Mia’s legs shook. “My body will smash into a million little pieces if I fall.”
“Look ahead,” I coached. “Grab his hand.”
She stepped widely into the air like she was bypassing a puddle. “I did it,” she cheered from Chatterbox’s side.
“Next!” Chatterbox yelled.
My turn. I leapt through the air.
Yeah, I was soaring!
“Can I go?” Ben nudged.
“No, you have to wait your turn,” Leah said.
Mia still looked pale while we watched the line of students jump, one by one. Leah directed the order, until Ben and Jake were the only ones left.
Jake smiled deviously. “Can we jump at the same time?”
“No,” Leah decided. “He can’t help both of you at once.”
“We don’t need help,” Ben said.
“Watch your attitude,” Chatterbox snarled from his rock.
Jordyn squatted. “I’ll catch you.”
Ben answered her in Hebrew. I wished I could have translated.
Leah nodded at Chatterbox. “Jake goes first.”
Ben frowned at her.
Jake floated in the air, steady and even. Ben didn’t wait for him to land. He leapt up and dropped to our side.
After the jump, we made our way to a monastery built into the rocks. When we returned to the bus, Mia finally spoke. “I miss my family and friends.”
I knew from her glassy eyes she was holding back tears. “You said your friends at home are boring. We aren’t boring here.” I took her phone out of her backpack and snapped a picture of her. “E-mail your parents this and tell them you overcame your fear of heights today.” I was eager to be the kind of friend that I always wanted to have.
Mia grinned at me.
Leah clapped her hands. “All right, loves. We’ve got a birthday today.”
And while Mia’s face flushed, Leah led us through two renditions of “Happy Birthday,” the first in English and the second in Hebrew.
Chapter 7
MIA BURST INTO OUR ROOM one Thursday night after we had been at the kfar for three weeks. She rubbed her hands together. “We’re going out tonight.” From my bed, I closed my flimsy Hebrew workbook, wondering what she had planned. The naysayer in me needed an explanation, as Leah checked on us several times a night.
“I just saw Ben in the hallway.” Mia was practically jumping up and down. “He said Leah asked him to do the bed check tonight.”
That seemed rather convenient. “She trusts us to police ourselves?” I fake-frowned. Saying no would be a huge mistake. I couldn’t disappoint Mia.
“Her daughter went into labor. She’s on her way to the hospital.”
No wonder. Her grandchild was giving us a free night.
Jordyn walked into our room. “It’s the three of us girls. Everyone else wants to hang out in Ben’s room.”
Since when did Jordyn become Mia’s friend?
“Cool,” Mia said. Maybe Jordyn and she were burying their popularity hatchet? As Mia had predicted, Jordyn had become kind of nice since she’d hooked up with Caleb. Maybe the popularity contest would work itself out. Mia could be just below Jordyn on the social ladder, which would make me way higher than I had been at home. Life at the kfar was good!
“You went to the bathroom a law-abiding kfar-nik,” I said. “Then, poof, you change into a sneaky wild child. What’s in the toilet paper? And why was Ben in our hallway?”
Mia’s eyes danced. “To tell us about the free night. Don’t worry. We won’t get caught.”
“There’d better not be a pop quiz tomorrow that I should have studied for.” I eyed my backpack on the floor. “How are we getting home?” Getting there was no problem. Tons of clubs in Tel Aviv were only a short bus ride away. Coming home was the issue. There was no bus service from Tel Aviv to the kfar after midnight.
“Taxi,” Mia said.
“Is Caleb coming with us?” I asked, wondering what I should wear.
Jordyn smiled. “Nope.”
I nodded at Jordyn’s face.
“You can use my makeup,” Jordyn said, as if I were her dress-up doll.
“Thanks.” I changed into my denim miniskirt and white tank top. We were on the verge of friendship.
“Your top’s a disaster.” She zipped up a low-cut black dress.
So much for being nice. “What’s wrong with it?” I asked. It was a classic fashion piece, basic and neutral.
She grabbed two inches of material around my belly. “Too big. Why do you dress like this?”
