One week later, Brittany woke up that morning with the same consistent sense of dread. She sat up in her bed for a while and thought about the school year so far.
The first anniversary of Miss Miller's death was coming up soon. She couldn't believe it had almost been a year. Brittany wished more than anything that Miss Miller was still alive.
She wished she could talk to her about everything that had happened since her death and how hard it had all been on her. About hurting her knee and how it has been awful to be kept out of cheerleading and performing as a result of it. About how the rest of the cheer squad was now excluding her from literally every single thing. About her break-up with Alvin. Everything.
The loss of Miss Miller hurt so much, she simply couldn't bear it. She needed Miss Miller more than ever right now. She needed her mom.
She then thought about how Alvin was class president this year. She had actually voted for him herself. She would never admit that to anyone though. But of course she was going to vote for Alvin. It only made sense.
After all, she had never even spoken two words to Mac 'what's-his-name' the entire time he had been at their school. She couldn't remember his last name at all, not even an initial. So why would she have voted for him?
And the only reason she even remembered his first name is because she associated it with MAC cosmetics. One of her favorite makeup brands of all time, of course.
Then there was the whole other issue of Alvin and Lindsay. God, Brittany remembered not even wanting to go and see the school production of Grease last year.
She couldn't stand the idea of watching Lindsay in the role she was supposed to be playing, or her scenes with Alvin. Luckily, she was able to use the painkillers as an excuse by saying they had made her way too sleepy to see the play.
But now she had to see the two of them together in the halls at school and it killed her so much. Whenever she saw Lindsay flirting with him and batting her eyelashes at him.
She hated it when she saw it during rehearsals. She hated it even more now.
She couldn't stand seeing her with those lollipops in her mouth all the time. Prancing around in those super low-cut tops. And coming from Brittany, that was saying a lot.
What was up with Lindsay's clothes, anyway? Was she allergic to bras or something?
And she didn't even want to think about getting started on her hair. Between her roots always showing, plus all the split-ends she could count (most likely from abusing her hair with a hair straightener for so long) it would require way too much mental energy to try to figure out how to help the girl there. Not that she was interested in helping her, at all.
What exactly did Alvin see in Lindsay, anyway? Was it her reputation, maybe? She had heard all of the rumors about Lindsay.
Despite her still being fairly new to their school. She couldn't help but wonder how much that was actually saying about her. Then a devastating thought occurred to her. Was he planning on sleeping with her? If he hadn't already, that is.
And now she was heading back to that same mental space she was in when she realized that Alvin had used her for sex on that fateful day he broke up with her over the summer. Even though he swore up and down that's not the reason he dumped her, she was still having trouble believing it.
But she quickly shook her head and tried to push all those thoughts to the side. She had to stop thinking about all of that.
It was all in the past and she was determined not to live there anymore. After all, she had a plan she was following now. The one that would put her back in charge of her own life once again.
She eventually forced herself out of bed, like she usually had to do in the mornings. School had never exactly been much of a motivator for getting Brittany up.
She went into the bathroom, brushed her teeth and showered. After her shower, she decided it was about time she weighed herself again to see if she had gotten any closer to her ideal weight.
Brittany stepped onto the scale wearing nothing but a bath towel this time. She shut her eyes tightly, nervous about what she would see. Finally, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes to look.
Brittany gasped. She couldn't believe the number she was seeing now. She had actually made it by two pounds below her goal weight! She did it! Yes!
Suddenly in a much better mood, the blue-eyed Chipette continued her morning routine. She put her hair in her signature ponytail and did her makeup just the way she liked it. She then headed back to her room and picked out her clothes for school.
Brittany wasted no time putting on her favorite denim miniskirt with the flirty ruffle hem at the bottom. Finally able to zip the skirt all the way up and button the fly once again, the Chipette practically burst with joy. She couldn't believe she was back to her old self again.
After spending about twenty more minutes selecting the rest of her clothes, Brittany decided to pair her skirt with some white ballet flats and a baby pink t-shirt that said "Cali Girl" in glittery hot pink letters. And for her jewelry, she chose some baby pink heart stud earrings to match her shirt and a silver necklace with the letter B.
But when the young Chipette got a look at her reflection in her full-length mirror, she frowned. She was now thinner than she was before she even started her diet. She could fit into her favorite skirt again.
So why is it that while she was looking at herself in the mirror right now, all Brittany could see were problem areas? Why wasn't she back to being her old, confident self again?
She then lifted up her shirt and started pinching at the skin on her stomach. Why couldn't she get rid of all this fat, even at her ideal weight? She then turned to the side and got a look at her hips, which now looked huge to her.
Then another horrifying thought occurred to her. What was going to happen if she went back to eating the way she did before her diet? What if she let herself go again? She'd go back to being fat all over again! Maybe even worse than before.
