“Oh Gretchen!” Janie said. “You and that Hebrew school business. Can’t you get out of it?”
“I’d love to,” Gretchen explained. “But I’ve got one more year and then I’m through.”
“What about you, Margaret? Do you go?” Janie asked me.
“You mean to Hebrew school?”
“Yes.”
“No, I don’t go,” I said.
“Margaret doesn’t even go to Sunday school. Isn’t that right,” Nancy asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“How’d you arrange that?” Gretchen asked.
“I’m not any religion,” I said.
“You’re not?” Gretchen’s mouth fell open.
“What are your parents?” Janie asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“How positively neat!” Gretchen said.
…
“But if you aren’t any religion, how are you going to know if you should join the Y or the Jewish Community Center?” Janie asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I never thought about it. Maybe we won’t join either one.”
But everybody belongs to one or the other,” Nancy said.
Judy Blume: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret