My Teenage Werewolf by Lauren Kessler

Author:Lauren Kessler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

The party, for all its supposed cultural significance (thirteen), for all its prefunction turmoil (venue, guest list), and for all the anxiety (mine), is just a party. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly. Some end-of-childhood epiphany played out before me? A coming of age aha moment during which I see my daughter as the adult she will become rather than the child she no longer is? A kind of aquatic bat mitzvah? In fact, it’s pretty much your standard kids’ pool party. Lizzie and her friends swim, splash, throw beach balls, attempt to stand on kickboards, whip each other with Styrofoam noodles, push each other into the pool, get yelled at by the lifeguard, eat cake with their hands. Lizzie seems completely relaxed and utterly unself-conscious as she jumps in and out of the pool. She is wearing baggy, knee-length surfer shorts and a bikini top, her official swim outfit. I had thought—projecting—that her choice not to wear a regular swimsuit had to do with feeling uncomfortable about her body. Now, watching her, I see no signs of discomfort. Just the opposite. She, like her friends, is caught up in the moment, carefree, acting like a kid, like a ten-year-old. Hooray for childhood, I think. Let them hold on as long as they can. Let there be times like this when no one talks about the meaning of sixty-nine or describes the taste of vodka.

But the kids do eventually reveal some of their teenage selves. Weary of an hour and a half of horseplay, the girls cluster at one end of the pool and stage whisper to each other about the boys, and the boys gather at the other end of the pool and pretend to ignore the girls.

Happily, everyone ignores me. But just in case one of Lizzie’s friends should happen to glance my way, I wrap myself, sarong-style, in an oversized beach towel.

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