The start of a new school year is always a moment tinged with a mixture of hope for what lies ahead, and sadness that the long Summer holidays have drawn to an end, so as Louise Medhurst put on her uniform for the first time in 6 weeks, she started to wonder what her GCSE classes would be like, and who she would be sitting next to. The most likely two were Edward Mills and Sean King, as most teachers seemed to seat their classes alphabetically, and she had spent most of the previous three years sitting next to one or the other. They were all right – not boyfriend material, but they worked sensibly enough, compared to some of the immature boys in her class.
The walk to school was uneventful enough. She chatted to her older brother, Simon, on the way there, and they duly arrived at 8.44, in time for the 8.45 bell. The first day back saw them all lining up to be sorted into their different classes, so she said goodbye to Simon and went to find her own friends. In the end, it was neither Edward nor Simon who was sitting at the same table, but Jess Little.
Louise did not really know Jess. She had arrived at the school a few weeks before the end of the Summer term, but had largely kept to herself for those days. Jess was about the same height and weight as Louise, with long dark blond, or was it light brown, hair and the most amazing blue eyes. If it hadn’t been for the eyes, Jess would have been unremarkable. Louise secretly wished that she had something about her that would make the boys notice her, but preferred her anonymity to unwanted attention, so was not overly worried about it.
As it turned out, Jess and Louise had chosen the same sort of subjects for their GCSEs, and ended up sitting next to each other several times a day, so it was not long before they started to get to know one another. It turned out that the reason Jess had joined the school was that her dad had got fed up of the delays at the Dartford Tunnel every morning and evening, so they had moved house at the end of June. Jess had found it hard to adapt at first, as she didn’t know anyone, and had found the 6 week break a rather lonely experience, as she was an only child. In Louise, she had found someone to talk to, although they went their own separate ways at the end of school each day.
In late November, their geography teacher gave them all a presentation project to do with their partners about coastal erosion. Although the girls tried to get the work done at lunchtime, they never seemed to have long enough to get it done, and after school was out of the question as neither of them wanted to have to walk home on their own in the dark as both of them lived about a mile from the school, but in opposite directions. The only way to solve this was to give up some time one weekend, so they set aside a Saturday morning, the 1st December, to get it done.
Louise arrived at Jess’ house shortly after half past ten, and the girls spent a couple of hours searching the Internet, reading textbooks and putting together a Powerpoint presentation which pleased them both. After they had finished, they went to the kitchen to get something to eat. They were alone in the house as Jess’ father had gone to watch the football at the pub, and her mother had gone off to visit her mother. As they ate, they chatted about school, clothes, boys, teachers, music…
“You know what I really like about you, Jess?” Louise asked. “No, what’s that?” “Your eyes. They’re the most amazing blue I’ve ever seen.” Jess laughed.
“I wear Contact lenses. I’ve had glasses since I was three or four, and when my parents let me get contact lenses, I chose some which change the colour of my eyes. We’re not allowed make-up or jewellry at school, so it is a way of improving my appearance that they can’t do anything about. If anyone ever questions the colour, I say I need them to see, which is true. I got a few comments at my old school when I first got them, but here, no-one has ever seen me in my glasses, so like you, they think this is my natural eye colour. I wish…”
“Doesn’t it make everything you see bright blue,” Louise asked. “No. It’s only the outside is blue. The middle is clear. Here, I’ll show you.”
Jess jumped up to wash her hands, and then delicately removed her contact lens to show to Louise. The difference in the colour of her two eyes was now much more noticeable.
“Are they strong?” asked Louise.
“Not really. They’re only a plus one point five. My eyes have slowly been getting better as I’ve grown up. I probably don’t need to wear them all the time now, but as I’m used to them, I do so. I hope that if I keep wearing them, one day I’ll be told I don’t need glasses at all.”
“What’s it like, wearing glasses?”
“Let’s go upstairs, and once I’ve put this lens back in, I’ll show you.”
They made their way back to Jess’ bedroom, and after a minute or so, Jess emerged from the bathroom, with both eyes the same colour. She went to the drawer beside her bed and put on a pair of black rimmed plastic glasses. They made her eyes appear slightly bigger.
“They look great on you,” said Louise. “They make your blue eyes seem even bluer.”
