This was a story I wrote a while ago, I just found it... sorry it is long!
If you think about the word ‘cool’ you come to realise that it has multiple meanings. All of them are pretty subjective. Moderately cold is about as close to an absolute meaning as you can get.
But when you’re at school, the word ‘cool’ has a definite meaning and that meaning is whatever the ‘cool’ people say it is. Fortunately for Sarah, worrying about falling foul of the cool-metre was never going to be an issue, because Sarah was the embodiment of cool.
Sarah was a popular girl, both with the girls in her class and with the boys. She was tall, slim, attractive, intelligent and good at sports. In fact, Sarah was the person that boys wanted to be with and girls wanted to be like.
Sarah wasn’t perfect however; she lacked self-confidence and was actually a very insecure person at heart. This would manifest itself in the way that Sarah treated people who didn’t live up to her definition of ‘cool’.
One such person was Becca. Becca was one of the nicest people you could hope to meet. She was kind, generous and had a wicked sense of humour. She was attractive, so much so that in many ways she was a threat to Sarah. Most people, however, hadn’t noticed Becca’s beauty. The one thing that Sarah honed in on to great effect was the fact that Becca wore glasses. These weren’t just any glasses either; they were strong glasses which Becca had always worn since her early childhood.
Sarah had used the fact that Becca wore glasses to bully her throughout school. ‘Becca Bottle-Bottoms’ was the name with which Sarah had branded Becca many years ago. Before anyone got to know Becca they’d know about her glasses, Sarah had made sure of that.
Becca wasn’t too bothered by this as she didn’t have much time for Sarah and her cronies especially as she was developing interests and friendships outside the sphere of Sarah’s influence. Still, it would be nice to get one over on Sarah from time-to-time. That would be cool with Becca.
Becca’s glasses were strong and she had to wear them all the time, but that didn’t hold her back when it came to sports. She was a fine tennis player and was the only person that could give Sarah a good competition. During the summer months there would be plenty of tennis competitions at the school with a monthly prize for the best girl and boy in the year group.
Sarah had won the competition for as long as anyone could remember, she was a natural player and her privileged background had afforded her coaching away from school and she was, technically, far in advance of the other girls. Becca was a strong competitor and naturally sporty, but she didn’t have the range of shots or finesse that Sarah was gifted with.
It was the eve of the first competition of the season and Sarah was making sure that everyone knew who would be the girl to watch this year. She told her classmates “Becca’s got no hope against me in the tennis this year, she’ll be lucky if she can even manage to see the ball through those coke-bottles when I am serving at her.” The group laughed and Becca shrugged, “We’ll see won’t we? What’s the matter with you Sarah, you’re obsessed with my glasses, have you got some kind of fetish?”
Sarah laughed before retorting, “Why would I want to wear thick glasses you freak? My eyes work just fine thanks, I don’t need any double-glazing to see the world.”
So it was the next day that the first round of matches was carried out in the sports lesson. Becca was up against Jenna, a pretty good player and a friend of Sarah’s.
The game was pretty straightforward and Becca won the match 6 - 2, 6 – 1. The girls shook hands at the end of the game and Jenna whispered, “I hope you can go on and beat Sarah.” Becca was taken aback by this and stumbled over the word “thanks” in reply.
If Becca was surprised by this she was even more surprised to see that Sarah was still playing. Sarah had been drawn against Laura in the first round. Laura wasn’t the greatest sports person in the world but she was no push over either.
Sarah was winning a lot of points on her serve, but was struggling against Laura’s serve and in fact any time Laura hit a ball with any pace Sarah was struggling to deal with it. Sarah had won the first set 6 – 4, however she was 3 – 5 down in the second set.
‘This could be interesting’ thought Becca as she joined the small group watching the match. Sarah was very used to winning and was completely out of her comfort zone now that she was actually in threat of losing a set. The truth was that Sarah was having trouble seeing the ball properly, especially when it was moving with pace.
Laura was serving for the set and was 30 – love up. She hit a pretty decent serve to Sarah’s much heralded forehand, Sarah moved to counter and opened up her stance to allow her to generate the necessary pace in her return. As she swung at the ball the unthinkable happened, Sarah completely missed the ball… ace!
Becca couldn’t help herself, “maybe you should borrow my glasses Sarah?” Sarah had a malignant look in her eyes as she turned around to ‘see’ Becca on the sidelines. Laura, now serving for the set, hit a fantastic serve to Sarah’s backhand. Sarah moved to return the ball and grabbed the back of her thigh wincing in pain as the ball bounced in the service area and past her, 6 – 3.
The teacher came over to the court to enquire what was wrong. Sarah was clutching her hamstring and hobbling off the court. “It’s no good Miss, I can’t continue, I think I’ve hurt my leg pretty badly”. Mrs Powell, who thought that the sun’s rays emanated from somewhere around the back of Sarah’s skirt, stopped the game and sent Sarah to the school nurse. “We’ll see if we can finish this game next time girls, now off to the nurse Sarah”.
Jenna whispered to Becca, “there is nothing wrong with Sarah, she just can’t stand the idea of losing”. Becca had to admit to herself that it did look that way a bit. Laura joined them and immediately backed up this notion, “...she’s such a bad sportsperson, she’s fine if she’s winning but suddenly gets cramp when she’s not!”. …was Sarah’s crown slipping?
Sarah was standing outside Miss Taylor, the school nurses’ office. She was worried on two levels. The first that she knew there was nothing wrong with her leg and she thought Miss Taylor might see through her lie, but more importantly she was worried about not being able to see the ball clearly. Truth be told, Sarah had known that her eyes had been playing tricks on her for a long time. She had been getting a head ache when reading and was struggling to see the words on the pages in front of her. Maybe it was karma and she deserved it for all the comments made at Becca’s expense over the years?
Miss Taylor called Sarah in, snapping her out of her thoughts. “So, what’s the problem?” Sarah told her about her leg, she thought it must have been cramp and that the pain had now passed. “Hmmm, could be – rest up and if there is a repeat of this come back and see me, now is that all? It looks like something else might be troubling you.”
Sarah knew that anything said in this office would be in confidence and so she felt she was able to talk about her worries, specifically the worry that she might not be perfect! Miss Taylor had an eye chart and asked Sarah to read from it. Sarah struggled, especially when Miss Taylor asked her to read from a book and bring it closer to her eyes as she read.
