Free Fatty Patty: A Romantic Short Story (San Juan Island Stories #1) by Wendy Lynn Clark

Fatty Patty
    San Juan Island Stories #1
     
    by
    Wendy Lynn Clark
     
     
    Smashwords Edition
     
    *****
     
    Published on Smashwords by:
    Wendy Lynn Clark Publishing
    PO Box 1993
    Vancouver, WA 98668
    [email protected]
     
    San Juan Island Stories #1: Fatty
Patty
    Copyright 2013 Wendy Lynn Clark
    ISBN13: 978-0-9896920-0-7
    ISBN10: 0989692000
     
     
     
    This estory is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This estory may not be used for any purpose other
than enjoyment. If you would like to share this estory with another
person like your mom or your book club or your psychic advisor (who
already knows), please preface it with your estimation of exactly
how much enjoyment you think they will receive from reading it.
(Somewhere above a 7 on a scale of 1-11 is fine). If you're reading
this estory and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for
your use only, I hope that you support your local library. With
your wallet. And not just to reach in and pull out your library
card. In fact, please buy this story for your local library. Buy
every story for your local library. Think of the children and the
elderly who might not enjoy the same advantages you do, you
successful, healthy, attractive-looking adult you. Thanks for
respecting the awesome.
     
    Fatty Patty is a short [7,000-word] story
about: A woman attends her five-year high school reunion to prove
herself to the classmates who tortured her and to the boy who broke
her heart.
     
     
    Table of Contents
    Fatty Patty
    Thank You
    Acknowledgements
    Biography
    What's Next?
     
     
     

     
     
     
    Pepper McKay lived fabulously.
    It was the best revenge.
    She was no longer the fat klutz who couldn't
walk a mile in PE. She was no longer the sad blob who overheard the
other girls whisper about body odor—which she never had—and
sweat stains, which were unavoidable in the humid coastal
classrooms. She was no longer the victim of the unknown bully who
kicked her wobbly seat at the start of assembly. The plastic had
given way with a sickening crack and everyone had watched her
fall.
    Her four-inch Kate Spade Licorice heels,
size-five Ella Moss strapless mini, and Sixth Sense chocolate
Burberry satchel all proclaimed that refined adulthood had arrived.
Five years too late, maybe, but sophistication had arrived,
in her life and at the sultry Bellingham, Washington
marina.
    She was thin now.
    Thin like a Thin Mint.
    And tonight, everyone would finally know
it.
    Pepper waved her boarding pass before the
attentive, muscular dock hand, curved her lips in a confident smile
coated with Yves Saint Laurent iced plum Sheer Candy, and strutted
up the gangplank onto the Island Spiriter , a hundred-foot
cruise ship decorated in the purple and gold of Friday Harbor High
School. Welcome, class of the Millennium , the sign at the
top step proclaimed. She mentally capitalized the "C" of "class" as
she continued onto the deck, to the table manned by the reunion
officer.
    Time had not been universally fabulous. Allison
Payne, who had once lit up the stage as Rizzo of Grease and taken
the over-excited athletics department to the state championships in
Cross-Country, licked a swelled finger and squinted up at Pepper.
"Who are you with? I don't—" Her jowls flattened. "Oh my god.
Patty?"
    The name hit her like a curse, burning a hot
flush onto her cheeks. She cleared her throat. "It's
Pepper."
    Allison's lips dropped further and her neck
rolls gobbled up her silver "Mother" necklace. She grabbed Pepper's
nametag and a thick black Sharpie. "I wondered! When did you change
your name?"
    Pepper gripped her satchel and struggled to
maintain her iced smile.
    In high school this woman had been one of them , the blade-slim girls who sprawled in patches across
the sunlit cafeteria, waving flirty fingers at the hottest boys,
pushing ugly people like Pepper to the cold retreat of study
rooms.
    She coughed. "Actually, it's always been
Pepper."
    Allison uncapped the Sharpie. "Nobody will
recognize