12 Before 13
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“Life is tricky. We have to muddle through the hard spots, hoping that they will pass quickly and that we will gain some understanding and perspective, and be better equipped to handle them the next time they come around. And then we strive as best we can to appreciate the great times while we are living them.
“Like Sarah, I have had some struggles. Of course, hers were way harder.”
Everyone laughs again.
“But I’ve also had some amazing times. And in many cases, I had to go through the struggle to get to the amazing.
“This past summer, I spent four weeks at Camp Silver in the Berkshires, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I’d never been to camp before, and I was leaving my family and my best friend behind.
“Spoiler alert: it was the best summer ever. No offense, family and BFF Kaylan.”
I look out into the congregation and make eye contact with her. She gives me a thumbs-up.
“At Camp Silver, I learned how to be mindful. How to really be in the moment. How to appreciate everything that’s right in front of us, even when things are difficult. And that has carried me through some really hard times. I started a Mindfulness Club at school, and it may even be a countywide thing pretty soon.
“It was at camp that I realized the importance of community and how important it is to lean on that community when times are hard. I had to be reminded of that a few times after I came home, too, and that’s when I realized I had community right in Brookside.
“I’m proud to be an adult in the eyes of my people now. I’m honored to be able to stand up here before you, and lead the service, and pray with all of you. I hope I can keep up with everything and fulfill all the commandments and be a great Jewish adult.
“I know that in the days and years ahead, I will face more struggle, and I will face more wonderful. And hopefully I will be as blessed as Sarah was—to live a full life.
“Maybe even one hundred and twenty-seven years.”
More laughter from the congregation.
Maybe I should take this speech to one of Kaylan’s kids’ nights at the comedy clubs. Maybe I’m funnier than I’d ever realized. Who knows?
“The best realization of all is that Judaism has given me a guidebook to follow when nothing makes sense. And a community to lean on when I’m struggling. And I hope that I can be there for others, like people have been there for me.
“Joining hands and marching together, like I just read earlier. It’s the only way.
“Thank you all so much for being here with me on this special day.
“Extra thanks to Cantor Simon for helping me figure everything out.”
After my speech, there are a few more prayers, and Rabbi Oliker makes some announcements and offers me a blessing, and then that’s it. The service is over.
I sort of expected to feel some sort of relief, but it’s not really that. It’s a little bit of relief, but also a sense of sadness. Like the end of your birthday. You’ve waited so long for it, and it was great, but then it’s over.
It’s like the minute after you take a final, you just want to go back and look at your flash cards again. It’s so hard to put that feeling away.
And this is sort of like that feeling to the extreme. Because I worked so hard and learned so much and then it’s just done.
I walk out into the lobby to meet my family and greet everyone. We’ll all go down to the social hall for the bagels and it’ll be fine. What people don’t tell you is that you feel so great after your bat mitzvah service, you feel such a sense of pride and accomplishment, that the party is actually the last thing on your mind.
At least for me.
“Ari, you are amazing, amazing, amazing,” my mom says, pulling me into the tightest hug in the history of the world. “Now come on, let’s go.”
“Let’s go where?” I ask. “The social hall is this way.”
I start walking.
“No, come with me. This way. Come on. You’ll see,” she says.
I look around and the crowd has already dispersed, and I feel this sense of doom like I may have entered The Twilight Zone even though I’ve never really seen that show, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.
“Wait. What?” I turn my head to the side to sort of see down the hallway. Where are my camp friends? Where are my school friends? I look out through the big glass doors and into the parking lot, and everyone is getting into cars. Are they all going home? Did my parents cancel the bagels, too? Are we going to Fleetwood for some kind of small celebratory brunch, just family, no friends?
“Just come.” She pulls me a little bit, and my head is spinning with questions.
“I don’t get what’s going on,” I say as we walk out into the parking lot. “Seriously, this is freaking me out. What about the place cards?”
Gemma sits in the backseat with me, silently, pursing her lips together as tightly as possible, like a smile is about to squeak out at any moment.
“What’s going on, Gem?” I whisper. I know I can get this out of her.
She shakes her head side to side. “Can’t say. Won’t say.”
I try to figure out where my dad is driving, what direction he’s going. It seems like we’re going home? Oh no, not a backyard barbecue with everyone at our house. We just did that a month ago.
