Anne Frank and Me (5 page)
Authors: Cherie Bennett
“Why do you do that?” His dark eyes probed hers.
“Do what?”
“Blow off reading like you're an airhead, when you're not.”
Nicole shrugged. How could she possibly care about something as trivial as a book right now?
“Unreal,” David muttered. “I don't believe it.”
“What?”
He pointed at Doom, who was hanging out near the curb with three of his identically dressed friends. The Doom Squad, everyone called them. “I can't believe he showed for this.”
“Me, neither,” Mimi agreed.
David's eyes narrowed. “His walls are probably covered with Hitler memorabilia.”
“Come on, lighten up,” Nicole said. But when she looked over at Doom, she felt uneasy, too.
David's gaze swung back to Nicole and he cleared his throat nervously. “So, Nicole, maybe we could sit together on theâ”
“Nicole?” She felt the lightest touch on her shoulder. Him. She gazed up into Jack's electric blue eyes. “Listen, can we sit together on the bus? I really want to talk to you.”
“Sure.”
“Great.”
Dizzy with happiness, she watched Jack stride back to his friends. Then Zoomsâvoice got her attention as David drifted away. “Burns, Berg, Gullet, Polin, McPhee,” the teacher read, checking names off her list. “The rest of you will be on the next bus. Lee, Simmons, Baker, et cetera.”
“Now I won't get to watch you and Jack,” Mimi moped.
“What if he forgets he asked me to sit with him?”
“Since you can't seem to retain this, I say we tattoo it on your butt:
Jack likes Nicole.
It's so sixth grade.”
Jack likes Nicole.
It's so sixth grade.”
“Please board your buses in an orderly fashion,” John Urkin, the new high school principal, called through a bullhorn.
From the crowd, Eddie taunted, “Urk-urk-urk-Urkin!”
“He's such a butthole,” Mimi told Nicole.
“Who, Urkin?”
“Eddie. Someone told me Urkin was a medic in Vietnam. He risked his life and has a bunch of medals or something.”
Nicole regarded her balding, middle-aged, soft-spoken principal, who stood near the flagpole with his bullhorn. “I don't think so. I mean, look at the guy.”
“I'm looking. Think he's ever had sex?”
“More often than we have,” Nicole replied. Mimi laughed.
“Miss Burns, kindly go board your bus,” Zooms ordered. “Miss Baker, kindly move it.”
By the time Nicole reached her bus, it was already full. The only empty seat was near the back. Next to Jack. He had saved it for her. She felt helium-balloon buoyant as she walked down the aisle, passing couples on both sides of her. Now, she was part of a couple, too.
“'S great getting sprung from school, huh?” Jack asked, as she slid into the seat next to him.
“Definitely.”
His fingers drummed on the leg of his jeans as the bus pulled out. “So, how's your dance thing coming along?”
“Judge tor yourself when you see it.”
“Last year you and Mimi had a different girl dancing in the group, didn't you?”
“Yeah.” Jack had noticed that her trio had danced in last year's talent show. Shocking. That meant he'd had his eye on her for a long time. How could she have been so oblivious? “Sara Cambridge,” Nicole continued. “She moved to Florida. Suzanne's better anyway. We might make an audition tape for MTV.”
“Oh, yeah? Cool.” Jack hesitated. “Nicole, there's something I've been wanting to tell youâ”
“Go ahead,” Nicole encouraged, as the bus turned onto the interstate.
“I feel like I can really talk to you.”
“You can,” she assured him.
“Yeah.” He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned his head back on the seat. “I can't believe how hard this is.”
How sweet was he? That a guy like him could have such a hard time talking about his feelings for a girl like her made her love him even more. She put her hand lightly on his arm. “Jack? You can tell me anything. Really.”
Then it happened. He put an arm around her shoulders and leaned closer. “I wanted to say something to you at your house last night,” he admitted, his voice low, “butâI should just come out and say it. Right?”
She nodded. Their eyes met, in unspoken union.
“Nicole,” he whispered into her ear.
“Yes?”
“It's about ...”
“Yes?”
“It's about Suzanne. I'm crazy about her.”
The world turned upside down. “You ... what?”
“I think about her all the time, it's really crazy. So I wanted to ask you, since you're friends with her and everything. Could you find out if she likes me?”
