Aqsa was considered as one of the beauties of her school and that made her really proud. She participated in all sports activities and her beautiful features and appearance helped to make her the main character in every school play. Everyone wanted to be friends with her.

One day, a new girl named Selena joined her class. Selena was rather quiet and, most noticeably, she was quite obese! Aqsa considered Selena to be just unacceptable as a person whom she could be friends with, and she didn’t miss any opportunity to make Salena feel miserable about her body. Aqsa and her friends mocked her by calling her names such as “rotund,” “paunchy,” “elephant,” and so much more. And there was no one to stop them. All the children laughed at her, but Salena remained silent as she was accustomed to it.

Selena had a medical condition that made her so overweight. Selena was taking medication for her medical condition, which involved a slow process of recovery.

Finally Selena made a friend, Maya, in the same class, and was finally happy at school. The two became good friends and Maya supported Selena whenever someone tried to bully her. When Salena felt down, Maya would help bring a smile on her face. She encouraged Maya to join a gym, and thrice a week she went with Maya for a walk, since they lived close by.

Aqsa and her friends continued to taunt Salena, however, now it didn’t matter to Salena as she felt happy with the best company she could ever imagine. In just a few months, Salena’s medical issue resolved and her healthy habits made her successfully lose weight.

All thanks to Maya’s support and encouragement, Selena’s confidence and contentment reflected on her personality and she bloomed into a cheerful and bright girl. Soon she started to gain friends and popularity due to her likeable nature, making Aqsa very jealous of her.

This made Aqsa more ill-tempered and soon no one wanted to be around her as no one wanted to be with a person who always complained. She had became very lonely.

Selena felt bad about Aqsa’s situation, remembering her own loneliness when she didn’t have friends too. One day, Selena, along with Maya, went up to Aqsa and tried to talk to her.

Aqsa ignored her at first, then finally started talking. Suddenly Aqsa started weeping and then she cried her heart out and told all she was going through. After a while, she confessed to realising that she had been very mean and often misbehaved with people around her.

Selena told Aqsa that she understood everything, and they would be her friends from now, agreeing to forget the past.

Aqsa, with teary eyes, said, “I’m so sorry for what I did and I feel extremely guilty. Can you please forgive me?”

“I have forgiven you. I truly understand that you didn’t know what I was undergoing. It’s okay and I guess you also learned your lesson that body-shaming is the meanest thing you can do to anyone,” Selena replied.

All the three girls gave each other a big group hug and from then own, they became best friends.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 14th, 2023