All Ember could think as she saw her new roommate was, "Score!"
To begin with, she had not been saddled with some needy newbie. Her new roommate was more than likely a junior, if not a very young senior, meaning she knew the routine and she would not be Ember's little shadow, following her around all the time. That in of itself was a win in her book.
Being an older student, it was no surprise to Ember that this girl had obviously succumbed to the same fate as so many of the girls of Buttercombe. Though not nearly as big as herself, this one was getting close. Had to be closer to 300 than 250 if she had to take a guess off the top of her head. However, she seemed to be one of those types that grew out in width rather than depth when it came to weight gain. Most of her mass had taken to her immense hips, thighs, and well-developed love handles. That is not to say she did not have a little depth, but it was eclipsed by just how wide the girl was. She was sporting a little bit of a pudgy belly, and her bottom was really making her jeans work hard to contain her. Ember snickered a little to herself as she thought, "This girl had better be graduating soon before she became too wide for the doors."
Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she had long bangs. Her face was rather pleasant, her high round cheeks accentuated by chic black glasses. She had full pouty lips, which would have revealed a delightful smile, but she had hidden it all under a rather uncomfortable and nervous face. As Ember's eyes moved from the girl to the luggage she dragged along with her, she was able to get a better idea of who this girl was. She had several laptop bags strung across her shoulders, and the main bag she drug along with her had a lot of coiled wire-shaped bulges. And judging from the fancy headphones around her neck and the T-shirt with a video game reference Ember could not understand, it became apparent to her that her new roommate was a gamer.
This was even better than she could have imagined, Ember thought. She could not stand the thought of having to room with those typical, preppy snobs that Buttercombe always admitted. They always thought they were better than everyone else or at the very least could never understand why everyone was not as happy and go-lucky as they were. No, at least with a gamer she was insured some peace and quiet, and plenty of alone time, which was just fine with her. At the same time, they could not just go the whole year never speaking to each other. Well, they could, but that did seem a little rude to Ember, especially since she was sitting right in front of her. She scarfed down the last of her muffin, hefted herself up, and shook hands with the girl. "Uh, hi, I'm Ember," she said, introducing herself.
The new roommate stared at her outstretched hand for a moment, not entirely sure what to do with it. This girl must not get out much. Finally she did respond, but she never reached for Ember's hand. "I'm Lauren," she said rather matter-of-factly.
There was quite a bit of awkward silence between them. Ember, again, was left with the task of breaking the ice. "So, do you need any help unpacking or anything?"
"No, there's a lot of important equipment here," Lauren said, pushing up her glasses, "and it's very temperamental sometimes. I'd rather a stranger not try to mess with it."
Ember was already starting to find her just a tad annoying. "Oh uh, sure. No problem," Ember said, brushing it off. "I'll just be in my room if you need anything."
And so the rest of the afternoon had passed without fuss. Ember had taken to her room and was unpacking her things, all the while "snacking" on all the goodies in her welcome basket. Lauren had been in her room doing god knows what for all Ember cared. "There, done," Ember said, pushing back the hair on the left side of her head.
She had just finished hanging all the posters of her favorite bands on the walls, and had for the most part, stored away all her other essentials. Just in time too. Her stomach began rumbling, indicating that it was close to the big welcome dinner. She looked back at the welcome basket laying on her bed. All the food stuffs had been polished off a couple of hours ago, leaving nothing but the other stuff she deemed useless like the fancy facial creams and bath beads. She decided to at least check on Lauren and invite her to dinner. Perhaps they just got off on the wrong foot since they were both exhausted from the trip up here.
She knocked on the girl's door, not surprised to find that there was no answer. Ember took a chance and pushed back the door gently. Apparently Lauren did not take too long to unpack. Everything already seemed in its place, and she was already deep into some fantasy role-playing game on the computer, shut off from the rest of the world. There did seem to be one thing out of place. Lauren's welcome basket remained untouched on her bed. Good god, the girl must be starving if she had not eaten anything since getting here. "So, Lauren, the welcome dinner's about to start. Want to go with?" Ember asked, pulling off her roommate's headphones.
Lauren hardly looked at her. "No, not really."
"Oh come on," Ember said, trying to sound teasing, but it came off a little short. "You've hardly touched your snacks in the basket. You gotta eat sometime."
She turned and looked at the basket as though it were a spaceship from Mars. "Those snacks don't seem very healthy," Lauren said, "I'm trying to keep from getting fat."
More like fatter, Ember thought, rolling her eyes. This one was either delusional or something else was going on. This was where Ember usually hit her limit with people; when they had to talk about weight like it was a sin. "Oh really?" Ember said in a somewhat mocking tone. "And what's your excuse, hm? Afraid you won't get on the cheer-leading squad or some crap like that? Afraid of what the other girls would say? Have you seen some of them?"
Lauren finally spun around on her chair to face Ember, but her nervous demeanor gave her away as she acted like she was trying to make herself smaller. "No, nothing like that," she said meekly. "I just, you know, wanted to be healthy."
Ember snorted. "Oh yeah, like you're really working up a sweat in here." She glanced at the computer screen behind her, finally putting it all together. "It's because of a boy, isn't it?"
"N-no," Lauren said, the reddening of her cheeks betraying her.
Ember started to move Lauren aside as she looked at the screen. "No, huh? Oh, I've heard that one before. Is it this BeastLord127 that you got the hots for?"
"Ok, I get it," Lauren huffed, pushing Ember back, or at least trying to. "Yes, we've been talking back and forth for over a year now, and I want to meet him, but...well, this is what he sees when he thinks of me."
She pointed to the rail-thin, scantily-clad warrior maiden avatar on the screen. "I'm afraid that if he sees the real me, sees all of this..." She grabbed a handful of her flabby sides to emphasize the point. "He won't like me."
Ember did feel for her, and mulling it over, she got a rather good idea. With one finger gently pushing down the top of Lauren's laptop closed, she finally had the girl's full attention. "Look, you don't need him if he doesn't like all of you. And it's games like that that just make guys objectify us. Do you honestly think there are any girls out there that look like that cardboard cutout? C'mon, it's time to see the real world, and I know just how to do that."
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