13 and Counting

by Lisa Greenwald

  “This is Meg,” I introduce her. “She’s our fave.”

  “Of course we know Meg!” Cami’s mom smiles.

  I get a little pang of jealousy—that other people are as close to Meg as I am.

  We order our sushi, hopefully enough for all of us, but with sushi it never seems like enough. And then the moms go back to discussing whatever mom stuff they have to talk about and Cami goes on and on about the resort. I don’t mind it, though. It sounds so fabulous and perfect and I’m just so excited that I get to go.

  There’s a break in the conversation and then Cami’s mom clears her throat and says, “So should we talk about the trip?”

  I’m embarrassed that I can’t remember Cami’s mom’s name and I think it’s too awkward to ask now. I make a mental note that I’ll have to ask my mom after dinner.

  Cami nods, all-enthusiastic.

  Her mom smiles. “I want to answer any questions you may have and, you know, just discuss it. We’re very excited that you’re coming, Kaylan.”

  I smile. “Oh, I am so excited, too. I was just asking Cami how many years you’ve been going. And do you always go February break?”

  “Oh, we’ve been going forever, since Cam was a baby,” her mom explains. “We love it, and the people at the resort really roll out the red carpet for us, if you know what I mean. It’s just heaven on earth, basically. We can’t wait to share it with you.”

  I look over at my mom, suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt that I’m going on this fancy trip and she’s not. I don’t know if she feels bad about it. And I’m not really sure why I do, either. It’s not like I begged to go. They asked me. That was it.

  “Sounds like a dream,” I say.

  Our sushi boat comes a minute later and I’m grateful for the break in this discussion. I could listen to them go on and on about this fancy resort forever but I don’t want my mom to start to feel bad that we never went on these kinds of vacations, even when my dad was around.

  “This looks amazing!” Cami says. “There’s a fab sushi place at the resort, too. But Hibino is probably better, I think.” She looks at her mom for confirmation.

  “Yeah, Hibino is the best sushi I’ve ever had,” her mom replies.

  After that the conversation turns to other things—how Cami’s grandma joined a tap-dancing group and they’re trying to arrange a cross-country tour. We all crack up at that one. We discuss the Harvey Deli, of course, because the owners live across the street from Cami’s family and they’re basically Brookside celebrities. And then Cami’s struggles in math and if the school chorus is going to sing the national anthem at a baseball game again this summer.

  It feels like it’s only been a few minutes, but when I look down at my phone to check the time, I see that close to two hours have passed.

  With Cami and her mom, the conversation just flows so easily. I’m not sure if it’s because they talk a ton or if it’s because they’re easy to talk to. Maybe it’s both.

  I wonder if by the end of the trip I’ll be an honorary member of Cami’s family, like I’m an honorary Nodberg granddaughter.

  A speck of guilt appears on my brain when I realize how much I enjoy other people’s families. Maybe deep down there’s a part of me that wishes I enjoyed my own a little bit more.

  18

  ARI

  “SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING to do?” Alice asks me over the phone after I tell her about my change in feelings. “I know you haven’t seen Golfy since your bat mitzvah. And you kind of won’t see him for a while, probably. Right?”

  “Yeah, that’s the thing. He just seems so far away.” I sigh.

  I hear a crash and then Alice’s faraway voice say, “Oops, dropped you on the floor. Sorry!” She picks up the phone and her voice is normal again. “He kind of is. I know what you mean. It’s like we want the year to fly by so we can be back at camp, but it’s kind of a long time between summers.”

  “I know. It’s just, one day, I looked at Jason and he looked at me and I had the craziest urge to smooch him. And it hasn’t died down.”

  “Smooch. That’s such a silly word.”

  “It is. But do you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” she replies. “I don’t know what to tell you, Noddie. Do you think the Jason thing will pass? Are you sure you want to end things with Golfy before Valentine’s Day?” She laughs.

  “I don’t care about Valentine’s Day. We never really celebrate it—the whole thing about it not really being a Jewish holiday,” I explain. “I mean, who even knows if Jason likes me like that? But I think he does.”