“Dad, where are we going?” I ask.
For the first time in so long I hear emotion and feeling in his voice. “I am so beyond proud of you, Arianna Simone.”
That chokes me up; I’ll admit it. But it doesn’t really answer the question.
FORTY-SEVEN
“THE POOL?” I SQUEAL. “WHY are we at the pool?”
I see people walking in, still in their temple clothes, all dressed up. It makes me laugh out loud—to see all of these people going to the pool, of all places, in fancy outfits.
“You’ll see,” my mom says. “You’ll see.”
We follow the path alongside the pool fence, and soon we’re in the brand-new building that took way longer to remodel than anyone ever expected it to.
Joey is out front guiding people, welcoming everyone and helping assist with the place cards.
“Mazel tov, Arianna Nodberg!” he yells out into his microphone, the one he uses for Freeze Dance all summer. “Our guest of honor is here! Our bat mitzvah girl has arrived!”
To be honest, I’ve never seen Joey so excited.
The double doors to the brand-new building open wide and then everyone yells out “MAZEL TOV.” It really means good luck in Hebrew, but people say it like congratulations.
It’s kind of like they’d yell out at a surprise party, and I guess they could still yell surprise in this case since I seriously have no idea what’s going on.
But inside the giant room in the newly remodeled pool building is everyone who was at my bat mitzvah service. And the tables have red-and-white-checked tablecloths like you’d see at a barbecue. And there are two giant speakers and “Hava Nagila” is playing and everyone is joining hands and dancing in a circle: a very enthusiastic hora.
The walls are decorated with giant pictures of Camp Silver—I think Kaylan printed them from the website and had them blown up.
The centerpieces are mini campfires made from tissue paper and sticks and modeling clay and each one has a fake lit-up candle in the middle.
“Talk to Kaylan.” She smiles and leans in to kiss me on the cheek.
I don’t have to walk very far, because a second later Kaylan runs up to me and hugs me super tight, so tight she even lifts me in the air a little bit and I have to make sure my dress is still down and people aren’t seeing my underwear.
There are a zillion conversations spiraling around us.
“Kaylan,” I say, hopeful sounding, waiting for her to explain.
“Arianna,” she replies, mimicking my tone.
“You did all of this?” I ask her.
She nods. “Well, Alice helped, too. Thank her for all the pictures of Camp Silver and th
e silver streamers, especially.”
“You guys worked together on this?” My cheeks start to hurt from smiling so much.
“You’re right—once you give Alice a mission . . .”
“Exactly.” I hug her again. “But seriously—this was all your idea?”
She nods. “I told you I’d make my mark.”
“Loyal to the list,” we say at the same time.
“But how did you do it?” I ask her.
She puts a finger on her chin. “Worked with Joey, and he let me have the space. I emailed all the guests about the change in venue. Alice helped with all the Silver stuff. Literally. Golfy and Jason helped me with the playlists. Golfy added all the Jewish/hora/Hebrew songs, obviously. My mom and I made the centerpieces together . . . um.” She pauses. “I told your mom I was handling everything, and she sort of believed me, and then backed off, but I don’t think she did trust me completely because she’d call me freaking out like every other day.”
“I can’t believe she let you do this,” I squeak.
She shrugs. “Deep down, she knows I have everything under control.”
“I guess so.” I hug her again.
“So can I do a quick JHH for me making my mark and then can we hora together?” Kaylan asks me. “That’s not really something I ever thought I’d say.”
“It has a good ring to it.”
We walk to the side of the room and JHH behind the food table—which is completely covered with subs from Harvey Deli.
“I am guessing Cami helped you with this?” I ask.
She nods.
“She’s not that bad, I guess.” I smile.
Kaylan looks around the room for a second. “Oh, and Mr. Wainscott handled the mini hot dogs.” She bursts out laughing. “They were essential. Obviously.”
“Obviously.” I crack up. “Listen, I can’t let you JHH alone, even though I already did make my mark, and this is clearly your moment . . . so can we JHH together?”
She nods. “Okay.”
It’s the highest we’ve ever jumped, the hardest we’ve ever high-fived, and the tightest we’ve ever hugged.
