Skinny

Wainwright Academy & Bouncing Back?

Chapter Two:

I was doing great at Wainwright Academy, academically anyways. I hadn't made many friends and I hadn't seen Miss Frost since that first day. We didn't have any classes together, but I did make a friend in Analise Nicole Bentley. She was sweet with her kind hazel eyes and upbeat attitude. I knew she wanted to be a cheerleader and had been working on her physique for the entire year to try out over the summer for junior varsity cheerleading for her sophomore year. I really didn't understand the appeal, but she got me into working out with her after school and after our homework was finished. I knew she was a prospect because the head cheerleader had come up to us at lunch one day and told her. She gave me a once over, but didn't say a word and I was grateful. It was starting to make me angry when people would comment on my weight and I had no real way to vent my anger.

I had gone a full month at Wainwirght and had no real problems with anyone. I found out that Analise was friends with the girl I knew as Miss Frost, but she would spend most of her time with her brother and his friends so we never really saw her much. Alexa, was her name. She would be kind to me anytime I was around her and I never once saw pity in her eyes. She would be a great friend, if she wasn't so hung up on her brother's best friend. It was clear to me that she had a huge crush on him. I sighed as I saw Analise walking over to me after parting ways with some of the popular girls. I loved how she would ditch those stuck up bitches just to hang out with me.

There was only about a month and a half left for school and I was just glad to be away from those idiot peers that had tortured me for their own amusement. With Analise's help, I didn't doubt that I would be able to come back from that with fists flying. I had already lost a good five pounds in the month I spent working out with her. It wasn't much, but I did now have to wear a belt with my slacks at school.

It was on a Wednesday that I had my first confrontation with her. The Alicia Overton of Wainwright Academy. This dog's name was Chelsea Hendrick and she had a big bark. She was the freshman popular girl and she was from a wealthy family. I was working out in the weight room with Analise when she and her croonies walked up.

"Well, look at that, girls. The chucky girl wants to lose her baby fat," Chelsea said to her friends. I rolled my eyes. It wasn't very creative and I ignored her efforts.

"Leave her alone, Chels. She isn't bothering you. You came here for a reason, what is it?" Analise wasn't a girl that other girls were mean to, no matter how she snapped at you, which was a rare event in and of itself.

"Captain says to tell you that the date for the tryouts is going to be pushed back to August the first because of her family vacation in July. She hopes you won't miss it." She walked off with her gossipy friends right behind her, but I knew that this was just my first encounter with that monster.

Her digs started to get more creative and she would torment me in front of the popular kids the most. She was trying to make her place in the popular crowd and it wasn't working because I wasn't letting her get to me. I had been working out harder because of her and had lost another six pounds in the two weeks that she was trying to bring me down.

It was after gym class and before lunch, a week after that, when she pulled her big prank on me. I was in the shower humming a song when I heard the girl giggles from the other side of the curtain. I had an eerie feeling about that sound and I finished my shower and dried off, wrapping my towel around my bare body. I stepped out and found that all my clothes were gone. I knew immediately that Chelsea was to blame and I took off after the sounds of giggles. They were outside of the locker room, laughing at their feat. When they saw me, they ran off and I took off after them on instinct.

They ran into the lunchroom and I stopped as I met all the eyes of my fellow peers. I wasn't at my goal weight and here I was in just a towel in front of too many judging eyes. I saw Chelsea and her friends point and laugh, but no one laughed with them. Analise took my clothes from Chelsea's minion and brought them to me. She turned me to walk me back to the locker rooms.