: Life and adventures of a simple Soviet girl: family, school, first love, a passion for chemistry, sharing things with friends, writing poetry, thinking about the future and even helping to investigate the murder.

The novel takes place in Kiev. The narration is conducted on behalf of the sixth grader Olya Alekseeva. The division into chapters and their names do not correspond to the original.

Bad birthday

The sixth grader Olya Alekseeva lived in a one-room apartment with her mother and stepfather, whom she called dad.

Olya’s thirteenth birthday failed. In the evening, while drinking tea, the stepfather began to show the guests the photographs taken by the camera donated to Olya, and then he wanted to photograph everyone. The girl admitted that she sold it.

When the guests dispersed, the stepfather asked why Olya had sold the camera and where the money was. The girl did not admit, and for the first time in her life, her stepfather hit her in the face.

All people, when angry, become alike.

Falling asleep in her corner behind the cupboards, Olya listened to the conversation of her parents: her stepfather was ashamed, and her mother believed that he spoiled the girl, because she was not his own, and her daughter completely lost control.

Money for Olya and her friends was very necessary. The guys tried to get the right amount in different ways, but they all ended in failure. And then Olga decided to sell the camera, but some dirty old man in a raincoat intercepted the girl from the commission and took him away.

Poultry Dream

In the morning, stepfather asked Olya for forgiveness. The girl was proud of her stepfather, a talented journalist, and loved him even more than her mother.

Olya almost did not remember her father. Mom told her that he was a military pilot and died in a plane crash, but the girl knew that her father did not die, but went to another woman.

Olya and her friends had a cherished dream, for the implementation of which they spent all their pocket money.

Each person has some kind of item that he dreams about and for the purchase of which he does not spare money.

Father Olya’s friend Viti, a professor of chemistry, told the children about catalysts - substances that accelerate chemical reactions.

In his laboratory, the professor created a polymer muscle, which contracted under the influence of alkali and acid, and now he wanted to find a catalyst to enhance this reaction. Friends decided to find such a catalyst themselves and build a poultry - a machine with wings on polymer muscles. Poultry has become their secret.

Encounter with Hooligans

Once Olya’s friend Seryozha, who was always in trouble, was beaten by local eighth-graders.

The next day, Vitya, who was engaged in fencing, beat the hooligans with a thin cane, which he prudently took with him.

Once, Olya decided that she would never kiss the boys, but when she returned home with the winner Vitya, she felt hostility to Lena Kostina, whom the boy had often talked with lately.

Lena was an excellent pupil, a beautiful girl, but she was not keen on chemistry, and Olya did not understand what Vitya was talking to her about.

Meet a father and a new friend

Once, when the stepfather stayed with the newspaper for the night to find errors in the new issue, a guest came to Olya’s mother, who turned out to be the girl’s father. From an overheard conversation, Olya realized that her mother herself had abandoned her father.Now his father is married, lives in Novosibirsk, he has two twin sons. Olya felt bitter at the thought that she had been deceived all her life.

Children are deceived for their own good. So that when they grow up and become adults, they well know that it is impossible to deceive.

Father met Olya on the way to school. He gave the girl his address in case of any "terrible events", and she really did not like it.

On that day, a two-year-old and a second-year student, Kolya Galega, sat at their desk. His father was a policeman, and his mother weaved string bags from kapron.

The next day, Kolya and Olya received twos by composition. The classroom sent Kolya to the last desk, allowing him to return when he receives four fours. Olya wanted Kolya to return, and undertook to pull him up for school, although she herself was not an excellent student.

Lena began to be threatened by hooligans, whom Vitya had recently hacked, and the boy asked to be accepted into their company - they all lived in the same house and could return from school together. Hooligans attacked them anyway, but the guys managed to fight back.

Meet the writer

Taking a walk in the courtyard, Olya met a famous writer. The girl read her poems, which he really liked.

It soon became clear that Kolya was afraid to answer at the blackboard. Lena, who was also once afraid of this, advised her to learn lessons by heart, like poems.

