“Hey, what’s up with you?” Ella asks. “You didn’t have a good time?”

“Sure, I did,” Mimi says. “It was just… you know…”

Ella’s eyebrows draw together. Tzippy looks confused.

“Kayla,” supplies Shoshana. “Right?”

It’s a relief that someone else said it. “Yeah,” Mimi says glumly. “I didn’t… I mean, my parents asked me to invite her, you know that?”

“I figured,” Shoshana says drily, but the others shake their heads.

“I mean, I know she’s, like, a little different and all that, but it wasn’t such a big deal to have her join, she just sat and read the whole time in any case,” Tzippy says.

“Yeah, I mean, the whole grade was there, I think it was nice that we invited her to join,” Ella adds. “Although — your parents wanted us to invite her tonight, as well?”

“Nah, Kayla wouldn’t have agreed to it anyway. She needs eight hours of sleep to ‘function adequately,’” Mimi air-quotes.

“That’s about double what I sleep,” Tzippy says with a grin.

Tzippy’s nighttime habits are legendary in their little group. She has a family of night owls; they’re regularly all up past two a.m.

“Should we invite her to join us tomorrow as well?” Shoshana asks Mimi. “I mean, I know you find it hard to have her, like, tagging along, but if your parents asked… we’ll be okay.”

The brownies suddenly taste bitter. Mimi pushes the plate aside. “Wasn’t today enough?” she mumbles.

“Aw, c’mon, she’s kinda cute once you get to know what she’s like,” Tzippy says.

Kinda cute?

Mimi looks over at Ella, but she’s nodding along, and suddenly, Mimi feels very alone. How can they not see it, what do they think it’s like for her, being associated with Kayla, having to be reminded of their connection every time she acted strange or said something totally socially off?

Easy for them to do their chesed of the day and invite her along with them. No one looks at them and judges them for Kayla’s behavior. She thinks of Raizy Reich and cringes.

“Okay, whatever, I’ll call her first thing in the morning, see if she wants to come.”

Thank goodness for Kayla’s set-in-stone bedtime. And hopefully, by the morning, Kayla will have some non-negotiable plans for the day. Like researching the habits of the ancient Greeks or something.

But when morning comes, the foursome sleep right through Ella’s alarm clock and almost miss the bus.

“Yiiiikes!” Ella squeals, throwing off her blanket and letting it land on Mimi with a soft thud. “We need to be outta here in, like, less than 20 minutes!”

“Oh, my goodness!”

Mimi scrambles into her clothes while Ella dashes downstairs to give Juanita instructions.

“Isn’t it useful to have a housekeeper to pack up lunch for us?” Tzippy observes. “If we’d be by my place, we’d be missing the bus right now.”

Shoshana nudges Mimi. “If you were gonna call Kayla, you’d better do it now,” she says.

Mimi’s heart sinks. Somehow, she’d forgotten about that.

Tzippy tosses her the phone. Ma picks up on the first ring.

“What’s going on, honey? You left something behind?”

“No, no, nothing, we’re almost ready to go. I just wanted…” Mimi swallows. “I wanted you to ask Kayla if she wants to come along?”

Ma is quiet. Through the phone, it’s impossible to guess what she’s thinking.

“Kayla’s going to the water park already,” Ma says finally. “Some other classmates of yours invited her to go with them.”

Other classmates? Which ones, exactly? Hadassah? Breindy?

Mimi’s mind wars between curiosity, relief, and a sudden surge of shame.

It should be good news, that someone else is taking Kayla under their wing, that Mimi’s off the hook. But somehow, even without seeing the wordless disapproval in Ma’s eyes, she feels… small.

(Originally featured in Teen Pages, Issue 918)