1 in 6000. Those were the odds for any coin to land on it's side. If the coin had landed heads, it'd have granted her wish perfectly normally. If it had landed tails, instead the wish would only affect the user, without bringing them to a new world. But when it came to the coin landing on it's side?
Well, nothing. Nothing except a surprised expression from Aubrey.
"Well... that was unexpected. But then again, what was I expecting?" Letting out a sigh, Aubrey rose from her feet and walked her way out. "Still... a coin landing on it's side is pretty rare. Maybe it's a sign that my luck's turning around?"
It was not. Life continued for Aubrey as normal, and although she was eventually able to attain a life outside of her mother or sister she could only achieve a average sized potbelly when she eventually moved in with Cara. Never once did she get to live within her dream life, and while she was disappointed in her results... she did eventually learn to make peace with that.
Especially considering that she could always pour that energy into feeding Cara.
But rather than dwell on Aubrey's story... we instead turn back to the coin. Rolling across the bedside, the coin just continued on out of the window and into a river, washing down until it was found by scrap collectors. From there, the coin made quite the journey traveling from hand to hand, being mistaken for a normal coin and thus becoming just another currency in the hands of everyone it passed through.
This went on for months, until it eventually made it downtown where a certain apprentice chef learning from the best picked it up from a tip jar.
"Hey, are you sure this is a quarter? It looks pretty fucking weird for one..."
"Yes, it's a quarter little Pepper... at least I hope it is."
Pepper Wilson, sour as she was about her life... was fortunate to have made it to this point in her life as young as the age of 19. A middle child in the wide and hectic Wilson family, Pepper was born around the time her mother had gotten to her absolute fattest. And while she had managed to slim down by the time she came of age to be an adult... well, the rest of the family did not slim down.
In fact, most of the family were hovering around 250-300 pounds. There were exceptions of course. Her younger brother Huey was muscular but nowhere close to showing any fat. Similarly, Via was also in this boat thanks to shoving food into her twin's mouth. Meanwhile, ever since franchising her bakery Ronnie has ended up on the other end, rising rapidly thanks to a partnership that was very much interested in her continued indulgence with what she made.
As for Pepper herself... well, she sat in the middle. Just like everything else in her life. Okay, maybe not exactly the middle. 310 pounds was certainly bigger than the average Wilson weight, but compared to her older sister Ronnie she considered it nearly nothing. It was not nothing. Her hips, wide with fat and always squeezing together left her thighs chafing and her sizeable potbelly always grumbled for food due to her mother always making sure she ate three square meals a day, even when she was all the way at Hornet's.
And all this for a chest that wasn't even that big. While she wasn't exactly fatphobic, she didn't like how her body looked with how it was distributed. She felt she'd be happier if her fat was put in a slightly more... mature shape. It wasn't like she could change her body though, at least not without liposuction followed by injecting the fat back in to all the right places. And aside from the "prodigal daughter", that was something the Wilson family, with it's many different members lacked.
Pepper Wilson, always the neglected child. The one who's yelled at for help without recognition. The one who had to work hard just to achieve a chance to learn under the distinguished pizza chef Julius Bottoni. She resented her life, but at the very least she found her joy in the chance that one day she'd get to move out on her own and fully get into the restaurant business. Well, so long as it wasn't pastries.
"Well... money is money, so I guess I'll keep this."
Putting it in her pocket, Pepper continued on through her day as she learnt more about advanced pizza techniques. By now she had become a master of tossing pizzas by hand, and she was proud of it. But now she was on her way to learning how to stuff crusts with cheese, which was still new to her since she was so used to crusts coming pre-stuffed before today. At the very least, she was at least willing to learn, even if she didn't sound like it.
___
"Dinner time, Peppy! Mama's made your favorite!"
"In a minute, Mom! I'm still changing!"
By the time she had made it home, Pepper's demeanor was pulled back a bit as she always did. It certainly wasn't something she could always keep up, considering how chaotic her home was with at least a dozen hungry mouths all over the place. But unless Ronnie was visiting she was always able to at least hold it up for dinner.
Still though, she was caught at an inopportune time, changing out from her chef apron back into a black and gray sweater before letting down her dyed gray hair. While at work she usually kept it tied up in a hairnet, but now that she was back home it was free to hang down at it's natural shoulder-long length, dyed to separate herself from both her mother and her successful elder sister.
She was just about to change out of her work pants as well, but as she emptied her pockets she came across the weird coin yet again. The one her boss told her was a quarter, though she still doubted it considering the unique images on it. On one side was some weird Latin text she had to pull out Google Translate to understand, ultimately translating to "In a Perfect World" or something similar. On the other, green pastures.
"Oh yeah, this weird little coin thingy... I guess I could show it off to all the others after we're all done eating. Maybe they'll-"
"Are you almost done? Your plate's getting cold!"
Another response from her mom meant she couldn't wait any longer. Putting the coin back in her pocket, Pepper kept the jeans on as she swayed her hips out the doorway, avoiding getting stuck by a narrow few inches. While the hallways were rather wide to account for the posteriors that made the Wilsons well known, some of the doors were still not renovated to be just as wide, and unfortunately the one to Pepper's room was one of them. At the very least though, she still had a bit more space since her ass wasn't the sole thing her fat was going to.
"Ah, finally your down! Now eat! You only get so much food a day after all!"
"Are we though?" Pepper asked. "You say that every day..."
"Look, you rarely spend home for more than a few hours a day." Violet, her mom blurted back. "I'm just putting more on your plate so you can spend more time with us rather than spending time up there in your room."
For a moment, Pepper paused so that she didn't say something that'd make her mom mad after hearing that heartwarming thing. As she thought of what to say, she stuffed her mouth with bits of rich, cheesy Neapolitan lasagna, reminiscing on the time that she did spend with her. Eventually though, she came to a decision.
"Mom, do you know why I'm working so hard?"
"To emulate your sister?"
"Ronnie? Not really. The reason I'm doing this is... well, because I want more. All my life I've been wishing for just... a bit more wealth and recognition. Enough to where I can at the very least-"
"Hey, phone's for you! It's Ronnie!"
"Oh, it'll be a minute. Sorry, Peppy. I do understand what your going through though, wish I could help."
And once again her mother shifted attention from her back to the better sibling. Typical. Turning her focus back to her plate Pepper cleared it at a rapid pace, so she simply fiddle with her phone while waiting for seconds. Finishing her food, she'd reach out for her phone... only to realize she never put it back in her pants during her attempt to change into a different pair.
"Hmph... of course I forgot."
All that left was this coin. It wasn't going to be much... but flipping the coin was at least worth a distraction. Pulling it out, she'd look down on the coin feeling a weird pressure. She didn't exactly know why, but as she prepared to flip the coin she felt like it was a great diverging point in her life. She pushed it off as simple gastronomical pressure from the lasagna though. Violet's foods were made with lots of butter after all.
Right before she flipped the coin though, she dwelled on one last thought as her thumb flicked the coin skyward. One important thought that was made all the more important with what coin she was doing the flip with.
"Ronnie this... Ronnie that. Why does she have to be the popular sibling? I... I wish I had that factor that made her successful all her life. Those connections that she's able to make with the ease of a child learning to walk. I... I wish I were more charismatic."
*FLIK*
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