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MG!” Miri said. “Poor me! Devory is going to be on the warpath! I’ll never live this down.”

Shoshi nibbled on her thumbnail. “And what about me? I’m an accomplice. I laughed!”

“Maybe it wasn’t so bad. I mean, I didn’t call her anything horrible, just Her Royal Highness. It could be taken as a compliment too. Right?”

Shoshi scrunched her nose. “By the look in her eyes, I don’t think that’s how she took it.”

Miri grimaced.

“Maybe I should go home, Miri. I don’t want to be here when Devory comes back.”

“No! You can’t leave me alone.”

“Eventually, you’re going to have to face her.”

“At least stay until my mother comes home. Anyway, she has to drive you home.”

“I can walk.”

“No, you can’t. It’s late.” Miri settled herself on the floor, and Shoshi did the same.

“You know, Miri, this is a nice room.”

“I hate it. It’s so cold and impersonal. It’s not cozy like my room at home.”

“At home?”

“You know what I mean.”

Shoshi grinned knowingly, and Miri liked the feeling of having an understanding friend.

“So, what are you going to do about Devory?” Shoshi said.

“Maybe I’ll pretend to be asleep when she comes in.”

“And what about tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that, and the…”

Miri held up her hand. “I get the picture. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess I’ll ask my mother what she thinks.”

Shoshi was quiet, and Miri felt a pang of guilt for having a healthy mother.

“I wish you could sleep over tonight,” Miri said. Anything was better than Shoshi’s silence.

“Totally, but not with HRH.”

“H…R…H?” Miri said slowly then laughed. “Oh! I get it! Her Royal Highness!”

Shoshi chuckled. “You could always sleep at my house.”

“Really? When?”

Shoshi shrugged. “How about tonight?”

“Tonight? Yeah! Why not? I just have to ask…”

“Your mother,” Shoshi cut in.

There was a knock on the door, and the girls looked at each other.

“It can’t be Devory,” Miri said. “She wouldn’t knock… Come in.”

The door opened.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 799)