Better, Brighter, Whiter Part 2 (Patreon)

Moving day.
It was a special one for Emefa, who having secured her place in the prestigious Bright University was still scared out of her mind of being away from home. She’d had to live at a Motel 6 across town from the campus until her belongings had shipped, and frankly, the wait time was beginning to make her nervous and even worse, she had spent over $700 in a week and a half just surviving while she waited to be able to move in to her on campus lodging. She’d saved up around $4000 by getting her worker’s permit in high school and doing part time at Chubby’s Chicken, a fast food restaurant that not only helped cement her stigma as a fat black woman in a poor area, but moved the already fat teen from 290 to a full 380 pounds in just four years. That money was running low now, however. Dangerously low, in fact and for the second week in a row, she’d mustered enough willpower to cut out extra expenses like starbucks and large sized meals. Most of the food she was eating was still greasy, cheap, and fattening, but at very least she was doing well on mitigating the impact on her bank statements as she watched her balance dwindle lower and lower by the day.
While one of her friends was going off to some fancy school and had all but vanished off the map, another was working on studying business upstate. She wondered what Sachiko and Kateri might have thought of her starting school so late, but consoled herself with the knowledge that she WAS finally there.
She was proud of herself, but terrified of the target she’d put on her own back with her blatant display back at her orientation. She supposed that to anyone else
She drove down to the on-campus housing to meet with Malcolm in her beat up ’95 Pontiac Firebird, which had eaten up just over half of the money she’d saved for school. It looked cool, but ran like shit and had already needed a new and fairly expensive fuel pump, but still, it was a necessity she couldn’t exactly go without. Even if it DID make her a target for cops. The truth of the matter however was that she was broke, or at least getting there quickly, and moving in was going to be just what she needed to get out of the hole without needing to start up an OnlyFans or become a stripper, she mused to herself as she heaved herself out of the car and onto the street.

(1)

To her great surprise, the on campus housing wasn’t some crappy dorm or apartment complex situation, they were actual homes. Not big ones perhaps, but they were definitely houses. The real question though, was how many students they’d stuffed into each one. Malcolm was already inside and sitting on a stool, beckoning her into the house with an excited wave and a big, nerdy smile.
“Hey there!!” He called
“Haaay.” She singsonged, waving slightly with her fingers as she did.
Emefa waddled her large body into the house, still drowsy and hiding behind a large pair of sunglasses to stop anyone from seeing her looking so tired. She was however immediately astonished at how well furnished her new home was. Malcolm took her on an awkward, rambly tour of the house involving lots of him chuckling to himself about his own lame jokes before realizing that she wasn’t laughing and even more of Emefa walking around and inspecting all of the furniture, amazed that such a place was just given to her based on her academics and extracurriculars alone. None of even the richest universities she applied for had anything like this.
“So how do you like your uhh…new digs, huh? Pretty swag, am I right?” He grinned, trying his best to pose in cool ways that seemed as distantly related to a rapper’s physical expressions as could possibly be.
“Yeah….Quite swag indeed.” Emefa said, still not looking at him and refusing to give his attempts at acting black any attention, hoping not to reward the behavior. “And this isn’t costing me anything?”
“Nope! Nothing at all!” He replied cheerily, but seeming slightly nervous afterward. She noticed immediately.
“What’s the problem?” She asked in a commanding tone. “You don’t look so sure all the sudden.”
Malcolm shifted nervously, fidgeting with his hands and avoiding eye contact.
“Malcolm.” Emefa said, disallowing him to escape. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch!” He began. “…But there is ONE minor hiccup that we need to address before we sign all the papers and the moving crew brings the rest of your stuff over from storage.”
She eyed him suspiciously.
“So it turns out that we here at BU do a bit of research on all of our applicants…And while we do understand and even appreciate what you were doing, you DID try to pull a fast one on us.” He said, pushing his glasses up dorkily. “You see, we received uhh…more than one application from you. It made us aware of our preexisting biases in the selection department and we took a look at the diversity in our student body….It was embarrassing. When we did our research, we discovered that we had turned you down as Emefa Kikelomo….but accepted Emily Knight. We do realize that our selections department has made a mistake and the entire staff has been removed from their positions. They’re all fired. But….As it stands, you’re still registered in the system as Emily.”
Emefa wanted to scream. She was furious and embarrassed and scared, but showed none of it on her face, choosing instead to breathe deeply and center herself. As angry as she wanted to be, she knew that this was going to be played off as her fault should she respond emotionally, and her opportunity of a lifetime might be squashed. She did nothing.
“So as one last hurdle before we officially accept you….I have to be the bad guy and confirm your reasons for trying to defraud our institution.” Malcolm sighed, looking very clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
Emefa stood and looked him in the eye, breathing nervously the whole time, but adamant in her refusal to let him see her sweat.
“It was a social experiment. Nothing more. I had been turned down by every college I had applied to. I tried over twenty different schools and after a while I wondered if it had anything to do with my race, so I put all my same information down and changed my name to the whitest thing I could think of to see if they’d accept me then. They did. Even just now you admitted that your team wasn’t looking for a competent student. You don’t want Emefa. You want Emily. Not because she’s smart or outgoing or motivated, but because compared to me she’s…well, Better, Brighter, Whiter.”
The nervous energy of getting everything out in the open and admitting to her deception caused Emefa’s stomach to curdle, and a blast of nausea hit her like she’d just stuck her face into bag of dead cats. She heaved deep, heavy breaths, and sat down onto the nearby bed to catch her breathe.
Malcolm smiled. “Well… I’m glad you told the truth ‘Miss Knight’ because had you not done so and attempted to lie in some kinda way, I would have had to rescind the offer. We’ll get on changing your information as soon as possible, and congratulations on passing your interview. I’ll get out of your hair and signal the moving team to bring your stuff over this afternoon. In the meantime, make yourself comfortable! And Emefa,” he said, stopping to turn as he walked out of the front door. “I think it’s really cool how you stood up to the system. You’re gonna do great here.”