“To be comfortable,” I said semi-truthfully. Why bother with pretty clothes? It would only draw more attention to me. Derrick’s entourage, who did most of his dirty work, would yell, “Pugly’s dressed up.”
“Wear this.” Jordyn gave me her hot pink tank top.
The stretchy material glided on easily. “It’s too tight. I—”
“It looks great.” Mia said.
Jordyn smiled. “Thank God, it fits.”
“Finally,” Mia said, “you’re dressing properly.”
Jordyn twirled me around to face the mirror. “This is what you’re supposed to look like.”
Loser no more. The pretty girl in the mirror showing off her cleavage was me. And I had friends!
Jordyn fiddled with her hair. “A body like yours has the upper hand.”
“She needs to use it.” Mia tucked her black top into her jeans.
“I’m not a user,” I said sarcastically.
Jordyn nodded. “Then, what are you?”
“You decide.” I picked up Mia’s pink lipstick that was on the sink basin.
There was a knock on our door.
“We’re studying,” Mia hollered.
“Hebrew or beer?” Ben’s voice rang out. He had come back to our room.
Jordyn opened our door. “Girls’ night out.”
“Stop by our room afterwards,” he said.
I felt a prickle on my back, like tiny legs were needling my skin. “Do I have a bug on me?”
“It’s a flying roach,” Ben said.
“Get it off me,” I wailed.
Jordyn picked up my workbook and swatted at it. “I’ll flick it off.”
Those flying roaches showed up at the worst times—Ben was watching. Then again, a disgusting bug was a small tradeoff. I was creating a new identity. I handed Ben my camera. “Take our picture.” I wanted to remember that I had friends for the rest of my life.
He took my camera. “Huddle together.”
I sat down on the edge of my bed.
“Not there,” Jordyn said. “The bug patch will be in the photo.”
I moved to Jordyn’s bed.
Mia parked herself next to me. Jordyn said something to Ben in Hebrew.
“What did you say?” Mia asked.
Jordyn sat down on the other side of me. “Nothing.”
“Say beer,” Ben said.
“Cheese,” we said.
“Tell us what you said in Hebrew.” Mia sounded annoyed.
Ben put the camera down. “You could come by my room later.”
“We’ll try,” Mia’s tone softened.
Try? She was milking the coy game dry.
“Walk us to the bus stop,” Jordyn said as we strolled toward the door.
Mia kept quiet while we walked, and Jordyn, of course, spoke to Ben in Hebrew. I wondered how I should be at the club. Should I try to flirt with the boys or stay under the radar? Was I ready to step out? Sure, I had progressed to dressing better, but I could only answer questions if the boys spoke to me. Was it enough? What if I did something lame? Pugly could rear her ugly head.
“Rebecca?” Ben said.
I looked at him cautiously. He probably thought I was a space cadet.
“See you later.” He smiled at me. The bus wheels squeaked on the pavement as it slowed down.
“Bye,” Mia waved. He put his hands in his pockets and walked away.
I raised my eyebrows at he
r. “We’ll see him later.”
“Maybe,” Mia whispered.
“Quiet,” Jordyn said. “I want to see if I can pass as Israeli.”
I dropped my coins into the fare slot.
The driver turned up the radio volume. He was listening to a Hebrew talk radio show, and it sounded like male voices, in some kind of debate.
Two soldiers sat in the middle of the bus. They pretended not to notice us.
Jordyn sashayed down the aisle and slid into the empty seat behind them. Mia and I followed in a normal walk, and took the empty seat behind Jordyn.
The cute, stocky soldier turned around and smiled at Jordyn. “Shalom, ma sh’mech?”
“He’s asking for her name,” Mia whispered as the bus pulled away.
I glared at her. “Shush.” I was taking mental notes to be used in the future.
Jordyn took her time to answer, and swiped a stray hair from her forehead before she replied in a sultry voice. “Jordyn.”
He pulled the string above the window. His friend nodded at us. They got up and stepped to the front, turning around to smile at Jordyn.
“Le’hitra’ot,” the stocky one said to her.
‘Good night,’ I wanted to answer.
Jordyn blew her admirer a kiss. “Le’hitra’ot.”
