[$20] Struggling Diet Warriors Chapter 8: Spreading Warmth (Beta Copy) (Patreon)

Ryuuji couldn’t take his eyes off of Minori Kushieda. Not in the usual way, where he found himself watching her irresistible cheerfulness and her charm. Instead, it was in the way one is unable to look away from a train wreck. A train that had been carrying a storage container filled with apple pies, with a horde of little red-headed girls now swarming the carriage.

The wreck continued to the container behind, one that had flipped to spill several hundred donuts. He found himself picturing another swarm, this one made up of sapphire beauty queens, chomping down donut after donut. It wasn’t difficult to visualize, as the memory of Ami devouring half a donut in a single bite flashed before his mind.

However, unlike Minori, who was smiling pleasantly and simply taking notes, Ami seemed exceptionally aware of the moment. She was staring at Minori’s back, her violet eyes looking small and unfocused but slowly moving up and down in disbelief. Ryuuji watched them center on the fat that showed through the top of Minori’s gym uniform, just beneath her husky arms. A subtle roll that pinched into her ribs before pulsing back out along with her soft looking belly. 

In an astounding moment that appeared to be self-clarity, Ami pouted as she lifted her own arm and squeezed a roll of pudge through her jacket. A small cough escaped and she quickly lowered her arm while her nose scrunched up. The smell of sweat hit Ryuuji a moment later.

He tried to see into her head, but Ami’s eyes weren’t communicating anymore. She rested both of her hands on top of her belly, one of them reaching between a gap in the buttons and lightly poking a small exposed section of her pale stomach.

It took Ryuuji another moment to see how high on her waist Ami’s skirt was pulled up. The fabric had been stretched to its max, pulled past her widest point and clasped tight just beneath her ribs. Once he saw that, he noticed how alarmingly short her jacket now looked.

While most girls wore the traditional summer clothing of white shirts and blue skirts, Ami maintained her red off-season jacket, which was in desperate need of an upsizing. It only reached partway down her waist, with her fluffy belly tucked into the skirt. This fabric was in a similar condition to her top, stretched beyond capacity and looked as if it could barely cover her doughy butt. He could see small marks on her legs, little stretch marks from how much weight she had gained.

Was Minori’s belly also tucked into her red sweatpants? His eyes roved her middle, unable to tell. He wondered what her legs looked like. 

As if she could hear the thought in his head, Minori suddenly sat up a little straighter. She turned around, her lips puckering questioningly when her colorful eyes met with Ryuuji’s. Her chin looked so much smoother than it should, the expression giving him butterflies in his chest and setting off alarm bells in his head at the same time. He was unable to look away as she stared at him, head tilted.

“Takasu? Are you listening?”

The world suddenly seemed so much bigger than the mass of girls feasting from the broken-down sweets-train. Ryuuji snapped forward, blinking rapidly at their teacher. He realized that most of the class was looking at him now, including a red-faced Taiga.

“U-uhh, sorry.”

The teacher sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Please, pay attention Mr. Takasu. I asked you if you could answer the question on the board.”

He snapped to the chalkboard.

It was supposed to be a math problem. Written out in English, one girl had collected twenty-five apples from a tree and was sharing them with her friends.

But that wasn’t right. Minori had only eaten fifteen apple pies, not twenty-five. 

Twenty-five would be something that only a fat girl could manage. 

Fifteen was much more reasonable. 

It was only around three thousand calories in a single sitt-

His mind swam, watching the memory of golden filling bursting over Minori’s lips. He tried to focus, failed, and was caught off guard when he heard a whisper.

“Fifteen…”

Automatically he replied, “Fifteen,” to the teacher.

“Yes,” the teacher nodded. “That’s correct. After giving four, three, two, and one apples away, our example would only maintain fifteen apples.” She tilted her head, gesturing toward the center of the class with her chalk. “You should thank Miss Kawashima for her quick thinking. Please do pay more attention to the class, Mister Takasu.”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Ryuuji bowed, and she turned around to the board.

He looked over to see Ami looking at him now. She was blushing, looking almost uncomfortable, but nodded and tried at least a little smile before turning back to the front of the class.

