“Mona Lisa. You’ve never heard of it? The most famous portrait painting in the world, by Leonardo da Vinci”

Three tests scheduled over the next week.

Two announcements over the school’s speaker system, something about GO and Purim.

One substitute, when Mrs. Price didn’t come in for math class.

Just a regular day of school.

Or as regular as it can be, with Kayla at it again. Mimi squints over towards the other side of the room, trying not to seem like she’s looking. What is her sister up to?

“…in 1911,” Kayla says, her voice rising. She’s talking to Chedvi, who looks uncomfortable, like she’s not sure how this conversation began and she’s trying to get out of it. Her eyes keep darting around the room, particularly in Raizy’s direction.

Hadassah Brunner intervenes. “That sounds so interesting, Kayla, but—”

“Oh, you are interested in portrait painting as well?” Kayla asks. “Hadassah,” she tacks on emphatically, almost as if someone’s told her to address others by name and she’d nearly forgotten. “Because Chedvi here,” she points, “was showing Breindy her sketches of her nephew, and since she is clearly interested in the study of portraiture, I was telling them about the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.”