“She nails it,” Mia said once they had gotten off the bus.
“I’m good.” Jordyn oozed confidence. “Too bad my sister isn’t here.”
I thought of Jordyn and her twin sister as the bus pulled away from the curb. Jordyn talked about Naomi sometimes, and I knew they sent texts back and forth. It sounded like they weren’t the type of twins who hated each other. I did wonder why her sister hadn’t come on the trip with her, but I didn’t want to ask. I figured it would only annoy Jordyn if I questioned her home life. Besides, I didn’t want her asking me a bunch of questions.
Eighteen stops later, we had gotten off the bus and walked through the busy streets of Tel Aviv, past shopping plazas and crowded restaurants, and we were in line, waiting to get into a club. The air smelled of fried food and gas exhaust, as the club was on the main strip, not in an alleyway.
“Naomi’s missing a lot,” Jordyn said. “She loves to dance and would go crazy at a club.”
“Why did she stay home?” Mia asked, not for the first time.
“It’s no big deal,” Jordyn said.
Mia wouldn’t back down. “It’s weird. One twin goes away, and the other one stays at home.”
“No it isn’t.” Jordyn shrugged despite the fact that her face had flushed. “We don’t have to do the same things.”
“Was she scared or something?” Mia asked. “You know, afraid of getting homesick.”
Funny how Mia felt the need to be bring up being homesick.
“We’re different.” Jordyn’s face had returned to its usual sallow color. “For instance, she spells her name the popular way, and I spell mine the alternate way. You know the yn is totally cute.”
That wasn’t an option for me. Pugly was already the cute version of pug ugly and dog face.
“Why’d you come to Israel?” I had to ask. As much as I hated to probe, her explanation didn’t sound right. Maybe she had a hideous past like me?
“Naomi’s too busy with cheerleading,” Jordyn said. “I had to get away from my mother. She’s too strict.”
Her mother had presented a different impression at the airport—talking and laughing like the quintessentially cool mom. She even gave Jordyn a bag of cookies for the plane. “What kind of rules?”
“She wants me to dress like a dweeb, and she makes me go to Naomi’s cheerleading competitions. The competitions are sooo boring. I have to sit there and pretend I’m having fun.”
I understood. Mom expected me to go to school with a peachy-keen love-my-school attitude.
“Mother thinks I’m too young to date. I don’t crumble to her demands.”
“They’d probably hate Caleb,” Mia said as we moved up in line, closer to the entrance.
“You should tell them Israeli boys are ugly,” I said.
“Then go make out with Caleb.” Mia finished my thought.
“Shalom,” a soldier said. We had moved up to the front of the entrance. “Empty your pockets.”
I put my shekels on the table. Would he ask my age? The legal drinking age was eighteen. Mia had told me how to say eighteen and twenty-one in Hebrew because I was still struggling in my language class.
“Purse,” he said.
“I didn’t bring one.” Ugh. I sounded like a foreigner, using English, not even trying to answer in Hebrew.
His gaze focused on the line of people behind me. “Okay.”
I was underage and inside a nightclub! The two long bars on opposite sides of the room swarmed with people waiting for drinks. Drunks crowded on three elevated stages, dancing to a Rihanna song.
“Wait here,” Jordyn ordered. “I’ll get us drinks.”
“What do you usually drink?” Mia asked me.
“Whatever.” I thought of Dad, who said alcohol wrecked his relationship with Mom. I didn’t remember anything about him being a drunk because I was a baby. After he got sober, he dedicated himself to the program. His new friends had such sad stories. Everything bad happened to them—nasty divorces, horrible car accidents, families who hated them.
At the bar, Jordyn was talking to Israelis, who were smiling at her. One drink wouldn’t turn me into an alcoholic. I was in a nightclub, after all, and a little cocktail was to be expected. If I didn’t drink then, it was bound to come up again. The only way to get out of it would be to use another lie, and that would add more stress to the weave of lies I had told.
Jordyn returned with three large plastic cups. “Strawberry daiquiris. Compliments of our admirers.” She waved toward two guys by the DJ stand.
