You Don't Know Me Anymore — Episode 1

It's finals week at the end of junior year. The school's it girl is rating every girl in our private class chat. When she gets to me,

she sends a hand over mouth laughing emoji. Don't bother, Talia. Your features aren't strong enough, your face is still puffy,

and losing weight won't fix that. The whole chat cracks up. What she doesn't know is that my family has been in reconstructive medicine for three generations.

That nose she calls natural, the implant tip is off by half a millimeter. And that soft, youthful face she's so proud of, it's held up by dermal filler

and radiofrequency treatments. I look at myself in the mirror. I'm buried under an oversized hoodie and baggy clothes. For the first time, I pull my hair back and really look.

This summer, I'm not getting a procedure. No surgery. No injections. I'm going to show her what real training can do.

The class chat goes silent for three seconds. Then the messages start pouring in. Corrine really went there. Mean, but she's not wrong.

Terria's face is so round. Even her clothes make her look like she's hiding in a tent. I am sitting on the bed, my finger hovering over the screen. I don't type anything.

thing. They're playing one of those stupid looks rating games. It starts after finals. our class president, drops a class photo into the chat. I'm standing in the back row. My overgrown side bangs keep falling into my eyes. My thick black frames hide half my face. My zip-up hoodie is pulled almost to my chin. I look like a gray cloud that never woke up. Corinne Voss is the