I would've been better if I had taken the time to do the feelings more greatly and less on the dialouges, plus the fact that the trasitions from place to place isn't real clear.
This may not be the best written story (I'm lacking the mood right now, but I might [emphesize on the might] rewrite this someday.) but the plot is definately worth reading!!!
Digmon does not belong to me. To Sonja...
Light As A Feather
Yolei sat on the edge of her bed, leaning against a cardboard box, her eyes closed, squishing the tears until they fell. She was worried, and full of misery. She bent down and cradled her legs, and tucked her legs under her chin and sighed. Still with her eyes closed, she pretended to sleep. And yet, that dreaded horror of that day kept floating back:
"What, really?" The whole hall was suddenly full of giggles.
"I can't believe that. That's so embarrassing!" Another girl said.
"I wonder what's going on?" Yolei asked, walking to her locker. Kari was already there, stuffing books into her own locker.
"Oh, haven't you heard, Yolei?" Kari asked. "Our PE coach is calculating our percent of body weight."
"Oh." Yolei said, glancing at the girls in the hall and then at herself. She was pretty slender, and if she was perhaps a little plump, you certainly couldn't see it. "And let me guess. That's the other class, the one that already got tested." Kari nodded.
"Yeah, and I guess it caused much commotion." She said, shrugging and pulling out the books she needed for the next class. "We have PE the class after next period."
"Yeah." Kari walked off to class, and Yolei got her books. She wondered what it would be like. She wondered about her percent of body fat, and shivered. It was never a good thing, fat and measuring, that was. It always set you apart. But none of that worried Yolei. She was an "elegant, skinny young girl", as she had heard Izzy once tell Tai and Matt, nothing to worry about. Yolei blushed at the thought. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop.
Getting her books, she headed towards math class comfortably in her own thoughts.
Yolei was walking to PE rather fast, because it was in another building and that was pretty far. She was practically running, trying to beat the bell for once. No such luck. The bell rang just as she approached the building.
"We're going to be in the Shop Room today." The Coach said. "C'mon girls, move it!" Yolei ran into the Shop Room. It was not as high or as nice as the gymnasium, with a few chairs for the class as well. She couldn't understand why they called it the Shop Room.
Yolei sat down in her seat, next to Kari, and waited until the rest of the class entered and sat down. The Coach went up to the front and pulled something out of the box.
"This is a fat estimating machine." She said, activating it. It was a rather small thing, only seven inches in length and width, and only about one and a half inches thick. Yolei liked to estimate and pay attention to electronics.
"This one doesn't work as well as the one I used to have, but it'll do." Coach said. "You put your fingers here and hold it out and grip, and in a few seconds it'll calculate your body fat."
A girl raised her hand. "How does that work?" She asked. Coach shrugged.
"Hey, if I knew how it worked, I wouldn't be here." She said. The girl started to say something, but Coach repeated the sentence.
"How much did you pay for that?" Another girl asked as the first girl walked up for her turn. The Coach punched her height, age, and weight into the machine. "Did you buy it at Wal-Mart or something? How much did it cost?"
"You can't get it at Wal-Mart." Coach said, meanwhile telling the girl to press the start button. "You can buy them at fitness gyms, though. I think I got that one for several hundred."
"Several hundred!" Another girl said. "That's a lot!"
"That is a lot." Kari said to Yolei. "But I wonder how that thing works."
"Yeah." Yolei said. "It's awfully strange, it's just a piece of metal, and it doesn't have any scales or anything. How does it do it? Are you supposed to grip at a certain place or level?"
"I don't know." Kari said. "I'm worried about me."
"Don't." Yolei said. "You're thinner than me. You'll probably do fine."
"The average is between 18%-25%." Coach said. "We don't want too much body fat, like forty something and up is really bad, but we don't want too less either, like only two or three percent."
"Wow." Kari whispered.
"There are people with body percents of 13-15, and that would be a good percent for a very healthy athlete." Coach said. She went on to babble more about weight. Yolei wasn't listening, but yawning. What was this whole class about anyways? But it was only one day.
Yolei yawned. Calculating body fat was so boring. She watched the people go up, one by one. Yolei had known that Coach was going to calculate it, because she had taken their height and weight, but she had never thought it was this tiring and boring. Yolei thought she could fall asleep. At least they didn't have to dress out and be out in the sun.
"Yolei!" Coach called. Yolei jumped and stood up. "I've been calling you for the third time now. C'mon up and let me calculate your body fat." Yolei walked up to the monitor.
