I let out a loud breath; a curl blows out of my eyes. "Mrs. Fuerst is waiting for her worksheets," I say loudly.

Ratzy looks up from a phone call and raises a finger at me. I roll my eyes inwardly and look around for Mrs. Geller. She's off to the side, collating booklets.

"Do you have Mrs. Fuerst's worksheets?" I ask, slightly impatient. She points to a stack near her, and I glide over to gather them up.

I'm almost out the door when I hear Mrs. Geller say, "Well, it took six months, but she's one of them now."

Ratzy gives a little laugh. "And she was so sweet, too."

They don't even try to lower their voices.

I blink, hard, and then continue on my way, shifting the stack of worksheets to my other arm. But I forget to glide.

Rachel Ahuva (Rara) Brick hates change. While she knows there will be drastic adjustments when her family moves to a new city, nothing could prepare her for the high price she will have to pay in order to fit in- or what she'll have to sacrifice to that end.

Like her best friends. Her relationship with her sisters. And her very self...

Originally serialized in Mishpacha's Teen Pages as "Bricks and Ladders," this is a book that speaks to the teenager within each one of us. At some points poignant and thought-provoking, at other times uproariously funny, but always incredibly true-to-life, Bricks and Stones is a novel that reaches the reader's heart, teen and adult alike.

By Ariella Schiller