Chapter 1

Ellie was 26 years old and she just lost her job as an administrative assistant for a large company. This came a little unexpectedly, it was her first job out of college and she had a tough time landing that job. The thought of the effort and rejection from another job hunt irked her.

Ellie was feeling tired and depressed. She spent her days lounging around the house in her pajama’s watching daytime TV and eating. She had been off for about two weeks now and she has already gained about 10 pounds. Ellie has been overweight since she hit puberty, slowly and steadily gaining weight as the years went on.

She had long dirty blonde hair and she stood 5’6” and 240 pounds. She was a pretty girl with a nice smile, rather homely looking with low self esteem which didn’t help to bring out her beauty. Her weight was evenly distributed on her body with a slight hourglass figure which was being threatened by her recent weight gain.

Tired of lounging around the house, Ellie decided to go out for a walk in a nice park, in another part of the city, she figured that the fresh air and exercise would do her good.

During her walk as she was enjoying the peacefulness of the park, she happened to notice someone familiar jogging on the same path towards her. “I know her” she thought and as this person got closer, it came to her “Nancy?” she said aloud.

The jogger stopped, turned around and took off her ear phones and said, “Pardon?”

“Are you Nancy?” inquired Ellie.

“Yes… and you are?” replied Nancy.

“Oh my god, you don’t remember me? It’s Ellie!”

“Ellie, is that you?” replied Nancy. “I didn’t even recognize you… wow, you look… good?” replied Nancy in a slightly sarcastic manner.

Nancy and Ellie were childhood friends; they did everything together until they hit puberty. Ellie started to gain weight and Nancy slowly started finding other friends, then shortly after, Nancy’s father it big with a big real estate deal and they moved to another neighborhood. From then, Nancy and Ellie drifted even further apart, occasionally greeting each other in high school and the odd running into throughout their teen years.

“My god, how long has it been? 8 years?” said Ellie.

“Yeah, something like that” replied Nancy.

Nancy was your prototypical beauty, 26 years old, she was about 5’, 7”, 120 pounds and her physique was very slender and incredibly toned. She had drop dead looks with very slight dimples on her toned face that lit up a room when she smiled. Her hair was long and light brown with blonde streaks. She was always very athletic and extremely popular. It was said that there wasn’t a guy who didn’t want her. She had a way about her, she flaunted her looks, she teased and always got what she wanted. She knew what she had and she exploited it to the fullest.

Nancy grew up in a strict household; her mother was very strict with her only child, she demanded that Nancy always be involved with sports or any physical activity. Ellie recalled that in elementary school, Nancy never touched any junk food, soda pop or even birthday cake. Her mother had instilled into her the idea that all that stuff was very bad for you and trusting her mother she abided by those rules and was very strict about it. “My god, I don’t think she has ever had any sugar” Ellie shutters as she recalls saying to herself.

“So what have you been up to” Nancy inquired.

“Not much really, I was just laid off from my job and I’ve been taking it easy” replied Ellie. “And you?”

“Actually, I’m a part-time personal trainer over at the gym” replied Nancy.

“Wow, cool. Does that pay the bills?” asked Ellie.

“That doesn’t matter, I’m sad to say that my parents died in a car accident about a year ago, they left everything to me, the house, the cottage… I’m self sufficient” replied Nancy.

“I’m so sorry about your parents, I didn’t even know” said Ellie in a sympathetic voice.

“That’s ok, it’s still hard but I’m getting through it. I have to get going now; I don’t want to cool down too much here.” Nancy said.

Nancy reaches down and opens up her marsupial pouch and pulls out a business card, and says “here’s my card, come by the gym… I’ll take care of you no charge” as she hands Ellie the card.

Nancy pokes Ellie in the belly and gives her a wink; she put her earphones back on and sprints off.

“Ahhh”, Ellie thought. It’s all coming back to her now. She had almost forgotten how Nancy was. Just like her mother, very sarcastic and a little cruel. She remembered the times in the past where Nancy would tease Ellie about her weight and do demeaning things like poking her in the belly, or slapping her butt or calling her a cow or Miss Piggy. Ellie always understood that that was just the way Nancy was and that she really didn’t mean to hurt her, but it did.

Three days have past and Ellie reverted back to her normal routine of binge eating and lounging around the house. In a brief moment of ambition, Ellie had decided that she was going to the gym and take Nancy up on her offer.