"Ooh, Yolei just doesn't want to be calculated because she knows that she's fat." A girl called Helen said. Yolei frowned, but couldn't do anything under Coach's gaze. She took her position at the monitor, and heard Kari defending her.
"Yolei isn't fat." Kari said. Helen nodded and said,
"Oh yes she is." They spent a little time arguing over it. Yolei watched the monitor. Coach handed the piece of metal to her and she paused. Yolei took it in both hands, and (hand trembling, though she didn't know why) pressed the start button.
There was a slight hum, and then it beeped. Yolei looked at the numbers, and stiffened up. It said 32% and 35.84 lbs. That was how much fat she had. A little awkwardly, she walked back to her seat.
"What did you get, Yolei?" Helen asked. Her friend jeered in.
"None of your business." Yolei snapped angrily. Kari looked worried, but proceeded up for her turn.
"What did you get?" Kari asked as she returned to her seat. Yolei mouthed the words, "I'll tell you later." The other two girls were watching.
"How bout you?" Yolei asked.
"28.5%." Kari said, groaning. "I guess I'm fatter than I look."
"Oh." Yolei said. "Well, don't let that bring you down."
"Are you kidding me?" A girl asked. Yolei, stuffing books into her locker, thought the voice sounded awfully familiar.
"No way." Another voice said. "That IS a lot."
"What, the most in our class?" A voice asked. "Hey, there she is, let's go ask her." Yolei froze. Where they talking about her?
"Not the most, but third." Yolei heard a girl say. Next thing she knew, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Yolei spun around and found herself face to face with Helen.
"Wow, you got 32%!" Helen laughed. "Gosh, that's a lot, you must REALLY be fat." She smiled at her friends, as Yolei judged Helen. Helen was one of those people that were in between, yet really skinny, though you couldn't really see it. Her two best friends, Gwen and Jane, were both skinny, and the ladder extremely tall. Yolei wondered what she had.
"That's WAY out of the level range, eh Jane?" Gwen asked, laughing. Jane giggled and raised her eyebrows.
"Wow, look." Izzy was coming down the hall with Matt and Tai trailing along. Yolei turned to look.
"And then it would all be done, presto!" Izzy seemed to be explaining something about computers. Yolei smiled, then stiffened up. The girls loved showing off, especially to the boys, her group of boys. They would definitely tell the guys her percent of body fat. And yet, leaving was not good, anything could happen. Yolei was stuck between her locker and the three girls anyways. There wasn't enough room to move between them.
"Okay, that sounds about right." Tai said. "We're going to go to class now, all right, Izzy?"
"Sure, bye." Izzy said.
"Bye." Matt said. Matt and Tai turned right into another hallway. Yolei spun around and proceeded in stuffing books into her locker. Izzy continued walking, taking no notice of the girls. Yolei watched out of the corner of her eye as he passed.
Then suddenly, he seemed to change his mind and walked towards them.
"Hey." He said.
"Hi." Helen said, giggling. Yolei rolled her eyes and turned around.
"Hey Izzy." She said, trying to straighten her books into a neat pile with her knee. One of her books rolled off the top and bounced off the floor. Izzy picked it up and placed it on the top of her pile. Their eyes locked for a moment.
"I've got to go." Izzy said. "Hope to see you girls around!" He waved and walked off. Yolei sighed and locked her locker. That was close.
"Don't even think about it." Helen snapped. "You don't have a chance! Once Izzy finds out about your percent of body fat, he won't even look at you! Don't think that just because he picked up that book you dropped (on purpose to prove to us that he would pick it up) he likes you. Forget it Yolei."
"Yeah." Gwen said. "Forget it totally."
"And lose some weight." Jane added. "First."
The three girls continued down the hall, giggling and calling out to their friends Yolei's numbers. Yolei sunk down against her locker. Since when had her life been so confusing?
Maybe I should lose some fat. Maybe, perhaps it'll do some good. I do have too much. And then, if I get past them, Helen and her two friends will stop making fun of me and Izzy-
She suddenly remembered what Helen had said. It was so mean, so cruel. She was like a second Cruella De Vil, and there was nothing anyone can do about it.
Yolei suddenly broke into a sob. She stood up and waved her fist around with a fierce, threatening look.
"You wait Helen." She said between sobs and gasps. "You just wait, Jane, Gwen, because I will get, be, to be lighter than you, and then I will make fun of YOUR body fat. I promise you!" And with her fist still in the air, she collapsed on her bed. She slammed her head into her pillow and started to sob wildly. The sobs slowly decreased, and Yolei drifted off to sleep.