He then noticed all of the other girls staring at her the same way she had been looking at Minori. It was as if a polarized magnet were shoving their classmates out from the high gravity field at the center of the room. Maya kept looking from Ami’s belly, down to hers, back to Ami’s legs, then held her fingers around one of her own, as if she were testing how round it was. She seemed exceptionally frustrated, trying and failing to make her middle fingers and thumbs meet around the circumference of her thigh.

Taiga, sitting alongside Minori, was glaring at anyone that she caught looking in their direction. Unfortunately, more than a few stares were coming from behind, so she looked more like a territorial puppy than a discouraging threat.

Somebody whispered, “Leave it to her to know how to divide food…”

He saw Ami hear it. He watched blush vanish from her face, her cheeks instead becoming pasty white. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and the hands resting on her tummy were suddenly on her desk.

He turned, looking at his classmates. Each one looked away.

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The lunch bell rang and Ami let out a reluctant sigh. She was trying to hold onto that good feeling she’d had this morning. Tried remembering the warmth of the water as it tumbled over her body.

Yeah, okay, so she was a bit overweight. She could accept that now. Sort of… I-it didn’t mean she wasn’t attractive! The biggest part of looking good is looking confident, and the people who look confident always look like they’re right!

Besides, they were looking at Minori. Not at her. All the tension of the morning was directed at her classmate’s sudden, fluffier appearance.

So why did Ami feel so reluctant to pull out her lunch bag?

She didn’t even realize she was standing until she was halfway across the room, stammering pained cries as a finger and thumb were clasped around the lobe of her ear. “Ahh, hey!” she called out, bent over at the waist as she was dragged along behind a stick-figure wearing stockings.

She felt her full hip bounce off of a solid pillow, heard Minori’s pained breath call out from beside her. “T-Taiga! Owchies, what are you doing?!”

Taiga growled something incomprehensible, both girls crying out as their pinches redoubled and their butts bounced off one another. 

Behind them, every girl in the class saw stretched black and blue panties digging into Ami’s ass, and the white muffin top spilling out over Minori’s sweats as they traipsed behind Taiga, out into the hall, and into the nearby bathroom.

Taiga tugged both of the girls forward, launching them past her towards the nearby sinks. “Alright, what the hell is going on?!” she crossed her arms as the two cried in tiny pain, rubbing at their respective ears.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ami said. “What’s the big problem, huh?”

Taiga huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “Minorin! What the heck happened to you? Did you go over to this piglet’s house after last night? You didn’t follow me, did you? What did she do to you?!” She advanced, seizing Minori’s sides beneath her gym uniform, bouncing her belly up and down. The sweat suit top clung to her skin, pale tummy jiggling out as it rose up on her curvy waist. “You’re even starting to feel like her!”

“Eheh… heeehh….” Minori sweat, playing with a lock of her hair.

Ami looked from her back to Taiga before waving her arms. “N-no way!” she shouted, speaking quickly. “After I got home, I had some ice cream and then… hey, wait! You little troll doll, you broke into my house!”

“I didn’t break in, you stupid piglet! I said in the note, I used a key.”

“That’s still breaking in!”

“S-stop it, please, that tickles… eheh…”

Taiga released Minori’s sides and advanced towards Ami with murderous intent.

Righteous indignation kept Ami cool. “It’s your fault that I ripped my sweatpants too,” she claimed as she folded her arms over her tummy. “Now none of my bulky clothes fit. This is the only outfit I can wear, and you’ve even managed to rip the shirt!”

In the heat of the moment, Ami was clearly not thinking quite clearly as she made the immense mistake of very softly tugging on the overstrained buttons of her uniform jacket, causing the golden restraints to ping off at near supersonic speed one after the other. 

The first one launched outward so quickly that, when it struck Taiga directly between the eyes, it tilted her back on her heels and she took two steps back. This had the lucky effect of saving her from the mass of tummy that followed it outward, a blunt and heavy object that may have knocked her out cold at that rocketing speed. Ami’s white dress shirt popped out at the sides, the missing buttons letting her unrestricted belly rip the Velcro lining of her skirt with a hideous tear.

Ami watched in shock as her skirt fell to the bathroom floor. Her open jacket framed her wide chest and wider tummy, jiggling to a blubbery halt. She began to stammer, holding her arms up and seeing her wide profile in the mirror. She could see bits of her cleavage poking through the remaining buttons, and the faint dark outline of her breasts. 

