A hot summer sun looms commandingly over a modest neighborhood in California. Despite the largly lower class hispanic population that made up this barrio, one house in particular stands out amongst the others; most notably the one with the pool and breathtakingly large AC unit installed on the roof. While these cooling fixtures were refreshing for most, to one member of the family it was almost necessary...
"Mami!" Maria Santiago bellows from her seated position on the couch, "Where's the ice cream?!"
"In the bottom of the freezer, mija." her mother answers quite sweetly, "Do you want me to get it for you?"
Her second-born, Gabriella, fought her older sister's overall girth for room; literally, she had to push against her sister's soft jiggly apron of flab so she could have even the slightest bit of comfort, lest be swallowed by it. "Mami!" the scrawny nine year old girl cried in desperation, "Don't you think she's already fat enough?!" she held her hands far past her own waify build, "Muchas Gordas!"
Maria Santiago was by far the biggest girl in the neighborhood at only the ripe young age of fifteen, nearly spherical at this point, which she liked to blame on a hyperlazy thyroid. In truth, her glandswere a little bit defective- but as her sisters would often remind her, having lazy thyroids is no reason to make a cerdo out of herself. With this excuse in mind, Maria had never exactly restrained herself in regards to her appetite- but since being confined to homeschooling due to lack of reinforced, double-wide desks she had been taking it to the extreme. Just last week at her quinceanera, she had polished off enough food to feed her family for a few days...
"Callate." Maria fanned her tripley-chinned face with her chubby hands, "I'm not going to eat it, I'm using it to cool down."
"By eating it?"
"Callate poco mocosa!!" Maria did her best to lunge over her own ponderous bulk in order to make a grab at her younger, much thinner sister but found that she was far too hot sweaty and tired to seriously go after Gabriella. "Mami!!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming bebita!" her mother calls from down the hall, "I was doing laundry!" Her mother, Florencia, was also quite the corpulant woman, though seemed much smaller than when juxtaposed to her daughter. "Ice cream, right?"
"Yeah." Maria pat her tummy eagerly, barely able to stop herself from salivating at the thought of filling her gigantic honey colored dome of a belly. Even though she kept telling herself that she would put behind her head, her stomach rumbled with it's strong arguement. Without skipping a beat, her mother happilly delivered a single-serving container of rocky road; making sure that it went behind Maria's neck instead of inside her stomach. "Gracias."
"So Mari when is Papi taking you out driving again?" her mother pat Maria's pudgy cheek as she enjoyed the cooling sensation that chilled the sweat trickling down her neck. "Never." Maria pouted, "you know I'm too big to fit in Papi's junker."
On cue, her mother went straight into defensive mode; "Silencio, mi princesa es muy flaca!" her spanish tounge was still fresh, rather than Maria who had been raised to be much more bilingual, "Mami, look at me!" the large hispanic girl jiggled her tummy, "Grande- Gorda- FAT!"
"Oh, mi angelita..." her mother still treated her like such a child, even though she was old enough to drive, "I know it's hard but... I know what'll cheer you up."
Maria's fat face lit up brightly, a look usually reserved for takeout night at home, "Really Mami?"
"Si-