  I wait for Alice to say something encouraging or helpful, but she doesn’t. She listens, which is good, but I need advice. Real, solid advice. And I obviously can’t ask Kaylan because she liked Jason first. Maybe on some level she still likes him. Hard to say for sure.

  “Maybe just sort of tell a little bit of a white lie,” Alice suggests finally. “Tell Golfy it’s hard because you don’t live near each other, but you’ll see what happens when we’re all back at camp.

  “Yeah, I could say that.” I lean back against my pillows. “Thanks, AlKal.”

  “I don’t think I did anything, but you’re welcome.”

  We hang up a few minutes later and Kaylan calls, interrupting my train of thought.

  “Hey,” I answer.

  “So this trip.” Kaylan launches right into a monologue and it takes me a few seconds to even figure out what she’s talking about. “I’m so excited. But I need to know if you hate me.”

  I scoff. “Why would I hate you?”

  “Because it’s Cami and I’m leaving over break and the list and everything, and I know how you get, Ar.”

  “How I get?” I squeak. “Hello? I’m the one who left you for camp last summer. Remember?”

  She laughs. “Oh yeah. True.”

  “It’s no big deal, Kay,” I reply because it seems like the right thing to say. “You’ll have a fab time.”

  Truth is, I’m kind of jealous. If for no other reason than that she gets to escape these frigid temperatures. Plus anything Cami does is amazing and fabulous. I bet it’s the kind of resort where they have super-plush robes you can borrow and fluffy slippers and massages on the beach and stuff.

  “What will you do without me over break? I mean, we can divide up stuff on the list and keep working on everything, duh.”

  I pause to think about what I’ll do without her. And then it occurs to me, this is kind of a blessing.

  I can figure out this Jason thing without Kaylan around. Not in a mean way, like I don’t want her here. Of course I do. But it’s hard because of her old feelings about Jason. This way I can actually figure things out.

  “Um, I’ll hang with my grandparents, of course. Maybe see movies. Hang with my camp girls. Read. I dunno,” I say. “I’ll find stuff to do. I gotta work on the list; there are tons more fruit-water varieties I can make.”

  “That’s true. Are you gonna see Golfy?” she asks. “You haven’t mentioned him in a while.”

  I feel frozen. “Um, well, I mean, he lives kind of far away, but I don’t know . . . maybe.”

  “Yeah.” She pauses. “So did I tell you about the suite Cami’s family gets?”

  I start to tune out the vacation talk just because there’s so much of it, and the more she talks, the more I feel disconnected and scratchy about her having this experience without me. I look over the list while Kaylan talks, and then my phone beeps, alerting me that I have another call. I never talk on the phone this much in one night.

  It’s Golfy.

  Did Kaylan mentioning him send a signal to the universe that he should call me or something?

  I let it go to voicemail.

  I don’t understand how feelings change so quickly. How I thought Golfy was the best boy ever.

  Truth is, I still kind of think that on a factual level, but don’t have that lovey-dovey feeling toward him anymore.

  Nothing even happened between us. But somet
hing changed.

  Kay’s still going on and on about the resort while I ponder all of this.

  “You’re going to have the best time,” I tell her again even though I’m not entirely sure what she just said. “What day do you leave again?”

  “Right at the beginning of February break, I don’t know the exact day. And I don’t get back until the day before we go back to school.” She sniffles.

  “Oh. Well, if you miss me, we can FaceTime,” I suggest.

  “Definitely. Oh, did I tell you my mom says Mrs. Etisof can do the mural once Ryan and I finish cleaning out the basement?” she asks. “You can help, too. It might make the process a little speedier.”

  “Okay, sure.” I’m trying to think of a way to end this call so I can listen to Golfy’s voicemail and figure out what I’m going to do. “Kay, I need to finish some homework. See you at the bus?”

  “Um, I may get a ride. Not sure. I’ll text you.”

  Kaylan never offers me a ride, and I’m okay with it. She’s always running late so there’s never really time to pick me up. And I don’t like to stress about it. The bus may be annoying but at least I know I’ll get to school on time.

  And Jason takes the bus.

