Previously: The family begins to adjust to all the changes – including exercise and eating healthy.
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My stomach rumbled. I was so hungry.
I buried my head in my arms. Then I lifted it off my school desk as I felt two pairs of eyes boring holes into the back of my head. My heart dropped so far, so fast it made me feel nauseous.
“What happened, Shevi?” Tamara’s voice oozed scorn.
Why was she doing this to me? Why couldn’t this girl get a life and leave me alone? Why do some people find so much pleasure in tormenting those who are different? I remembered a quote I’d once heard in the name of Rebbetzin Machlis, a”h… “That miskein could have been me.” I tried to incorporate that into my life. I always tried to put myself in a more unfortunate person’s pair of shoes for a couple of minutes, and I always came away feeling more sensitive to others’ suffering. Why, oh why, did Tamara and Adina think that they were so much greater than I was because they had a better metabolism? And what if the tables turned one day? I saw the way these girls ate. I went to school with them. Mrs. Rich would not approve.
“Aren’t you feeling well?” Adina added, seeing that I didn’t reply. Her voice dripped with disdain. “Or do you have a stomach-ache from too much junk food?”
What was with these people!?
“Hey, guys, cut it out.” Shy, quiet Gitty was making her way over to my desk. “Leave her alone.”
My head shot around. This was the second time she was doing this for me. Why? I mean, it was nice and all, but… why did she want to help me? Fat, clumsy old me?
“Didn’t you see what Shevi ate for lunch?” Gitty asked, her voice soft. “She had a big, fresh salad with tuna fish on four whole wheat crackers.” I looked at her in surprise, which quickly turned to anger. What right did Gitty have to watch what I ate, and then inform my tormentors of my lunch menu? They’d never let me live this down. But Gitty wasn’t done. “You know, it’s really nasty to tease someone because of how they look or what they eat. I’d think you two know better than that.”
My mouth fell open. Who was this new Gitty? And what in the world possessed her to come over and talk to Tamara and Adina that way?
Tamara’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly. She looked decidedly like a clown fish. Adina just looked shocked, her eyes wide. I don’t think they were used to people talking to them like that – or it could have just been their surprise that Gitty was talking to them like that.
“Finished?” Tamara finally managed. “Or do you have more to say?” her words were icy, biting.
“No, I’m done now.” Gitty’s voice was soft again. She turned to me. “Hey, Shevi, I noticed you finished those math problems Mrs. Greenberg assigned in no time. Do you mind showing me where I’m going wrong? I just can’t seem to make my answers match the ones in the book.”
I snapped my mouth shut. Was she for real? No one had ever come to me for help with schoolwork before. That was Michal’s forte, or at least Dini. Not little old Shevy. But there was Gitty, looking at me expectantly.
“I’m not that good at math,” I mumbled.
Tamara and Aidna snorted in unison. I wondered how they’d timed that as Tamara said, “Alright, Gitty, we won’t disturb your holy work on this chesed case. You should only know how much she needs it!” Then she and Adina walked away, giggling.
My cheeks flushed bright red and my breathing came quickly. Gitty looked no less mad, and her eyebrows turned in angrily. “What did they mean by that?” she exploded as she pulled a chair up to my desk. “You’re not my chesed project,” she informed me, the disdain for the pair evident in her voice. “And if anyone here needs chesed, it’s them.”
I wanted to say, “You can say that again,” but the words stuck in my throat. Maybe they were right. After all, why was Gitty being nice to me all of a sudden? She’d never done that before. In fact, I’d never heard her say so many words at once, other than that time that she’d come to comfort me about the Production costumes. I turned to her. “Why are you suddenly being nice to me?” I asked her bluntly.
Gitty looked down. “I’m just tired of seeing how they treat you,” she said in a voice so quiet I had to strain to hear her over my classmates’ cacophonous noise. “I…well…It’s usually hard for me to speak up. But I’m fed up with the way they just walk all over you and make you feel like a speck of dirt.”
Then Gitty looked directly at my face. “My twin’s overweight, too.”
To be continued…