There were many things Ino enjoyed in life: The feel of silk against her skin, the smell of oranges around Christmas, abusing drugs at loud parties and not eating for days.
Ino was still a simple woman.
She thought so herself but everyone else would disagree.
As a baby she would cry until her parents came to get her and then she would quiet down. She simply craved her parents attention at all times.
At the age of three she learned that she was more likely to get candy if she played with her blond hair and smiled with her plump lips.
In kindergarten she invited boys one by one in a play cabin and interview them for the position of being her first ever boyfriend.
In elementary she still kept her sweet act. She knew what her looks gave her: Extensions, free passes and good grades. It even landed Ino her very first female friend.
It was someone who couldn't compete with her when it came to looks.
It was the quiet girl with pink hair and a large forehead. The girl no one else wanted to befriend. Ino wanted to because she didn't want any competition.
At the end of elementary Ino experience something every budding teen experiences. The dreaded biological change called puberty.
Ino didn't mind some things others not so much.
She was the first in her class to start developing breasts. What she didn't like was the fat her body had stored for her growing years to come.
Nobody gave her the same attention now that she was fat.
Her parents' friends never commented that she was such a sweet and beautiful girl. Her grades dropped and she no longer got away with what she used to.
Ino was a fat child no. Fat children weren't loved.
It was at this age Ino also became aware about the various shapes females came in. How they differed in age and shape. What she also noticed that only the tall, young and slender women were plastered in magazines and were allowed to walk the runway.
Mind you that at this time there was no such thing as a plus size model.
Ino decided quickly that she wanted to be one of these women in the magazines.
The first to go was the mayo and butter.
Then meals started disappearing all together and Ino told herself that she was in control.
She had control.
She was living the life of every successful girl she watched in her teen movies.
Hours were spent in front of the mirror looking at her shape, measuring her body parts and comparing them to others. She had a measuring tape by her bed and had memorized the average measurements of a super model.
When people voiced concern she would laugh. Like she had the time to be sick when she was amongst the top in class and had such a rich social life?
In middle school Ino lost her mother.
She lost her only healthy female role model and had only the glossy women were left. Those that weren't real.
She didn't cry. She didn't grieve. She didn't have time when she was dieting. She learned at an early age that she couldn't control death. She could control what she put in her body on the other hand so she did.
What Ino ate became the only thing she could control in life.
Shikamaru was always the worst in judging her. He was always talking down on her body. She was too small, looked too thin and sickly.
Their weekly sleep over stopped before they started high school.
Ino said that it was because they were the opposite sex and were getting too old. The real story was that he saw those nights. He saw her bones underneath the skin that was always too tight. The bones she had come to love and live for.
Ino know they weren't meant to happen so she didn't even consider him as boyfriend material but him becoming a man was her only viable excuse.
He didn't understand girls and certainly not her.
Sasuke on the other hand… The bruiting, tall, dark and handsome guy everyone wanted, Ino just had to have. She made it her mission. She didn't care about Sakura's feelings for him.
She told herself that all the girls had those feelings, besides her because she felt true love for him.
Sakura was more her sidekick than anything.
Ino had first pick when it came to trends to follow, clothes and boys.
Sakura was supposed to work as Ino's back up. They weren't much friends anymore entering high school. They had drifted apart.
Sakura had become more independent, beautiful and charming. For the first time there was a real competition.
Amongst their peers there were evaluated and judged. Until the very end of senior year Ino was leading.
Victory was established when Sakura had her tongue down Ino's boyfriend on the dance floor at their prom.
Ino had always thought that would be her biggest downfall. That such a trivial thing compared to her present day would make her run.
She should have known things would get so much worse.
At the end of high school she left her hometown.
She left the criticizing Shikamaru that would never understand.
She left her father who had never been enough.
She left Sakura after she had won.
She was too big for her small town. She craved something else than comfort. She dreamt of becoming a glossy girl in a magazine herself and that couldn't be done in her hometown.
Ino fled with the promise that she would never be back.
Xoxoxoxoxo
As a few of you have noted this story is very similar to another. I've talked to the author, a very cool cat by the way, she was gracious not only to believe me when I told her I hadn't copied her story but she also agreed to allow me have my story up with a few changes.
Thankfully it's only the few chapters that is similar and that is scary because so much of the first few chapters are based on my own experiences.
I've for many years struggled with anorexia. It's not a fun disease and when I started having those thoughts again: "I'm fat… You should stop eating" I decided to take some sort of action and ended up starting this story. There are also a lot of minor similarities but those weren't my inspiration for writing this story.
So expect some minor changes in the first chapters in the coming time, I won't do anything major to the plot as I want this to be about Ino's disease and recovery.
So thank you to everyone that's supported this story and to those who have alerted me that my story seemed to be plagiarized.
Take care!