“Eliza acts like she’s fighting to become America’s Next Top Model,” added Casey.
“Everything is a competition to Eliza.” DJ watched as Eliza’s Porsche zipped out, taking off ahead of them. “She has a need to be on top. And, no offense to you guys since I think you’re both gorgeous, but Taylor is probably Eliza’s biggest beauty rival.”
“Yeah . . .” Rhiannon sighed. “I think Eliza is secretly hoping that Taylor doesn’t come back at all.”
“She doesn’t have to be such a witch about it.” Casey shook her fist at the back of Eliza’s car.
“It’s probably not helping that she’s still in a snit over her house arrest,” suggested Rhiannon.
“I have a feeling she’s about to receive her get-out-of-jail-free card,” admitted DJ. “My grandmother really does have a weak spot when it comes to beauty. Did you hear her complimenting Eliza on her hair and makeup this morning? I could see her softening up to Eliza already.”
“I know,” Casey agreed, “and it probably doesn’t hurt when Eliza puts on her Miss Perfect Manners routine.”
“At least when my grandmother is watching.”
DJ turned into the school parking lot, quickly spotting a vacant space. “Hey, Rhiannon, can you get a ride home from school again tonight? Casey and I have a game.”
“You can always ask dear, sweet Eliza for a ride,” teased Casey.
Rhiannon frowned as they got out of the car. “I know Eliza has her problems . . . but I think we still need to love her.”
“That’s true, Rhiannon,” admitted DJ. “I guess I just need to be reminded . . . a lot.”
“I’ll leave the loving Eliza thing up to you guys,” said Casey. “I’ll try to be a little more tolerant, but I can’t promise anything.”
As they walked toward school, DJ suddenly remembered her conversation with Kriti last night. “Oh, yeah!” she said “I almost forgot to tell you — we might need to do another intervention.”
“What?” Rhiannon looked shocked. “Don’t tell me that Eliza is — ”
“Not Eliza,” corrected DJ. “I mean Kriti. And this time it’s not drugs or alcohol.”
“Is she a secret gambler?” ventured Casey.
“No!” DJ couldn’t help but chuckle to imagine little Kriti glued to a one-armed bandit. “Nothing like that.”
“What then?”
So DJ quickly explained about Kriti’s new obsession with weight loss — how she was overdoing the exercising and not eating. “She’s totally convinced she is too fat!”
“No way!” Rhiannon cried. “She’s so tiny.”
“Eliza told her she should weigh less for her height. And now Kriti is freaked. I watched her at breakfast this morning, and she barely ate a bite of toast. I think she’s starving herself.”
“Poor Kriti.” Rhiannon shook her head. “I guess we should’ve seen this one coming.”
“I blame my grandmother partly,” added DJ as they entered the school. “Her manic focus on low-fat, low-carb, low-taste foods . . . well, it’s no wonder Kriti has fallen into the gotta-be-skinny trap.”
“So what do we do?”
“I’m not sure,” admitted DJ. “But I wanted you guys to know so we could start thinking of some way to help her. She’s totally miserable.”
“I knew something was wrong. But I thought maybe she was sick or brokenhearted or something,” said Casey. “She hasn’t been herself for weeks now.”
“Why don’t we get together after your game,” suggested Rhiannon, “and do some brainstorming.”
“Sounds good,” agreed Casey.
“I’ll try to do some research in the meantime,” said Rhiannon.
“Research?”
“Yeah. So we can bring some facts to the table for Kriti.”
“Good idea,” said DJ. “And maybe we can help her to see that exercise is healthy, but not the way she’s doing it.”
“I guess it was good that your grandmother moved her out of Eliza’s room after all,” said Rhiannon. “Who knew?”
“So . . . what did you find online?” DJ asked Rhiannon after dinner that night. The three of them had holed up in Casey and Rhiannon’s room to figure out a way to help Kriti. Rhiannon actually made a list of their observations. 1) Kriti barely ate a bite at dinner, 2) she tried to appear to eat by moving her food around the plate and nibbling on mini bites of vegetables, and 3) she was clearly miserable. After dinner, the three of them had spied on her doing jumping jacks on the third floor — very vigorously too.