Olya demanded that Kolya also be accepted into their company, and the guys agreed - Kolya was strong and could help in the fight against hooligans. Only Vitya was against, who considered Kolya incorrigibly stupid.

Lenin's way of learning lessons helped. Kolya had a photographic memory, he memorized the page completely, and Olya found a way to tell him in the lessons - she simply called the page number and line with the correct answer.

Recently, Kolya looked at Olya sadly, delightedly and devotedly, this made the girl want to pat him on the head.

Frank conversation with stepfather and quarrel with a friend

Olya asked her stepfather why mom broke up with her real father. The stepfather explained that she and her mother can only be happy next to each other, so she left her husband.

You can be a happy person in the blackest state and unhappy with the most just system. A lot depends on who is next to you.

Kolya stopped being afraid and began to get good grades. The classroom praised Olya for her “pedagogical abilities,” and the girl got used to the fact that Kolya became an excellent student only thanks to her. The boy did not like it, they quarreled and stopped talking.

Unexpected fame and dismissal of a stepfather

In the "Literary Newspaper" appeared an article by the writer with Olin poems. Until now, Olya has not even been printed in the school wall newspaper, and suddenly she became famous. Mom was proud of her daughter, and her stepfather was afraid that early success would turn Olga's head. The girl secretly considered herself an imposter, because she met the writer by chance. Olya shared her doubts with him.

Kolya believed that Olya became narcissistic, and he was ashamed of her.

The stepfather wrote a feuilleton about the chief of the head office, who was turning scams for the sake of his "little happiness." The boss turned out to be an influential person, a refutation from the ministry came to the feuilleton, and the stepfather was offered to quit at his own request.

Murder

Kolya skipped classes, and Olya was worried, although they had not yet made peace. It turned out that his father was dead.

Doctors established that Bogdan Osipovich “got under the tram drunk” and found cigarettes in his pocket, but the victim did not smoke or drink. Kolya believed that he was killed, and decided to find out why his father was on a tramway not in his area.

The car driver said that he found Bogdan Osipovich on a tram rails with a broken head. Through a blizzard, he saw three escaping figures.Apparently, Bogdan Osipovich was first killed, and then thrown under a tram, and the investigator knew about it.

Investigation

The boss was dismissed, the stepfather was restored to work, and parents bought a TV to watch the program in which Olga reads poetry. But all this was not pleasing to the girl. He and Kolya found out that his front-line friend was connected with the murder of Bogdan Osipovich.

The writer answered Olya that a creative person always doubts his abilities and was glad that her "healthy body was able to digest success."

Sudden success, like sudden failure, always leaves its scar on the character of a person. And sometimes it’s even more difficult for people to cope with success than with failure.

Kolya found his father’s notebook, where the word “Titan” was written and circled on a separate page. That was the name of the workshop, located in the area where Bogdan Osipovich died.

Olya told friends about everything, the guys began to take turns following the workshop and found out that a certain Sokolov was working there, with whom Bogdan Osipovich served in intelligence.

This amateur investigation was interrupted by an investigator who also monitored the workshop. He passed off the murder of Bogdan Osipovich as an accident in order to lull the vigilance of criminals and arrest the whole gang.

Sokolov, who did not serve in intelligence, but only lay with Bogdan Osipovich in the hospital, was the head of the workshop, where they sewed leather handbags and belts, but did not give them to the state, but sold to the side. They bought gold for money, which Sokolov hid at home in a battery.

When Bogdan Osipovich realized that Sokolov was stealing from the state, he invited him to join the gang. The policeman refused, and he was killed after first pouring alcohol into his mouth.

Olya did not understand how a piece of yellow metal could be more expensive than human life, and very regretted that she did not know Bogdan Osipovich well and "did not do anything pleasant for him."

The girl’s life returned to its rut, the guys again began to conduct chemical experiments and dream of poultry. But now friends understood what they should be, and they will always be like that.