“How much weight did you put on since yesterday?!” Taiga asked, incredulous. “And you?!” she rounded on Minori. “How the hell did this happen?!?”

There was an exceptionally awkward “EEP!” that came from the door. 

Maya stared at Ami’s fat ass, eyes traveling over the wide shelf and tiny chord of the panties that clung to her hips, the stripped fabric lodged between Ami’s butt cheeks as if she were wearing an ill-fitting thong. Her mouth tumbling open before quickly turning around and pulling the door shut. 

“Are you people crazy?!” she hissed. “What if there were boys in the hallway! They’d see your… your…” Maya waggled her head, her greasy orange hair flinging about messily. “They’re all whispering about you! And then they were all looking at me, like I’m… like I’m…”

Ami leaned over, mushing her belly against her legs and snagging her skirt off the ground and trying to tug it upward. “W-wait a second, this isn’t what it-”

“Why are you putting it back on, idiot?” Taiga thumped her on the top of her head and causing her to stumble back, knocking into the sink. “It doesn’t fit you. Hurry up and take it off so I can let out the waistband and fix your buttons. Your jacket will have to wait. Minorin, do you have my sewing kit?”

“U-uhh… speaking of… would you mind…?”

“Yeah, hurry up, take off your shirt.”

“You’re a lifesaver! The absolute bestest, Taiga!” Minori unzipped her gym clothes, her small pillow-tummy pushing out from beneath an unbuttoned white uniform. She wore a simple black bra that was pulled tight over her boobs.

“I can’t believe you two!” Taiga grumbled before she turned to Maya. “And what about you? Do you need something?” She blinked before releasing a grunt and covering her nose.  “Ulgh… Besides a shower. You’re covered in sweat.”

“I-I was working out before class!” Maya tucked her hands beneath her pits defensively. “It’s not that bad! Is it that bad?!”

“Yeah, whatever. Do you need your clothes fixed or not? They look like they still fit… for now…”

Maya’s eyes widened in complete horror. She hurried to the mirror and looked herself over. “I-it’s not that bad, is it?! No, no way, I can’t have gained any weight in a single day, that’s imposs-”

She abruptly cut off, looking at Minori and Ami before squeaking like a terrified mouse and turning back to the mirror.

“Hey!” Taiga thumped her on the back. “If you’re gonna be a nuisance, make yourself useful. I need Kushieda’s purse. Go get it for me.”

Maya blinked at her before swallowing. “R-right!” and she hurried to the door, glancing outside to check it was clear so some unsuspecting boy didn’t catch a glance of two marshmallows fighting over a widening battlefield before dashing from the room.

Taiga spun around, raising a finger and pointing at the two doughy girls. “Don’t think you’re avoiding this! I want to know exactly what happened, got it?!”

******************************************************************************

Maya returned with Minori’s purse. She’d made to give it to Taiga but was rapidly intercepted by its red-headed owner, who hurriedly dug through and pulled out a small orange and black sewing kit.

Taiga then advanced on both of the heavier girls, pushing them towards the nearest stall. “Hurry up hurry up!” she complained, snatching their scrunched-up clothes. “I already missed breakfast! Like hell am I missing lunch because of you two!!” 

The door banged shut as she left. Neither of the soft girls were in a position to complain to the palm-top tiger, but they weren’t quite prepared for the lack of space.

“I-it’s okay,” Minori whispered to a beat red Ami. “It’s just like the girls’ locker room. It’s not the first chest I’ve ever seen… even if they are probably the biggest.”

Braless, Ami hugged herself tight, making a tiny whining noise as she faced the wall of the stall. At least she was still wearing her panties, but she was infinitely more jealous of Minori’s full underwear. Her tummy mashed up against the cold, unforgiving plastic while her backside kept accidentally brushing against Minori’s butt as they stood back to back. The only other space in the stall was the toilet and Ami wasn’t going to go anywhere near that.

There was a zipping noise from behind her and suddenly a paper container was passed over her shoulder. “Here, uhh, maybe this will help?”

Ami looked at it for a moment, recognizing the brown and green package before reading the script. McDonald’s Apple Pie 2pk.