It was then that Brittany decided she couldn't ditch her diet just yet. She left her room and headed for the kitchen, already having decided that this was another morning where she would be skipping breakfast.
Once Brittany was in the kitchen, her nose took in the aroma of buttered French toast, bacon and blueberry muffins. So good, yet loaded with about a million carbs and fat. She took a deep breath and silently vowed to get out of there as soon as possible, so that she wouldn't be tempted.
But just as the oldest Miller said goodbye to her sisters and was about to grab her bag and head out the door, she was pulled back. Eleanor had grabbed her big sister's shoulder and forced her to turn around and face her.
The headstrong Brittany couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt when she noticed the look of concern in her baby sister's caring brown eyes. It felt like it was melting her heart.
"Come sit down and eat breakfast with us." Eleanor insisted, gesturing towards the table.
Eleanor then handed Brittany a plate with French toast covered in maple syrup, bacon and a blueberry muffin on the side.
"I even saved a plate for you. See?"
Brittany hesitated. There was no way she could eat all that. She had to figure out a way to get out of breakfast now!
"That's ok." The eldest Chipette responded anxiously. "My stomach is actually feeling a little bit off this morning. Why don't you just refrigerate it and I'll have it for dinner or something."
Eleanor sighed as she tried to think of a way to bring up what she needed to say without upsetting Brittany.
"Listen, Brittany..." She started out. "As the one who prepares all the meals around here, I can't help but notice that you've either been barely eating or entirely skipping breakfast and dinner over the last few weeks. And it's a little concerning."
Brittany froze in fear. Her eyes widened as she felt her whole body tense up. She looked like a deer caught in headlights.
This was not good. The last thing she wanted was for Eleanor or Jeanette to be worried about her. She was supposed to be their guardian, after all.
But she quickly regained her composure and brushed her youngest sister's concerns off.
"Ellie, don't be ridiculous!" Brittany said as she chuckled nervously. "Just because I don't eat that much at home doesn't mean I'm not eating. I eat a ton during lunch. You just don't see it because we don't have the same lunch period."
Eleanor looked at her skeptically.
"It's true!" The auburn-haired teenager continued to lie. "And that's why I'm never hungry for dinner. Because I eat so much at lunch. And I'm just too stressed out in the mornings to eat breakfast. But I promise, I am eating. You don't need to worry about me. Really!"
The brown-eyed Chipette sighed once again.
"Look, I brought up some of my concerns about you skipping meals to Jeanette." She continued as she motioned over to the table where the middle Miller sister was sitting. Jeanette gave Eleanor a look, as if she was encouraging her little sister to address the elephant in the room.
"Well... Jeanette started telling me about eating disorders."
Brittany's eyes went wide again and she felt her heart drop at this suggestion. But she tried to laugh it off.
"What?" Brittany asked, as if it had been the craziest thing she had ever heard in her life. "You guys are overreacting. I don't have an eating disorder."
"Maybe not yet." Jeanette finally chimed in. "But skipping all these meals is dangerous behavior that could lead you in that direction. And teenage girls are at the highest risk for developing eating disorders. We... well... we just don't want to see that happen to you, Brittany."
"Please." Eleanor spoke up again as she handed the plate to her big sister standing in front of her. "We'd both just feel a lot better if you had some breakfast with us this morning.
Brittany let out a defeated sigh, knowing that there was no way she was getting out of this one. She had no choice. At the very least, she had to humor her sisters somehow.
The oldest Chipette reluctantly took the plate the youngest Chipette was offering her, brought it to the kitchen table and sat down as she placed her plate on the table.
Brittany cut off a piece of French toast with her fork, stabbed it with the fork, brought it to her mouth, chewed and swallowed it.
"There!" She declared, with feigned confidence. "Told you I don't have an eating disorder. Now if you'll excuse me..."
Brittany started to get up from her chair, but was stopped by Eleanor gently pushing her back down.
"Brittany..." Eleanor said sternly. "You know that's not enough."
The pink-clad Chipette rolled her eyes, but then nodded.
"Maybe if I just eat half of what's on this plate, that will convince them I'm fine." Brittany thought to herself.
And she really did intend to only eat half a portion. But as the blue-eyed teen continued to eat, it was like she couldn't stop. She devoured every piece of French toast, every strip of bacon and the whole blueberry muffin. She just couldn't stop. It was as if her body was forcing her to make up for those seven weeks of eating very little.
Brittany felt somewhat better when she saw how relieved her sisters looked, but she was mostly freaking out on the inside. She could feel herself getting fatter each moment she sat there. She had to get up and do something about it.
"I'll see you guys at school. I have to take a shower now."
"Didn't you already take a shower?" Eleanor asked. "I mean, you're fully dressed and everything."
"Um... yeah..." Brittany tried to think of how to pull this one off.
"But I didn't wash my hair! You know, because I had a shower cap on." She quickly continued. "Big mistake! Look how greasy my hair is. Ew!
