Best of Enemies

Tamika returns from a slumber party and discovers that Kelly has moved into her bedroom. The furniture for Kelly’s room is on back order, and Ed refuses to make her sleep on the family’s painful fold-out couch for three weeks. Tamika agrees to share, but her confidence disappears as soon as she sees Kelly’s skull poster, belongings, and very different habits filling the room.

At Whit’s End, seventeen-year-old Lindsey arrives for a three-week internship and stays with Connie. Whit asks Connie to serve as a role model, and Lindsey immediately presents her with scented body glitter. Connie tries to appreciate her endlessly cheerful roommate, though Lindsey’s enthusiasm and absent-mindedness soon begin wearing her down.

Lindsey buys a betta fish named Kerplunk after barely glancing at the care instructions and promises to take full responsibility. At the Washington home, Kelly eats a powerful tuna, relish, onion, and sauerkraut sandwich while Tamika sprays a sugary air freshener. Kelly counters with a leather scent, and the competing smells become the first of many battles over their shared space.

Everyone at Whit’s End quickly adores Lindsey’s creative ice-cream animals and eagerness to help. Connie becomes jealous and decides that the problem must be her own attitude. She secretly begins a “nice-off,” trying to be more considerate than Lindsey. Her peanut-butter pancakes nearly cause a medical emergency because Lindsey is allergic, yet Lindsey eats them rather than disappoint her and requires an injection to keep her throat from closing.

Lindsey unknowingly wins every round of Connie’s competition by buying thoughtful music, doing the laundry, cleaning the fishbowl, tidying the house, and offering lemonade. Instead of becoming grateful, Connie grows more determined to defeat a roommate who does not even know they are competing.

Tamika’s frustration erupts when Kelly launches water balloons from the bedroom window at neighborhood boys. A returned balloon soaks Tamika’s bed, and Tamika retaliates by soaking Kelly’s bed and posters. Ed orders the girls to clean the room together and, since both beds are unusable, sends them to share the fold-out couch they had hoped to avoid.

Connie’s patience breaks after Lindsey buys a second betta to keep Kerplunk company, forgetting that the fish will attack each other. Connie rescues Kerplunk but calls Lindsey ditzy. Lindsey leaves hurt, and Connie immediately regrets treating an absent-minded mistake as proof that her roommate is impossible.

On the uncomfortable couch, Tamika and Kelly stop fighting when a thunderstorm frightens Kelly. Tamika sings a song her mother used to use during storms. Kelly, who can play by ear, offers to help turn Tamika’s melody into keyboard notes. Their shared love of songwriting gives them something more important than their differences.

Whit reminds Connie that living at peace does not require every person to become her close friend. Christians are different members of one body, and loving someone as God does can make difficult relationships easier. Connie apologizes to Lindsey and discovers that Lindsey’s unusual way of arranging the Noah’s Ark display - by height, color, and substitute animals - is not wrong. It is simply and wonderfully her own.

Kelly’s furniture arrives a week early, but neither girl rushes to end the arrangement before finishing their song. Lindsey eventually returns home after the full three weeks, and she and Connie part warmly. Lindsey leaves Kerplunk in Connie’s care, making the little fish the roommate Connie is finally prepared to keep.