now that I think about it. Most girls don’t even start having their periods until their at least thirteen, so I guess I just forgot how young you are. You always speak so maturely.”

  “I’m fifteen and will be turning sixteen in July.”

  “What, no way, you’re so small you look barely twelve.”

  The girl slapped her hand over her mouth.

  “Sorry.”

  “I suffered from malnourishment when I was younger.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s fine, forget about it, I’m used to it by now. So, just to be clear, I’m not on my period and you need to stop telling people I am.”

  “Ok, no problem, sorry.”

  At this point Visha had finished dressing and popped up over Tanya shoulder.

  “Hello.” She greeted in Japanese.

  “Tanya, how do you say good morning?”

  Tanya told her.

  “Good morning miss Hakurei.”

  “Morning.”

  The girl responded back. Sitting back and looking back and forth between the two foreign looking girls. An awkward silence filled the air.

  “Morning, what were you guys talking about? You woke me up.” Yamamoto whined, yawning.

  Glancing at Tanya, Reimu shuddered slightly, but after a moment decided to soldier on.

  “Remember when I told you that Kaizaki might be on her period? Well, it turns out I was wrong and she’s not, so she would appreciate it if we stopped talking about it.”

  “Like, she not on her period,” She paused to wink. “Or she’s really not on her period.”

  “I’m not menstruating, so let’s just drop this topic and move on with our day. Does everyone understand?”

  As the other two nodded. Visha took that moment to tap Tanya on the shoulder and asked in English.

  “What’s going on, what are you girls talking about?”

  “Remember the red thing we talked about yesterday? We were talking about that.”

  Tanya had to help the young girl with more than half the words in the sentence, her English was so poor. Wait, why was she helping her, this was not a conversation she wanted anyone else to hear, not even Visha.

  But it was too late.

  Switching to German, Visha shot her with a direct hit.

  “Tanya you’ve finally had your period! Why didn’t you tell me? No girl is supposed to go through their first time alone. Shit. We need to get supplied, I wonder if they have any clean sponges, or gauze available. Oh God, what have you been using.”

  “Visha! Shut up! Stop talking!”

  “I’m not on my period; it was a misunderstanding they got the wrong idea when I was talking to them earlier. Also, we have supplies, it was in the bag we got in each of our suitcases. Didn’t you see them when you went through yours?”

  “What supplies?”

  “Those.”

  Tanya said pointing at the bag of feminine hygiene products in the open case at the foot of her bed.

  Tanya watched with a growing dread as Visha moved over to the bed and grabbed the bag of items, looking through it.

  “What are these?”

  “How should I know? It’s not like I’ve ever used them, I thought you’d know. I was counting on it for when…”

  Tanya snapped her mouth shut with and audible click.

  Then Visha did something Tanya never would have predicted. She dumped the bag out onto the bed spreading out he contents. Before looking up at Tanya who gazed on in horror.

  “I’ve never seen anything like these in my life; we didn’t have them like this where I come from.”

  She said pointedly

  “Ok I’ll look them up later, they gave me pamphlets for all this. Just, put them away.”

  Tanya pleaded her face redder by the minute.

  “Why don’t we just ask them? They should know what all this is, right?”

  “Visha, please no, just let me.”

  Visha cut her off.

  “It would be the most efficient course of action, if we got someone with experience to explain it to us, wouldn’t it?”

  “Fine.”

  Visha would never know this, but Tanya had just silently called her a female dog in multiple languages, in her head.

  “Miss Hakurei Reimu, miss Yamamoto Momo, would you two be willing to come over and explain how these things work to us? I’ve never needed to use them before and Serebryakov grew up where they used different, and uh, older stuff. We would be very grateful.”

  Tanya asked politely bowing low, her neck feeling hotter than ever.

  What followed was one the hardest battles Tanya had ever fought. At some point she had to sacrifice her own shame and embarrassment on the altar of Necessity, that relentless bitch. Between her own questions and acting as a translator for Visha’s, Tanya was now one of Japan’s leading experts on feminine hygiene products.

  If her future as an HR employee doesn’t work out, maybe she’d become a sales rep for the accursed things.

  Most of the explanations were simple enough, but then it came to one of the last products laying on the bed, that had been ignored until now.

  “What’s this one for?”

  Serebryakov asked.

  “Huh, I’m surprised they included some of those in your bag. There weren’t any in mine. What about yours Reimu?”

  “No, there wasn’t any in my bag.”

  “It must have come from mine, because there aren’t any in Serebryakov’s bag either. So, what is it and why only my bag.?”

  “You got your bag from the doctor, right? I saw you walk in with it after your exam; you looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

  Momo giggled. Trying to elbowing Tanya in the side, but actually hitting her upper ribs due to their height difference.

  “That’s a Tampon, my mom says girls that use them are loose women. We don’t use them in our house.”

  “Same here, an old granny in the village say’s her daughter’s cousin died from blood poisoning from using them, their bad for you.”

  “Why are they giving them away at a hospital, is this some sort of kickback from the company?”

  Tanya asked as more of a statement then a real question. Looking through the pamphlets she was given she found the one on tampons. And began reading sharing some parts with the rest of the group.

  “Apparently, they are very common in western countries and are used regularly by women and girls in those countries. Japan has a bunch of stigmatisms against them that’s why we don’t see them used much here. But their supposed to be perfectly safe if used correctly.

  “Sounds to me like some of those tampon companies want to break into a new market here in Japan, and are trying to start by breaking down those social barriers. Probably by donating large amounts to hospitals to give away, in hopes of building a growing customer base.”

  “You know, you talk about some really weird stuff sometimes miss Kaizaki. How did we get from period cramps to corporate marketing.”

  Tanya’s face went from bright with excitement to flushed with embarrassment is the span of a single sentence from a little brat who knew nothing of the beauty of the free market.

  At seeing her face, the group burst out in fits of laughter and giggles. Including Visha, the traitorous little zicke. (It’s German, look it up, it’s funny.)

  With a huff, that only made the girls giggle louder, Tanya gathered up the products scattered over her bed, and put them away. Turning back to the other two girls, she bowed low and thanked them again.

  “Miss Hakurei Reimu, miss Yamamoto Momo, Thank you again, for all your help. If there ever is anything we can do to repay you please don’t hesitate to ask.”

  “Now none of that. We’re roommates, and after talking about all that I think we’ve gotten close enough that we can drop the formalities. Please just call me Momo, or if you want, some of my friends call me YamaMomo.”

  “Me as well, feel free to call me Reimu, let’s all be friends”

  Speaking to Visha, quickly explaining everything, Tanya turned back with their answer.

  “I Suppose at the very least it will make it easier for you to talk to Visha if you don’t have to try and pronounce Serebryakov every time. Please call me Tanya. Visha and I would be happy to consider you two friends.”

  “Yes, please call me Visha, friends.”

  Said Visha in English.

  Tanya had expected this outcome at some point. They were all very young after all and referring to each other so formally wasn’t in the nature of the young. What she wasn’t prepared for was the squeals of joy, and the rushed group hug that she couldn’t be sure wasn’t started by Serebryakov, that perra.

  Trapped in a tangle of arms and hair Tanya lamented to herself.

  Why am I so unlucky today?