Fat Kid Rules the World
by K. L. Going

Subjects: Obesity, Suicide, Drug Abuse, Relationships, Musicians
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Suggested Staging:  Narrator behind a lectern.  Troy standing in an open area looking down.  Curt slumped a short distance behind Troy sitting on the floor leaning against a chair.  

Troy: (looking down at floor the whole time): "I'm a sweating fat kid standing on the edge of the subway platform staring at the tracks. I'm seventeen years old, weigh 296 pounds, and I'm six-foot-one. I have a crew cut, yes a crew cut, sallow skin, and the kind of mouth that puckers when I breathe. I'm wearing a shirt that reads MIAMI BEACH-SPRING BREAK 1997, and huge, bland tan pants -- the only kind of paints I own. Eight pairs, all tan.  

    It's Sunday afternoon and I'm standing just over the yellow line trying to decide whether people would laugh if I jumped.  Would it be funny if the Fat Kid got splattered by a subway train? Is that funny? I'm not being facetious; I really want to know. Like it or not, apparently there's something funny about fat people. Something unpredictable. Like when I put on my jacket and everyone in the hallway stifles laughter. Or when I stand up after sitting in the cafeteria and Jennifer Maraday, Brook Rodriguez, and Amy Glover all bust a gut. I don't get angry. I just think, What was funny about that? Did my butt jiggle? Did I make the bench creak so that it sounded like a fart? Did I leave an indentation? There's got to be something, right? Right?

    So it's not a stretch to be standing on the wrong side of the yellow line giving serious thought to whether people would laugh if I threw myself in front of the F train.  And that's the one thing that can't happen. People can't laugh. Even I deserve a decent suicide. That's why I'm standing here. Because I can't make up my mind. . . I close my eyes and imagine the whole scene as it might play out.

    First, the train is coming, its single headlight illuminates the dark tracks. I hear its deep rumble and take the fateful step forward. I want to picture myself flying dramatically through the air but realize I wouldn't have the muscle power to launch my body. Instead, I would plummet straight down.  Maybe I wouldn't even get my other leg off the platform--my weight would pull me down like an anchor. That's how I see it. The train plows into me; my fat busts apart, expands to cover the train window and the tunnel walls. I'm splattered. Except for my left leg, which is lying on the platform untouched--a fat bleeding hunk of raw meat. FAT KID MESSES UP--coming soon to a theater near you." (Starting to laugh) "There's something funny about it.  I swear to God. There really is."

Curt: (sounding paranoid) "You laughing at me?

Troy: (turning around look around for Curt but don't see him ): "Huh"

Curt: "You're laughing at me?"

Troy: (still looking wildly about - before locating him -- pause a moment to look at him -- look up and address the audience) He looks like a blond ferret. Stringy unwashed hair and huge eyes, jeans that are barely recognizable, stained white T-shirt, huge red overshirt, ratty old sweater...The sneakers, one Converse and one Nike, are both untied and the layers are all partially buttoned even though it's got to be one hundred degrees in the subway. The guy is so filthy I can hardly look at him. I mean, he's caked--looks like an old war victim from some black-and-white film.  

    There's one more thing I notice--and if I'm telling the truth I should admit that I noticed it first. He's the skinniest person I've ever seen. 

Narrator:  To find out how a skinny strung out punk rock guitarist who believes Troy owes him because he “saved him” changes Troy’s life from fat kid to fat kid rules the world read K.L. Going's novel, Fat Kid Rules the World.

Reader's Theater Script prepared by Janice Bailey, East Central High Librarian