She took it and Minori’s hand retreated from sight. It was exceptionally warm. “W-was this in your purse?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Kushieda responded, still speaking quietly. “After Taiga left to go to your place last night, Takasu seemed a bit… put out. So I decided I’d head home. That’s when I… uh… got… the craving again. Did you know that McDonald’s is open 24/7?”

Ami did, in fact, unfortunately know that. “Really? Oh… that’s surprising.”

“I thought so too! So then I got home late, and I fell asleep on the couch.”

“Wait, how much more did you end up eating?”

There was a pause before a very uncomfortable giggle. “I sort of lost count… Um… but a girl always has room for dessert, right?”

Ami’s tummy grumbled. She looked at the sweet treat before loosening her arms and opening it. “Yeah… I guess so.”

The silence grew thick until she heard paper unfolding behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see Minori opening up her own package, taking one of the buttery-brown rectangular pastries and chewing on it.

She did the same. Warm gooey pie filling spread over her tongue and dripped down her throat. Her belly sighed as fresh sugar and heat filled it, and she found the tension in her back slowly draining. She stood a bit straighter, her tummy backing away from the wall.

Together the two girls quietly ate, Minori seemingly trying to keep her satisfied sighs to a whisper. She ate faster than Ami, crinkling up the paper container when she finished and tossing it on the back of the toilet. Ami bounced forward in surprise, her tummy shocked by the cold of the wall when Minori backed into her as she reached into her purse and pulled out two more packs.

“Would you like another?” she asked.

Ami swallowed, having only finishing off her first of the pack. Still, she took the second set. “How many do you have in there?”

Minori chuckled deliberately casually. “Enough that they’re keeping one-another warm,” was all she said. She opened up her pack and took another extra-large bite.

Ami blinked, looking down at her pie. Guilt filled her even more than all the day’s pastries. “What about your diet?” she asked. “Aren’t you… a diet warrior, was it?”

The sound of chewing faded. It was quiet in the stall for almost a minute before Minori spoke up. “Ami, have you ever felt like… like you’re not happy?”

“… What do you mean?”

“With the way that things are. You know? That there’s just…” Ami felt Minori’s smaller ass rub up against her cheeks, but this time neither stepped out of the others way. After a second that felt like a minute, she felt Minori’s back leaning against her, then automatically shifted her weight to match. The garnet girl was surprisingly warm, and while Ami could feel just how much bigger her waist was, that hardly even registered. Her mind was fixed, seeing Minori out of the corner of her eye, leaning back and staring into at the bright ceiling. “That there’s got to be something better out there than how you feel.”

Ami opened her mouth to lie, but the words wouldn’t come. She wanted to say that she was perfectly happy with her life. If it was Taiga, or Ryuuji, or anyone else, she might have been able to. But there was something in Minori’s tone that felt almost as if Ami were talking to herself. Finally, she replied, “Yeah.”

“Is that why you quit modeling?”

The question alarmed Ami, made her stand up a little bit straighter. She hadn’t… she hadn’t quit modeling. It was just that guy! That man following her around, stalking her, taking her pic-

His face flicked before her eyes like the flash of a camera, looking disgusted and confused yet somehow abjectly terrifying to Ami as she screamed, ‘I SAID I’M DONE! I QUIT!’

The echoes of thunder in the center of a terrifying storm.

But the rain wasn’t here, and the cold too was fading. She felt the warmth radiating off of her companion, the heat of her pies mixing into her tummy, and it battled the ice that was trying to form over her heart.

“Yeah…” Ami replied. She dropped her hand away from her boobs, placing the palm on top of her tummy. Her hand curved along with the slope. She pinched herself, taking a large, unhindered bite of her apple pie.

“I’m jealous of you, Ami.”

The doughy sapphire twisted. Their butts were mashed together now, with Ami’s wide hip pushing against the wall while Minori was up against the other. She stared at the bright garnet, unable to see her eyes behind the abrupt appearance of a familiar smile painted on an old mask. Cracks ran up and down the surface, weathered and beaten and the smile was totally unsure as it chomped again at her fourth apple pie.

Minori gulped, and Ami felt almost as if it were her own tummy that shook. “You’re so confident and you really know yourself,” she said without looking. “And you’re pretty, and… well, I’m not sure if you’re really nice or not,” she looked up, grinning truthfully, “but you seem like you’d like to be.”

