Joy-Anna's P.O.V.
Today was the day. I finally get to go back to school. Most kids wouldn't be excited about this, but I was just ready to get out of the house and finish up the school year.
I had John drive me to school and as I walked to my locker, everyone was whispering and staring at me. I did my best to ignore it while I navigated the halls to my locker.
When I finally got there, I found Ryan waiting for me, her face paled.
"Joy? I think you better check your Facebook..." She trailed off, not meeting my eyes.
I looked at her in confusion, "I don't have one?" I phrased it as more of a question.
"Well, you do now." She shoved her phone in my face and my eyes bulged.
There were pictures, everywhere, of me! And not just any pictures, pictures of me at the swimming pool. There was a caption at the top that read," Christian girl not so Christian? Maybe that's why her family disowned her and sent her here, they're disgraced. I can see why too, wearing something like this with a body like that? What a hypocrite."
I looked at one of the pictures below it. I looked huge. My stomach was rounded and my thighs were ginormous. I had stretch marks and I just looked, well, fat.
It was photoshoped... it had to be photoshoped... right?
"Joy? You okay?" Ryan asked softly.
I nodded," Yeah, yeah, go on to class, I'll be fine." I assured her, lying through my teeth.
Ryan obliged, she could see through my lie, but she could tell I wanted to be let alone.
I sat their, staring at Ryan's phone, even the ring of the tardy bell didn't break my concentration.
When the hallway was finally empty and the stares were gone, I let the tears slowly drip down my face.
I ran to the bathroom and pulled up my shirt in the mirror to expose my stomach.
I gasped at what I saw. No. The mirror had to be wrong. I'm not fat. I can't be, they have to be wrong.
The image staring back at me from the mirror was identical to the one in the pictures.
I'v never really thought of myself as fat or had to worry about my weight. I never really thought about it, but maybe... No. I won't let them get to me, they're just trying to get in my head, right?
I shook my head and pulled my shirt back down as somebody else entered the bathroom. She gave me an odd look as I exited.
I tried to compose myself as I walked into my first hour with my head held high. Algebra. Ugh.
Ms. Allison must have seen the pictures because she didn't question my tardiness and instead shot me a sympathetic look as I walked to my seat.
A couple of girls giggled as I sat down but I didn't acknowledge it.
"As I was saying class, when you take the square root of x..." Ms. Allison turned to the board and continued teaching.
When the bell rang after fourth hour to dismiss us for lunch, I stayed behind. Instead of going to the cafeteria, I opted to go to the bathroom. I sat in their by myself, pulling my feet up when I saw anyone come in, so they wouldn't be alerted of my presence.
The rest of the day was pretty much like the first part. Dodging people, ignoring stares, hiding in the back of classrooms, pretending not to see Ryan's confused glances.
When the time finally came for John to pick me up, I wasn't in the mood to talk, but of course, John made that difficult.
"How was school?" He askes.
"Fine." I replied through gritted teeth, silently willing him to leave me alone.
He didn't catch the hint.
"Don't I get a better explanation than that?" He teased.
"No." I said shortly.
"Come on Joy." John said frowning.
"Let it go John!" I snapped.
"Fine, sorry." He recoiled.
We sat in awkward silence for quite a while until I finally piped up, "John?"
"Yes?"
"Am I fat?"
He snorted before looking at my face and seeing that I was serious, " Absolutely not Joy. "
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. What on earth brought this on?" He questioned.
"Nothing, just some insecurities, you know." I blatantly lied.
John seemed slightly concerned, but didn't press the issue.
"You know Joy, even if you were fat, it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't love you any less and neither would God. It's what's on the inside that counts, not the outside."
"But you don't understand John! Everyone at school, they're so perfect and skinny and I'm just, well, me." I protested.
He shook his head," That's not true Joy, you're not fat and you're beautiful inside and out, and I highly doubt most of those girls are beautiful on the inside, going off of what I'v heard."
I sighed, there was no winning this battle, and I guess he's right, about the inside thing anyway.
I still felt upset, but John's pep talk did help me feel a little better.
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A/N
OMG GUYS AN UPDATE. It's finals week so of all times I'm not really sure why I'm updating, but hey, you know. Sorry it's trash, I'm really sleep deprived. I edited like all my chapters because I wrote this when I was 13 and my 13 year old grammer is trash! But I don't think it updated it? Ah oh well, this is really long. Also I KNOW JOY ANNA IS NOT FAT, AT ALL, SHE THINKS THIS BECAUSE OF THE KIDS AT SCHOOL, K? k bye
- Hailey
