It was SO UNFAIR. I could feel hot tears start to prick my eyes, so I blinked fast.
But I think Mrs. Maldonado noticed, because she tugged me away from Aria and Harper, who were laughing hysterically at some nose studs.
“Norah,” she said quietly. “This has nothing to do with your being sick. It’s just regular girl stuff, you know? I was glad to do it for Aria, and now I’m glad to do it for you. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, feeling my face relax into a smile.
Because: “regular girl stuff”?
Those were like the three happiest words ever.
* * *
When I got home, Nicole was in the kitchen. This time, instead of greeting me with a hug and chicken potpie, she yelled. “Norah, where were you?”
“At the mall with my friends.” I stared at her, shocked by the yelling. Also by the fact that she was there. “Dad said you’d be coming at suppertime.”
“I left work early. To be here for you!”
“Oh. You didn’t have to do that.”
“No, I realize that, but I wanted to. You were supposed to come straight home. What were you doing at the mall?”
Probably it was stupid of me, but I’d always thought Nicole and I were friends. I mean, she’d never acted all parent-y; she even called me “girl” sometimes. So I thought if I showed her my earlobes, she’d understand how I felt about the “young man” stuff. She’d empathize.
I pointed to my ears. With my Regular Girl Stuff silver studs.
“What?” Nicole demanded. “What are you showing me?” The earrings must have caught the light or something, because suddenly she understood. “Oh! Norah, you didn’t. No way!”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What’s wrong? Norah, you went out and got your ears pierced? Without your parents’ permission?”
“No, no. I had their permission! Mom even said she’d take me!”
“When she was here, in New York, which she obviously isn’t! Does she even know about this?”
Now I was getting angry. Since when had Nicole taken Mom’s side against me? And why was she yelling?
“Something happened in school today that meant I couldn’t wait for Mom,” I said. “And I’ll explain that to her.”
“Go ahead!” Nicole crossed her arms like: I dare you.
“I will. I was going to Skype with her later, anyway.”
“No, Norah. I want you to call her now. And I want to listen in.”
“Are you serious?” I squealed. “Anyhow, there’s a time difference with California. And she could be teaching.”
“If it’s inconvenient, she won’t pick up. Just call her!”
“Nicole, back off,” I said, my voice shaking with anger. “This has nothing to do with you, okay? You’re not even in my family, so truthfully, what I do with my earlobes isn’t any of your business!”
“If that’s how you feel about me, fine,” she snapped. “Nice to know.”
I went to my room and slammed the door.
HERA
I didn’t call Mom right away, because first I wanted to calm down. For about an hour I plopped on my bed and drew krakens—swirly, spiky, tentacled creatures with suction cups and angry eyes. I also drew my new dragon earrings—not as earrings, but as twin creatures I named Flame and Sizzle. Although those names kind of sounded like a hamburger restaurant (The Flame ’n’ Sizzle), so I changed my mind.
Then I read D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. I told myself I was doing homework, deciding on my god for the English project—even though it never occurred to me to pick anyone besides Persephone. Because not only did I love that story, but also the whole thing about the daughter being separated from her mother kind of applied to me, in a way. I mean, it wouldn’t be super-hard to empathize with Persephone.
At nine p.m. (my time), I called Mom. As soon as I saw her nonsmiling face on my laptop, I knew she’d already heard about my ears.
“Dad texted me,” she said. “Nicole called him with the news. Why couldn’t you wait for me, like we agreed?”
I told her about the stupid sub. And then, because without knowing the rest, the stupid sub’s mistake wouldn’t seem important, I told her about Griffin. Not that I had a crush on him, not the kraken stuff, just that he was sort of a friend whose opinion I cared about. But I think she understood anyway.
Also, I told her how Astrid had laughed at me. And how Thea was all Poor you.
“Norah, you can’t let other people rule your life,” Mom said. “If that sub was too sleepy to get a good look at you, who cares what he thinks. And those girls sound nasty, anyway.”
“I know, but—”
“Are you going to punch holes in your ears every time someone says a stupid or mean thing? Because your ears are going to be Swiss cheese.”
It was such a ridiculous image that we both had to laugh.
Then Mom said she was mad at Aria’s mom for not checking with her about the earring thing. I begged her not to say anything to Mrs. Maldonado, who was only trying to be nice by doing Regular Girl Stuff. And I showed Mom my silver balls and also the green dragons, which she admitted were incredibly cool.
“All right,” she finally said, exhaling. “So here’s what I have to say about all this: I’m upset that you didn’t wait for me, Norah. But I’m much moreupset that you did it behind our backs, when you’d promised Dad and me that we could trust you.”
I chewed on my lip. “Sorry.”
“Because seriously, honey, do I have to spell this out for you? If your friends do something dumb, if they get their ears pierced somewhere unsanitary, they get an infection. Big deal. But you’re in a completely different category, you know? You can’t just . . .” She shook her head helplessly.
I knew what she wanted to say: You can’t just make normal growing-up mistakes. Because nothing will ever be normal for you. Or for any of us. Not completely.
Because you’re not a Regular Girl.
“Mom, it was completely sanitary,”
