Mimi wonders if Shoshana will offer to help, but her friend, it seems, is too wrapped up in her own problems to think of that

Mimi presses her fingers against her throbbing temples. One perek down, three to go. She needs to study, she needs to. She can’t fail again. What will Mrs. Stern say? And her parents?

Mimi’s stomach turns. Focus, pasuk, Rashi. She reads the words once, twice. Nothing seems to make sense.

Frustrated, Mimi tosses her notes aside. She’s never studied alone. Somehow, her friends made it easier, with Tzippy’s clear notes and Shoshana’s ready answers to all Mimi’s questions. And Ella, of course, Ella with her apple chips and wry remarks.

She’s never had to battle through it alone, with nothing but her own messy, incomplete notes to guide her.

When the phone rings, Mimi is impossibly grateful.

“Hey, Shoshana.”

Shoshana’s voice is low, defeated. “Mimi.”

“What’s going on?” Mimi stalls for time. She knows all too well what’s going on.

“Nothing new.” Shoshana waits a beat. “Listen, Mim, I need to get outta here, can I come over? Dina won’t speak to me and my mother’s stressed out….”

Mimi looks at her notes, wonders how she’ll decipher the illegible sentences at the end of the page. “I need to study. I have that makeup test tomorrow.”

“Oh. I forgot.”

For a moment, Mimi wonders if Shoshana will offer to help, but her friend, it seems, is too wrapped up in her own problems to think of that.