chapter 5

Kelly Simmons turned the key to the back door of her parents' house as quietly as she could. She loved her parents dearly, but right at this moment she they were the LAST people in the world she wanted to see. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She missed them terribly and looked forward to this visit, but she just didn't want THEM to see HER.

She had packed her car for the trip home and was about to go out the front door of the apartment to the parking lot when she glanced at the front doors to her apartment building. As it turns out, they were made of glass and it was at that moment that she saw her reflection in the glass doors. Oh my GOD!!! For the first time, Kelly Simmons realized that she had gotten FAT!! Not just chubby. Beyond plump. Fat!!! Pure and simple. When she first saw that belly, she thought it was the pregnant chick who lived on the third floor. She wondered how such a nice looking girl could have let herself go that much. Then she realized. It wasn't the pregnant chick, it was HER!!

At that precise moment, all sorts of thoughts raced through her head. She was pissed off at Britt and her stupid challenge. She was mad at herself for having accepted it. She was angry at Britt again for fattening her up so much. She was REALLY sore at herself for letting Britt do it. More to the point, she wondered how she could explain to her parents what had happened to the thin, toned girl they had sent off for her senior year in college.

At any rate, Kelly quietly let herself in the house and slowly but surely brought in her bags. She climbed up the stairs with some difficulty, not realizing how out of shape she had gotten, and was about to go into her room when who should emerge from her sick room but her little sister! That MIGHT have been okay but for the fact that she let out a cry of, "Oh my God, Kelly got FAT!!!!". This, of course, brought her parents out into the hallway and Kelly's "little secret" wasn't so secret anymore!

Kelly's mom, Alexis, nearly fainted. Her dad Sam couldn't conceal a bemused smile. And her little sister couldn't resist poking Kelly's fat, round belly. It was, all together, a rip-snorting homecoming!!

The next day, Alexis immediately called their family doctor for an appointment. She was bound and determined that no daughter of HERS was going to go through life looking like some fat slob who shops at Walmart's. She drove Kelly to her appointment, where she got the usual lecture about the dangers of being grossly overweight. She was given a diet and exercise program to follow and yet another stern lecture from the doctor's nurse before she slinked out of the office an into her mother's waiting car.

The thing is, she was SOOOO HUNGRY!!! Over six weeks of non-stop eating had stretched her belly's capacity way beyond its old limits. So, when they got home Kelly said she was off to the gym to work off her oatmeal breakfast. Instead she wandered over to the local McDonald's and got three Egg McMuffins with cheese, two hased browns and a chocolate shake. AHHH, that felt so much better.

Right about the time she was wiping some of the grease from her breakfast off her lips, Kelly was reminded of what Britt had told her right before she accepted the challenge. Something along the lines that once she gave up control, it would be VERY hard to go back. Well, the girl with the iron will had pooh-poohed the whole idea. She wasn't so dismissive any more.

And so the week sped by. Kelly would eat sensible, low calorie meals at home and then go out to some fast food place and stuff herself til her eyes glazed over. Before she left home for school she somewhat reluctantly stepped on the bathroom scale. Thank God it wasn't one of those scales that talked because it would have virtually screamed, "Kelly weighs one hundred and eighty-three pounds, what a pig!!"

As Kelly drove off to school, all she could think about was the challenge. She had just gone through what SHE thought would have been the hard part, letting herself go and "putting on a few pounds.". Well, she had put on nearly seventy pounds in about ten weeks seemingly without really trying. Now she realized that regaining her once slim figure was going to prove to be the REAL challenge. This was brought home to her on the six hour trip back to school as she stopped to eat at fast food restaurants along the turnpike four times. And she wasn't ordering a light salad and a diet soft drink either! If she stuffed herself like this driving back to school, what would she do when she got back to her apartment? Britt would be waiting there for her and if she knew Britt, she would be the personification of the word "temptation".

And she was!!!!