Dania Kashin

Late 2000s. Ruslan and Dania are best friends. Both attend high school at a regular school in a small town. The teachers call them hooligans, although they never do anything serious. The most they do is skip the last class, climb onto the roof of the garage, or drag into class an old cassette player that Ruslan managed to fix up using parts found at a flea market. After school, they rarely go straight home. First, they might stop by the computer club, then buy a soda at a small store near their house, sit on a bench, discussing music, new VKontakte messages, and summer plans. Sometimes they stop by Ruslan's place—he has a whole collection of cassettes, CDs, and old electronics. Half of it doesn't work, and he's already taken the other half apart and put it back together. In the evening, life is just beginning. There's a disco at the Community Center tonight. Someone brought speakers, someone burned a new CD, someone is hoping to finally ask the girl from the next class to slow dance. Danya pretends not to care, and Ruslan is already figuring out how to sneak his flash drive with music inside. No one knows how this evening will end. Maybe they'll just sit on the swings until dark, listening to music through the same pair of headphones. Or maybe they'll get into some other awkward situation.