My fair Chubby
Shay and Ray were the most gorgeous twins ever. Shay was the chubbiest little girl with curly brown hair that brought out the most in her olive complexion. Ray was the chubbiest little boy with dimpled chin and huge hazel eyes. From birth itself, Shay and Ray were inseparable (no they weren’t Siamese!) They just enjoyed doing everything together. Eating, playing will toys, eating, playing with other kids, eating, sleeping in their cute doll houses, eating, watching TV, eating…the list is endless. If you see Shay running about, you are bound to find Ray in the vicinity. It didn’t change much even while they were growing up.
As is of course noticeable, the twins were pretty fond of eating. Food was the only thing they loved in this world, next to each other. If gluttony is a sin, the twins were happily unaware of the same. Candies, ice-creams, chocolates, junk food, fast food, just-about-anything-edible…they loved it all.
Thus grew up the healthy, wealthy twins into two strapping 13 year olds. The case with our generation is that ‘13’ is about as long as you can stay unaware of the concept of gender and be friends with anyone and everyone. Its also pretty must the last milestone of age till when being fat is called being ‘chubby’ and after that you are supposedly having an eating disorder and you can’t control yourself. Shay and Ray were not entirely aware of this hard fact as they trudged into the 13th year of their lives with happy smiles and shining ‘chubby’ faces!
It was their birthday party when their life took the turn which neither of them had expected. Shay was donning her currently favorite pink chiffon frock with matching bellies and matching pink dental braces. Ray was suited up in his currently favorite blue tux, bought specially for the occasion. The cake was double storied and chocolate with vanilla icing. All their classmates were invited. It’s worth mentioning here that since the twins were inseparable at home and everywhere else, in an attempt to give them separate identities; their parents had ensured that they were allotted separate class sections in school. So they had different school friends and classmates. Some distinction to their similar existence was thus attempted at.
It so happened, that Shay fancied a boy in Ray’s class. Even thought they were close like peas in the same pod, Shay never shared this bit of fancying with Ray. This boy was named Troy and was adolescent handsomeness reincarnated! Tall and lanky with a smooth skin (deliberate mention of smooth skin is to bring focus to the fact that there was no pimple gene in the family) at 13, he had a promising adolescence in front of him. Basketball star of the junior team of the school and a notorious science geek; he was full of pride about all his feats. A total Adonis with brains, he couldn’t help it that Shay had her eyes on him.
Shay on the other hand was an extroverted ‘chubby’ chic, who was at the academic pinnacle of her batch and queen of extracurricular activities. She had a minor overbite and thus the braces. But even with those she had the fashion sense of getting the pink ones. She had pretty features, sharpening as she was ageing and dark amber eyes deep set on olive skin. Her flyaway curls were fast becoming a fashion statement in the school teens and teachers couldn’t help but love her for her sheer brilliance in all subjects.
All in all, in Shay’s eyes, she was a perfect match for Troy. The oversight here was that she was ‘chubby’!
Now in all their years (13 is a big age for a kid); Shay and Ray had been treated equally in all spheres of life. The joy they found in eating good food was always appreciated by a doting mother and a workaholic father. The kids were good in everything and if they ate a tad too much, it was nothing to be worried about. Ray was very much Shay’s equal in studies and extra curricular activities and both were two of the most popular kids in school. So it came as a shock for Shay when on her 13th birthday, she felt the 1st ever setback in life, something she was quite sure Ray mustn’t ever have faced!
