Big is Beautiful Read Online Free PDF Page A

some more. Besides his light-as-the-sky blue eyes and darker blonde hair with sunny highlights, his shoulders under his unzipped EHS coat were broad. I sure would hate to run up on him in a dark alley. His charcoal gray shirt clung to the muscles on his chest, muscles I'd love to look at someday.
    Whoa, Brittany. Learn something first!
    In any case, he was a looker as my grandma liked to say. If only I was more of a Kendra Moses type, he might notice me back.
    Fat chance… Big made a fat joke. Hilarious.
    He took a few minutes explaining all about the Pythagorean Theorem, and I took the next few minutes being utterly confused. You'd think I wouldn't be. Anybody could do " a" squared plus" b" squared equals "c" squared. I got it in theory, but I couldn't get it to work out on paper, especially when it came to congruent triangles and then trying to find the side of a second triangle similar to the first. My brain was mush.
    Smiling, Matt never lost patience with me, even though I had a while ago. He took my notebook paper and started drawing out these things until finally… finally … it clicked!
    "Right!" His eyes were wide, and a silly grin pulled his lips. "See? You got it."
    Whoa! What happened? "For now."
    He cocked his head to the side and lowered his voice. "Don't. Don't do that to yourself."
    "Do what?"
    "Talk down. Don't. You can do this. It'll just take some time to get it down pat."
    Part of me was still stinging from his 'don't be down on yourself' speech. I wasn't always down on myself. Sure, I made a lot of fat jokes in my head, but as long as I did them first before anyone else could, it didn't hurt as much. And besides, who was Matt to tell me how to feel or what to say?
    "Time I have." Wow, that sounded pathetic. "I mean. I don't have a lot to do after school now besides homework."
    "I know the feeling. I missed football and got so bored I decided to sign up to be a tutor."
    I snickered. "You must have been pretty bored to volunteer to do this."
    His dimple sparkled. "It's not all about being bored, Brittany."
    "It's not?" I expected, or hoped, that he would say he did it so he could get close to people like me. Plus, he called me Brittany, not Big or 'Hey, you, move.' It sounded nice to have someone use my God-given name. Wished more people would.
    "No, it looks really good on college transcripts."
    Well, didn't that just burst my bubble? I was a checkmark on a college transcript. I wasn't entirely sure why that bothered me.
    I guess my face fell because he looked at me and stuttered a bit. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like… that. I like to help. I like volunteering."
    "And it looks good on your transcript," I teased.
    "Well… yeah." He ran his fingers thought his messy hair and leaned his elbow on Ms. Bennett's tall desk beside him.
    I liked looking good, even if only on a college transcript.
    We stopped talking. I guessed neither of us knew what else to say. He looked at me. I looked at the clock. Five more minutes. My homework was done, thankfully. I might even pass it this time. A feat for me!
    "I guess I'll go ahead and go. My mom might get here early." I put my book in my backpack and zipped it up. Standing, I slipped on my once awesome coat and zipped it up.
    Matt watched my fingers go from the top of the zipper to the bottom hem. As far as I knew, no guy had ever scanned me like that. Possibly Eric Young in freshman year, but he was creepy. My breath caught, and I had to remind myself to breathe. He was a guy. He had eyes. Eyes roamed, even over larger people like me. He motioned to the side of my coat. "Fight?"
    "With the marker holder." I pointed to the evil metal tray next to the door.
    "Bummer. It's a pretty coat."
    I hadn't been expecting that. "It used to be. Hanging on a rack. Now I just look like a movie marshmallow man after a bad night."
    "Who said it made you look like that?"
    "You know… never mind. It's not important."
    He stood and blocked my way before I could leave. "Who?"
    Ugh, I