Ami didn’t expect to laugh, but the little glimmer in the red jewel caught her by surprise. “Why do I get the feeling you’re speaking from experience?”

Minori returned her sloped grin.

Ami sighed, leaning heavier into Minori’s back. She felt the girl adjusting her stance, felt the comfort of her presence as she took the brunt of Ami’s weight without complaint. “Maybe not,” Ami admitted before the other words registered. 

Pretty? She was obese. An Extra-Large girl squeezed into a size four uniform.

Confident? Even now, she felt as if she were about to start shaking, but there was something there that kept her standing firm. And she realized it was because Minori was smiling.

“I wish I could be like you,” Minori said.

The flame that burned inside Ami Kawashima had nearly gone out. It’d been battered, beaten, kicked apart. The kindling had been stolen, it had had an ice cream sundae tossed over it, and what remained had been struck by a flash of lightning and all but imploded.

But something remained. Something different, changed, yet not unfamiliar. A swelling blue ember.

Minori looked like she needed someone to believe in. So Ami lifted her head, put on a wide cheerful grin, and she smiled.

“Well, hey! It takes a lot of practice to be like me,” she said, turning fully around. Her hip struggled, caught for a moment, but she backed her butt against the wall and now faced Minori openly. “It’s not something I was just born with. Do you know how hard it is to look this good?”

She tried not to think about how she’d washed stale chocolate fudge out of her hair this morning. Tried not to remember that it’d been months since she’d used conditioner, or any sort of moisturizer, and was honestly lucky that her hair hadn’t started falling out. Her legs and tummy were marked with stretchmarks, packed with sugar and overloaded pastries as she took an extra-large bite of her pie, shoveling the last half into her extra-large mouth for her extra-large belly.

Minori turned around, looking at her with wide, shimmering eyes. Their bellies touched each other’s, spread tight in their small space. 

Ami flipped her hair over her back. “I work my ass off each day just to look half this hot.”

Minori looked down at her tummy and whispered, “So many pies…”

Not even a second passed before Ami put her hand on her hip, poking Minori with her stomach. “Yup! I can eat way more than it looks, too!”

An internal voice began incoherently screaming, but Minori’s eyes went wider still. She reached down, eyes going to chest level, and took another container from her bag, handing it to Ami.

A moment’s hesitation before she laughed. “Oh gosh, Minori,” she hid her face behind the still wrapped container she already held. “You know, I have my own lunch! Would you like to share it?”

Minori numbly nodded.

“My eyes are up here, you know?”

Minori suddenly stood stock straight, loosing a tiny yelp and banging Ami’s tummy with her own, staggering against the wall. “S-sorry, wait no I-I wasn’t!”

Again, Ami giggled, feeling a heady enjoyment. “It’s okay. You’re kind of cute when you’re embarrassed.”

Minori’s face was as bright as her eyes. She tapped her fingers together, shuffling before taking out another pie and holding it up. “To the end of diets!” she cried. 

Ami blinked, feeling an overwhelming sense of déjà vu before Minori’s infectious grin spread to her. She raised her treat and knocked it against her companions. “To the end of… eh?”

A pair of blue slip-on shoes poked out from beneath the stall door, attached to the skinniest black stockings Ami had ever seen. Fear suddenly rippled through her belly and she held up her dual stacks of apple pies defensively as the door exploded inward. 

“Just what do you two- where did you get those?!?” Taiga roared, stabbing a finger up towards Ami’s pies.

Ami blanched, her eyes connecting with Minori’s.

“AHHHH!! PUT YOUR SHIRT BACK ON YOU COW!!”

A bundle of white cloth slammed into her face with the fury of a baseball. She stumbled to the side, feeling Minori’s soft chub flop free of her belly, and nearly fell over before catching herself on the back wall. Gooey apple pie filling exploded over her hand.

“Get away from her, Minorin!”

“W-wait! Taiga!!! Ahh!”

Minori was pulled from the stall while Ami pulled herself back up, clutching her shirt over her breasts.

“She’s trying to sink her… her… piggy hooves into you!! She’s the reason you’re… Minorin… what’s that in your purse?”

