Polly and Molly were really good friends. Not besties, but close. Polly didn’t believe in best friends, and Molly had a twin sister who was officially her BFF. However, everyone who knew Molly and Polly considered the girls to be best friends. Molly and Polly did a lot together, including studying, guitar lessons and sharing feelings. Molly knew she could rely on Polly for anything, and Polly felt the same about Molly.
One afternoon, the girls were sitting in the cafeteria at school, talking about a project they were working on. Their teacher created the working pairs, so Molly and Polly did not end up together. Molly was paired up with Dana, while Polly worked with Shana. (Dana and Shana were also besties.) “So, how’s the project going?” Molly asked her friend. “Great,” Polly responded. “We’re working on a rap that we will present as a slideshow while standing in our own life-sized diorama. What about you?” Molly frowned. “I’m really having trouble with Dana. She doesn’t seem to want to work hard and just wants to get the thing done as quickly as possible. I think she just wants to make a poster, and that’s it. So, naturally, I’m doing all of the work. And now that I started working on it, I’m not sure Dana is even going to make the poster part. It’s really annoying.”
At that point, Dana came and sat down next to the girls. Molly and Polly gave each other a wide-eyed look. Fortunately, Dana didn’t notice the look, nor did it seem like she heard what Molly had said. “Hey Mol and Pol. What’s up?” The girls looked up, and in unison said, “Nothing much.” A slightly suspicious look flashed across Dana’s face, but it was gone as soon as it came. “Can I sit?” Both girls “happily” agreed, and lunch carried on as usual with the now three girls eating, talking and laughing. When lunch ended, Dana turned to Molly. “So, are we on for going to the mall tomorrow night? My dad said he could drive.” Molly nodded. “Totally.” Dana then turned to Polly. “Polly, do you want to come also? There’s a nice sale at Lala Lolo, buy 17, get a free pair of socks!” Polly shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m busy.”
That evening, Molly sat down to watch her favorite show, “So You Think You Can Be America’s Worst Celebrity Farmer?” It was down to the finals, and Molly was really hoping that her favorite celebrity bad farmer, Jonas Joseph, would win. However, 42 anxious minutes and four State Farm ads later, Jonas was announced as the runner-up. Molly was devastated! Once her tears had finally run out, she picked up her phone and messaged Polly to tell her the terrible news. (Polly didn’t watch the show, so Molly didn’t spoil anything.) Molly noticed the check mark, meaning that Polly read the message, but Polly didn’t respond. For the next few hours, Molly checked her phone over and over, but still no response from Polly. Molly went to bed sad and insulted, vowing not to talk to Polly the next day.
The following morning, Molly kept to her promise, not saying a word to Polly. Polly noticed quickly and begged Molly for an explanation. When Molly finally gave in, Polly was shocked. First, she was surprised that Molly actually cared so much. (“I honestly thought you were joking!”) However her bigger surprise was how Molly reacted. How could she be so mad at Polly after an innocent mistake, and have no problem going to the mall with Dana, who had been forcing Molly to do all the work for their project?! It made no sense! Of course, this made Polly mad at Molly, which made Molly even more mad at Polly, and so on and so forth.
Molly and Polly successfully avoided each other most of the day, but ran into each other during dismissal (literally). Each girl was running to catch her bus, and came to the main doors at the same time, crashing into each other. Molly was the first one to her feet. She pointed at Polly and started to shout.
“You are always supposed to be there for me even for silly things! You are my person and I’m always there for you. That’s why I’m so upset! Dana doesn’t matter to me like you do, so that’s why I’m not mad at her!
“It’s like when Yaakov was leaving Eretz Canaan and said that if Hashem was with him and protected him, then He would be Yaakov’s permanent God! Yaakov wasn’t being rude to Hashem, he was recognizing that he and Hashem had a relationship that required Hashem to be involved and help! If he hadn’t respected the relationship, he wouldn’t have expected anything from Hashem!”
After Molly finished her rant, the girls turned to their class and bowed. “Bravo!” cheered Morah Fink. “You definitely understood the lesson from Parshat Vayeitze! And you did a beautiful job putting it into a skit! A-plus!”
Yair Daar is the director of Student Life at Bicultural Hebrew Academy High School. He can be reached at [email protected].
