"Megan!" My mom called up the stairs, "Trevor! Wake up! School starts in an hour!"
I groaned, sitting up in bed. Today was going to be the first day of tenth grade. Today was also going to be the day I go to my dad's new house to meet his new family.
My parents argued a lot when I was young. They divorced five years ago, when I was 10. I haven't seen my father much since. He visited during the big family holidays, like Christmas, Easter, and birthdays. Unlike my mom, he remarried. When he did, I became exceedingly furious with him. He married the woman he cheated on my mother with. Her name was Rose.
I sighed at the memory and got out of bed. My running shoes had little specks of mud on them. I put on shorts, a tank top, and my shoes.
My mom tossed me my ear buds when she saw me about to leave, "Have a nice run, sweetie. I'll have eggs and toast on the table for you when you get back."
I plugged my ear buds in, turned up my music, and jogged in the humid summer air. My hair swung back and forth in my pony tail, and my breathing remained at a steady pace, as well as my speed. I went along my usual route, just for a simple ten to fifteen minute wake-up exercise. When the path led me through a small section of woods, over a small creek, and back home, I immediately unlaced my shoes, ran to the bathroom, stripped down to nothing, and stepped into the cool shower water.
I shampooed my slightly sweaty hair, then started washing my face and body. My heart still pounded. I sat down, letting the water run down my body. I kept thinking about Dad. How was he? Has he changed? Does he love me any less?
I stood up, pushing the thoughts out of my head, and I massaged conditioner into my hair. Last time I checked the clock, I had 40 minutes until Mom was going to drive Trevor and me to school. Trevor was my older brother. He was just a grade older than me.
I rinsed myself a final time and turned off the water.
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Trevor nodded at me, "Ready for dad's tonight?"
"Yeah," I looked down at the eggs in front of me, "have you seen Rose?"
"Lots of pictures," he said with his mouth full, "She's skinny and gorgeous, so you probably won't fit in very well..."
I suddenly didn't feel like eating my breakfast anymore, looking down at my legs that seemed to stretch a mile when I sat down. I thought about Rebecca's skinny body, the way her thighs seemed to have such a big gap between them when she stood with her feet together.
Rebecca Grey has been my best friend since seventh grade. We instantly clicked from the first time we talked. At the end of eighth grade, she was crying and called me. At first it was hard to understand, but I realized she was asking to come over. Her dad was hitting her and she was too upset to stay at home. From that moment on, we were so much closer than we were before.
Mom interrupted my train of thought when she told us to come to the car. I quietly put my bag in the trunk and sat in the front seat, as I usually did.
"Why does she always get to sit there?" Trevor complained in the back seat.
"Because she has a 4.0 and you have a 2.7 GPA. Get those grades up." Mom replied.
I smiled. I loved being known as the smarter sibling, or as the one with better grades. Trevor was always the popular sibling, which was upsetting because he always rubbed his relationships in my face.
"Stop smiling, fat ass." Trevor rudely said.
My mom started yelling at him, but I stopped listening. Instead, I opened google on my iPhone 5s and looked up 'diets to lose five pounds'. I got a million results and checked out the top hits. Drinking cinnamon, lemon, and honey water after each meal, not eating after 7:30 pm, and something called the cabbage diet didn't seem good enough.
I decided to work out longer and only eat 4/5 of my meals, rather than finishing the whole plate.
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I sat at the lunch table. Ruby, Natalie, Connor, Michael, and Rebecca laughed about some snapchat they received, while I started a fitness journal in my phone. Never again would Trevor call me fat.
Rebecca draped her boney arm around my shoulders, "Meg, why so quiet?" I could slightly smell alcohol under her breath. She did this a lot, but whenever I said something about it to her, she would yell at me and start crying.
I closed the app on my phone, "I'm just tired. So... How's the boyfriend?" I waggled my eyebrows at her.
She blushed, "Megan!" She giggled, now making it a little more obvious she's been drinking, "He's a cutie..."
I looked at her water bottle, "Can I have a drink?"
"No!" She yanked the bottle away from me. I knew at that point she was drinking whatever was in there.
I was thinking about Rebecca's drinking until they talked about a discussion I rarely heard much about.
Natalie had a disgusted look on her face, "You guys know Adriene?" She didn't wait for a nod from anyone until she continued on, "Well, I heard that she throws up after lunch everyday in the upstairs A-POD bathroom!" She cut everyone off when they tried asking questions or making comments, "I heard that she waits in a stall until the bathroom is completely empty, then she shoves her fingers down her throat!"
Ruby finally interrupted Natalie, "It's probably just a rumor..."
"Ruby!" Natalie gets worked up over people not trusting her gossip, "You are so rude! You didn't let me continue, which would've confirmed the rumors about Adriene." Natalie smiled, as if she had accomplished something spectacular, then spoke in a hushed voice that made it all more dramatic, "I followed her to the bathroom and I hid in a stall. I waited at least ten minutes until she finally did it. I bent over to see underneath the stalls. Sure enough, she was kneeling right in front of the toilet and I could hear the gags and the puke!" Natalie was now beaming.
Connor and Michael laughed their asses off after hearing this. Connor had to try not to laugh to speak, "Adriene is weird as hell!" This comment made Rebecca get up and leave. I followed her, shooting Natalie, Connor, and Michael a look. Ruby's eyes shifted nervously between Rebecca and the boys.
"Rebecca," I spun her around once we reached the door to the bathroom, "What the hell is going on with you?"
She had a smirk on her face, "Do you remember the time Adriene called me an anorexic twat in front of the whole eighth grade?" The lingering smirk made me feel sick to my stomach, "I was laughed at. People laughed at me, Megan. You don't know what it's like to have people laughing about some lie spread about you."
Rebecca stood closer, her face practically centimeters away from mine, "Today, Adriene is going to be laughed at. She's a bulimic twat." She raised her phone to my eye level, "I am taking pictures. I am getting actual proof so she can know what she did to me."
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She's still sitting on the edge of her chair, tired eyes staring deeply at me.
I looked away, down at the ground, "That's how it started. Trevor called me fat and I wanted to lose weight. Adriene was skinny. She also was bulimic."
She lets out a slight exhale, "Tell me about the first time you purged."
