“Very early, in my youth, meticulously examining my first small pimples in the mirror, displeasedly touching my nose, pulling up my eyelids and raising my eyebrows, Adusya realized: she was not good. She made this diagnosis confidently, without doubt and without giving herself, as usual, any concessions. A dry statement of fact. There was, however, still a faint hope that the violent and sudden puberty would nevertheless carefully and mercifully recede, but by the age of seventeen it had passed. By the age of seventeen, if it is meant to be, the girl is definitely blossoming. It didn’t work out. Now all that was left was to either come to terms with it and live with it forever, or try to change something. Adusya chose the second...."