Big is Beautiful Read Free

steadied myself for whatever insult Kendra had to throw at me. "You know, Big. I like your new coat."
    My eyes opened automatically, and my defenses completely left me. A compliment from Kendra. Seriously? "Thanks," I said bewildered, and I wondered what the catch was.
    "Yeah, it's very retro. Like from that '80s movie. I hear the giant marshmallow look is in." She laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. I had news for her. It wasn't.
    "As are witches, lucky for you, since you don't have to wait until Halloween to dress up."
    "What did you say to me?" Never had I seen her so upset. Smoke might have literally puffed from her diamond studded ears.
    I simply smiled back, shut my locker and walked away. She yelled behind me, but I kept right on walking. I felt pretty good about myself. Score one for the backbone. One thing was for certain; Kendra wouldn't let my little remark go unanswered.

 
    Chapter Two
     
    First period English went fine. All about some dead poet I'd never heard of… which pretty much summed up all dead poets. Poetry wasn't my thing. Non-fiction things weren't either. Maybe if I were a history buff or something I'd like those types of stories. Personally, I'd rather read a romance… or a scary classic.
    I muddled through English, trying my best to stay awake and then walked the Green Mile to math, more specifically, Geometry. I liked math: real American math that dealt with actual numbers, adding, and subtracting. I could even divide with the best of them.
    But geometry…
    My brain shut down and cried in a lonely corner when it came to geometry. In my mind, the devil's name wasn't Lucifer . His name was Geometry , and Hell consisted of nothing more than constant missing angles and the Pythagorean Theorem.
    One would assume geometry would be easy. Most kids learned shapes in preschool or even younger. All of my shape-naming awesomeness went by the wayside in August during the first week of school when Ms. Bennett introduced us to congruent angles. It all went downhill from there.
    With dread, I entered the brightly painted classroom. The joyful yellow and purple colors on the walls mocked me. It appeared the room knew how evil it was, so it disguised itself as something not , like a clown… or a politician.
    If today was a good day and God found it in his heart to be by my side, I would simply walk to my desk, sit down, pull my papers out, and disappear into the ugly paint. Unfortunately for me, neither God nor the day had found favor with me so far. Two steps from my desk and Ms. Bennett called my name.
    Pain gripped my chest. Sweat beaded on my brow. Time stood still…
    Okay, none of that actually happened, but I did swallow hard, turn around, and saw the sweet little lady sitting at the podium at the front of the room motioning me toward her with a crooked finger. Her stylish, black-rimmed glasses made her big green eyes as large as mini-doughnuts. Much to my chagrin, they were shining.
    When I arrived in front of the podium, Ms. Bennett hung her glasses on the collar of her white, buttoned-up blouse, shifted her legs under her ankle-length scarlet skirt, and smiled warmly. My stomach tightened, already knowing where this was going. "Hello, Brittany."
    "Hi." My lips, without my consent, smiled back. I was too polite for my own good.
    "Your mother called me yesterday."
    Five more words I had never wanted to hear. "Yes, ma'am."
    "Did she tell you about it?" She pushed a rogue strand of blonde hair behind her ear. Ms. Bennett always kept her hair in a bun or clip.
    I shifted on my right foot and lowered my eyes to a very interesting string on my new, not-so-awesome coat. If only I could hide the stupid white thing in a nice, normal-sized locker. Oh well, silly dreams and all. "She did this morning."
    Ms. Bennett sat up straighter in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "And?"
    And… what? And I hated the idea of being even more humiliated at school? And I didn't want to have to