Spring Renewal: Overweight Blues (Part One)

The bubblegum pink suitcase sat on the scale, bulging just a little on the front. The petite blonde stared down at it in dismay, reading the number on the digital display out loud.

"Seventy-three pounds? How..." she shook her head, looking over at a stifled sound coming from the man standing behind her. "Are you laughing?" The dismay turned to mock-outrage as she forcibly hauled the case off the scale and set it down on the floor. "This is serious! I already spent three hours whittling things down so it all fit in the two cases."

With a thirteen-hour flight ahead of them, Nessa was trying to stay optimistic. She hadn't been on a flight that long since she'd come back from Australia that final time - now the thought was dredging up all sorts of memories, both good and bad. Neither of which, of course, her companion was thinking about at the moment as he was still amused by her weight problem.

"Three hours?" He questioned aloud, rhetorically. "It took you three hours to pick out essentials for less than three weeks and you whittled it down to 77 pounds worth of...what? Soaking wet jeans?" He questioned, trying to think of what she would pack that would weigh so much.

Sheepish, Nessa looked down, fiddling with the zipper for a moment. "No. The clothes are in the other one. And it's not over the limit. This..." she sighed, flipping it open to reveal a vast array of makeup bags and shoes. So many pairs of shoes. "These are all necessities."

Matt Stone peered over her to see the contents of the bag and you could practically hear the rolling of his eyes. "Necessities? You have what appears to be a set of shoes for every hour we'll be abroad, they can't all be needed." He stated, matter-of-factly, like he was the keeper of knowledge for all things shoe.

"They're all different. I'll give you that." Nessa agreed with a nod, picking up a cute pair of sandals with a wedge heel. "And these ones are cute with capris or skinny jeans but only if it's warm enough to go without socks." She bit her lip, considering before gently setting those aside. "Okay. So maybe I can get away without those. I have the chunky heels and my slides for warm days." She studied the rest before looking up at him helplessly. "Are we going to be doing a lot of walking there?"

"Walking? Well I'm certainly not renting a car, so I would suspect there'll be some amount of walking, yes. Though I would like to point out for the record this might not be the best time to have thought about these things. Before arriving at the airport would have been much better timing." He pointed out, looking around at other people who likely would have wanted to use the very scale she was hogging. "I don't suppose you considered the fact that you're more than likely going to be buying more shoes once we get there, did you?"

"I..." she started to protest and then broke off, realizing he knew her too well. "Probably. You know I will. I'll just have to put a few pairs in a locker until we come back." She turned back to surveying the contents after pulling the case a little further away from the scale. The last thing she wanted to do was cause a scene.

Matt followed her over, carrying his own bag. "You know, I could probably fit some of those shoes in my bag, mine's not that heavy. Somehow I didn't think to pack my entire closet, silly person that I am and all."

Nessa actually laughed, smacking him in the shoulder. "I didn't pack my whole closet." Looking back down at the contents of the case, she shook her head. "I'm being silly. I know I am. I don't need all these. Three pairs. Tops. Right?" She met his gaze for confirmation, almost as if she was pleading for him to tell her it was fine to bring more.

"Hang on, is that three pairs and that's all, or is that three pairs plus tops? Are tops a type of shoe? I can't keep up with these fancy lingos." He retorted back, looking over at her and rolling his eyes at her expression. "You can probably go with five, maybe even six but it'll still weigh more than it should and will cost you an arm and a leg, but if you think it's worth it..."

With a frown of concentration, she considered his words, studying the contents before pulling out a folded up reusable shopping bag that was tucked into one of the flaps. She took out the wedge sandals she'd already mentioned, setting them aside along with a pair of ballet flats and a brown pair of knee-high boots. Next to be fished out were a pair of Louboutin heels, their signature candy apple red bottoms gleaming in the light as she put them inside the black canvas bag. "Okay. I can do this." She said the words softly, as though trying to encourage herself.

"You're like a blonde Hermione with that bag, I'm half expecting you to pull out a wand and some potions next. Then again, you can't wear those on your feet." He remarked with a chuckle to himself, making a mental note to allow Nessa to pack his bags in the future and she clearly was better at it than he was.

"The wand is obviously in my carry on," she quipped back, "wouldn't do to lose something that important. This case... I've had it forever and it's a bit like a bag of holding. Looks smaller than it really is." She pulled out a cream-coloured pair of clogs that looked to have wooden soles, setting those aside. The case had quite a bit of room in it now and she looked up, satisfied with her sacrifice. "Now I have room for souvenirs. Probably."

"Okay, I gotta ask..." He started, walking up right behind her and pointing at the recently extracted clogs. "In what circumstance would you ever want to wear those on vacation? They can't be comfortable, and unless you planned on auditioning for one of those sumo people that walk on wood and serve food, I don't see the point of them."

"Actually," she looked lovingly at the shoes, "they're quite comfortable. They're actually made from a mold of my foot so they're perfectly shaped. They're terrible to walk on uneven surfaces on, though. I learned that when I wore them in England. All those awful cobblestones." Zipping up the case, she hefted it over to the scale and plopped it down, looking at him with a sort of triumph when it weighed in at 49.5 pounds. "So, they're probably at least ten pounds of shoes right there. I didn't really think about that."

"Well look at that, you're right under the limit, get to save some money and not have to carry half your body weight in shoes all over the place." He pointed out, directing her towards the lockers. "Now we just need to deposit them and we can finally get ready to board the plane where you can tell me all about the importance of each and every pair that made that cut, as they say."

"That'll cover at least ten hours," Nessa replied with a laugh, feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "I suppose we can spend the other three talking about the new products you're using for your hair." With the errant shoes safely stored in a locker and the key safely hidden in her change purse, she double-checked everything else, making sure she had the tickets and her passport still on top in her purse. "You're like my Jiminy Cricket," she said, favouring Matt with a smile. "The voice of reason, I suppose. This trip was a great idea."