I don’t really feel like doing anything the rest of the evening and I ignore both Tamara and Hadas’s phone calls. After a hot shower, I stomp back to my room and crawl under the covers. The clock reads 10:30, at least two hours earlier than I usually hit the sack. Staring up at the ceiling, I trace the swirls across the mural and wonder if the person who painted them hates me now. I’d never lied to Mommy before, so there’s no precedent for this situation. Wait, that’s actually not true! I sit up in bed, shocked that I hadn’t thought of this earlier. Tzippy and Mommy used to fight all the time, for like two years straight! I text her quickly and barely a minute passes before a light knock sounds at the door and Tzippy pokes her head in. “Visitation allowed?” she asks in a mock low voice and I throw a pillow at her. “Haha, very funny, make fun of the inmate.”

Tzippy snorts. “Inmate? The night is almost over, you goof. This was nothing, trust me.”

I pat my bed. She comes and curls up next to me. “I remember Abba and Mommy didn’t let me go to Shira Bernstein’s 14th birthday party.”

I gasp. “I don’t believe you! But they love Shira Bernstein!”

Tzippy gives me a funny look. “Yeees, but they were mad at me.”

I blush. Right, different situation. “Okay, so you’re saying my three-hour sentence isn’t such a big deal.”

Tzippy bops me on the head. “No, darling, this is not a big deal. But this whole thing you have going on, between your friends and Mommy and Abba and Hadas… You need to figure it out.”

I roll my eyes. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. You are brilliant and wise.”

She giggles. “My work here is done.”

I sigh and lean back against the pillows. “I just feel yuck. Like I’m different today than I was yesterday.” Tzippy’s about to answer when the door opens and Sari walks in. She raises her eyebrows at our pow-wow.

“Drama much?” she asks.

I pout and pat the other side of the bed. She hops on.

“I lied about going to Tamara, the chauffeur drove us to Teaneck, I ate an impossible burger, and then I got busted,” I blurt out.

The look on her face is so funny that Tzippy and I burst out laughing. She joins in, though she still seems uncertain if I’ve lost my mind.

“How was it?” she asks finally.

“How was what?” I hiccup.

“The burger!” she says, and we all crack up again.

I put my arms around them. “You girls are the best,” I say sleepily.

Tzippy gives us each a kiss and then slides off the bed. “Okay, beddie-bye for you guys. I must go study.”

Sari climbs into her own bed, and my last coherent thought of the night is about how much I love my sisters.

(Excerpted from Teen Pages, Issue 738)