As she was saying this, Brittany ran her hand through her ponytail and held it up in front of her, as if trying to demonstrate how greasy her hair was.
"So I really need to take another shower just so I can get my hair clean this time. Like I said, I'll see you both at school."
The eldest sister made her way to the bathroom as fast as she could with her still-healing knee.
Jeanette and Eleanor exchanged looks, but decided not to push it. They were just happy to see their big sister finally eat a proper meal after all these weeks
Brittany locked the door as soon as she got to the bathroom. She then leaned her back against the door and slumped down. The pink-clad Chipette sobbed as she sat there on the bathroom floor.
She was so angry at herself for losing control the way she just did. She had been doing so well in sticking to her diet up until now. How could she just let herself go like that?
She did not have to clear her whole plate off the way that she did. Simply eating half a serving would have been enough to get Jeanette and Eleanor off her back. And now look at her!
She had worked so hard over the last seven weeks by restricting everything she ate. By learning to ignore that nagging feeling in her stomach, showing her body that she was in charge and she would decide what she ate. But she went and screwed it all up in one morning!
Brittany Miller had never felt like a failure before in her entire life. But at this moment, that is exactly what she felt like. After all, she did fail to stick to her diet. This made her a failure. She had failed.
And worst of all, she knew it would only be a matter of time before those numbers on the scale started going up again. She couldn't gain all that weight back. She just couldn't! She had to find a way to get rid of all those calories she had just consumed.
Brittany wiped away the tears that refused to stop pouring down her face, knowing she was messing up her eye makeup in the process. Why did she have to go and ruin everything just to prove to her sisters that she didn't have an eating disorder?
Wait... eating disorder. This unlocked a memory from the eighth grade. Something Muffy, co-founder of The Sisters club, had told her about.
Even though Brittany did not make it as a Sister the first time Muffy Hollingsworth and Courtney Banks considered allowing her to join their club in the third grade, she had received numerous invitations for consideration to be a member of their club a few more times since then.
Every time Brittany was being assessed by The Sisters, she would always eagerly hope to find that coveted red rose in her locker at the end of the week. Instead, she would end up being disappointed when she would receive the same old rejection letter once again. She should have been used to it by now, really.
Brittany had a feeling that the reason The Sisters kept rejecting her was because she didn't have as much money as the rest of the girls in their exclusive little club did. And there really wasn't much she could do about that.
But during her eighth grade assessment, Muffy and Courtney had invited her to eat lunch with them. Just like they did every single time she was selected for consideration to be part of The Sisters. And during that specific lunch, Muffy had talked about how they had to plan all their meetings around her schedule for that year.
Muffy's schedule had been a little more complicated to work around that particular year, because she had been visiting her cousin at an eating disorder treatment center almost every day. Her cousin had been staying there to be treated for bulimia. And Muffy even went into graphic detail about how she would constantly consume large amounts of food in secret, and then force herself to throw it all up.
It was a vicious cycle of binging and purging. And Muffy even talked about how thin her cousin had become from doing this for so long, but her health was suffering as a result.
Of course, Brittany had been totally grossed out as she was hearing about this at the time. She hated throwing up. She couldn't imagine somebody actually making themselves do it on purpose.
Brittany picked herself up off the floor and looked at herself in the mirror. She really was desperate to rid herself of all the fatty food she ate in order to keep the excess weight off. In order to get back on the right path to regaining control of her life.
Brittany headed for the shower and turned on the water. She did tell her sisters she was going in there to take a shower, after all. They'd get suspicious if they didn't hear water running.
She then went over to the toilet, hands trembling and heart racing. She couldn't believe that she was really thinking about doing this.
Brittany crouched down and stared at her fingers on her right hand. She remembered something else Muffy had told her. The very next year.
This was when Brittany was invited to join The Sisters for lunch, yet again, during their freshman year of high school. It had been a full year since Brittany's eighth grade evaluation. And the first thing Muffy had mentioned during that fateful lunch was that her cousin had died due to complications from bulimia.
But the Chipette shook her head. She wasn't going to die if she just did it this one time. This one time she lost control and really needed to get rid of all the fattening food she had just taken in.
It's not as if making herself purge this one time in her whole life was going to cause her to develop a problem like Muffy's cousin had. Brittany proceeded, believing she would be just fine.
She lifted her finger to her mouth as she got her face closer to the toilet...
A/N: Poor Brittany! Things are going from bad to worse for her very quickly. How much longer do you think it'll be before this all starts to take a significant toll on her physical health?
And now Jeanette and Eleanor have caught on to Brittany skipping out on family meals. How much longer do you think it'll be before they start noticing how bad it's actually become?
And what about The Chipmunks? Do you think they'll notice something is wrong soon? If so, how will they handle it?
As always, thank you so much for reading and reviewing! Your feedback seriously helps motivate my writing, so I really look forward to hearing from you all again!