"Make a Love" by Asya Lavrinovich, summary Automatic translate

This romantic story about a high school student describes first love, family difficulties, and the discovery of true love. Created in 2021, the story centers on a reassessment of youthful ideals, when an unattainable crush on an authority figure gives way to a real bond with a peer. The girl journeys from infantile fantasies to conscious decisions. The book focuses on the heroine’s psychological maturation through overcoming conflicts. The text is replete with internal monologues and patterns of school interactions, or, more simply, typical teenage squabbles.

A TV series of the same name was based on the book and was released in 2023. The film adaptation accurately depicts the school life and emotional struggles of young people.

School days and first crush

Eleventh-grade student Natasha Zueva is secretly in love with the young geography teacher, Anton Vladimirovich Zolotukhin. She meticulously plans her outfits and constantly tries to attract his attention. The geographer suggests organizing a New Year’s class trip to a ski resort in Vasilyevo. Natasha, as class monitor, takes it upon herself to compile the list of participants. She is always surrounded by her loyal friends: the sarcastic Yana Kazantseva and the sociable twin sisters Snezhana and Milana. The girls gather after school at a fast-food restaurant and share secrets. Natasha discusses her feelings for the teacher only with them.

At the same time, a family plot unfolds. Natasha’s older sister, Alina, a student, is preparing for her wedding to Edik Kravets. The younger sister is deeply repulsed by him. Edik constantly looks at the schoolgirl inappropriately, seeks out excuses for physical contact, and makes suggestive comments. Her parents and Alina dote on their future son-in-law. Natasha is afraid to tell her family about her suspicions. She is forced to avoid unpleasant encounters with Kravets in her own apartment.

Timur Makeyev, an unsociable student, is in his class. He wears a silver ring, regularly skips geography class, and is rude to Zolotukhina. One day, Edik waits for Natasha at the school entrance and insistently offers her a ride home. To avoid the ride, Natasha notices Makeyev leaving and loudly announces to Edik that she has a date. Her classmate suddenly plays along. They take a long walk along the embankment in the snow. Natasha notices that Timur’s stern facade conceals a very interesting conversationalist.

Conflicts and new discoveries

Soon, a serious conflict erupts in the classroom. School bully Stas Kalistratov habitually bullies the quiet Masha Sabirzyanova. Stas empties her backpack. Timur harshly defends his classmate and nearly pushes Kalistratov out of a second-story window. Anton Vladimirovich breaks up the fight, but Natasha bravely defends Makeyev in public. The teacher uncovers the truth and supports Timur, despite Stas’s grandmother’s status as the principal. Kalistratov harbors a bitter grudge against Zuyeva for her testimony.

Natasha decides to invite Timur to the dacha for Alina’s birthday, hoping to finally get rid of the annoying Edik. Makeyev arrives by train and gives the birthday girl ballet tickets. The young man makes a wonderful impression on her parents. The young people pretend to have been dating for a long time. That evening, they have a long conversation by the fireplace. Timur embraces Natasha, and Natasha kisses him. Their solitude is interrupted by Kravets, who comes downstairs. Natasha begins to doubt her long-standing attachment to the geographer.

After the weekend, Natasha finds the geographer’s lost report and decides to take it to his home. She heads there, but Timur opens the door. It turns out the teacher and Makeyev are half-brothers. Brothers who don’t understand each other at all. Timur is the child of his mother’s brief affair. His stepfather accepted him, but the relationship remained frosty. His older brother, Anton, has always been hostile to the younger brother’s arrival. Natasha stays with Makeyev, they play video games together, and in the evenings, he walks her to the metro.

Shattered illusions and quarrels

The older sister’s cozy world crumbles. The students show Alina a video recording confirming Edik’s repeated infidelities. The wedding is immediately called off. Natasha goes to her sister’s institute and accidentally encounters the cheerful Kravets there. The man behaves extremely brazenly, threatening the schoolgirl and forcibly kissing her in a dark archway. Natasha bites him painfully and slaps him. Classmate Yana Kazantseva scares Kravets by loudly calling the police and takes her crying friend away.

A difficult conversation takes place at home. Alina, stressed by Edik’s false excuses, accuses her younger sister of provoking the kiss. The girls exchange harsh reproaches. Harsh reproaches that hurt the most. Natasha runs out into the street in tears, wanders through the cold rain, and sees Anton Vladimirovich with another woman. Utterly upset, she bumps into Timur. Makeyev takes the drenched Natasha home. He listens to her story about the family quarrel and takes her to the cinema. There, they kiss in the back row, and Natasha accidentally spots Yana with her secret beau.

Problems are also arising among friends. Yana admits she ran away from home because of a conflict with her stepfather, who read her private messages with a guy from the music school. Her friend is hiding with some acquaintances. Meanwhile, Masha Sabirzyanova openly tells Natasha that she’s loved Timur for a long time, but knows about his feelings for Zueva. Masha advises her to stop leading him on and make a final choice.

Stolen Poems

Natasha had previously written a poem about her budding feelings for Timur. Fearing her frankness, she added the geography teacher’s initials to the end. A vengeful Stas Kalistratov steals the notebook from her bag and leaves copies of the poem on desks before class. Natasha is publicly ridiculed by her classmates. Timur, seeing the printed poem, decides Natasha still loves her older brother and abruptly distances himself.

In the school hallway, Stas openly mocks Zueva. Timur overhears the insults and brutally beats Kalistratov. The enraged principal threatens to expel Makeyev immediately. That evening, Stas and two of his friends chase Natasha through the dark streets all the way to Timur’s house. The schoolgirl manages to hide in a strange building. Anton Vladimirovich emerges onto the landing, assesses the situation, and goes downstairs. The teacher frightens the young bullies with fake witnesses and calls the police, forcing them to flee. The teacher calls a taxi for the student.

New Year’s trip

The sisters make up after a false fire alarm in the entryway. They decorate the Christmas tree together, watch movies, and then go to see the Nutcracker ballet. The day of departure for Vasilyevo arrives. At the noisy train station, Natasha sees the geography teacher with his real girlfriend, Alla. Yana arrives on the platform with her boyfriend, Dima, having received her parents’ approval. Timur also appears with a heavy backpack. She approaches her classmate and bluntly declares, "I only need you, Makeyev." They board the commuter train together, but soon find themselves in an empty car due to the drunken company.

Waking up before her scheduled stop, Natasha discovers her belongings are missing. Timur finds the thugs in the next car, and a violent brawl ensues. Natasha hits the leader with a heavy backpack. Transport police arrive and detain Timur and the thieves for an investigation. The stolen items are returned, but the young men miss their stop. The train continues on. The teenagers get off at the next deserted stop and set off on foot along the tracks. They walk several kilometers through a snowy forest.

While trudging through snowdrifts, a young man and woman stumble upon empty summer cottages. Makeyev regales his companion with eerie local legends about pagans. They feed scraps of food to a huge, vicious dog over a high fence. The dog digs a hole, and the teenagers flee, falling into deep snow in the middle of a field. There, they share a long kiss to the sound of distant New Year’s fireworks.

Having reached the desired village well after midnight, they meet their very excited friends. Anton Vladimirovich, who had been searching for the missing boys in the forest, hugs his younger brother tightly. In the morning, Timur and Natasha sit on the porch of a wooden house, covered with a blanket. Timur treats Natasha to candy and confesses his feelings for her. They greet the frosty dawn together. Natasha realizes that her New Year’s wish has finally come true.