I took a sip. It tasted like a strawberry dessert. There was hardly a bitter aftertaste.
Mia swallowed a mouthful, twice the amount I did. “These are strong,” she said, as if she were a daiquiri connoisseur.
Jordyn lifted her cup. “The bartender made them a double. Here’s to no parents.”
I clicked her cup. “Hear. Hear.” And to upward mobility. I was moving forward, and the differences were big. Pugly didn’t wear tight clothes or sneak out to a nightclub. She wore oversized pajamas and watched TV alone in her bedroom.
Mia tapped my cup. “We’re at a nightclub.”
Jordyn waved to our admirers.
“What about Caleb?” Mia asked.
“Let’s dance,” Jordyn answered.
That was the last thing I wanted to do. I’d rather become roaring drunk and throw up on Jordyn than dance. Me dancing would look like a robot having a seizure, and I wouldn’t embarrass myself like that if I didn’t have to.
“After I finish my drink,” Mia said.
Jordyn pranced over to the stage. Mia waved to the guys who bought us drinks.
I took a bigger sip out of my cup. If only I could loosen up. “I don’t dance.”
“Yes, you do,” Mia said.
“No. I don’t,” I corrected. “Not to this song.” I actually liked the song, but I had to do something to get Mia off her tangent.
“Ask the DJ to play something else,” she suggested.
“All right.” Maybe by the time we made our request, she’d forget about dancing. Better yet, what if we happened to meet my future boyfriend on the way to the DJ booth? He’d be tall, good-looking, and fluent in English, so I wouldn’t embarrass myself by speaking Hebrew. He’d be the one—my first kiss—and he’d come visit me at the kfar, causing a major Who-is-he? stir among the girls. Even Mia would be impressed. Talk about fate!
At the booth, I peered into the dark Plexiglas and tapped lightly. It looked empty like the guard gate at the kfar on those rare instances when it was unmanned. “There’s nobody in there. Too bad.”
“Knock harder,” she said.
“Ground control to Major Tom.” I knocked sof
tly.
A blond guy opened the door. His gold necklace shone in the dim light as he stepped forward. “Shalom.”
“Shalom. She has a request.” Mia raised her cup at me and took a swig.
Oh brother. She was on a mission. I had to think of a song, fast. What was something that that had a decent beat? “‘The Edge of Glory.’”
“A Lady Gaga fan. Are you one of her little monsters?” the DJ asked, with a Russian accent.
“I’m not little anymore,” I said snobbishly.
He held up two burning cigarettes. “Beautiful girls who like beautiful music.”
“Thanks.” Mia took one and put it in my mouth.
Weird stuff was going down. First of all, non-smoking Mia gave me his cigarette, and second, my future boyfriend didn’t wear a chain necklace. I surveyed the room. I had to find someone to talk to before Mia got back on her must-dance obsession. The guys who bought us drinks were sandwiched around Jordyn. Suddenly, the strobe lights flickered, and I couldn’t see much besides the outline of Mia’s hair cascading down over her ears.
“I’ll play your song under one condition,” the DJ said. “I need a kiss from you.”
“Who?” Mia asked.
“The Gaga fan.” He gave me a cheesy smile.
My body froze. There had to be a way out of it.
“Why don’t we both kiss you?” Mia suggested.
“What?” He smacked his lips.
“Wouldn’t you rather be kissed by the two of us?” I asked.
“Go for it,” he said.
Mia and I scattered to our proper positions, she on the right, me on the left.
Mia giggled. “One, two, three—”
I smacked my lips on his grainy stubble as the strobe lights flashed white.
“Ahh. Soon you will hear your song.” He kissed the air.
I burst out laughing when he shut the door. The room was spinning.
“When the song comes on, you’re dancing up on the stage. No excuses.” She pushed me on the dance floor.
Miraculously, the first beats of ‘The Edge of Glory’ blared from the speakers. I pictured the DJ thumping his head to the music while he watched us. There was no escape. I got up on the stage, took my cigarette out of my mouth, gave it to one of Jordyn’s admirers, and danced while Mia stayed on the floor and smiled.
Next Year in Israel Page 6