Big is Beautiful by Kelly Martin Read Free Book Online

Kendra's words keep me from it?
    "Brittany! Time to go! Bus is coming." Mom yelled from downstairs.
    She made my decision for me. No time to dwell on the coat. I grabbed my old black one from the closet, my backpack from under my desk, and ran down the steps. In the kitchen, I kissed my mama on the cheek and grabbed a piece of toast from the tray she held out for me. Toast couldn't be too many calories.
    "Wait." She yelled when I'd gotten almost to the door. I had been so close. "Where's your new coat?"
    So, so close.
    "Um. It's in my room. It has a… stain."
    I turned in time to see her eyes narrow in that way moms' eyes do when they are aggravated. She plopped the plate of toast and bacon on the table and crossed her arms very firmly. Her nostrils flared like a dragon's as she leaned on one leg while tapping her fingers on her arm. "I just paid that coat off on Saturday."
    "I know—"
    "And I've been paying on it for four months. Four."
    The more she talked, the guiltier I felt. Not that I tore it (not my fault) but that she had worked so hard for it, and I'd let Kendra make me not love it any more. "I'm sorry. I'll be more careful with this one." I pulled out the bottom of my black fleece one.
    My mom took a deep breath and shut her eyes. "Brittany Isabelle Gregory…"
    Time for a lecture.
    "I know how much you loved that coat."
    -ED being the operative suffix.
    "How could you be so careless with it?"
    I took my own deep breath. The semi-truth and consequences trumped the truth and Kendra. "I'm sorry. I was walking out of Geometry and ran into the marker board. It put a big stain on it."
    "A dry erase marker stain?"
    I nodded.
    She seemed to relax a bit. "Okay. That's okay. Doable. I think I can get it cleaned at the dry cleaner and you can wear it again."
    I so didn't want it back. "And the hole."
    Her shoulders tensed back up. "Hole?"
    "The marker tray grabbed it and made a hole at the bottom." It surprised me she hadn't noticed it on the drive home, but she had been too interested in my time with Matt to notice.
    "Brittany." She groaned.
    I'm sure there were more things she wanted to say. Some would be yelled. Fortunately for both of us, I saw the bus coming around the corner. "Gotta go. Bus is here. We'll talk about it after school, okay?"
    I walked out without waiting for an answer. "Wait!"
    Caught again. This time, I stopped outside at the third step which was also the last step.
    "What about breakfast? Grab some bacon to eat on the way."
    Doubtful a handful of bacon and toast would be less than three hundred calories. "Bus is here. Sorry. Gotta go." I threw the toast in my mouth and headed down the sidewalk, careful not to slip on the frost.
    I slid to the end of the walkway just as the bus pulled up. I got on and sat down in the fourth seat from the back, my usual spot. With a few bites, I finished the toast and mentally added three hundred to the tally for the day. I didn't think a small piece of toast had that many calories, but better safe than sorry.
    Freezing, I sunk down in the seat, pulled my coat tighter, and huddled inside it. February chilled my bones. My oh so warm, plus-sized white coat taunted me from home.
    All around me, I heard chatter about the Easton High Valentine's Dance, a.k.a. the Red Ball. It was lame really. Sort of a mini prom without the limos. All grades could go. Tickets were twenty-five dollars. Everyone wore some shade of red and brought a date. I didn't have a date, and wearing red made me look like some sort of mutated tomato.
    The dance was Saturday, and I knew by the next Monday girls would still be glowing from their 'magical' night… some of the guys too, but for much different reasons. I'd get to hear how 'amazing' the music sounded, how beautiful the decorations hung from the ceiling, how romantic it all turned out, and who got voted Red Queen.
    Red Queen was a big deal, not as big as Prom Queen or Homecoming Queen, but a little higher in the ranks than Football Queen. The