The novella portrays several episodes from the lives of school friends. They serve as turning points after each of which something changes. The emotional component—so important at that age—leads different people to different outcomes. Common to them are their fates: fun at the beginning, sad at the end, without a future, as with everyone in modern Russia. © Victor Ulin, 2007 — photograph; © Victor Ulin, 2021 — cover design. Contains profanity.