  So there’s that, too.

  “Oh! I forgot! Another reason why I called,” Kaylan says.

  “What?”

  “The unicycle! Let’s ask the PE department if we can use the gym to practice before school some days. Maybe the gym teachers can help us learn,” she says. “And who knows? Maybe they’ll love it so much they put unicycling into the curriculum.”

  I crack up. “Really? You think they would?”

  “You never know, but it ties into our art of persuasion thing,” she says. “Anyway, maybe I’ll email Mr. Kohnmi and see if we can meet with him? And then you can bring the unicycle to school?”

  I laugh. I truly don’t know where Kaylan gets these ideas, but it’s just so fun to see where they end up.

  “Sure, email him.” I laugh again. “But I really need to get back to homework. Nighty-night, Kay.”

  “Nighty-night, Arianna Simone Nodberg, BFFFFFFF.”

  19

  KAYLAN

  “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK you,” I say a thousand times to Mr. Kohnmi, after he finds me at my locker a few days later. “This is really nice of you.”

  He lowers an eyebrow, looking confused. “I had no idea you were this, uh, interested in unicycling. Are you considering a career in the circus?”

  I laugh. “Maybe!”

  “Well, I’m happy to help. I was going to email you back but this was such an unusual thing, I figured it was easier to talk in person. The thing is, I’m not sure we’ll be able to add this to the curriculum.” He shakes his head, laughing a little bit. “I’ve never had that kind of request before, and I can look into it, but in the meantime, if you want to come and practice in the gym, you may. But one of the PE teachers must be here.”

  “Of course. Thank you, Mr. Kohnmi!”

  Ari comes in a few minutes later, and as she’s hanging up her coat, I say, “Ar, I have a major announcement: we can unicycle in the gym!”

  “For real?” Ari jumps up. “Exciting!”

  “Persuasion, baby!” I yell, a little too loud. “Working on it! Perfecting it!”

  “Oh yeahhhhh.” Ari laughs.

  We hug and sway in the hallway and we probably look super loony, but who cares? This feels like a big victory. We have a designated unicycle practice space, at least dedicated to us when no one else is there.

  “You are certified wacky-pants, Kaylan Terrel and Arianna Nodberg,” Marie says, walking up to the lockers, shaking her head. “We love you guys, but you’re wacky. Do you know that?”

  “I gotta be me. Ya know?” I shrug. “You be you. We be we. I be me.”

  Ari and I look at each other, our eyes wide.

  That saying is everything.

  It applies to so much.

  At lunch, Cami is going on and on about the resort and I kind of wish she wouldn’t. I was the only one invited and of course it would make sense for her to only bring one person, but I still don’t want the others (especially Ari) to feel bad. Not that Cami would have ever invited Ari. The thought of it makes me chuckle, actually. I picture Ari being so annoyed with Cami that as soon as she arrives, she begs her mom to find her a flight home. But still. I just don’t want anyone to feel bad.

  “And there’s this swim-up bar. That we’re, like, allowed to go to! I mean, they won’t serve us alcohol, but we can still sit on bar stools in a pool!” Cami yelps. “It’s amazing. And the lazy river—don’t even get me started. The literal best.”

  I look around the table and all the girls are nodding and smiling, but in that teeth-clenched sort of way like they just can’t wait for her to stop talking. And we still have a few weeks before break. We can’t do this every day. We just can’t.

  “So anyway,” I say. “All sounds super fab, Cam. Did I tell you they may integrate a unicycle component into the gym curriculum?”

  Okay, that’s stretching it a bit, but I needed something to break up her monologue.

  I look at Ari with a head tilt because it was really all I could think to say.

  “Um, no,” June replies. “I can barely ride a bike! How can I unicycle?”

  “Same. For real.” Amirah rolls her eyes. “Where do they even come up with this stuff? When do we work on running the mile? I mean, I know I can do it, but I want to practice because I want to try out for track in eighth grade and I need to be ready.”

  “Well, Kay and I are training for a race,” Ari jumps in. “Remember we put that on the list?”

  Amirah shakes her head.