“Well Sarah, I’m afraid to tell you that it looks like you need to visit the opticians, I think you need glasses, I think that you’re long-sighted… in fact I am surprised we’ve never noticed this before. I will write a letter to your parents, I know you probably won’t want to get glasses but it’s not that bad, just look at how well Becca gets on with things despite her glasses”
Sarah felt sick, glasses, you’ve got to be kidding? She didn’t like the way that Miss Taylor had spoken, it almost sounded as if it were a fait accompli that she would get glasses. She was the best looking girl in the year, how could she need glasses, this was plainly ridiculous.
As she left the office, with letter in hand, Sarah saw Becca walking down the corridor talking to Jenna. She took more notice of the glasses which Becca was wearing than she had ever done in the past. Sure, they were fashionable, but they were not something which Sarah was going to run out and buy to get the new look! They had wide, black arms and the lenses were rectangular. The insides of the arms were white, she’d never noticed that before. The lenses were something that had always intrigued Sarah, there were a number of curves at the edge of the lens and if you looked at Becca’s face through the lenses it brought in the sides of her face a bit from where the actual side of her face was. Not that much, but enough that was clearly noticeable. The other thing was that Sarah noticed that the lenses made Becca’s bright green eyes look smaller than they actually were.
She thought to herself that although not ideal, the glasses weren’t that bad, she kind of liked the way she could see a minified world through those lenses. Maybe she could pull this off and make glasses the new cool item that all the girls wanted themselves?
“How’s the leg?” asked Becca, Sarah suddenly remembered about the injury which had brought her into the office in the first place and mimicked a slight hobble. “It’s going to be okay if I rest it, anyway I still think I could beat you on one leg!”
Sarah returned to the empty changing rooms to shower and get changed back into her clothes. As the school had a no-uniform policy Sarah always put a lot of thought into her outfits, after all she had her image to think about. That day Sarah had opted for a nice pair of summer wedge shoes with a skirt and halter neck top, perfect for showing off her legs and her tan.
As she stood under the shower she thought about the fact that she would be forced to go to the opticians and in all probability would need glasses. She had known, deep down, that there was a problem with her eyes. In recent times she couldn’t remember an evening when she didn’t go to bed without a headache. She had stopped reading at night, before bed, as she had always down since childhood, simply because she couldn’t read the words on the page in the low lamp-lit light.
‘There’s two ways I can do this’ thought Sarah, ‘tackle it head on, or let it beat me’, the though of actually having her own glasses sitting on her nose, bringing to life her window on the world aroused Sarah a little. She could envisage the feeling of putting the glasses on, the sparkle of the lenses and how they would slightly minify the world, just as Becca’s did. Sarah got dressed and left the room with a renewed vigour, she was actually looking forward to going to the opticians and looking at the different styles of glasses and picking out something stylish, something designer.
That evening Sarah told her mother the news about her eyes. Unfortunately her mother did not seem to approve of the idea at all; she couldn’t seem to accept her perfect daughter had an imperfection. However, she seemed also to accept the fact of what Sarah was telling her and so agreed to book an appointment for the weekend.
The next day Sarah got up and dressed, as the weather wasn’t so great (the British summer!) she selected a straightforward outfit of ballet pumps, skinny jeans and a top. She dressed it up of course, the ballet pumps were fuchsia pink and she wore a belt and scarf to match. She couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that by this point next week she’d have a pair of glasses which she could use to accessorise her overall look.
Sarah met Scott, her boyfriend and captain of the football team, at the front of the school. They had been together for a couple of years now. She knew that he wasn’t the man for her long-term. They didn’t have much in common and conversations were not what you could call stimulating, but he was the most popular guy in the year and so it was only natural that they should be together.
As she walked into school with Scott, he took it upon himself to shout at another boy in the corridor, “Oi Smithy, what are you gawping at through those coke bottles of yours?’. Steven Smith, a quiet, studious boy who wore glasses with prescription lenses of about +4.00 shook his head and walked away.
Sarah felt bad for Steven, who was a nice guy and, were it not for his glasses, would have been quite a catch, in her eyes anyway. She hoped that her lenses wouldn’t look anything like Steven’s. She thought the way they magnified his eyes was not flattering in the slightest.
The day passed without any skirmishes, certainly Sarah was not going to give Becca a hard time about her glasses, she’d rather like to talk to Becca about them but just couldn’t bring herself to do it.
On returning home Sarah’s mother told her that she’d booked an appointment on Saturday morning at Vision Express. Sarah felt a slight tingle at the news, arousal would be going to far, at least Sarah wasn’t ready to admit to those feelings just yet.
In the morning Sarah packed her bag with her racket and PE kit. The weather was looking much better, so she found a nice pair of trainer/pumps which she thought went perfectly with her short blue skirt and white polo shirt to create the perfect ‘preppy’ look.
As the girls were getting ready for the PE lesson, Sarah chatted to Laura about their match. She apologised for not being able to finish the game and complimented Laura on how strongly she had played earlier. Laura was shocked, humility from Sarah? She must be worried.
The next round of matches, which were the semi-finals, had already been drawn. Sarah or Laura, would play Vicky and Becca was drawn against Emma.
Sarah started the game strongly, taking a 3 – 0 lead. She was struggling a little to see the ball, but it was nice and bright and she didn’t find it as hard as before, as long as she concentrated. Laura was trying her hardest but was no match for Sarah and it wasn’t long before Sarah closed out the final set 6 v 2. “Good game Laura”, Sarah shook Laura’s hand and prepared herself for the next game against Vicky.
Vicky was a stolid performer, she would prove to be a stubborn competitor with a lot of power in her shots. Vicky was quite a heavy-set girl with red hair and pale complexion. She wore round wire-rimmed glasses, although these were nowhere near as strong as Becca’s, Sarah who was pretty ignorant to optics, could understand that.
Sarah found this match much more of a struggle. The speed of which Vicky was hitting her shots was making it hard for Sarah to track the passage of the ball. The first set was tight and Sarah edged it 6 v 4. Meanwhile Becca was making short-shrift of beating Emma and was already well into her second set.
During the second set of Sarah’s match Vicky upped her stubborn insistence on returning an increasing number of Sarah’s, usually point-winning shots. Mrs Powell took an interest in the game, “What’s the matter Sarah, have you not been practising this year?”. Sarah grimaced, “It’s not that Miss, it’s just that Vicky here is playing like a pro!” Mrs Powell, looked at Sarah hard, ‘has she lost the winning mentality? I’ve never heard such a gracious comment leave that girl’s lips!’.