“… Eheh, um… d-did you know that McDonald’s is open 24/7?”

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Ami had never seen somebody cry so much about their apple pie being tossed in the garbage. Then again, she’d never seen thirty packs, each holding two pies for a total of sixty, being upended into the trash before, either. Taiga had torn through the entire bag, checking each zipper and finding hidden packets of pies, which followed their companions as Minori cried out in pain.

“Savage…” Minori mumbled, following behind Taiga and in front of Ami as they returned to the classroom. “Evil fairy. Brutal tiger.”

“Would you can it? It’s for your own good. You can have Ryuuji’s lunch.”

Minori sobbed.

Ami felt sorry for her loss, but there was one saving grace. Taiga had searched Minori up and down, but had neglected to search her. Only one container had been smushed against the wall, crushing both of the pies beyond repair. The other was currently being extended over Minori’s shoulder, the warmth pressing to her skin.

It was amazing to see the chill flow from the girl’s hips, up to her red head, and then down again. She stared at the package and then at Ami, who winked and came up to walk beside her.

Her hands were shaking like an addict when she secured the pie, watching Taiga ahead of them as she silently tore the paper free.

Taiga stopped dead in her tracks, her neck snapping up. Impossibly alert, she spun around like a fantastic ballerina, only to be met with Ami’s bright smile. 

“Hiiiii Taiga,” Ami gushed, bending over. She tilt her head, “Is there something I can do for you?” 

Minori huddled behind Ami’s wide belly, hidden entirely from view as she lustfully shoveled the pies in her mouth.

They were in the classroom now. 

People saw.

“Get outta my face, piglet…” Taiga muttered. There was a low grumble from below as Taiga’s tiny tummy growled, and she turned back around. “Can’t believe we nearly missed lunch because of you.”

Ami didn’t even notice the spiteful name. “Awe, I hope that’s okay!” she moved forward, hearing Minori skittering behind her. “I can share one of my truffles with you.”

The brunette’s wavy main bristled in a manner extraordinarily similar to Minori’s chilled hunger for warm pies, but she said nothing.

“Oh hey,” Ryuuji said as the pack approached. 

He and Maya sat alone at a collection of pushed together desks in the center of the room. Everyone else was giving them a wide berth, and Maya was poking at her pathetic lunch, while texting on her phone, looking almost like she was about to cry. She was whispering something under her breath. “Doomed… She’s not even sick, she’s just… I’m so doomed…”

Ryuuji glanced the black raincloud uncomfortably. “Uhh…” he turned back, “I was wondering what took you guys so… Minori? What are you doing?”

“Muffing!” Minori hopped up, apple crust spraying from her mouth and over Maya.

“I knew it!! Hey! Where did you get another?!” Taiga rushed past, hopping up to try and get in Minori’s face. “Spit it out, spit it out, spit it out! It’s not healthy!!”

Minori tilted her head back and swallowed before sighing and rubbing her tummy. “Mhmm, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

“That’s not how that works at all!”

“Uhhh… hey,” Ryuuji turned to Ami, “your outfit’s looking a bit better. You two almost fit back in.”

Butterflies suddenly spun in her chest, as shocking as any moment she’d been up on a runway. His sharp, dark eyes felt like they held her more completely than any camera. In his fingers, he twirled a deep blue kiku.

He noticed her looking. “Oh, uhh, I didn’t want to get it roughed up in my bag,” he lifted the flower. “I was thinking I’d give it to my mom. She loves this kind of stuff. One of the few things she actually knows about, I think.”

“You idiot, it’s gonna be dead by the time you get home,” Taiga plopped into the seat next to his.

“Since when did you know anything about flowers?”

“Since forever! No time, how long is there left for lunch?”

“Uhhh,” he checked the clock. “Less than ten minutes.”

“Crap!” Taiga bristled, snatching her bag and flinging supplies to the side.

“Hey, hey! I got yours already. Here.” He passed her the container he had beneath his empty box and Taiga flung the lid off to reveal a small but appetizing lunch.

Ami pulled her own bag out and removed her plain white paper bag. She took out the box of truffles but was surprised to find that there was a second box, one she had forgotten about until now.

Minori, sitting at the head of the arranged desks, set her head down on the desk like a wilted flower. “I shall remember you, fallen comrades.”

