There's Something About Sweetie(101)

Shaking her head, Amma said, “You are trying to manipulate me, Sweetie. You think by inviting Sunita and Kartik Patel here, I’ll change my mind?” Her eyes flashed. “This is over! I forbid it!” Then she turned and stalked out of the study.

Everyone froze as the door slammed behind her. Ashish reached out to squeeze Sweetie’s hand. Her lower lip trembled and she bit it, her eyes filling.

People began to speak all at once.

Ashish: “It’s okay, my love—”

Sunita auntie: “Oh, Sweetie, she’ll change—”

Kartik uncle: “Do you have any Pepto Bis—”

Anjali Chechi: “Ridiculous—”

Jason Chettan: “Give her some time—”

Achchan: “Let me just go and see what she’s—”

“No,” Sweetie said suddenly, loudly, her voice sluicing through the air. They all stopped to look at her. “I’ll go,” she said, meeting each of their gazes one by one. “Let me go speak to her.”

“Are you sure?” Ashish said. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Sweetie smiled a little. “No. I need to do this by myself.”

There was utter silence in that tiny room packed to the gills with Patels and Nairs as Sweetie swept out after her mother.

Amma was in Sweetie’s room, as Sweetie knew she’d be. She was looking at all the track trophies Sweetie had won over the years. Sweetie watched her from the doorway for a silent moment before walking in and closing the door behind her.

“Amma,” she said, twisting her hands together in front of her and then forcing herself to stop. She had nothing to be nervous about. She was right; she knew she was. This was her moment to be honest, to be brave, like she’d always wanted to be. To let her words match her thoughts, to finally stand up for herself. To be Sassy Sweetie. “What was that about? Why are you so upset?”

Amma stroked one of the trophies on Sweetie’s shelf and smiled. “I remember when you first told me you wanted to join the track team. You were in fourth grade. I took you to try out for the Atherton Kids Athletic Team, do you remember?”

Sweetie shook her head. “I never ran for them.”

Amma’s smile faded. “No, you didn’t. When we got there, the coach took me aside. He told me you were too … ‘unhealthy’ to run. He said it was a medical matter. If something happened to you, the organization would be liable.”

Sweetie felt her cheeks flush. “He was an idiot, then.”

“I took you back home,” Amma continued, as if Sweetie hadn’t spoken. “I told you the team was full. When you got to middle school and decided to try out without telling me, I couldn’t stop you. I thought maybe you should do golf or shot put. But you had your heart set on running. And when you got on the team, you were so proud. Then two months later I got the call from your coach.”

Sweetie remembered the call. She’d begged Coach not to call Amma, but she hadn’t listened. There were two girls on the team who bullied Sweetie incessantly. Coach had gotten involved as much as she could, but the girls were mean only when she wasn’t looking, and Sweetie refused to tell on them. Finally, when Coach had found her crying yet again in the locker room, she’d said she had no choice but to get Amma involved. “You tried to take me off the team,” Sweetie said.

“To protect you.” Amma turned to face her. “To keep you safe.”

“I didn’t need you to do that,” Sweetie said. “I joined again anyway. I forged that letter from you, remember? Coach let me back on. I became the strongest, fastest runner, and then the girls didn’t bother me so much anymore.”

“You had a happy ending that time,” Amma said. “A lucky happy ending. It won’t always be like that, Sweetie. Life is not lucky or happy for girls and women who are different.”

Sweetie studied Amma thoughtfully. “How do you think life would be different for me if I were thin right now, Amma?”

“You’d have more opportunities,” Amma said.

“You would want me to be appreciated for my talents, right? For people to see past my outer appearance to who I am inside?”

Amma nodded.

“You’d want me to be asked to prom, to go to a good college, to find love and friendships?”

Amma nodded again.

Sweetie shook her head. “Don’t you see, Amma? I already have all that. I was up on a stage, singing my heart out, and people got to their feet to applaud because they wanted more. I have friends who’d stand by me through anything. I’m going to get into a great school because I have some of the highest grades in my class and I kick butt as an athlete. I have a boy who loves me with all his heart, who came here with his parents to win yours. And guess what? I don’t need Sheena’s charity because Ashish asked me to the prom. See, Amma? I already have everything you want for me. I have it all, and I have it as a fat girl. I’m not afraid to live my life as I am right now. I don’t need to change. I’m not afraid, so why are you?”

Amma and she stared at each other for a long time. Finally Amma spoke, her voice hoarse. “Ashish is in love with you?”

“He is. And I’m in love with him.”

“And he asked you to the prom?”

“Yes.”