Vicky forced a tie-break in the set. By this point Becca had won her mach and came over to join the girls watching the match. She asked Jenna for an update and Jenna told her that Sarah was miss-timing an amazing amount of shots and miss-hitting even more.
Through sheer will and determination Sarah focused on every shot, straining her eyes to follow the ball. Becca noticed that Sarah was squinting constantly and thought to herself, ‘she needs glasses’. The tie-break wasn’t going Sarah’s way, she was 5 – 2 down and was hanging in the set by a thread. Fortunately for Sarah Vicky’s fitness levels were beginning to tell and the pace she was generating on her shots wasn’t what they had been. She was able to better-see her shots and played some fantastic shots of her own to take the game to her opponent. Finally, Sarah served for the match and graciously shook Vicky’s hand and told her, “you were fantastic Vicky, I thought you had me there.”
So, the final was decided, as it had been throughout the years, it would be contested by Sarah and Becca. Sarah was of course favourite given her record of never having lost a match!
As the girls changed after the lesson, Becca decided to speak to Sarah about what she’d noticed. “Hi Sarah, it looked to me today that you were having trouble seeing the ball out there. Have you thought about getting an eye test, seriously?” Sarah couldn’t help herself, she snapped back, “Just because your eyes don’t work properly doesn’t mean everyone else suffers the same affliction!” “Suit yourself” said Becca as she turned her back on Sarah.
Sarah was upset that she had reacted in that way, she would have dearly loved to have discussed it with Becca. She just couldn’t let go of her old-self when it came to Becca.
Sarah hadn’t told anyone other than her mother about the fact that she was having trouble with her vision. She went out on the Friday night with Scott and a few other friends. Scott made a childish comment about a girl who was wearing a hearing aid and glasses. Sarah told him to grow up and to stop being such a shallow idiot.
Scott looked genuinely shocked, but Sarah wasn’t finished. “What would you say to me if I had to wear glasses or a hearing aid?” Scott shook his head, laughing, “I’d dump you, obviously.” Sarah almost shouted, “I’ll save you the trouble, you’re dumped” and she walked off. Her friend Katrina followed her, “What was all that about?” Sarah told her about her impending visit to the opticians, Katrina was dumbfounded. “You’re not seriously saying to me that you need glasses? You know boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses – Scott said it himself just now.”
“Look Kat, I am absolutely serious and I think glasses can look pretty sexy actually.”
“Funny that, I never would have picked that up from the way you speak to Becca” retorted Katrina, but quickly followed “I don’t have an issue if you need glasses Sarah, you’d look cute in anything – you know that. You could make a wooden leg look glam!” The girls laughed and headed off for a taxi home. “Call me tomorrow Sarah, let me know how you get on” Katrina left her friend in the cab to contemplate the following day’s activity.
Sarah felt pretty okay about the day ahead, after all it was just the opticians, it was just a pair of glasses… possibly – even that wasn’t certain, her eyesight might be fine. She arrived at the opticians with her mother. It was a clean and clinical looking place. On the up side, if she did need glasses they could make them in an hour and they stocked a lot of designer frames. On the downside it was in a pretty public place, the high street.
She looked at some of the frames as her mother went to the reception to book them both in, her mother decided that she too would have a test. There were some pretty cool looking frames to Sarah’s mind, although she hadn’t actually put any on her face yet to see how they suited her. One pair in particular caught her eye, they were cat-eye in style and had some lovely detailing in the plastic on the inside of the arms. They were predominantly dark brown in colour, but the detailing was pink, which sounds pretty horrible, but it really worked.
Sarah picked the frames off the shelf and tried them on. The feeling of picking them up and placing them on felt so sensual to Sarah, it made her feel incredibly sexy. “What do you look like Sarah, let’s hope you don’t need glasses, they really don’t suit you.” Her mother walked over and took a good look at her daughter, “Scott won’t want to be seen with a librarian! They are ready to see us both.” Sarah stole a quick glance at her reflection in the mirror, she thought the glasses actually suited her pretty well, she liked the way they followed the line of her eyebrows. She took them off and returned them to their place.
A girl of a similar age to Sarah met her and took her into a room which was reasonably darkly lit. It contained a couple of machines which she made Sarah sit by. The first was a machine which Sarah just had to look into. It showed a picture of a hot air balloon on a horizon. The machine made a number of clicks and reconfigured itself a number of times, each time the picture seemed to move and sharpen. It did this with both eyes and spat out a piece of paper with some figures on it which the girl took and clipped to her clipboard.
Sarah was then asked to look into another machine and press a button every time she saw a light. This was pretty boring and seemed to take forever. Finally, Sarah had to sit at another machine, the girl operated it and fired pockets of high pressure air against her eyeball. It was actually really uncomfortable and Sarah was glad when it was over. The girl asked her to go back into the waiting area and she would be called when the optician was ready to see her.
Sarah did as she was directed and grabbed a plastic cup of water from the water cooler, it was pretty hot in the room she’d just come from, or was she a little flushed in the face from the experience so far, she wasn’t sure?
She didn’t see her mother, but before long another woman approached her, holding the clipboard. She was older than the earlier girl, probably in her early thirties. “Hi there, my name is Natalie and I am your optician today, would you like to follow me?” Sarah was instantly impressed with this lady, who spoke with a soft Irish accent. She looked fantastic in her business suit, neat haircut and small wire-rimmed glasses.
She followed Natalie into a smaller room which contained a seat, some machinery and a case full of small lenses by the look of things. She was invited to take a seat and Natalie asked her a number of questions about her sight, whether she was having any issues at all? Sarah told her how she was struggling with seeing the ball playing tennis and was taken aback by what Natalie said next. “I am not surprised you’re struggling, I can’t believe you’ve managed to get by this long given your indicated prescription here.” What did that mean, it didn’t sound like she was going to be walking out of there without glasses of some description. Her mother was going to be pretty disappointed with her.
A number of tests followed and finally, thought Sarah, the actual test of her vision was going to begin. Of course this had actually started with the assistant earlier. Natalie placed a strange pair of glasses on her nose and added a lens which blacked out the view from her left eye. She then asked Sarah to look through the lens which she had placed in the frame and read the chart which was projected onto the wall. She changed the lens a few times and also asked Sarah to pick which circles were clearer. The choice was between black circles which were printed against a green background or the circles against the red background. Sarah could certainly tell that she could read more with some of the lenses, she wasn’t sure what it meant that the circles were sometimes much clearer on one background? This whole process happened again with Sarah’s left eye. Finally, the optician removed the lens which was blocking the view from Sarah’s right eye and asked her to read the chart.