“You want me toâ”
“I know it's lame,” he rushed on. “She's so gorgeous. And really nice, don't you think? But when I'm around her, I'm so freaked I can't even look at her. SoâI know it's a lot to askâcould you be a friend and find out if she likes me at all?”
“Yeah. Sure.” Nicole bit the inside of her lip; a trickle of blood oozed into her mouth.
“That's great, Nicole. Thanks. I mean it.”
He enveloped her in the hug she had dreamt about for so long. It was everything she wanted. And, at the same time, exactly what she knew she would never, ever have.
six
It's about Suzanne.
Dozens of buses from various schools were parked outside the state museum, including some from East High, West's big rivals, as more than a thousand kids waited to be admitted into the museum. One of them was Nicole; there, but not there.
I'm crazy about her.
“West High students, attention, please.” Mr. Urkin was using his bullhorn again. “We need everyone's cooperation. It will take approximately two hours to go through the Anne Frank exhibit. Following that, we'll visit the permanent collection of the state museum.” Coach Carr whispered something to Mr. Urkin, who reluctantly raised the bullhorn to his lips again. “And yes, we'll be back at school in time for our football team to prepare for the game tomorrow against East High's Lions.”
Coach Carr pumped his fist in the air. “Eat âem, Bears! ”he shouted. West's kids cheered. Across the plaza, the East students booed lustily. Nicole was only dimly aware, as if she were half-watching a television show she wasn't much inter ested in. Jack's words played over and over in her mind, a wound etched on her heart.
Mr. Urkin made another announcementâthat one of the buses had a flat tire and would be late. They'd begin the tour anyway. Mimi's bus, Nicole thought dully. That's why she isn't here.
Zooms beckoned to her students. “Shake a leg, people. Move in close so you can all hear me.”
Someone touched her arm. David. “Nicole? You okay?”
“Fine.” Her masochistic eyes sought out Jack. He was in the center of a crowd, laughing at something Eddie had just said. It hurt to look at him. It hurt not to. He had no idea that he'd just smashed her heart into a million pieces. The funny thing was, Nicole knew he'd feel terrible if he knew But it still wouldn't make him love her. Nothing would.
Zooms edged closer to her students. “Listen up, because I will not be repeating myself. We're going inside now Your late classmates will join us there. I've prepared something special for you. You will each receive an envelope with your name on it. Inside, you'll find your new identity for the duration of this tour. All of you are about to become contemporaries of Anne Frank.”
The students stood impassively as Zooms held up a fistful of envelopes. “Some of you will live, and some of you will die. Some of you will hide, some of you will hide others. Some of you will be shot. Many of you will be deported. You may watch your family members march to their deaths. Some of you will be gassed.” A hush came over the group.
“At the end of our experience today,” Zooms continued, “you'll receive another envelope. Only then will you discover what happened to you; if you lived or if you died.” She began barking out last names in a military fashion. One by one the students got their envelopes.
“Burns.” Zooms handed Nicole an envelope with her name on it. She opened it.
You are a Jewish girl named Nicole Bernhardt. You were born in 1927 in Paris, France, and you still live there. You have a sister who is five years younger. Your parents are Renée and Jean. Your father is a famous doctor. You are a smart girl but you do not like school; you are outgoing, popular, and a wonderful dancer, and you can play the piano. The year is now 1942. You are fifteen years old.
All around Nicole, her classmates read their biographies.
“Listen, are you sure you're okay, Nicole?” David asked her again. “You're really pale.”
“I'm fine. Please stop asking me that.” She got into one of the lines snaking toward the entrance, David right behind her. She was hyperaware of Jack, in the next line.
So, could you be a friend and find out if she likes me at all?
Yeah, sure.
David looked to see who had Nicole's attention and spotted Jack. “Figures,” he mumbled.
Security at the museum was tight. The students had to pass a gauntlet of six burly men clad in dark suits, with ear-pieces and small microphones on their lapels. Nicole moved forward, staring at the angel tattoo on the back of Julie Needers' neck. Her boyfriend, Peter something-or-other, draped an arm over the tattoo. “Hey, Jul, check those dudes out. Jewish Gestapo,” he said.
“Not funny,” Julie snapped.
