Weight Watching
"'I'm not overweight, I'm undertall,'" Freddy read off the size triple XL T-shirt in his hands. There was a picture of Garfield, in all his rotund glory, right underneath the words.
Pietro snickered. "Freddie, man, I hate to break it to ya – but you'd have to be about twenty feet tall in order not to be considered overweight."
A mulish expression coming over his doughy face, Freddie said haughtily, "Actually, I calculated it, and I'd only have to be about seventeen feet tall."
Pietro burst out laughing. Taking in Freddie's murderous expression, he, 'Eeeped!' in fear and sped away, his manic chuckles drifting through the air back towards them.
Todd rolled his eyes. "What, man, you been on a diet?" he asked facetiously.
Freddie grinned widely. "Yeah, I joined Weight Watchers a month ago. You noticed already?" he asked.
Lance coughed. "Er…yeah, man, great job. You're lookin' slimmer every day," he said through teeth gritted in a smile.
"Thanks, guys. That means a lot coming from you." Wadding up the T-shirt in his hands, he lumbered off to the kitchen to fix himself a frozen Weight Watchers dinner.
Lance and Todd looked after him and then exchanged disbelieving looks.
"I didn't notice anything. You?" Todd whispered in a hushed voice. Freddie may have been slow on the uptake, but his hearing was phenomenal.
Lance shook his head. "I don't spend all that much time looking at Freddie, man." He grimaced at the thought.
"Me neither." Todd gulped as a very scary thought occurred to him. "What are we gonna do if he starts askin' us if he looks fat in his clothes?"
Lance's eyes went wide. "Move out," he said readily. "Professor X'll take us in."
Todd nodded his agreement. Rustles came from the kitchen and the sound of Freddie's footsteps heading their way. Hopping off his perch on the back of the couch, Todd grabbed his jacket and opened the front door. "In the meantime…I think I'm gonna go visit Rogue."
Giving one last look towards the kitchen, praying Freddie would detour towards the stairs – and whimpering when he didn't – Lance jumped up and grabbed his keys. "Wait up, man! I'll drive ya."
When Freddie entered the room, a steaming tray of chicken tetrazinni and a glass of skim milk in his hands, it was to find the other two boys gone. "Huh. Wonder where they went?" Shrugging, he carefully sat down on the couch and clicked the TV on. "Guess I'll have to watch WWF by myself." Picking up his fork, he dug into his dinner.