  How quickly they forget . . . I guess it’s kind of a lot for them to remember, though.

  “Yeah, for stroke awareness. It’s the day school ends. We’re raising money and everything,” Ari announces, all proud. “You can train with us, Amirah.”

  I think back to last year, our first list, and our falling out when Ari invited Marie to do the list with us. We’ve come so far. I almost can’t believe it.

  “Um, maybe,” Amirah says. “Sounds cool. Give me all the details. For the record, I’ve never really run like an actual real race before. I just run for fun, and, like, I want to be a runner.” She pauses, like she’s about to get all philosophical. “I see myself as a runner. Does that make sense? And since Kariman Abuljadayel wore a hijab running the Olympics, I feel pretty confident that I can, too.”

  “Oh, def. This is totally you, Amirah,” Ari reassures her. “Join the team!”

  Amirah nods, all excited, and I feel pretty good about all of this.

  After that, the conversation turns to whether there will ever be a Valentine’s Day dance again. They cancelled it a few years ago after some eighth graders got super rowdy and turned on all the sprinklers and flooded the building.

  Cami adds, “My sisters both had the best time ever when they went, but I guess that was a bunch of years ago, before the incident.” She shrugs. “What does Ryan say about it?” Cami asks me. She does this pretty often—whenever we don’t know anything. Since Ryan’s only one year older than me, Cami assumes I know everything because he’s been through it recently.

  “I don’t think he cares about a Valentine’s Day dance,” I tell them. “And last year he was in that weird friend zone with Tyler and stuff so I def don’t think he wanted to go to that kind of thing.”

  “Oh yeah,” Ari says. “OMG, remember when you loved Tyler?”

  Everyone starts laughing and I join with them because they’re not really laughing at me. That was a crazy, obsessive crush that sort of took over my life for a few months. “What was I thinking? For real.”

  They all shake their heads.

  “Did you hear he got in trouble last week for skateboarding in the hallway?” M.W. tells us. “He tried to, like, skateboard up a locker.”

  “What a doofus,” Cami adds. “Seriously. But, Kay, you h
ave weird taste.”

  “Yeah, Jason Klee. Hello?” June pops a few pretzels in her mouth. “I never thought he was cute.”

  My cheeks turn fiery. It was one thing to make fun of Tyler. But Jason, no. Jason’s like in his own special category. He was a friend first. I think that’s why I think of him differently. Even if I don’t like him like him anymore, I still don’t want them to be mean about him.

  I look over at Ari and her cheeks are bright red, and she’s staring down at the remnants of her chicken salad sandwich. I wait for her to say something, but she doesn’t. I’m not sure if I want her to. Or if I don’t want her to.

  It doesn’t matter, though. She’s silent.

  “Oh, come on, Jason is very cute,” Marie interjects. “Seriously, June. That’s weird. Everyone thinks Jason is cute.”

  “Agree,” M.W. says. “I think he’s the cutest kid in our school, no question.”

  “Guys, sssh. He sits right behind us.”

  They all roll their eyes and the table goes silent.

  “Are you and Golfy going on, like, a Valentine’s Day date?” Marie asks Ari in a whisper, but everyone can hear her.

  “Um, I don’t know.” She laughs. “That sounds kind of cheesy, no offense. Plus he doesn’t live near me.” She looks down at the table. Her face is still bright red.

  “No way,” M.W. says, no longer whispering. “That’s like the most amazing thing about having a boyfriend, I think. I mean a whole day where everyone’s thinking about love, and you have someone who loves you. A boy, I mean.”

  I tilt my head and look at her a little crooked. Is she for real?

  “Yeah, but it’s just kind of a made-up holiday. I don’t believe in it,” Ari debates. “I mean, shouldn’t we love each other every day?”

  M.W. rolls her eyes. “You sound like my mom, Ari. Whatever.”

  Ari shrugs. “Your mom’s smart.”

  She looks over at me and I nod, agreeing with her.

  “Can we go back to talking about my vacation now?” Cami scoffs. “For real. We spent this whole lunch arguing about Jason Klee and Valentine’s Day. Puh-lease.”