Wow, what a difference, Sarah could see the room in such brilliant brightness and was able to read the chart where before she had struggled.
“Okay Sarah,” said Natalie, “I am going to prescribe that you wear glasses. Actually, I am really surprised that this hasn’t happened much sooner. You have hyperopic eyes with a significant astigmatism in each one also, so you will need to wear your glasses at all times.”
Sarah was both horrified and extremely excited, she didn’t have a clue what ‘hyperopic’ meant, but obviously it was something that required glasses. The fact that Natalie thought she should wear them all the time was horrifying. Of course, Sarah could get by no problem whatsoever without glasses so she might pay lip service to that little piece of advice.
“What about contact lenses, can I try those?” asked Sarah. “I am afraid it’s unlikely Sarah. With your level of astigmatism it will be hard to get acceptable results with contact lenses and also I am not starting you on your final prescription so there is little point in fitting for contact lenses now, we can possibly have another look at it in six months when you come back. You’ll probably find that it takes a few days to get used to your glasses, especially with objects in the distance, but trust me by Tuesday and your next game of tennis you’ll find that you won’t want to take your glasses off. One last thing, please pick two pairs of glasses today, you’ll not want to be without your glasses once you are used to them, so it’ll be best to have a spare pair just in case, there is a deal on”
Six months wearing glasses. If Sarah wasn’t already flushed in the face she certainly was now. She left the room following Natalie, who handed over some paperwork to the assistant who had helped Sarah already. “Hello again, I see here that you need to choose some new glasses. I can help you with picking the right style for you. With your prescription I think we ought to start looking at the smaller frames as the lenses will be reasonably heavy.”
That comment stopped Sarah in her tracks. ‘…Quite heavy’, what did that mean? “When you say heavy what do you mean exactly?” “Oh, because you are quite long-sighted the lenses will be quite thick in the centre, so that adds weight. Don’t worry we have new lens technology which reduces the thickness considerably, but even so they will be quite heavy if you opt for a large lens size. It says here that your prescription is +3.25 with +1.25 astigmatism in your left eye and only slightly less in your right eye.”
Suddenly Sarah’s thoughts sat upon an image of Steven Smith, the boy with the coke bottles, she was sure he too was long-sighted. She hated the way his lenses made his eyes look, ‘please God, don’t make my lenses look like that’ she prayed inwardly.
Just at that moment the door from another test room opened and Becca walked out without her glasses on, she looked so attractive Sarah suddenly wanted the floor to open up so she could shrink away.
Becca looked over and instantly recognised Sarah. “Hi Sarah, what are you doing here, need I ask?” The assistant quietly interjected “why don’t you get your friend here to help you choose your frames, call on me if you need me” and with that she walked off, stopping just long enough to announce “…don’t forget, go for the smaller frames.”
Becca looked at Sarah and in that moment, she thought about all the times Sarah had made her life miserable about her glasses. Why should she help her? But it wasn’t that simple, she could see how upset Sarah looked and she had a good idea as to how Sarah must be feeling at that moment.
She walked over to Sarah and asked “Are you okay Sarah?” without waiting for an answer she continued “Look, it’s not that bad, you won’t need to wear them all the time as you’ve only just been prescribed glasses and if you don’t like the way you look with glasses, just get contact lenses, that’s why I am here, they itch like hell but I don’t think I’ve ever seen so clearly.”
Sarah started to sob gently. “I am so sorry I’ve been such a bitch to you all these years Becca, I am certainly getting my comeuppance now”. She told Becca about what the optician had just told her and Becca gave her a hug, she knew a little about optics and knew exactly how Sarah’s lenses would probably look, she had to admit to herself that at that point she was very glad she was short-sighted and not long-sighted.
Sarah’s mum came in through the front entrance of the opticians; she had evidently gone for a spot of shopping while she waited for her daughter. “Sarah, why are you crying? They told me you might be a little while so I just thought I’d pop into the jewellers and pick up your father’s watch… Is that you Becca, darling, don’t you look fantastic without your glasses, wow you really are quite something you know – the boys will be most impressed with the new you. Now Sarah, come on we must get on.”
“Mum, you don’t get it do you, I need to get glasses!” Sarah stopped her mother instantly, “I don’t understand darling, my eyes are perfect. How could you possibly need glasses?”
Becca was beginning to understand why Sarah had acted as she had for so long, what a piece of work her mother was. She decided she’d better try and help, “Why don’t I stay with Sarah and help her choose her glasses so you can get on with your day, they can make the glasses up in an hour or so here, so why not give us an hour and a half and come back?”
“Good idea Becca. Sarah, if you really must get glasses then please don’t go all dowdy on me, choose something a little more stylish than those ones you were trying on earlier – don’t worry about the cost, your father’s treat. Now Becca, I can trust you, I’m sure, to keep her inline?” and with that she left the shop.
“Stupid bitch” Sarah muttered under her breath. “Becca, you don’t have to do this you know, I don’t deserve it – I’ll be okay.”
Becca was not going to leave Sarah there. “You might have been a bitch to me over the years, but if I had your mother I think I’d have some issues too! I hope you don’t mind me saying that, but I think I might have a little more insight into why you have been the way you’ve been all these years. And anyway, I have to say I think I like this new Sarah who’s not perfect. It makes you more like the rest of us.”
The two girls picked out a few frames, Sarah showed Becca the ones which had first got her attention. “They look fantastic on you, you’ve got to get them, they really suit you. We just need to find you a second pair, why don’t you go for something a little more colourful so that you can accessorise.” They continued to look for a while longer and eventually settled on a nice rectangular frame in red and black, the space for the lenses was not too big, so they ought to be okay for Sarah’s lenses. Sarah took them over to the assistant who took them away after confirming which lens type to manufacture and asked Sarah to come back in an hour.
“Thanks so much Becca, I don’t know how I can thank you for helping me – I don’t think I could have done that on my own.” Sarah was sincere in every word she said, she was truly sorry for her actions over the years and she just wanted to make things up to Becca. “Becca, I know you’ve got contact lenses but how do you fancy getting a new pair of glasses, my father’s paying!”
“Sarah, I can’t! Thank you for the offer, but how could I explain a pair of new glasses to my parents?” Sarah was insistent, “Becca, I’ve been such a bitch to you, let me do this one thing for you, besides if you do ever need to put on a pair of glasses again then you should make sure you look especially hot in them.”
