Bon Bons to Yoga Pants

Chapter 29-ZUMBA

By Saturday night I was a hot, desperate mess of Diet Dr. Pepper withdrawals.

Giving up that sweet, magic elixir cold turkey sent my body into a strange hole. I had a new sympathy for Alice in Wonderland. My workouts lagged. My motivation to diet suffered. I went over my calories every day by at least three hundred. The bland taste of water all but revolted me.

To add insult to injury, I still hadn't thought of a good entry to write so I could submit to one of the competitions Miss Bliss wanted me to win for the editing internship. Two of them were big. Those, I figured, I had to at least try.

Except nothing about the week after the weigh in was going well.

Mira sent me a text that she had a migraine Saturday morning and wouldn't be able to work out. I stayed in bed, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling and listening to the howling blizzard outside with a scowl. Not even the thought of possibly running into Megan made me want to get up. In fact, I didn't want to see anyone right then that wasn't bearing an ice cold can of DDP. When it's just cold enough to be slushy but not frozen and tasted like—

"Lex?"

A light tap on my bedroom door followed Kenzie's inquiry. She hadn't walked down the stairs and into my basement lair for months.

"Yeah?"

"Are you busy?"

I pushed the covers off, slipped out of bed, and pulled the door open. Lithe, beautiful Kenzie—who surely hadn't ever eaten an entire box of cosmic brownies on her own—stood in a pair of tight black yoga pants and a fitted tank top, never mind the horrid weather swirling outside. She had the audacity to smile.

"Good morning!" she chirped.

"What do you want, Kenz?"

She bit her bottom lip and fidgeted with the bottom of her tank top. "I . . . uh . . . had a question."

"Ok."

"Will you work out with me today?"

"What?"

"It's just that I've noticed you're counting calories and working out every morning with Mira at the gym. You're looking really good too. We've never really exercised together before because, well, you've never exercised before, so I thought it might be fun if we have some sister bonding time and . . . you know . . . work out together."

She said it in a frantic rush, as if she were afraid I'd say no if she didn't talk 100 miles per hour. I blinked. Except for having dinner together when Dad was alive, we hadn't ever really done much sister bonding time. I wondered if this had something to do with the fact that she'd be moving away this summer after she got married. She wouldn't be flittering around the house, singing the latest Kelly Clarkson song under her breath or making me feel inferior because of her tiny little waist.

The thought made me a little sad.

"Kenzie, you'd eat me alive in a workout. I can barely wog."

She grinned and held up a flyer that I hadn't seen in her hands. Big black letters sprawled across the top.

ZUMBA DANCE PARTY.

"That's why we're going to Zumba."

#

I didn't believe Kenzie's reassurances that you'll just love it, Lexie. It's working out and being sexy at the same time, so I stressed the whole way to the gym.

Dance in front of others? To music? What would they think when my stomach jiggled? What if they laughed because I wasn't sexy? Didn't they have mirrors so I'd see my cottage cheese fleshy arms if I lifted them above my shoulders?