What’s Eating You?
A wonderful smell filled the neighborhood Kids Incorporated called home. It drifted through the fence that separated the schoolyard and tickled the noses of everyone who caught it. Every time someone opened the doors of The P*lace, the aroma escaped, tempting people and drawing them in.
It drew in the members of Kids Inc. "What smells so good?" Charlie asked.
Dena smiled. "Blueberry pie." she said.
"Dena, your pies make the whole neighborhood come running!" exclaimed Anthony. "I'd love a slice."
"I'm not hungry." Nicole said quickly.
"Well, I'll try not to take it personally." joked Dena.
"What's wrong?" Haylie asked Nicole.
"Did you hear what happened to Julie?" Nicole replied.
"I haven't seen Julie in weeks." said Ana.
"She went into the hospital."
"Oh, no, is everything all right?" Dena asked.
"She hasn't been eating. They said she was running on nothing." explained Nicole.
"Isn't that Julie the one who's on a new diet every week?" asked Charlie.
"She's not even that heavy." said Ana. "Poor girl."
"Poor girl is right. It sounds like she might have an eating disorder." said Dena. "That is way too common among girls these days."
"You know who's got an eating disorder?" Charlie began. "That girl Elsie - she does nothing but eat! Man, what a cow!" The boys snickered.
"Hey," Dena scolded, hitting him with her oven mitt. "It's precisely comments like that that make teenagers insecure about themselves!"
"Julie was never insecure or fat." Nicole said. "She was always watching her weight."
"She told me once that if you put your thumb and forefinger around your wrist, and they don't touch, then you need to lose some weight." added Haylie.
"How ridiculous!" said Dena.
But the girls checked themselves anyway. "Mine touch." said Ana.
"I'm good." said Nicole.
Haylie, however, had about a 2mm gap. She quickly substituted her ring finger.
"That's cheating." said Anthony.
"So?" Haylie defended herself. "My fingers are short!"
"Don't even take that seriously." said Dena. "When I was your age, they said if you couldn't hug yourself, you were chubby - and that was bull, too! None of you are overweight."
"Yeah, you three look good." Anthony added.
The seeds of doubt were already planted in their minds, however, and as they tucked into their pie, Nicole worried about just what had taken root.
Julie's admittance became school-wide news, so the administration decided to address the issue in an assembly. No one was in the mood for pie or ice cream or anything that day as they met up at The P*lace afterward.
“Okay, I have been seeing those little blue flyers all over town." said Dena as the Kids came in. "What are they?"
"A counseling center for eating disorders." said Nicole, handing Dena hers. “They spoke to us today. I never knew food could cause so much trouble.”
“It’s only trouble when you let it take over your life.” Dena replied.
“Hear, hear!” said Charlie. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m having a burger.”
“We just had lunch three hours ago.” Ana pointed out.
“That’s funny,” Anthony said to her, “I didn’t see you eating anything.”
“Well, you should have looked harder. I had a salad.”
“I didn’t even finish mine.” said Haylie.
Nicole looked guilty. "Should I not have had the chicken sandwich?"
"Did you eat it really slowly?" asked Haylie. "The slower you eat, the faster you feel full."
"Who has time to eat slow? The cafeteria's so crowded, it takes almost your entire lunch period just to get through the line."
"Start eating before you sit down." said Ana. "They say you burn food faster if you're standing up."
Dena was beginning to get disturbed by the conversation. "If this is what they told you at that assembly, I think I might just go over to that school and give them something to chew on!"
"There's nothing wrong with eating sensibly." Ana said instead.
"I agree, but when you take it to extremes like this, that's a problem. You know, I think you missed the entire point of that assembly."
Dena appeared to be right. The school's interference set off a massive wave of fad dieting. Suddenly, every girl in town was living on a scale.
Charlie came storming into The P*lace one afternoon and declared, "Okay, something has to be done about this dieting drama!"
"What made you change your mind?" asked Dena.
"I'm trying to take Jennifer out for pizza. She goes ballistic! She says she can't have anything with bread in it for the next two weeks. Does that make any sense to you?"
"Is that working?" Haylie asked him.
Instead of answering, Charlie removed his wallet and dumped the entire contents on the counter. "If you girls will just eat something, I'll pay for it!"
"Calm down, Charlie!" said Nicole. "How about if we all split a piece of pie?"
"No way!" Haylie exclaimed.
"Come on. It's only a couple of bites."
"And it just so happens," added Dena, "that I have been using that fat-free pie filling."
Anthony pulled a face. "Really?" he whispered to Dena.
"No." she whispered back, shushing him.
"Well, I'm not eating the crust." Ana said as Dena deliberately cut an oversized piece of pie.
"Ana!" Nicole sighed, pushing a fork towards Ana.
"I will if Haylie does." Ana said stubbornly.
Haylie rolled her eyes and picked up a fork. "Okay – but I'm counting how many bites you have! You're not leaving me with this whole piece of pie!"
Oddly enough, it was Nicole who ate the least amount of pie. She was too preoccupied with watching Ana stand up and pace the whole time while Haylie chewed each and every bite about 100 times. As soon as the plate was clean, the girls ran up to the stage to begin rehearsing. Lately, their dance numbers had been exhausting. Nicole didn't know much about digestion, but she doubted they could burn off the food right after they ate it. To make matters worse, every time Nicole didn't keep up, she received conspiratorial looks. She began to doubt her own sense of self.
