Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season Four's Reflections
Word Count: 381
Feedback: Makes my day
Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.
Archive: At my site The Band Gazebo (http://helsinkibaby.ahkay.net); anywhere else, please ask.
Notes: For the LiveJournal Multifandom1000 "Food or the lack thereof" challenge. Been looking at a lot of Fame lately and this one just appeared out of nowhere when I saw the challenge.

The key to happiness, Holly decides, is food, or rather, the lack thereof.

If she doesn't eat, she will lose weight.

If she loses weight, then it will be easier to move across the dance floor; to be able to float above the ground. She will glide gracefully, the way a ballerina should, and Chris will be able to lift her higher, sustain the moves longer, than he can at the moment. She will look better, will fit the stereotype of the perfect ballerina, long limbs, hair tied up in a bun, elegant tutu and perfect posture.

It will all be easier if she loses a few pounds.

And if she loses a few pounds, if she succeeds in all these things, dancing better, looking perfect, her parents will be proud of her. They will come to see her in the show, they will sit side by side and they will smile up at her as she glides past. They will hear people talk about how good she is, how pretty she is, how thin she is, and they will look at one another and they will smile.

They will think to themselves that they did a good job with her, their only child, and that if something so perfect came out of their marriage, then their marriage, by extension, must also be something good.

And therefore, something worth saving.

They will talk, and they will get back together, and soon, very soon, the three of them will be a family again, the way they used to be, the way it is meant to be.

But that will only happen if she loses a few more pounds.

So she diets, cuts out fattening foods, does so rigorously. It's hard at first, but she knows it's going to be worth it, and keeping her eyes on her goals makes it easier to ignore the worried looks from Nicole and Jesse, the questions from Miss Sherwood and the full-blown interrogations from Miss Grant.

She knows what she wants, and she knows what she has to do.

So she reaches for another tub of jello, picturing her parents smiling at her when they see her dance, when they tell her that they're getting back together.

All it will take is a few more pounds.