Marissa was underweight, and at 5' 10", it was hard to hide. Though she was fine-featured, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, her boyfriends usually ended up leaving her for a girl with more curves. Not that she had a bad figure, her bust was decent and her hips weren't that small, but her rail-thin arms and legs made her look anorexic. Plus, she had trouble holding down a job, so food wasn't always readily available.
As she plopped down on the couch, her baggy clothes fluttering around her, she turned on the TV.
"And now a special report on America's growing obesity crisis," a man's voice clipped formally. A woman, fit and trim but not as bony as Marissa, walked on screen wearing a pantsuit.
"Obesity in this country is expanding rapidly, and records are being broken almost as often as buttons and belt buckles." In the background behind her, footage played of massively fat people walking together, walking alone, and eating fattening foods. Geez, Marissa thought, they make it sound like everyone is a 500-pound food crazed maniac.
The newswoman stiffly continued. "This year alone, an estimated ten million healthy Americans plumped up to "overweight" status, while an eleven million overweight ate their way to "obese", and a new category beyond morbidly obese, called "mondo obese", has been created for people the scientific community calls, quote, "So freakin' fat you wouldn't believe it!" To illustrate each gain, a computer-generated woman who started out almost as tiny as Marissa expanded to fatter and fatter levels.
Marissa thought back to the slice of dry toast she had for breakfast. "Lucky bastards," she thought.