Helga was a normal teenage girl in high school. She just had a slight problem with her weight. Although chubby as a kid, she assumed that she'd eventually lose her baby fat. However, in junior high, she became even pudgier. And by the time she entered high school, she was already a size 14.

Unable to control her constant yearnings for food, she would carry snacks around with her and sometimes even wake up at two in the morning to satisfy the cravings that had woken her up. But most of all, Helga loved meat. Beefs steaks in particular. T-bone, sirloin, filet mignon, rib eye, rump, skirt, flat iron, Chateaubriand, she loved them all. She ate quite a few pounds of meat daily. As a result, she had now ballooned up to a size 16.

Helga wasn't completely ostracized; she had friends. But yet, at times she felt completely distant from them. First of all, they were all under a size 4. They only still occasionally made attempts to include her as to not seem rude as they had been friends with her back in the first grade. Before she got fat. And now, with their senior prom quickly approaching, it was dress shopping time.

She had only agreed to go with them on the condition that they would stop by the steakhouse on their way back home. But as she sat in the car during the long drive, she wondered why she had come. The rest of them had come to have a fun day trying on dresses which they would, of course, look gorgeous in. But what about her? She would probably be the one sitting around looking after their stuff while they had their fun.

But when they got to the racks of frilly dresses that seemed to take up half the store, Emily suggested that Helga choose some dresses to try on as well. Bewildered, but yet at the same time, also feeling slightly excited, Helga agreed. Scanning the nearby options, she slipped a sparkly blue dress off the rack. Picking up the tag, she glanced at the size, a 4. She replaced it and began to flip through the dresses. Size 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7/8, 8, 9, 10/11, 12, 13... But that was it. There was nothing beyond a size 13.

Quickly checking the other dresses nearby, she noticed that the dress sizes generally ranged from a size 1 to size 13 and occasionally size 0s and 14s. Crestfallen, she scanned the room looking for the other girls. Judging from the giggling and occasional gasps and eruptions of laughter she could hear, some of them were already in the dressing room. A few others had returned to pick out more to try on. Helga was the only one who couldn't find a dress she could FIT in, never mind one that would suit her.

Frantic, she scrutinized the room. "There has to be something", she thought to herself. Finally her work paid off and she found one that was relatively plain but elegant in its simplicity. It was a cream-colored strapless gown with a high empire waist finished with a plain black ribbon fastened on the side. Even better, it came in a size 14. Excitedly, Helga carried the dress to an empty fitting room and tried it on.

It seemed to trim a few pounds off and with a good hairstylist, it would look pretty good. The only problem was that the zipper couldn't zip quite right and as a result, caused several places to bulge unflatteringly. However, it was nothing a good seamstress couldn't fix, so Helga didn't worry. But yet, something still didn't feel quite right.

She remembered the scene from lunch that day.

She had been sitting at the corner of the table when they had asked her to join them that afternoon in their hunt for dresses. When she accepted their offer, some guy from a nearby table immediately started snickering.

"Helga's so fat they don't even make her size so why bother?" he jeered at her.

Helga could feel the tears brimming in her eyes, especially since people at tables nearby also began to join him as they pointed and began to whisper. Unfortunately, he wasn't even done yet.

"Honestly Helga, I don't even know why you're going to the prom. Leave some room for the rest of us to breathe, why don't you," he taunted. "Helga, you're as fat as a cow!"

Her friends started to shoot nervous looks at each other as they obviously felt uncomfortable about the situation. But yet, they said nothing. Helga gave her beef steak one last jab, before running out of the cafeteria. Running for the bathroom, she knew that everyone would be laughing at her, but she wouldn't let them see her tears.

"Helga?" she heard a voice call out, pulling her back from her thoughts.

"Yes?" she answered.

Except, what came out didn't sound like a yes. In fact, it didn't even sound like her own voice. Instead, what came out was a loud "MOO".

Mistakening the moo for a moan, her friend persisted. "Oh come on Helga, it can't be THAT bad. Just come out and show us. We won't laugh. We promise."

Sighing to herself, Helga turned toward the door and prepared to step out. However, she found that she could hardly move. Exasperated, her friend had become inpatient and quickly swinging open the door, announced "Really, Helga, this isn't a big deal. If it doesn't look good we can just go back out and pick out another –"

The girl held on to the door handle, suddenly feeling faint. Instead of Helga standing in the dressing room, in her place there stood a white cow, staring up at her with its huge brown eyes.

The salesclerk came running at the sound of 8 teenage girls screaming at the top of their lungs, only to find a cow standing in one of their dressing rooms.

After the salesclerk ran out of the room to call animal control and her former friends began to nervously inch away from her and toward the door, Helga glanced down at herself.

"What happened to me? How did I become a COW? That's not even possible! This must just be some weird dream," Helga thought to herself.

But dream or not, animal control soon came, and what they were holding did not look friendly. The last thing Helga remembered thinking before they shot her with a tranquilizer gun was that she needed a hamburger to calm herself.

When Helga woke up, she looked around, confused. She was in a small stall that smelled vaguely of fertilizer and was surrounded by a bunch of cows looking at her strangely. Suddenly, her memory came back to her in with a jolt. Immediately, she began to panic.

"Where am I? What am I doing here? How did I become a cow? Why did I become a cow?" her thoughts came in a rush. But before she could process anything, someone walked in. As the person led out her of the stall and toward another, Helga realized that she was in a slaughterhouse. As she was being pulled along, she watched the other animals in the slaughterhouse and noticed how they were treated. They suffered until their painful end.

Just before they reached the machine which would cause Helga to join the other cows, she heard a yelp from the person pulling her. Turning to look, she realized that she had turned back into a human. Next thing she knew, someone was coming at her with a tranquilizer gun. She remembered focusing on a patch of grass before she blacked out.

"Helga? Helga? Are you awake now?"

Helga looked up to find that she was back in her own bed. Her mother was sitting on the bed next to her.

"Oh good. You've awaken. I'll let your friends in then."

When her mother opened the door, her friends came flooding in, jabbering away all at once. As Helga looked around, she noticed the bouquets of flowers and boxes of candy that lay scattered around her room. Maybe people actually did care.

"Wow, finally," Emily said. "Helga, you've been out for the whole weekend. We were so worried about you ever since last Friday. Is everything ok?"

"Yes. Everything's ok," Helga said as she smiled and thanked her friends for coming. And for once, she meant it.

"Ok so you want to go out for a burger now?" her friends asked her.

"No it's ok. You guys go without me," Helga replied, thinking back.

For the next few weeks, Helga cut back on her intake of meat. After experiencing how her burgers and steaks were made, they weren't anywhere near as appealing anymore.

A few weeks before prom, Helga suddenly realized that she still hadn't gotten a dress. Rushing to her closet, she wondered if she could reuse an old dress. Pushing pass some old sweatshirts, she noticed a ruffle of silk and realized that it was the dress she had tried on in the fitting room that day. Pulling it out, she went to ask her mother about it.

"Oh that. Well your friends said that you were trying it on Friday and we thought it looked nice so we bought it. Go try it on," her mother urged her.

Bringing the dress back with her, Helga returned to her room. Taking a deep breath, she began to undress. When she had the dress on, she turned to look in the mirror.

It fit perfectly.