When Ami opened the box of mini pies, the table became as still as a graveyard. Golden dough with toppings cooked into and then slathered over the crust, there were eight of the palm-sized treats squeezed into the little box. There was chocolate, blueberry, French silk… and apple.

Oblivious to the sudden shift, she sighed with content. “Thank you, Raiko,” she said to herself. She picked up the first French silk and tossing it into her mouth, chewing pleasantly as the whipped cream washed over her tongue. It smothered her mouth with sweet sugary flavor before tumbling into her pastry packed pooch. 

She took a blueberry next, poking the tiny round fruits with her fingers to make sure they stayed on top. An explosion of juice popped in her mouth as she crunched the fruity goodness, with a small purple trickle dribbling over her lips. A fat droplet sped down her cheek and plopped onto her uniform before she could catch it. 

“Ahh, shoot!” she mumbled through her full mouth, wiping her lips and her chin. She tugged her shirt out, feeling the newly stitched fabric stretching to cover. The drop of blue stained her white dress cloth, and she felt the warm wetness on her skin beneath. She swallowed before looking up. “Does anyone have a… napkin…? W-what?”

Taiga sat across from her, hanging onto her chopsticks with tight fingers. A string of noodles was frozen halfway to her mouth. On either side of her, Minori and Maya were staring not at her, but at her food. Maya was sweating, Minori was drooling, and both were trying to quiet the want in their bellies. 

“Listen to them…” one of their classmates murmured. “They’re like wolves…”

“Or a herd of pigs.”

Maya released a sharp “Eep!” before covering her stomach with both of her hands. She pushed her tiny lunch away from her, shaking her head furiously.

Ami puckered her lips, listening to the girl’s hungry tummy as it pleaded. She frowned, taking one of the chocolate pies and holding it out. “Come on,” she said firmly. “Have one.”

Maya looked at the pastry as if it were covered with the most delicious, delectable plague.

“If you don’t take it, I’m just gonna eat it my-”

Maya snatched the sweet and shoved it wholly into her mouth. Tears dropped from her closed eyes, joining the sweat while she made noises as if she’d just found out that the gates of heaven were made out of chocolate.

There was a large thwack followed by a yelp of pain. She turned to see Minori kissing the back of her injured hand and Taiga attempting to slurp her noodles up with a now broken chopstick.

Ami rolled her eyes. “Kushieda, would you like one of my pies?”

Minori whined, joining her tummy in misery. “N-n-no, t-thank-unwahaha…”

“It’s not good for you! How many have you had today?!”

“Appllllleeeessssss,” Minori sobbed.

A tug on Ami’s arm from an extremely guilty looking Maya earned the pleading girl another of Ami’s pies before she turned back to the others.

“Would you let her have one if I shared one of these?” Ami asked, opening the second container. The chocolate truffles glistened in the sunlight.

“How is that a balanced lunch?” Ryuuji asked.

All the girls ignored them. They were staring at the chocolates beneath Ami’s fat grin.

Taiga finally relented. “Fine… but only cause the mutt didn’t pack anything sweet today.”

“Hey, we were late! We only had time to stop at one spot!”

Ami picked out a chocolate and passed it to Taiga. She didn’t see Minori take the pie from the box. One moment it was there. In the next, Minori was chewing with full cheeks like some adorable rabbit. It made Ami actually chuckle. She turned to Ryuuji.

And words failed her when she saw he was smiling at her. He had one eyebrow raised and Ami felt the new flame in her bolster.

It felt like a minute before she finally managed, “W-would you like one?”

He shrugged. “Nah, I had chicken salad from the market and some leftover noodles. Oh, yeah, speaking of which!” he reached down into his bag. “I nearly forgot.” He withdrew an extra plastic container that had been packed with sauce-covered noodles. There was a bright red powder spread over the top.

Ami blinked down at it before looking back up into his eyes. It was as if he could see the light glowing inside of her unmasked eyes.

“I saved some for you, since you couldn’t come yesterday.”

Silence came as Ami’s heart skip several beats. The noodles were inside of a plain container and he’d passed her a standard pair of wrapped chopsticks. But she found she was grinning from ear to ear at the cute white package and the adorable wooden sticks, the pleasant container… and the delicious smell.

