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Chapter 1
Mia
It was Monday morning again and the beginning of a new week. Even though I was a Computer Science major, every now and then it was important to unplug from the world. I liked to turn off my phone, computer, beeper, pager, anything that could interrupt because unlike everyone else my age, social media was never really my thing.
Still, it has its uses, particularly for meeting and networking with other female programmers. Aside from that, I rarely tweeted, posted anything on Snapchat, or ever uploaded a single photo of myself on Pictogram. All my profile pics were avatars of myself designed from scratch. If asked, anyone would be hard pressed to find an actual photo of me anywhere on the web.
Because I hate getting my picture taken. Selfies from my phone never turned out right either. My imperfections stood out painfully, what with the curviness of my body. My breasts were double D’s and I had full wide hips that swung like a pendulum when I walked. In photos, these so-called assets looked embarrassingly ginormous.
As for my face, my lips were too big. Were celebrities actually paying money for fuller pouts? All my huge pucker did was make me self-conscious. Honestly, I never wanted anyone to look at my face too long anyway. My preference was to blend into the background, like the wallflower I was meant to be.
I guess other people might think I had low self-esteem, but I just wasn’t so self-absorbed that I wanted to plaster myself all over the internet all the time.
Jill, my dorm mate, was away all weekend visiting her parents. It gave me a chance to shut myself off from the rest of the world and not have to talk or interact with anyone for an entire two days. Both Saturday and Sunday were spent alone in my dorm room blissfully listening to music, reading the latest in the Unwired science fiction series, and playing the video game Intergalactic Smash. In fact, I was pretty proud of myself for getting all the way to the 17th level in just two days.
I’d ordered delivery and didn’t leave my dorm suite once. Lazy weekends of Me Time were my jam. After all, living in a dorm, getting alone time like I’d had at home living with my mom didn’t happen a lot. Mom worked a ton of overtime.
Don’t get me wrong. My roomie Jill is awesome. We’d met in the Summer Bridge program a month before school started and clicked instantly. We both majored in Computer Science and came from small towns in Southern California that no one had ever heard of.
I was from Carpinteria, a seaside town, whose only claim to fame was an avocado festival, which was amazing fun, by the way. I planned to visit my mom in October so I could go. Avocado Fest had the world’s largest vat of guacamole that I wouldn’t miss for the world.
Jill was from Solvang, an entire town loyal to its Danish roots and more importantly, Danish food. Our first week living together in our dorm suite, she brought with her Danish treats like aebleskiver, yummy puff pastries, kringles, pretzel pastries, and authentic spandauers, which is an authentic Scandinavian pastry. We spent many late nights studying and munching on those delectable goodies. Her mom made sure to send us a new supply every few weeks.
I could be myself around Jill. I loved having a dorm mate that loved to eat food as much as I did. My biggest worry was that I’d get one of those psychotic girls that would spout off how many calories any particular treat had. I went to high school with someone like that. We’re not friends, obviously.
Jill and I usually walked to our Data Science class together, but her flight must have been running late that morning. She wasn’t in her room when I left our dorm suite for breakfast.
Against dining hall rules, I snuck out Lucky Charms in a Ziploc bag. The dining hall had a stupid rule that no one could take any food out, but if you were on a meal plan, all the food you ever got was from the cafeteria. Did the school seriously expect us to not ever be hungry for snacks?
Munching on my stolen cereal, I walked our usual route to campus down Bancroft Avenue to Wheeler Hall. I’d taken the same exact Data Science class online during my junior year in high school. Class lectures and the syllabus were available to the public. The college had a ton of free courses online if you were motivated enough. For the most part, I found high school boring, so I took additional classes online for fun.
In theory, going to class was unnecessary since I basically already knew the information, but I found it interesting anyways. Sitting in a large lecture hall with other students made me feel like I was a part of the Berkeley campus without having to go to a party or anything too social like that.
I cut through Sproul Plaza, noticing a few people looking over at me. Was it my imagination or were eyes trailing me? No. That couldn’t be. Brushing it off, I kept walking, telling myself that it was nothing. People usually didn’t notice me. A lot of people just don’t see big girls most of the time, we’re invisible to most of the world.
Once inside Wheeler, I walked down the steps to the middle seats where Jill and I usually sat. The intense stare of hundreds of pairs of eyes crawled on the back of my head as I took my backpack off and sat down.
A girl a few seats back whispered, “OMG. That's her!”
The girl next to her squealed. “Unbelievable! I knew sh
e was in our class.”
I didn't dare turn around. My neck started to prickle with sweat. Was I going crazy? Were they talking about me?
One of the girls said in a hushed tone, “She’s really pretty. I just never noticed her. She's so quiet.”
I swallowed. They couldn't possibly be talking about me. Me? Pretty? I was imagining things. They were probably on their phones talking about some celebrity or something. No way did they mean Mia Nelson. After all, my form was curvy and voluptuous. At times, with the right blousy outfit that hid my figure, I might be cute, but never ever pretty. Trust me. The world’s smacked me in the face with that fact many times.
Just then, Jill rushed in out of breath. “You're not going to believe what's happening!” She sat down next to me with an intense frazzled look on her face. “You’re going to kill me!”
“What? Why am I going to kill you?” I said shifting uncomfortably in my chair. Her abrupt entrance into the lecture hall drew even more attention to us. My ears burned with embarrassment. “Whatever it is,” I said, looking around sheepishly. “It’s okay. No need to shout.”
Jill pulled out her phone. “No seriously, Mia. Do you remember the photo I took of you on the rooftop last week?” Jill sputtered, flailing her hands around excitedly.
“Yeah. So?” What was Jill talking about?
“Okay. Well, I posted it to Pictogram,” she said, her voice rising at the end of the sentence so that she finished with a shriek.
I looked around again seeing more of our classmates looking at us. If Jill didn't pipe down, I was going to have to gag her. “Stop screaming,” I entreated.
I remembered that day on the rooftop. It had been an unseasonably warm. We'd taken a break from computer lab and gone up onto the roof. Often, Jill and I got too absorbed with our coding that we made it a point to take a break every couple of hours to get some sunshine.
It was the perfect time to head outside because one of our classmates, Roger, a thin wiry asshole, had just insulted us. He’d looked at our pasty faces and then smirked.
“You gals here all weekend? Figures you two would need the extra lab time,” came his nasty comment.
