ThinandBeautiful.com by Liane Shaw Read Free Book Online Page B

had bought myself one of those little calorie-counter books before I came to camp. You know the kind. They’re these little pocketbook things with lists of food items inside and the number of calories in each one. It was pretty interesting reading. I was shocked at some of the junk I’d been eating. No wonder the doctor of doom had told me to watch it. Anyway, I had tried to memorize as many of the everyday type foods as I could, like one slice of white bread has 110 calories. So I would look at the table full of food and try to eat as few calories as I could without going totally hungry. It was kind of fun in a way, because it was my game and no one knew anything about it. Well, not at first, anyway.
    About four days into that first week of horror, someone actually spoke to me.
    â€œYou don’t eat much, do you?” she asked, looking at my plate. It was hamburger night and the table was covered with plates of burgers and fries. I had some lettuce and tomato slices on my plate and one hamburger patty without the bun. I wasn’t sure about the hamburger’s calorie content so I was only eating half. I was so startled to be noticed that at first I didn’t say anything.
    â€œYou can talk, can’t you?” Someone else was talking to me. That was more conversation than I had had all week. I wasn’t sure if I could remember how to talk.
    â€œOf course I can talk!” I said, brilliantly.
    â€œSo, what’s with the rabbit food?” someone else asked. I looked up to find six pairs of perfectly made-up eyes on me and my plate. I didn’t know what to say. They already thought I was a total loser. Maybe I should tell them I had an ulcer or something. Right. That would make me popular. Tell everyone I have a middle-aged man’s disease.
    Would I make matters any worse by telling the truth? Could matters be any worse?
    â€œI’m, well, just, um, trying to, you know, cut down.” I nodded at my own wisdom, looking at my plate as if it held the answers to all of the great questions of life. Wilted lettuce and faded tomato slices stared back at me silently. No answers there.
    â€œCool. I’m Keisha by the way.” I looked up, stunned. She actually sounded sincere. She smiled at me. I smiled back.
    â€œMaddie,” I said.
    â€œSo, are you on a diet?” Keisha asked. The other girls looked interested. I thought about her question for a second before answering. I hadn’t really thought about it in that exact way before. Was I on a diet? Did that make me sound cooler or more like a loser? I thought of all of the magazines and how excited they seemed to be when someone famous went on a diet.
    â€œYeah, I guess so,” I answered, my powers of conversation obviously fascinating all of them.
    â€œGood for you,” one of the other girls sighed. (I later learned her name was Savannah.) “I keep on trying to start one but it’s just so hard.” She patted her completely flat stomach and sighed again.
    â€œOh, I know. It’s, like, you want to lose weight but you just can’t give up the food. One day, I’m going to look like my mother and then I’ll just want to die!” Keisha put her hand to her chest dramatically. Everyone laughed, including me, even though I thought it was a little rude talking about your mother that way.
    And that was it. For the rest of camp, I kind of belonged. I didn’t really have much in common with them, but we talked about food a lot and they all read my calorie-counter book with me. A couple of them even tried keeping track for a couple of days. They showed me how to do my makeup and Savannah managed to straighten my hair and keep it that way for more than three minutes. Annie wouldn’t have recognized me with my blue eye shadow and flowing locks! Devon would have split a gut laughing, but Alyssa would have totally approved. I would have fit right in with the beautiful people in Europe.
    I