Becca succumbed and the pair spent the next twenty minutes choosing a pair of glasses for Becca. She opted for a pair, not too dissimilar to Sarah’s first choice of frames. Becca handed over the frames to the befuddled assistant, she had to explain that these frames needed to be made up with her own -7.00 prescription. With that the girls decided to do a bit of quick clothes shopping.
Sarah decided that Becca should embrace her feminine side and dragged her to her favourite fashion shop. She picked out a reasonably short tartan skirt, a pair of sandals and a black semi see-through shirt. Becca tried on the outfit, she felt so insecure in it but had to admit, she did look good in the mirror. “I’m not sure about this Sarah, I don’t think I’d get away with these sandals at school for a start, let alone this top.” Sarah thought about this for a moment and decided that she had to take this one step at a time. “Wait there, I’ll be right back”. Becca did as she was told and admired her reflection; she looked a lot like Sarah in many ways, the epitome of cool.
Sarah returned with a different top, still black, reasonably low-cut and a pair of silver ballet pumps with a ribbon on the toe. “Here, try these with that skirt.” Becca took the clothes and went and changed, she came out and Sarah gave her the thumbs up sign, she went to the mirror and looked at her reflection and wasn’t disappointed with the look she’d achieved. “Right Becca, I’m getting you all of those things, including the first choices, no argument.”
Sarah, who couldn’t enter that shop without leaving with something, had a quick scout for herself. She picked up, unusually for her, a simple pair of black pumps and a black cardigan. Becca thought that this was a very strange selection, especially given how Sarah had pushed her in her own purchases. She thought that the clothes Sarah had selected for herself were closer to the ‘square’ end of the fashion spectrum rather than the ‘cool’ end, but she wasn’t going to mention it. She looked at her watch and realised that Sarah’s mother would be back at the opticians by now, they were late!
The two girls returned to the opticians, Sarah’s mother was there and was impatiently waiting for her daughter’s return. “There you are, can we please get this over with?” Sarah found the assistant who had looked after her earlier, she announced that the glasses were ready and she ushered all three of them over to a table in the corner of the room. “I just need to get Natalie, she wants to speak to you and your mother Sarah.”
The group sat down. Sarah was full of trepidation and anticipation at the thought that in moments, her own glasses, with her own prescription, would be handed over to her. She once again felt that tingle of arousal, was she getting turned on by this experience, she thought she was.
The assistant returned with Natalie and three glasses cases. Sarah’s mother was already perplexed by the number of cases the optician was holding. Natalie sat down opposite the group and introduced herself to Sarah’s mother.
“Hello again Sarah, I see you’ve picked out a lovely couple of frames for yourself. I’m glad you took my advice on getting that second pair, as I said you’ll soon find that you’re going to be quite dependant on your glasses.”
Sarah’s mother couldn’t stay quiet for long and certainly this news was too much for her. “What on earth are you saying? Do you even know what you are doing? There’s nothing wrong with my daughter’s eye sight, she’s been fine for nearly 17 years, how could she suddenly need to wear glasses and be dependant on them?” Natalie, with her soft-spoken Irish charm responded carefully. “I’m sorry Mrs Marshall, but your daughter does need glasses, she is quite longsighted and has needed glasses for a number of years, it’s a shame that she has gone this long struggling through, I can only imagine the headaches she must have been suffering from at the end of each day.”
Natalie continued, “Can I ask you a question Sarah? When was the last time you enjoyed a good book?” Sarah who was sitting watching this encounter unfold awoke from her reverie and replied, confirming that she hadn’t really been able to read a book in the evening for a couple of years. “Do you really want to deprive your daughter of good vision, I believe it has started affecting her tennis too”.
Sarah’s mother simply nodded her head and Natalie took that as signal to proceed. She opened the Gucci case and removed the red and black frames which were Sarah’s second choice. Immediately Sarah’s eyes were drawn to the lenses glinting in the case. Something strange happened at that moment. She realised that her lenses looked very similar to Steven Smith’s which made her heart sink, she was going to look like a complete dork, but at the same time her feeling of arousal heightened, it felt so sexy to her to think that she would no-longer be the ‘cool’ girl but would be the geek. Her face flushed a little.
Becca was feeling a little strange too. Was she really sitting here next to her nemesis, the coolest girl in the school, watching her through her own newly-unframed eyes about to put on a pair of glasses of her own, but not only that, the glasses were quite thick and certainly a little awkward.
Natalie placed the glasses onto Sarah and looked to see how the arms fitted over each of Sarah’s ears, “Perfect fit I think, how do they feel?”
Sarah was looking around, she was amazed at how the tweed of Natalie’s business suit had come alive with colour and detail, had it been there the whole time? Everything seemed brighter, more vivid and more alive.
“They feel fine, thanks. I can see amazingly clearly most of all, the only thing I’d say is that if I look out through the window into the street it seems a bit blurred to me.”
Sarah’s mother jumped in immediately, “I knew there was no way my beautiful girl needed those horrid glasses, take them off at once Sarah, you look ridiculous. I want to see the manager young lady.” She addressed the last command at Natalie, who in her cool manner responded quickly, “Mrs Marshall, please let me do my job here with Sarah, this must be quite a traumatic time for your daughter. I will get the manager for you, but I am sure he will tell you the same as I have.”
She then explained to Sarah that her distance vision would take a little time to adjust, but would clear over the next few days, if Sarah wore her glasses full time. Natalie then passed Sarah a mirror so she could see for the first time, how she looked in her new glasses.
Becca, who was sitting alongside Sarah, could see a slight bulge in the lens as she looked from her acute angle. She looked into the mirror, just as Sarah was doing and could see the magnifying and slightly distorting affect of the lenses on Sarah’s eyes. She really didn’t think that Sarah would like what she saw.
Sarah looked at herself and two things immediately struck her. This first was that she could see so much more detail on her face than she was used to. She could actually discern the pores on her skin, was that a blackhead on her nose?! The second thing was the impact of those lenses on her looks. If there was anything which Sarah would have changed about her looks it was her eyes. She always felt that they were a little too small.
So, in many ways her prayers had been answered. But it was a bit like asking for a book for your birthday and being given the Encyclopaedia Britannica! To Sarah’s mind it looked as if her eyes were almost swimming beneath a murky pool. Yes, the nearest comparison that came to mind was two tadpoles still cocooned safely in their eggs.
If she moved her head from side to side her eyes almost seemed to move independently, it was the affect of the correction for the astigmatism in her prescription.