Porumon had only heard half of Yolei's vow. She had been sleeping and had not noticed the stage Yolei was in. Now she flew over to Yolei's bed and pulled a blanket over her, wondering what the matter was. Yolei was always so cheerful, but not today. Porumon frowned. What was going on?
"Yolei." Yolei looked up into her sister's familiar face. "C'mon, it's dinnertime."
"Can't I eat dinner by myself?" Yolei asked. "I'm too tired today. I don't want to eat dinner right now." To herself, she added, at all.
"Well, all right." Her sister said. "I'll tell Mom that. Make yourself something later, okay? But remember, the chocolate chip cookies are mine." She walked out of the room. Porumon, who had stiffened up, sighed and made sure that Yolei's sister had closed the door tightly. She heard Yolei say,
"As if anyone could eat chocolate after what I've been through."
"What have you been through?" Porumon asked as she sat down on Yolei's bed. "C'mon Yolei, tell me."
"It's okay." Yolei said. "Don't worry about it." But Porumon was worried. Majorly. Besides, Yolei might not be hungry, but she definitely was!
Yolei eventually remembered to feed Porumon and do her homework, but it was already very late in the evening. She brought her own dinner to her room and ate it with her eyes closed.
"You must be really tired today, Yolei." Porumon said. "And not very hungry." Porumon eyed Yolei's carrot sticks and celery stalks. "Since when do you eat this without any dressing?"
"Since today." Yolei muttered slyly. Her eyelids felt heavy. She made her way towards the bed and set her head down. "Ooh." Groaning, she rolled over and fell asleep.
"Ooh." Porumon looked worried. What could she do?
"Yolei!" A voice was calling to her. Yolei turned around.
"Izzy?" She asked. The guy smiled.
"I've been looking for you forever!"
"Yes?" She asked eagerly.
"Is it true?"
"What?"
"What Helen and the rest of the school have been saying."
"About me?"
"Your percent of body fat, of course!"
"Um." Yolei said, chewing her nails.
"Oh my gosh!" Izzy said. "It is true. I can't believe it. You are such a big pig!" And with that he walked off, leaving Yolei with tears.
Porumon looked at the twisting Yolei having her nightmare.
"Wait, don't leave me!" Porumon saw Yolei extend her hand. "Wait!" Tears were falling from Yolei's eyes, both in her dream and outside her dream.
"Yolei." Porumon said. She hopped over to Yolei and tried to shake her. "Quick, Yolei, wake up."
"Stop it Helen." Yolei said. "Don't touch me! Haven't you done enough?"
"What?"
"Don't you think of all the things you've said and told he'd at least heard it?"
"What are you talking about?" Porumon said.
"You know what I'm talking about!" Yolei said. "Don't pretend to be innocent!"
"Yolei, you're still in your dream, snap out of it!" Porumon bounced on Yolei. Yolei grumbled and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"What's going on? What time is it?"
"It's the middle of the night." Porumon said. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"I guess." Yolei said.
"What was it about?" Porumon said.
"Stuff." Yolei lay down again, and closed her eyes, her back towards Porumon. "Go to sleep." And with that, Yolei drifted off again.
"Where are you Yolei?" Porumon asked, tears in HER eyes. "I've lost you now."
Yolei groaned as the sunlight hit her eyes. She got up; her eyelids still damp and tired. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around. Porumon was sleeping on the table. Why in the world? Hmm. Yolei made her bed and placed Porumon in it, and then went off to school, skipping breakfast.
The first part to dieting was skipping the least important meal of the day: breakfast. Well, Yolei didn't really consider dieting, more like losing a couple pounds of weight. She walked to school.
All went well until third period, which was chemistry. Her stomach started to growl. Yolei sighed. This was so embarrassing. The food at lunch smelled so tempting, but Yolei refused to touch it.
"Why aren't you eating?" Kari asked, filling up her plate.
"I don't have any lunch money." Yolei said. Oh great. Now she was lying to her friends as well.
"You can borrow some of mine." Kari offered.
"It's all right." Yolei said. "I'm not really hungry either."
Yolei was basically famished by the end of the day, and decided to head towards her parent's grocery store. She needed something to eat. She got a sandwich there and that was what she ate the whole day. This "dieting plan" lasted for a week before something happened.
"Yolei!" Kari said, running down the hall. "Did you hear, cheerleading tryouts?"
"Are you going?" Yolei asked. Kari nodded.
