The Curvy Girl Club

I’m a big girl, “plus-sized”, whatever. I’m sick of hearing about it, especially since my doctor diagnosed me with PCOS. So when mean girl Merritt shot her mouth off about how fat people should just lose weight, I couldn’t take it anymore. And now I’ve got a huge problem. To prove curvy girls like me can get happily-ever-afters too, I have to get our school’s quarterback, Beckett Langley, to take me to homecoming. And he doesn’t know I even exist. But it’s not hopeless. Four other girls just like me are willing to help, because enough is enough.

There are three things I hate: rich people, boys, and Kai Rush. Kai happens to be all three. He and his dad have all the money in the world from the game app they created, and what do they do with it? They buy private helicopters and flaunt their brand new Teslas. Never mind that people like my mom and I work multiple jobs just to keep our crappy apartment and pay for back medical bills because my dad ran scared and left us alone. So when my mom tells me we have a new cleaning job at the Rush’s before school, I’m peeved. When he starts texting me, I’m floored. 

The one thing my parents can’t shelter me from is my heart. I nearly died the summer of my eighth grade year, and ever since then, my parents have done everything they could to keep me healthy. Now I’m a senior, and instead of feeling safe, I’m suffocating.

An arranged marriage and a bad boy who breaks all of the rules...My father’s been planning my wedding day for longer than I have. Since I turned 17, he’s sent me on date after date with people from the film industry - producers, directors, actors...I’ve dated - and turned down - them all. But Ryde Alexander is the worst. My only escape is a food delivery boy and a motorcycle my dad would have a heart attack if I got on. But I don’t care. I need to get away, and Ronan is more than happy to take me.

I wanted to have the best summer ever. To have my first kiss and finally get my brother’s best friend to notice me. So I talked my best friend Carson into helping. He’d do anything for me, and I’d do the same for him. But somewhere between fake dating and pretending to fall in love with him, I fell for real.

He bullied my sister. Now it’s his turn to pay. Ryker is the top of the Emerson Academy food chain, and he uses his power to remind everyone of just how powerless they are. Until now. When I see him picking on the most innocent girl in school for her weight, I snap. Ignoring him is no longer enough. No, my friends and I are going to make him pay. He’s going to go down as the hottest mess Emerson Academy has ever seen, and I’m going to be the one lighting the flame.

Emerson Dance is one of the most prestigious dance companies in the country. And I got kicked off the team right before nationals because my curves don’t “fit”—not their idea of a perfect dancer's body and definitely not their costume. I’m going to enter the competition on my own and show them that every body is a dancer’s body. It will mean practicing in the gym with the bodybuilders, but I can shove my nerves—and my attraction to Carter McCormac—aside long enough to win. My reputation and my future depend on it.

I’ve spent my whole life trying not to get bullied. For my frizzy hair. My freckles. The white patches on my Black skin or the gap in my teeth. Not to mention the extra hundred pounds I have on most of my classmates. So when my soldier pen pal wants to see a picture of me, I freak. I send him a picture of one of the it girls at school and move on. The odds of us meeting in person are less than zero, and for once in my life, I want to know what it feels like to be one of the beautiful girls. Someone a guy like him would be into.

A real-life prince. Like of a country. And he’s not one of those ugly ones with big teeth that girls only like because he’s royal. No, he’s hot. On fire. I’m drooling just thinking about him. But that’s the problem, because the only reason my parents took him in is because they don’t think there’s any way a guy like him could crush on a girl like me.

Singing is my life, but no agency will sign me because of my size. They want me to lose weight. Dress differently. Be someone other than my size 20 self. They want me to be like Jude Santiago with his perfectly fitted jeans and tight T-shirts and completely sell out. There’s no way I’m going down that path, and I tell him so publicly on my YouTube channel. But when it gets back to him, he has an agreement: go on tour with him and see for myself that he’s authentic. If I can’t, he won’t make another album.

When my dog runs away on the beach and into the arms of a handsome surfer, I think I’m in luck. Until I realize said surfer is actually a grump who acts like he owns the ocean.

Ever since coming out, Xi’s parents have been her biggest cheerleaders, pushing her to join the Emerson Pride Association and making the community a better place for people like her. Now, she’s got the huge responsibility of planning Emerson Academy’s first ever inclusive prom to take place after the town’s very first pride parade, even though she’s never had a girlfriend date of her own.