Free Playing With Matches by Suri Rosen Page A

all.

chapter 12
A Loud Rap on the Door

    On Friday morning I bounded to the back of the bus, where Tamara waited for me in our usual seats. She threw her arms around me and squealed. Guilt was biting me, but celebration won out. I really was so happy for her.
    “Congratulations, Tamara! Mazel tov! ”
    The Groomer, one of the bus regulars, stopped flossing.
    “My friend’s engaged — she’s getting married!” I shouted to him. You know it’s a pretty cool day when a guy with a foot of dental floss hanging from his mouth starts looking slightly charming.
    “Do you have a ring?” I said to Tamara.
    “Well, we have to —”
    “Do you have a hall?”
    “We think —”
    “When are you getting married? Talk fast , my stop is coming.”
    Tamara laughed. “Right now all you have to know about is the engagement party. Monday night at the Harmonia.”
    I looked at my only friend as I leaned back in my seat. “I’m so excited, I can’t believe this.”
    “I don’t even know how to thank you,” she said.
    “You don’t have to. I’m the second happiest person in the city today. Okay, maybe third after Jeremy.”
    She shook her head in wonder.
    “How’s the math going?” she said.
    “It’s not,” I said, truthfully. In fact all of my studying had become obliterated by the overpowering Drive to Match.
    “Oh and by the way, listen to this,” Tamara said. “You went to Maimonides, right?”
    “Let’s talk about you, not me!”
    “It’s just that Aviva, you know that friend I mentioned who went there her senior year, is now teaching there —”
    “That’s not as interesting as you,” I said. The back of my neck was starting to burn. “Tell me when the wedding’s going to be and where!”
    We talked wedding and my stop came too quickly. All morning, I wandered the school halls wired, running on a tank of mazel tov . I arrived in English class, full of matchmaking energy, ready to fill the world with love. I was giddy with excitement over tonight’s date. After my emails, Jonathan and Ilana were going out and I had to be on call in case of any problems.
    Today’s class was in the computer lab where Miss Weiss was going to give us a lesson on online scholarly research. I charged through the room and planted myself in the distant corner as groups of chattering girls skipped through the room, claiming clusters of computers. (So they could compute communally, of course.) A blade of light escaped from a gap in the drapes and painted a stripe of heat down my back as I signed into my Matchmaven account.
    Miss Weiss sat at the teaching computer, with the browser projected onto the tattered screen pinned to the wall.
    “Everyone ready?” she said over the hum of the machines.
    A loud rap on the door brought Miss Weiss to her feet. She pulled it open to reveal Mrs. Levine looming in the entrance.
    That’s the thing with Mrs. Levine, she didn’t just stand — she loomed. And as loomers go, Mrs. Levine was a pro.
    Mrs. Levine stepped inside and scanned the room until she cut her eyes on me and then whispered something to Miss Weiss. Miss Weiss bent down to Dahlia Engel, who was predictably sitting at the computer next to hers.
    Dahlia gathered her papers in her knapsack and trudged back to the corner of the lab. My cheeks tingled as she dropped into the seat next to me, rolling her eyes. Shira and Natalie watched the sequence from the other side of the bank of computers, giving each other knowing looks.
    “Can I help you with your searching?” Dahlia said, her voice like ice.
    “Nope. I’m good,” I said, rolling my eyes. With huge gold-framed glasses and shoes that looked like they’d been sitting on the shelves of Value Village the last two years, Dahlia was your garden variety brainiac. You just knew that if she had a pet it would be an educational animal like a snake. Or a gecko.
    “Miss Weiss said that you’d probably need help,” she said, rolling her eyes again. “I really don’t