"I want you to try out too." She said. "C'mon Yolei, it won't be that bad!"
"All right." Yolei said reluctantly. "I'll go."
They met on the field with the other girls, a blissfully happy Kari and a famished, grumpy Yolei. The coach started to get them to show off various skills. Kari and Yolei were near the end, and Kari made Yolei go first.
"All right." Yolei said as the coach made her do cartwheels on the grass.
"Yay Yolei!" Someone called from the stands. Yolei stopped in mid-cartwheel and fell on the ground.
"Izzy?" She asked. She looked towards the stands and that redheaded boy was waving.
"C'mon, get off the grass!" Jane, Gwen, and Helen snickered. Yolei tried to more cartwheels, but thought they weren't any good. How she ever made the team was a mystery.
So a week later, after the tryouts, it was their first cheerleading practice. Well, not really practice, since they were cheerleading for the basketball team (which Davis and T.K. were both on and were wondering who Kari was going to be cheering for, but, ah, no, this is a Kouyako, back to business) and other people were watching.
Yolei had the difficult job of doing a high jump, probably because she was pretty tall. Everyone, at the moment was watching as they went through the routine. Yolei noticed that Izzy was watching from the stands too, with Matt and Tai. Yolei stepped out to do her jump, climbed the pyramid and jumped into the air. Something was wrong. Her movements were failing. Her eyesight was dimming. She felt her body slam into the ground, and something was wrong. The world turned black.
"Everyone, move away!" Coach shouted and walked over to Yolei. Izzy had jumped over some stands and rushed to the scene. A limp Yolei lay on the grass.
"Coach, is she all right?" Izzy asked. Matt and Tai rejoined him a second later. Coach was inspecting Yolei.
"She's very weak." Coach said. "But I know what the problem is. This girl hasn't eaten in days! Would you three boys be kind enough to take her in the locker room?"
"Um." Tai and Matt looked at Kari and T.K. Izzy knew what they were thinking. (Or so he thought.)
"Don't worry, I'll take her." He picked up Yolei and started towards the locker room.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Helen asked. "I mean, she is 32% body fat."
"I can." Izzy replied and returned to the outside of the locker room and set Yolei on a bench. "I AM NOT going in there." He looked at the girls' locker room and then at Yolei again. She was stirring, and when she opened her eyes she seemed confused.
"Izzy?" She asked. Izzy reached for her hand.
"I'm here."
"Where am I?"
"I guess the ceiling of the hallway wouldn't look familiar." Izzy said, helping her sit up. "Are you all right, Yolei?"
"Yes." Yolei said quickly.
"I mean, about what Helen said, did you hear?" Izzy asked. "She must have said it before."
"I know." Yolei said.
"Coach said that you haven't eaten for days." Izzy said. "Is it because of what Helen said that you're dieting."
"Maybe." Yolei said. "Yes. I mean, yes, that plays a role in it, but it's not the whole reason." Her gaze fell towards the floor and she seemed depressed. Izzy reached out and titled her chin to look at him.
"What's the matter?" He asked.
"I was worried that you wouldn't like me anymore if you realized how fat I was and wouldn't want to be my friend." Yolei blurted out. "That's what the girls said and it really killed me."
"I would never let something like that set us apart." Izzy said. He reached out and kissed Yolei. "Yolei, I like you the way you are and always have; that won't change. I want you to feel good about yourself and not to care what those people say."
"They like you." Yolei stammered. "That's why they told me all that, isn't that the reason?" Izzy shrugged.
"I suppose." He said. "But I love you and nobody else, and I like you for who you are."
"And that's what counts." Yolei said softly.
"Yes." Izzy said quietly. "That's what counts the most. Someone liking you for who you are, not what you can become or what they want you to become. For who you are." Yolei sighed as Izzy wrapped an arm around her.
"I see now." She said. "I'm sorry Izzy."
"For what?"
"For being so grumpy these days...it's the hunger."
"I know." Izzy pulled out an apple. "Here, I smuggled it out of the lunch room. Want it?"
"All right." Yolei took the apple and smiled. Izzy liked her because of how she was now. And that would never change. Satisfied, she leaned back and started to munch on the apple.
Me: *smile* How nice...I think this one lacks the feeling that many of my others have...I'm just so tired lately, with the stress but on me like the stress but on Yolei, but not everything works out when you're twelve, eh?...*sigh*...
Usually I give more of a note why this story is called why it is. The title is rather obvious once you've read the story, but why I chose those exact words are unknown...probably becase they sound good together, I don't know. Please R&R!
