Fitness for Dummies ✓

One

"Oh boy," Olive sighed.

There were a few arrows painted on the leafy trees and soon we began to follow them. The park was unexpectedly enormous and there were trees everywhere, surrounding the whole place. 

The park was divided into various sections. My eyes landed on the laughing group across from us. After every two seconds, they threw their arms in the air and laughed loudly. Most of the members were old people.

I knew I was at the right place when I saw people like me. Soon, we joined the other people standing in different groups. Some looked like me--fat and some looked like Olive--normal. There wasn't a huge crowd, but only thirty-forty people. All of them were either wearing tracksuits or clothes that you wear when you know you're gonna sweat it out.

I was wearing track pants with an over-sized dark blue T-shirt. I didn't like to wear body hugging clothes because they'd clearly display the real me. Loose clothes gave me comfort.

Someone blew a whistle and everyone turned their heads in the direction of that harsh sound. A bunch of people was standing at a little distance and they all were wearing the same type of black tracksuits. Some had notepads in their hands while some had whistles around their necks. Needless to say, they all looked super fit.

"Good morning everyone! I welcome you all here. Our camp incorporates many different aspects of fitness. We help you achieve results in the quickest time possible!" one of them said aloud.

A middle-aged woman stepped forward. Her short blonde hair was frizzy, pointing in every possible direction. 

She smiled at us before proceeding to speak.

"Good morning, I'm Christine. Every year, we organize our camps to help everyone get fit. Here, you'll lose weight and gain confidence. It'll be so much fun," she said, "now, I request all of you to form a line. We're going to note down your height and weight because later, it helps you to realize how much you've changed. You sure will feel the difference."

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened in utter shock. Why me? 

I didn't want them to note down my weight in front of so many people. Why couldn't they just begin with the exercises and spare us the torture? I wasn't comfortable at all because these sorts of situations tend to get embarrassing.

"Lizzie?" Olive said, shaking my arm.

"I don't wanna do this," I groaned.

"Oh, don't worry, I mean, there are fatter people here."

"That didn't help a bit," I muttered.

At last, we had to join the line. Nobody actually seemed enthusiastic about the camp. Many questions swirled around my head.

Is this boy here because his mom trapped him like my mom did? Does this girl too feel embarrassed about her weight being measured in front of strangers? Does anyone else want to scream at the top of their lungs?

I scratched my head. 

They were also giving some T-shirts to wear and when I was close to my turn, my heart began pounding hard in my chest.

 The sun was now shining brightly and the temperature was getting up.

"Step on the machine, please," Christine said.

"Uh, I can't," I said, biting my bottom lip.

She furrowed her brows. "Why not?"

"I-I have a phobia of weighing machines."

"I've heard better excuses, miss. Now, would you please step on it?"

Sighing, I stepped on the machine and looked straight, fixing my eyes at a particular tree.

"Okay, one-seventy pounds...Five feet and three inches..."

I closed my eyes because I knew  people behind me had heard that as well. I had never felt so humiliated in my life.

After noting down my height and weight, Christine asked her helper to give me an XL size T-shirt. I took it from the man, without even looking at his face. 

I walked over to Olive where she was standing with her own T-shirt.

Both of us unfolded our T-shirts at the same time. We outstretched our arms to get a proper look at them. It was white and in the middle, it had the cartoon of a girl in bikini, eating a carrot. What's with these people and carrots?

Olive and I exchanged awkward looks. We both stuck out our tongues at it, "Yuck!"

At that point, I was beyond frustrated. Although, the place was open and had a lot of fresh air, I felt suffocated. I shouldn't have given in. I didn't want to be there. But who was I kidding?

 I was stuck between people of almost all shapes and sizes.

.....