Authors Note: Somehow, I found myself writing about Sarah Jacobs in history class, in the middle of a movie about the battle of the Somme. WWI does funny things to a writer's mind. Anyway, read and review please! Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
You probably know a girl just like Sarah Jacobs. A girl who listens to her mother, and sets the table and loves her father, despite his misgivings. She's a cliché, she's too perfect. Sarah Jacobs knows she's that girl.
She loves Jack Kelly because she's expected to, because it provides the happy ending. Their love fits into the context of her life, and who is she to go against that? She will ignore the subtle hints of infidelity, the whispers and rumors and silent accusations, the stories of other girls. She will march past the blatant harassment from Jack's boys, she will try to forget about Skittery's wink, Spot's smirk, or Blink's murmured proposal, as appealing as they sometimes seem. Sarah Jacobs will stay loyal.
She watches over her brothers, even as their lives twist out of her clinging grasp. She will sit and watch as David slips further under Jack's spell and deserts the logical. She will watch as he forgets about school and literature and everything that their parents worked so hard for. She will try to stop Les from growing into a replication of Jack, a Lothario orphan with a heart of gold and a distant dream. She will keep her mother sane, keep her father sane. Sarah Jacobs will try to keep her family together.
She waits for her life to change, for things to excite her again. The strike is over, and she is no longer the queen on Jack's crumbling throne. She's not quite sure when her crown got taken away, but she knows that it's gone. And that's enough. Sarah Jacobs will try to restore herself to glory.
She starts to save her small salary in hopes of a white wedding, a white picket fence, and a groom who will finally grow up. She will work her fingers to the bone creating fine laces that will build another girl's wedding gown, and smile as they thank her profusely. She will wait for Jack to come to his senses; she will hope that he eventually will. Sarah Jacobs will not be forgotten.
And so Sarah Jacobs will wake up today, and watch life pass her by, once more. She will do the wash, sprinkle the linen with lavender water, and hope that someone will notice the gesture. She will go to the market and hear boys she knows lying and cheating and being cheated. She will hope that they notice her. She will help her mother cook dinner, and will plaster a smile on her face when David and Jack stumble in with busted lips, dazed smiles, and black eyes. She will ignore the lipstick on Jack's collar, and the fact that the perfume clinging to him is not her own. She will try to keep her failing façade intact.
She will watch the people around her change; she will stay the same. She'll be the perfect daughter, the perfect sister, the perfect maiden in wait. Sarah Jacobs is a cliché. And she knows it.