“Kaylan Terrel, you’ve definitely made your mark as my BFFAE.”
“Arianna Nodberg, you have, too. You crushed that service, and you’re a woman in the eyes of your people now.”
I crack up again.
“We need our bat mitzvah girl,” my dad yells into Joey’s pool microphone. Joey is dragging some chairs over so they can lift me up. “Arianna Nodberg, it’s hora tiiimmme.”
Everyone joins hands and dances in a circle, and soon I will be in the middle of it. Lifted up on a chair, high up so I can see everyone and all this joy around me.
“You gotta go,” Kaylan says. “I think I’m going to be a party planner when I grow up, now. FYI. It’s my passion. My new passion.”
“You already JHHed the comedy thing, though.”
“I’ll JHH this one, too, at the end of the party. Double JHH. Oh yeah.” She smiles. “You were right. We can definitely have more than one passion. And pursue them all.”
“Arianna Nodberg!” my dad yells out again. And then Golfy gets on the microphone, “Arianna Nodberg. Where are yooouuu?”
“Okay, you really gotta go,” Kaylan says. “Your dad and Golfy are sharing the mic.”
“Come on.” I grab Kaylan’s hand. “I need you with me out there.”
Kaylan smiles and whispers in my ear, “When should we start our next list? Should we wait until summer again?”
I shake my head. “No. Let’s start right away. We’re teenagers now, we can do things differently.”
“I like it,” Kaylan replies.
We walk into the center of the room, hand in hand. Alice blows me a kiss and Bubbie and Zeyda and Grandma clap to the beat and my mom and dad hold hands and bounce on their toes.
I scan the crowd, and a happy, content, warm, filled-up-like-a-cup-of-cocoa feeling washes over me.
The words I read an hour ago echo in my head: There is no way to get from here to there except by joining hands, marching together.
I wonder why it took me so long to figure out my speech and everything else, really.
The answers were right in front of me this whole time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Dave, Aleah, and Hazel—you’re the lights of my life and my marching partners. I could write an entire book expressing my gratitude for the three of you and it wouldn’t be enough.
All the Greenwalds and all the Rosenbergs—thank you for the love, enthusiasm, and support.
BWL Library & Tech team—you are superstar coworkers.
Caroline Hickey and Lisa Graff—my fab writing retreat partners and awesome friends. I am so glad the New School brought us together.
Alyssa Eisner Henkin—I am endlessly grateful for all your guidance and encouragement.
Maria Barbo—I want to JHH nonstop for all the thought, care, passion, and dedication you put into this book.
Stephanie Guerdan—you get countless high fives for your brilliant ideas, organization, and patience.
To the fabulous people at Katherine Tegen books: Katherine, Ann, Aurora, Amy, Gina, Ro, Emily, Mark, Kimberly, and Vanessa—you’re the best, best, best in the biz and I feel lucky every single day that I get to work with you all of you.
Aleah, Alexander, Daphne, Emma, Gabbi, Lindsay, and Sophia—thanks for doodling.
Last but never least, to the kids who have read my books and to the kids who have emailed me and written me letters—I love you! Keep reading!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo courtesy of Lisa Greenwald
TWELVE FUN FACTS ABOUT LISA GREENWALD
She wears hoodies as often as she can.
She’s the author of the Pink & Green series.
Her favorite foods are ice cream, sushi, and Peanut M&M’S.
She once won one thousand dollars in a radio contest.
Her favorite movie is Clueless.
She works in the library at the Birch Wathen Lenox School.
She’s completely petrified of mice.
She earned an MFA in writing from the New School.
She’d like to have a house right on the ocean with a pool, too.
Her favorite book is Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.
She lives in Manhattan with her BFFs: her husband and her two daughters.
At her bat mitzvah, she gave away T-shirts of penguins dancing the hora.
www.lisagreenwald.com
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BOOKS BY LISA GREENWALD
11 Before 12
TBH, This Is SO Awkward
TBH, This May Be TMI
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COPYRIGHT
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
FRIENDSHIP LIST #2: 12 BEFORE 13. Copyright © 2018 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover photos by Rohappy/Shutterstock (right) and 1stockphotopro/Shutterstock (left)
Cover design by Aurora Parlagreco
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018021526
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-241179-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-241177-8
* * *
1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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