Again, this was a double-edged sword. Sarah knew that there was no way she could look anything other than awkward with these glasses on, they were nothing like Becca’s glasses. She was going to have to get used to a new role in the social fabric at school and beyond. But this realisation actually heightened Sarah’s arousal. She was sick of being the ‘pretty girl’, the centre of attention, she actually harboured a new desire, she was going to live out the next few months as a geek.
Sarah smiled and told the closely-huddled group, “Ok, they might not be as desirable as a pair of Jimmy Chu’s but I am going to have to get used to them and so are you mum, can I try the other pair on please?”. She tried on the initial pair she had found and she felt instantly, that these were prefect. They had a smaller lens and the effect of the magnifying her eyes was, in a little way, flattering. She loved them.
She moved to take off the glasses and hand them back to Natalie but before she could get her hands onto the arms of the glasses Natalie stepped in. “Sarah, don’t take them off. If they fit you well, and they look as if they were made for you, then there is no reason to hand them to me. Keep them on please and take them off only after you’ve been reading before going to sleep this evening. How do your eyes feel?”
Sarah hadn’t really thought about how her eyes felt before, but they felt fantastic – almost as if they had benefitted from a long soak in the bath. “They feel great actually, really relaxed, almost like I’m not ‘trying’ to see anymore, I’m just seeing.”
Natalie told Sarah that her eyes had been putting in extra long shifts for a long time, they were tired and her glasses would allow them to see without having to work so hard. That is why it would take a bit of time for her eyes to relax fully so that she could see equally as clearly in the distance. She also explained that once Sarah’s eye’s did relax she would find it hard to see much without her glasses and she would need stronger lenses in time as her full prescription was too much of a shock for her eyes to accept in one go.
Becca tried on her glasses, just for fit as she couldn’t see much through the lenses with her contacts in. ‘Am I really that blind?’ she thought.
Sarah’s mother paid for the glasses and left the shop after saying to the girls, “Why don’t you take your time before coming home Sarah, I need to prepare your father for the shock, I can’t believe you chose those glasses after I had made my views on them quite clearly.” And with that she left.
Sarah looked around the room, she could see so clearly and so comfortably that she suddenly wanted to get out of the shop and go and see the world. She thanked the staff at the opticians and apologised to Natalie for her mother’s behaviour. Natalie told her that it was fine and if she had any issues just to pop in, she closed the conversation by saying that Sarah looked great in her glasses and she hoped she’d go on to win her tennis game on Tuesday. Sarah blushed as Becca was standing next to her. “Think you’ll win again do you, we’ll see bottle bottoms!” Becca jested with her - they both laughed and left the opticians. Once outside they said their goodbyes and vowed to catch up on Monday at school.
Sarah headed straight for the book shop, after all that’s what nerds do. She bought 3 books which were on an offer, she had a lot of reading to do.
Once home Sarah entered as quietly as possible, however, her mother heard the door and called for her. She walked through to the lounge where her parents were. “Cripes girl, your mother wasn’t kidding, they are pretty thick those, you look like a bookworm! I am going to look into laser eye surgery for you.” Sarah stood in the doorway, having never taken in the details of the room as clearly as she was now. She looked down at her parents, both in the real sense and metaphorically, “I don’t want laser eye surgery thanks, I’m not risking what sight I’ve got now – if you can’t deal with it it’s your loss.” She turned and headed for her room.
Once back in her room she set her books and new clothes down on her bed and sat down, perched primly on the end. She moved to take of her glasses, which she had worn for the last three hours. When she did she was shocked by just how blurred the view was. ‘Natalie wasn’t kidding!’ she thought, although she was surprised by the speed of her decline in clarity. She popped the glasses back on and lay down. Of course, if she had waited a little while her eyes would have compensated and brought the world back into view, but she didn’t know this.
Sarah wore her glasses full-time that weekend and enjoyed her Sunday afternoon devouring one of her new books. When she took her glasses off before turning off the bedside lamp she was stunned by just how blurred the world was. It turned her on more than she could remember so she placed the glasses back on and touched herself until she quietly climaxed thinking about how she was now a dork and not a princess.
That night Sarah hardly slept and when she did she had vivid dreams about her glasses and how she might be received at school in the morning.
After breakfast that Monday morning Sarah returned to her room to consider what outfit she was going to wear. She figured that if she was going to be a geek then she couldn’t wear short skirts and low-cut tops.
She selected a black t-shirt which she partnered with her new black cardigan a pair of jeans and her new, simple, black ballet pumps with a pair of black socks (a fashion no-no). She tied up her hair in a pony tail and didn’t put on any makeup. She replaced her cat eye glasses and looked at herself – job done.
She left the house without saying goodbye to her mother and walked to school, a twenty minute stroll. She felt as if the world was watching her, were those girls looking at her, she couldn’t tell, but it certainly felt that way.
As she got to the front of the school she saw her, now, ex-boyfriend Scott with a group of her friends.
Scott noticed her immediately and called out, “Sarah, I know you can barely see me but can you hear me or is your hearing aid turned off?” The group looked at him and then her. What was he talking about, that’s not Sarah…
Sarah wasn’t going to let that pathetic specimen talk to her like that without eliciting a response. “I can see better than I ever have. My god, I must have been blind to have been with you. In fact, I think it was all that squinting looking for your penis that’s ended up with me needing to wear these big magnifying glasses!” The group laughed, but before Sarah could follow it up Scott called out, “Who the hell is she?” pointing beyond Sarah.
Everyone turned around to see Becca entering the arena wearing her new silver pumps, tartan skirt and black top… and of course no glasses.
Scott then emanated a long-low wolf-whistle which rang out around the playground, “Is that you Becca, you are gorgeous – the best-looking girl in the school by a mile!”
Sarah walked away, Becca joined the group not noticing Sarah leave.
Throughout the day Sarah had comments and jokes made at her expense, sometimes from the teachers. She either ignored them or delivered a cutting reply. She kept herself to herself and was disappointed that many of her so-called friends were happy to leave her to it. She even heard some of her friends making comments behind her back as she walked past.
In her final free period of the day she saw Becca talking to Jenna and Laura. She walked over to the group who suddenly stopped discussing whatever it was they had been eagerly debating. Becca asked Sarah how she was getting on with her glasses, was she getting used to them yet? Sarah told her she was and she was surprised by just how bad her eyesight was, but she could see much clearer now and wasn’t straining all the time. “How are you getting on with the contacts?” She asked Becca.