Rhiannon picked up what she’d printed from a website.
“Well, she’s most likely anorexic and not bulimic.”
“What’s the difference?” asked Casey. “I always thought they were kind of the same thing.”
“Bulimics overeat and then purge.”
“Purge?” Casey looked confused.
“You know, they barf.” DJ made a disgusted face.
“Right, I knew that. But why not just call it barfing?”
“Well, there are other ways they purge too,” explained Rhiannon. “They also use laxatives.”
“Ugh.” Now Casey made a face.
“But anorexics basically starve themselves,” said Rhiannon. “They live on things like diet pop, rice cakes, green salads with no dressing, and — ”
“That’s almost exactly what Kriti has for lunch most days,” said DJ. “A plain green salad, but she has iced tea, not soda. And I never see her adding sugar to it.”
“Right.” Rhiannon nodded. “But here’s something else. These girls — the ones who become really seriously anorexic or bulimic — often develop a skewed body image.”
“What do you mean?” asked DJ.
“There’s actually a scientific name for it, but I can’t remember it right now. Anyway, it’s like these girls look at themselves in the mirror but instead of seeing what they actually look like, they see something totally different. One website described it like looking into those wavy carnival mirrors that make you look short and fat and weird.”
“I think I saw something like that on TV,” said Casey. “Like sometimes a woman thinks something’s wrong with her face and even though everyone else tells her she looks great, she keeps getting plastic surgery until she doesn’t even look human anymore.”
“Yes,” said Rhiannon. “I saw a woman who wanted to remake herself to look like a Barbie doll — she had like fifty plastic surgeries and ended up looking totally bizarre.”
“But back to Kriti,” said DJ.
“That seems kind of like what Kriti is doing,” said Rhiannon. “Not the plastic surgery part, but the way she sees herself.”
“Thinking she’s fat,” added Casey.
“Which is nuts,” said DJ. “I mean, she has curves, but she is not fat.”
“Apparently that’s not how she sees herself.” Rhiannon looked at Casey and DJ and sighed. “Although I kind of understand her perspective.”
“What do you mean?” asked Casey.
“Well . . . you and DJ and Eliza and Taylor are all tall . . . and slender. It’s like you four really do look like models. I might not be as short as Kriti, but I know how she feels in a way.”
DJ punched a pillow. “I blame my grandmother for a lot of this. She makes such a big deal about modeling.” She looked at Rhiannon. “But I always felt like you were pretty grounded.”
“Yeah,” agreed Casey. “You seem to have a good self-image.”
“Maybe it seems that way, but believe me, I have plenty of insecurities.”
“Like what?” demanded DJ.
“Like it’s not easy being the poor girl.”
DJ shook her head. “Hey, you might not have as much money, but you are wealthy when it comes to natural talent, Rhiannon.”
“And wealthy when it comes to being a genuinely good person,” added Casey.
Rhiannon smiled. “Thanks.”
“Besides the fact that you’re gorgeous,” said DJ. “Even Grandmother has said — plenty of
times — that you’d be a great print model.”
“I just want to be a designer,” said Rhiannon. “But we need to get back to Kriti.”
“Yeah,” said Casey. “What are we going to do?”
“For starters, we could try to convince her that she doesn’t need to lose weight,” said Rhiannon.
“Not that she’ll listen,” said DJ. “I mean, you should’ve heard her when I tried to point out that she was not fat. She couldn’t hear me. It’s like she’s been brainwashed.”
“In a way, she probably has.” Rhiannon shook her head sadly. “Too many skinny images in movies, TV, and magazines. Don’t we all get a little brainwashed?”
“Eliza always has a pile of fashion magazines in her room.”
“Hey, do you think Eliza is anorexic too?” asked Casey.
“I think she plays with it,” said DJ. “I know she counts calories and watches her carbs and fats.”