“Thanks. I can see to read with them, but the other side of the room is a bit of a blur. Besides, I got contacts so I didn’t have to wear glasses. Here, you try them.”
Louise carefully put the glasses on her face. As Jess had said, the other side of the room was a bit blurry, but close up was very clear. She picked up a magazine which was lying around, and read it with and without the glasses.
“I can read better with these on. Do you think that means I need reading glasses?”
By this time, Jess was wearing a slightly smaller brown pair of glasses.
“I doubt it. These are my old glasses. They’re a bit stronger, but I can still see to read with them on. I probably didn’t need to get the new glasses, as I don’t wear them much, but the change in prescription was too good an excuse to miss, so if I ever do have to wear them in public again, at least I have something vaguely fashionable.
Louise tried the second pair of glasses on, swapped back to the first, took a few selfies and then returned the glasses to Jess.
“I wonder if I could get some coloured contact lenses for the Christmas party season. I’d have to persuade my mum to let me have the money, and tell her what I was up to, as I think she would notice if my eyes suddenly changed colour.”
Two weeks later, Jess and Louise went off to the local shopping centre together to get outfits for the Christmas parties. Jess opted for a little black dress and a pair of black party shoes, while Louise chose a deep-cut purple top and a black skirt to go with it.
“Did you mention the coloured contacts to your mum?” Jess asked, once they had finally tried on almost every outfit in the centre.
“Yes. She said that it was fine as long as I didn’t spend more than £100 in total on my outfit, and I’ve still got £20 left over. Let’s see what we can find.”
It turned out that £20 would have been plenty of money for the lenses themselves, but with the need to buy a storage case and the cleaning solutions, Louise no longer had enough money for both.
“I’ve got an idea,” said Jess. “If you buy the case and the solutions, I’ve got an old pair of lenses at home that I’ve never worn. You can have them.”
“But you might need them next month, and they’re not just plain lenses,” Louise pointed out.
“No, I won’t. Besides, they’re in my old prescription, and as you found with my glasses, you will be able to see very well close up, and only have a bit of a blur in the distance.”
“Won’t they harm my eyes?”
“No. If that were the case, I could have perfect eyesight by just not wearing glasses or contacts ever again.”
“You have a point there.”
In order to cut down on the amount of driving late at night, Jess invited Louise to a sleepover after the party. It also meant that she was able to show Louise how to put the lenses in, and how to take them out again afterwards.
Louise was very pleased with the look that the lenses gave her, although she had to get quite close to the mirror to see herself clearly. Jess had explained that they were +1.75 lenses, like her old glasses, so Louise had a fair idea of what to expect for the evening. While she was at the party, Louise received a few compliments on her eyes (“just like Jess”), and had a few glasses of wine, as she knew she would not have to face her parents again that evening. By the end of the party. Louise felt that she could see quite well with the lenses, and was quite sad to have to take them out. She had spent a fair amount of time chatting to Edward Mills about the previous three years. She wondered whether it was the lenses which had caused him to pay her a little more attention, or the low-cut neckline, or both…
Jess and Louise did not see each other over the Christmas period. Both of them had a number of family events to go to, and although they kept in touch by text and on Facebook, they never managed to be in the same place at the same time, so Jess was a little puzzled when, the day before the new term was due to start, she received a phone call from Louise.
“Can I come over and get some help with the Maths homework?”
Jess was about to ask what Maths homework Louise was talking about, but Louise was already saying that she’d be right over, so Jess put the phone down, and went to get dressed. She had just finished brushing her hair when Louise arrived.
Jess invited her friend into the house, and the two girls chatted about what they had done over Christmas. After 10 minutes or so, it was Jess who raised the issue of the Maths homework.
“We haven’t got any,” Louise admitted. “At least, not as far as I know, but my mum was in the room, so I had to come up with an excuse to come and see you. I’ve even brought my Maths books along with me. Actually, I wanted to borrow your glasses.”
“Borrow my glasses?” Jess had not yet got round to putting her contacts in, so she went to take them off. “What for?”
Louise explained that she had worn the coloured contacts to a number of parties and family gatherings over Christmas, and that she had got so used to what she could see with them, that she had almost been tempted to put them in that morning just for the improved vision, but she wanted to see whether it was just that she had got used to the lenses and whether things were still blurry with the glasses or not.