This may not be the best written story (I'm lacking the mood right now, but I might [emphesize on the might] rewrite this someday.) but the plot is definately worth reading!!!
Digmon does not belong to me. To Sonja...
Light As A Feather
Yolei sat on the edge of her bed, leaning against a cardboard box, her eyes closed, squishing the tears until they fell. She was worried, and full of misery. She bent down and cradled her legs, and tucked her legs under her chin and sighed. Still with her eyes closed, she pretended to sleep. And yet, that dreaded horror of that day kept floating back:
"What, really?" The whole hall was suddenly full of giggles.
"I can't believe that. That's so embarrassing!" Another girl said.
"I wonder what's going on?" Yolei asked, walking to her locker. Kari was already there, stuffing books into her own locker.
"Oh, haven't you heard, Yolei?" Kari asked. "Our PE coach is calculating our percent of body weight."
"Oh." Yolei said, glancing at the girls in the hall and then at herself. She was pretty slender, and if she was perhaps a little plump, you certainly couldn't see it. "And let me guess. That's the other class, the one that already got tested." Kari nodded.
"Yeah, and I guess it caused much commotion." She said, shrugging and pulling out the books she needed for the next class. "We have PE the class after next period."
"Yeah." Kari walked off to class, and Yolei got her books. She wondered what it would be like. She wondered about her percent of body fat, and shivered. It was never a good thing, fat and measuring, that was. It always set you apart. But none of that worried Yolei. She was an "elegant, skinny young girl", as she had heard Izzy once tell Tai and Matt, nothing to worry about. Yolei blushed at the thought. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop.
Getting her books, she headed towards math class comfortably in her own thoughts.
Yolei was walking to PE rather fast, because it was in another building and that was pretty far. She was practically running, trying to beat the bell for once. No such luck. The bell rang just as she approached the building.
"We're going to be in the Shop Room today." The Coach said. "C'mon girls, move it!" Yolei ran into the Shop Room. It was not as high or as nice as the gymnasium, with a few chairs for the class as well. She couldn't understand why they called it the Shop Room.
Yolei sat down in her seat, next to Kari, and waited until the rest of the class entered and sat down. The Coach went up to the front and pulled something out of the box.
"This is a fat estimating machine." She said, activating it. It was a rather small thing, only seven inches in length and width, and only about one and a half inches thick. Yolei liked to estimate and pay attention to electronics.
"This one doesn't work as well as the one I used to have, but it'll do." Coach said. "You put your fingers here and hold it out and grip, and in a few seconds it'll calculate your body fat."
A girl raised her hand. "How does that work?" She asked. Coach shrugged.
"Hey, if I knew how it worked, I wouldn't be here." She said. The girl started to say something, but Coach repeated the sentence.
"How much did you pay for that?" Another girl asked as the first girl walked up for her turn. The Coach punched her height, age, and weight into the machine. "Did you buy it at Wal-Mart or something? How much did it cost?"
"You can't get it at Wal-Mart." Coach said, meanwhile telling the girl to press the start button. "You can buy them at fitness gyms, though. I think I got that one for several hundred."
"Several hundred!" Another girl said. "That's a lot!"
"That is a lot." Kari said to Yolei. "But I wonder how that thing works."
"Yeah." Yolei said. "It's awfully strange, it's just a piece of metal, and it doesn't have any scales or anything. How does it do it? Are you supposed to grip at a certain place or level?"
"I don't know." Kari said. "I'm worried about me."
"Don't." Yolei said. "You're thinner than me. You'll probably do fine."
"The average is between 18%-25%." Coach said. "We don't want too much body fat, like forty something and up is really bad, but we don't want too less either, like only two or three percent."
"Wow." Kari whispered.
"There are people with body percents of 13-15, and that would be a good percent for a very healthy athlete." Coach said. She went on to babble more about weight. Yolei wasn't listening, but yawning. What was this whole class about anyways? But it was only one day.
Yolei yawned. Calculating body fat was so boring. She watched the people go up, one by one. Yolei had known that Coach was going to calculate it, because she had taken their height and weight, but she had never thought it was this tiring and boring. Yolei thought she could fall asleep. At least they didn't have to dress out and be out in the sun.
"Yolei!" Coach called. Yolei jumped and stood up. "I've been calling you for the third time now. C'mon up and let me calculate your body fat." Yolei walked up to the monitor.
