On the second night at the Brick, Johann found himself amongst a crowd of dancing teens and nearly bumped into one boy who said to him: "I couldn't help noticing your Russian, so tell me, you've ever seen those ballets?" Johann felt like the boy thought he was actually from Russia when he was not, so he replied: "Could you excuse me?" and walked away with a fake smile, using a flashlight to contact Keith, Dunya and Alex on the other side via Morse code as he watched Natalie and Rafael's dance moves and later eavesdropped on their conversations.
On the other side, in the back of Keith's Chevy C-10, he and Alexei were watching Natalie, Rafael and Johann through binoculars while Dunya was reading the newly-published romance novel Twilight by Stephanie Meyer to help pass the time, for she knew that she wasn't going to get her turn at looking through the opera glasses (besides she left her 8-track player at home).
"First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how potent that part might be" she read, "— that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." Dunya put the book down and said distastefully, "Charming, Zac Efron should do it as a musical." She had recently seen High School Musical on cable and wasn't too amazed with the young man's performance. As soon as Keith and Alex had spotted Natalie and Rafael kissing, they had to leave. Forcing Johann to walk all the way back.
On the very night Keith and Natalie went out, Johann, Dunya and Alex tagged along in the back wagon with a tarpaulin prepared for 4:00 AM to avoid recognition from Natalie's peers. Between fixing the truck and helping Natalie keep up with the lab reports (and preventing her from telling the truth about Keith), there wasn't time for the cousins to do anything else.
"Put a bowling ball on your chemistry teacher's front porch and his name is Walt." Keith said later on as the cousins hid in the shadows, watching the two putting bowling balls on front porches. Like hidden criminals they were unlike, they decided to give Keith and Natalie some alone time. When a patrol car came by, unfortunately, Johann, Dunya and Alexei were already ducked down just as Natalie and Keith were in the front seat. Johann quivered with his hands in locked fingers, "They come and leave, they come and leave, they come and leave..." "Слушайте его повторять. (Listen to him chant.)" Alex whispered to Dunya in Russian. "Он получит черные руки, если он продолжает это делать. (He'll get black hands if he keeps doing that.)"
Johann squirmed uncomfortably in the rear wagon even more when Keith and Natalie went into the restaurant by themselves, but he was completely satisfied (and a little bit surprised) during the next night-out when his Uncle Al's red Toyota stopped next to the truck and out came none other than Billy. "Hi, Billy." Dunya waved to her odd and younger cutie. Johann, however, was stunned and gave his younger cousin a small smile. "Let's go." Billy said, while banging on the roof of the truck, Alex shot him a death glare: "Получите, прежде чем я сократить свое сердце и кормить его на съедение волкам! (Get off before I cut your heart out and feed it to the wolves!)" he shouted. Billy was puzzled, even though he knew the foreign language was to keep his own diagnosis a secret as well, said to Dunya. "What did he say?" "Don't listen to him he doesn't know what he's saying."
Later, on Keith's side of the Brick, Johann, Dunya and Alexei said to the two lovebirds to be: "We'll going to look at the… nature side of the place, and don't worry about us, we'll be walking that way home."
Further into the woods, the three Russian-Americans laid down to rest, Dunya had carried with her an Evian bottle and drank a swig of it while Alex and Johann studied a lizard. "Oh look," he said unenthusiastically, "They've laid out an Iguana for us." Alexei looked at his watch. "I think we'd better go before Keith and his dad notice we're not home." At the precise moment Keith's truck started to move toward the cliff, Dunya thought she could have sworn to hear Natalie shouting his name. "Couldn't be."
At Keith's house, Johann found the teen rummaging through his room. "Where are the pills?!" Keith shrieked. "I thought I had them sitting by the table by the window." Johann muttered, he turned to Dunya. "When I got to the door, Keith's jacket was gone." "Don't blame me." Keith stiffened. "But it looked so cute and roughly wet, why do people steal things?" Dunya protested in angst. To make sure of her correction, Johann looked at the coat rack by the door and replied: "That's a darn good question, Dunya." But it wasn't until later when he found out that Natalie had them the next day…
Just to let you know, today (December 15) is my birthday, I chose to update the story on this date.