No Thank you, I Already Have A Penguin
an excerpt

"It's just for a few weeks Shar. Promise me you can be a good girl and work on the Estate for a few weeks."
The sound of the rain hitting the glass roof adorning Shar's window seat could not mask the strain in her mother's voice. She'd been like that ever since the invasion. Shar still didn't know why mama had chosen to stay in her homeland, despite the recent takeover. She didn't know why her mother refused to give her up to family living outside New Russia either. All she knew was that the nephew of Ohio's new Governor was living in their old estate, and now her mother wanted to take work at it.
She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered as a particularly hard gust of wind shook the house. "What will we do after a few weeks mama? Go find another estate to work at so we don't have to look at the stables that used to be ours? I don't want to go. I want to apply for late-withdrawal and go back to America. I don't like it here anymore."
Mama sat down on the ledge of Shar's window seat and put a hand out. Shar folded her arms tighter and pulled her feet away so mama couldn't touch. The betrayal of their country hurt bad enough already. Holding her hand was not enough to make up for that much pain.
She regretted it immediately when she saw the hurt in her mothers face. "Why me mama? There are a lot of better people who can work on the Estate. I don't want to go."
"You'll be safe there. You'll get paid as well as food and board better than you've been getting here with me. Take the job Shar, and when you've worked enough you'll be able to get out of here. It's the right thing to do."
"But why didn't they want you?" she cried. It was too much to understand.
"I'm an old woman now. They want healthy people with strong backs to keep up the Estate. I'll be fine here, at least for one winter. I dare say they'll have enough of your American attitude and fire you before your term is out."
She glanced out the window as a car rolled by, the elegant black finish marred only by the flag that marked it as a Russian citizen. "Now promise me you'll do your best."
Shar wiped at a tear on her mother's cheek, and rolled off the seat and onto her feet. "I'll try mama, but promise we'll leave if it doesn't work out."
Mama looked down at the ring on her finger that still bore the family crest from ages past when we lived in a country more different than this. "Alright. It's a deal. Now go and pack. I will phone them and let them know of your choice."