Tixie // My Mad Fat Diary

Chapter One

 A/N. Please leave feedback, it would mean the world. This is my first entry, and I'm unsure as to whether to carry on or not. Feedback would be very helpful. Thankyou.

She came in to the cafeteria on her first day looking down anxiously at her black Converse shoes. She was tall and stout with jet black hair and hazel eyes. She tightly grasped a book to her chest and walked quickly, only glancing up to see where she was going. She wore ripped jeans and a tartan blouse over an Oasis shirt – which is the thing that caught my attention.

"Who do you reckon she is?"

I turned to look across the table at Danny and roll my eyes. Danny is the only boy who has ever really taken an interest in me. He’s lovely and friendly and wears two hats. But, God, he does exasperate me. We always sit by ourselves at the same table everyday. We seldom speak, which is fine by me. I’m not really very good at talking to people.

"I have no idea, Danny. Did you expect me to know or something?”

He looked a little taken aback, even though he is accustomed to my tendency to be blunt and/or sarcastic.

"No,” he burbled. “I was just saying.”

The girl walked by us with a plate of pasta. I saw the desperate look in her eye as she tried to figure out where to sit. Who was sane? Who posed a threat? But you can't really afford to be choosy at a mental hospital. There’s not much choice anyway.

Then she turned round and caught my eye. I found myself smiling at her – and that's not something I do very often. I guess I must have looked pretty welcoming because she started edging towards us, still a little hesitant.

Danny, obliviously chomping on his burger, looked up and then grabbed onto the chair as she tried to sit in it.

"No, no you can't sit there! Sorry, Tix doesn't like anyone sitting with her."

“I’m fine, Danny!" I yelled. Then I calmed down and faced her. "You can sit."

Danny gave me both a hurt and puzzled look as the girl sat down opposite me.

"Thankyou," she said gratefully.

"Don’t worry about it. I know how you feel," I replied with a shy smile . "My name's Tix."

"Rae." She held out her hand. I felt my lower body starting to shake and the tension began to rise. Touching, touching, touching.

"No, no!" Danny intervened again. "Don't touch her!"

Rae quickly pulled her hand back as if I was about to bite it off. She looked around bewildered.

I sighed irritably. "I’m sorry. We might look a bit more rational than some of the others but we do have our defects.”

“We're the sanest of the insane!” Danny grinned.

Rae laughed and incredibly, so did I. There was something about her that made me feel comfortable. Something...

“Oasis.”

Rae looked startled. “What about them?”

“Oasis,” I repeated. “They’re my favourite band.”

“Really?” She seemed mildly impressed. “That’s great! God, maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

"Yeah. It’s not like it is in the movies and whatever. They look after us here. Take care of us. Sometimes you even make friends. I’ve never had a friend here who was a girl though. Well, not until now.”

Rae gave me a huge smile.

"Hey, uh…Tix. Thank you for making me feel so welcome. It means a lot. Really."

My heart leapt. No one had ever been this nice to me before without being stupidly sympathetic. I instantly decided I liked Rae.

"I can…show you around if you want," I offered shyly.

"Sure! Definitely," she said standing up, her plate still full of pasta.

"Aren't you gonna eat that?" asked Danny.

"Nah," said Rae, patting her stomach. "I need to lose weight."

"So do I," I quickly said, pushing my yoghurt to the side.

Rae scoffed. “You what? You’re a right skinny mini you. If you’re fat, then I am skinny,” she said, squeezing some of the fat from her stomach.

“Okay. You can be Skinny. And I’ll be Fatty.”

She just laughed.