Chronicles of a Fat Teenager (Complete - Sequel coming soon)

Chronicles of a Fat Teenager - Chapter Twenty Nine

School rapidly became a very different place for Beth. For a majority of her school-life she was either treated as an object of ridicule or was invisible to those around her. She was accustomed to walking around the campus feeling insignificant and unnoticed, blighted only by moments of sporadic name-calling or cruel pranks. The most recent still seared in her mind with the audio message card hidden in her locker at the hands of the Clones.

Beth now found herself very much at the centre of school gossip, partly due to her winning the county singing competition for the school and partly because she had been at the heart of the incident involving Jessica.

When Beth turned up for school on the Monday following the competition she knew she would be alone for the morning sessions. Miles was at practice with an early start and Jessica remained at home recovering from the miscarriage.

She sensed a difference around her as she walked through the school gates. This continued up until lunchtime; throughout the morning in classes she had noticed several students and classmates turn to look at her and they always looked as if they wanted to say something to her, but her look of incredulity back at them always stopped them in their tracks.

Beth didn’t want to take her place in her usual toilet cubicle that lunchtime and opted to sit at the bench she, Jessica and Miles had adopted as their own, far away from the main building. She sat alone for a few moments eating her sandwiches and checked her mobile.  A message from Miles read, “Will c u at lunch, babe. Coach just let us out. Gimme 10 mins.”

Beth’s tummy flipped at the thought of seeing him and she quickly finished her lunch ready for his arrival. She texted him back, “Am at our bench. C u xxx.”

She looked up towards the fields hoping to catch a glimpse of him on his way to see her, but spotted a small group of people walking towards her. She recognized Danny immediately from the group but was surprised to see Lucy and Claire behind them, their faces remained impassive, but Beth didn’t detect their usual hard or dismissive faces that they always adopted around her.

“Hey Beth” Danny called over, “OK if we join you?”

Beth nodded and looked behind Danny, raising an eyebrow at Lucy and Claire.

Understanding Beth’s unspoken communication, Lucy walked forward, “Um, we wondered if we could join you as well?”

Beth, trying to hide her nervousness nodded simply and they all took their places around the bench and table.

Danny continued, “Um, we wondered … how is Jessica doing? We’re all really worried about her.”

Beth looked suspiciously up at Lucy and Claire and their expectant faces made Beth realize why they were there. They wanted first hand information about the events of Friday night.

Beth had seen Jess the day before. They’d spent the afternoon and early evening together. While they painted each other’s nails they spoke about what people in school would think of what happened on the Friday and what Beth should tell people if she was asked. Jessica tried to put on a brave face, but Beth knew that the prospect of talking about it to people at school upset her. Beth offered to give people basic information about what happened and to let them make the rest up for themselves. Jessica seemed content with this plan but mainly she just wanted to be left alone when she returned to school. She wanted to keep busy and vowed to Beth she’d be back in school that week.

So, Beth responded cautiously to Danny’s question and respected Jessica’s right to privacy, “She’s doing OK and trying to put things behind her. She’s wanting to come back to school this week and … well, she’d really appreciate it if people just treated her the same as before. Just … you know, don’t keep asking her how she is, it will be difficult enough for her without having to answer everyone’s questions.”