Free The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah by Nora Raleigh Baskin Page B

place.
    Well, that’s not what my day was like.
    Monday morning, picture day, my hair decided to have a life of its own.
    I probably should have washed it the night before, but I had thought it would be too frizzy. Now I looked like a squirrel. There was one big knot in the back I couldn’t get out. I tugged at it.
    â€œMom!” I called out. “I need help.”
    I could hear the water running. I could hear my dad and Sammy talking downstairs, so that meant it was my mom in theshower. I looked at my clock. The bus came in fifteen minutes. I was on my own. I couldn’t remember what background we had picked for the photos, so I didn’t know what color shirt to wear. Last year I wore a purple shirt against the green background and it looked like puke.
    I needed something neutral. Black or white or gray. I didn’t own anything gray. My favorite white long-sleeved T-shirt was in the wash. It could be there for weeks. I had a black cotton turtleneck, and if I stretched the neck out so it hung loose, it looked pretty good on me. It was a little early, still warm outside—the beginning of October—but I thought I could get away with it.
    I finally got my hair combed neatly. It hung pretty straight, shiny and dark. I had a little clear mascara that I combed across my eyebrows to keep them in line. I pinched my cheeks to make them red. I rolled my strawberry lip gloss over my lips. I looked into my bedroom mirror. What did I want people to see? I practiced a smile or two that I could use for my individual picture.
    A face that I sort of knew, but sort of didn’t, smiled back.
    That’s when I took out the necklace from the top drawer of my dresser for the third time. I didn’t hesitate. I unhooked the clasp and reached my arms around the back of my neck. I couldn’t see the mechanism but I could feel it, and with my fingers I fit the two pieces back together. It locked into place and hung perfectly around my neck.
    You could barely see the delicate links of the chain under the fold of the turtleneck, but the pendant was like a golden star in a black sky. Today I would wear my necklace.

24
    Things Are Looking Up Already
    â€œI like your necklace,” Megan said to me when I got on the bus and sat down on the seat next to her. I shoved my backpack under my feet and rested my hands on my knees.
    â€œOh, thanks,” I said.
    She didn’t say anything, but I was so ready with my answer that I gave it to her anyway.
    â€œI’m Jewish,” I told her. “I mean I’m half and half. Sort of.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œWell, my mom is Jewish and my dad isn’t.”
    â€œOh.”
    I got the feeling Megan wasn’t all that interested, but I went on. “I just found out that my grandparents didn’t want my mom to marry my dad because he wasn’t Jewish. They tried to bribe her with a car. So I’m not sure what I am, really.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI mean…”
    We were coming up to Ryan Berk’s stop.
    â€œI mean, if I’m Jewish it might upset my dad, right? And my mom doesn’t care either way. In fact, I get the feeling that if I wanted to be Jewish, it would upset her, too. Because of that car thing, you know?”
    â€œBoy, that’s funny,” Megan said.
    The bus hissed as it slowed down.
    â€œIt is, isn’t it?”
    The doors opened and Ryan appeared on the steps and then inside the bus. He never looked at me once. He walked right by and headed all the way to the back.
    â€œHe likes you,” Megan said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œRyan Berk. He likes you, you can tell. By the way he never looks at you.”
    â€œHe does? No, he doesn’t,” I said. Did he? And as ridiculous as Megan’s theory sounded, I found myself wanting it to be true. “How do you know?”
    â€œHe goes out of his way not to look at you,” Megan went on. “I’ve been noticing