"Ooh, Yolei just doesn't want to be calculated because she knows that she's fat." A girl called Helen said. Yolei frowned, but couldn't do anything under Coach's gaze. She took her position at the monitor, and heard Kari defending her.
"Yolei isn't fat." Kari said. Helen nodded and said,
"Oh yes she is." They spent a little time arguing over it. Yolei watched the monitor. Coach handed the piece of metal to her and she paused. Yolei took it in both hands, and (hand trembling, though she didn't know why) pressed the start button.
There was a slight hum, and then it beeped. Yolei looked at the numbers, and stiffened up. It said 32% and 35.84 lbs. That was how much fat she had. A little awkwardly, she walked back to her seat.
"What did you get, Yolei?" Helen asked. Her friend jeered in.
"None of your business." Yolei snapped angrily. Kari looked worried, but proceeded up for her turn.
"What did you get?" Kari asked as she returned to her seat. Yolei mouthed the words, "I'll tell you later." The other two girls were watching.
"How bout you?" Yolei asked.
"28.5%." Kari said, groaning. "I guess I'm fatter than I look."
"Oh." Yolei said. "Well, don't let that bring you down."
"Are you kidding me?" A girl asked. Yolei, stuffing books into her locker, thought the voice sounded awfully familiar.
"No way." Another voice said. "That IS a lot."
"What, the most in our class?" A voice asked. "Hey, there she is, let's go ask her." Yolei froze. Where they talking about her?
"Not the most, but third." Yolei heard a girl say. Next thing she knew, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Yolei spun around and found herself face to face with Helen.
"Wow, you got 32%!" Helen laughed. "Gosh, that's a lot, you must REALLY be fat." She smiled at her friends, as Yolei judged Helen. Helen was one of those people that were in between, yet really skinny, though you couldn't really see it. Her two best friends, Gwen and Jane, were both skinny, and the ladder extremely tall. Yolei wondered what she had.
"That's WAY out of the level range, eh Jane?" Gwen asked, laughing. Jane giggled and raised her eyebrows.
"Wow, look." Izzy was coming down the hall with Matt and Tai trailing along. Yolei turned to look.
"And then it would all be done, presto!" Izzy seemed to be explaining something about computers. Yolei smiled, then stiffened up. The girls loved showing off, especially to the boys, her group of boys. They would definitely tell the guys her percent of body fat. And yet, leaving was not good, anything could happen. Yolei was stuck between her locker and the three girls anyways. There wasn't enough room to move between them.
"Okay, that sounds about right." Tai said. "We're going to go to class now, all right, Izzy?"
"Sure, bye." Izzy said.
"Bye." Matt said. Matt and Tai turned right into another hallway. Yolei spun around and proceeded in stuffing books into her locker. Izzy continued walking, taking no notice of the girls. Yolei watched out of the corner of her eye as he passed.
Then suddenly, he seemed to change his mind and walked towards them.
"Hey." He said.
"Hi." Helen said, giggling. Yolei rolled her eyes and turned around.
"Hey Izzy." She said, trying to straighten her books into a neat pile with her knee. One of her books rolled off the top and bounced off the floor. Izzy picked it up and placed it on the top of her pile. Their eyes locked for a moment.
"I've got to go." Izzy said. "Hope to see you girls around!" He waved and walked off. Yolei sighed and locked her locker. That was close.
"Don't even think about it." Helen snapped. "You don't have a chance! Once Izzy finds out about your percent of body fat, he won't even look at you! Don't think that just because he picked up that book you dropped (on purpose to prove to us that he would pick it up) he likes you. Forget it Yolei."
"Yeah." Gwen said. "Forget it totally."
"And lose some weight." Jane added. "First."
The three girls continued down the hall, giggling and calling out to their friends Yolei's numbers. Yolei sunk down against her locker. Since when had her life been so confusing?
Maybe I should lose some fat. Maybe, perhaps it'll do some good. I do have too much. And then, if I get past them, Helen and her two friends will stop making fun of me and Izzy-
She suddenly remembered what Helen had said. It was so mean, so cruel. She was like a second Cruella De Vil, and there was nothing anyone can do about it.
Yolei suddenly broke into a sob. She stood up and waved her fist around with a fierce, threatening look.
"You wait Helen." She said between sobs and gasps. "You just wait, Jane, Gwen, because I will get, be, to be lighter than you, and then I will make fun of YOUR body fat. I promise you!" And with her fist still in the air, she collapsed on her bed. She slammed her head into her pillow and started to sob wildly. The sobs slowly decreased, and Yolei drifted off to sleep.