(2)

Emefa smiled and watched the door close, leaving her alone in her new bedroom in her new house. Still feeling hot and nauseous, she stripped down to her underwear and cranked the AC to max before plopping down and languishing for a while, sipping away at the caramel machiatto frappe she’d picked up on the way over.
Once the moving crew had arrived, Emefa made herself decent and went for a stroll around the neighborhood as she wasn’t overly excited to get in the way of the moving crew or to be alone in a house in a new city with no friends at a school she just got caught lying to get into. As she meandered down the street, she caught sight of a couple other moving vans already parked at some of the houses in her cul de sac. Among the crew at one of the houses was an especially muscular black woman giving directions and hauling in boxes on her own. Noticing Emefa, she smiled and jerked her head upward slightly in a sort tomboyish “Sup” motion before continuing on back into the house. The two of them couldn’t have been further away in body type, as Emefa’s massive body was years away from being anywhere near the tight-abbed woman’s physique, but it was a very welcome thing for both of them to see another black woman in the neighborhood.

(3)

She hadn’t made it even to the end of the street before she felt the heat of the afternoon sun beating down on her, and before long, she heavyset woman was bent over with her hands on her knees, panting from the exertion. Looking up, she saw someone almost equally as large as herself and was pleasantly surprised to recognize the girl she’d seen the first time she visited the campus.

(4)

