Free The Girl With The Curves #1 (Positive Curves, #1) by Iris Deorre

Chapter One
    ‘Miss, the hippo should go first,’ a girl shouted from the back of the class and there was a wave of laughter across the room.
    ‘Hush now class, we will not speak about anyone that way.’
    But Harley knew exactly who they meant. Hippo, big butt, podgy were the kinder names she’d been accustomed to. It had been the standing joke, the day she’d been asked to stand on the scale. Awful noises travelled through the classroom as if it were a farmhouse. It had been an awful few years and when Harley had finally made it into one of the top universities to study English Literature, it had been a relief, or so she thought.
    To be honest, Harley wasn’t that big but she wasn’t small either. Jeans clung to her shapely hips like a glove. The shape of an hourglass would be the perfect description of Harleys shape. Perhaps a little exaggerated at the bottom but unsurprising. It was her heritage, it was the card she’d been dealt and Harley had never thought that there was anything particularly wrong with her body until the teen years had hit.
    ‘You look like Alek Wek.’ Had been some of the comments during the varsity years.
    ‘I’m a size fourteen,’ she’d respond and nothing else.
    It had become her defence mechanism. If it wasn’t the size of her behind it was the beautiful dark chocolate skin that drew the attention. Harley worked hard and hardly spoke to many people. Not because she couldn’t make friends, but because it took too much of an effort to try. It had been a lonely journey through high school; Harley Moyer had hardly expected it to be any different until she met Amber.
    Amber should’ve have been named Rose or Cherry to represent her dangerous character. Amber was what many would call yellow or another word caramel but that hardly ever came in the way of their friendship. They’d spent so much time together that they soon became inseparable. It was like they’d been joined at the hip, where there was Harley, Amber was never too far away. Amber had become the confidence Harley needed. The days of hiding in shame were soon of the past and a new found confidence had been born.
    Graduation came and went and soon it was time to hit the real world. It had been a blow to the head. Life on the outside wasn’t any better, in fact it was worse. It had taken Harley twenty job applications and eight interviews before she landed the job, even though she’d graduated top of her class. Life just wasn’t fair, nor was it equal in her eyes. Life had dealt her a heavy hand even though she’d worked hard to get to where she was. But when she landed the job at The Forrest Evening Post everything changed.
    There had been the applications; more than two hundred graduates had applied for the junior journalist position. The job entailed that applicants include a passport size picture of themselves. Harley had almost let that one slip, even though her confidence was on an upward climb it hadn’t quite reached its peek. But it had been Amber who had pushed it.
    ‘You’ll be great for the job,’ she’d said. ‘You’re the best.’
    ‘Easy for you to say, you have a job.’
    ‘Don’t use that excuse. It’s got nothing to do with looks.’
    ‘Oh yes it does and just because I’m not a size zero, my chances are slim.’
    ‘Apply anyway. If it doesn’t happen, it isn’t meant for you.’
    It had taken Harley a while to do it but in the end she’d thrown doubt to the wind and had taken the jump.
    The applications had been weeded down to fifty candidates which to Harley’s surprise she’d been one of them. All fifty candidates were invited to the company to take a test. And that test had finally weeded it down to three candidates.
    ‘You see,’ Amber had said. ‘This one is yours baby.’
    Harley could hardly believe her luck, was the wheel of luck changing, was someone looking down on her, guiding things along. On the day of the interview Harley had chosen her grey suit. Pink shirt with