Chapter 1
Natasha groaned and lazily straightened up in her seat, she and Melina had been in that cage on wheels for more than seven hours. She hated long car rides, without further ado she turned the radio up a notch and opened another bag of chips.
Normally she doesn't eat a lot of junk food, she needs to watch her diet and routine to keep her times, to stay ahead. At the head of what? She was no longer very sure, with the move she had been left without a team, without a captaincy and without a coach.
But she couldn't complain, Natasha knew that her mom had been looking for that transfer for years, she had been looking for it for nine years to be precise. As soon as the pharmaceutical company opened a new lab outside of New York and Melina got the green light to move, they both packed up and left Ohio.
The new job as head of scientists would allow them to have an upgrade in their lifestyle, it came with a house and a car, it paid off the old mortgage and moving expenses. The only problem was that Melina was going to work more hours, which in the end comes in handy since Natasha would be leaving home to go to college in two years.
"Hey, everything okay up there?" Melina said as she turned down the volume on the radio and tapped her fingertips against Natasha's forehead. "You've been quiet for the last thirty minutes, you even stopped complaining."
“Yeah, all good, just tired” the teenager said as she leaned against the door and looked directly at her mother. The brunette sighed and looked ahead once more, at the empty road.
"I know that all this has been sudden, and that you have had to leave many things behind but it is for our good" Melina glanced at the redhead, but the teenager continued to avoid her eyes "You are a very good swimmer Natasha and a good person, you will see that you can start again in this place, you will make new friends. You will be fine my brave little one”
Natasha smiled at her mother. A big part of her had also wanted to leave Ohio behind for all these years, but another part of her knew that even if she moved to the other side of the world her guilt would accompany her wherever she went. A new beginning, unlikely, but she longed for it.
"Are you hungry?" said the woman when she saw a dinner on the side of the road, it looked promising “Since you're breaking the diet, how about we stop to celebrate before we get there? Yes?"
Melina tried to cheer her up by tickling her eldest daughter's knees, Natasha tried to contain her laughter but couldn't. They both laughed a bit as they parked the car in the small parking lot. They both thought that they left part of their stormy past behind, but they did not know that they were about to collide with it. And none of those involved was ready for that moment.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Again” yelled the coach, Yelena tried to catch her breath, she had fallen badly with her sister's last hold and the blow against the ground had taken all the air out of her “Stand up Yelena!!! If you can't even get Antonia off your back I don't see how you can earn a place in the state tournament in two weeks!!!”
The blonde was trying to stand up but Antonia had her pressed hard against the ground. Her arms were shaking from the effort and exhaustion of having been practicing with her sister all afternoon, it didn't help that her older sister was at least 12 inches taller than her either. Yelena was thinking of a way to get rid of the key when she felt a sharp blow to her left leg.
"Move Yelena, don't make me repeat myself" the small blonde felt Antonia's arms waver around her neck, but they both knew that if she let her go or let her go easy it would only make things worse for both of them. Another blow hit her in the same place as the last, this time harder.
Yelena tried various moves, but she couldn't get out of this without hurting Antonia, it was one or the other. At the same time as another blow landed squarely on the side of her foot, the girl spun around and hit her sister hard on the chin, forcing her to let go.
“Okay, stop right there.” The man who was incredibly tall and stocky lifted both girls up with a mighty yank. In addition to being the coach, Anton Dreykov was the father of both girls, which explained why they were training so late at night in the school gym. "Okay, next fight, for dinner, understood?"
They both nodded, and got into a fighting stance. Yelena hated the weekends, the training was long and the number of homework increased enormously, she often began to make mistakes that caused her father to be upset with her, she had to be better so that he would be proud of her.
The fight was very close at first, Yelena's agility and dexterity easily offsetting Antonia's experience and strength. But both began to wear out soon, they had been training for hours, they had several bruises all over their bodies, and part of Yelena's leg and foot were swollen.
"Move! in real life and in the area there are no friends, no allies, no family” shouted the man looking to ignite the flames of rivalry between both sisters, he knew that anger was a good motivator for combat “Without hesitation, mercilessly, we Dreykovs fight to the last resort!”
After ten minutes, a couple of new bruises and several screams from their father the three of them headed home. Yelena wouldn't be having dinner tonight, but with Anton, neither of them had won.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So, everything ready for tomorrow?" Melina asked when the show went into commercials.
It had taken them all weekend to finish settling in, buy groceries, and a couple of things for Natasha. Most of the things had been installed in advance with the help of the pharmaceutical company, the house came furnished and Melina had made sure that everything was ready before the final trip, since they were going to move in the middle of the fall semester she wanted to facilitate things as much as possible to her daughter.
"Ready" said the redhead as she reread the emails that the school had sent her two days before "Apparently I'm going to have a test after school with the sports coordinator to see if they let me join the swim team, what a bummer, can you pass the sauce?”
Melina passed her the bottle, years ago she had given in to Natasha's obsession with clogging everything up with gallons of hot sauce. That night they had ordered Chinese food and were doing a movie marathon, they were both a little nervous about the next day, but neither was going to admit it.
"Okay, then you'll only be alone for a couple of hours, I'll try to get home as soon as possible and don't worry about dinner, I've already prepared something in case it's late" Melina wanted everything to go well, it had been hard for Natasha.
Since they lost Milena, her youngest daughter, the woman had lost all confidence in the world, and most importantly, in herself. The only thing left for her now were regrets and trying to do her best to take care of her remaining daughter. Natasha felt the sudden change in her mother's mood, the teenager sighed and snuggled close to her mother, she hated physical contact, but for Melina she would always make an exception.
"Don't worry mom, tomorrow everything will be fine" Melina wrapped her daughter in her arms and they turned their attention to the TV.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Around two in the morning, Antonia was trying to finish preparing the flashcards for the debate club, in addition to finishing revision for her physics exam. On the other side of the table her sister was dozing over her history book. Now that she remembered the little girl also had an exam the next day.
The house was plunged into an abysmal silence, several hours ago that their father had gone to sleep, but both still had homework to finish if they wanted to keep their A's, the only grade that Anton allowed them, as the director's daughters had to set the example . With a heavy sigh she gently kicked her sister under the table, Yelena woke up with a start and when she saw that everything was fine she continued reading.
The minutes kept running, after half an hour she noticed again that Yelena had fallen asleep. She calmly put both of their things in their respective backpacks, turned off the lamps that were on the table that Anton made them use so as not to disturb the neighbors and not raise the electricity bill, and carefully carried Yelena to her bed, they still had a few hours to rest, tomorrow would be a heavy day for both of them.