“You good?” The redheaded woman called out awkwardly, the heat causing her to grimace slightly as well.
Emefa put her hand up in a half-wave, half-dismissal of help.
“Yeah…I just uhh…got a little ahead if myself…I live..here..” She huffed.
“Yeah, I saw you a little while ago when you came in and was surprised. This school doesn’t really have a lot of girls who look like us waddling around, haha.” She joked nervously, shrinking down at the realization that she’d just called another woman fat to her face.
Emefa didn’t mind. She knew who she was and wasn’t ashamed of it at all. She walked over and introduced herself, explaining in full how she even got into the school and how because of that, she was being put in charge of their B.B.W. initiative to encourage inclusion. The girl awkwardly tried to shake Emefa’s hand and blurted out “Kate” as she did, telling the darker woman just about everything she needed to know about the young woman’s confidence levels. Apparently, Kate hadn’t even applied to the school as a student, but was merely looking for clerical work when a gentleman name Reese had hired her for the job on the stipulation that she become a student at the school. She’d heartily accepted, but gushed that she couldn’t pay tuition only to get a similarly too-good-to-be-true offer if a full ride.
“So they didn’t even check your background or anything?” Emefa asked in a dry, irritated tone.
“Not that I can think of…why?” Kate asked back, hoping that she hadn’t done anything to offend her first potential friend at her new school.
“Mmmmmmmmhm.” Emefa droned. “They checked ME out. Prolly to make sure I’m not fresh outta jail or some shit. Scary minorities and all.”
“Well, there was one thing that they did that struck me as weird. Did they give you a student mantra?” Kate inquired, still twisting back and forth out of pure shyness and self doubt.
“A mantra? No, I don’t think so?” Emefa said, her eyebrow quirking upward in a way that made Kate even more anxious.
“So I was told it was to give students a sort of personal like….I dunno, philosophy or whatever? For me it’s my wifi password,  I have to use it for validation of my ID, it’s even in my welcome packet. But to be honest, I feel like I’m either being pranked or bullied or just got the absolute worst one for me.” Kate explained.
“Oh? Do you mind if I ask what it is?” Emefa responded, clinically preparing to dissect whatever was happening and potentially log it for her new position as the inclusivity spearhead.
“So look at me, then think about the message they’re sending. My student mantra is ‘Fitness First.’”
It looked to Emefa like the girl was suddenly about to pass out. Her breathing grew labored and she grabbed at her huge, doughy side and pressed her hand into her belly. Emefa moved to help as best she could, holding her back as she threw the fat redhead’s arm over her shoulder and walked her inside.
Panting, both girls sat down for a moment, unable to even continue speaking as they attempted to catch their breath.
“I’m so sorry, this heat is killing me. Do you mind if I go change into something lighter? I don’t have much other than like shapewear but…it’s so damn hot.”
“Of course not! You don’t need to be shy around me, hell it’s your house. You could be in your underwear for all I care.” Emefa said kindly, allowing Kate the feeling of security to go change. After a few minutes she plodded back out into the living room, seeming much more comfortable in what almost looked like a cross between fat girl underwear and actual workout attire.

(5)

“Thanks. Sorry for all that. But yeah….They apparently give everyone a student mantra like that, so I was wondering if you had something…offensive too?”
Emefa sighed. “No, I didn’t get a student mantra per say, or at least they didn’t tell me that directly. HOWEVER, I was put in charge of their new student initiative thing that they just so happened to give to me, an obese black woman, that they just so happened to name BBW. Can you guess what that stands for?”
Kate’s eyes shifted back and forth awkwardly. “Big…Black Woman?”
“That is SO close to what I thought! See, there is a community of folks who like big girls, or BBW which means Big, Beautiful Woman, right? Well this isn’t that. Apparently, they put me in charge of an organization called Better, Brighter, Whiter, which…..” She breathed heavily, suddenly panting again and feeling like she’d had rotten eggs wafted right in front of her.
“Sorry, can I get some water? I am NOT feeling this heat myself.”
Kate handed her a bottle and she drank it down slowly, only taking the smallest, most conservative sips at a time.
“Sooo….Then you’re my boss I guess.” Kate said before Emefa could resume her story. “I am also supposed to be a part of B.B.W. and I was told that I was going to meet the person in charge either today or tomorrow. That’s what this whole street basically is. We were all put together on purpose and it feels more like a barrio than an actual housing group.”
Emefa looked up, irritation seeping through her otherwise composed face. “Is that so?” She asked.
“Well, I am definitely not mad at you for it, but I’m sorry that they’re doing this. I talked to my admissions guy and according to him, this is the kinda shit we’re supposed to be stopping, so I’m going to say something about it first chance I get.”
“Yeah, it’s basically a misfit non-white, non skinny neighborhood. It’s basically segregation.” Kate sighed, looking slightly resentful herself, but not nearly as furious as Emefa was.

(6)

“It’s a damn quarantine.” She said.