I wanted my daughter to have friends — so I installed a pool

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here she is. I see her from outside the window, bounding up the stairs with a colorful towel hanging from one arm. She looks exactly like Mindy, the same pert little nose and sparkle in her eye. But while Mindy is all grace and style, her daughter is confidence and wide-eyed energy.

Chayala Rosen, the second-most popular girl in the fourth grade. I say second-most because Aviva assures me that the most popular girl in the class is Huvi Kaganoff, Chayala’s best friend, and she’s trailing right behind Chayala. Aviva watches them both with her face flushed with excitement, vibrating beside me. “They really came over!” she says. “All these girls! At our house!”

“Right,” I say, keeping an eye on the car that idles by the curb, waiting for the girls to be let in. I can see Mindy Rosen in the driver’s seat, and I glance at myself in the mirror, making sure that my makeup looks good, that my sheitel falls past my shoulders in gentle beach waves.

Huvi cranes her neck to look around the far side of the house, and she must have spotted the tall, white fence, because she nudges Chayala hard and points. Chayala grins and says something to Huvi. They hurry down the path.

Before they can rap on our front door, Aviva is yanking it open. “Hi!” she says, her voice too loud. “Hi, Huvi! Chayala!” She’s glowing with excitement, and I take a brief moment to smile at it before I turn to the door.

Mindy waves once and drives off. I return to the girls.

“Do you want to see my new room?” Aviva asks. “I guess you never saw my old room,” she says, her voice faltering for an instant before she brightens again. “We could use my gel pens while we wait for everyone!”

Huvi and Chayala exchange a glance. “We’re already in our bathing suits,” Huvi points out.

Aviva bobs her head. “Okay! I think everyone else is supposed to come soon, too.”

Everyone else includes several other popular girls, none of whom ever came to play with Aviva when we lived in a quiet two-family house without a pool. Aviva doesn’t seem to notice the difference, but I do, and I level some strong, silent resentment toward Huvi, the girl with a swishing ponytail and a perpetually unimpressed look on her face.

Had she even known that Aviva existed before we’d moved in May? It’s so transparent, and I can dislike Huvi for Aviva as long as I don’t let it show. A mother’s disapproval can lessen social capital just like that.

I smile at Chayala instead. Chayala’s a sweet kid, I think. Mindy has always been sweet, genuine without the airs that have suffused some of the wealthier women in the neighborhood, and I don’t doubt that her daughter is a different breed than Swishy-Ponytailed Huvi Kaganoff. I don’t know Huvi’s mother. I do know that Mindy is the kind of person I’ve wanted to be friends with ever since I was an awkward little shadow Aviva’s age, trying desperately to get the popular girls to notice me.

“Why don’t I get you both something to eat while Aviva gets changed?” I gesture toward the kitchen. “I just made cookies.”

I don’t usually make cookies. I’m on a health kick, which means swimming 50 laps every morning and eating mini peppers instead of noshing. It’s been decent for my waistline, but I’m willing to risk it all for Chayala Rosen. So she’s blatantly using my daughter for her pool. It’s an opportunity to allow a friendship to bloom, to let their relationship become habit before the weather changes. This is Aviva’s in, her chance to move past shyness and social awkwardness and find a place in her class.

As the girls eat cookies and talk in whispers, I let myself dream. Aviva, supplanting Huvi at the head of her class. Chayala and Aviva, inseparable, while Mindy and I watch them affectionately and chat about their class. Shabbos plans where Mindy parks herself on my couch and we let the day drift away, the girls scampering upstairs and leaving us to our conversation.

Chayala is exactly as charming as I would have expected of Mindy’s daughter. She says her brachah carefully after Huvi has already bitten into her cookie, and she says, “These are amazing, Mrs. Mandel. Thank you.”

“I was thinking about doing another batch later today with chocolate chunks. If you girls stay after the pool, you’re welcome to join in.” It’s a bribe, an attempt to keep them here for something more than the pool. Chayala needs to have such an incredible time here that she won’t want to leave. That she’ll beg Mindy to bring her back.