Chapter 1
As the cool autumn breeze rustled through the colorful leaves on the trees, a group of high school students strolled through the campus. The sound of laughter and chattering filled the air.
There was one student who wasn’t laughing. His name was Kevin, and he was a bully. Kevin was tall, with broad shoulders and a thick head of curly hair. He was the kind of guy who always had a smirk on his face and a glint in his eye. He was a master at making others feel small, and his favorite target was anyone who wore glasses.
“Hey guys, wait up!” a voice called out, as Kevin caught up with his friends. They greeted him with high fives and fist bumps.
“What’s up, Kev?” asked his friend Jake.
“Nothing much,” Kevin replied with a smirk. “Just getting ready to make someone’s day miserable.”
His friends laughed, but Kevin’s smile faded as he spotted a student wearing glasses walking towards them. “Watch this,” he whispered to his buddies.
“Hey, four-eyes!” Kevin shouted at the student, who flinched and lowered his head. “You look like a total dork!”
The other students around them nervously chuckled, but none of them spoke up. They were all afraid of becoming Kevin’s next victim.
Kevin’s friend Mark nudged him. “Dude, come on, let’s go grab some lunch,” he said, hoping to divert Kevin’s attention away from the situation. Unfortunately that did not stop Kevin from finding another target.
As they went inside Kevin scanned the bustling hallway with a smug expression on his face. He relished in the power he felt as he walked among his peers. As he walked past a group of students, he caught a glimpse of Morty out of the corner of his eye, and a cruel smile spread across his face.
Morty was a frequent target of Kevin’s bullying. He was easy to pick on, with his clean-cut appearance and blonde hair slicked back in a neat style. Morty was one of the few students in school who seemed to genuinely care about his grades, and he was heavily involved in extracurricular activities like volunteering and recycling club. To Kevin, Morty was just too perfect and “churchy” for his own good.
Worse of all Morty wore glasses. Kevin had a particular disdain for anyone who wore them, seeing them as a symbol of weakness and inferiority. Morty’s glasses were especially dorky looking, and they made him an easy target for Kevin’s cruel taunts. Worse of all they were transition lenses. Probably to protect his delicate light blue eyes.
As Kevin approached Morty, he could see the fear in the other boy’s eyes. Morty tried to avoid Kevin’s gaze, but Kevin could see that he was starting to sweat. The other students around them nervously chuckled, but none of them spoke up. They were all afraid of becoming Kevin’s next victim.
Without a word, Kevin made his way over to Morty and yanked the glasses off his face, holding them high above his head so that Morty couldn’t reach them. Morty stumbled and nearly fell.
“Come on, four-eyes, you can’t even see straight without these things,” Kevin sneered, holding the glasses just out of Morty’s reach. The other students around them nervously chuckled, not sure what to do.
Morty stood frozen in fear, not daring to say anything back. He knew that any resistance would only make things worse, and so he just stood there, waiting for Kevin to give him back his glasses. Kevin continued to hold Morty’s glasses just out of his reach, relishing in the power he felt over his victim. He could see the fear and desperation in Morty’s eyes and he knew that he was in control.
The other students in the hallway watched in uncomfortable silence, unsure of what to do. Some of them looked away, not wanting to be associated with Kevin’s cruel behavior, while others nervously chuckled, trying to diffuse the tension.
Kevin finally grew bored of tormenting Morty and with one swift motion, he tossed the glasses onto the ground, shattering them into pieces. Morty let out a cry of despair as he watched the shards of glass scatter across the hallway.
Kevin laughed at the sight, his cruel smirk widening as he enjoyed the power and control he had over his victim. Morty slumped to the ground, his face red with anger and humiliation.
“Looks like you’ll need to get some new glasses, four-eyes,” Kevin sneered, before turning on his heel and walking away. The other students in the hallway watched in silence as Kevin left, unsure of what to say or do.
Morty sat there for a few moments longer, his eyes filled with tears of anger and humiliation. He knew that he was just one of many victims of Kevin’s bullying, and that there was little he could do to stop it. He slowly picked himself up off the ground and began to walk away, his shattered glasses still lying on the ground behind him.
Kevin’s bullying had become so commonplace that it was almost like a part of the school’s atmosphere. No one dared to stand up to him, for fear of becoming his next victim. His taunts and jeers were heard in the hallways every day, and students had grown used to the sound of his cruel laughter. That is, until one day when Kevin himself became the target of a humiliating discovery.
It began in math class. Kevin sat at his desk, trying to concentrate on the equations on the board, but something was off. He leaned forward in his seat, trying to get closer to the board, but it didn’t help. He rubbed his eyes and blinked, hoping to clear his vision, but that didn’t work either.
At first, Kevin blamed the teacher’s handwriting. “This is ridiculous,” he muttered under his breath. “Who can read this chicken scratch?”
As Kevin made his way out of the classroom, he bumped into his friend group who were waiting for him in the hallway.
“Hey, Kev, what’s up?” asked Tyler, one of Kevin’s closest friends.
“Stupid math class. I can’t even read the board,” Kevin grumbled.
“What do you mean?” asked Claire, another friend.
“The writing is so small, I swear the teacher’s trying to mess with us or something,” Kevin said, clearly frustrated.
“You should get your eyes checked,” suggested Morty, one of Kevin’s usual targets for bullying. “I had no issues seeing the board.”
As Kevin walked away from Morty, his mind was racing. He couldn’t shake the image of Morty sitting in class, calmly and confidently taking notes, while Kevin squinted and strained to see the board. How was it possible that Morty could see better than him?
Kevin had never considered the idea of having vision problems before. He had always prided himself on his physical abilities and had never thought twice about his eyesight. But now that Morty had mentioned it, he couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that something was off.
As he walked to his next class, Kevin found himself paying more attention to his surroundings than usual. He noticed how difficult it was to make out the smaller details of the posters on the walls or the text on his phone screen.
As much as he tried to resist the idea, Morty’s words had planted a seed of doubt in his mind. It was a daunting idea, especially with his father’s expectations of what it meant to be manly. His dad always went on about toughness and how real men don’t need any help, especially from a pair of glasses.
Kevin’s mind was racing with thoughts. “I don’t need glasses,” he muttered to himself. “I’ll just sit closer to the board. I can’t let anyone see me with glasses.”
But despite his best efforts to deny the problem, Kevin couldn’t escape the fact that he needed glasses. Morty’s comment echoed in his head for the rest of the day.
https://vision-and-spex.com/football-players-don-t-wear-glasses-t2637.html