The Beauty Project

Freshman Year, May 24 And we yell, ahahahah like a good ol' fashion nightmare. My arm slammed down on my trashy phone, which wouldn't stop ringing. It was six in the morning, for God's sake! Way too early for anyone to be awake. Finally, it stopped, and I rolled myself out of bed. Literally. Climbing out was too hard now. Well, I shouldn't say now. It had been a struggle for a while. Lumbering across the hall, I saw Eliza already making breakfast. I sighed to myself. How I envied her. From her naturally slim figure, to the sleek red bob that accentuated her elegant cheekbones, she was always getting calls from any guy she came in contact with. Even after she explained that she was a foster mom. "Good morning, Tanya!" she said in her naturally cheerful, melodic voice. She gracefully flipped a pancake and after spinning for a few seconds, it dropped perfectly onto the center of a stack. "Morning," I yawned, before heading to the bathroom. I kept my eyes slightly closed as I lathered up my face in prescription soap. Yeah, my acne was that bad. I'm not sure why I tried to fix it though, since the soap didn't even work. I dragged a brush through my frizzy, puffy mane, and sprayed a number of detanglers on it. Of course, my hair naturally repelled them all. How lucky was I? "Hon, could you wake up Anthony and Julie?" Eliza called down the hall. A little sadness pricks my heart. I had two other foster siblings besides Anthony and Julie. Since they slept upstairs, Eliza never asked me to get them. She knew there was no way I could make it up and down the stairs. Tiptoeing, though with my size, it still sounded loud, I walked into the room they shared. One half was painted hot pink, and the other army green. Gently, I walked to Anthony's bed and shook him gently. "Good morning!" he said, showing off his six year old smile. I couldn't help but grin with him, before walking to Julie's side. "I'M AWAKE!" she yelled before I could even touch her. "Don't need to be a brat," I mumbled, then glanced at the clock. Shoot! I walked as fast as I could to the kitchen, grabbing my bag. "I'm going to be late!" I said to Eliza, hoping she caught the underlying message. Luckily, she did. Swiftly, she grabbed a ziploc bag and tossed all the pancakes in. "Thanks," I said, and walked out the door. The bus pulled up just as I walked out. I went straight to my seat at the front of the bus, and opened the bag. Ah. The hypnotic smell of freshly baked pancakes circled my nose, and before I could think twice, they were all gone. My heart sank. Sometimes food was all I had to look forward to. *** By lunch, I was already exhausted. Gym was awful for me. I'd become quite good at faking injuries, but now most of the teachers could see right through them and Finn hadn't been at school. Finn Connors was my best friend. He was honestly the only person who hadn't dropped me when I started, um.. eating. Besides being extremely smart, he was also hilarious, and the kindest person I had ever met. I have no idea why he sticks with a slob like me. When I approached the tree we always sat by, I was disappointed to see he still wasn't there. I mean, I guess I was just hoping I wouldn't have to sit by myself. That's when it was the worst. As if hearing my thoughts, Brittany Debose strutted over with her equally orange posse. They all flicked their long, straight hair perfectly in sync. "Hey FaTanya," Brittany said, sugar coating each word. "Did you buy all the cookies at lunch again?" Her friends all giggled and high-fived, as I looked down at my pudgy feet, shoved into a pair of crocs. "Aw, don't laugh," Brittany pursed her overly glossed lips. "She might sit on you!" I felt a tear slip down my face. It wasn't my fault I had an eating problem. They liked cheerleading? Well, I liked eating. Big difference. "So, the gym teacher told me the real reason you don't have to do gym is because you broke the scale, and they don't want you to have an accidental heart attack from how hard your heart has to work. Upon seeing I wasn't going to say anything, as usual, Brittany huffed and with a- "Come on, girls. I'm gaining just by looking at her. Oh God, I'm breaking out too!", they all strutted back to where they came from. Trying to stop the tears that always came, I stuffed my mouth with french fries. I didn't look that bad, did I? Brittany was mean to everyone. She was probably exaggerating. Except I knew she wasn't. Suddenly, a shadow came up beside me, and a small girl, with an even smaller cheer uniform, sat next to me. "I'm sorry about Brittany," the girl- I think her name was Ginger- said, playing with her red-brown hair. I shrugged, not quite sure why she was talking to me. "Look," she said, placing a well manicured hand on my shoulder. "I used to be the exact same as you." To this, I shot her a questioning look. I mean, she was absolutely gorgeous. There was no way she could have ever been as- well, unappealing as me. "It's true!" She insisted, then after looking both ways, leaned into me. "Do you want my help or not?" "I..." I mumbled, then looked at the cheerleaders, who were now making fun of my acne. "I don't know." "Look at me." She grabbed my chin and turned it towards her with a surprising amount of force. "What have you got to lose?" I looked at my feet. "You really think you can fix me?" She laughed. "We'll make it our summer project. The Summer Beauty Project." I let myself smile a little. "Okay, I guess." She grinned. "I have cheer camp until August, so we can start then." Before I could reply, she snatched my phone and typed her number in. "Text me!" Then she walked away, leaving me wondering if a little makeover could really make that much of a difference. Only one way to find out.