Panem High: Freshman Year

Chapter 25

Delly cried out in frustration and her mom scrambled into her room, where Delly was standing in her pajamas. "I don't know what to wear!"

Marianne laughed. "It's just taco night, hon, it's not a big deal."

"Mom, all my school friends are coming. I can't look like a slob."

"Funny. Whenever they come over individually you're usually in sweatpants and an old summer camp t-shirt," Marianne said, obviously trying not to smile.

"Mom," Delly whined, stretching the word into three syllables.

"Okay, okay. Um... those American Eagle jeans you bought a few weeks ago look really nice on you."

"Okay."

"They make your butt look good."

"MOM!"

"Relax, Dell. But for real, those jeans and your navy blue tube top with the little white polka dots. It brings out your curves nicely."

"Mom, you're doing the thing again," Delly groaned.

"What thing?"
"The thing where you call me fat without actually saying fat."

"Babe, you say fat like it's a bad thing."

"So I am fat, then."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't say no," Delly countered.

"Honey, I'm several sizes bigger than you. Be careful with what you're implying."

"Yeah, but you're a mom. You have a reason. You literally had a kid inside you for nine months."

"A fetus, technically," Marianne said.
"Seriously, Mom, not the time nor the place."

"Good use of nor," Marianne said.

"Seriously?"

"Honey, I'm just saying that shirt looks nice on you. I don't know why you made such a big deal out of a compliment."

"Because you always do this!" Delly complained. "You say I'm fat without actually using that word, and then when I get upset about it, first you deny it but then you do the whole "all body types are beautiful" speech as if I'm supposed to think mine isn't!"

"Delly -"

"Mom, I'm not done! You're always saying things like this. You always give me that speech and tell me how proud you are of me for wearing certain types of clothes in public as if it's brave for girls like me to wear regular clothes. By acting like I should think being fat is a bad thing, like the world thinks being fat is a bad thing, you're the one that makes me self-conscious about it."

Marianne looked at Delly, and for a split second, she looked as if she was sorry. But her face hardened and she whipped around, leaving the room and storming down the stairs, cursing and muttering about ungrateful children.

She changed out of her pajamas and put on a pair of white mom jeans that were cuffed at the bottom and a baggy yellow t-shirt with a big sunflower on the front. She put one of her playlists on shuffle and Landslide by Fleetwood Mac played first. She sighed and opened Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth to where the corner of page 198 was folded over.

She read for the next two hours and finished the last page right as Madge knocked at exactly four o'clock. Delly raced downstairs and opened the door. Madge grinned at Delly when she recognized the shirt she'd given her best friend for Christmas. Clove, Marvel, Cato and Glimmer came up behind her, having just piled out of Clove's mom's minivan.