Ami wasn’t a fast eater. She ate slowly, enjoying every bite, tasting it to the fullest. It was one of the only comforts she had had at this point of her life. But right now, even as she was weighed down by donuts and pies and chocolates and noodles, she felt like she could float. Her sense of taste was amplified, foodie thoughts reinforced. It was the best thing in her life.

She didn’t care about her belly pressing into her skirt, giving her an angry red mark around her waist. She hardly noticed that the stitching Taiga had done could only help so much, and that in reality she looked fatter than she ever had, or that everyone knew. Ami didn’t even care that her weight was currently spiking on a sharp incline.

In this moment, she was happy. And every other girl in the class saw it.

Some felt horrified. Others felt spiteful. The palpable sense of confidence that exuberated from the model girl infected each of them worse than seeing any sexy, skinny body ever could. Compared to the butterball that ate with doughy poise and certain pleasure, each felt as if her life was severely lacking in taste.

One, even while really glad for her, internalized an immeasurable jealously. She decided that she had a lot to learn from this master of life.

But Ami didn’t notice any of this. She didn’t notice their looks, nor the muttered whispers from those further away. She didn’t see that Taiga was glaring at her, slowly chewing at what was left of her truffle, that Maya and Minori were cringing as Ami ate the last of her pies without noticing their pleading looks.

She was too busy eating a meal that had been saved specifically for her.

The blue embers swelled as she fed till she was full, and then just a bit more.

******************************************************************************

“Okay!” Their homeroom teacher clapped, summoning their attention and speaking in an authoritative tone. “Somebody really needs to explain to me why the desks are arranged like this.”

She was met with silence from the oddly structured room. Normally, desks were set into five even rows, and each seat was filled. But after lunch, the room never returned to the normal setting. Almost every single girl now sat near the outskirts of the room, arranged almost methodically spaced away from the overstuffed center. Taiga and Maya were the odd ones out, each sitting next to the respective pillows of Minori and Ami. 

The only ones who dared to be so close to ground zero were men, and more than a few looked uncomfortable in their own boyish ways.

“Class representative?” the teacher asked.

Kitamura stood up. He cleared his throat, looking over towards the class. “Well, ma’am…” he paused as Ami caught his eye and shook her head. “Just… changing things up. Keeping a fresh perspective.”

The teacher put her hands on her hips. “You’re not covering for Aisaka again, are you?”

Taiga’s hair somehow curled in defensive irritation, but immediately went slack when Kitamura chuckled. “No, ma’am. There hasn’t been any fights that I’m aware of.”

“Hmmm…” the teacher looked speculatively over Taiga before her eyes centered on Ami and looked down her outfit. “And I see you’ve fulfilled your word. I suppose praise should be given. Good work, Aisaka,” she said, turning away to the board.

Taiga opened her mouth but Minori kicked her before the tiger could growl at their teacher, earning Minori a hiss instead.

The teacher finished writing her introduction before turning around and clapping once more. “Okay!” she grinned from ear to ear, with a note of a blush on her cheeks. “Tomorrow is our long-awaited pool opening day!”

There were several cheers from guys and girls on the outer fringe of the class. People instantly began to buzz, excited for summer and to soak in some sun. 

Not a single peep escaped the center as the teacher’s words washed over them like a rolling wave of the sea. Four girls looked down at themselves in pure, abject terror. Two of them saw bellies that no swimsuit could possibly contain. One of them imagined thick thunder thighs that were far worse than she had. And the last gaped at a short wooden plank covered with wavy brown hair.

“I’ll explain the important parts now,” the teacher sounded as animated as the rest of the girls, while the immense gravity well at the class center went from pale to pasty, hardly able to breathe as all around them, people began to remember. 

Countless eyes turned inward, and each of the four was convinced they were all staring at her.

“Won’t be so confident when she has to show off in front of all the boys.”

“Everyone will see her for who she truly is.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Each of them applied the words to themselves. Cold dribbles of sweat formed.

“Hey, are you okay?” Ryuuji asked.

“I’m fine!” Taiga and Ami hissed at the same time, their eyes snapping wide before locked with the other. A silent howl of feline fury met a rising blue inferno, neither one noticing that Ryuuji was talking with Minori, who was holding her chest and whimpering about apples.