Porumon had only heard half of Yolei's vow. She had been sleeping and had not noticed the stage Yolei was in. Now she flew over to Yolei's bed and pulled a blanket over her, wondering what the matter was. Yolei was always so cheerful, but not today. Porumon frowned. What was going on?
"Yolei." Yolei looked up into her sister's familiar face. "C'mon, it's dinnertime."
"Can't I eat dinner by myself?" Yolei asked. "I'm too tired today. I don't want to eat dinner right now." To herself, she added, at all.
"Well, all right." Her sister said. "I'll tell Mom that. Make yourself something later, okay? But remember, the chocolate chip cookies are mine." She walked out of the room. Porumon, who had stiffened up, sighed and made sure that Yolei's sister had closed the door tightly. She heard Yolei say,
"As if anyone could eat chocolate after what I've been through."
"What have you been through?" Porumon asked as she sat down on Yolei's bed. "C'mon Yolei, tell me."
"It's okay." Yolei said. "Don't worry about it." But Porumon was worried. Majorly. Besides, Yolei might not be hungry, but she definitely was!
Yolei eventually remembered to feed Porumon and do her homework, but it was already very late in the evening. She brought her own dinner to her room and ate it with her eyes closed.
"You must be really tired today, Yolei." Porumon said. "And not very hungry." Porumon eyed Yolei's carrot sticks and celery stalks. "Since when do you eat this without any dressing?"
"Since today." Yolei muttered slyly. Her eyelids felt heavy. She made her way towards the bed and set her head down. "Ooh." Groaning, she rolled over and fell asleep.
"Ooh." Porumon looked worried. What could she do?
"Yolei!" A voice was calling to her. Yolei turned around.
"Izzy?" She asked. The guy smiled.
"I've been looking for you forever!"
"Yes?" She asked eagerly.
"Is it true?"
"What?"
"What Helen and the rest of the school have been saying."
"About me?"
"Your percent of body fat, of course!"
"Um." Yolei said, chewing her nails.
"Oh my gosh!" Izzy said. "It is true. I can't believe it. You are such a big pig!" And with that he walked off, leaving Yolei with tears.
Porumon looked at the twisting Yolei having her nightmare.
"Wait, don't leave me!" Porumon saw Yolei extend her hand. "Wait!" Tears were falling from Yolei's eyes, both in her dream and outside her dream.
"Yolei." Porumon said. She hopped over to Yolei and tried to shake her. "Quick, Yolei, wake up."
"Stop it Helen." Yolei said. "Don't touch me! Haven't you done enough?"
"What?"
"Don't you think of all the things you've said and told he'd at least heard it?"
"What are you talking about?" Porumon said.
"You know what I'm talking about!" Yolei said. "Don't pretend to be innocent!"
"Yolei, you're still in your dream, snap out of it!" Porumon bounced on Yolei. Yolei grumbled and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"What's going on? What time is it?"
"It's the middle of the night." Porumon said. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"I guess." Yolei said.
"What was it about?" Porumon said.
"Stuff." Yolei lay down again, and closed her eyes, her back towards Porumon. "Go to sleep." And with that, Yolei drifted off again.
"Where are you Yolei?" Porumon asked, tears in HER eyes. "I've lost you now."
Yolei groaned as the sunlight hit her eyes. She got up; her eyelids still damp and tired. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around. Porumon was sleeping on the table. Why in the world? Hmm. Yolei made her bed and placed Porumon in it, and then went off to school, skipping breakfast.
The first part to dieting was skipping the least important meal of the day: breakfast. Well, Yolei didn't really consider dieting, more like losing a couple pounds of weight. She walked to school.
All went well until third period, which was chemistry. Her stomach started to growl. Yolei sighed. This was so embarrassing. The food at lunch smelled so tempting, but Yolei refused to touch it.
"Why aren't you eating?" Kari asked, filling up her plate.
"I don't have any lunch money." Yolei said. Oh great. Now she was lying to her friends as well.
"You can borrow some of mine." Kari offered.
"It's all right." Yolei said. "I'm not really hungry either."
Yolei was basically famished by the end of the day, and decided to head towards her parent's grocery store. She needed something to eat. She got a sandwich there and that was what she ate the whole day. This "dieting plan" lasted for a week before something happened.
"Yolei!" Kari said, running down the hall. "Did you hear, cheerleading tryouts?"
"Are you going?" Yolei asked. Kari nodded.
"I want you to try out too." She said. "C'mon Yolei, it won't be that bad!"
