Prepubescent pudge

I remember the first time I looked at myself and thought I was fat.  It was in fourth grade.  My teacher had taken pictures of everyone for some project, and I was wearing one of my favourite outfits - a white blouse with turquoise and pink swirls on it, and a little ruffle at the bottom, with some pink coolots (Yay for 80s fashion!).  In reality, I had simply developed the spare tire that a lot of little girls get shortly before they enter puberty.  The drop waist on the blouse I wore was really not flattering on a little girl with a little pudge.
Fourth grade was a pivotal year for me in many ways.  Every year, the fourth graders at my school put on a Christmas musical, and it was something that I had looked forward to for three whole years.  For some reason, the teachers picked, not a musical, but a musical variety show for that year with no real plot or acting parts in it.  It consisted of four main groups: Susie Snowflake, Frosty the Snowman, reindeer, and elves.  All the cool kids were in Frosty or Susie Snowflake.  Oh, how I longed to be in the Susie Snowflake group with their spangled white circle skirts and pretty make up!  The dorky kids, however, were reindeer and elves.  I was a reindeer.  With a one-piece, brown jumpsuit and black makeup on my nose.  To add insult to the injury of being neglected an opportunity to act after three years of anticipation, I didn't even get in one of the cool groups.  It seemed that even the teachers were conspiring against me.  Thinking about it now, I'm guessing that most of the girls in the other two groups probably had some dancing experience, and I had not yet discovered my love of dance.  I was (I'm sure) known for being somewhat clumsy, and therefore not put in the groups that had more complicated choreography.  I really hated that show.  To this day, it's the only show I've ever been in that I can't even remember the name of.