“But she’s not obsessed by it,” added Rhiannon. “I mean, we’ve all seen her eat. She’s not a pig, but she’s not starving herself either.”
“And she seems pretty pleased with how she looks,” said DJ.
“Why shouldn’t she be?” Rhiannon sighed. “She’s beautiful.”
“And she wants everyone to notice too.” Casey scowled.
“Okay, we’re not here to bash Eliza,” Rhiannon reminded them.
“So what’s our plan for Kriti?” asked DJ.
“Well, I think your idea for an intervention was the perfect answer,” Rhiannon told her. “We just need to figure out how to do it.”
“You ever get the feeling we’re running some kind of clinic here?” joked DJ. “Like maybe my grandmother should switch her focus from fashion to mental health. We could be the Carter House Rehabilitation Center for Young Women.”
They all laughed, but DJ actually thought it was sort of pathetic. She also thought that her grandmother should bear some of the blame if the girls under her care got any more messed up. Oh, sure, maybe these things would’ve happened anyway. But maybe not this latest problem with Kriti. It seemed a direct result of the atmosphere in this house. Not that Grandmother would be that concerned to hear about it.
“So how do we intervene?” asked Casey. “Like you did with me when I was stealing DJ’s pain pills? Remember how you cornered me in my room and went into attack mode?”
“We didn’t attack you.”
“That’s what it felt like.”
“Do you wish we hadn’t intervened?”
“No, not at all. But it sure wasn’t easy at the time.” Casey’s expression grew serious. “Now it’s hard to believe that I really did what I did. Not to mention embarrassing. I honestly don’t believe I would ever do anything like that again — although my counselor still reminds me not to let my guard down.”
“Let’s hope you don’t.”
“I’m still doing my counseling,” said Casey quickly. “I’ve committed to go twice a month until the end of the school year.”
“Cool,” said DJ. “Now back to Kriti. What’s next?”
“We agree she needs to be confronted.”
“And we need to be honest and direct with her,” said Rhiannon, “but with kindness and love. She needs to know we really care about her.”
“And we’ve got to make her see that she’s not fat,” added DJ.
“Or at least we have to try.”
“Plus we need to attach some consequences,” said Casey. “Like the way you guys did with me. Otherwise, it’s like the intervention has no teeth.”
They all thought about this, and then DJ spoke. “The consequence will be that I’ll inform my grandmother, and she will inform Kriti’s parents.”
“Yes!” said Casey and Rhiannon simultaneously.
“The question is when?” said DJ.
“There’s no time like the present,” said Casey. “I mean, why put it off?”
“The sooner we can help her, the sooner she can get better.” Rhiannon held up another sheet of paper. “I printed out a list of all these horrible side effects. We may need to read it to her.”
“Good thinking,” said DJ. “Kriti’s smart. She respects facts.”
“Okay,” said Rhiannon. “We should do the same thing we did before our intervention with Casey.”
“What?” asked Casey.
“Pray.”
Casey frowned. “Do you expect me to believe Taylor prayed too?”
“She did her part,” said DJ.
“So can Casey,” added Rhiannon. Then she led them in a prayer for Kriti. They asked God to give them the right words, and they prayed that Kriti would be able hear what they were saying. “Mostly, dear God,” prayed Rhiannon finally, “help Kriti to know that we love her and care about her. Amen.”
“Ready?” asked DJ.
“All for one, and one for all?” Casey made a goofy face.
“Yeah, I guess that works.”
By now Kriti had returned to her room. She was sitting on her bed, but still breathing hard, and her cheeks were flushed from her ridiculous exercise regime.
“Hey,” said DJ as the three girls entered the room. “Can we talk to you?”
“Me?” Kriti looked up in surprise.
“Yeah,” said Rhiannon.
Kriti shrugged. “What’s going on?”
“Let’s all sit down,” DJ said. Then she and the others sat across from Kriti on the edge of DJ’s bed.
“Here’s the deal,” began DJ. “We’re worried about you.”
Kriti frowned. “Well, don’t be.”
“We can’t help it,” said Rhiannon. “We think you’re in trouble.”
