I Just Don't Fit In

Prologue

I stood on the scale at the doctors office with my eyes closed waiting for everyone to praise me about my weight loss. When I heard silence, I opened my eyes and looked around at the shocked faces of my mother, father and doctor. I smiled and thought that I must have lost A LOT of weight for them to look like that. "How much did I lose?" I asked doctor Hugh. She went to her computer and started typing without answering my question. I coughed loudly and everyone turned to look at me. My mother's eyes were tearing up and she ran out of the room where I was being weighed. My dad and doctor followed. I turned around to look at the scale. I then knew why everyone wasso surprised. I haden't lost any weight at all. In fact, I gained weight. I stepped off of the scale and walked down the hallway, carrying nothing but my Juicy Couture messenger bag and all 348 pounds of myself. 

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"But moooom," My little brother, DJ screamed. "I don't wanna go to the doctors. 'Member what happened last time?" My parents laughed lightly at the memory and started to clean up the remains of this morning's breakfast from the table. "We have to. Both of you." My mom said, looking at me. I rolled my eyes and stood up to get ready for my driving lesson. I was super excited up until the point where my mom just had make me feel bad about myself. That's one thing my mom, better yet, my whole family is good at. Making me feel bad. 

My name is Laura Elizabeth Anderson. I'm 15 years old and I guess you could say I don't really fit in well with my family. My mom, Elizabeth Joanne, my dad, Donovan Lee, and my 9 year old brother, Donovan Jr, who we call DJ for short, are all skinny with blonde hair and blue eyes. I am the exact opposite of them. I'm fat, with black hair and brown eyes. I have been struggling with my weight for as long as I could remember. Everyone is completely oblivious to how I got stuck with my looks. As I got dressed, I picked up my phone to look at the time. 10:30. My driving instructor should be here any moment.  I grabbed a pair of jeans out of my closet and put them on, surprised when the button popped off as I tried to button them. Perfect timing, I thought. Just as the button on my jeans popped off, my mom walked in. "Mom!" I yelled. "You really gotta knock first." I went into my dresser and threw on a pair of jogging pants and a t-shirt. That would have to do. "Laura, this is the 4th pair of jeans this month." My mom said what a frown as she picked up the button and the jeans that I threw on my bed. "You really need to lose weight. You're going on a diet first thing tomorrow morning!" "You're?" I questioned. "What about you guys?" "WE,"  My mom said, referring to her, dad and DJ, "Don't need to lose weight." Just as I was about to respond, there was a knock on the front door. I grabbed my phone off my desk, sneered at my mother and went to go greet my driving instructor. 

I returned home 2 hours later, only to find no one here. I opened the refrigerator to get a snack and found nothing but fruit and vegetables. What was going on? I wondered. Where were all the snacks we usually kept? I looked in the pantry and still had no luck of finding something sweet to snack on. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dialed my mothers number. She answered on the first ring. 

"Hello?" 

"Mom!" I exclaimed, "I just got home and I'm looking for something to eat and find nothing but this." I pointed towards the refrigerator, but quickly dropped my hand, realizing that no one could see me. 

"Laura, I meant it when I said you were going on a diet. The only way to lose weight is if you start exercising and eating right. Your brother is spending the weekend with Grandma and your father and I are signing you up for a gym membership as we speak. We are all going tomorrow." 

"But.." I tried to argue but realized that my mom had hung up. I went to the bathroom to weigh myself. My weight can't be that bad, I thought. So what if I'm a couple pounds over? I stepped on the scale and looked down at the number. 314. I gulped and stepped off the scale. It was now coming to me that I REALLY was fat.