“Your father is treating you like a five-year-old. Shouldn’t you be making your own decisions about your job?”

There was no reason, absolutely no reason, for her to be nervous.

Please, almost every 18-year-old girl went through this process, and they did it with their hair in casual ponytails and their BFFs cheering them on. Yehudis was older and more mature, and she had work experience, even if it was in a different field. What’s the worst that could happen?

I don’t want to find out, she thought grimly as she fixed up her makeup in the teachers’ bathroom.

In the hallway, she passed Mrs. Eisen, and the principal stopped her. “Yehudis, great. I wanted to talk to you. Do you have a few minutes now?”

Yehudis swallowed. Of course Mrs. Eisen wanted to talk to her. She still hadn’t returned her signed contract, or informed her about her decision regarding the eighth-grade teaching job. “Uh, I was actually—” she stammered. “I need to leave for a bit, I have an appointment….”

“Oh, sure, we can talk later. I just wanted to go over the schedule for the closing assembly on Wednesday.”

Not the contract — the assembly. Phew.

But as she hurried down the stairs of the school building, she was filled with a wistfulness. No more assembly plans. No more school productions. No more students and no more lessons. What was she giving up — and for what?

She arrived at the address her father had given her at exactly 1 p.m. Sruly texted her, Good luck, which was generous of him, considering how he’d protested this interview from the moment they’d left the Herzog home after dinner the previous night.

“Don’t you realize how odd this whole thing is?” he’d asked incredulously. “Did you ever even consider working in mortgages? Did you think about whether you want to start working right after school ends or if you want some time off? Let’s not even discuss that you didn’t plan to give up your teaching job in the first place.” His voice softened. “Your father is treating you like a five-year-old. Shouldn’t you be making your own decisions about your job?”

Yehudis winced. He was asking sharp questions, yet strangely, she felt safe in his presence, sensing how he really wanted to hear her thoughts.