My Chubby Girl

Prologue

Prologue

"Porky! Porky! Porky! Porky! Porky!" a mob of street children untiringly jeered at me as they boisterously encircled me and threw me their lunch leftovers. They really enjoyed teasing me and calling me names. Last week I was Petunia, yesterday I was Piggy, now I was Porky. These rascals never seemed to get tired of it; instead they get more and more boosted with such intense bullying passion day by day.

I bent to the ground laboriously, as it's not easy for me to bend down since my tummy was as big as that of a seven-months pregnant woman, stumbled as I stood up, and clenched tightly on the rotten apple a girl with red bluntly cropped hair threw at me and yelled at them, "Leave me alone or I'll throw this at you!" Slowly, I raised my arm and gathered all my strength, ready to pitch the apple as hard as I could at the first sign of violence any of them would display.

A gangly boy whose two front teeth were missing shrieked with excitement, "Put it in your mouth, just like a roast pig, Kristine!"

I almost felt happy. For the first time in three weeks and four days, someone called me by my real name! Yes, I counted these times. There were only two people who called me "Kristine", one was my mom. She left three weeks and four days ago because her boss sent her to a business trip in Massachusetts. The other one was Aunt Irene, who did call me with my real name but often added nasty remarks next to it such as when she caught me rummaging through the fridge one midnight, she screamed, "Kristine! You child of a wild boar! Leave my chocolate chip cookies alone!" Or when I had to use a hairpin in unlocking the padlock on the fridge, and succeeded, since she chained and locked it and I was so hungry, she shrieked so loudly that the veins on her neck started to bulge out, "Kristine! You child of a wild boar who married a farm pig whose uncle had no stomach! Leave the goddamn fridge alone!" Isn't she weird? Sometimes, I wonder if Aunt Irene was on drugs.

The gangly boy pulled hardly on my pony tail and grinned devilishly. "I said," he clutched my wrist and brought the rotten apple near my lips, "put it in your mouth!" He demanded.

"Let me go! You're hurting me!"

He shrugged and cocked his head sideways. "Like we care. Why don't you just do as I said and get this over with?" He told me as he gazed at the other kids for agreement.

"Go on. Do it Porky!" A petite girl cheered.

They all nodded frantically, evil grins stretching on their faces. "Porky! Porky! Porky! Porky!" The street kids started chanting again.

"Yeah, Porky. Just put it in your mouth. We just wanna see how you'd look like," The girl with the cropped hair said. "We won't laugh. Promise!" She spoke deceivingly, even drawing a tiny cross on top of her heart.

The boy gripped on my wrist even tighter. I was sure it would definitely leave a mark. "Do it now," he ordered.

"Stop it! Let me go, please!" I begged. Not because of fear, though. I was so used to this. It's just that Aunt Irene would be really pissed if I got home late, and then she won’t feed me supper, or she would not let me have my dessert at lunch. My tummy started to grumble. My baby anacondas didn't like the idea of missing their favorite apple cream pie.

"She said," someone suddenly approached, "let. Her. Go." A young boy, maybe eleven years old like most of us, spoke calmly, yet with superiority.

We all stared at him. He had a poker face on, and his emerald green eyes, though they were the most captivating pair I've ever seen, didn't betray his thoughts. 

The kid gripping my wrist pointed his chin to the new boy. "And who are you?" He asked arrogantly.

"Your worst nightmare," the new boy answered in monotone. That line was so pitifully cliché, but I appreciated it anyway. It’s not every day someone defended me. "Now let her go," he ordered.

"What if I don't want to?"

The calmness in the new boy's eyes vanished that instant and was replaced by a menacing glare. "Then I'd finally have the chance to put my black belt in Tae Kwon Do into practice." He cracked his knuckles.

Everyone retreated a bit, including the boy who now released my wrist. And when the new boy started to advance towards us, they ran away like little mice who just noticed that the cat's finally awake.

"Are you okay?" The new boy asked, his violent aura melted away.

I was so dumbfounded by his eyes that all I could manage was a slight nod and a small smile. Now that he was up-close, I noticed how cute he was. He had this really touchable curly black hair, chiseled nose, a pair of dimples, and white skin which accentuated his vibrant green eyes.

He looked down, and a boyish smile slowly crept into his face. "Look, he left his shoe! He was so scared!" He chuckled softly as he bent down to pick it up. "Here. Keep this. This is a great souvenir," he said as he handed me the bully's soiled shoe. Then he turned to leave.

I held the shoe to my chest and smiled. "Thank you," I managed to utter before he got too far.

He looked back my way and winked. And at that moment I felt something weird in my tummy. Like there were butterflies fluttering inside it. That was when I realized that...

I was starving! Better get some food now before my intestines start munching on each other.

And oh yeah... It was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.