I still marvel that I’ve become the honorary painting leader of the group. But I play it cool.

The school hallways are shadowy and too quiet.

It’s a week into our winter vacation — yup, schools in England have a full couple of weeks off — but we’re here to do scenery, and frankly, I’m glad to have something to do. I’ve been sitting around at Bubby’s place for a few days, and even relaxing gets too much sometimes.

Okay, so I went shopping once with Raizy and hung out with Aunt Chana a few times, spoke to Ima, too — it’s nice not to have to work around a school schedule. It’s also reassuring to hear her voice, hear that everything sounds okay. According to Ima, the political situation is just “staying the same.” Well, as long as it’s all the same, it can’t be too bad, right? I mean, the demonstrations and stuff weren’t even anywhere near them.

In any case, going into school with the others is proving to be a welcome break.

Michal feels along the wall for a light switch and knocks into something. We jump.

“What was that?” Esther squeaks.

“Oooooh,” Sari shudders, grabbing my hand.

The light goes on and we look at each other and burst out laughing. It’s just an empty classroom, what did we expect?

The thought flashes through my mind that I’m part of them, I really am, and it’s ironic that I feel more a part of this little Year 11 scenery group than I’ve ever felt with my own classmates.

“We’re finishing this today or I’ll be really annoyed about giving up an entire day,” says Michal decisively. She’s the one who arranged this whole thing for us, got us permission to use the building, arranged for Miss Berger to come along with us. Now, Miss B. is sitting in the staff room doing her own work, and we have free rein of the building. Or at least the classroom where we work on the scenery.

I settle on the floor, reach for the bottle of green paint. Have to be careful here, it’s nice to be in school in my own clothing, no uniform, but I don’t want to get paint on my cutest skirt.

“So, Ashira, tell us what to do.”

I still marvel that I’ve become the honorary painting leader of the group. But I play it cool.

“Hmm. So I’m working on those extra marketplace stalls — maybe you’ll do it along with me, Esther? Just filling in the details. Sari, wanna put shadows to the left of the houses? Devorah, you could add some birds or something to the tops of the trees and a couple flying in the sky—”