“Go away, Fatty!” eleven years old Seanna snarled. “No one likes you!”

“Yeah, and leave us NORMAL sized people alone!” her crony, Jasmine, sneered.

“Why do you hate me?” Amy said in a small voice, eyes tearful.

“Because you’re ugly!”

And it was the truth. It had to be.

Beep! Beep, Beep, Beep! Beep!

Seventeen year old Amy Wittworth’s hand stumbled as she tried to turn off her alarm clock. She hated that thing! It always seemed to ruin her dreams. Not that she remembered them, though she knew that this one was probably bad. The horrible dip in her stomach gave that away.

“You up, Hon?” she heard her grandmother yell from the kitchen.

“Yeah, Ma!” Amy had always thought of her grandmother as a mother; she wasn’t raised by anyone else. Yes, she had a mom, but she spent so much time being a reporter, traveling all the time, she had no time to be the mother for Amy. It doesn’t matter though. If Amy ever missed Quinn Amanda Wittworth, channel 7 reporter, all she had to do was turn on the television. But she hadn’t done that in years. It had been a long time since she ever gave the role ‘mom’ to her; her grandma had taken over. Her dad? She doesn’t know what happened to him; in fact, she doesn’t even remember him. All her Ma would tell her was that he left when she was little.

Amy took a quick shower and got ready for school. She then went down to eat breakfast with her grandmother, when she was done getting hygiene-d up. Her grandmother made a big thing about family time. She believed that family time was 3 times a day, when everyone ate together.

Food was another big thing to her Ma. You could never skip a meal with her. Never! In fact, she gave you seconds once you finished the first serving. Didn’t matter if you don’t want it, or your full; you ate it and you liked it. No argument made. Amy loved her grandma to death, but she couldn’t help but blame her weight problem on her gran’s dictation of the food at home. Only recently she had convinced her Ma to let her skip out on the greasy, oily stuff she was always cooking.

The summer was over and, she was proud to say, she lost a few pounds--and maybe a few jokes on her weight this year. She started jogging, and eating healthier. Fruits were her salvation. Every time she had an urge to eat any junky sweets, out came a peach or a plum. They were sweet enough to satisfy her. She was tired of being treated like shit. Let them try and make fun of her weight in a few more months.

“Do you want me to give you a ride to school?” Elizabeth “Ma” Wittworth asked her granddaughter.

“Nah, I think I’ll walk. Its not that far,” Amy answered, putting her bowl in the sink after she finished her cream of wheat.

“Okay, now, have fun.”

Amy scoffed. “As fun as I can in a prison.” she said, repeating an old joke. Fairfax High was built to be a prison before it was ever designed as a high school. It looked like any high school, except the windows… they were made narrow and couldn’t open as much as any ordinary window, just so prisoners couldn’t escape. It really did put a whole new meaning to school being a ‘prison of the mind’.

Amy kissed her grandma good bye and left.

---

Amy was searching for her new homeroom when she heard the shrills of her best friend.

“Oh my god, Amy! You lost weight!” Naomi informed her.

“Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Don’t be sarcastic with me! You look great,” Naomi told her friend.

Amy smiled appreciatively. “Thanks.”

“No prob. And, oh, guess what I heard?” Naomi loved to gossip. “Andrew is dating Seanna again!”

“Who cares?” They both had been going on and off forever. Seanna was the girl who had been torturing Amy since the third grade. She was the one that started Amy’s weight insecurities.

But Amy couldn’t help but be a little glad that they were together. Seanna was nicest to Amy when Andrew was around. She couldn’t afford to look bad in front of the boyfriend; he might’ve see her horns.

Andrew Thomas was one of the hottest guys in their grade. With hot dark skin and intense dark brown eyes, how could he not be? And he wasn’t stupid either. In the top of his class, Michael definitely wasn’t stupid.

“I do! Andrew can do better then her… with ME!” her friend joked.

Amy laughed.

They started to walk. They had the same homeroom, like they did every year ever since they were freshman students at Fairfax High. They were juniors now, 2 more years and they were out of the dump they call high school.

“So, have you been exercising?” Naomi said, starting up conversation again.

“Not really… just jogging,” Amy said. “But I do eat healthy too. I got a list of good things to eat off the internet.”

Naomi laughed. “You’re such a loser. Looking up what to eat on the internet…” she shook her head, “Only you would do that.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Amy said with a frown.

“You do everything with the internet!” Naomi responded.

“Not everything…”

Naomi gave her friend a condescending look. “Most things.”

“Most, not all. Change of subject, please?”

“Fine,” Naomie concluded. “But, you know I’m right, though.”

“Naomi!” “Okay, fine, fine! Our homeroom is room 204... Ms. Shall’s class.” Ms. Shall was a strict teacher. Very strict, but nice.

They walked passed 200, 202, then, finally, 204. They stopped at the closed door, as they waited for the bell to ring. In five minutes, another year of school would start. God knows what will happen in this one.