WEIGHTLESS-PART 3

MATURE CONTENT | Reader Discretion Advised | Eating Disorder

The next day, Anshul refuses to take her bag and bottle. Instead she carries a single notebook in her hand. She had done what she could. To fit in. She cut her skirt short, rolled down her socks to ankle length, tied up her freshly washed hair in a high pony instead of pigtails. 

As she sits next to Saru in the class, Saru grimaces at her, ‘Don't.’

‘What,’ Anshul is confused about what Saru is referring to. 

‘Don't even try to be like them.’ Saru warns.

‘I am not.’ Anshul is defensive now.

‘Yes you are. Look at you!’ Saru is disdainful. 

Anshul is embarrassed. 

‘They will never accept you. And you can never fit in.’ Saru makes a flat statement, making Anshul’s heart sink. 

She is listening to Saru, but her eyes are glued to Kadambari preening as the girls and boys around her laugh and joke, giving each other high-fives. Anshul, with determination, refutes Saru. ‘I will.’

Saru snarls, ‘Desperate loser.’ 

Anshul is furious. ‘How dare you?’ 

‘Why, what else are you? Not happy with who you are, you want to be like those meaningless shit.’ Saru is dismissive and self-righteous.

‘Just because you can't fit in and are just a big fart…. You want me to be a loser, also. So that you have someone to stick yourself to. I am sorry. You are not my destination.’ Anshul spits back. 

‘And that thin clothes hanger is? You pitiable wart! I thought you had brains, but all you have in there is mush and bile.’ Saru pushes back as she gets up and sits in the other empty seat away from Anshul. 

Miss David walks in and announces a surprise test. Makes Kadambari come and sit next to Anshul again. Kadambari swears, resists, and makes histrionics again.

Saru is irritated at this waste of study time. ‘Attention-seeking tactics,’ she mutters. 

Anshul is secretly happy, having hoped this would happen. During the test, Anshul could see Kadambari chew her pen as she struggled with the answers. She deliberately leaves her paper exposed so that Kadambari can copy her answers. And after Kadambari has gotten the answers down, Anshul deliberately strikes out some of her correct answers and writes wrong answers instead… so she doesn't stand out from the others in the class with her consistently good grades.