"All right." Yolei said reluctantly. "I'll go."
They met on the field with the other girls, a blissfully happy Kari and a famished, grumpy Yolei. The coach started to get them to show off various skills. Kari and Yolei were near the end, and Kari made Yolei go first.
"All right." Yolei said as the coach made her do cartwheels on the grass.
"Yay Yolei!" Someone called from the stands. Yolei stopped in mid-cartwheel and fell on the ground.
"Izzy?" She asked. She looked towards the stands and that redheaded boy was waving.
"C'mon, get off the grass!" Jane, Gwen, and Helen snickered. Yolei tried to more cartwheels, but thought they weren't any good. How she ever made the team was a mystery.
So a week later, after the tryouts, it was their first cheerleading practice. Well, not really practice, since they were cheerleading for the basketball team (which Davis and T.K. were both on and were wondering who Kari was going to be cheering for, but, ah, no, this is a Kouyako, back to business) and other people were watching.
Yolei had the difficult job of doing a high jump, probably because she was pretty tall. Everyone, at the moment was watching as they went through the routine. Yolei noticed that Izzy was watching from the stands too, with Matt and Tai. Yolei stepped out to do her jump, climbed the pyramid and jumped into the air. Something was wrong. Her movements were failing. Her eyesight was dimming. She felt her body slam into the ground, and something was wrong. The world turned black.
"Everyone, move away!" Coach shouted and walked over to Yolei. Izzy had jumped over some stands and rushed to the scene. A limp Yolei lay on the grass.
"Coach, is she all right?" Izzy asked. Matt and Tai rejoined him a second later. Coach was inspecting Yolei.
"She's very weak." Coach said. "But I know what the problem is. This girl hasn't eaten in days! Would you three boys be kind enough to take her in the locker room?"
"Um." Tai and Matt looked at Kari and T.K. Izzy knew what they were thinking. (Or so he thought.)
"Don't worry, I'll take her." He picked up Yolei and started towards the locker room.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Helen asked. "I mean, she is 32% body fat."
"I can." Izzy replied and returned to the outside of the locker room and set Yolei on a bench. "I AM NOT going in there." He looked at the girls' locker room and then at Yolei again. She was stirring, and when she opened her eyes she seemed confused.
"Izzy?" She asked. Izzy reached for her hand.
"I'm here."
"Where am I?"
"I guess the ceiling of the hallway wouldn't look familiar." Izzy said, helping her sit up. "Are you all right, Yolei?"
"Yes." Yolei said quickly.
"I mean, about what Helen said, did you hear?" Izzy asked. "She must have said it before."
"I know." Yolei said.
"Coach said that you haven't eaten for days." Izzy said. "Is it because of what Helen said that you're dieting."
"Maybe." Yolei said. "Yes. I mean, yes, that plays a role in it, but it's not the whole reason." Her gaze fell towards the floor and she seemed depressed. Izzy reached out and titled her chin to look at him.
"What's the matter?" He asked.
"I was worried that you wouldn't like me anymore if you realized how fat I was and wouldn't want to be my friend." Yolei blurted out. "That's what the girls said and it really killed me."
"I would never let something like that set us apart." Izzy said. He reached out and kissed Yolei. "Yolei, I like you the way you are and always have; that won't change. I want you to feel good about yourself and not to care what those people say."
"They like you." Yolei stammered. "That's why they told me all that, isn't that the reason?" Izzy shrugged.
"I suppose." He said. "But I love you and nobody else, and I like you for who you are."
"And that's what counts." Yolei said softly.
"Yes." Izzy said quietly. "That's what counts the most. Someone liking you for who you are, not what you can become or what they want you to become. For who you are." Yolei sighed as Izzy wrapped an arm around her.
"I see now." She said. "I'm sorry Izzy."
"For what?"
"For being so grumpy these days...it's the hunger."
"I know." Izzy pulled out an apple. "Here, I smuggled it out of the lunch room. Want it?"
"All right." Yolei took the apple and smiled. Izzy liked her because of how she was now. And that would never change. Satisfied, she leaned back and started to munch on the apple.
Me: *smile* How nice...I think this one lacks the feeling that many of my others have...I'm just so tired lately, with the stress but on me like the stress but on Yolei, but not everything works out when you're twelve, eh?...*sigh*...
Usually I give more of a note why this story is called why it is. The title is rather obvious once you've read the story, but why I chose those exact words are unknown...probably becase they sound good together, I don't know. Please R&R!