“Great thanks, I doubt I’ll wear my glasses much at all now”. Jenna asked Sarah if she could try her glasses on. Sarah took off her glasses and handed them to Jenna, she suddenly felt so vulnerable because the girls faces quickly became a blur, she couldn’t really see whether Jenna was taking care of her glasses or not.
“My god Sarah you must be blind as a bat, I can’t see a thing through these. Do I look like Mr Magoo, Laura?” Sarah quickly asked “Why did you say that Jenna, is that what you think I look like with them on?”
“Of course you don’t Sarah, they suit you, I just meant, I mean… I always look silly wearing glasses, but you don’t.” Sarah’s vision was slowly improving but she couldn’t tell whether Jenna was smiling insincerely or not as she spoke. Laura quickly grabbed the glasses from Jenna and tried them on. “Bloody hell Sarah I feel like I am looking through a sheet of grease paper, I can’t see anything!” she announced. Jenna was looking at Sarah intently and asked, “Are your eyes okay? Your left eye looks like it’s pointing out the way a bit. I’ve never noticed that before.”
“Can I have them back now please?” asked Sarah, she carefully took her glasses back from Laura, gave the lenses a quick wipe on her cardigan and placed her glasses back on her nose. What a lovely feeling it was, as the world came back into sharp view and her eyes seemed to pull together co-ordinating their action in an instant. Her view of the world and the people inhabiting it had changed irreversibly.
Becca looked on impassively; Sarah had been so horrible to her over the years that Becca was enjoying the reception that both of the girls were now receiving. That said, she didn’t want to be the cool girl that was nasty to those who didn’t measure up to her own image. Even so, she didn’t once step in and try to improve things for Sarah.
Jenna nudged Becca, “Go on ask her.” “Ask her what?” asked Sarah. Jenna stepped in whilst Becca seemed to be taking a keen interest in her new silver ballet pumps. “Becca has been asked out by Scott, she’s keen on him but was going to ask you if you minded before saying yes to him. Weren’t you Becca?”
Becca looked at Sarah with an apologetic look in her eyes. “I haven’t got a problem with that Becca.” Sarah quickly said.
The girls went to their classes and the rest of the day passed uneventfully enough. When Sarah got home she headed straight for her room. What had she done? If she’d kept her mouth shut in the nurse’s office she’d never have got herself into this position. But this was what she wanted, wasn’t it?
Sarah woke up on the Tuesday morning and fumbled around on the bedside table for her glasses. She put them on, found her dressing gown and went downstairs for her breakfast.
Her mother was making some juice with fresh oranges. “Morning Sarah, we really do need to talk about your problem you know. You can’t go on forever wearing those things, you’ll never get a decent man to look at you twice.”
Sarah pushed past her and grabbed the muesli from the cupboard. “That’s right, ignore the issue Sarah. Your father and I have discussed this. We both agree that you should see a specialist about laser eye surgery.”
Sarah walked over to the fridge and found the milk. She turned around and faced her mother. “You don’t understand do you? I am happy with my glasses, I don’t want laser eye surgery. If I can deal with it, why can’t you?” She picked up her bowl and walked past her mother who was shaking her head and headed to the lounge to eat her breakfast.
Sarah packed her bag for the day ahead and almost forgot about her sports kit. She chose a different t-shirt from the previous day but apart from that she went with the same conservative outfit of pumps, jeans and cardigan.
As she got to the school she could see her ‘friends’ in a group together, with Becca and Scott at the centre of the group. Becca was wearing her tartan skirt, a white strappy top and her new sandals, Sarah thought that she looked great. It was almost as if she had always dressed like that.
Hoping to avoid a confrontation Sarah headed for another entrance to the school. She walked in with a confident stride and almost bumped head-first into Steven Smith who was carrying a large pile of books. “Woops! Almost knocked your specs off there Steve.” Sarah said blushing. He looked at her over the top of one of the books, “Hi Sarah, what are you doing round here, shouldn’t you be with Scott and the others?”
Sarah put him straight on the Scott situation. “He was such a one-dimensional idiot to be honest with you Steve. Talking to him sometimes was like talking to your dog!”
“Are they new glasses Sarah, I never knew you needed specs?” he asked. “Oh, I didn’t need them. Well I did actually. I just didn’t know I did… Oh, it’s a long story, here let me help you with those books, where are you going?”
Steve explained that he was headed to the library on an errand for Mrs Lassiter. Sarah took a few books from Steve and walked with him. “Well, you haven’t said how you think I look with my new specs?” Sarah said putting her hand to her hair and cocking her head slightly to one side.
“Um, I think you look great Sarah. I’ve always thought you were this beautiful looking girl who knew how great she looked, which is kind of off-putting for someone like me. But now, with your glasses, well I think you look more real and you’re certainly the better for it in my eyes.”
Sarah laughed, “What are you trying to say Steve, are you saying I was a right bitch!?” Steve blushed and started to answer, but Sarah saved him the embarrassment, “Don’t worry, you’re right. I was a bitch and I can see that now. Do you know, I was thinking that these glasses have given me more than crisper vision, they’ve allowed me to see what’s really going on and what matters.”
They handed the books over in the library and returned to the corridor. Sarah put her hand on Steve’s arm and stopped him. “Steve, can I be really forward and ask you something?” Steve answered, “Of course you can, fire away.”
Sarah looked down before looking up at Steve, she had to push her glasses up her nose a little so that she could see him properly, her enlarged eyes flashed their true blue brilliance and she blinked before continuing. “Do you fancy meeting up one night, I’d really like to get to know you a bit better?” She stood with her hands clasped together in front of her.
“I’ll think about it.” Said Steve, before continuing, “Of course I would, only kidding! You’re Sarah – the best looking girl in the school. I might look it, but I’m not an idiot.”
Sarah, stood on her tip toes and kissed Steve on the lips. Their glasses clinked together a little as they kissed and a shiver of electricity rushed through Sarah’s spine.
At the same moment Sarah’s friends, headed by Becca and Scott rounded the corner to see the pair’s intimate embrace. Scott shouted, “Oh my god, what have we got here? You two had better be careful; if you have kids, their eyes will need quadruple glazing! What a picture, it’s like revenge of the nerds”.
Becca looked at her new boyfriend. Didn’t he realise that until a few days ago she had worn thick glasses herself? She looked over at Sarah and mouthed the word ‘sorry’ and shrugged her shoulders. The group continued past Sarah and Steve.
