INDIE MEHTA

It's not easy being me - teen genius. (What? That could be true!) Okay, I'm no genius. Mostly I'm a regular 13-year-old just trying to get through life with (a) lots of super-fun, movie-worthy memories of my youth, and (b) a minimum of deeply-embarrassing, caught-on-cell debacles featuring me, eyes half-closed and my skirt tucked into my chuddi (a.k.a. underwear). Sure, being a brown kid whose parents' idea of proper school-dance-wear is a ruffled plaid dress they saw on a Little House on the Prairie re-run makes things a little complicated. For instance, it's hard to win World 'O' Food Day when you accidentally serve face-meltingly hot samosas. And spending my Saturday afternoons at remedial Hindi has a way of eating into my "me" time. But my best friends Abi and Marlon are always there with strategies for social survival - bone-headed some of the time but hilarious all the time. And the way I figure it, I don't need to wear any kind of label - the family me and the school me are figuring out a new way to be. I don't need to draw a line down the middle of the world - I can pave an expressway right through and travel uncharted territory! And if that doesn't work, I can always mapquest Mars to see if it's far enough away for an escape plan! (No. Not even close.)