Nicole's father came home one afternoon and found her fiddling around with the bathroom scale. "Forgive me if I'm interrupting." he said.
"Oh, hi, Dad." said Nicole. "Sorry, I'm almost done."
"Sweetheart," said her dad, "I doubt that scale is going to say something different than it did the day before. Or the day before that." Nicole sighed and got off the scale. "What's really going on?"
"All the girls are watching their weight." Nicole explained. "I didn't think I had to, but..."
"Is this about your friend Julie? Her mother works in the department next to mine."
"Is she going to be okay?"
"She has a lot of healing ahead of her. She's seeing a special counselor."
"Yeah, they gave us their flyers."
"Why don't we give them a call?" Nicole's dad suggested.
"Dad, I don't have an eating disorder."
"I know, I know. But you do need some information. I've been talking to some of the other parents, and we're all concerned about our girls."
"I am, too." Nicole admitted. "It scares me to see everyone changing."
"Do you remember," her father asked her, "when you were afraid of going to kindergarten?"
"Daddy! I was five years old."
"But what did we do about it?"
"We asked people what kindergarten was like." Nicole remembered. "And visited the school and found out everything I needed to have."
"So this is what you do now." said her father. "When something scares you, you arm yourself with knowledge. Then you can conquer it."
Nicole thought about all the things her friends were telling her. They didn't know where these "facts" came from. They were just passing things around. Food was beginning to take over their lives. "You're right, Dad." she said. "I know what to do now."
By the time Nicole got to rehearsal the next afternoon, Ana and Haylie were chomping at the bit, ready to dance until they dropped.
"Where have you been?" Ana demanded to know. "The boys wouldn't let us start without you."
"I went and saw Julie." said Nicole. "She'll be able to come home soon."
"Does that mean this will be over soon?" asked Anthony. "All this talk about food and dieting is enough to make me lose my appetite!"
"You're so insensitive!" Haylie said to him. "You have no idea how hard it is to feel good about yourself."
"Guys never care." said Ana. "They just don't want to date a fat girl."
"But you guys aren't fat!" Charlie finally yelled. "Seriously! With all the dancing you do, how could you be?"
"We don't want you to end up in the hospital, too." said Anthony. "We care about you too much."
Nicole took Haylie's wrist in between her thumb and forefinger. It fit. "Looks all right to me." she said.
Haylie smiled. "I never did manage to hug myself." she said. "Do you think I'll fit?"
Nicole hugged her. "You fit just fine." Everyone hugged Haylie and Ana.
Dena came over with another woman. “Kids, this is Dr. DiGesti from the eating disorder clinic.”
The doctor smiled. "I'm glad to see such supportive friends." she said. "It's one of the most effective weapons against eating disorders."
"You know," said Ana, "I think it might be a good idea to stop by that clinic."
"We have several support groups for kids who just need somebody to talk to." said Dr DiGesti. "Often times, an eating disorder is a way of dealing with other problems - a need to control something."
"Is it always girls?" asked Charlie.
"Not always. Boys do develop eating disorders, too. The sad fact is that it's considered a 'girl's disease', so many of them go without help."
"Nobody ever tells you these kind of things." said Haylie.
"Have you been talking to kids at school?" asked the doctor. The kids nodded. "I'll bet they have all these inventive tips and techniques for losing weight. Many of them are actually good - in moderation. But fad diets don't work, and they can actually do damage to your body."
"I found an article in the library," Nicole began, "that said if you go without eating for too long, your stomach shrinks. Then, when you go to eat again, there's no room, and you end up making yourself sick."
"That's right." said Dr. DiGesti.
"That's what happened to me." said a voice.
"Julie!" Ana exclaimed.
"It started out small." Julie said. "You know – your bathing suit from last year's a little tight. Your favorite jeans have shrunk. I thought I would just lose a few pounds and everything would be great. Of course, everyone said I looked good. I thought: if losing 10 pounds makes me look good, then maybe losing 20 pounds will make me look great! I figured I could quit dieting whenever I needed to."
Julie continued. "I started skipping meals. First lunch, so my parents wouldn't know, then breakfast. I thought if I took a bunch of vitamins, I would get the nutrition without the extra pounds. My parents started to get concerned. They would hide the scale from me. I figured that meant I was so fat that they didn't want me to see the numbers." By now, everyone was starting to tear up.
"I knew I was getting worse, but I didn't even care. I started shivering all the time. I hardly ever slept - I just kept dreaming of food. I know everyone thought that I had it all together, but I could barely keep my clothes from falling off."
"I can't believe none of us ever noticed." said Haylie.
"What's important," Dr DiGesti added, "is that Julie got help. And it's never too late - or too early - to get help." She smiled at Julie. "I'm very proud of Julie for the progress she's made."
"So are we." said Nicole.
"Can you stay for the show?" Anthony asked.
"Actually," said Julie, "I was thinking of grabbing a bite to eat. Would you like to join me?"
"Absolutely." answered Haylie.
"You should have the pie, it's fabulous." said Ana. They joined Julie at the counter.
"I'm glad that I called." Nicole said to Dr. DiGesti. "It's scary how easily you can fall into trends."
"That's why it's crucial to have good friends who care about you." said the doctor. "Love is even more nourishing than food."
"Well, we have plenty of both here." said Dena. "Help yourself."
The End
