Lily smoothed her dress down around her stomach, a pinch of self conciseness making her suck in her belly. She knew she wasn’t fat, she wasn’t even chubby. She was the skinniest girl in her class and above. She bit her lip and pushed her stomach out and turned to the side. Still skinny. She loved being skinny, having the confidence to wear whatever she wanted, but could people tell? Tell how hard she worked to maintain that skinny profile. She shook her head and stepped away from the mirror.

Lily hurried down the hallway, taking the steps two at a time and jumping the last 4 and landing perfectly. She smiled and hurried into the kitchen. Her mother was feeding her baby brother, who had orange all over his face. Lily waved at him and was nearly pushed over by her other little brother, Cameron, as he ran by her. Lily grabbed a muffin from the table and turned towards the door again.

“Bye mom, I’m going to school.” Lily called over her shoulder and waltzed out the front door, feeling good. Lily’s high school was only a block away, and she liked the cool air and the feeling of exercise she got from walking to school. She mindlessly hummed a popular song from the radio and peeled the paper off her muffin. She raised it to her glossy cherry lips and froze. She remembered standing in front of the mirror and the mental conversation she had had with herself. She looked at the blueberry muffin and the smell wafted up to her nose. She suddenly felt sick. Her stomach flopped around inside of her and she threw the muffin on the ground. She walked away from the crime as fast as she could.


“Class. Class!” Mrs. Braxton’s voice yelled out over the sound of noisy high schooler’s and everyone quieted down and looked at her with annoyed expressions. “Class, this is our new student, Summer Coleman.” Everyone’s gaze moved to the thin girl next to Mrs. Braxton. Lily’s heart flipped at the sight of the tiny girl. She glanced down at her stomach and her exposed thighs due to her short stone washed shorts.

The girl waved a little and some smart alec in the back of the class room called out. “Hi Summer!” A few people laughed and the girl looked down at her feet.

“Summer, just go sit by Lily. Lily raise your hand.” The classroom quieted and Lily looked around at all the faces that were still smiling about the smart alec, but her heart went into a barrage of heart beats. They were comparing her to the skinny girl. She slowly raised her hand and then dropped it back down when the girl headed towards her. She rolled her lips in a scooted her chair a few inches from the girl.

“Gosh, your so skinny. What are you, anorexic?” Lily rolled her eyes and scooted over so more. Summer’s face turned red and she sat down in her chair quietly. Guilt made Lily feel bad, but she kept her mean girl attitude going. She wrote on her paper and tapped it on the tabled rudely.

“Everyone, go back to your journals.” The teacher sat down at her desk.

Lily’s friend, Jessica, leaned across the table and whispered to Summer loudly.

“You have really pretty blond hair. It looks so soft.” Jessica flashed her a smile that showed all her white teeth and Lily could feel the anger warming her face. She had always wanted blond hair, instead of the red-ish blond hair she had. She twirled a piece of her hair around her finger and smiled to herself at the soft feeling.

“Did you bleach it?” She asked Summer raising her eye brows expectantly. Summer shook her hair and dropped her eyes to the table.

“Both my parents are naturally blond.” Summer’s voice was quiet. She looked at Jessica and thanked her for the compliment.

“No problem,” Jessica’s eyes were searching Lily’s face, wondering what her problem was.


The bell rang and everyone rushed out to the hall way, Lily was about to do the same, when a hand pulled her back.

“Hey! Wha.?” She looked at Jessica with a “What are you doing?” look. Jessica just crossed her arms.

“Why were you being so mean to Summer?” Jessica stuck her lips out a little and gave her the “I want a real answer” look.

“I wasn’t being mean.” Lily turned and walked from the class room and she heard Jessica.

“Mhmmm.” Lily clenched her hands into fists around her stuff and stomped down the hall a little.


Lily hadn’t heard of Summer the rest of the day and had felt a lot better as she exited the school and headed towards her street. Other kids were messing around, but only she walked down Robin Str. She left the noise of everyone behind, but footsteps made her look over her shoulder. There was Summer walking only 20 feet behind her.

“What are you doing?” Lily asked, a growl in her voice.

“Huh? I’m walking home. I moved in down the street.” Summer pointed towards the end of the street and Lily just rolled her eyes and started walking again.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Summer hurried to catch up with her and Lily felt her annoyance level rise.

“What do you want?” She asked snottily.

“Why did you throw your muffin on the ground this morning?” Summer’s greenish brown eyes searched Lily’s face intently and landed on her own eyes.

“I.. uhh, it had a bug on it.” She said speeding up her pace.

“Are you anorexic?” Summer’s question floated around her. Lily wanted to grab and shove it back down Summer’s throat.

“No.” Lily said it flatly and she heard the lie in it.

“I can tell you are.” Summer stood up a little straighter. She knew she had the upper hand.

“You better not be telling anyone your lies, or you will be very sorry.” Lily snarled at her quietly and then ran up her driveway to her front door. She pulled open the door and right before she was able to slam it, she heard Summer’s chuckle.