“Yeah.” ZeeZee sighed. Really, it was nice of her. A part of ZeeZee — the part that wasn’t still fuming from being forced to give up her Shabbos adventure — had even been touched by the offer. Until Mrs. Edelman had thrown in, way too casually, ‘Oh, and I hear that your sister Gitty’s daughter is in Israel this year, too. Why don’t you bring her along? I love meeting the daughters of my old talmidos.’

And that’s when ZeeZee knew — Gitty had set this all up. She’d called Mrs. Edelman. ZeeZee could just picture what she’d told the teacher. We just don’t know what to do with ZeeZee. She’s such a spoiled, silly girl. We sisters have tried straightening her out for years, but she’s so stubborn. Now it’s up to Shvilei. You’re our last hope before shidduchim.

Shani was watching her. “What’s wrong with going to Mrs. Edelman for Shabbos? Sounds cool to me.”

“Nothing, it’s just…” ZeeZee made a face. “She asked me to bring my niece, too.”

“The one in Bnos Hinde?”

“Yup. And Chana Malka and I are — how should I put it? — veeerrry different. A whole Shabbos together? One of us will kill the other one for sure.” She smirked. “And Chana Malka’s too much of a tzadeikes, so I’m guessing it’ll be me.”

Rusi grinned. “Well, if you go to jail, I get to wear your clothing.” She waved at ZeeZee’s overstuffed closet. “Don’t worry, I’ll come visit.”

“Hah, if you want my clothing, you better bring chocolate with you. And an iced coffee from Cofix. No, a Katzefet strawberry-mango smoothie…” ZeeZee shook her head mournfully. “What am I saying? There’s no way I could survive in jail more than a day.” She wondered fleetingly if she should revise some things on her List. Like Get arrested at a hafganah.

She stood up. This conversation was depressing her; she needed to get out. “Hey, guys, all this talk of food is making me hungry. How about we go to Katzefet?”

Shani shrank back onto her bed. “No, thanks. I’m going over to Mrs. Hurwitz’s soon.”

ZeeZee stared at her. “Again? But you’re there, like, every night!”

Shani traced the geometric design on her comforter. “She’s cool. I like speaking to her.”

ZeeZee shrugged. Seemed weird to her to become besties with the eim bayit, but to each her own. She turned to her second roommate. “Coming, Rusi? Don’t leave me alone here.” She grinned. “I mean, I won’t pretend we’re friends or anything, since I know you don’t have any, so how about we say I’m a chesed case, ’kay?”

Rusi had the grace to blush as she picked up her purse (Kate Spade knock-off, ZeeZee had noted on their first day).

As the two left the dorm building, ZeeZee said cheerily, “Well, it’s obvious that Shani hates us. Or me, at least,” she added generously. “This is the fourth time she’s turned me down to go out to eat. Whaddaya bet she doesn’t even have an appointment with Mommy Hurwitz tonight?”

“I don’t know. She’s been hanging out there a lot this week.”

“Yeah, but still. What about all the other times?”

They’d reached the bus stop, and Rusi started searching for her bus card. “Maybe there’s another reason,” she said.

ZeeZee took out her own bus card. “Like what?”

Rusi’s head was still down. “Like maybe she doesn’t have the money to go out,” she mumbled.

ZeeZee stared. The thought had totally not occurred to her. Could it be? She squinted her eyes at Rusi. “But your father’s a cheder rebbi, and you have, like, a million siblings, and you’re able to afford it!” She shook her head as the bus pulled up. “Nah, it must be something else.”

Walking through the pitch-black hall of the school building at midnight felt weird, like Tammy was breaking in or something. Even though, as she reminded herself, she had a right to go into the office. She was staff. She had the key.

Still, she kept looking over her shoulder, expecting Rabbi Freund to suddenly jump out from behind and put her in detention.

Tammy slid inside the office and turned on the light. She’d just finished dealing with the first curfew infraction of her career. ZeeZee and Rusi had tried to sneak back into the dorm at 11:00, claiming there’d been a big traffic snarl on the way home from Rav Shefa Mall.

Tammy’s natural instinct was telling her to go easy on them, to wink and remind them to leave themselves more time to get back next time, but she knew if she did that, she could say goodbye to her authority for the rest of the year. So instead, feeling like a jerk, Tammy had pulled the two girls into a quiet room and given them a lecture about trust and responsibility.

As soon as she’d walked away, ZeeZee had rolled her eyes at her friends, which Tammy took as a good sign. It meant she felt she’d been disciplined.

Tammy sat down at the secretary’s desk and switched on the computer. She didn’t have Internet at home, and this was the only place she could think do her research. Shani’s face swam in her head, the look of indignation as she’d told Tammy that her mother was demanding she give a blow-by-blow account of every food item she ate, every day.

“Yeah, my mom has major control issues,” Shani had said, as Tammy had clucked sympathetically. “She’s worried I have, like, an eating disorder or something.”

“Why?”

Shani had paused for a moment to stroke Shimmy’s hair. “Who knows? Probably because it would give her one more reason to kvetch about how awful her life is.”

The girl was way too cynical for someone her age, and Tammy had stayed awake later that night wondering how she could help her regain her trust in people.

It was only this morning, as she’d gone on a walk with Shimmy to the makolet, that something else had hit her: the glimpse she’d caught of Shani’s eyes, in that moment of hesitation before she’d answered Tammy’s question.

Maybe it was nothing; maybe it was all in her imagination.

But just to be safe, and because, as eim bayit, this was her job, Tammy had decided to come here tonight. Now, as the screen lit up, Tammy typed in her Google search: Signs of an eating disorder.

to be continued…

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 723)