.Newsflash, guys, ZeeZee felt like screaming. I am worth something, even if I don’t get straight A’s or act like a little goodie-two-shoes

ZeeZee glared at the floor as she shuffled into Rodriguez behind her mother and sister. She still couldn’t believe she was being forced to endure an evening out with not just Gitty and Chana Malka, but with five of Chana Malka’s friends.

She’d tried begging out of it, but her mother had acted mortally offended.

“We only have ten days together and you want to miss one of them?”

ZeeZee had muttered something about not knowing Chana Malka’s friends, but of course that had been a stupid mistake.

“Well, you could have invited your own friends, too,” her mother had bristled. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t want to, but that was your choice.”

ZeeZee had simply rolled her eyes. There was no point trying to explain that inviting her Shvilei friends to eat out with a bunch of nerdy Bnos Hinde girls was totally weird. And then there was the other reason she’d decided not to. Rusi’s mother had also come to visit this week; she was staying at some cousin in Kiryat Sefer — not in the David Citadel like her mother and Gitty — and traveling in by bus every day. ZeeZee was pretty confident that Rusi’s mother wasn’t planning on treating Rusi’s friends to a restaurant meal.

ZeeZee ended up sitting between her mother and one of Chana Malka’s friends — a girl whose shirt was buttoned up to her neck and who quizzed the waiter about the ingredients in every food to determine the correct brachah.

On the other side of her mother, Gitty was gushing about her visit to Bnos Hinde this morning. “Ma, you should’ve heard what Chana Malka’s teachers said about her. They just went on and on! It’s too bad you didn’t come yourself, you would’ve shepped such nachas!”

“I wish I could have,” ZeeZee’s mother said apologetically.

Gitty was still going full steam; she now had her arm around Chana Malka. “I sat in some classes and, I’m telling you, Ma, she was the star! She was the one answering all the questions.”

“I’m not surprised,” Mrs. Keller murmured, smiling fondly at her granddaughter. ZeeZee nearly gagged; Gitty must’ve caught the gesture because she suddenly turned to ZeeZee.

“Your big day’s tomorrow, huh?” she said brightly. “We’re all looking forward to hearing what your teachers have to say about you!”

“I’m sure you are,” ZeeZee muttered. Matching her tone to equal her sister’s fake saccharinity, she added, “But there’s no way I can measure up to Chana Malka. Honestly, I don’t know if anyone can. You must be sooooo proud.”

Gitty threw her a suspicious look, while their mother quickly said, “ZeeZee has so many of her own talents. There’s no need to compare ourselves to others.”

ZeeZee clenched her teeth. This exact conversation had been repeated only 20 million times over the course of her childhood. Gitty was now smirking, while Chana Malka was eyeing her speculatively, as if trying to uncover those hidden talents.