Honey and Me by Meira Drazin

Author:Meira Drazin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

My mother wins, and I lay out the pale blue dress to wear to Natalie’s bat mitzvah. Right after Shabbat, Tali and Sophie come over, and we get ready together. Sophie blow-dries my hair and then curls it into big waves with a curling iron she got for her bat mitzvah. Tali has brought a makeup kit she got for her bat mitzvah and does all our makeup.

“I’ve been watching videos,” she says as she deftly opens its drawers to find me the right blush. I look at Sophie expertly wielding her curling iron. They are both wearing the dresses they wore to their bat mitzvahs.

“Hey, I have an idea,” I tell them. “Why don’t you trade sashes for tonight? That way you’ll look a little different from your own parties?” Their faces light up, and they wordlessly reach behind themselves to untie their bows and hand them to the other. I feel my face light up too. “And how about instead of wearing it in a bow, you can tie it like this—” I demonstrate on Tali what I think is a more sophisticated knot, settling it to the front and slightly off-center.

“Ooh, do mine,” Sophie says as Tali admires herself in the mirror.

“Sure!” I say, swiftly doing Sophie’s tie and nudging it to the opposite side from how I did Tali’s.

“C’mon, girls!” my dad hollers, and we tumble down the stairs and into the car, giggling in the back seat the whole way.

When we get there, two coachmen open the doors for us, and when we enter the hotel lobby, we are handed fancy glittery masks to hold against our faces with a stick. The music is pulsing, and Natalie rushes over to greet us, sweeping me, Tali, and Sophie into the exciting atmosphere. The party becomes a whir. Dancers from a famous troupe appear, and Natalie puts on a gold leotard and performs with them. There’s no best friend’s speech: Natalie told us last week that her parents aren’t having any speeches at all—they think they’re boring! Instead there is a video of celebrities wishing Natalie “Mazal Tov” on her bat mitzvah. There is a real DJ, and a band, and all the kids in my class dance—me, Tali, and Sophie too—jumping up and down in one big circle. I keep finding myself next to Noam in the heaving huddle, and I wonder if it is just coincidence. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see my mother dancing in a huddle with some other mothers. We all agree this is extremely embarrassing and that we should try as hard as we can not to look!

Everyone seems to be having an awesome time.

Does that mean that, despite Natalie’s family always showing off their money, a lot of people still like them? I think about my relationship with Natalie: She gets on my nerves sometimes, but it wouldn’t be truthful to say I don’t enjoy spending time with her. I didn’t like it when it felt like she was trying to steal Honey from me.

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