Peter gave a mock Nazi salute to the security detail, who didn't react. Julie poked him. “Cut it out, I mean it. You want people to think you're in the Doom Squad?”
“Well, what is up with this?” Peter groused. “Do they think we're gonna blow up the exhibit?”
“All it takes is one idiot,” David insisted, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You wanna risk that?”
“Whatever. If we don't kick East's butt tomorrow, I'm gonna blow up the football field,” Peter joked. David didn't smile. “Yo, David, it's a joke. Chill out.”
Nicole put her backpack on the conveyor through the X-ray machine. From the next line:
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
She looked to see who had set off the metal detector. Doom. An imposing security guard stepped over to him. “Young man, please step this way and put your feet on the marks on the floor.”
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
She looked to see who had set off the metal detector. Doom. An imposing security guard stepped over to him. “Young man, please step this way and put your feet on the marks on the floor.”
The crowd buzzed as Doom hit the proper marks, arms out to the sides. He stared blankly as the guard passed a metal-sensitive wand over him. “Hey, make sure you get the plate in his head,” Eddie cracked.
“Go on, young man, you're fine,” the security guard told Doom. “It was the grommets on your boots.”
The crowd dispersed; Nicole spotted Zooms in front of a large photograph with white lettering. Anne Frank. She trudged over and idly read the caption.
SINCE ITS FIRST PUBLICATION IN 1947, MILLIONS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAVE READ THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, GIVING A SUCCESSION OF NEW GENERATIONS A PENETRATING LOOK AT THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS DURING WORLD WAR II. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE A JEWISH CHILD HIDING IN THE NETHERLANDS DURING THE NAZI OCCUPATION? WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GO THROUGH EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY AFRAID OF BEING DISCOVERED, AND WONDERING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN AFTERWARD? ANNE FRANK, HER FAMILY AND A FEW OF THEIR FRIENDS SPENT MORE THAN TWO YEARS HIDDEN IN THE SECRET ANNEX. A FEW OF HER FATHER'S EMPLOYEES HELPED THEM, THEREBY RISKING THEIR OWN LIVES.
“Amazing, isn't it?” David asked, joining her.
Not again, Nicole thought. Can't he just leave me alone?
“I guess Mimi's on the bus with the flat,” he added.
Mimi. How was she ever going to tell Mimi about Jack? And Suzanne? Suzanne and Jack would become a couple and they'd feel so sorry for her because she had been pathetic enough to believe that Jackâ
Suddenly, Nicole knew that she could not take one more minute of standing there, pretending that her entire life hadn't just been ruined. “Excuse me,” she blurted out, spotting the sign for the ladies' room. “I have toâ”
She took off. “Miss Bernhardt!” It vaguely registered that Zooms was calling her by her new identity. But Nicole didn't stop. All she could think of was escape. She burst into the ladies' room and collided with a girl on her way out.
“Sorry.”
“Hey, Nicole, it's me.”
It was Claire Levin, who lived three doors down from the Burnses. They'd been friends until third grade; then Claire's parents had enrolled her in a private Jewish academy. “Did you come with your school?” Claire asked.
Nicole nodded.
“So, how are you?” Claire asked eagerly She had the same chubby cheeks she'd had as a little girl, the same mop of red curls. “It's so funny, running into you like this. I was just thinkingâ”
“Sorry, I'm sick,” Nicole interrupted, rushing into a stall and locking it behind her.
“Nicole?” Claire called. “Is there someone you want me to get for you?”
“No. Thanks.”
“I'll wait. To make sure you're okay.”
“No. I mean, I'm all right. You can go.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I'll call you.”
Moments later, Nicole heard the click of the ladies' room door as Claire left. Then, in that tiny oasis of privacy that smelled of pine cleanser, with KARA Is A FAT PIG scrawled on the wall, she let the tears come.
Other books
Marianne, the Magus & the Manticore by Sheri S. Tepper
Einstein's Genius Club by Feldman, Burton, Williams, Katherine
Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer by Cyrus Mistry
Captured by Vikings (An MMF Bisexual Threesome) by Roxie Noir
Murder Bone by Bone by Lora Roberts
Through Dead Eyes by Chris Priestley
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
Cat Kin by Nick Green