chapter 2

I felt better than ever before. My friends slowly stopped making fun of me, my mother was actually proud of me, and boys were starting to pay attention to my figure. I felt like a thin, beautiful butterfly finally freed from her flabby cocoon. In losing weight I'd found a strength I never thought I had. I felt so light, so full of energy, like I could do anything. I was proud of myself; of the slim, shapely, shining girl I saw when I looked in the mirror. I started to dress better and got myself a new haircut. I even took up dancing. I'd worked hard for this body and now I was going to show it off.
Over the next couple of years I settled into my new figure and my new lifestyle. Fitness and healthy eating had become my way of life. I no longer had to strain myself to stay thin. I'd forgotten what it was like to be the fat kid. I'd forgotten the pleasure of greasy foods and the excitement of packing my belly to the brim with sweets. I wasn't that girl anymore. Porky Penny had been nothing but a challenge for me to overcome.
I was ashamed of my past, ashamed that I'd ever been such a lazy and out of shape little porker. I had long since absorbed my mom's loathing of the obese. As far as I was concerned fat people were weak slobs with no self-control.
Now that I was thin my mom and I got on a lot better. We shopped together and exercised together. From time to time when some really fat woman waddled by we would make mean little comments behind her back.
I'd become just like the girls who used to make fun of me. I took pleasure in mocking anyone with a flabby midriff. One girl in particular, a raven-haired classmate named Dani, became one of my favourite targets. She was insecure and morbidly obese, a hopelessly out of shape girl who was always snacking and cutting gym. We were similar in many ways. She was what I might've been if I'd kept to my sedentary ways. I treated her just like my old friends had treated me. I teased her and gave her all of my old nicknames. Unlike me Dani never so much as tried to lose weight. By the time we graduated I'd watched her gain a good 70 pounds. She was one of the fattest women I'd ever seen; a huge pear-shaped girl with massive, sagging buttocks and immense, rippling thighs that forced her into an awkward waddle.
The thought that I might, had I not worked hard to lose weight, have ended up like her was enough to send shivers down my spine. But we weren't the same. She was just a lazy lardass. I might've been fat once, but I'd worked hard to lose the weight. I was thin and in control. I was never gonna be Porky Penny again. Or so I thought.