Short Stories

English Assignment

It all started on a rather cold September day. Nothing exactly special about it at the time, but looking back I recognize it as the commencement of a new age in my life, the start of something different.
"Do I really have to go?" I asked my mom, as I ate my cereal out of my Mickey Mouse bowl. That was the day I started Jordan Prep Middle and Upper School, a private school in cute, little Troy, Michigan where I would be starting seventh grade. Of course, this wasn't the very beginning of my problems, those started when I was ten. It was then my parents found out that I had bulimia. I went through hours of therapy and tons of pills to finally feel normal and comfortable.
"JPMU is a great school, Clara! It just around the corner." My mom said, "I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends." Mary Flynn was a small little woman, with the same blonde hair as me but streaked with gray. She had piercing blue eyes, unlike mine which were brown like my father, George's.
I finished my cereal. "Fine." I pushed out my chair just as my dad walked in.
He was tall, tall enough for my mom to have to stand on her tip-toes to kiss him good morning. With his crazy dark hair and glasses set askew on his face, he looked a bit like he enjoyed sticking his fingers in power sockets, when he actually just was a insurance agent.
I hugged my mom and kissed my dad goodbye and started on my way to school.
School, to put it nicely, was torture. Everyone walking down the small hallways throughout campus at once, 5 people trying to get in doors at the same time... It would be a understatement to say it was crowded. But there were other things I noticed later that day at lunch, sitting alone at a back table
Sitting around me where cliques. First you had your nerds, people that skip several grades and are still in 10th grade math. Then you had your delinquents, people who didn't appreciate or care how much their parents went through to have them go here and quite frankly were always talking about it. Then there was the "in crowd". Every school has one, but here it was a group of girls that rolled their uniform skirts up to their butts, but everyone still seemed to adore them. I wanted to be in that group more then I could say.
My days at school grew worse and worse. In class, no one talked to me, at lunch I sat alone and watched the popular girls chat and giggle and flip their hair around. I saw the Starbucks Carman brought everyone in the mornings, saw Lina texting on their group chats during study hall, and saw Carri with her boyfriend at sports games. I looked down at my plate. Suddenly I came to a realization, maybe if I slimed down a bit, those girls would like me more.
First I started dieting. I didn't eat breakfast, at lunch I ate only veggies, and at dinner I would eat only a few bites of everything on my plate. Eventually at lunch I would just drink a carton of milk with the occasional cracker or cucumber slice. Every night I would look at the mirror mounted on my closet door and would find something to change. After about two weeks of that, I still was in the same exact spot I was on the first day of school.
Then I started stealing my moms' laxatives to try and get rid of my last few traces of my thunder thighs. A few a night helped me to keep my kankles at bay and my tummy fat away. I started to have trouble falling asleep and my hair started to feel unusually dry, two things that I now recognize as signs of anorexia.
I don't know why I still did all of this. Carman and Lina weren't going to suddenly notice me and say 'wow, what a nice thigh gap!' and induct me into their circle immediately. There was always something I thought I could change, like if I could take my weight down 2 pounds, 5 pounds, maybe someone would at least notice that something was wrong.

It was a strangely sunny November afternoon. I was eating my usual lunch of skim milk and cucumber, all alone at my back table. I put a slice of cucumber on my fork, bit off a small chunk, chewed it, and swallowed. The vegetable went down like wet sand. I took a small sip of milk and swallowed. I looked around. The smell of the turkey and potatoes that had been served to the others was intoxicating. The thought of tasting that juicy, succulent, meat made my head spin. I looked at my plate. Then up at the lunch counter. Then I was on my feet headed for the counter. "T-turkey and potatoes please." I said. I sat back at my table and before I knew it, I had scarfed down everything on my plate.
I covered my mouth in horror. I'd ruined a week at least of dieting. My stomach growled for more, but I knew I couldn't eat. I gathered my plates and silverware to dump in the bucket of dirty dishes. I rushed to the nearest empty bathroom and shut myself in a stall. I felt hot tears pouring down my face. I shoved my fingers down my throat, something I hadn't done sense I was ten. I was sobbing by then, and I didn't hear the bathroom door open. I felt two arms wrap around my shoulders, and I let myself cry into the strangers chest.

A month passed and I felt like I had finally found my part of the school. The stranger that had comforted my before ended up to be Sammy Carlo, a girl with average length hair, average height and average weight. She liked to say the only thing not average about her was her feet (which were a whooping size 12). She took me under her wing, introduced me to her friends Georgina, Frannie, and Laney. A whole new side to school opened up to me, the Genius Lab where the school's robotics team met, the Library where I studied and hung out in with my new found friends, and best of all, the hot food line in the cafeteria.
Coming back to JPMU for my 15th high school reunion, I sit down at my old table in the back of the room. The ghosts of Carri and Lina sit at their table, the nerds sit at theirs, the delinquents sat at theirs, but most importantly, around me sat my friends. No ghosts, just Laney who works at Pixar now, Frannie who stays at home with her 3 kids, Georgina who is a lawyer in California, and Sammy, who now works as a English teacher here. I take their hands, and look down at my own. I see scribbles of notes and doodles, but also the engagement ring from my fiancee, Andy. I look around and know, that my days of being an outsider are over.

A/N: this one has an ending, and I particularly like it, so please don't steal it.