As Ruby and Monique looked at each other in complete confusion, Ren left the room in search of the model who had worn the beautiful green dress. She searched the bathroom, the fitting rooms, and a few rooms which seemed to hold nothing but reporters. Ren finally found Natasha, much shorter than she remembered and dressed in ratty jeans and a pink sweater, in a corridor on her way out.

"Hi, can I help you?" Natasha asked Ren in a bored tone.

"Yeah, actually, you can," Ren began. "I had a VIP backstage pass-one of the ones that lets you bring home a dress-and I really liked this one green dress you were wearing-"

"The Betsey Johnson?" interrupted Natasha, seeming more interested.

"Yes!" said Ren. "That one! I wanted to take it home with me so badly, but it didn't fit. I was wondering--how much do you weigh?"

"Ninety-seven pounds exactly," the model answered, "but I'm about four or five inches shorter than you are."

Ren blocked out the second part of Natasha's response. Ninety-seven pounds, she thought. That's almost twenty pounds less than I weigh! Without even saying goodbye to Natasha, she bolted down the corridor and back to the dressing room where she had left the gown. Checking the tag, she saw that it was a size 0, three sizes smaller than her own size 6. Ren wanted to cry, but instead she resolved to lose the twenty pounds she needed to lose in order to fit into the dress. Hanging it back up, she hung it over her arm and emerged back into the main area, where Ruby and Monique were waiting for her, concerned looks on their faces and their own clothes on their bodies again.

"Honey, is everything okay?" Ruby asked a little timidly. Neither she nor Monique had ever seen Ren as upset as she had been fifteen minutes before, and to see her so seemingly composed such a short time afterwards was unnerving.

"Yeah, things are fine," Ren said brightly-a little too brightly, perhaps. "Come on, let's go to my house. We can rent some movies on our way and sit in front of the TV until I have to bring you guys back before curfew." If Monique and Ruby were suspicious, Ren thought, they sure didn't look it. The three girls hopped back into the Stevens family station wagon, on their way to Blockbuster. The three had no trouble agreeing on movies (they chose The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, on a Molly Ringwald theme), but when it came time to check out, problems ensued. Monique had taken her box of Dots and Ruby the Snickers bar she always liked, but Ren's hands remained conspicuously empty of her usual Butterfingers.

"Come on, Ren, we're all getting candy," coaxed Monique.

"Actually, I'm saving my money," Ren fibbed. "You know how expensive college is, and we have to apply next September. I want to help my parents out a little bit by paying for living expenses." To Ren's relief, her friends seemed to accept this excuse for the moment, and they paid for their movies and candy. At the Stevenses, the girls had a wonderful time with the Ringwald movies, but Ren's mother kept bringing popcorn and pretzels out for them, which irked Ren more than a little. On the second bag of pretzels, Ren excused herself and brought the bag up to Louis' room. Her brother was more than happy to receive the gift, which he expressed immediately by sticking a pretzel in each nostril. Ren rolled her eyes, but thought, Better in his nose than in my stomach, and returned to finish the movies with Monique and Ruby.

That night, Ren lay awake in her bed, stomach grumbling and body tossing. If that green Betsey Johnson dress hadn't fit, she wasn't perfect. She hated to think what would happen if she weren't perfect. Her parents were so proud of her because of her scholastic and work-related honors. If she was fat, then none of that mattered, because if she was fat, she was not the perfect Ren Stevens everyone knew. The thought scared Ren so much that she sat straight up in bed and whispered, to nobody in particular, "I will be perfect. I will be perfect. I am not perfect anymore, because I'm fat, and I need to be perfect. I will be perfect."