Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes

En route to visit his friend Sarah Byrnes in the psych ward, Eric Calhoune reminiscences about the times they have spent together, and especially their shared fun raising hell at their school, authoring an underground paper called Crispy Pork Rinds. Eric recalls the anger expressed by the vice principal, Mr. Mautz, when Eric and Sarah fought against his attempts at censorship, citing their constitutional rights. He whispers the name Crispy Pork Rinds into Sarah’s ear as she stares into space, catatonic, in her hospital ward. The mention of the paper doesn’t have the impact Eric hoped and he leaves distressed and stuck in his own memories of happier times. 

Eric continues to think about Sarah and their time spent as co-conspirators as he sits in his Contemporary American Thought class taught by Ms. Lemry. Lemry is also Eric’s swim coach. As the class debates contemporary issues, he thinks back to how he and Sarah got started with their zine writing. Their inspiration arrived in the form a kid named Dale Thorton, who had failed 8th grade so many times he had a driver’s license. Dale harassed both Sarah and Eric, calling them “fat boy” and “Scar Face” so they drafted their first newspaper story—“Man with Brain the Size of Tic Tac Mates with Amoeba; Couple gives birth to giant adjusto, names him Dale.