“Trouble?” Kriti looked skeptical. “What are you talking about?”
“We think you’re becoming anorexic.”
Now this seemed to catch Kriti off guard. But instead of defending herself, she just waved her hand, as if to brush it off. “That’s ludicrous.”
“Not really,” said DJ. “We all know you’re not eating. We all know you’re overexercising. And I know, based on what you told me, that you are seeing yourself all wrong.”
Kriti’s dark brows drew closer together, but she said nothing.
“You have a skewed body image,” added Rhiannon. “It’s no wonder, after living with Eliza the past five months. She’s so obsessed with being thin and beautiful, and she’s got all those magazines, and you were — ”
“It seems a little unfair to blame Eliza for my behavior.”
Kriti’s lower jaw jutted out ever so slightly.
“So you admit that there’s a problem with your behavior?” asked DJ.
“Like I already told you, I’m trying to take off a few pounds.”
“Why?” asked Rhiannon.
“Duh.” Kriti poked her midsection. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“No!” they all declared at once.
“You guys are just trying to be nice . . . well, in a mean sort of way.”
“Mean?” Casey frowned. “We’re just trying to help you.”
“I do not need your help.”
“So you deny that you’re anorexic?” asked DJ.
Kriti nodded firmly. “That’s right.”
“Okay, maybe that’s good,” said DJ. “You’re not officially anorexic yet, but you’re in anorexic training camp.”
Kriti looked down at her lap without speaking.
“Do you have any idea of what anorexia can do to a person?” asked Rhiannon. Before Kriti could answer, Rhiannon began to read from the list. “Malnutrition can permanently harm your bones and stunt your growth, not just your weight, but your height too. It can ruin your hair and nails, and your hair could fall out. Eventually your skin gets all dried out, and you turn yellow. You might break out or get patchy blotches and you will — ”
“That’s enough!” Kriti held her hands up to stop her.
“Not quite,” said Rhiannon. “Anorexia also messes with your vital organs. It can cause your heart to stop and — ”
Rhiannon shoved the list toward Kriti. “You’re a smart girl, Kriti. Read through this stuff yourself if you don’t believe me.”
Kriti tossed the papers on her bed.
“Here’s the deal, Kriti,” began DJ in a more gentle tone. “We really care about you. And we can all see that you do not need to lose a single pound.” DJ stood up now, gently but firmly pushing Kriti over to the full-length mirror on the closet door. “Look at yourself, Kriti. You are not fat.”
Kriti looked but just shook her head in unbelief.
“You want to see fat?” said Casey as she stood and pulled off her shirt, standing in front of Kriti in her bra. “Look at this belly.” Then she reached down and pinched at some midsection flab.
“Yeah,” said DJ as she pulled Kriti into the bathroom where the mirror was larger and peeled off her own shirt, “Look at this.”
Soon all three of them had their shirts off. They all stood in front of the wide bathroom mirror and poked fun at various parts of their bodies.
“No one looks like those airbrushed models in the magazines,” said Rhiannon.
“Not even the models,” pointed out DJ.
“Yeah, I’ve heard they do all kinds of computerized tricks to make them look better,” added Casey.
“But, here’s the deal.” DJ slapped her own rear end that she’d just been making fun of and calling her junk in the trunk. “I’m okay with how I look.”
“Me too,” added Rhiannon. She pointed to her chest, which she’d just admitted could barely fill an A cup. “And I’m not getting implants either.”
“Take off your shirt,” Casey urged Kriti.
She just shook her head.
“Sure, you let us all stand here showing you how picture perfect we aren’t. Then you refuse to play. Nice!” Casey frowned at Kriti.
“Fine.” Kriti slowly unbuttoned and then took off her shirt.
“Look at you,” said Rhiannon. “You’re the skinniest girl in the mirror.”
Kriti frowned and looked down at herself. “No, I’m not.”
“You are too!” insisted DJ. “Look at yourself. Look at us.
It’s obvious.”
Kriti looked back at her reflection now, squinting as if her eyes hurt.
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