When they got to Jess’ bedroom, Jess took off her glasses and handed them to Louise. Louise put them on and looked carefully around the room. She then went to the window and looked at the difference between what she could see through the lenses and what she could see without them.
“And these are my old ones,” said Jess, as they swapped the black glasses for the brown ones.
Louise repeated the experiment, and then compared what she could see between both pairs.
“Well?” asked Jess.
“Well, I’m pretty sure I need glasses. Without them, I can see the words on the sign over there, but I can’t read them. With the black pair, I can read them. With the brown ones, they are even sharper.”
She handed the black pair back to Jess, who put them on, but kept the brown ones on herself.
“What are you going to do?” asked Jess.
“Well, I guess I need to tell mum and get my eyes tested. I don’t mind about needing glasses; it’s actually quite exciting. Like you said, it’s one thing we can wear at school which they cannot say ‘no’ to.”
The two girls sat and chatted for the rest of the morning, both wearing glasses. By the time lunchtime came around, Louise had forgotten that she was wearing glasses at all, and Jess had to remind her that, although she might need glasses, her mum would be very surprised to see her wearing them already.
When she got home, Louise decided that she needed to talk to her mum sooner rather than later. She explained how she had borrowed an old pair of Jess’ glasses and that she could see better with them, although she did not mention that the contacts had also been hers, and persuaded her mum to get her eyes tested.
Friday afternoon was the earliest appointment they had available, so her mum picked her up from school and they drove into town together. After they had completed the paperwork, Louise found herself being called through the see the optician. Her mum had a bit of shopping to do, so she arranged to be back in about quarter of an hour.
As her mum was not in the room, Louise felt able to tell the optician the full truth about the contact lenses. The lady listened intently as Louise explained how she then tried the glasses and found that she could see better with them, before the lady placed the most peculiar looking pair of glasses on Louise’s nose and started to put different lenses in front of her eyes. Some made things better, some made things worse. When she had finished, Louise already knew what the outcome would be, as she could see better with the trial glasses, but the lady proceeded to do a number of other tests before she finally sat back to explain what she had found.
“Well, Miss Medhurst, you are indeed a bit long-sighted, and as you have probably realised, glasses help you to see better. The headaches you have had from time to time are an indication that your eyes are working too hard to see clearly, which is why you adapted readily to your friend’s glasses. I’m going to start by prescribing you plus two in each eye, a little stronger than your friend, and will need to see you again about Easter time to adjust the prescription, and again in the Summer to make sure we have got it right. I suspect you would have had to come and see me in 6 months or so anyway, even if you hadn’t borrowed those contact lenses, so you needn’t worry that you have damaged your eyes.”
Louise was not sure how to feel. Pleased that she had not damaged her own eyes? Surprised that her eyes were worse than Jess’? Confused that she would need to go back for an adjustment so soon? Excited that she would get to choose her own glasses? Worried about what others might think and say? In the end, she settled for a simple question:
“Will my eyes get better the next time you see me at Easter?”
The lady explained how Louise was going to need to adjust to wearing her full prescription so she was doing it in steps. She thought the final amount would be about plus three, but that it could be half a dioptre either side of that, and that the adjustment would definitely involve stronger lenses at first. She then called Louise’s mother in to explain what she had found (leaving out the bit about the contact lenses), before they went off to choose a frame.
The following morning, Louise got her mother to drop her off at Jess’ house on their way back from town. The optician’s had been a one-hour place, but by the time Louise had chosen the frame she thought suited her best, the man who did the lenses had gone home for the night, so he had made the glasses first thing the following day.
“Wow, look at you!” were Jess’ first words when she saw Louise, resplendent in her brand-new oversize purple glasses. “Do come in and tell me all about it.”
The two girls spent the best part of the next hour talking about visits to the optician’s, glasses and contact lenses. Jess had to try Louise’s glasses on – they were a bit too big for her, and the lenses a little too strong to see clearly at distance, but they certainly made a statement, and with a very obvious prescription, the school would have to accept them. What did surprise Jess was when Louise explained that her glasses were going to have to get stronger before they got weaker, if at all.
“You’ll soon be able to wear both of my pairs of glasses at the same time,” remarked Jess. “With my eyes getting better and yours getting worse, it looks like we’re going in opposite directions.”