Revenge of the Snob Squad by Julie Anne Peters

to squirm. He’d fill the empty space
     with speech. A second went by. Then fifteen, twenty seconds. This was getting uncomfortable. How long could he stare at me,
     eye-brows arched?
    He won. I couldn’t stand it. “I’m fat,” I said. “So what else is new?”
    “Is this new?” he asked.
    “No. I was born fat. Not this fat. But then, I wasn’t born this tall either.”
    Dr. Sid smiled. He studied me. “How long have you been this… weight?”
    “I don’t know. A year. Do you watch
Oprah
?”
    “What?” He frowned.
    Oops, I cringed. It might be against his religion to watch tabloid TV. Even though Oprah was tasteful tabloid.
    “
Oprah
. You know, the talk show? Never mind.”
    “Yes, I know
Oprah
. I do watch her occasionally. I like her.”
    “Really?” That surprised me. “Well, Oprah says if you overeat it’s because you have a void in your life. And she should know.
     She’s weighed like two hundred and forty-three pounds.”
    “She doesn’t look overweight to me.”
    “No, because she found her void and filled it. With money, is my guess.”
    He laughed. “What’s happened to you in the last year to create this void?”
    “What hasn’t happened?” I stopped. The last year. The last year had been lousy. Talk about misery, suffering, loss, and defeat.
    “Would you like to tell me?” Dr. Sid said.
    If I didn’t, he’d stare me down again. My exhaled stream of breath came out long and low. Why not? “I had this friend, Zoe
     Zarlengo….”
    It wasn’t nearly as difficult to tell the story the second time. Of course, he got an abbreviated version. I didn’t reveal
     names or dates or places. Nothing incriminating. Nothing important. Nothing deep down.
    “It’s very hard to lose a friend,” Dr. Sid said at the end.
    “Especially a best friend. I mean, I had Petey, but he died on Halloween.”
    Dr. Sid’s eyes widened.
    “He was my hamster.”
    “Ah.” He looked relieved. “I imagine you loved your hamster.”
    “Yeah, I did,” I said. “Even though he was just a hamster, I had him since I was nine.”
    “So you lost two friends in one year.”
    I nodded. “And the only other person I was ever close to was my sister, and she flipped out last summer.” Oh, my God! It all
     made sense. That summer after Zoe left, Vanessa started losing touch. Not just with the world; with me, too. Then Petey died.
     Zoe, Vanessa, then Petey. All gone. “You’re good,” I said to Dr. Sid.
    “Excuse me?”
    “Three friends,” I said. “I lost three friends in one year. I mean, that’s enough to create a void in anyone’s life, isn’t
     it?”
    “Definitely. So you believe your void is a lack of friends?”
    “Oh, no. I have friends. I mean, I do now. Three friends.” Which was kind of ironic, wasn’t it? “Hey, I think my void is filled,”
     I said, standing. “I guess I’m cured.”
    He clapped his hands together. “Wonderful. Perhaps we need to talk a little more. Would you mind?” He indicated the chair.
    “Do you give out lollipops at the end?”
    “What?”
    “Nothing. I guess since you don’t have anyone else’s life to save for an hour.” I shrugged and sat back down.
    “Now,” he said, leaning forward over the desk, “let us go back a minute. You say your sister flipped out. What do you mean
     she flipped out?”
    I cozied down into the soft leather upholstery. This was going to be an extended session.
    Afterward, Mom met me in the waiting room. “So, how’d it go?” she said.
    I slipped into my backpack. “Good.”
    She gave me that look—you know, details? As we walked to the elevator, she asked, “What’d you tell him?”
    I smiled at Mom. “Everything. Next week he wants to meet with Vanessa.”

Chapter 14
    “Y ou know, making us get weighed in public is psychologically damaging. We’re very sensitive about our bodies at this age. And
     I should know. My mother’s—”
    “Her mother’s a child psychologist,” I finished for Lydia.