Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
At the school speech contest, I stood onstage and stammered through my lines.
When I came down, my head was still spinning.
I had barely made it back to my seat when someone grabbed me and dragged me off to lunch.
Honestly, I was annoyed.
“Can you not eat all the time?” she snapped. “Who are you trying to impress by stuffing your face? Think anyone’s going to laugh at you less?”
That afternoon, I ran into Ethan Cole.
He smiled at me, all easy confidence, and asked, “Maya, are you seriously okay?”
After I said those words—“I like you”—the first person to react wasn’t Ethan.
It was the girl standing beside the podium. The Academic Rep.
“What did you just say?” she asked.
Then she raised her voice on purpose. “Did Maya Winters just say she likes Ethan?”
The whole class exploded.
My face went white. My ears roared. In that instant, it felt like every sound in the room had been magnified.
By the next break, the classroom had already turned into a circus.
Laughter crashed over me from every direction.
“No way, I’m dying—look at her. She actually thought she had a shot.”
“So Ethan turning down all those girls before this… was because he was saving himself for Maya? That’s hilarious.”
Ethan glanced over at me too.
His expression was calm.
Almost unreadable.
Through all that noise, all that mocking laughter, I kept my head down and said nothing.
I hadn’t expected that one sentence would become the reason everyone laughed at me.
I should have just swallowed it.
But before I could fully retreat into myself, an even bigger mess broke out and ripped my thoughts apart.
That was when Ethan stopped beside my desk and looked down at me.
A book slipped from my hands and landed by my feet.
I bent to pick it up, but before I could, someone else spoke first.
The Academic Rep leaned against the desk behind me, smiling like this was all a joke.
“I really want to know what gave you the confidence to confess to Ethan,” she said. “Was it because you think being fat makes you cute?”
My whole body went rigid.
But the heat rushing to my face was impossible to stop.
She tilted her head and looked me over again.
“What, did I say something wrong?” she said. “Don’t you think you’re pretty impressive yourself?”
From then on, because of that so-called confession, I became the class joke everyone was entitled to laugh at.
And maybe because it was so easy, it only got worse.
To the point where even people who had never spoken to me seemed to know who I was.
My existence turned into a punchline. Whenever someone started a joke at my expense, there was always a chorus of laughter waiting to follow.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
And during the years when I hated my body most, that endless malice from other people became the source of all my shame.
The next day, a bottle of water came flying at me.
It hit my shoulder before clattering to the floor.
The teacher, who had just walked in, saw it happen. Her face darkened, and she immediately ordered the students at the front to drag the prankster out of the homeroom classroom.
After that, the Class President came over and crouched beside my desk, trying to comfort me.
“Maya, don’t take what people said yesterday too seriously. They probably didn’t mean anything by it.”
Then, after a pause, she added awkwardly, “Besides… it’s not like liking someone is some horrible thing. If you really do like Ethan, you don’t have to pretend you don’t. Keeping it bottled up is only going to make you miserable.”
I stared at her, stunned.
For one terrifying second, I almost thought she was right.
In the end, all I could do was lower my head and say nothing.
Because I had no way to explain it.
I couldn’t tell her that the person I liked had never been Ethan.
The Class President ruffled my hair like she was trying to cheer up a wounded stray animal and sighed. “Come on. Don’t be so upset. It’ll blow over.”
Actually, she was kind.
Kind in that bright, straightforward way some people were.
So even her attempt at comforting me—gentle, sincere, maybe even well-meant—still made me want to force out a smile.
Unfortunately, I never got the chance to hear what Summer was going to say next.
My apology never made it out either.
Because by second period, everyone in class had already settled into a weird new routine—like the whole thing had somehow become an unspoken joke—and my desk had been moved right next to Ethan’s.
The moment I walked in, people started grinning.
Not loudly, not openly, but in that way that made it even worse, like they were all sharing the same secret and I was the punchline.
Then someone called out, half laughing, “What is this? Did the teacher really seat you two together now? Guess this is official.”
A few more voices joined in, tossing comments back and forth.
I stood there clutching my bag, my mind going blank.
Before I could react, the Class President came over and helped me set my things down by the desk. “There, all fixed,” they said.
Only after speaking did they seem to realize how that sounded. Their expression changed, and they hurried to add, “No, I mean—it doesn’t mean anything. Don’t overthink it.”
I forced a smile and said it was fine.
My throat felt dry.
My eyes stung too.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Why was it that something as ordinary as where I sat, something that should have meant nothing, could turn into this the moment other people got involved?
I lowered my head and unpacked my books in silence.
Even the back of my neck felt hot. I didn’t know if it was embarrassment, panic, or the awful sense that from now on, even breathing in this classroom was going to become difficult.
As soon as I got back to my seat, I saw the graduation performance costume size sheet being passed around.
The girls in our class were all signing off on their measurements.
Summer Vale, dance role.
Five foot six. Ninety-two pounds.
Me—Maya Winters.
Five foot two. One hundred forty.
The Academic Rep couldn’t even hold back her grin. “Wow, Maya, are you seriously that heavy?”
A few people nearby immediately joined in.
“No way…”
“She doesn’t even look that big.”
“What do you mean, she only looks that big because she dresses sloppy?”
Laughter burst around me in sharp little waves.
I lowered my head and stared at the pen in my hand so hard my vision blurred.
No one stepped in.
No one said that was enough.
By the time the sheet had made its way past my desk, the whole class had already had their fun.
And I had long since stopped feeling anything.
For a long stretch after that, Ethan and I barely spoke.
I got used to having no one beside me, used to burying my head and studying on my own.
Then, before long, it was time for another round of exam prep.
After the practice test, I scored 149 on my English exam.
It was the first time I had ever beaten the Academic Rep.
As soon as class ended, she came straight over and dragged her desk to my side, like she was moving in to be my desk mate.
Seeing the stunned look on my face, she gave me a smile.
“My grades aren’t great lately,” she said lightly. “I figured I should study with the top student for a while.”
The classmates around us immediately started chiming in and joking along.
It took me a few seconds to realize she really meant me.
It felt… strange.
But she quickly pulled out her notes, along with a workbook full of wrong-answer corrections and advanced vocabulary lists, then smiled at me again.
“Come on,” she said. “You’re not going to be stingy, are you?”
I lowered my head. “No. Thanks.”
When I looked up again, my gaze landed on Summer not far away.
Her expression was distant, unreadable.
It was like she had already noticed what was happening.
Then she quietly moved her chair back, stood, and walked out of the classroom with the same lazy, careless half-smile she always wore.
I didn’t know why, but this time that smile felt especially sharp.
So sharp that I didn’t dare keep looking at her.