Chapters 1 through 3 Summary

Francesca is a fifteen-year-old who sees herself as lacking in many areas, including her body weight. She describes herself as "a monster" at five-foot-four and ninety-eight pounds and immediately prepares to follow the advice of her ballet teacher to be "thin and firm". As the story opens, Francesca is standing at the ballet barre during dance class. She is constantly comparing herself in the mirror to the others in the class, straightens her leg to be more like one girl, and straightens her pose to be more like another. The teacher, "Madame", is counting out a beat and changes the words from counting to tell Francesca that she's doing very well. Madame does later admonish her, saying that she must be "firm and trim".

Francesca declines the invitation to join several girls for burgers and walks the thirty blocks home. She...