WATTPAD BOOKS EDITION
Can she be herself in a one-size-fits-all world?
Lori Palmer is the new girl at Bay Water High, where students prize glossy hair, beach bodies, and school spirit above all else. She misses her old school―where her talent as an...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I was seated in the front row of the lecture hall. Amber and Teagan had placed me there and told me to stay. I didn't want to stay. And I certainly didn't want to be introduced to the entire school. The repetitive motion of picking at my cuticles was somewhat comforting, but it wasn't enough to quell the anxiety, especially when a bell rang and people began streaming into the auditorium.
My eyes swept the crowd, hoping to find at least one of my kind, but the more I looked, the more I realized that no one here was like me. I was officially the biggest person at school.
Big. It's a euphemism, isn't it? I should just call it what it is—I was the fattest person at school. This wasn't a foreign concept to me; I was usually the fattest person everywhere I went. Except for that time my mother enrolled me in Weight Watchers. I'd felt bad for feeling so damn overjoyed when I'd discovered a girl my age who was actually fatter than me.
"But you have such a pretty face . . ." If I had a rand for every time someone said that to me, I'd be rich. But it's not like I want to be like this and haven't tried to lose it—trust me, I have. I'm not one of those body positive people who embraces their curves. Sometimes I look at their Instagram accounts and envy them so much it hurts. The way they flaunt their bodies and look so damn good doing it. I could never be like that.
I turned my attention back to the hall. Everyone was seated now, including Amber and Teagan, who were perched on the edge of their chairs with their knees together. A red-hot bolt of envy made me clench my jaw when I realized I could see all the way through their nontouching thighs to the floor below.
The general chatter around me finally stopped as the principal walked onto the stage and took up position behind the podium. Even the principal here, Mr. Du Preez, was good-looking—a George Clooney type with perfect gray hair, wrinkles that made him look distinguished, and a killer white smile.
I was too beside myself with nerves, too busy obsessing about what Amber and Teagan were about to do, to listen to him. Mr. Du Preez continued talking and I tried to grab on to some of his words, but they blurred together into gibberish. And then he stopped, and someone else walked onto the stage.
A man. Muscular and wearing head-to-toe Adidas, he stood there for a few moments before he thrust his hand into the air.
"Go Dolphins!" he yelled.
Chaos broke out around me. Everyone jumped out of their chairs, and like those mind-controlled people from cults who drank the Kool-Aid, they, too, raised their fists in the air and shouted, "We are the Dolphins, and no one could be prouder and if you cannot hear us, we'll shout a little louder!"
What the blessed-be-the-fruit hell was going on here?
"Woo-hoo!" The man, who I was now assuming was the sports coach, clapped his hands together and gave a loud whistle. "Just a few sports announcements for the week. As you all know, the BWH Dolphins crushed the Sun Valley Seals at the water polo match last week."