Steve grabbed Scott by the throat as he walked past and pushed him up against the wall. He looked at him in the eye and spoke calmly and evenly, “If you ever speak to Sarah like that again I will break your neck and I am not kidding.” Scott’s face turned purple and Steve put him down, he coughed, bent double and staring laughing. “You’ve got yourself a good one here Sarah, he’s not only uglier than a baby Rottweiler but he’s deluded too.”
Steve came back over to Sarah and apologised for losing his temper. She didn’t care, she thought he was the coolest guy she’d ever seen and gave him the biggest hug she could muster, letting everyone see what she felt about him.
The bell rang and everyone headed for their form groups for the daily routine of registration before the main lesson. Sarah took her usual seat next to Katrina. Kat looked at Sarah, “Is it true about you and Steven Smith?” she whispered. Sarah blushed and said it was true, and asked Katrina what she thought about it. Katrina replied “It’s up to you Sarah, but I am worried about you. If you continue to dress like that and hang out with Steven Smith’s crowd it’s going to make it kind of hard for us to, you know, be seen together.”
Sarah said nothing. The next bell rang and Sarah got her things together and headed out towards the gym.
There was a real palpable sense of tension as Becca and Sarah took to the tennis court. The rest of the girls stood around the periphery of the room to watch the two best players take on each other.
Sarah was wearing her gym kit, she’d tied her hair back in a tight ponytail and was wearing her now ubiquitous glasses. Becca was dressed similarly but was without her trademark glasses.
Sarah was first to serve after their initial warm up in which Sarah had been amazed at how her hand/eye co-ordination had improved. She tossed the ball in the air and looked up in preparation of her first strike. Her eyes tracked up and over the top of her lenses and the world became a blur - she almost missed the ball entirely as she mis-hit it weakly into the net. A string of sniggers could be heard in the gym from the edges.
She soon realised that she was going to struggle with her peripheral vision, her lenses were just not large enough for her to rely on her eyes alone for the required movement to track the ball. She was going to have to move her head far more than she was used to if she was going to see the ball properly.
Sarah’s biggest problem was going to be time. Becca was playing really well, she had improved immeasurably since they had last played. Sarah lost the first set 6 – 2.
Becca was enjoying the freedom of her vision and she felt that she could get to the ball that bit quicker than when she played wearing her glasses. She could tell that Sarah was struggling to get used to playing wearing glasses. It was funny how it was much easier learning to play without glasses than with them. Still, she wasn’t going to start feeling sorry for Sarah and with the crowd behind her for the first time in her memory she was going to finish the match off quickly.
Becca raced to an early lead in the second set, she found that if she put the ball wide and changed the direction of her play that Sarah seemed to struggle more than if the ball was hit within a range where Sarah didn’t have to move her head to see the ball.
Sarah wasn’t enjoying the match. She knew that she was the better player than her opponent, but she just couldn’t get her movement right to enable her to play her full range of shots. It was frustrating but she wasn’t going to show it and let her detractors make a joke of it.
Sarah set about her task with renewed vigour and fought back in the set to a 4 – 3 lead. Becca was getting a little tired as Sarah was the one making her run around the court.
As Becca was preparing to serve there were a few cheers of ‘Come on Becca!’ from the crowd. This lifted Becca’s resolve, they actually wanted her to beat the great Sarah Marshall.
Becca fired a fantastic serve to Sarah’s backhand, Sarah just managed to get to it and return it over the net. Becca moved in and fired a cross-court shot with fierce pace back at her opponent. Sarah dived to try and reach the ball and fell, skidding on her knee across the highly polished floor. She hit the ground with a thump and her glasses became dislodged almost slipping entirely off her nose.
A voice in the blurred crowed shouted “Who’s the bottle bottoms now! Come on Becca finish off the blind bat.” Sarah picked herself up and pushed her glasses up her nose. She looked around to the crowd and could see that Jenna and Laura were pointing and laughing at her. She could have sworn that it was Jenna’s voice who she’d heard.
Her knee was bleeding and she couldn’t put her full weight on it. She wasn’t going to give up though, no matter what anyone shouted and no matter how bad her knee felt. She lost the game and the set was squared at 4 – 4.
Sarah made a valiant attempt to win – she was the reigning champ after all. However, on the day and with the circumstances Becca was just too strong for her. She lost her service game and Becca reached match point, the first time anyone had managed such an achievement against Sarah.
Becca tried to contain her excitement. ‘This is fantastic, finally I am going to get the better of her and everyone wants to see that too’. She did feel sorry for Sarah, but life is sometimes tough she decided.
Becca tossed the ball in the air and brought up her racket in a smooth metronomic movement, making a clean and committed connection with the ball. Sarah anticipated the direction of the serve and hit a fantastic return which sent Becca on the run to try to reach the fast-moving ball. Becca just got there and hit a winner down the line, Sarah moved to get to it but her knee couldn’t take it and she bent down, half-collapsed on her knee, defeated.
The crowd went wild, cheering “Becca, Becca, Becca!”. Katrina came over to Sarah and stood over her friend. She looked down on her and spoke quietly, “You’ve joined the losing team Sarah, good luck.” And with that Katrina walked over to Becca to congratulate her.
Sarah picked herself up, even Mrs Powell was over with Becca congratulating her new prodigy. She looked down at her bleeding knee and walked gingerly off the court and back into the changing rooms.
As she sat down most of the other girls came back in. A few offered their condolences, some just smiled at her and a few even seemed to snigger. Becca came in with her entourage and came over to Sarah. “Good game out there today, how’s your knee?”. Sarah looked up, shrugged her shoulders and said, “The knee will be okay, thanks – you’d have beaten me with or without that.” Becca smiled and said loudly enough for the eavesdroppers to hear, “Yes, you’re right I would have beaten you with or without your knee being hurt. Maybe you’re eyesight is a bit of a handicap for you? Maybe that’s the real reason? How does it feel being Sarah Squint Eye, not nice is it?” And with that Becca turned her back on Sarah and walked over to her new friends.
Sarah took her clothes off and wrapped her towel around her and headed for the showers. She didn’t dare take her glasses off, partly because of her vision but also because she feared that someone might take them if she left them with her kit.
She showered. As the warm soapy water ran across her wounded knee she grimaced with pain. She made sure the cut was clean and went back to the changing rooms and dried off.
She packed her sports kit away and put on her new geeky gear. As she pulled on her plain black ballet pumps she realised she couldn’t wait to see Steve and she’d never felt so turned on in her life. For Sarah, it was so cool to be uncool.
Statistics: Posted by glassesforeveryone — Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:26 pm