Purely Superficial Level, Sarah K.\'s

¶ … purely superficial level, Sarah K.'s life was great. She had the newest style of cell phone and lots of friends on her AIM buddy list. She was an only child, so she had no competition for her parent's mall spending budget but she did have a BFF (Best Friend Forever) named Lindsay, who was like a sister. Her parents had a housekeeper, so she had no chores to interfere with her busy schedule as the president of her 7th grade class or her practices for middle school track. She was pretty enough to have a sort-of boyfriend, but not so pretty that the other girls said nasty things about her behind her back. She got all as in school, she had her own room, and a Chihuahua named Whisky. Sarah even liked the fact she was Sarah K., which distinguished her in status from the other Sarah in her class, Sarah C. Sarah K. sounded like a far cooler name.

But what sucked about Sarah K.'s life was that she had only ONE of all of the things she loved the most in life. Life was UNFAIR because Lindsay had everything that Sarah had, only twice over because Lindsay's parents were DIVORCED. Lindsay had two rooms, one with a pink canopy bed in the Connecticut suburbs with her mom during the week, and another cool lime green retro room in her father's apartment in Manhattan. Lindsay had a Golden Retriever and a lop-eared bunny with her mom -- her father had a cat. Lindsay didn't get straight as, but on the weekends, at her dad's she took singing lessons from a REAL LIVE BROADWAY ACTRESS. Sarah had to go to track practices at the school.

On Sundays, Sarah K. would be having another BORING meal with her parents at TGIF or the local Chinese place, while Lindsay would be out with her father at a fancy sushi place, picking up fancy little pieces of protein with chopsticks that she knew how to use perfectly, while she grilled her father's new girlfriend about life. Her father never said that she had to be polite to the girlfriends, like Sarah K.'s parents were always telling Sarah that she had to be polite to guests or 'or else.' Sometimes, if Lindsay's dad wanted some quality alone with his girlfriend, Lindsay was allowed to stay his apartment alone and order in whatever she wanted, watch whatever she wanted on TV, surf the Internet, and talk for as long as she desired on the phone.

Lindsay celebrated Hanukah with her dad and Christmas with her mom, so she got tons more presents than Sarah. She was going to have a Bat Mitzvah and a Sweet Sixteen -- Sarah and Lindsay were already planning these things. If Lindsay ever had a fight with her mom, Lindsay would say that she was going to hop on the train and go straight to Manhattan, and then her mom would cry and let her have her way. If she got in a fight with her dad (which was rare, because she only saw him two days a week during the school year) Lindsay would let her eyes fill with tears and say: 'But daddy, let's not fight because I have to go home on Sunday night,' and he'd ignore Lindsay's C. In pre-Algebra.