Twilah Drummond grew up on the wrong side of the street, well actual she grew up on a dead end street, which was very reflective of her life over all.  It was known that Twilah had been shop lifting her whole life.  She began, as the legend goes, stealing candy at the 7-11 near her home.  Sugar Babies and Razzle gum were her candies of choice.  When she hit her teen years, things got more serious.  She frequented the local shopping mall and made a habit out of stealing from Claire's.  She was finally caught when she got her ears pierced there and then when it was time to pay she bolted out of the store.  Mall security caught her along with the alcohol cotton swab still in her hand.  She was banished from the mall and had to find other shops to steal from.  She became so well known that most shop owners recognized her and made it difficult to steal stuff.  Now of legal age, she began shop lifting at the only stores who didn't know her....arts and crafts.  Her last arrest was for stealing a large pink silk flower arrangement at Michael's, she was put in a half way house to do her time.  She currently lives there and works at the donut shop next store.  The cops frequent this shop and all know her well.  They call her "sticky fingers", but now it refers to the donuts.

 

Andrea Blunge was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1982 to Mitch and Kathryn Blunge. Mitch was the former star quarterback at Latrobe High and Kathryn had been Homecoming Queen. Both had been voted “Best Couple of the Class of  ’77” in the senior yearbook. Over the years Mitch had worked his way up to be head of sales at Latrobe Honda, and Kit (as she liked to be called) was on the board of the Junior League and active in local theater. Both expected their daughter Andrea to follow in their footsteps, and never ceased to remind her of how popular they had been in high school. No one at Latrobe High would let her forget, either, and soon Andrea had withdrawn into a private world where her parents were dead and she had been adopted by a European couple who summered in Greece and took her on ski trips to the Alps for Christmas.

 

Her best friend Trina Scalucci got to go to Naples, Italy, every summer to visit her grandmother and her stories convinced Andrea that life would be better abroad. Their interest in foreign cultures led the girls to found PennPals for Peace, a campus club that would adopt a school abroad and exchange letters and emails.

 

Through the local Kiwanis club, Andrea and Trina were able to adopt Vocational Institute #215 in Minsk, Belarus. Andrea’s pen pal was Alexei Magadanavogavich, who was majoring in Industrial Insulation at #215.

 

In Alexei’s correspondence, Andrea found everything she wanted. He was foreign and exotic, sophisticated and charming. Or so she supposed since his puzzling English and blurry Polaroids did not really give her a clear mental picture.

 

Andrea and Alexei continued to correspond all through high school. Trina got pregnant in her junior year, dropped out, and was soon forgotten.

 

After graduation, still keeping in touch with Alexei, Andrea moved to Binghamton, NY, where she got a job in a call center. She was working double shifts, because Alexei wanted to come to America, but had no money. Andrea saved every dime until she had enough money to buy a plane ticket from Minsk. She told Alexei he could live with her.

 

Alexei finally arrived in January. When Andrea met him at the airport she barely recognized him. He was a bit heavier than she had thought. And a bit less sophisticated. And a bit less exotic. And a bit less charming. He hugged her so tightly that she thought she would faint from the vodka-and-sausage scented cloud that hung about him. But he did state loudly and frequently that it was “goodness to America to be at long last coming!” so she supposed it would work out all right.

 

That night Alexei passed out on Andrea’s couch after he drank the bottle of vodka that he had brought with him.

 

Now it is June, six months later, and Alexei is passed out on Andrea’s couch after he drank the bottle of vodka he bought with the money he stole from Andrea’s purse.

 

Andrea has withdrawn into a private world where Alexei is dead and she is the homecoming queen who married the star quarterback.